W.J. Astore
You can’t do a wrong thing the right way
During World War II, the Nazi system of extermination camps was fairly efficient. Relatively small death camps like Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka killed an astonishing number of people, more than 1.6 million and nearly all Jews, quickly and efficiently. If there were a Nazi DOGE, I suppose these death camps may have won “efficiency” awards from it. They stripped the incoming victims of all their valuables and then killed virtually all of them. The loot stolen by the SS was then distributed, again fairly efficiently.
The DOGE Is All Wrong
Tag: audits
F.B.I. Agents in Southeast Asia Paid for Sex While Police Stood By, Watchdog Says
F.B.I. agents stationed overseas had sex with prostitutes in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, even as some bureau employees attended training meant to combat human trafficking, a practice that often exploits vulnerable women, according to an investigation by the Justice Department’s watchdog.
F.B.I. Agents in Southeast Asia Paid for Sex While Police Stood By, Watchdog Says
US Ukraine Mineral Deal- Shades of Iraqi reconstruction scandal- US to provide security & the Trump admin connection to Iraq’s post-war reconstruction scandal
US Ukraine Mineral Deal- Shades of Iraqi reconstruction scandal- US to provide security
Elbridge Colby and Keith Kellogg both served in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq in 2003 under Paul Bremer and are now part of the Trump administration. The CPA, which acted as the transitional government overseeing post-war reconstruction in Iraq, faced significant criticism for its mishandling of reconstruction funds. Over $8 billion allocated for Iraq’s rebuilding remains unaccounted for, including more than $1.6 billion in cash that was discovered in a basement in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, Chinese companies are actively engaged in constructing a wide range of infrastructure projects, including housing units, universities, commercial centers, schools, health facilities, and power stations. They have also played a key role in developing the Nasiriya airport.
Sources:
Read More »DOGE’s Ties to the Military-Industrial Complex
DOGE’s Ties to the Military-Industrial Complex
Defense contractors: General Atomics, General Dynamics, Honeywell
n.b.: Phil Cox, was formerly with Americans For Prosperity and the Republican Governors Association. Both are affiliated with the Atlas Network through the Koch brothers.
Related:
Palantir and Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts
Consortium likely to include Elon Musk’s SpaceX in move to grab a bigger slice of $850bn US defence budget
The Navy only ‘thinks’ it has a schedule for new submarine delivery
The Navy only ‘thinks’ it has a schedule for new submarine delivery
The first Columbia class submarine is due for delivery to the Navy in 2027. It plans to spend more than a hundred billion dollars for a dozen of them. Delays in this scale of program are inevitable. In fact, sub number one is already late. Yet the Navy, auditors say, lacks a statistical schedule risk analysis to go along with the program. And that means it may not have enough insight into the whole program. To share details, the Director of Contracting and National Security Acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office, Shelby Oakley, joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
As predicted: violence by the far-right Venezuelan opposition breaks out across Caracas
The day after the Venezuelan people voted in their presidential elections, a number of seemingly coordinated protests broke out across Caracas
Related:
President Nicolás Maduro Denounces Violent Acts Perpetrated by the Far Right in Venezuela
He also said that they know the “operandis mode” with which the right acts, recalling that it is the one “has been used for the April 2002 coup d’état, for the first guarimba of 2004, for the actions of Capriles after the elections and for the guarimbas of 2014”.
Guarimba is a ‘protest method’ devised by Venezuelan opposition member, Robert Alonso (who collaborated with the CIA to train terrorists). It was ‘inspired’ by Gene Sharp’s book, From Dictatorship to Democracy (see my ‘front organizations’ page for more on Sharp).
2014 Venezuelan ‘protests’:
Previously:
Read More »Venezuela’s Maduro Declares Victory and Third Six-Year Term After Disputed Election
The Washington Post already called the Venezuelan election at 5 a.m. EDT
July 28, 2024 at 5:08 a.m. EDT
Updated July 28, 2024 at 7:38 p.m. EDT|Published July 28, 2024 at 5:08 a.m. EDT
Edison Research/Edison Research Team*
NEP has relied on the Associated Press to perform vote tabulations and has contracted with Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International to “make projections and provide exit poll analysis.”
…
The US has funded exit polls abroad because, state dept. officials testified, it is one of the few ways to expose and ascertain the extent of large-scale fraud. Indeed, discrepancies between exit polls and the official results have been used to successfully overturn election results in Serbia, Peru, the Republic of Georgia and, in November 2004, Ukraine [Orange Revolution].
The US government funds election observers and exit polls for regime change
US gov’t-linked firm is source of exit poll claiming Venezuelan opposition won election
Related (election observers, etc.):
Read More »China vs. the US: shipbuilding, subsidies, and the Jones Act
Hypocrisy thrives where double standards prevail.
Earlier, I stupidly tweeted out an article about the Jones Act and shipbuilding and Colin Grabow, from the Cato Institute, liked it (he was quoted in the article). I looked him up and decided to listen to this video on the shipbuilding competition between China and the US, where he and a lawyer for United Steelworkers were on the panel. China is eating their lunch, and it’s the ruling elites’ own fault, yet they scapegoat China for it. The double standards over China’s “unfair economic practices” AKA the subsidizing of their shipbuilding industry irritates me (liars irritate me even more). States give subsidies, grants, and tax breaks to corporations, all the time. Fincantieri Marinette Marine is just one example, but Wisconsin had done the same for Foxconn. Foxconn received tax breaks and $3B in subsidies, which was “the largest ever subsidy provided by a state to a foreign company”, despite not living up to their promises.
Colin Grabow wants to end the Jones Act. I’ve made at least three video clips regarding the Jones Act, two with Sal Mercogliano from What’s Going On With Shipping and one from the government-funded CSIS (I’ve posted them, below). Spoiler alert: Sal says that the problem isn’t the Jones Act. Meanwhile, both CSIS and the Cato Institute (part of the Atlas Network) blame the Jones Act. Deregulation is a wet dream of big corporations (which fund both the Cato Institute and CSIS).
Read More »Defense Contractors Are Bilking the American People
America’s national priorities are badly misplaced. Our country spends, with almost no debate, nearly $1 trillion a year on the military while at the same time ignoring massive problems at home.
Defense Contractors Are Bilking the American People
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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