Earlier today, the New York Times broke a story that the State Department spent $52,701 on curtains for the residence of the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley.
This was the perfect thing for the Democrat outrage machine to process. They hate Trump, they hate Haley, why not scream about the government wasting money on people they hate.
Congressman Ted Lieu decided to score some #Resistance points with it.
This is not okay. As a Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I call on @HouseForeign Chairman @RepEdRoyce to hold an oversight hearing on @StateDept spending on @nikkihaley and her deputy. https://t.co/c2ipX1s79d
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 14, 2018
David Hogg in his quest to never be right about anything called on Haley to step down over this.
The problem is, in the NYT own story, the NYT explains how the outrage is all false.
A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.
So the curtains were ordered under Obama and they aren’t personalized for Haley.
So what about the $52,701 curtains.
This is my two cents on the subject.
Being around the defense industry, and having worked for ARDEC, DARPA, and a bunch of other defense technical development programs, there is of cool tech out there.
If you have ever watched the movie Clear and Present Danger, you may remember a scene where some goverment agents were listening in on some people with a laser pointed at the window.
That exists. Laser long range listening devices are real, so are microwave listening devices.
I’m curious if the $52,701 curtains are more than just decorative but developed to block laser or microwave listening or are opaque to IR or provide some other security features against espionage.
They may also be blast or ballistic rated.
That seems like the kind of thing that the State Department might do for an ambassador’s official residence.
I could be way off and these could be just super expensive curtains.
I just think it would be typical (Democrat) politics for some ignorant asswipe of a politician to grand stand over something like this just find out that he nearly spilled the beans on high tech counter intelligence curtains by being an partisan asshole.
I don’t know, but my experience in the defense technology world makes my spider sense tingle on this.
Considering the outrageously expensive costs of having anything ordered and installed when the government is paying, I’d consider that cost a very reasonable bargain insofar as government things go.
I saw the breakdown of the cost somewhere. IIRC ~$20,000 was for the automatic drapery opening and closing mechanism. Only the best for Samantha Powers.
And the incredibly biased (Fake News) NYT has been forced to run a Major Correction.
————
Editors’ Note: September 14, 2018
An earlier version of this article and headline created an unfair impression about who was responsible for the purchase in question. While Nikki R. Haley is the current ambassador to the United Nations, the decision on leasing the ambassador’s residence and purchasing the curtains was made during the Obama administration, according to current and former officials. The article should not have focused on Ms. Haley, nor should a picture of her have been used. The article and headline have now been edited to reflect those concerns, and the picture has been removed.
Totally legit beef with the NYT. They deserve it on this one.
Now…when do you guys start in with Fox News and Trump himself? Because if erroneous information truly inflames you and your criticism isn’t solely driven by politics, y’all are going to be mighty busy.
But I suspect not.
Tell you what. You call out the Democrats & their lackeys for trying to turn the USA into Venezuela first, and we’ll go from there.
Whataboutism? I thought that was unacceptable.
One: did you miss where I was against Trump during the entire election?
Two: may to miss the point of my post, that I believe the cost of the curtains is high for a reason and people gunning for outrage are going to end up looking stupid.
J. Kb, everyone knows that if you’re not a full on Woke Bernie supporting Democratic Socialist, you MUST be a Faux News watching MAGA hat wearing Alt-Right racist who wants to put non-whites in concentration camps.
Gosh darn, I bet those grapes were sour anyway.
Sorry Hillary didn’t win, Caleb. Maybe you’ll have better luck next time.
Faux outrage is showing America just how ignorant and stupid democrats really are. You would think they would get the hint after 2 years plus of anti Trump anti America screaming that We the People are not listening to it. We are tired of it, VERY tired. Be prepared for the day after mid terms- IF we win, its gonna be nasty.
It’s my understanding that the laser on the window thing works by picking up the movements of the glass from people talking. The reflection off the glass moves in sync with the sound hitting the glass.
In that case, thick curtains might be all it takes to keep sound from reaching the window. Conceivably, it could take curtains filled with some sort of unobtainium to really deaden the sound (or obtainable but expensive-ium). Don’t know. Never tried it. Might be a fun experiment to do around the house.
Only from the fenced in backyard where I wouldn’t be watched.
All I’m saying is that if you’re going to lose your shit about bad reporting about curtains, it’s weird to be super chill as POTUS lies about thousands of dead Americans.
Oh, you’re a sap who believes all the propaganda about how it’s really personally President Trump’s fault that Democrat run Puerto Rico is an inefficient hellhole. Even though all the big Democrat run areas are inefficient hellholes.
Now run along, foolish child.
You mean the number arrived at by “statistical analysis”, instead of actually counting? Done by people who have sworn blood-hatred of the President? And who have decided not to let objectivity stand in their way?
Do you believe in the video that caused the Benghazi massacre too?
Let’s try some reality. I know you’ve heard of the word:
Puerto Rican Delegate Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon said,“I will tell you that everything that the president said that he was going to send to the island, it’s getting there. The resources are there. The help is there.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/10/17/puerto-rican-delegate-trump-has-given-everything-weve-asked-for-regarding-hurricane-relief-n2395969
So someone who has an absolute right to say, has said that the Trump FEMA did okay.
Ah, but what happens when that relief, when those supplies gets TO PR, and out of the hands of the Federal response into the hands of the locals?
Here’s the people doing the distribution:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-news-puerto-rico-mayor-arrested-corruption-20180707-story.html
And here’s the consequences:
Thousands of bottles of water found rotting on tarmac:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/thousands-water-bottles-meant-puerto-ricos-hurricane-maria/story?id=57782040
At least ten trailers of food and emergency supplies found rotting:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/us/puerto-rico-aid.html
‘Inept’ Puerto Rican government ‘riddled with corruption’: CEO
https://nypost.com/2017/09/30/inept-puerto-rican-government-riddled-with-corruption-ceo/
And here’s you, Mobying your little heart out.
Maybe we’re just smarter than you.
Nah, not “maybe”.
Now hush, the adults are talking.
There’s an excellent detailed discussion about this in today’s WSJ. The summary: normal practice with disasters is to report direct deaths (people drowned in the flood, or killed by a falling tree). That’s category 1. Then separately report indirect but immediately connected deaths, for example people killed by CO poisoning from a generator run during the power outage. That’s category 2.
Those are collected by relevant agencies and reported. Those are what is known from past disasters.
Now what we have here is an after the fact decision by someone to estimate how many deaths in the subsequent months can, via some chain of reasoning, be blamed on the disaster. This may be a valid thing to do, if you can make a convincing argument that the analysis is sound.
However, it’s not past practice. So even if this is valid, the number it produces cannot be compared with any past numbers because it doesn’t measure what has been measured before.
Analogy: suppose you study speeding along Highway 666, by watching cars go by for 6 months. You then compare that number with earlier years’ speeding ticket numbers. Different metrics, they aren’t comparable.
[…] to correct it when it came out that the decision to buy the curtains was made in 2016 under Obama. Gun Free Zone suggests that maybe the curtains are not just ordinary curtains, but have security features justifying the high price. The other thing that seems logical to me is, […]
Hey, Dave, where do you think the statistics came from? Wait, I know….the Deep State made them up, right?
So we can debate where the fault lies in Puerto Rico, but bodies are bodies and stats are stats. An analysis of those stats came up with an official number of deaths caused by the hurricane which was signed off by the Governor of Puerto Rico.
Trump and those riding shotgun with him on the Trump Train, like linky DaveP, want question even the existence of those deaths…which is, of course, Orwellian.
But back to my original point: Curtains…OUTRAGE! Dead Americans that “don’t count?” Crickets.
In the meantime, make sure you stand for the anthem and burn your Nikes, even as you refuse to recognize the deaths of your fellow Americans because it might, just might, mean that Leader could have done a better job.
JFC, guys. Where does this shit end with you?
“An analysis of those stats came up with an official number of deaths caused by the hurricane which was signed off by the Governor of Puerto Rico.”
Keywords: “came up.” The numbers were not being offered not even as a “best statistical guess” but hard data. That may have been an approximation to the actual victim count, but once you breached the trust by presenting them as something it is not, you have lost the right to ask people to trust the process and the numbers.
If your cause is righteous, why lie?
What part of “hush, adults are talking” didn’t you understand, Moby?
As hysterical and ignorant as you come across, why do you dream that anyone would take you seriously?
Why is that guy freaking out over the number of deaths caused by a hurricane?
And WTF does it have to do with the NYT misattributing government purchases?
If I understand this, Caleb is saying that because NYT reported a purchase erroneously then deaths caused by a hurricane should be blamed on Trump.
Even though he did say they were caused by a hurricane.
Follow along, BT. We went down the Puerto Rico rabbit hole after DaveP rubberstamped Trump’s now disproven statement that 2975 Americans did not die as a result of the hurricanes.
Miguel, like I said, you can have a legitimate debate about the analysis of the data that George Washington U. did, but the fact remains that their study calculated an official death count that the Puerto Rican government approved. The deaths did occur. It is not a figure that “Democrats came up with,” as Trump maintained, and as DaveP seems to believe.
And back to my original point (because BT seems to need it), seems to me that if you’re going to get real upset about the reporting associated with a curtain purchase, the fact that POTUS is publicly lying about the deaths of Americans after a hurricane and convincing people that it’s all a big hoax, yeah, THAT seems a little more something to get worked up about.
Sorry Caleb, but you just aren’t intellectually up to tis ride. Go back to your Teletubby slash fanfic collection and, as I said, leave politics to the adults.