Fat Leonard and Phat Victories

a red day, ere the sun rises!

If you’re anything like me, you are simply flooded with news that demands your attention after last night’s election.

But that isn’t the first thing I want to cover today. No. We need to discuss this:

Former military defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for masterminding a decade-long bribery scheme that swept up dozens of U.S. Navy officers, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino also ordered Francis to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy and a $150,000 fine, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was also ordered to forfeit $35 million in “ill-gotten proceeds from his crimes,” the statement said.

Prosecutors said the sentence resulted from Francis' first guilty plea in 2015 concerning bribery and fraud, his extensive cooperation with the government since then and another guilty plea Tuesday for failing to appear for his original sentencing hearing in 2022.

Francis was arrested in 2013, 11 years ago. Earlier this summer, much of the related cases fell apart due to prosecutorial misconduct. Let’s not even discuss his earlier escape.

If you need to catch up, I’d encourage you to listen to the Midrats podcast we did with Tom Wright and Craig Whitlock.

Our justice system is worm-ridden with corruption, incompetence, and contempt for the people and its laws. The fact they would try to hide this final act right at election time—no mistake—is just a cherry on top of this disgrace.

Everyone with even a passing interest in justice and our Navy should be enraged. I am more upset with “the system” than any of the Shipmates who took money, gifts, and hookers.

Speaking of systems…we just had a interesting election last night, didn’t we? I won’t dive in to the play-by-play or the politics of it all. You can get enough of that via other places, you don’t need it from me.

What we do know is that President Trump will be the next President. Unlike his first victory in 2016, he and his team is much more organized, experienced, and prepared to take power. We have a broad idea what changes of direction or emphasis will take place. What should we expect in the natsec arena as President Trump and his team take over the levers of power? Here’s the Top-5 that first pops in to my head.

• Iran’s holiday is over: the Blinken/Sullivan Iran lobby and their circle with conflicted loyalties are leaving. Those Arab powers most concerned with the previous pro-Iranian American administration will rest easier and will likely continue joining the modern community to push back against the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and its proxies.

• Israel has more running room: directly connected to the above, I think it is fair to say that the incoming administration will be even more pro-Israel than the first time around. As Israel enters its second year at war with Iran’s proxies, a lot of deferred maintenance will not have the time, money, and support needed to make a real, lasting impact.

• NATO’s free-riders have run out of time: (see graph below): I know that in 2024, some of the nations on the cusp of 2% are now over. However, NLD, NOR, DNK, DEU, CZE, POR, ITA, CAN, SVN, TUR, ESP, BEL, & LUX? Folks, you’d best giddy up.

• Power to the Pacific: regardless of what happens in Ukraine and how the inevitable negotiations with Russia go in 2025, while the USA is not leaving NATO, it will be unpacking what remains of much of its land component and other money, personnel, and material drains for the USA in Europe and will shift to the Pacific. Great irony here is that the person that will have the best chance of making President Obama’s “Pacific Pivot” happen will be President Trump II, Electric Boogaloo.

• DOD’s diversity industry is dead: this should be the most obvious change to expect. DOD is one of the last hold-outs of the racist, 1970s-centric, Cultural Marxism that the Diversity Industry needs to keep its cancer fat and fed. As the CINC, the President can do a lot to simply eliminate the policies and position. There will need to be supporting actions up on The Hill, but with (R) in charge of both Houses…there will be no excuses. The lowest hanging fruit? Look at what the Free State of Florida and other states did to defenestrate DEI (or whatever name they changed themselves to this week) from their institutions of higher learning. That is where I will be looking for the start: the service academies. Lots of money in personnel costs and related travel (not to mention work hours wasted answering Zampolit taskers) that can be retasked into actual productive activities.

So, there we are on November 6th, 2024.

Creative friction, creative destruction, opportunity in change.

Let not your heart be troubled. A red day, ere the sun rises!