DISGRACE AT DOD(posted February 25, 2021)
The Air Force has just announced that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has failed. This is stunning. Cost estimates for this colossal failure amounts to about $1.7 Trillion.
Needless to say we could have used that money for much better, more constructive purposes.
But the big issue has to do with whether we are getting our money’s worth from the money we continue to pour into this department. Said another way, is management at DOD being truthful with the American public about how it uses taxpayer funds?
There are some worrying issues here. It has been suggested that DOD cannot account for as much as 25 percent of its $750billion. budget, which amounts to around 150 billion. There is little evidence of audit results, other than a recent one a couple of years ago that failed.
Given that we spend more on defense that most other advanced countries combined, it may be about time for a rigorous, fact-based assessment of why taxpayers need to be pouring hard-earned money into this monstrosity.
A COVID SOLUTION(posted August 5, 2021)
HHS Secretary Azar’s insistence on the need for Americans to get vaccinated might be given a huge boost if ex-President Donald Trump would begin encouraging his supporters to do so. Even a modest percentage of the 74 million who voted for him could make a big difference in our ability to ward off the ominous expansion of the delta version of the disease.
And Mr. Azar could make this more likely by making a very public statement asking Trump to do so.
The only question – as it is with many current and former Trump staffers – is whether Mr Azar has the fortitude to do this.
UNNECESSARY SUFFERING IN GEORGIA(posted August 7, 2021)
Well, the Covid results for Georgia’s first week of school are in:
185 new cases in Cobb County; 166 new cases in Gwinnett(and we apparently are reluctant to provide the number for the entire state).
Yet the state vaccination rate is still under 40 percent(39.05)! Should we be surprised?
If I didn’t know better I’d be tempted to think we have a suicide pact in place! The level of ignorance about the need to take action on this emergency is stunning!
We need to call out the bureaucratic stupor that exists in this state that prevents our leadership from taking the proper steps to deal with this crisis. It is a disgrace and heads should roll!
THE REAL IMPACT OF THE TRUMP YEARS(posted September 1, 2021)
Successful societies are those that are rules-based, meaning that the citizenry understand the rules and agree to obey them.
America was founded on the basis of a belief in that system. Sadly, the course of events recently suggests that our rules-based system may be coming apart at the seams.
The entire system depends on two aspects of individual behavior. First, citizens are expected to follow the rules. Second, those who refuse to follow the rules must be held accountable. It is on this last point that we are witnessing a very grave failure. Two examples:
A certain former president had the audacity to ask the top election official in Georgia to change the vote tally in the November election. How is this not a crime to be prosecuted? Allowing this to go unpunished does only one thing. It suggests that it is permissible for anyone to do so. And coming from the President of the USA only reinforces the idea.
Thus a further impact of Presidential misbehavior like this can be seen by an event that occurred right here in Georgia this week. A mobile vaccination site in north Georgia was forced to shut down by a group of thugs who showed up and threatened workers who were working to protect Georgia citizens from a rapidly escalating pandemic.
Again, is this not a criminal act that should be punished? The answer looks doubtful – news articles are not even managing to report the location so it looks as if it will be ignored in much the same way as the vote-change attempt.
And so the march downhill of the great American experiment continues.