9 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Wednesday (April 15)”

1. Wasn’t John Wilks Booth a big state’s rights conservative who thought Lincoln was a dictator presiding over an oppressive federal government?

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2. And the GOP mask slips further still :

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-push-for-a-permanent-aristocracy/2015/04/14/aa434f82-e2e5-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html

   Attention, American poor and middle class (and to some extent, the upper middle class): the GOP is your sworn enemy, and is dedicated to destroying and burying you, with a smile on its corrupt, evil face.

   If you vote for these monsters, you are exceedingly stupid, and clearly have a social, cultural and financial death wish.

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   1.  55 percent of the value of estates worth more than $100 million comprises unrealized capital gains that have never been taxed.

      That sort of begs the question…what is the total value of estates worth more than $100,000,000? Over half has never been taxed..? sheesh….

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3. As to the VA hospital fiasco, it appears the only way to get fired is to be competent and tell the truth. Otherwise, the sky’s the limit.

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   1. It remains to be seen that the Gorospe character was competent.

      All big gov’t contracts are under bid.  Because the bid goes to the low bid (in most contract award types) and you get no work if you don’t win, all the big contracts are underbid with the knowledge that when the push-shove moment is nigh, the government agency will usually want the thing, even if it costs more.

      So the contractor factors in legal expenses, primarily designed to either redefine the deliverable (not in this case) or to argue in court that the contract as written was impossible. The contract calls for 32 miles of highway but was awarded to a contractor for $32,000? Well- geez, the contractor is right – that’s just not possible. Do you want your highway for what it really costs, or do you withdraw your ridiculous award?

      Kiewit successfully argued that they built what was designed as awarded and the overruns were not the result of anything but reality. (or at least predominantly not the result of anything but.)*  

      I question two things in the process.  The designed “campus” values at least typical mobility, if not higher than normal mobility,  with a target demographic that is less mobile than the typical medical demographic.

      Where was the Congressional oversight?  No one expects the DOD to hold the line on weapons systems, nor NASA on space exploration.  There are millions and millions of laws for DOD and NASA contracting and acquisitions and they all lead back to Congress.  If Gorospe is right about anything – at least he notified the correct players when he notified Congress. Why didn’t they do anything?

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      *I require beer or similar beverages and time to explain my experience, but I once signed off on the rough equivalent of a $600 hammer, and might have been court martialed if I did not, and it was absolutely the right thing to do.  Reagan forever remains a failed presidency if only because of Iran/Contra but he was right by trying to win the Cold War by buying the B1.

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      1. That would be the House Oversight and Government Committee that was asleep at the switch. Well, no, they were doing something…Benghazi! 

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4. We need to raise taxes on the nation’s and CO’s most wealthy individuals:

   The Missouri Department of Transportation made an abrupt announcement yesterday as commuters were heading into the evening rush hour:

   Inspectors said they found significant structural deterioration and ordered the ramp bridge closed until repairs could be made. Repairs could take two or three weeks or more.

   The bridge is located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri and it connects eastbound Interstate 70 with southbound Interstate 35—both highly traveled roads. The problem isn’t exclusive to this one bridge. In Jackson County, Missouri—where this bridge is located—an estimated 29% of bridges are considered structurally deficient. Nationwide, a jaw-dropping 61,000 bridges are considered structurally deficient.

   An equally shocking 87% of the most heavily trafficked bridges in the United States were built before 1970.

   From an interview with Ray LaHood, former United States Secretary of Transportation:

   Steve Kroft: Why? How did it get this way?Ray LaHood: It’s falling apart because we haven’t made the investments. We haven’t got the money. The last time we raised the gas tax, which is how we built the interstate system, was 1993.

   Steve Kroft: What has the resistance been?

   Ray LaHood: Politicians in Washington don’t have the political courage to say, “This is what we have to do.” That’s what it takes.

   Steve Kroft: They don’t want to spend the money? They don’t want to raise the taxes?

   Ray LaHood: That’s right. They don’t want to spend the money. They don’t want to raise the taxes. They don’t really have a vision of America the way that other Congresses have had a vision of America.

   Can Dems make the case? They haven’t tried. And hey, all these rich guys would have their feelings hurt if we raised their taxes even one penny. 130 year old pipes in some water systems? Who cares. 100+ year old bridges? My Bentley don’t do that!

   They don’t give a shit about anyone else but themselves. Republicans are good with that. Dems, too.

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   1. All these years  after the height of the red scare, the Dem establishment is still immobilized by fear of being associated with Godless Communists and so are afraid to say or do anything that will get the right accusing them of being pitch fork wielding radicals. They also will apparently continue to live in terror of President Reagan, father of the their’s no such thing as being too conservative Morning in America, until… I don’t know… somebody digs him up and puts a stake through his heart? 

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5. Bet there are a lot of southern Republican, states rights fans of the confederacy pissed of by those flags at half mast for Lincoln.

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