Key West Lou / Things That Bother Me
Many facets of life bother me, give me concern. Let me share a few with you.
On Dec.14, 2012, in Newtown, Conn., Adam Lanza entered the Sandy Hook School armed with an assault rifle. Before he killed himself, he murdered 20 children ages 5-6 and six adults. A tragedy. All America mourned. I thought.
Now a little more than a year later, the nuts are at it. The cry is Sandy Hook never occurred. It is a phony tale and part of a conspiracy. Shades of the John Kennedy assassination.
It is claimed the government fabricated Sandy Hook so gun laws could be pushed through easier. One conspiracy proponent claims Sandy Hook was “…bullshit peddled by liberal assholes to get gun control.” The claim is the government and media in unison staged a hoax.
The initiator/primary culprit is a Wolfgang Halbig. The man has credentials. A former teacher, principal and now school safety expert, he claims to have trained 3,500 school safety officers. His position simply is that Sandy Hook is a fraud. He sets forth factual discrepancies to support his position. He is being well received by gun enthusiasts.
There are 20 angels buried in Sandy Hook cemeteries. Whose bodies are they? Was an entire community involved in the fraud allegedly perpetrated? I think not. This story is getting legs. It is an excellent example of the insanity that guides some in today’s society.
Another item bothering me involves food stamps. Food stamps and the military. Were you aware that a significant number of military personnel are on food stamps? Yes, and the number grows yearly.
The number of military recipients has increased more than 300 per cent since the recession hit in 2007. Military families received $5 million more in food stamp assistance in 2013 than 2012. In the last fiscal year, military commissaries took in $104 million in food stamps.
These are the men and women who defend us and their families. Some have been wounded or died in the defense of their country in recent years. While getting shot at in Afghanistan, their families back home have to use food stamps to put food on the table.
How proud our elected representatives must be. They who earn $174,000 plus a year. They who have great medical and retirement plans. They who receive all kinds of perks. How can they tolerate even one military family subsisting on food stamps?
Note that in the new Farm Law, Congress cut $8 billion over the next five years out of the food stamp program.
Something is wrong.
The cry from Washington is the country is broke, we do not have enough money. The House of Representatives allocates/determines the American budget. Waste is rampant. I often speak of it citing specific examples.
Here is a big one.
Money that has been lost or is non traceable in military budgets. More succinctly referred to as missing military-industrial complex monies. Allegedly involved are waste, graft and systemic bribery.
Federal law mandates annual audits of all government departments. The Pentagon is not audited. The unaccountable dollars have been adding up. In recent years, $8.5 trillion has never been accounted for. That number represents roughly half the national debt. It is not Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or food stamps that are breaking America’s back.
The books of the Pentagon and Department of Defense are regularly cooked. Trillions are hidden. No accurate record of money spent and not spent is kept. If dollars remain at year end in a particular military budget, the money is not returned. Numbers are added to balance the books and visually eradicate the unspent dollars from them.
The United States spends substantially more money on military-industrial matters than any other nation. In 2012, the United States budget was $712 billion. The amount represented 46.5 per cent of total monies spent by all nations. China was second with a meager $100 billion which represented 6.5 percent. Russia was number 5 and spent $53.5 billion.
The $712 billion spent was equal to to the total spent by the next 40 countries.
Something is wrong. No one appears to be watching the cash register. Some have their hands in the till. Corporations doing business with the government are probably overcharging big time.
While all this waste is going on, Congress knowingly keeps certain military and their families on food stamps, have cut food stamp availability, and want to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
It does not make sense to me.
Finally, two major deficiencies in the new Farm Law. I have discussed and written about them repeatedly.
Some members of Congress have financial interests in farms. Congress has been voting on farm subsidies and crop insurance. All of which benefit farmers in general. However, there is no legal requirement in the law that the Congressmen who are receiving benefits under the Farm Law be identified. Why not? They vote on the very legislation that will put money in their pockets.
Another shortcoming of the new Farm Law involves farm corporations. It is the world of the agrifarm corporations. Six major corporations, Monsanto being an example, control most of the farming in the United States today. Mom and Pop and family farms are a thing of the past. The new Farm Law bars corporations who receive benefits from being listed/made known.
So much for transparency regarding Congressmen and agrifarm corporations.
The recently adopted Farm Law was just short of $1 trillion.
These four examples are representative of matters which aggravate me/cause me concern. I am sure most of you, also. Unfortunately, the problems can only be identified. Correcting them is another story. An onerous task. When will we be up to it? Will we ever be up to it?
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