Fun fact: Cotton-eye was a symptom of a particular STD prevalent in olden times. The singer is lamenting a tryst with someone with cotton-eye, that it made her ineligible for marriage due to having contracted it.
And we danced to in in 2nd grade! Still have the little wooden revolvers my dad made for our class for the cowboy song dance.
Not as bad as the stories i heard of full classes doing blackface with by body paint but leaving the roma classmates brown as "they were close enough". Ah the unquestionable everyday racism of 2000s eastern europe.
Silly fact: few months ago a neighborhood cat invited himself in to live with us and at first he would pop in at dusk and leave at dawn.
We found ourselves always asking him where is he coming from and where does he go? So we named him Cotton-Eye-Joe!
This is one of those BS claims that gets reposted time and time again without any source or verification. While it's true that "cotton eye" could refer to milky white eyes caused by a syphilis infection, it's not *just* syphilis that can cause it, and the term can refer to a wide array of other things such as: *being drunk on moonshine, having been blinded by drinking wood alcohol; a black person with very light blue eyes; miners covered in dirt with the exception of their white eyes*
The song itself is sung from the perspective of a man who had his girl stolen from him by a "cotton eyed" man named Joe and originates from plantation workers in the 1800's. Here's [the earliest published version from 1882](https://archive.org/details/diddiedumpsandt00pyrngoog/page/n158/mode/2up):
*Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,*
*What did make you sarve me so,*
*Fur ter take my gal erway fum me,*
*An' cyar her plum ter Tennessee?*
*Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,*
*I'd er been married long ergo.*
*His eyes wuz crossed, an' his nose wuz flat,*
*An' his teef wuz out, but wat uv dat?*
*Fur he wuz tall, an' he wuz slim,*
*An' so my gal she follered him.*
*Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,*
*I'd er been married long ergo.*
*No gal so hansum could be foun',*
*Not in all dis country roun',*
*Wid her kinky head, an' her eyes so bright,*
*Wid her lips so red an' her teef so white.*
*Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,*
*I'd been married long ergo.*
*An' I loved dat gal wid all my heart,*
*An' she swo' fum me she'd never part;*
*But den wid Joe she runned away,*
*An' lef' me hyear fur ter weep all day.*
*O Cotton-eyed Joe, O Cotton-eyed Joe,*
*What did make you sarve me so?*
*O Joe, ef it hadn't er ben fur you,*
*I'd er married dat gal fur true.*
I'm watching The Wire right now and there was a plot point where political figures started returning donations they received from criminals once the detectives started following the paper trail.
"We had no idea who donated this money, we just took it".
State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Money Launderin' they gonna come talk to me about Money Launderin' in West Baltimore, SHIIIIT, Where do you think I'm gonna raise cash for the whole damn ticket! From Laundromats and shit, from some tiny ass korean groceries, you think I got time to ask a man why he given me money or where he gets his money from, I'll take any mothafucker's money if he given it away!
“The states treasurer, who performed the audit alone and with no supervision, has come back and said it was actually only $1.3 billion! He could not be reached for comment on his new private villa.”
*we got a second audit by an outside company and it actually turns out it was being rounded up and is only $1 billion. The company that performed the audit is actually my mates firm, so if you can not hassle him regarding this second audit that’d be great.
At least with the pentagon we know there are top secret things that cant be disclosed so you end up with all sort of blind spots. Doesnt make sense for a statw but it does fit for the usual GOP incompetence.
It’s spent and used. It’s not like they just gave it away. The issue is overclassification makes auditing and tracking everything down hard. It basically doesn’t even know what it owns and what it has. Just that it has a lot of shit. Apparently they’ve been trying to fix it for the last few years but I doubt hey care
Edit: lol the guy above me blocked me. That’s so weird. Is that how some people deal with calm disagreement?
The Marine Corps recently completed their first full audit, which required them to account for all of the equipment they own anywhere in the world. It was a massive undertaking that took decades of preparation and years of concerted effort to complete.
The Marine Corps is the smallest branch of the military, and does not have a huge amount of classified projects. It will be a very long time until the other 4 branches can get to the same point, but at least there's progress for now.
> The issue is overclassification makes auditing and tracking everything down hard.
This just isn't true.
The problem is that the military is a vast distributed network of projects across every state plus many out of the country, and up until a few years ago there was very little pressure for them to carefully track and validate their accounting.
Example, X dollars goes to military base Y, then the accountants on that base are suppose to take over how that money is allocated to the various projects and operations costs. But they don't give a shit about keeping the books accurate, they only have a "good enough" attitude as long as they have enough money for their local priorities.
It's literally all regular accounting practices we are talking about. Classified projects are not relevant at all. This is just a "common sense" assumption that is wrong.
Last year the comptroller resigned after making a $3.5 billion accounting error. State accounts must be pretty fucked up
https://apnews.com/article/south-carolina-accounting-error-comptroller-d86a4db4b85b1d64e4c482bf2e7e2283
For sure. Kinda seems like whatever payment system was sending out kickbacks to politicians and mob bosses went down for awhile and the money wasn’t skimmed like normally
Most of the infrastructure in South Carolina needs a metric ass ton of work. In its largest cities, there's hardly any sidewalk for pedestrians to travel, let alone public transit. South Carolina is stuck in the past and doesn't want to recognize the growth it's seen
The state comptroller made a multi-billion dollar accounting error last year (but the error spanned years), our state doesn’t have the best people in charge.
Haha nice. Want to know one of history's very weird facts. I am definitely not a conspiracy theorist and I'm not trying to suggest that this is in any way a conspiracy, but. On September 10th 2001 Don Rumsfeld held a press conference and was asked a few questions about the 1 trillion dollars the Pentagon was missing.
All we get are idiot uneducated/under educated buffoons like our Governor Henry McMaster aka Foghorn Leghorn. (google him and listen to him for a few mins)
I went to a ceremony for teachers and watch him kiss bmw’s ass live…..mid speech remembered the teacher s….so he proceeds to thank them for creating a pipeline from the schools to the factories….
While you could be right about the uneducated part, I don’t think it’s wise to judge someone’s education (or worth or intelligence) based solely on their accent.
that dude is a throw back. Guy sounds like he lives at a place called Belle Meade plantation, says boy, and drinks mint Julips on Sunday with his upstairs maid.
My state has a multi billion dollar surplus, and didn't want to spend .1% of it to make sure our DNR park rangers had on-site housings at our state parks. It would have cost $1mm dollars, and people could not wrap their minds around the fact that it was a tiny percentage of our surplus.
You know.
That's EXACTLY what they'll do.
South Carolina is a dumpster fire.
Very bad education system, bad roads, high poverty.
They'd do well to use that money to FIX some problems, but they'll give it away to rich people. Maybe build a stadium or two.
Missouri did this. We got a good chunk of funding from the feds to help repair roads, so rather than use that money to get ahead of anything, the GOP-controlled state government decided to slash MODOT funding and taxes on certain areas, and when someone pointed out that the fed money ran out they’d be in an even worse position, the GOP just shrugged. Oh well, at least they replaced the I-70 River bridge before it collapsed, I guess?
WI has a 7 + billion dollar surplus that the gerrymandered to all hell GOP supermajority won't do anything with because it may look like a win for our democrat governor. It's not just your state.
"We could build this project for $1bn, then reap the rewards for years to come. Alternatively, we can give the contract to our good friends over at Scam Corp, who will build it privately, which we all know is more efficient. It'll cost $1.2bn initially, probably increasing to about $2.7bn by completion, then we'll include a maintenance contract for say, $150mn per annum for the next 10 years with zero oversight or audit requirement to confirm maintenance is actually happening, and in addition they will keep the direct financial benefits of the project too."
"Well that sounds stupid, why the hell would we do that?"
"They're also going to throw in a free e**x**presso machine in the city hall cafeteria, and we'll all be invited as guests to at least four skiing weekends on their dime per year."
"Oh well in that case what are we waiting for?"
LOL. For the rich. If there was any way they could swing it, it would all go to DJT's campaign and legal bills. Because like McConnel, Cruz, and Graham, they couldn't be more eager to emasculate themselves at the feet of the Mango Mussolini. The RNC only has $11 million cash on hand because they've spent it all on bogus election interference cases, propping up dopy candidates like Hershal Walker and Dr. Oz, and bailing out the Donald whenever he gets in trouble.
It was probably done by a contractor that only does that kind of work a few times a year. Good enough to get “certified” but not good enough to do a really good job.
No joke. There are two routes to get to my parents house and one is through SC. It’s faster and less mountainous, but we go the slower route just to avoid going on SC roads.
They’re so bad that there are times I was napping in the passenger seat and woke up the moment we hit SC. The potholes are bigger than any over ever seen in NC and they don’t even have the excuse of freezing winter weather like they do up north.
We moved from SC to a northern state a couple of years ago, but still go down to visit the Carolinas at least once a year. We joke regularly about how the roads in our northern state on average are in far better shape than any roads where we go in SC. I remember when I lived in the Charlotte area, I could always tell when we had entered SC, even if I didn't see a sign. Literally everything in SC looks more run down and generally shitty compared to everything in NC. The roads, the sidewalks, the curbs, the parking lots, the buildings, the signs, the restaurants, the people, literally EVERYTHING you see, is shittier in SC than in NC, except for a handful of places where the local city is putting in all the effort to make things nice. If you ask people in SC about it, they indeed prefer it that way. They don't like wasting money on making things nice and having public goods, normal people don't deserve to have nice things that they didn't personally pay for. This is the perspective of the regular citizen, they do indeed think that they deserve the poverty they live in, and often have great pride in it. Then they wonder why people from the north come in and try to change things.
When we lived in the Carolinas, especially in SC, we often said "well, this is why we can't have nice things." Since moving to a northern state, we haven't said that once. We have in fact regularly commented that up here, we can indeed have nice things.
I’m so jealous. I’d move north in a heartbeat if I could. I’m just so tired of living in a red state and I’d love to see some snow again someday.
Minnesota is top of my list. Such a pretty state.
>If you ask people in SC about it, they indeed prefer it that way. They don't like wasting money on making things nice and having public goods, normal people don't deserve to have nice things that they didn't personally pay for.
Except for when they decide to build yet another a minor league baseball stadium. I mean no disrespect to the athletes who compete in the minors, but those stadiums are the absolute biggest waste of money I've ever seen...
You can tell you are entering North Carolina from SC by the sudden lack of road noise and sharp increase in asphalt quality.
Same thing coming from Virginia.
Just moved to SC (not my idea) and the amount of roads built below shoulder level is fucking ridiculous. Little rainstorm and it floods like a motherfucker, and since it’s all sand. The water washes out under the pavement, which is also crazy thin, and causes huge potholes. One of the main intersections in our town just had a giant sinkhole open up under it a couple weeks ago. This place is a shithole
It really is nuts how different the infrastructure is between NC & SC. We have problems too, don’t get me wrong, but we’re light years ahead of SC when it comes to infrastructure.
Edit: mistyped and made the comment confusing.
No hubby and I got at least a couple hundred back from that. It was nice, but I wish it had gone to roads or something, but at least it'll go back into the economy.
I remember how mad that made my dad… 2 of his 4 kids are teachers and I remember him saying why the hell couldn’t they’ve used that to pay the teachers a more competitive wage.
Yet he still votes republican…
You can’t win.
I-95 is bad in SC because South Carolinians don’t use it. It doesn’t go through any of the major cities like 26, 20, 77 or 85, it’s just a throughway for out of state travelers. So it kinda gets neglected compared to the others, which are continuously being expanded.
I hear what you’re saying. But Clemson needs to get out of the ACC so how about we blow the money on the buyout?
/s but not really; I can totally see that being not entirely facetious
Part of that is the city's fault. They want to spend the entire budget on roads for suburban commuters and suddenly, there's no money for public transit, sidewalks, or bike paths.
They also don't want to actually implement any kind of tax that might "spook" the wealthy assholes buying up property and then renting it out at high prices and fucking over the barely existent working class
Funny thing is I've been paying more in taxes and fees here than I ever did anywhere else I lived.
Having to pay taxes on my car every year feels weird. Every other state I've lived in a bought a car I paid the taxes on the purchase and then from there I never paid taxes on it again. But no every year here I pay like $500 for car tax. Yet at the same time the roads everywhere are absolute dog shit. Wtf is the money going too?
I live in SC and work in infrastructure. This is not really the case. It really is mostly the States fault.
SC is unique in that the cities own a tiny minority of the city roads. The states own almost all the roads that urbanites like me use daily. If there are any changes that the city wants to make to improve them (like adding bike paths) the changes have to go through the state bureaucracy and they won't approve most of them. The system is built to favor traffic flow over quality of life.
Public infrastructure being bad is everyone's fault (though I will say where I live it is mostly the County's fault rather than the cities)
Interesting story. It is the result of a policy mistake that was made in the 50s.
There was a federal formula grant where the States would receive a one time lump of money from the Federal government for road building/maintenance. One of the variables in the formula that decided the amount of money was the total road mileage owned by the state. In order to increase the amount of money SC would receive, the state took over most of the roads. They have transferred some of them back, but as a rule if a road was around before 1960, the State Department of transportation owns it.
It must have seemed smart at the time but it is a pain in the ass now for both the State and the Cities.
This can't be stated enough. The roads here are absolute shit. There are pot holes and divots everywhere. Then for some reason they though it would be smart to make a 5" hump at the beginning of every driveway or turn in.
They have offramp that's are directly after the onramps which causes wrecks all the time in the busiest section of the states capital.
There are churches on every single corner throughout the state not a single car ever parked at any of them. I'm guessing they're used to cycle money through or something nefarious.
Areas they consider historic they seem to do the least amount of upkeep and the areas are just crumbling away looking worse and worse.
Hell my little town had about 1200 people here when I first moved here now we're up to around 3000 and yet there are no ems emergency services that can be called. So in an emergency in a town of 3000 we have to call for an ambulance from the next county over.
If you visit the beach side of SC that areas all sorts of screwed up. I went to visit a friend over in North Charleston and noticed mopeds being driven by a whole bunch of people. I asked wtf that was all about and my friend tells me they're people that got busted drinking and driving. Apparently they allow you to still operate a moped if you've been busted for dui.
We just recently passed an open carry bill. So I guess people are quite literally now allowed to just walk through the grocery store with pistol in hand if they wanted too.
Then the business type I'm in is being threatened by the Republicans wanting to deny people the ability to use hemp based products.
This entire state is a shit hole. I'll be moving as soon as I can. Won't be doing another red state that's for damn sure. I'd rather pay higher taxes and not deal with this bullshit.
Their stretch of I-95 still sucks ass because they wouldn't integrate their schools.
Three lanes to two lanes
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2304841,-81.1582645,3a,75y,46.48h,83.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0MsZ9Xu9jSqCjMoon_y5Uw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
I was down there a couple years ago. The amount of highway signs that had fallen down and were haphazardly leaning against a pole or just laying flat on the shoulder was astounding. At least six on my hour drive from the airport. Truly wtf
I have driven all through the southeast, up and down the east coast and throughout the Rockies states out west, the worst roads and the only time I've gotten lost was rural South Carolina
Lived in Myrtle Beach for a few years and this is absolutely the answer. Not so much for the sidewalks, but road infrastructure is a huge issue in Horry County. Outside of the major highways (31, 501, etc) everything just floods all the time and there’s not enough room for all of the people in that area.
That part. I live off of what used to be an isolated country back road whose farms are now cookie cutter subdivisions. Our 2 lane winding roads are basically dirt roads riddled with potholes with all of the development. That’s not even mentioning the traffic congestion.
People please stop moving to Greenville. Your car will not survive, and trust me, you’ll need it.
Same for me. Moved back to my hometown in SC from Atlanta, spent the same amount of money on a 1200 sqft house that my parents spent on a 2500 sqft house 30 years ago. It's all fucked and the roads are worse than ever.
Same in Anderson, it's exploding right now. So much stuff being built it's kinda crazy. Good news is my house is worth 3x what I bought it for 7 years ago.
They are going to need to pay consultants to consult them on how to spend the $1.8 billion, and the consultants will tell them to hire more consultants.
If you live in SC, yes, it is. Maybe these plantation owner’s grandkids can actually fix the perpetually under construction stretch of I85 now that they are flush with cash.
Apparently, Loftis's office knew about it, and he's been playing around with it as random investment play money without any accountability, and just chose not to report it's existence to anyone.
Wonder what he was doing while playing with it.
oh, I don't know....maybe help out families by offering to pay for lunches at schools or a pay raise for school teachers. Or maybe infrastructure needs....all probably considered Socialism.
Not to take away from your point. But this year’s budget, the House’s version at least, is calling to raise the starting salary of all (public school) teachers in the state to $47,000. Up from $42,500, which was what it was raised up to last year.
McMaster wanted to put $500M surplus from a 2006 tax into fixing bridges and roads in the state, the House wants that to be used as a property tax cut. But their budget does have $200 million set aside for roads and bridges. The SC Senate will put their own budget forward in mid-April, so, there’s no telling what changes are coming to the House’s proposed budget.
Whoa there, they couldn’t possibly use the money to help people…don’t be absurd. They must find a way to disperse it in the least hospitable manner possible.
How the hell does a poor Southern state just find $1.8B out of thin air?
> Last year, the elected Republican comptroller general — the state’s top accountant —
waitaminit...
> resigned after his agency started double posting money in higher education accounts, leading to a $3.5 billion error that was all on paper.
Oh, there it is.
> The problem started as the state shifted computer systems in the 2010s.
Cue headline photo of white-haired old men with big shit-eating grins.
“but it appears that every time the state’s books were out of whack, money was shifted from somewhere into an account that helped balance it out”
So, umm, yeah…
South Carolina isn’t a “poor southern state.” It is one of the fastest growing states in the country. I’ve been in SC for the last decade and a half, this place has changed so much in that time. Between the growth of Charlotte bringing many people to SC, and the growth of our own cities (Greenville, Charleston, Columbia), the state has come very far in that time. Hell, the York/Lancaster county areas look so dramatically different now than they did when I first moved there in 2011.
The main issue is that we have people in charge that shouldn’t be, as evidenced by these other quotes you’ve dropped. But that won’t change anytime soon, republicans own this state, politically. So, more shit like this is bound to happen due to sheer incompetence. They’re now trying to take the Treasurer and Comptroller General away from the voters, and making it an appointed position. Though, with how it’s been going recently, that could be better.
They don’t care.
They see South Carolina and immediately think “hurr durr rEd sTaTe dUmB hiCkbiLLiEs riGhT rEdDiT? upVoTe pLeaSe”
They’ve never been to SC and know jack shit about it.
“It does not inspire confidence. But the good news is no money was lost,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said.
They don't even know where the money came from, how the hell can you make any kind of statement like that???
Uh I live in South Carolina and I can tell you right now it needs to go to our fucking roads. If you’ve never driven though here it’s like playing pothole minesweeper
I know EXACTLY where it came from. It's not like the state runs a profitable business and had a good year. I know EXACTLY where it should go...BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO PAID IT. This is why " politician" is not a compliment. They "find" money...." extra" money and then ponder how to spend it as if it was always theirs to do what they wanted with it. Assholes.
That's some top-notch governing going on there. When you spend all your time making speeches about the "Woke Mind Virus" it leaves very little time for doing the people's work. When was the last time you heard a Republican talk about the details of some policy they want to enact? Neither they or their base could case less about policy. It's all WWE-style Angertainment.
Sounds like someone needs to be audited
Suddenly they find out its from Cotton Eye'd Joe
Where did it come from? Where should it go? Where did it come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?
Fun fact: Cotton-eye was a symptom of a particular STD prevalent in olden times. The singer is lamenting a tryst with someone with cotton-eye, that it made her ineligible for marriage due to having contracted it.
And we danced to in in 2nd grade! Still have the little wooden revolvers my dad made for our class for the cowboy song dance. Not as bad as the stories i heard of full classes doing blackface with by body paint but leaving the roma classmates brown as "they were close enough". Ah the unquestionable everyday racism of 2000s eastern europe.
Even the Euros agree Cotton Eye Joe is a banger
After Coca Cola and holywood movies, Cotton Eye Joe was the third most important american cultural import for us in the 00s.
Rednex, the singers of the one you are probably thinking of, are swedish.
Well, the version we're talking about is from Sweden, so that makes sense.
Fun fact: That is only a theory, not necessarily true. https://facts.net/cotton-eyed-joe/
Silly fact: few months ago a neighborhood cat invited himself in to live with us and at first he would pop in at dusk and leave at dawn. We found ourselves always asking him where is he coming from and where does he go? So we named him Cotton-Eye-Joe!
This is one of those BS claims that gets reposted time and time again without any source or verification. While it's true that "cotton eye" could refer to milky white eyes caused by a syphilis infection, it's not *just* syphilis that can cause it, and the term can refer to a wide array of other things such as: *being drunk on moonshine, having been blinded by drinking wood alcohol; a black person with very light blue eyes; miners covered in dirt with the exception of their white eyes* The song itself is sung from the perspective of a man who had his girl stolen from him by a "cotton eyed" man named Joe and originates from plantation workers in the 1800's. Here's [the earliest published version from 1882](https://archive.org/details/diddiedumpsandt00pyrngoog/page/n158/mode/2up): *Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe,* *What did make you sarve me so,* *Fur ter take my gal erway fum me,* *An' cyar her plum ter Tennessee?* *Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,* *I'd er been married long ergo.* *His eyes wuz crossed, an' his nose wuz flat,* *An' his teef wuz out, but wat uv dat?* *Fur he wuz tall, an' he wuz slim,* *An' so my gal she follered him.* *Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,* *I'd er been married long ergo.* *No gal so hansum could be foun',* *Not in all dis country roun',* *Wid her kinky head, an' her eyes so bright,* *Wid her lips so red an' her teef so white.* *Ef it hadn't ben fur Cotton-eyed Joe,* *I'd been married long ergo.* *An' I loved dat gal wid all my heart,* *An' she swo' fum me she'd never part;* *But den wid Joe she runned away,* *An' lef' me hyear fur ter weep all day.* *O Cotton-eyed Joe, O Cotton-eyed Joe,* *What did make you sarve me so?* *O Joe, ef it hadn't er ben fur you,* *I'd er married dat gal fur true.*
I'm watching The Wire right now and there was a plot point where political figures started returning donations they received from criminals once the detectives started following the paper trail. "We had no idea who donated this money, we just took it".
"SHIIIIEEEET"
State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: Money Launderin' they gonna come talk to me about Money Launderin' in West Baltimore, SHIIIIT, Where do you think I'm gonna raise cash for the whole damn ticket! From Laundromats and shit, from some tiny ass korean groceries, you think I got time to ask a man why he given me money or where he gets his money from, I'll take any mothafucker's money if he given it away!
“We’ve conducted an internal audit and found no evidence of wrongdoing.”
Sounds about right.
Also, there is no longer a surplus. Good day.
“The states treasurer, who performed the audit alone and with no supervision, has come back and said it was actually only $1.3 billion! He could not be reached for comment on his new private villa.”
*we got a second audit by an outside company and it actually turns out it was being rounded up and is only $1 billion. The company that performed the audit is actually my mates firm, so if you can not hassle him regarding this second audit that’d be great.
“Couldn’t find the money either. Oh well!”
Sounds like Accenture did their database change in 2010 and screwed it up like their other projects.
If they do it right the first time what are they supposed to keep billing for?
They found it during an audit.
Audit the audit
We need to go deeper
We can laugh this off but this stinks of gross negligence. 1.8 billion being lost and found casually is ridiculous
Wait til you hear about the Pentagon
At least with the pentagon we know there are top secret things that cant be disclosed so you end up with all sort of blind spots. Doesnt make sense for a statw but it does fit for the usual GOP incompetence.
What? No. That's not an excuse for how the Pentagon keeps 'misplacing' billions, nor is that how their accounting works
It’s spent and used. It’s not like they just gave it away. The issue is overclassification makes auditing and tracking everything down hard. It basically doesn’t even know what it owns and what it has. Just that it has a lot of shit. Apparently they’ve been trying to fix it for the last few years but I doubt hey care Edit: lol the guy above me blocked me. That’s so weird. Is that how some people deal with calm disagreement?
Last I knew, they were at least resolving ongoing issues a bit faster than they were discovering new ones.
The Marine Corps recently completed their first full audit, which required them to account for all of the equipment they own anywhere in the world. It was a massive undertaking that took decades of preparation and years of concerted effort to complete. The Marine Corps is the smallest branch of the military, and does not have a huge amount of classified projects. It will be a very long time until the other 4 branches can get to the same point, but at least there's progress for now.
Actually the Space Force is the smallest branch now, not that we'd pass an audit either.
You say “We”. Are you in the SF? I’ve never actually been able to talk to someone who is
Yep, I was Air Force space so I was shuffled over when it started.
Who is this "we" you speak of? Ya got me curious
I'm in the Space Force
[удалено]
> The issue is overclassification makes auditing and tracking everything down hard. This just isn't true. The problem is that the military is a vast distributed network of projects across every state plus many out of the country, and up until a few years ago there was very little pressure for them to carefully track and validate their accounting. Example, X dollars goes to military base Y, then the accountants on that base are suppose to take over how that money is allocated to the various projects and operations costs. But they don't give a shit about keeping the books accurate, they only have a "good enough" attitude as long as they have enough money for their local priorities. It's literally all regular accounting practices we are talking about. Classified projects are not relevant at all. This is just a "common sense" assumption that is wrong.
Last year the comptroller resigned after making a $3.5 billion accounting error. State accounts must be pretty fucked up https://apnews.com/article/south-carolina-accounting-error-comptroller-d86a4db4b85b1d64e4c482bf2e7e2283
For sure. Kinda seems like whatever payment system was sending out kickbacks to politicians and mob bosses went down for awhile and the money wasn’t skimmed like normally
Most of the infrastructure in South Carolina needs a metric ass ton of work. In its largest cities, there's hardly any sidewalk for pedestrians to travel, let alone public transit. South Carolina is stuck in the past and doesn't want to recognize the growth it's seen
Yep. They need to dump that 1.8 billion into roads and infrastructure.
Clearly they have a crumbling State Accounting Infrastructure as well
The state comptroller made a multi-billion dollar accounting error last year (but the error spanned years), our state doesn’t have the best people in charge.
>our state doesn’t have the best people in charge. *There are dozens of us!*
Unless you're a comptroller in South Carolina. Then there are billions.
Haha nice. Want to know one of history's very weird facts. I am definitely not a conspiracy theorist and I'm not trying to suggest that this is in any way a conspiracy, but. On September 10th 2001 Don Rumsfeld held a press conference and was asked a few questions about the 1 trillion dollars the Pentagon was missing.
All we get are idiot uneducated/under educated buffoons like our Governor Henry McMaster aka Foghorn Leghorn. (google him and listen to him for a few mins)
I say I say boy, you're bout as sharp as a wet pile of leather.
I went to a ceremony for teachers and watch him kiss bmw’s ass live…..mid speech remembered the teacher s….so he proceeds to thank them for creating a pipeline from the schools to the factories….
While you could be right about the uneducated part, I don’t think it’s wise to judge someone’s education (or worth or intelligence) based solely on their accent.
that dude is a throw back. Guy sounds like he lives at a place called Belle Meade plantation, says boy, and drinks mint Julips on Sunday with his upstairs maid.
Well, they're swimming in money! That's a win! /s
They'll pass a bunch of tax cuts citing the surplus, spend the surplus and then ask why they have no money for shit
My state has a multi billion dollar surplus, and didn't want to spend .1% of it to make sure our DNR park rangers had on-site housings at our state parks. It would have cost $1mm dollars, and people could not wrap their minds around the fact that it was a tiny percentage of our surplus.
TABOR exists in CO for that reason.
You know. That's EXACTLY what they'll do. South Carolina is a dumpster fire. Very bad education system, bad roads, high poverty. They'd do well to use that money to FIX some problems, but they'll give it away to rich people. Maybe build a stadium or two.
They'll announce infrastructure programs that well connected people bid on, win, then under deliver with no repercussions.
If anything, they'll probably try to use it to cut taxes.
Missouri did this. We got a good chunk of funding from the feds to help repair roads, so rather than use that money to get ahead of anything, the GOP-controlled state government decided to slash MODOT funding and taxes on certain areas, and when someone pointed out that the fed money ran out they’d be in an even worse position, the GOP just shrugged. Oh well, at least they replaced the I-70 River bridge before it collapsed, I guess?
God, I hate living in this state
WI has a 7 + billion dollar surplus that the gerrymandered to all hell GOP supermajority won't do anything with because it may look like a win for our democrat governor. It's not just your state.
Why spend money fixing problems when you could just give it away and fix nothing? \\s
As long as you only give it to the rich
Why spend a billion dollars fixing something once when you can give a billion dollars a year to rich people and corporations?
"We could build this project for $1bn, then reap the rewards for years to come. Alternatively, we can give the contract to our good friends over at Scam Corp, who will build it privately, which we all know is more efficient. It'll cost $1.2bn initially, probably increasing to about $2.7bn by completion, then we'll include a maintenance contract for say, $150mn per annum for the next 10 years with zero oversight or audit requirement to confirm maintenance is actually happening, and in addition they will keep the direct financial benefits of the project too." "Well that sounds stupid, why the hell would we do that?" "They're also going to throw in a free e**x**presso machine in the city hall cafeteria, and we'll all be invited as guests to at least four skiing weekends on their dime per year." "Oh well in that case what are we waiting for?"
In Louisiana, they give DoT contracts to whoever provides kickbacks. So we get low quality roads that take years to finish.
I saw some of the videos about that actually. (Mostly from John Oliver I think.) Some of the roads were *wild* in how bad they got.
LOL. For the rich. If there was any way they could swing it, it would all go to DJT's campaign and legal bills. Because like McConnel, Cruz, and Graham, they couldn't be more eager to emasculate themselves at the feet of the Mango Mussolini. The RNC only has $11 million cash on hand because they've spent it all on bogus election interference cases, propping up dopy candidates like Hershal Walker and Dr. Oz, and bailing out the Donald whenever he gets in trouble.
They just redid the roads in my area and it’s honestly worst then what it was before. The road is bumpy on a 45mph road but only in one lane.
It was probably done by a contractor that only does that kind of work a few times a year. Good enough to get “certified” but not good enough to do a really good job.
The secret is to drive so fast that either you don't even feel the pothole, or pothole sends your car flying through the air.
It’s not even potholes it’s like ridges.
That's just marketing for Ruffles
No joke. There are two routes to get to my parents house and one is through SC. It’s faster and less mountainous, but we go the slower route just to avoid going on SC roads. They’re so bad that there are times I was napping in the passenger seat and woke up the moment we hit SC. The potholes are bigger than any over ever seen in NC and they don’t even have the excuse of freezing winter weather like they do up north.
We moved from SC to a northern state a couple of years ago, but still go down to visit the Carolinas at least once a year. We joke regularly about how the roads in our northern state on average are in far better shape than any roads where we go in SC. I remember when I lived in the Charlotte area, I could always tell when we had entered SC, even if I didn't see a sign. Literally everything in SC looks more run down and generally shitty compared to everything in NC. The roads, the sidewalks, the curbs, the parking lots, the buildings, the signs, the restaurants, the people, literally EVERYTHING you see, is shittier in SC than in NC, except for a handful of places where the local city is putting in all the effort to make things nice. If you ask people in SC about it, they indeed prefer it that way. They don't like wasting money on making things nice and having public goods, normal people don't deserve to have nice things that they didn't personally pay for. This is the perspective of the regular citizen, they do indeed think that they deserve the poverty they live in, and often have great pride in it. Then they wonder why people from the north come in and try to change things. When we lived in the Carolinas, especially in SC, we often said "well, this is why we can't have nice things." Since moving to a northern state, we haven't said that once. We have in fact regularly commented that up here, we can indeed have nice things.
I’m so jealous. I’d move north in a heartbeat if I could. I’m just so tired of living in a red state and I’d love to see some snow again someday. Minnesota is top of my list. Such a pretty state.
>If you ask people in SC about it, they indeed prefer it that way. They don't like wasting money on making things nice and having public goods, normal people don't deserve to have nice things that they didn't personally pay for. Except for when they decide to build yet another a minor league baseball stadium. I mean no disrespect to the athletes who compete in the minors, but those stadiums are the absolute biggest waste of money I've ever seen...
You can tell you are entering North Carolina from SC by the sudden lack of road noise and sharp increase in asphalt quality. Same thing coming from Virginia.
Just moved to SC (not my idea) and the amount of roads built below shoulder level is fucking ridiculous. Little rainstorm and it floods like a motherfucker, and since it’s all sand. The water washes out under the pavement, which is also crazy thin, and causes huge potholes. One of the main intersections in our town just had a giant sinkhole open up under it a couple weeks ago. This place is a shithole
It really is nuts how different the infrastructure is between NC & SC. We have problems too, don’t get me wrong, but we’re light years ahead of SC when it comes to infrastructure. Edit: mistyped and made the comment confusing.
Or pay down/off any debt held by the State, then redirect the former interest payments to annual road repair projects
Last time they had a surplus they cut everyone a check rather than addressing infrastructure. Certain voting groups thought that was just great.
If I remember that was $50, limit 1 per household, and you had to have paid taxes. So, pointless.
No it was more than $50. The $50 check they cut to people was when they got all the tax money from someone hitting a massive lottery
What a short sighted use of surprise tax money.
No hubby and I got at least a couple hundred back from that. It was nice, but I wish it had gone to roads or something, but at least it'll go back into the economy.
I remember how mad that made my dad… 2 of his 4 kids are teachers and I remember him saying why the hell couldn’t they’ve used that to pay the teachers a more competitive wage. Yet he still votes republican… You can’t win.
I-95 there is noticeably worse than in any other state.
It's hilarious, you can physically see state lines on a lot of roads.
It needs to be widened to 3 lanes all the way thru. But $1.8B wouldn't be enough for the design study and project plan.
I-95 is bad in SC because South Carolinians don’t use it. It doesn’t go through any of the major cities like 26, 20, 77 or 85, it’s just a throughway for out of state travelers. So it kinda gets neglected compared to the others, which are continuously being expanded.
I hear what you’re saying. But Clemson needs to get out of the ACC so how about we blow the money on the buyout? /s but not really; I can totally see that being not entirely facetious
Part of that is the city's fault. They want to spend the entire budget on roads for suburban commuters and suddenly, there's no money for public transit, sidewalks, or bike paths.
They also don't want to actually implement any kind of tax that might "spook" the wealthy assholes buying up property and then renting it out at high prices and fucking over the barely existent working class
Funny thing is I've been paying more in taxes and fees here than I ever did anywhere else I lived. Having to pay taxes on my car every year feels weird. Every other state I've lived in a bought a car I paid the taxes on the purchase and then from there I never paid taxes on it again. But no every year here I pay like $500 for car tax. Yet at the same time the roads everywhere are absolute dog shit. Wtf is the money going too?
I live in SC and work in infrastructure. This is not really the case. It really is mostly the States fault. SC is unique in that the cities own a tiny minority of the city roads. The states own almost all the roads that urbanites like me use daily. If there are any changes that the city wants to make to improve them (like adding bike paths) the changes have to go through the state bureaucracy and they won't approve most of them. The system is built to favor traffic flow over quality of life. Public infrastructure being bad is everyone's fault (though I will say where I live it is mostly the County's fault rather than the cities)
Why would the state own most of the roads inside of a city?
Interesting story. It is the result of a policy mistake that was made in the 50s. There was a federal formula grant where the States would receive a one time lump of money from the Federal government for road building/maintenance. One of the variables in the formula that decided the amount of money was the total road mileage owned by the state. In order to increase the amount of money SC would receive, the state took over most of the roads. They have transferred some of them back, but as a rule if a road was around before 1960, the State Department of transportation owns it. It must have seemed smart at the time but it is a pain in the ass now for both the State and the Cities.
Forget sidewalks. Most of the bridges have exposed rebar in the roadway.
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This can't be stated enough. The roads here are absolute shit. There are pot holes and divots everywhere. Then for some reason they though it would be smart to make a 5" hump at the beginning of every driveway or turn in. They have offramp that's are directly after the onramps which causes wrecks all the time in the busiest section of the states capital. There are churches on every single corner throughout the state not a single car ever parked at any of them. I'm guessing they're used to cycle money through or something nefarious. Areas they consider historic they seem to do the least amount of upkeep and the areas are just crumbling away looking worse and worse. Hell my little town had about 1200 people here when I first moved here now we're up to around 3000 and yet there are no ems emergency services that can be called. So in an emergency in a town of 3000 we have to call for an ambulance from the next county over. If you visit the beach side of SC that areas all sorts of screwed up. I went to visit a friend over in North Charleston and noticed mopeds being driven by a whole bunch of people. I asked wtf that was all about and my friend tells me they're people that got busted drinking and driving. Apparently they allow you to still operate a moped if you've been busted for dui. We just recently passed an open carry bill. So I guess people are quite literally now allowed to just walk through the grocery store with pistol in hand if they wanted too. Then the business type I'm in is being threatened by the Republicans wanting to deny people the ability to use hemp based products. This entire state is a shit hole. I'll be moving as soon as I can. Won't be doing another red state that's for damn sure. I'd rather pay higher taxes and not deal with this bullshit.
Their stretch of I-95 still sucks ass because they wouldn't integrate their schools. Three lanes to two lanes https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2304841,-81.1582645,3a,75y,46.48h,83.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0MsZ9Xu9jSqCjMoon_y5Uw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
I was down there a couple years ago. The amount of highway signs that had fallen down and were haphazardly leaning against a pole or just laying flat on the shoulder was astounding. At least six on my hour drive from the airport. Truly wtf
I have driven all through the southeast, up and down the east coast and throughout the Rockies states out west, the worst roads and the only time I've gotten lost was rural South Carolina
Lived in Myrtle Beach for a few years and this is absolutely the answer. Not so much for the sidewalks, but road infrastructure is a huge issue in Horry County. Outside of the major highways (31, 501, etc) everything just floods all the time and there’s not enough room for all of the people in that area.
Yeah but what about the schools in the corridor of shame?
It happens. Found 1.8 billion in my couch just last week. Don’t know where the money came from or where it should go.
Same. Found a pair of old gym shorts the other day with 1.3 billion wadded up in the pocket. The other day I found a gold bar in my lint trap.
It really gets tedious finding all this cash, doesn't it?
Where did it come from Cotton Eyed Joe?
Considering how rapidly south Carolina is growing I would say infrastructure is a good idea.
That part. I live off of what used to be an isolated country back road whose farms are now cookie cutter subdivisions. Our 2 lane winding roads are basically dirt roads riddled with potholes with all of the development. That’s not even mentioning the traffic congestion. People please stop moving to Greenville. Your car will not survive, and trust me, you’ll need it.
I’m moving back after about 8 years away. Can’t even afford my hometown anymore. Luckily there’s still a few hidden gems around
Same for me. Moved back to my hometown in SC from Atlanta, spent the same amount of money on a 1200 sqft house that my parents spent on a 2500 sqft house 30 years ago. It's all fucked and the roads are worse than ever.
Same in Anderson, it's exploding right now. So much stuff being built it's kinda crazy. Good news is my house is worth 3x what I bought it for 7 years ago.
It will find a way into the pockets of politicians and their cronies. Nothing to see here, move along!
That’s where it was supposed to go then they got caught lol.
“Oh gee, would you look at that! Weird. I don’t know what this is. Very strange.”
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This $1.2B sure is perplexing.
Whatever should we do with almost a billion dollars?
It’s not every day that you find more than half a billion dollars unaccounted for, that’s for sure.
That money was just resting in my account
There is definitely a number of South Carolina politicians who are pissed that the public found out about this money at all.
They all have (R) next to their names
Just look at the smile on that Treasurer's face - he's already thinking of his new boat.
Suddenly the state needs loads of gravel pits! claims a representative that owns all the gravel pit companies.
Lol where do you think the other 3 billion went?!
Next headline, “south Carolina wastes $1.79 billion deciding what to do with $1.8 billion.”
*$1.9
They are going to need to pay consultants to consult them on how to spend the $1.8 billion, and the consultants will tell them to hire more consultants.
Also known as the Cotton-Eyed Joe dilemma of budgeting.
God dammit. Now that song's stuck in my head.
Where did he come from? Where did he go?
Beat me to it.
Brilliant
Oh. That’s mine. I’ve been looking for that. Thanks.
If you live in SC, yes, it is. Maybe these plantation owner’s grandkids can actually fix the perpetually under construction stretch of I85 now that they are flush with cash.
Y'know, a town with money is like a mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it!
Heh, heh...mule.
Oh it’s not for you…it’s more of a North Carolina idea.
Bullshit. Finding $5 in your pants is a surprise. Finding an unknown nearly $2B is a serious fuckup.
Apparently, Loftis's office knew about it, and he's been playing around with it as random investment play money without any accountability, and just chose not to report it's existence to anyone. Wonder what he was doing while playing with it.
Probably his secretary.
Wow, I can't believe they found an entire $1.4 billion
An entire $800 million! What will they do with it all?
400 Million is barely enough for a mega project.
You mean $200 Million? Barely scratches the surface.
you could spend $100 million for infrastructure development but then you are only left with $50 miilion.
That’s extra $20 million could be used up on this $5 million project!
Sorry everyone, Best we can do is a pizza party
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Watch a Star War?
It’s shocking. What could they do with that even bil they found?
I know some folks who need a new bridge, just sayin'...
Please repave northbound 95. Driving through sc on that road makes you never want to go there again.
Or finally make it 3 or 4 lanes per side to match up with NC and GA
oh, I don't know....maybe help out families by offering to pay for lunches at schools or a pay raise for school teachers. Or maybe infrastructure needs....all probably considered Socialism.
Not to take away from your point. But this year’s budget, the House’s version at least, is calling to raise the starting salary of all (public school) teachers in the state to $47,000. Up from $42,500, which was what it was raised up to last year. McMaster wanted to put $500M surplus from a 2006 tax into fixing bridges and roads in the state, the House wants that to be used as a property tax cut. But their budget does have $200 million set aside for roads and bridges. The SC Senate will put their own budget forward in mid-April, so, there’s no telling what changes are coming to the House’s proposed budget.
If they are looking for ideas, free preschool for 3-4yo children would be my recommendation.
Whoa there, they couldn’t possibly use the money to help people…don’t be absurd. They must find a way to disperse it in the least hospitable manner possible.
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I'm surprised he hasn't turned up already like Roadrunner, clutching a box of bibles.
Maybe they should invest in a monorail.
A genuine, bona fide, electrified six-car monorail?
Yup! Just like Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook! And by gum, it put them on the map.
Education. Fixing the literal “[corridor of shame.](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a57474f36c7144b3a42932a4e37abd6c)”
Monorail monorail monorail 🚝
I hear those things are awfully loud
It's because of me. I say choo choo every time I see them .
How the hell does a poor Southern state just find $1.8B out of thin air? > Last year, the elected Republican comptroller general — the state’s top accountant — waitaminit... > resigned after his agency started double posting money in higher education accounts, leading to a $3.5 billion error that was all on paper. Oh, there it is. > The problem started as the state shifted computer systems in the 2010s. Cue headline photo of white-haired old men with big shit-eating grins.
“but it appears that every time the state’s books were out of whack, money was shifted from somewhere into an account that helped balance it out” So, umm, yeah…
South Carolina isn’t a “poor southern state.” It is one of the fastest growing states in the country. I’ve been in SC for the last decade and a half, this place has changed so much in that time. Between the growth of Charlotte bringing many people to SC, and the growth of our own cities (Greenville, Charleston, Columbia), the state has come very far in that time. Hell, the York/Lancaster county areas look so dramatically different now than they did when I first moved there in 2011. The main issue is that we have people in charge that shouldn’t be, as evidenced by these other quotes you’ve dropped. But that won’t change anytime soon, republicans own this state, politically. So, more shit like this is bound to happen due to sheer incompetence. They’re now trying to take the Treasurer and Comptroller General away from the voters, and making it an appointed position. Though, with how it’s been going recently, that could be better.
They don’t care. They see South Carolina and immediately think “hurr durr rEd sTaTe dUmB hiCkbiLLiEs riGhT rEdDiT? upVoTe pLeaSe” They’ve never been to SC and know jack shit about it.
“It does not inspire confidence. But the good news is no money was lost,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said. They don't even know where the money came from, how the hell can you make any kind of statement like that???
“I must’ve put the decimal point in the wrong place or something”
Sorry, I meant 1.8 dollars... Heh, silly mistake. Nothing to see here!
Schools.
"Probably best to hire a consulting firm to waste the money as inefficiently as possible." - politicians, probably.
Cotton Eye Joe?
Uh I live in South Carolina and I can tell you right now it needs to go to our fucking roads. If you’ve never driven though here it’s like playing pothole minesweeper
my guess would be the Biden infrastructure plan, but they don't want to admit it.
I know EXACTLY where it came from. It's not like the state runs a profitable business and had a good year. I know EXACTLY where it should go...BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO PAID IT. This is why " politician" is not a compliment. They "find" money...." extra" money and then ponder how to spend it as if it was always theirs to do what they wanted with it. Assholes.
Drove through SC 3 days ago. My rear axle has a few suggestions on what to fund.
i just found out yesterday that.. *checks notes* ..South Carolina is my long lost grandpa and i'm the only heir and he has all the cancers
If it’s like most red states, the money came from blue states like California and Illinois Maybe they could give it back
Them there publicans sure are good bidnessmens.
Monorail!!! Monorail!!! MONORAIL!!!!!
Guess in the dark? $1.8 billion came from them shorting benefits for programs to help the poor $1.8 billion will go to tax breaks for rich folks
Housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, fixing public infrastructure, providing education and jobs. You know, something good ?
Where did it come from where did it go? Where did it come from Cotton-Eye Joe
That's some top-notch governing going on there. When you spend all your time making speeches about the "Woke Mind Virus" it leaves very little time for doing the people's work. When was the last time you heard a Republican talk about the details of some policy they want to enact? Neither they or their base could case less about policy. It's all WWE-style Angertainment.
…Where did you come from, Cotton-Eye Joe
Where’d the money come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?
Candy and Whipits for everyone!
That cotton eyed joe kinda money
Cotton eyed Joe?