The Money

At the risk of invoking the Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy, it can't come as any kind of shock to anyone that the money started to square up almost immediately after the CrooksЯUs gang got the boot.

Because there's a thing called elasticity, which means, in part at least, that Biden doesn't get all the credit, and Trump doesn't get all the blame. But still...

AP:

The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for 2021, the second highest on record but an improvement from the all-time high of $3.13 trillion reached in 2020. The deficits in both years reflect trillions of dollars in government spending to counteract the devastating effects of a global pandemic.

The Biden administration said Friday that the 2021 deficit, for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was $360 billion lower than 2020 as a recovering economy boosted revenues, helping to offset government spending from pandemic relief efforts.

Before the deficit ballooned during two years of a global pandemic, the highest the biggest deficit had been a shortfall of $1.4 trillion in 2009 as the U.S. spent heavily to lift the country out of a severe recession following the 2008 financial crisis.

For 2021, the joint report from Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget said that government spending increased 4.1% to $6.82 trillion. This was offset by an increase of 18.3% in government revenues, a gain that reflected an improving economy as millions of people who had lost jobs at the start of the pandemic went back to work and corporate profits were rejuvenated after a horrendous 2020.

“Under President Biden’s leadership, the U.S. economy is getting back on track and Americans are getting back to work,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a joint statement.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office expects the deficit will fall to $1.15 trillion in the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, and will dip below $1 trillion for three years from 2023 through 2025 before rising again above $1 trillion for each year through 2031.

That forecast does not include the spending that will occur if Biden is able to get two pending measures through Congress, a $1 trillion proposal for traditional infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges and his plan to bolster the social safety net and combat climate change.

The safety net measure has a price tag of $3.5 trillion but is expected to be scaled back to around $2 trillion to meet the objections of moderate Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

As a percentage of the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, the 2021 deficit represents 12.4% of GDP, down from the 2020 deficit, which was 15% of GDP.

In their comments Yellen and Young credited Biden’s economic policies for contributing to a lower deficit, including Biden’s “swift action to mount a historic vaccination effort” and his success in getting Congress to approve $1.9 trillion in extra spending in the stimulus bill passed in March.

“While the nation’s economic recovery is stronger than those of other wealthy nations, it is still fragile,” Yellen said. “In order to build upon the progress that has been made ... Congress should pass President Biden’s Build Back Better plan.”

Congressman Copperhead

Sorry not sorry - Tom Garrett's a dick.

Rachael Bade, Alex Isenstadt and Kyle Cheney, Politico:

Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett and his wife turned the congressman’s staff into personal servants, multiple former employees to the freshman Republican told POLITICO — assigning them tasks from grocery shopping to fetching the congressman’s clothes to caring for their pet dog, all during work hours.
POLITICO has spoken with four former staffers who detailed a deeply dysfunctional office in which the congressman and his wife, Flanna, often demanded that staff run personal errands outside their typical congressional duties. The couple called on staff to pick up groceries, chauffeur Garrett’s daughters to and from his Virginia district, and fetch clothes that the congressman forgot at his Washington apartment. They were even expected to watch and clean up after Sophie, their Jack Russell-Pomeranian mix, the aides said.

The staffers said they feared that if they refused Garrett‘s or his wife’s orders — both were known for explosive tempers — they would struggle to advance in their careers. It wasn't just full-time staff: many of the allegedly inappropriate requests were made of interns, the former aides said.

- and -

A spokesman for Garrett, Matt Missen, declined to address a detailed list of complaints about the office.

“We see no reason to respond to anonymous, unfounded allegations primarily targeting Congressman Garrett’s wife, made by POLITICO’s ‘unnamed’ sources,” he said. “It is easy to spread untruths and even easier to exaggerate and imply wrongdoing when none exists.”

That's a fairly lengthy "no comment", Mr Missen.

And then - I guess continuing in "no comment mode":

Missen said there is “no ethics investigation” into the office and that “to ensure that all staff follow the rules, Congressman Garrett has had lawyers from the House Ethics Committee meet with him and his staff (to include district staff via telephone) to brief everyone on the ethics rules pertaining to congressmen and staff, and to answer any questions.”

That's classic.

First, the non-denial denial, covered in a thick creamy layer of passive language.

But second - holy crap. Both Mr Garrett and Mrs Garrett assigned public employees tasks that have nothing to do with conducting the public's business - obviously in violation of ethics rules, if not strictly illegal - and the solution Garrett hits on is to get the Ethics Office lawyers to come in and explain to the staffers that what the staffers did was wrong.

Chutzpah, level: Supreme High Master Asshole.

And BTW, can you say "waste fraud and abuse", motherfucker?

Today's Quote

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want. — Jonathan Swift

And just to move things along, we need to be able to think about these issues beyond the sentiments of the quotes and the bumper stickers and the memes.

We can fill our heads with righteous indignation when "conservatives" spout the usual blaming bullshit about the "Professionally Poor", and we should be pissed about that, but we should be pissed about that because it's a tactic of deflection - it puts us in a position that makes us look like we're defending "waste fraud and abuse", which legitimizes an almost-totally illegitimate argument.

Waste Fraud and Abuse accounts for about .001% of total expenditure (not that we know with any precision cuz - you know, people need to hide that shit).  Anyway, it goes up some - sometimes getting as high as 1 whole percent on individual programs - but it's nothing near what "conservatives" love to fantasize about.  But that still means you're defending against a phantom threat.  Stop doing that. 

And don't get bogged down when they shift to The Tyranny Of Large Numbers crap either.  Yes, 1 or 2 percent of a humungous number is still a very large number - until you divide that very large number by that other very large number - poor people who just need a little fucking help, asshole. You're gonna get all bent outa shape because some guy scraped an extra 82 bucks out of the system's gutter just so his kids had a decent breakfast once in a while? Well ain't you just chock full of the spirit of Christian love and charity.

But that's not the point either.  The point is that when we're on the defensive like that, we miss the opportunity to point out that Waste Fraud and Abuse is what the big guys have built into the system to benefit themselves; and what the small-to-medium sized guys can take advantage of as well (so they can feel smart too), while they're all soaking up the tax dollars intended to help people who actually need the help. And here's the kicker on that part: these jokers are happy to throw a few crumbs at the poor because they can use that tiny bit of tax money to fuel the judgmental hypocrisy of Wingnut Autocrats and their army of Orcs rubes. 

Waste Fraud and Abuse is what happens when Archer Daniels Midland puts half-a-billion tax dollars in its pocket, and then hides behind a human shield that Coin-Operated Congress Critters get paid handsomely to refer to as Moochers or Welfare Queens.

These people have no soul and no honor. Stop helping them.

An Acculturated Callousness

In WWI, civilian casualties accounted for about 10% of the total.  By the time we got around to invading Iraq almost 100 years later, that number had climbed to 90%. 

It's pretty simple really.  First, it's a transaction - there's lotsa people, so we can spend them - the cost of war.   

Second, in spite of our efforts to impose "Rules Of War", WWII made it very clear that nothing much had actually changed at all. 

Counter Force = kill their soldiers; destroy their weapons and equipment 
Counter Value = destroy roads and bridges and factories and farms
Counter Collateral = kill their people - the ones who become the soldiers, build the roads and grow the food.

Whoever loses the least gets to call themselves the winners, and put the other guys on trial for "war crimes".

All of that gets real clear about 42 minutes into this film:

Pot Smokers Beware!

Via Reuters:

Young, casual marijuana smokers experience potentially harmful changes to their brains, with the drug altering regions of the mind related to motivation and emotion, researchers found.

The study to be published on Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience differs from many other pot-related research projects that are focused on chronic, heavy users of cannabis.

The collaborative effort between Northwestern University's medical school, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School showed a direct correlation between the number of times users smoked and abnormalities in the brain.

"What we're seeing is changes in people who are 18 to 25 in core brain regions that you never, ever want to fool around with," said co-senior study author Dr. Hans Beiter, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University.

In particular, the study identified changes to the nucleus accumbens and the nucleus amygdala, regions of the brain that are key to regulating emotion and motivation, in marijuana users who smoke between one and seven joints a week.

The researchers found changes to the volume, shape and density of those brain regions. But more studies are needed to determine how those changes may have long-term consequences and whether they can be fixed with abstinence, Beiter said.

"Our hypothesis from this early work is that these changes may be an early sign of what later becomes amotivation, where people aren't focused on their goals," he said.

The study, which was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, comes as access to pot is expanding following 2012 votes in Washington state and Colorado to legalize its recreational use. The drug remains illegal under federal law.
Medical pot is allowed in 20 U.S. states.

Pot legalization advocates make the argument that marijuana is safer than alcohol a central part of their campaigns.

Other research has found drinking alcohol alters the brain, Beiter said. But while researchers do not know exactly how the mental rewiring seen in pot users affects their lives, the study shows it physically changes the brain in ways that differ from drinking, he said.

This latest study fits with other research showing marijuana use has significant effects on young people because their brains are still developing, and Beiter said he has become convinced that marijuana should only be used by people under 30 if they need it to manage pain from a terminal illness.

So first, this tiny little study - funded by the 2 most influential anti-drug policy shops in the US Gov't, and which seems not to be particularly well-designed - has somehow managed to reach certain conclusions that confirm and/or reinforce what the current policy happens to be?  Imagine my surprise.

But secondly, the researchers have found that smoking pot has a pronounced effect on your "emotions" and your "motivation".  They spent how much of my money?  To find out that potheads get kinda giggly sometimes - or maybe a little gushy?  And that they're a bit lax about things like deadlines and/or that when some people get stoned, they tend not to do much of anything more strenuous than hittin' speed dial to order a fuckin' pizza?

Sweet screamin' Jesus, you guys - does anybody up there ever fucking wonder why everybody shits on your heads about wasting time and money?  Whose brother-in-law do I have to blow to get a few of those bucks flowin' this direction?

This reads like The Onion.  Tell ya what - why not just ask The Prez what was up with him when he was smokin' that shit?  That way, you find out exactly the same thing, but you save a shitload of tax dollars; and then you could send about 20% of that money to me as a Consultant's Fee, while you crow about how diligent and frugal you are.  Fuck.

We Don't Soldier So Good

The world's tax dollars hard at work.

Today's Outrage

In case it escaped your notice, The Feds posted a SURPLUS of $113 Billion this past April, and another one ($116 Billion) for June this year.

Makes me wonder about some things: first is why the GOP wasn't jumping up and down taking credit because of their steely-eyed courage for having stomped the fuck outa poor people and unemployed workers.  Second, if we have a surplus, isn't time to cut Mitt Romney's taxes?

But then this:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Oh - now I get it.  They'll get around to it - they're just not done yet.

BTW - did you catch the part about Repubs voting in favor of the spending of tax dollars that directly benefits themselves?  Poor kids have to skip even more meals now so Michele Bachmann can collect a few thousand greenbacks for not planting any Jesus Weed again this year.

So what is it the 'conservatives' are so fond of grousing about?  Something to do with "undeserving people who will vote themselves a share of other people's money"?  Isn't that it?

Bend over and grease up, America.

The Kooch Fails Again

Virginia AG / Repub candidate for Gov, Ken (Kenny The Kooch) Cuccinelli has crashed and burned once again - this time in his attempt to get the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to consider his petition to affirm and reinstate Virginia's Crimes Against Nature laws.

The Fourth Circuit panel rejected Cuccinelli's petition unanimously.

Considering the fact that the SCOTUS decision in Lawrence vs Texas knocked all the stuffing out of every "anti-sodomy" law in every state, nobody but the uber-est of the uber-zealots thought he had any chance at all.  But there he was - our intrepid Culture Warrior King - flailing away; fighting to hold back the tides of change of the mid-20th-fucking-century.

Taxpayers put a fair bit of money in your pocket every month, Ken.  So we're gonna need you to do a little something more than runnin' in circles or just standin' there leanin' on your shovel.

Today's Number

30

Keeping "suspected terrorists" at Gitmo costs us 30 times what it would cost for us to put all of those guys in SuperMax in Florence Colorado.

Close that shit down now.

Virginia Report Card

From State Integrity via the comments at WaPo

Follow The Money

It never fails.  I don't know why we have to re-learn this particular lesson every fuckin' time.

Here's the short version:  There are hucksters here.

Whenever you start throwing large piles of dollars around, you can expect large numbers of people to show up who have recently (and suddenly) discovered they have a great passion for doing whatever it is you're spending all that cash trying to do.

Sometimes, those hucksters are perfectly well-meaning solid citizens who just kinda get caught up in the frenzy, but in the end, it's always mostly the same old story of greed, ambition and groupthink.

Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic:

Earlier this year, a reporter at a small community newspaper got the answer to a question she'd been asking for months: "Are there really 33 terrorist organizations in St. Paul, Minnesota?" That's what her county sheriff claimed in the budget reports he submitted to his superiors. According to her investigation, however, his anti-terrorism unit had been squandering taxpayer money for months on end, and getting away with it by pretending to be guardians of homeland security.

Is this man villainized in the press for his behavior? The subject of a federal inquiry by hard charging investigators? Nope. In the War on Terrorism, wasting funds in the name of security is so commonplace that the allegation isn't even surprising.

Wastefulness

Ya wanna know what Government Waste really looks like?

Here it is.

The wrangling over Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's investigation of a climate scientist continues...

After indicating last week that it would comply with a subpoena sent by the AG, demanding documents relating to the work of former University of Virginia climate scientist Michael Mann, the university is now equivocating. "Our intention is to comply but we are looking at some options," a UVA spokeswoman told theWashington Post yesterday.

A Free Market Economy

One of the problems with any "system" is that when we see something that works for some things, we assume (even insist) that it'll work for everything.

High Country News has a good piece on the unintended consequences of our reliance on Private Sector solutions to certain Law Enforcement and Public Health problems.

The drug industry is the second-largest source of foreign currency in Mexico, just behind oil. It earns somewhere between $30 billion and $50 billion a year -- no one really knows, including the people in the industry. It also creates enormous numbers of jobs in the U.S.: We spend billions a year on narcs, maintain the world's largest prison industry, which is absolutely dependent on the intake of drug felons, and we have about 20,000 agents on the border who feed off drug importation. The rehab industry is also a source of a large number of jobs since many well-heeled defendants pick mandatory treatment over prison. Many county and local police departments now get fat off of RICO suits based on drug offenses.

Once we made it profitable for some people to fight "The War On Drugs", it didn't take long for them to figure out that it's not in their best interests to win it.

Bend Over And Grease Up

Blackwater and Cartman-gate.

There's a National Security Consortium hard at work, trying to make sure the spigot of tax dollars is never closed.  The DoD and Contractors and Congress Critters are the main players, but even in the kind of corrupt system that's evolved in the USA over the last 50 years - under which actual people are the last to be considered - we The People still have to take some responsibility for the corruption itself.  We can also stand up and call these assholes out.

Dems:

Norman D. Dicks (WA)
Peter J. Visclosky (IN)
James P. Moran (VA)
Marcy Kaptur (OH)
Allen Boyd (FL)
Steven R. Rothman (NJ)
Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA)
Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
Carolyn C. Kilpratrick (MI)
David R. Obey (WI), Ex Officio

Repubs:

C.W. Bill Young (FL)
Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (NJ)
Todd Tiahrt (KS)
Jack Kingston (GA)
Kay Granger (TX)
Harold Rogers (KY)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

Paul Juola, Subcommittee Clerk
Room H-149 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2847

Oops

To err is human, but you need the US Military for a good old fashioned FUBAR.

Check this out.
Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.