Monday, April 27, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 27, 2015




No, folks... I haven't given up.

(*SMILE*)

Ya gotta admit, though, there hasn't been a lot of good news lately.

Not that Baltimore was fully a first world city last month... but today...

(*SHRUG*)

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake admitted in a press conference on Sunday that she asked the Baltimore Police Department to "give those who wished to destroy space to do that.”

(*SILENCE*)

Is there anyone reading this who doesn't understand why newsbiting takes a toll on me?

(*SIGH*)

Anyway... here's goes... (Newsbites can be found within the Comments Section of this posting.)


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 14, 2015


Well, folks, finally some new newsbites.

Work has slowed down, but I still spend a fair amount of time at the gym. Also, I admit it... I've been getting more and more caught up in FBing.

FB isn't the best forum for chatting... but... at least I can find some interaction there!

All I seem to get here is spam...

(*SIGH*)

Well... as I always say... ultimately I do this for me.


Anyone Need a New Made in China "Support the Troops" Bumpersticker?



You folks know that our troops are still being killed... murdered... and maimed in Afghanistan - by... our... allies... - right?

*  *  *

An Afghan soldier shot and killed a U.S. soldier and wounded several others [last] Wednesday before being shot dead, the first so-called "insider attack" to target NATO troops since they ended their combat mission at the start of the year.

* THE FIRST. NOT THE LAST. ANOTHER DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIER DEAD ON OBAMA'S WATCH. ANOTHER AMERICAN FAMILY SHATTERED ON OBAMA'S WATCH.

The shooting happened after Afghan provincial leaders met a U.S. Embassy official at the compound of the Nangarhar provincial governor in the city of Jalalabad. All U.S. Embassy staff were accounted for and safe, the diplomatic mission said.

* OBAMA'S BUREAUCRATS ARE SAFE; "ONLY" A MERE GRUNT WAS KILLED... MURDERED.

"Right after the U.S. official had left, suddenly an Afghan army soldier opened fire on the U.S. soldiers who were present in the compound," said Afghan Gen. Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, the police chief for eastern Nangarhar province.

* YES... ONE OF OUR "ALLIES." PROBABLY U.S. TRAINED.

* AGAIN, THIS IS ON OBAMA'S HEAD; ON OBAMA'S WATCH.

The American troops returned fire, killing the Afghan soldier, whom Sherzad identified as Abdul Azim of Laghman province.

The motive for his attack was not immediately known...

* FOLKS...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The attack was the second fatality suffered by NATO since the beginning of the year; an Afghan soldier killed three American contractors on Jan. 29 in another apparent insider attack.

* "APPARENT...?"

(*SNORT*)

Information was sketchy and an eyewitness initially told The Associated Press that four U.S. troops had been wounded in the attack and were being treated at a clinic on the American base in Jalalabad. Later, Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, confirmed that "several" U.S. troops were wounded but could not clarify how many.

* GEEZUS...

Noman Atefi, the spokesman for the Afghan National Army's eastern corps command, said one Afghan soldier had been killed and two others wounded in the shootout.

* SO... THERE WAS MORE THAN ONE AFGHAN "ALLY" INVOLVED IN THE ATTACK UPON OUR TROOPS?

(*SIGH*)

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, when asked about the shooting, said it "underscores that Afghanistan continues to be a dangerous place."

(*SILENCE*)

"We're going to continue to work closely with President (Ashraf) Ghani, other members of the Afghan government and our international partners to support the Afghan government of national unity as it pursues a future of greater peace, prosperity and, finally, an end to this conflict," Earnest said.

* IN OTHER WORDS... "THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS...?"

* FOLKS. THESE PEOPLE ARE SICK. OUR TROOPS SHOULD BE DEFENDING AMERICA'S SOUTHERN BORDERS, NOT SERVING AS TARGETS FOR OUR OWN "ALLIES" IN HELLHOLES SUCH AS JALALABAD.

At the Pentagon, spokesman Col. Steve Warren said an investigation into the shooting was underway and indications suggested it was an insider attacker.

* JUST A SIDE QUESTION: WHY IS A COLONEL A SPOKESMAN? WHY DOES THE MILITARY HAVE DESIGNATED "SPOKESMEN" IN THE FIRST PLACE?

* COULD PART OF THE REASON WHY WE CAN'T SEEM TO WIN A WAR AND KEEP IT WON (IN THE SENSE OF WW2) BE THAT WE'VE BASICALLY "CORPORATIZED" OUR MILITARY?

* FOLKS... JUST A GUESS... BUT MY GUESS IS THAT THIS COLONEL IN QUESTION THINKS AND ACTS MORE LIKE AN UPPER-MID-LEVEL MANAGER AT A FORTUNE 50 COMPANY - OR PERHAPS A GS-15 WITH A FEDERAL REGULATORY AGENCY - THAN AS A WARRIOR.

(*SHRUG*)

Insider attacks first surged in 2012...

* THE YEAR THE AMERICAN SHEEPLE... TENS OF MILLIONS OF FRIGGIN' IDIOTS... VOTED TO RE-ELECTED BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

That year, more than 60 coalition troops — most of them Americans — were killed in more than 40 attacks that threatened to shatter all trust between U.S. forces and the Afghan troops.

(*SIGH*)

There were at least four insider attacks in Afghanistan in 2014. The worst was on Aug. 5, when the Afghan soldier shot and killed Greene and wounded 18.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* WHAT... A... FRIGGIN'... CLUSTER-F**K...

Monday, April 13, 2015

And the "Bipartisan" Destruction of the Country Continues...



By Terence P. Jeffrey

*  *  *

The federal government taxed away more money, spent more money and ran a bigger deficit in the first half of fiscal 2015 than it did in the first half of fiscal 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

* I... WANT... THESE... PEOPLE... DEAD....

“The federal government ran a budget deficit of $430 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2015, CBO estimates - $17 billion more than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year,” the CBO said in its Monthly Budget Review for March 2015, which was published April 8. “Both revenues and outlays were about 7% higher than the amounts recorded in the first six months of fiscal year 2014."

* NOT 1%... NOT 2%...

* 7%

The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30.

Last year, the government ran a deficit of $413 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year. This year, it ran a deficit of $430 billion — a $17 billion increase over last year.

* BY SHORT STRAW TAKE 10% OF HOUSE MEMBERS... 10% OF SENATE MEMBERS... THROW IN JOE BIDEN... AND EXECUTE THE BUNCH!

In the first six months of fiscal 2014, Americans paid the federal government approximately $585,000,000,000 in individual income taxes. In the first six months of fiscal 2015, Americans paid $642,000,000,000 in individual income taxes — an increase of $57 billion (or 9.7%) from fiscal 2014.

In the first six months of fiscal 2014, businesses paid the federal government approximately $118,000,000,000 in corporate income taxes. In the first six months of fiscal 2015, they paid approximately $133,000,000,000 in corporate income taxes. That was a 12.8% increase from 2014, but only an additional $15,000,000,000 in tax revenues.

Payroll tax payments increased "only" 3.7% but brought the federal government $18,000,000,000 in additional revenues...

Overall tax revenues increased 7.4% from the first half of 2014 to the first half of 2015 — with total receipts rising from $1,323,000,000,000 in the first six months of fiscal 2014 to $1,420,000,000,000 in the first six months of fiscal 2015.

* AND YET THIS WASN'T ENOUGH FOR THE INCOMPETENT, IRRESPONSIBLE, SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON; THEY HAD TO PILE MORE DEBT ON OUR SHOULDERS AS WELL VIA HIGHER DEFICIT BORROWING AND SPENDING!

Despite this windfall in additional tax revenue, the federal government ran a bigger deficit in the first half of this fiscal year because federal spending increased even more than federal tax revenues.

* AGAIN... BOTTOM LINE...

...federal spending increased even more than federal tax revenues.

* I'M THINKING... BREAK THEM ON THE RACK... DRAW AND QUARTER THEM...

* I... JUST... WANT... THEM... DEAD...

Total federal outlays climbed from $1,736,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2014 to $1,851,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2015.

The $115,000,000,000 increase in federal spending outpaced the $98,000,000,000 increase in federal taxation to result in a $17,000,000,000 higher deficit ($413,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2014 compared to $430,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2015).

Medicaid — which was expanded by ObamaCare — was a major force driving increased federal spending.

* IN ENGLISH: OBAMACARE WAS A MAOR FORCE DRIVING INCREASED FEDERAL SPENDING...

(*HEADACHE*)

“Outlays for Medicaid rose by $31 billion (or 22%), largely because most of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act...

* OBAMACARE

...that led to increased enrollment in Medicaid went into effect in January 2014 and therefore did not affect the program’s spending in the first few months of fiscal year 2014 [which began in October 2013],” said the CBO.

Medicare spending (up $23 billion or 9%) and Social Security spending (up $19 billion or 4%) also saw large increases.