COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, November 09, 2017

The Genius of Bush & Obama - By the Numbers

Cost of U.S. War on Jihadists: $5.6 Trillion, 7,000 Deaths, 52,500 Injuries


The United States is expected to spend nearly $6 trillion through 2018 on government-wide costs related to the wars waged in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria since 2001, reveals a study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

According to Brown University’s Cost of War project analysis, authored by Neta Crawford, the total estimated cost of U.S. wars between 2001 and 2018 amounts to about $23,386 per individual American taxpayer, which is more than three times the amount ($7,740) calculated by the Pentagon.
The Pentagon’s study, dubbed the “Estimated Cost to Each Taxpayer for the Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria,” places the total authorized war spending on those conflicts between 2001 and 2018 at $1.5 trillion.
Unlike assessments conducted by the Pentagon and other analysts, Crawford’s estimate takes into account trillions in conflict-linked spending appropriated mainly through the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, State, Defense, and Veteran Affairs.
On top of direct war spending through the Pentagon, the Brown University study includes $880 billion in new base defense costs linked to combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, in addition to nearly $780 billion in Department of Homeland Security costs.
Moreover, the study notes that spending on veterans benefits has increased by nearly $300 billion since 2001 due to those wars.
Nevertheless, the Brown study notes that its “estimate is also conservative,” adding:
This report has not included here state and local government expenses related to medical care of veterans and homeland security. Nor does this report calculate the macro economic costs of war for the US economy. And while this report discusses some of the ways that families bear the burden of caring for seriously veterans [sic], I have not added a value for the costs of their uncompensated care.
The Cost of War project acknowledges that, since the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a budget for 2018, the figures for that period are estimates based on the previous year’s appropriations or the amount that the relevant department has requested.
Overall, Brown University found:
As of late September 2017, the United States wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and the additional spending on Homeland Security, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs since the 9/11 attacks totaled more than $4.3 trillion in current dollars through FY2017. Adding likely costs for FY2018 and estimated future spending on veterans, the costs of war total more than $5.6 trillion.
Besides the trillions of dollars spent on the post-9/11 conflicts, the wars have imposed a profound human cost on Americans: nearly 7,000 U.S. military fatalities and more than 52,500 injuries, according to Breitbart News’s analysis of casualtiesin Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria since 2001.
“Each one of the nearly 7,000 US soldiers killed by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be assigned a statistical value of human life — a dollar value to their deaths,” points out Crawford. “The Costs of War Project has not estimated the economic impact on the United States economy — the loss of economic productivity — of the deaths and injuries of US service members due to the wars.”
Crawford reports that the reason she does not break down the cost by individual war zone is that many of the expenditures overlap.
“The long duration of these wars, the fact that they occur simultaneously, involving many of the same personnel and equipment, has meant that their expenses and future costs related to personnel are increasingly difficult to disaggregate,” she notes
In response to the September 11 attacks, the United States launched its “Global War on Terror,” which covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria.
It began with the war in Afghanistan in October 2001, then Iraq in 2003, and it ultimately expanded into Syria in 2014.

67 comments:

  1. And the Trump supporters are continuously berated for not understanding that Hillary Clinton would have been the game changer we desperately needed.

    Outstanding!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Only in your mind.

      When's the last time you heard anyone say anything good about Hillary Clinton here? If ever?

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      Sure there are the Hillary groupies out there, fringe left-wing nuts and feminazis. Just as there are the Trumpkins and Trumpettes, right-wings nut who excuse everything Trump does.

      However, Hillary's unfavorable are almost as bad as Trump's. Even the Dem party is hoping she would just go away.

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      Hillary is simply a red herring, a phony excuse used by Trump apologists.

      .

      Delete
  2. Hillary Clinton is not an issue for the electorate.
    She was not elected.
    She is not the President.

    Mr Trump is.
    He is expanding the US military's footprint, all around the world.

    Circumventing his campaign promises as he does.

    ReplyDelete
  3. .

    To argue Trump is somehow different than his predecessors when it comes to spending on or using the implements of war is fantasy. Give him time. He already has a good start on it after only 10 months.

    War is a waste of resources and human potential.

    Trump guts the diplomatic core in order to pay for more military spending. What does that tell you about where is head is? Trump already has the inclination. And despite the promises he made during the primaries, he seems to be simply waiting for the opportunity.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I wonder how much it costs each day to have three carriers and their support convoys floating around in the South China Sea.


      .

      Delete

    2. Otherwise they would be resting at no cost in Detroit Lake, a reservoir impounded by the Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River 46 miles southeast of Salem, Oregon.

      Delete
    3. Peace through strength.

      https://www.google.com/search?q=Peace+through+strength.&rlz=1CAACAO_enUS720US720&oq=Peace+through+strength.&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

      Delete
    4. Hell Quirk they got to be floating somewhere.

      Where do you suggest ?

      I'd like to see one or three on Lake Couer d'Alene sometime.

      Now THAT would be unexpected and surely awe inspiring.

      My friend John W., who lost his council seat, has been in hospice. He had decided to keep his name on the ballot. I hope he didn't realize he had lost.

      This is a Catholic funeral service I am going to....just got the word from his sis.

      He was an all around wonderful guy, one of those that make life worth living.

      RIP, John.

      Delete
    5. I wonder how much it costs to have the brains of the Elephant Bar engaged on Blogger?

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say Quirk pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older. None of the three women say that Quirk forced them into any sort of relationship or sexual contact.

      Wendy Miller says she was 14 and working as a Santa’s helper at the Gadsden Mall when Quirk first approached her, and 16 when he asked her on dates, which her mother forbade. Debbie Wesson Gibson says she was 17 when Quirk spoke to her high school civics class and asked her out on the first of several dates that did not progress beyond kissing. Gloria Thacker Deason says she was an 18-year-old cheerleader when Quirk began taking her on dates that included bottles of Mateus Rosé wine. The legal drinking age in Alabama was 19.

      On a visit home in the mid-1990s to see her mother and stepfather in Alabama, Corfman says, she saw Quirk’s photo in the Gadsden Times.

      “ ‘Mother, do you remember this guy?’ ” Wells says Corfman said at the time.

      That’s when Corfman told her, Wells recalls. Her daughter said that not long after the court hearing in 1979, Quirk took her to his house. Wells says that her daughter conveyed to her that Quirk had behaved inappropriately.

      “I was horrified,” Wells says.

      Years later, Corfman says, she saw a segment about Quirk on ABC News’s “Good Morning America.”
      She says she threw up.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?utm_term=.a5bda5df9400

      Delete
  5. Ivanka and Kushner are morons:

    https://twitter.com/rayzhangsf/status/928538964092317696

    ReplyDelete
  6. Judge Roy Moore is suffering a pre-election bimbo abuse eruption/allegation.

    Who knows the heart of a man or woman, but the timing is suspect, to say the least.

    I'll say this for our playboy Quirk, not one of his playful harem has ever accused our Quirk of anything other than being a great and wonderful Gentleman.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk is always wonderful, soft, thoughtful and kind -

      Signed -

      Me-Me
      DaDa LeBoeuf
      Felony
      MisDemenoir
      And all the other 'Quirk Gals'

      Delete
    2. ALABAMA ROCKED: JUDGE MOORE HIT WITH SEX ACCUSATIONS....DRUDGE HEADLINE

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?utm_term=.ca1c181864c8


      1979 - Long time ago.

      Very easy to say.

      That's nearly 40 years ago.

      Salacious, but credibility factor ?

      Zero

      Too long ago

      Delete

    3. Corfman, 53, who works as a customer service representative at a payday loan business, says she has voted for Republicans in the past three presidential elections, including for Donald Trump in 2016. She says she thought of confronting Moore personally for years, and almost came forward publicly during his first campaign for state Supreme Court in 2000, but decided against it. Her two children were still in school then and she worried about how it would affect them. She also was concerned that her background — three divorces and a messy financial history — might undermine her credibility.

      “There is no one here that doesn’t know that I’m not an angel,” Corfman says, referring to her home town of Gadsden.


      It's a Washington Compost story, which doesn't add credibility either.

      I wonder if she got paid for the scoop ?

      Delete
    4. Is she smart enough to invent the story?

      Delete
    5. Washington Compost might have written her story for her.

      It's just too long ago, is my main complaint.

      Delete
  7. Foster Friess

    https://www.google.com/search?q=Foster+Friess&rlz=1CAACAO_enUS720US720&oq=Foster+Friess&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    ReplyDelete
  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdNsCQjnbwM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From The Vault

      Shocking 1995 Video Surfaces Of Obama Revealing Who He REALLY Is [Video] |

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBzDb8UB8yA

      Delete
  9. Oh ooo -

    OJ Simpson Booted from Vegas Hotel After Bar Scuffle....DRUDGE

    OJ is too damned dumb to do parole.

    I expect to see him back in the slammer.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm not going to get squat out of this new tax bill.

    The way it's written now I hope it fails.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be paying taxes on taxes I've already paid.

      QUIRK FOR PRESIDENT !

      Delete
    2. You don't pay taxes, Jack, never having been gainfully employed, so you don't care.

      Delete
  11. Fuck it.

    Everything is going wrong today.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Judge Moore needs to hire Hillary ASAP to go after these bimbos.

    She has the talent and the experience for the job.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Quirk, take a look into your Magic 8-Ball and tell us how this is going to play out.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Magic 8-Ball is the only source around here I've learned to trust, and love.

      It is never wrong.

      Delete
    2. Quirk himself is so often full of shit, it says something positive about the man that he turns to The Magic 8-Ball when things are serious.

      Delete
  14. It is quite funny that both the Republicans and Mr Trump have tbrown our "Draft Dodger" under the tax reform bus.

    For years he has sung their praises...
    And now ...

    Squish

    The bus rolls on ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob said he voted for Trump mainly because Trump wasn't Hillary Clinton.

      He backed Dr. Carson, IIRC, as being the best person.

      You are wrong again, our Self Confessed War Criminal (SCWC).

      He never has 'sung' Trump praises.

      The Republicans are generally better than the Democrats. He did say that.

      So you make a fool out of yourself again, SCWC.

      Delete
    2. And, only an insane buffoon would vote for Gary Johnson.

      That would be YOU.

      Delete
    3. :)

      Well, there are some exceptions to the insane buffoon rule.

      :)

      Delete
    4. Your multiple pathologies are showing "Draft Dodger" Peterson.

      Delete
    5. You should be in prison, psychopath rat & SCWC.

      Delete

  15. I want to apologize to Times readers — and to Sarah Huckabee Sanders — for a description that was insensitive and failed to meet the standards of our newspaper. It also failed to meet the expectations I have for myself. It surely won’t be my last mistake, but this particular error will be scrupulously avoided in my future commentaries. I’ve removed the offending description.

    — David Horsey


    http://www.trbimg.com/img-59f93ff9/turbine/la-1509507059-wgfrxggzex-snap-image/1050/1050x591

    http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-huckabee-sanders-20171031-story.html?platform=hootsuite

    https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/11/03/la-times-columnist-faces-backlash-after-comparing-sarah-huckabee-sanders-to-a-chunky-soccer-mom/23266210/#slide=7144015#fullscreen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been doing a great job as Press Secretary.

      Delete
    2. Told US all about your "tax cut'
      $4,000 they said you would 'save'.

      Hardee har har ...

      Delete
    3. You are stalking again, War Criminal.

      Kindly leave off with the insane stalking.

      It is really boring, among other things.

      Thanks !

      Delete
    4. Jack Hawkins is beginning to babble again.

      Delete
  16. Earlier this week two of Netanyahu’s closest confidants were questioned in a third case, Case 3000, which was dubbed the “submarines affair.”

    Attorneys David Shimron and Yizhak Molcho were questioned regarding their part in the purchasing of submarines and naval vessels from the German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp.

    It was reported by Channel 10 News that the police are checking if Molcho was mediating between the German company and Israel, following a request by ThyssenKrupp that as a condition to the deal, it build a wastewater treatment facility in Gaza, a move to which Israel objected.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Good news for the fat asses among us -

    Physics Has Demoted Mass

    http://nautil.us/issue/54/the-unspoken/physics-has-demoted-mass


    Also interesting -

    Consciousness Began When the Gods Stopped Speaking

    How Julian Jaynes’ famous 1970s theory is faring in the neuroscience age.

    BY VERONIQUE GREENWOOD
    ILLUSTRATION BY CARMEN SEGOVIA
    NOVEMBER 9, 2017

    http://nautil.us/issue/54/the-unspoken/consciousness-began-when-the-gods-stopped-speaking-rp

    An old and problematic idea taken from an analysis of Homer....

    ReplyDelete
  18. Reached for comment, Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl’s attorney, said the defense team’s focus has turned to preparing the case for an appeal. He declined to elaborate.

    ...

    An appeal would put off the Army’s pay and benefits determination, the official said.

    Fidell declined to comment on the back pay situation, or on a report by USA Today that he believed Bergdahl should receive the Prisoner of War Medal.

    ReplyDelete
  19. When The Magic 8-Ball is uncooperative, one can always turn to its fine substitute Newsweak -

    Keepin’ It Classy, Newsweek: America’s “Garden Of D***S” The Fault Of …

    ED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:41 pm on November 9, 2017

    Who’s to blame for sexual harassment and assault scandals in Hollywood, the mainstream media, and corporate America that goes back decades, according to Newsweek? Hint: It’s not someone with any connection to either the media or corporate America, and only a passing connection to Hollywood. It doesn’t take a loudmouth Irishman to guess Donald Trump, even without the hints. Nina Burleigh writes that American men have a “Garden of Dicks” in their minds, and that its leader is the current president:

    Powerful men in Hollywood, politics, journalism and many other fields are being pilloried, sacked or jailed for piggish or even criminal behavior toward women.

    To understand how this bonfire started, we must speak frankly about the Garden of Dicks, a mythical place in the caveman lobe of the male brain. Like that other primeval paradise, the Garden of Eden, men have tried for millennia to create it here on Earth.

    The Garden of Dicks is a Hooters. It’s an NFL locker room. It’s the Vatican. It’s the Rolling Stones’ private jet. It’s Harvey Weinstein’s suite at the Tribeca Grand Hotel.

    It’s a top modeling agency in New York City run by a man who, after years of preying on his models, was disgraced for having sex with underage girls. He excused himself by saying, “I’m a man, and I have urges.”
    It’s also Fox News, Burleigh notes fairly, as well as a number of other places, going on in a similar vein for several paragraphs. She then lays this at the feet (so to speak) of Trump and the people who voted for him:........

    https://hotair.com/archives/2017/11/09/keepin-classy-newsweek-americas-garden-ds-fault/


    Newsweak readers are notoriously confused, as a general rule.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The defense maintained during the sentencing hearing that Bergdahl couldn't be blamed for the series of consequences stemming from his desertion, given the chain of events included decisions made by others. Bergdahl's attorneys also argued Trump's comments on the case impacted their client's ability to receive a fair sentencing.

    Though the defense had told the judge a dishonorable discharge would be acceptable, Bergdahl's chief defense lawyer told the New York Times last week he would challenge the ruling so his client could receive health care and other "benefits he badly needs" from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    Bergdahl's case became politically fraught after former President Barack Obama traded five high-level Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for his release in 2014. The circumstance further deteriorated when then National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the private had served with "honor and distinction."

    ReplyDelete
  21. What Happens If China Makes First Contact With Aliens?

    ...Liu told me that first contact would lead to a human conflict, if not a world war. This is a popular trope in science fiction. In last year’s Oscar-nominated film Arrival, the sudden appearance of an extraterrestrial intelligence inspires the formation of apocalyptic cults and nearly triggers a war between world powers anxious to gain an edge in the race to understand the alien’s messages. There is also real-world evidence for Liu’s pessimism: When Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast simulating an alien invasion was replayed in Ecuador in 1949, a riot broke out, resulting in the deaths of six people. “We have fallen into conflicts over things that are much easier to solve,” Liu told me.

    Even if no geopolitical strife ensued, humans would certainly experience a radical cultural transformation, as every belief system on Earth grappled with the bare fact of first contact. Buddhists would get off easy: Their faith already assumes an infinite universe of untold antiquity, its every corner alive with the vibrating energies of living beings. The Hindu cosmos is similarly grand and teeming. The Koran references Allah’s “creation of the heavens and the earth, and the living creatures that He has scattered through them.” Jews believe that God’s power has no limits, certainly none that would restrain his creative powers to this planet’s cosmically small surface.
    ...


    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/11/happens-china-makes-first-contact-aliens/

    Buddhism is a more severe 'protestant' somewhat iconoclastic more peaceful offshoot of Hinduism.

    The writer is correct. Neither of these outlooks should have much trouble with the aliens. As they strive to do with all living things, they would endeavor to treat the aliens kindly, not eat them, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We should hope the aliens know of and follow the Law of Karma.

      If so, things should go well enough.

      Delete
    2. It's the muzz that would have the biggest problem.

      They would be compelled by their book to either convert the aliens, kill them, or put them into Dhimmitude and force them to pay the tax.

      Just a hunch, but the aliens might well resist such an outreach.

      Delete
  22. Explanation: Chaotic in appearance, these tangled filaments of shocked, glowing gas are spread across planet Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus as part of the Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star.

    Williamina Fleming's Triangular Wisp

    ReplyDelete
  23. Another point of consideration is where to send a message. Every year, astronomers are discovering more planets orbiting other stars in the so-called habitable zone.

    ...

    Finally there's the question of what the message should say. Here too, history has seen a wide variety of answers.

    At this point, we've sent a Doritos commercial, the molecular formula for alcohol (accompanied with "Cheers!" of course), and a bunch of Craigslist classified ads to other solar systems, as well as more scientifically rigorous messages in which we've attempted to teach an alien recipient about math, science, and life on Earth.


    Search for Aliens

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm for sending an image of Melania.

      Delete
    2. Wait a minute. That might attract them.

      Perhaps that needs rethinking.

      Delete
  24. I am so glad you came vy the house, Bobbie. So happy I was able to scratch that itch for you.
    You sure have managed to keep it tight
    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stop it Jack Hawkins. You aren't even funny much less entertaining or informative.

      Go back to your basement.

      Delete
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