Incompetents and Sequestration

Yesterday, the head of the Secret Service resigned. She should have. She was tasked with, among other things, protecting the President of the United States and his family. She failed. I am repeatedly amazed to see the moldy bread and circus shows whereby governmental agency heads go before congress and testify as to why they have run their departments in a faulty and incompetent manner. The more amazing part are the idiots that question them and then go on their favorite talk shows to be properly horrified by that incompetence. And then we need a panel of incompetent experts to debate as to why the sky is falling.

Today, the non stop coverage concerns the first infected Ebola patient in the United States and the tragedy of errors concerning his diagnosis, how many people he's come into contact with since reporting symptoms and other quite pertinent facts.

So we now are seeing not only the incompetence of of the NIH and the CDC, but a slower than demanded response to something we had to see coming months ago. Did we really think nobody would get sick and seek treatment in the United States. By the way, medicine to treat this virus is incumbent upon a special tobacco plant (among other substances) and currently, NIH says they do not have dosages to treat the people who will inevitably develop symptoms. What has been the reasons for this lack of preparedness? I say Incompetence and another little thing when the preferred method for making the government small enough to be drowned in Grove Norquist's bathtub: Sequestration. Ah yes, that little fixit that we forgot about, arbitrarily cutting funding across the board to many areas of where the congress thought we had a "spending problem." That includes the military who now needs to get rid of the Caliphate within the next 12 minutes, the CDC, who will be tasked more and more to curb a deadly virus that probably will continue to grow in this country and because of a cut in funding (because we have a spending problem) and a Secret Service, some of  whose members like to occasionally drink and fool around a little--- when nobody is watching.

I hope the case of Mr. Duncan is contained. there are rumors that he had contact with more than 100 people. I sincerely hope people don't get sick. But Texas, be proud of the fact that you lead the nation in uninsured citizens because your incompetent Governor does not believe in health care for all or an expansion of Medicaid. I hope your hospitals don't get filled up with people who come there frightened that they have Ebola and have no way to pay for the treatment that will be delayed because we passed Sequestration on account of our "spending problem."

The Turkish legislative bodies have voted for Turkey to initiate airstrikes against ISIL fighters in Syria- they being challenged by Kurdish forces loyal to the PPK, who has been in decades long struggles with Turkey. And you think we won't be hearing about tragic consequences of "friendly(?) fire"? Because after all, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Until he's not. Or we buy him off, or that noted military genius and noted incompetent, Senator John McBrain need a "surge" in Iraq and while we're at it, in Syria as well, because he has friends in Syria. He met with them and proclaimed we should arm them because they hate the Alewite Dictator that we don't like because they're the enemy of our enemy. Only it turned out that the very people MCBrain took "selfies" with were ISIL fighters. 

 Surge, my ass!! Extra troops didn't make any difference in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. Bags and bags of money persuaded Sunnis to (once again) switch sides, and take the money and run. Unless you believe McBrain, of course. I believe they called it "the awakening."

Hey, don't yell at me. Shit gets complicated. And we're watching ourselves make the same mistakes over and over again-- only we have different names and we work in governmental agencies that don't have enough money to use common sense and a proper work ethic. Because for most of us, our degrees were pretty worthless, they didn't prepare us for much more than a life of incompetence, a front row seat for Keeping up with the Kardashians, or a life of little to no opportunity because we weren't lucky enough to get that worthless degree and enter the arena of incompetence. 

Here are a couple of more things I never need to hear again.
1. Horrific
2. "But look..."
3. Breaking News at this hour

I got an e mail today from a good friend who has turned really radically conservative in the last five years. He paraphrased an alleged article that the Israelis have apparently  perfected a body scanning device that is able to detect any explosives on the person(s) going through the scan and detonate those explosives-- and of course the person carrying or concealing them. I'm not sure how they will clean the chamber out after they've blown a person up, but I never count the Israelis out when it comes to responding to what they think are threats against their security. And I never count out AIPAC who has just about congress person in their pockets to give them the money to come up with genius devices such as this (albeit fictional) even though we passed Sequestration. Cleanup in aisle 7!!

Ok, enough bad news or gloom and doom. Should that make the list of things we never want to hear again? Maybe. Anyway, Michele Bachmann plans on becoming the anti Hilary in the upcoming Presidential race, so she's not going away. She's going to continue to edumacate us as to what this country needs.

But as to what this country needs, Bob Dylan said it best: well my telephone rang and it would not stop- it was President Kennedy calling me up. He said my friend Bob, what do we need to make a country grow, and I said my friend John, Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren. Country'll grow. 
from I Shall Be Free.   

It's all about the attribution, my dear Mr. Zakaria.

  

Does it occur to you that I have more?

Does it occur to you how stupid it is that talking heads keep asking quasi military experts how long the war against ISIL will last, comment on the latest beheading and then cut away to a cat food commercial where the cat is singing, "this must be my lucky day"?

No oxymoron in KC. I watched a baseball game last night that was really entertaining. Congratulations Royals. Time for the Angels. "So go home and get your **cking shinebox."

If I see one more doofus appear before a congressional committee and admit that she is a doofus but takes full responsibility for what happened, but refuses to just say "I'm a doofus and I'm going to tender my resignation." There is no accountability. Were my idea the case, the halls of congress would sit empty, there would be no intelligence Community and only 4 members of the Supreme Court would show up for work each day.

I have more

I'm for banning the following words or phrases:
1. Boots on the Ground
2. Let's go to (pick anyone) our correspondent (name anyone) reporting live from (anywhere). "What's the situation on the ground?"
3. What does victory look like to you?
4. ....thinking about a run for the presidency in 2016.

5. Ask your doctor if ( insert the name of any drug) is right for you.
6. When we come back, we consult our expert panel.

I have more.

Does it occur to anyone that we're really watching ourselves run all the federal and state agencies and that's why we're constantly holding a barf bag? How do you think YOU would do, running the IRS or The Secret Service? Be honest, now.

I don't really miss Joan Rivers. Sorry.
I wouldn't miss Roger Goodell either. 
I'm certainly not going to miss Michele Bachmann.

I have more

I have done exhaustive research and in my humble opinion, the stupidest excuse for a politician who is allowed to comment on anything, is Marsha Blackburn. Louie Gohmert and Steve King, you were knocked from your lofty perch.

American Exceptionalism and Roger Ailes. Yikes.

 

A thought of the day

If elected politicians pass every law they can to restrict the rights of a woman to terminate a pregnancy, for whatever reason  and state that it's to prevent the murder of innocents, (not my words- theirs) then why do they also refuse to pass laws that feed or give opportunity to the very children they saved, if those children struggle for whatever reason?

That's family values my friends. And that will be the hallmark of the next President of the United States, should he reside in a certain political party. So, what do you think about that?

So once again, I ask two questions- Are you buying in? Which wolf will you feed?