$4.2 MILLION for some fine policing

'Cause, you know... Shoot first ask questions later.

THIS is whycalifornianspaytaxes.
read more:
Women's settlement with LAPD in Dorner case worth $4.2 million(LAT)

Tanks a million!

Was looking for the recent Daily Show clip of Al Madrigal doing a bit on a piece of legislation that is being forced through congress to buy more tanks, even though the Pentagon doesn't want them. It was a Facebook post, but when I saw the first comment at thedailyshow.com, I just HAD to share a fantastic image exemplifying wasteful government practices...

Root around this Google Maps' satellite imaged area for awhile. This is all the crap our military doesn't even know what to do with:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=40.201201,-120.135406&spn=0.000892,0.002064&t=h&z=20

The clip from The Daily Show I was looking for. Gives some good context to the overall story.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-7-2013/tanks--but-no-tanks

Building tanks to put directly into storage...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

You had ONE job!

And that job was to KEEP THE DAMN BOAT IN THE WATER!

I honestly would expect that by now, the U.S. Navy ought to be able to muddle around without running into 10 meters of a UNESCO world heritage coral reef. They're stuck so bad they had to abandon ship!

Navy's not alone though and they're in good company. Greenpeace took a run at the same reef in 2005 and racked up a $7,000 fine.

On the plus side, this gives the Navy something to do...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: All crew leave U.S. Navy ship stuck in Philippines (USAT)

Its no wonder Senate can't get anything done

Mitch "Goin' Nowhere, Slow" McConnell, sorry, Senator Goin' Nowhere, Slow McConnell has really demonstrated some of the solid legistlatin' their getting done up in the Senate by filibustering a bill he brought before the Senate.

Yes. That's right.

Mitch proposed they vote on a bill he had written.

Apparently, being a Senator is all the qualification you need to have the Senate vote on a bill, so they decided to have a vote on Mitch's bill. Nice group, these Senators. Very cordial.

"Now hold on just a minute here," squealed Mitch. "We can't vote on this!"

Yup. The Senate has become little more than a forum where a single befuddled white man can bring the progress of this great nation to a screeching halt while he takes center stage to mutter aimlessly to himself about how great his ideas are, if only they didn't suck.

Seriously, if your elderly parent were acting in this way, you'd immediately start thinking about the options for  professional care. Imagine. Your mother excitedly runs around the house and gathers everyone in the the living room. Once everyone is gathered around, she says "I think we should take a trip to Acapulco " You slowly say, "Okaayyy... Let's talk about that." To which she responds, "What, are you stupid? I think its a terrible idea! The bugs this time of year are terrible!" 

So, there you go. Fuck fixing this country. Lets just watch a confused douche bag argue with himself. That's what we'll do with our time. Right on.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Read more: Urgent case for Senate reform; McConnell even filibustered himself(LHL)

Interesting Math Problem

$182 BILLION of your tax dollars goes to AIG, cause we couldn't let THEM fail. After all, our government's friends in the banking and insurance industries couldn't possibly be left on the hook for the bets they placed. Somebody had to bail them out, why not you and me?

$23.3 BILLION has been recuperated so far by selling it back.
$158.7 BILLION is what we are still owed.
$30 BILLION is the value of what we still have.

$128.7 BILLION is ... well, I guess I don't have an answer. Where is it? Who'd we give it to? Why the fuck did we throw $130 BILLION into a fucking sink hole?

Fear not, my friends, for our government's pals at AIG have turned that baby around and made it profitable once again. They're expected to haul in about $7.4 BILLION in free and clear profit. So... Now that they're profitable... NOW is the time we're going to give up our controlling interest? The fuck?

Meanwhile, the CEO, Robert "Math Whiz" Benmosche has the fucking audacity to claim they will pay our government back "plus a profit." Maybe I'm not that good at subtraction, and I am certain there is a lot going on that I don't understand, but he should probably shut his fucking pie hole and stop pretending like he's doing us some sort of a fucking favor.

Pardon my French there. Its just that I'm a little pissed off is all...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.
read more: Treasury to Cut AIG Stake Below Half in $18B Sale(abc)

The Federal Reserve Gave Away Our National Debt

I don't even keep this blog updated any longer, but this one... wow. This one has to be logged somewhere so I can turn back to it on those rare occasions where I have hope for humanity. If I ever get to thinking that maybe America hasn't peaked and maybe some of our best days lie ahead of us, this is where I'll turn to crush those thoughts and remind myself that we have turned a corner from which there is no coming back, that the power structure in place has stacked the deck in its favor so thoroughly that they won't even have to maintain the facade of 'equality' for much longer. They can do as they please and our only recourse is to watch them pillage and plunder as they see fit.

Thanks to Senators Ron Paul and Alan Grayson, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) has conducted an audit on the Federal Reserve. Of course with folks like Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and other bankers fighting this audit tooth and nail, claiming catastrophic damages to the world economy (hmmm, notice a pattern anyone?), the language of the bill got watered down to avoid a thorough audit. Check out what just a peek under the rug has shown:

In the 2.5 years from December 2007 to June 2010, The Federal Reserve, who "was founded by Congress in 1913 to provide [our] nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system" has proven they no longer have the American people in mind when making their decisions. Instead, they seek only to give our tax dollars to their friends in the banking system throughout the world.

• In those 2.5 years, they gave over $16 TRILLION ($16,000,000,000,000) to failing banks and corporations.
• This cash was sent around the world - they didn't even give all this money to banks and corporations in our country. (Not that multi-nationals are even really from our country anymore...)
• They did this without public discourse.
• In fact, they didn't even tell Congress in order to avoid any private discourse.
• It wasn't discussed by anyone. The few in charge made the decision to give it all away.

For perspective on what $16 TRILLION means to the U.S.

• Our national GDP is $14.12 TRILLION
• Our national debt is $14.5 TRILLION
• Yes. They gave away more than everything we are worth in a year.
• Yes. If they hadn't done this, we wouldn't have ANY national debt. (I'm not going to prove the math, but the logic is there.)

Imagine how different our national discussion would be right now if we weren't trying to get our heads around a skyrocketing national debt. Imagine what we could focus on if we weren't being subjected to scare tactics about tax increases and how hard our kids are going to have it. Imagine if our surplus were used to reinforce our safety net. If you and I could count on social security and medicare to still be a real thing when we retire and need it most.

Screw our country, lets take the whole of humanity perspective. Imagine if this money had been used to feed the hungry or stamp out disease in third world countries. Imagine if we used this money to really start finding a way to reduce our dependency on this planet. NASA gets a $20 BILLION budget while the Fed gets to use $16 TRILLION to pick and choose its favorite banks and corporations. Check that. They don't pick their favorite banks and corporations - they get to pick their favorite bank and corporation OWNERS.

So, who the fuck is so important that we'll give away 'loans' (at 0% interest with no payback requirements) of this magnitude? Here's a list of the ones we are now aware of. I'm afraid of what we aren't aware of, because the Fed obviously doesn't think it should be checked or balanced by any other branch of our government and that they don't have to tell us shit about what they are doing with our money.

• Citigroup - $2.513 TRILLION
• Morgan Stanley - $2.041 TRILLION
• Merrill Lynch - $1.949 TRILLION (failed anyway, became a part of Bank "of" America)
• Bank of America - $1.344 TRILLION
• Barclays - $868 BILLION (A bank from the United Kingdom)
• Bear Stearns - $853 BILLION (failed anyway, became a part of JP Morgan Chase)
• Goldman Sachs - $814 BILLION
• Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 BILLION (Another bank from the United Kingdom)
• Deutsche Bank - $354 BILLION (A bank from Germany)
• United Bank Suisse - $287 BILLION (A bank from Switzerland)
• JP Morgan Chase - $391 BILLION
• Credit Suisse - $262 BILLION (Another bank from Switzerland)
• Lehman Brothers - $183 BILLION (failed anyway)
• Bank of Scotland - $181 BILLION (Yet another bank from the United Kingdom)
• BNP Paribas - $175 BILLION (A bank from France)
• Wells Fargo - $159 BILLION
• Dexia - $159 BILLION (A bank from Belgium)
• Wachovia - $142 BILLION (failed anyway, became a part of Wells Fargo)
• Dresdner Bank - $135 BILLION (Another bank from Germany)
• Societe Generals - $124 BILLION (Another bank from France)

And then there is a catchall line item:

• All other borrowers - $2.639 TRILLION (What the fuck does all other borrowers mean?)

So the next time Romney tries blaming Obama or Obama tries blaming Bush for the mess we are in, remember, we shouldn't even be in a fucking mess right now. Our own Central Bank took it upon themselves to ensure our national debt reached epic proportions in order to ensure their friends in the banking system did not take losses on the bets they placed. Instead, they used their unchecked power to SECRETLY ensure WE took the losses on the bets THEY placed.

I don't really see anything we can do about this. But, for the love of your country, if you still bank with any of the entities above, at the very least, pull your money out immediately. Buy some silver and just take as much of your money right out of the financial system as you can.

We need to be rioting in the streets, but they pay the law enforcement that will be forced to lock us up to shut us up. And should we try to organize, they'll use their friends in the media to paint us as a bunch of crazy left wing fanatihippies.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.
PLEASE read:
The GAO report itself
Senator Bernie Sander's post about the audit
First Audit Results In The Federal Reserve’s Nearly 100 Year History Were Posted Today, They Are Startling! (BIN)
I had thought I seen the worst of it back in November: Of the people, but not for the people(wipt)

What happened in Vegas...

... I actually kinda wish would have stayed in Vegas. It hurts to think about this one. It certainly puts my post about the Rockford Public School District's $18,000 conference at $1,285 a head in Chicago to shame...

The General Services Administration, the facilities managers of the US Government (buildings, leases, rentals, properties, etc.), is a group you'd expect to be pretty well versed on fiscal restraint and finding deals to be had. But, OH NO... Instead, they had their Western Regions Training Conference in Vegas, spending 2,783 taxpayer dollars a head for a total cost of $835,000. These 300 people were treated to:

• A mind reader - 3,200 taxpayer dollars
• A commemorative coin set in velvet boxes - 6,300 taxpayer dollars
• A training exercise to build a bicycle - 75,000 taxpayer dollars
• Canteens, key chains and t-shirts - 6,000 taxpayer dollars
• A clown (I'd love to know what he was paid)
• A comedian (ditto)
• Awards for a participant talent show held as an excuse to treat everyone to dinner
• Treating everyone to dinner (But let's be reasonable here. Even if they had to expense their own meals, they were still government employees expensing their meals to the taxpayers...)

Setting this kind of baby up costs money too:

• Airfare and lodging sending the planners on six trips to the venue to set it up - 147,000 taxpayer dollars (Because, you know, you can't set this sort of beauty up over the phone)
• A finder's fee to book this place that can't even remotely set up a conference - 12,000 taxpayer dollars

One of the worst parts? The news broke THIS WEEK about a conference that happened 18 months ago! That means the motherfuckers spending this kind of money as 'servants' of the public had a good solid run at just covering this up and making it go away. You gotta ask yourself, how much of this shit are they getting away with?

Luckily a hero from within the GSA reported this gross misappropriation of taxpayer dollars. Thank you, GSA Employee. Thank you.

So... What exactly were they being trained for again???

THIS is whyipaytaxes...

read more:GSA chief gone, but fallout continues in wake of lavish convention expense(cnn)

I first heard it:Obama Administration Tripped Up By GSA's Vegas Spending Scandal(npr)