In The Shadows ...

And Now for Something Completely Different …

June 22, 2018 Day 9.

OK – it’s Friday. I thought I’d add a little humor today. For those old enough, you’ll recognize today's entry title is taken from numerous Monty Python skits. It was usually followed by something ridiculous. Who am I to break with tradition? 😀

All day I’ve been bombarded with “breaking news” about the U.S. border immigration crisis. As I sat watching, other than Melania’s sartorial choices for her visit to Texas, I didn’t really hear anything new until I happened to see a fleeting headline that read: “SCOTT PRUITT HAS SPENT A TOTAL OF $4.6 MILLION ON SECURITY, NEW DISCLOSURES SHOW — INCLUDING $1,500 ON “TACTICAL PANTS.” I’m sorry but this seemed too funny to pass up.

The What: Now, to be honest, this story was published in The Intercept, a journal I have never heard of. The Intercept is an online news publication dedicated to what it describes as "adversarial journalism". From what I gather, it’s a mini Wikileaks wannabe. That said, I saw that it had been also reported by several reputable sources. Evidently, they had (and showed) a copy of records released under the Freedom of Information Act that listed expenditures totaling $288,610 on a range of security-related items. The EPA, according to three expense line items for April, spent a total of $2,749.62 on “tactical pants” and “tactical polos.” I will admit, it left me scratching my head about what they could be.

After much searching I found a statement issued by the EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics, and Training:

“These are routine expenditures for our Criminal Investigative Division (CID) and Protective Security Detail (PSD) agents to have proper attire for search warrants, arrests, disaster responses and training. This attire is not used for protection work.”

I think they could have saved a lot of money by buying over the counter “I’m With Stupid” Tee-shirts.

The Impact: Other than wasting our money? Probably not much. However, this is another symptom of the damage that’s being done to our country. Remember Candidate Trumps two big promises?

I'll choose the best people for my administration.
Trump campaigned against the big banks, then chose a former Goldman Sachs partner, Steven Mnuchin, to run his Treasury Department. He pledged to save Medicare and Social Security, then chose Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who has advocated sweeping revisions in Medicare and Medicaid, to run Health and Human Services. Trump has placed the burdens of working people at the top of his agenda, yet chose as Labor secretary an executive, Andrew Puzder, who talked in an interview about the advantages of replacing human workers with machines because they are "always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case." And that brings us to Scott Pruitt. Trump named Pruitt who has repeatedly expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change and ran for office in Oklahoma to “reverse our course and embrace fiscal conservative principles.”

Trump pledged to “drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.”
He then tweeted: “I will Make Our Government Honest Again — believe me. But first, I’m going to have to #DrainTheSwamp.”

I guess he forgot to mention that he would replace the swamp with a cesspool.

I’ll leave you with a final thought: “It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.” ~ P. J. O'Rourke

So, it seems …