Little Crappy Ships

Recently I read a ProPublica story which explores how the navy has spent billions on littoral combat ships (LCS) which can't do what they are supposed to do, constantly break down, and ... well, it's mind boggling, really. It's a very sad and scary look into what our military and other authorities do with our tax dollars when they have their hearts set on something, don't understand what they are doing really (how the heck they get in charge of things like... I dunno, the Navy, is just insane), and just spend, spend, spend without a frapping care. The ProPublica story is: The Inside Story of How the Navy Spent Billions on the “Little Crappy Ship” by Joaquin Sapien. And ProPublica has published a shorter article about the key takeaways of their exploration: Eight Things You Need to Know About the Navy’s Failed Multibillion-Dollar Littoral Combat Ship Program.

The littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1) in Feb 2013. By 2016 she was a mess, according to the ProPublica article. Image from Wikipedia.

It is a running joke among the Métis that they often heard rumours through the “Moccasin Telegraph”. In the past, when the Métis traveled on foot, wearing moccasins, this metaphor bore truth since this was the main form of transmitting information.

Well, our first grandchild got married Saturday with many tears of joy and copious amounts of booze afterwards.
A great time had by all and two families melded together.
The groom's family turned out to be wonderful people with one of them bringing a mason jar of genuine moonshine. It's been awhile since I indulged in that.

thanks lotilizard for the reminder

seems the US has adopted pirate techniques to enforce their
illegal sanctions policies - arrg

US seizes millions of dollars of Iranian fuel bound for Venezuela

Over at RBN they posted this short, six minute video: