68 Comments

DEI, CRT funding up, data security funding stripped to pay for social engineering. Seriously? If you were setting up to lose the next major conflict, what would you do differently? No one can be this incompetent, to there has to be a reason they are wrecking military readiness. Quite the mystery, isn't it?

Expand full comment

What serious nation would put Pete Buttigieg in charge of its infrastructure?

Expand full comment

Point. Many have noted how bad the Secretary of Transportation has to be for people to even know who he is. He is actually quite...infamous.

Expand full comment

Good point. Ray LaHood was not exactly a household name.

Expand full comment

What about the drag queen general? What about the baggage stealing, cross dresser in the Biden administration nuclear official. This nation is so far from serious, about representative republics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2EJMEYSOsA

Expand full comment

I thought it was the drag queen was an admiral.

Expand full comment

My bad. Thanks for the clarification.

Expand full comment

I don't advocate stripping funding as you describe. I do advocate not bad mouthing diversity as a concept or as a policy. We will surely lose if we preach division.

Expand full comment

"Let your credo be this: Let the diversity come into the world, let it even triumph. But if not with merit then not through me." - Paraphrasing Solzhenitsyn

Expand full comment

Amen. Solzhenitzyn was often quite profound.

Expand full comment

He warned us about people like you., Lawrence.

Expand full comment

Why not badmouth "diversity, equity, & inclusion" boldly? Criticizing the enemy in wartime is a virtue.

When a poisonous ideology that benefits your enemies takes hold and infests your defenses, you must identify it and spotlight it before you burn it out.

We didn't nicey-nice our way into victory against other totalitarians in the last hundred years. These DEI commissars are cut from the same evil cloth. They hate sunlight, so throw open the curtains & break out the giant magnifying glass.

Expand full comment

The DEi commissars are parasites. They suck blood and spread disease.

Expand full comment

DEI is division. Equity is not equality, but payback. And you aren’t included.

Expand full comment

Well, if you don't really think you're going to war, you can let readiness slide.

Expand full comment

You should say that stealing elections has consequences.

Expand full comment

The budget is reality or to quote the famous philosopher, congressman and crook Michael "Ozzy" Myers:

“Trust me, it doesn’t matter how enticing your idea sounds. If you don’t have the funds to pay for people’s talent, no one is going to come on board. Money talks, and bullshit walks.”

Expand full comment

Not FJB; it’s FDV: F..k Democrat Voters. THEY are the root of the problem.

And FDV includes all current, former, retired military. To support the anti-Founding, depraved, Marxist Democrat Party is to be a disgrace to the uniform and to their Oath.

Expand full comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95kNwZw8YY

But your post was surely inside the 10 ring, Sluggo. I believe my oath was forever. One honors it or doesn't.

Expand full comment

There are still a lot of Dem voters that are completely fooled by the relentless propaganda unleashed on them. Educating them is near, but not completely, impossible.

Expand full comment

I am not so sure. I think a lot of Democrats really do want a totalitarian system. They really hate freedom.

Expand full comment

That's fair. A lot of people are much more comfortable being told what to do as long as it is marginally comfortable, because there is limited stress in it. We seem to be heading toward a world of untruth and obliviousness created by through copulation between the works of Orwell and Huxley.

Expand full comment

Leftists hate freedom and they hate people who want to be free. There is more hatred at a cocktail party on Martha’s Vineyard than at a Klan rally.

Expand full comment

I am a White Navy veteran who also served as a systems engineer developing ALCM, M-X, Trident and B-1B. Later I served for 9 years as an analyst for a USAF think tank. I live in the most diverse city in the USA (but I think also the world - which is Anchorage, Alaska, USA). [I know NYC claims that distinction, but they only count numbers of ethnic groups. They don't compare in diversity of institutions. Indeed - 5 of the 6 most diverse high schools, and 25 of the 26 most diverse elementary schools are in Anchorage.] We have NO majority population in ANY zip code! That is being diverse. We LIKE each other, work together, play together and even marry each other. [That is, we have the highest rate of cross cultural marriage in the US and, I suspect, the world]. I personally am active in Asian, Black, Hispanic and white communities, as well as truly diverse organizations such as the Bartlett Political Forum which attempts to allow every candidate for every office to speak and be questioned in a civil public forum. I also attend Anchorage Interfaith Council programs which include Christian, Jewish, Moslem and Bahai Faith elements (Anchorage being the world HQ of the Bahai-Faith). Dimly aware of rants on far left platforms, I am disturbed these are being confused with diversity policy and programs in places like Anchorage. There is no trace of the "ideology" the Commander describes in the events I witness. To the contrary, we actively try to identify solutions, and get them funded (or authorized by law if required). In spite of delays caused by a Federal court order - we (joining with many cities and several state) have finally gotten permission to remove homeless camps when they are in violation of municipal ordnances. This process only took a few weeks - it began after July 1 - and is substantially complete, with dramatic effects. We have managed to fold in significant foundation, native corporation and private funding. Such things are possible if you have a co-operative and reasonable political environment. Diversity is not a bad thing. It is not helpful to preach division. Even to the degree the Commander describes real problems in institutions, they are not universal problems. Actual diversity is working here and likely many other places. It is a big problem to assume a problem is universal. A general assertion is rendered false if there is even one exception. Well - there is at least one exception. And I bet many more than that. So these assertions of horrible bad practice are misleading (to whatever extent they are not true). It is CERTAIN they are not universally true.

Expand full comment

You are describing egalitarianism; equal opportunity to all.

I don’t understand the host’s position to be that equal opportunity is a negative. My perception of his position is that personnel decisions should be made without regard to race.

Expand full comment

It seems likely you are right. I don't think I disagree with him so much as with his choice of terms. Borne of lousy interpretations of diversity in DoD in particular. He isn't wrong about that. But note it was worse in my day. My first ship was explicitly and illegally segregated - the main deck was the "Color Line" - only a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) could go above it. I was one of those. But I was worse than any minority because I was "a traitor to the White race" - the only proper penalty for which was death. I see NON-diversity as FAR worse than Solgenitzen diversity.

Expand full comment

"My first ship was explicitly and illegally segregated - the main deck was the "Color Line" - only a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) could go above it."

What ship was that Lawrence?

Its certain that the CO is no longer with us, so doxxing him now wont cause him harm.

Let us all in on this important historical example.

Expand full comment

Surely we had had a Catholic president by the time you served on your first ship? While I can believe prejudice still existed informally in the 60's it's hard to believe Catholics, Italians, Poles, and other non-WASPs were excluded.

Expand full comment

August 1966 I was an RDSA newly reported aboard DE-1027. Second day aboard RDC L__r met me and discovered I was Catholic. He said he hated Mackerel Snappers and assigned me 8 hours of E.M.I. just to demonstrate how tough life could be if I ever effed up. He retired about 3 months later. I did my 8 hours in the bilges in 2 hour shifts after knock-off. SN Kowalski was an RD striker who had come from Deck. He was Leading Seaman to 6 of us RDSA's and RDSN's and was a needlessly cruel taskmaster until we all promoted to RD3 in the Spring of 1967 and he didn't. He was never oppressed. We never told Pollock jokes. Way too big and mean. Inport we had to be in Blues or Whites to go topside after knock-off, even to take the trash to the dumpster. None of that was a big deal. It was just the way things were on my first ship. And the oldsters said we had it easy compared to when they joined in the days of "Rocks & Shoals". I was 18-19. My dad had joined the Army Air Corps at 18 in 1939 and when I cajoled him and mom into signing me in to the Navy at age 17 dad told me how tough life could be for an indolent, disobedient, surly malcontent in the service. Sort of some scared straight advice. I took it to heart. But what did I know? I knew I liked my job.

Expand full comment

Surely you were not indolent, disobedient, surly and malcontented at such a tender age! :)

Expand full comment

I was never permitted to be like that. God Bless my parents and Petty Officers.

Expand full comment

Apart from the experience of Rex Lamont Butler - head of the largest minority law firm in my state - about how his personal experience at NAS Jacksonville caused him to find my story credible - I met a Black couple on a ship earlier this month - who having lived in the South also found it completely credible. If you don't believe it, it is due to your lack of experience with practice. I do not claim the USS Francis Marion situation was typical. On the contrary, it was almost certainly the last such instance in the USN. The senior officers themselves explained that they had chosen the ship because of its name, its home port (Norfolk), and the port it visited every year for celebration of the slave owning Revolutionary War hero the ship was named after (Charleston). Several officers then requested duty when the former Prairie Mariner was selected for Navy service. The system they created used language and tactics common to practice in the era when segregation was still legal. That it was NOT legal meant they could not easily abuse military law. But they had done so for some years. They managed to convince me that the penalty for refusing to "go along with the way things are" would result in death I wrote a letter to my mother, which I could not mail (because my right to mail letters was "suspended" - although that may not have been legal) - so I had someone else mail it with his name in the return address location. Attorney Butler pointed out that if I had been killed, the letter would probably have forced an investigation which would have ended the practice in due course. I am proud of seaman DeMayo who also refused to cooperate. I am proud that eventually the system collapsed and that no more minorities who were transferred to the "wrong" ship had to undergo the sort of pressure (including physical abuse and false legal charges) we had faced. By the grace of God, when the ship left port the day before I returned from leave, I was assigned to military police duty (Brig Chaser) and trained by US Marines - which gave me the skills to defeat the former gang members sent to "teach a lesson." I assumed I would be charged with assault, but apparently it was not credible to allege I had attacked nine guys (even if I had put them all in sick bay).

Expand full comment

Perhaps the exception that proves the rule, or as you say the last example. Still hard to see the action against Catholics at that late date. We'd even had a Catholic president by then

Expand full comment

What ship was that? No Catholic or Jewish officers could go to the bridge? I would like to check out your story - which I don't believe - with the NHHC.

Expand full comment

"My first ship was explicitly and illegally segregated - the main deck was the "Color Line" - only a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) could go above it."

Lawrence, the more I ponder, the more I am intrigued by your ship..

Growing up in a navy household, on Naval Air Stations, and then spending a decade on active duty, I saw zero evidence of anything so bizarre.

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv60-62/096.htm

Expand full comment

Because "Equal Opportunity" is an Orwellian turn of phrase masking overt Bigotry and Reverse Racism.

Expand full comment

You couldn’t be more wrong. Historically, the Navy was racist. That’s a provable fact.

At, or near of the time of the conflict in Vietnam, following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Navy determined to give members of the minority races an equal opportunity to compete. They tore down barriers. Many folks who would have been racially assigned as Messmen, went on to have successful naval careers. When they were given an equal shot, lots of minority members took it and thrived.

Equal opportunity is an egalitarian way to promote, well suited to a democratic society. Promotion based on equal opportunity is promotion based on merit.

The current system is not one of equal opportunity. It’s the opposite of equal opportunity, because the results are based on racial identity.

Equal opportunity is the proper remedy for past discrimination. Letting a Filipino strike for Radioman instead of forcing him in the galley, is giving a person an equal opportunity. Forbidding a white person to claim a spot in the Radio Shack because they need a person of color is wrong.

Expand full comment
Aug 9Edited

"You couldn’t be more wrong. Historically, the Navy was racist. That’s a provable fact. "

Right back at yah Tom. You don't know your Naval History...

You are so wrong in fact, that I am having some difficulty on deciding where to start the debunking...

Before I start though...Of course there was discrimination toward 'Negroes' in the Navy, because the Navy was a reflection of the broader society.

However, the US Navy was also traditionally a relative bastion of racial tolerance since its inception.

Guess the best place to start...so the tl;dr crowd might learn something...

A timeline (warts and all)...

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/diversity/african-americans/chronology.html

--------------------

"1775–1783: African American Naval Participation in the American Revolution: Over 10% of the Continental Navy was African American during the American Revolution—a higher percentage than in the ground services. Even greater numbers of African Americans served aboard state naval vessels and privateers.

The Continental Navy recruited both free and enslaved Blacks, partly out of a need for laborers and partly because many African Americans were experienced seafarers, having sailed before with the Royal Navy, state navies, and merchantmen. Black sailors usually performed menial tasks on ships but some served in other roles, including carpenters and even pilots."

One of the most famous African American seaman from this era was James Forten, who enlisted on a privateer as a powder boy, and spent time on a British prison barge [1]. After his release, he became a successful sailmaker in Philadelphia and a prominent abolitionist."

----------------------------

And for those who will infer from Mr. Trevethan's remarks that hardcore racism was something that existed beyond his ship (which he has yet to identify), and across the USN. And it was widespread that Blacks were "not allowed above the main deck"...

Well. That is a load of bunk.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=846998943292510

Expand full comment

I still think "Equal Opportunity" means meritocracy, and is good. "Equity" however dictates equality of outcome, and is poison

Expand full comment

Equal opportunity is the standard. DEI, by its own definitions, is not about equal opportunity.

Expand full comment

We have a smaller slice of what you describe here in the Westernmost part of the Florida Panhandle. Thank you, Lawrence, for your description of diversity in Anchorage. It elevates the word.

Expand full comment

Dale,

Lawrence Sidney Tevethan is not what he seems. No more than Tim Walz is a kind avuncular man.

He a snake with honey on his forked tongue.

The first snake told the woman that if she ate the fruit she would not die. He neglected to add "not immediately."

Diversity sounds like a nice word until you realize that to the left it means opening the borders to the entire world and imposing rigid quotas on the populations in order to divide them, create enmity and rule them.

Equity to the Left does not mean equality. It means payback because of what your ancestors allegedly did to someone else's ancestors.

And you are not included.

Don't be fooled by this snake.

Expand full comment

Lawrence,

You are a sheep in wolf's clothing. Worse, perhaps because you try to take evil concepts and make them sound nice. The wolf was just hungry.

The prophet Isaiah warned us against people like you.

Expand full comment

We don’t make the case for a strong Navy in our political conversations. We are so angry about women’s boxing that we fail to engage with potential politicians about shipbuilding. Representatives are out attending cocktail parties, buttonhole one and explain why we should build Burkes until the crack of Doom.

Expand full comment

A big part of that problem is that the Navalists (perhaps not all, but certainly some of the most prominent) who are promoting spending more on Maritime issues turn around and openly insult and alienate the very politicians who are most likely to be persuaded to fund the solutions.

And these are folks who will never look in the mirror and see if they might actually be the problem.

Expand full comment

The disgusting spectacles at the Olympics and the rotting Navy are symptoms of the same DEI PC virus.

Expand full comment

Call RADM Ann Philips at MARAD and she will most likely tell you that they must expand the recruiting base for personnel. Can't function without people.

Expand full comment

People are policy. When one of the first things you do after being appointed to lead MARAD is order the Merchant Marine Academy to hire a Chief Diversity Officer, you might be part of the problem.

https://www.maritime.dot.gov/newsroom/prepared-address-usmma-regiment-midshipmen-faculty-and-staff

"We are also creating additional positions here at the Academy. One of these, as was already shared, will be of the Academy’s first Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, to help us take deliberate steps to strengthen and support our efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion here. I’d like to point out that that position was not only recommended by the NAPA report but also by Midshipmen. "

Expand full comment

what a waste

Expand full comment

Except the public schools run by the unions allied to the Democrats have failed to educate the demographics that would increase diversity in skilled/technical/professional vocations. DEI and CRT are little more than fig leafs to hide the failure of educators and the party of Jim Crow. Fix the blue state/blue city schools and your diversity problems will slowly fade over 12-16 years.

Expand full comment

Bizarre. Please reference state achievement levels to that state's history of guberatorial party. You may not have that right, by a long shot.

Expand full comment

That is the lady with a degree in French literature. Why is she in charge of MARAD? We know why. The only good thing I can say about her is that her boss Mayor Pete is even less qualified for his position than she is for hers.

Expand full comment

Probably because she was a surface warfare officer for over thirty years. You know, ship captain, ops scheduler of many ships, inspector of machinery, etc. Are you suggesting the USN chooses badly for such levels of experience?

Expand full comment

This has nothing to do with recruiting.

Expand full comment

This is hardly surprising given the ideology of the current "Administration". Think it can't get worse? Reelect them. It will.

Expand full comment

I think you use the prefix "re" in error, but the overall point stands. If we don't restore Constitutional government our Republic is soon to be no more.

Expand full comment

The Biden administration finds nothing wrong in migrating the US to third world status as long as their gods DEI and CRT are obeyed. This is the endgame of Obama's promise to change our society to match the society of his Kenyan roots. Of course he has several mansions and will never want for anything. The Grifter-in-chief deserves to eat the gruel he prescribes for us.

Expand full comment

It's not so much "third world status" as "reduce all of the world to serfdom while we brilliant elites do things the right way" and Obama was and is an effective figure head to achieve that goal

Expand full comment

Show me what they spend your money on, I'll show you whose vote they are trying to buy.

Expand full comment
Aug 9Edited

Cutbacks in the "two ship Cable Security Fleet"...

Yeah. Makes perfect sense!

There are only 22 commercial ships worldwide capable of cable repair....

https://www.theverge.com/c/24070570/internet-cables-undersea-deep-repair-ships

But hey. Out of sight. Out of Mind...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw2lO4sxZn8

Meanwhile, we play these silly games, with no thought about the risks.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/industry/2023/08/16/orders-flooding-in-on-pentagons-9-billion-cloud-contract/

"Orders flooding in on Pentagon’s $9 billion cloud contract"

Its good that we will be deaf dumb and blind in such a Diverse manner!!!!

Expand full comment

Our adversaries wouldn't do anything mean like cutting our cable lines so why spend money on these ships? For every robot that digs a trench for the cable you can build a dozen abortion mills.

Expand full comment
Aug 9Edited

Cant get ships fixed within a half decade of schedule?

Cant get them built within a decade of planned completion, for any less than twice the original budget?

Huh. Wonder why this is? Wonder what the shipyards are focusing on to get ahead of the problem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNkU4Ik4fuo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLahadFN_Hs&t=2s

Expand full comment

uuuughhhh

Expand full comment

I am certainly not onboard with John Konrad's Climate Change stance, but he is making solid hits on this subject here...

https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/1821968976609734773

Expand full comment

The DEI numbnutzery leaves its odious stain all over the place...

https://nypost.com/2024/08/09/business/deltas-top-dei-officer-jettisons-ladies-and-gentleman-gate-announcements-as-part-of-equity-push/

Delta’s top DEI officer jettisons ‘ladies and gentleman’ gate announcements as part of equity push

Expand full comment

The left does not like LNG because most of the money would go to red states and people who vote for republicans. Can’t have that. Party first. Country not at all.

Expand full comment

In order to excel, we must be a system based on meritocracy.

If not, we will surely lose to enemies who do reward merit…

Expand full comment

You have to work in D.C. in a government job to gain a realistic sense of how insane the work climate is. It isn't reasonable or even credible what the SOP's are in fact. In my experience, the only remedy is to pretend that everyone is rational and reasonable, to outline just what that means in some specific instance, and to make such a fuss they eventually give in just to shut you up. Since it is embarrassing to have the nonsense get too much attention, this strategy usually works. FYI it was taught to me by a contractor training counselor-aids for the short lived Center for the Education or Returning Veterans (in 1972). We all got 3 credits for taking the course, which was required to get the job, so we didn't have to pay for the course. Over time I found the tactic works with state governments as well. Never lose your temper. Never take no for an answer. Always go up the chain of organization. Eventually, you will reach a level where the person involved wants to get rid of the problem, so they will tell some less senior problem to give you what you want. Even if it isn't technically legal, the instructor said. That part does not seem to be common, but the general principle is quite valid.

Expand full comment