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The liberal media calling out corruption and turning on the liberals

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by TheGator, Feb 9, 2025 at 2:53 PM.

  1. BLING

    BLING GC Hall of Fame

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    This woman was not giving the greatest answer, but she isn’t totally incorrect either - Maher is mostly just being a populist dickhead while she’s giving a long winded bureaucratic answer.

    What she’s attempting to describe is “internal controls” (or lack thereof) - something large enterprise and govt has to deal with much more than small business.

    I’ll try to give an extremely basic example. Let’s say a Publix shopper knocks 3 jars of pasta sauce off a shelf. What do you think happens? Presumably an employee cleans up the mess and then must record somewhere that 3 jars were broken. What if they fail to do that internal “process”? Well the next time Publix ran inventory they’d show 3 jars missing, but have absolutely no idea where they went. Was there theft? Was the inventory in error? No big deal on a small scale. But what if Publix as an enterprise failed at training their personnel and never recorded broken or expired goods (I.e. lack of good internal controls)? It would have a growing gap in inventory losses, but have no idea where it was all going or falsely assume it was all theft. Because of this inability to differentiate, they would fail an audit based on lack of internal controls on inventory.

    This is the scenario the woman is describing at DoD. Govt has outdated systems, shitty internal controls, and I’m sure many people on the ground who don’t care about procedure (and in war zones this is sort of understandable). So when DOD fails an audit or “can’t account for things”, it isn’t automatically fraud or abuse or even intentional. But it’s fair to say failure to account for things can quickly escalate or lead to fraud. Of course once again the question is “what are you going to do about it” rather than just complain about it? Because most Republicans won’t like the answer, which is to install/create more modern systems, combined with hiring more bean counters to stay on top of it all, and train up staff and military personnel at DoD, and it still isn’t even that simple given the secrecy around defense. The procurement process sounds like a whole ‘nother mess.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
  2. Contra

    Contra GC Hall of Fame

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    1.047*1.08*1.041*1.029 = 1.21

    That is roughly 21% inflation from 2021 to 2024. So, his number of 20% was a little low, although it was correct if he was rounding to one significant figure.
     
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  3. gator_jo

    gator_jo GC Hall of Fame

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    Please figure out how inflation is referenced in the USA, then get back to us. biddi biddi biddi
     
  4. Contra

    Contra GC Hall of Fame

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    He did not say it was an annualized inflation rate. He simply said we saw 20% inflation during Biden's term, which is close to the actual number. If you know the year over year inflation data and you know how to compute a 4 year accumulation of those inflation rates, then you can compare the inflation rate from one presidential term to another. We all know why you have not referenced the inflation numbers from 2017 to 2020.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
  5. VAg8r1

    VAg8r1 GC Hall of Fame

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    I would add that splitting from his own party Trump wanted Congress to max out the Covid stimulation payments, one of the few times he was in agreement with Biden.
    Trump suggests he won't sign relief bill into law unless Congress makes changes including increasing stimulus checks to $2,000
     
  6. VAg8r1

    VAg8r1 GC Hall of Fame

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    Even on an annualized month by month basis the rate of inflation never approached 20 percent during Biden's term. It was either a number he pulled out of thin air or a number he heard or read from a right-wing commentator who pulled it out of thin air. Prices probably did increase a cumulative 20 percent over Biden's entire four year term although that was the result of a number of factors most of which were beyond his control, supply chain problems coming immediately to mind and the inflation of the US economy was still lower than that of almost every other developed country.
     
  7. PITBOSS

    PITBOSS GC Hall of Fame

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    what audits are they fighting “so bad”.
     
  8. ridgetop

    ridgetop GC Hall of Fame

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    You are absolutely correct but I would ask a few questions. Do you think that the “shortage@ at Publix was always only broken jars? Or.. would you rightly assume employee theft? Same for DoD.. would it be right to assume fraud theft or corruption on some level for missing monies/items?
    Because I worked for a military base in my younger days and I know for certain that internal theft and fraud was rampant at every level.
    Also.. republicans won’t like spending money to update and overhaul the military? Maybe check with the Dems in this thread who is opposed to spending the money needed.
     
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  9. Contra

    Contra GC Hall of Fame

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    A best guess answer is 20% was computed this way:

    4.7% + 8.0% + 4.1% + 2.9% = 19.7%, which rounds to 20%.

    I am not saying @AgingGator computed it that way, but he could have quoted someone who computed it that way. He also could have taken the 21% accumulation over the 4 years of Biden's presidency and rounded it down to 20%. Either way whoever disputed @AgingGator's original post needs to check their own reading comprehension. He was not wrong. Inflation over the duration of the Biden presidency was in the ballpark of 20%.
     
  10. BLING

    BLING GC Hall of Fame

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    That is true some of it is theft, but the lady was just pointing out that because they failed an audit does not equate to theft.

    I’m guessing for a lot of it, they at least know it went to Iraq or Afghanistan but it’s the final disposition that got lost and hence they cannot say whether it was spent in battle/lost/destroyed/smuggled… hence… audit fail. We definitely know we left a shit ton of gear over there, and intentionally destroyed a bunch too. I guess the lesson is don’t start costly decades long wars.

    I also don’t think the dems were ever not in favor of auditing spending on W’s wars, obviously the Obama years saw a sequester on overall military budget, so it would be hard to justify some big ramp up in DoD bureacracy spending even if it would purportedly go after fraud and waste. My point was more that Republicans would NEVER vote yes on “more accountants” at the DoD just as they hate every single dollar in the IRS budget.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM
  11. ridgetop

    ridgetop GC Hall of Fame

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    I guess… but for public the money/ items unaccounted for was Publix’s to lose.
    In the case of the DoD.. it is our tax money they are losing/ or at least isn’t accounted for
    Let me ask you this
    If your private business took CoVid money to help float you through the pandemic and later the government investigated to confirm you used it to pay employees but you just shrugged and said hmm I really don’t know where that went.. I should have done a better job accounting for it.. what would the govt do? I think we know because we have seen them do it over and over in very similar situations.
    The difference is the govt wants the private business owner to account for the money they took but the govt doesn’t seem to want to be accountable for the money it takes.
     
  12. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

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    [​IMG]
     
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  13. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

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    Bingo. We got insel team 6. 100% the American people are behind rooting out and exposing all those special interests who have crapped on American taxpayers. Trump was President 4 years ago? He’s just exposing himself.
     
  14. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

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    March 27, 2020. Who signed the CARES Act and all that sweet PPP loans? Both parties pulled out the money machine.
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. ridgetop

    ridgetop GC Hall of Fame

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    What? You think I was criticizing the PPP loans? What is the point of your posts? It was just an example of the Govt demanding John Q. Public be responsible with the money given to him from the Govt and while the govt often says opps our bad.. we don’t know where those billions went…
     
  16. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

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    My bad. I thought you were a business owner and employed people. Just thought you would get that the PPP was intended to pay employees and hence John Q Public’s job to know who he or she paid to use the PPP loan money. Again, my apologies.
     
  17. ridgetop

    ridgetop GC Hall of Fame

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    Yes … it was John Q Public’s job to know. And many JQP defraud the us govt by lying about how many employees or who was getting the funds etc.. when the govt came knocking JQP couldn’t just say oops.. my bad I don’t know where the money went and shrug it off the way our DoD seems to do with the money they are given. Basically the Oct penalizes the public for the same thing the govt does.
     
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  18. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

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    I see it differently. The government has a contract with a vendor (JQP Co). The vendor, who is capitalistic inclined, has to earn a margin. The fraud is against the government and the people by JQP — that is the waste. Yes, there are government programs that one may not like (eg DEI) and rage against the machine. But the real fraud is our own citizens stealing from the taxpayers’ coffers. JMO.
     
  19. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    Because everything done by DOGE is thru a political biased lens.
    How much does guvmnt pay Fox affiliates? Don't know? Do you know how much they paid Politico? Exhibit A
     
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  20. ridgetop

    ridgetop GC Hall of Fame

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    When told to have audit the DoD basically said no.. we can’t do that. The poster I was originally responding to said well of course.. the DoD is too big and is gonna lose stuff here and there.. so the audit will look bad.
    My question is would the US govt except that as an excuse.. oops we lost some of that money and don’t know where it went..
    No they would not.
    But the US govt (DoD) in this case wants to use that excuse and shrug off billions of misspent/ misused/misplaced items and monies.
    No it isn’t all fraud or corruption.. but the excuse not to look into it, not to audit, not to be accountable doesn’t work… not for JQP not for the DoD.