Friday, May 19: Minor Budgeting Error
Thank goodness, now we can send more money and weapons to Ukraine
Looks like our financial commitment to the war effort in Ukraine is nowhere near finished. The pentagon has apparently overestimated the value of the weapons it sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion, a minor accounting error that conveniently allows the defense department to send more weapons without having to ask congress for more money.
The realization of the overvaluation comes at a time when the pentagon is under increased scrutiny by congress to show accountability for the billions of dollars it has sent in weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine. After months of criticisms about the lack of transparency related to the pentagon’s budget, it appears the concerns were for good reason. If I mess up my personal budget by $30, it’s noticed pretty quickly. I can’t imagine being so flush with cash that I don’t remember exactly how many billions to send to a foreign war effort.
As some lawmakers start to question whether this level of support should continue, it appears the pentagon is prepared to share even more American tax dollars with the struggling Ukrainians. Our bridges can crumble, our roads can fall apart, our healthcare can be prohibitively expensive, but thank goodness we’ve still got enough money to fund their war effort.
Side Items
New Scam Just Dropped: As reported by our friends at Pro Publica, a new group of services, often connected to pricey college counselors, has grown in popularity recently. The services purport to help high schoolers carry out and publish “research” as an extra credential for their college applications. But get this; the research papers, and the publications, can be somewhat dubious. These kids and their parents are so desperate to get into their precious prestige universities that they’re paying money to pretend to do research. Imagine that
Not All Heroes Wear Capes: This article introduces us to The Boot Girls aka Boot Baby and Boot Sheisty, two women in Atlanta who have taken it upon themselves to free local vehicles from the shackles of authoritarian government. The city of Atlanta thinks the fitting response to illegally parked vehicles is to place a boot on them, trapping them from being moved. The Boot Girls offer the legally dubious practice of boot removals for $50, a price that undercuts the city’s parking enforcement companies (which typically charge $75 per day for removal). Of course, because we live in a society that criminalizes this type of ingenuity, The Boot Girls mask their identities like modern day Batmans (if Batman wasn’t a billionaire trust-fund psychopath beating up poor criminals)
The League of Extraordinarily Stupid Individuals: In this New Yorker article we learn about the Gathering of the Thought Criminals, a group of people that meet in New York to complain about being canceled. These are exactly the type of people you’re imagining, mostly white, loud-mouthed, unashamed for their problematic views; people who really take pride in ruffling the feathers of those around them. We all went to school with that one guy (it’s always a guy) who took pleasure in getting under people’s skin. Now apparently there’s a whole gathering dedicated to those folks. God help whoever is serving that table, you just know they’re not getting tipped enough