As someone who used to "deal with data from China", totally agree with the well founded concern over the accuracy of what China provides. Have to share genuine concern over state of U.S. "data" with regards to DoD budgets and spending. Also with how the money goes into the U.S. system and produces a very poor return on investment for reasons that are legion. So, if they are spending more than they say and overcoming systemic deficiencies with mass quantities (see Sherman tanks), and we are getting "less bang for our bucks" spent, where are we really when we compare the correlation of forces?
Pleased to see that you addressed it at the end CDR.
"pacing" yeah, we're all just ambling along, in step with China, towards the edge of a cliff. No problems at all. We should be running flat out like our hair is on FIRE!
(and sending posts like these to every congress critter we can )
It’s stunning that our own deficit in intelligence assets in China continues to grow so the analysts are likely pulling assumptions out of their asses.
We can’t recruit people for our military, what makes anyone think we can recruit foreign agents willing to risk their lives for our republic?
I'm old enough to remember all the Wizards and Experts that pretended to know to the second decimal place the USSR budget numbers. The Chinese enigma is far more unknown than the USSR ever was.
Aviation Sceptic is spot-on about what the real numbers are with our military/DOD. The DOD lies and also is not able to account for ~$2 Trillion in assets. I believe that the DOD and the MIC are among the most graft filled, corrupt entities in America, and they seem to be bulletproof.
What percentage of total assets is this? And what assets are these? Are we missing fighter jets, or infantry helmet liners, uniform items and rifle cleaning kits? Because if it is the later, that makes total sense and is probably not corruption, and if it's the former than, well, we have a problem. Why? one of these categories is items that have long service lives and are interacted with a lot. The other is disposable items that are broken and lost in the normal course of use. Decades later, we've probably lost a lot of helmet liners and cleaning kits, and if we didn't, it would probably mean that we are overburdening our solders with paperwork and red tape.
"The Department of Defense's (DoD) audit is a large effort that involves a combination of independent public accounting firms and the DoD Office of the Inspector General. The audit is made up of 29 sub-audits of the department's services, and all must pass for the overall audit to be approved." DOD has ~$4 Trillion in assets. This is the fifth or sixth year in a row that the DOD has failed the audit. Feel free to spend a few minutes on Google for more details.
How ironic that DOD can't pass an audit while Trump is being threatened with jail and confiscation of his property because he might have overvalued his assets in the 90s - regardless of the fact that he paid off all his loans with interest. I have yet to see anyone in the DOD Comptroller's office held accountable.
Nothing about what Biden is doing to Trump is right, its a political hit job only worthy of a banana republic. You are right, no one in DOD will be held accountable.
I did some digging, and DOD auditing started in 2017. So far, the pentagon has failed every audit. This isn't a Republican/Democrat issue. Financial accountability is important, and I would agree that there is probably a fair amount of self-dealing going on. However, I don't think just passing an audit is going to fix big-ticket-procurement waste and corruption, which is probably the biggest issue right now. Take our favorite program to hate, LCS. The decision was made to buy BOTH types of ships to preserve jobs in multiple congressional districts (we assume.) The DOD passing an audit would not have changed the outcome of this clear self-dealing. Infact this wasn't really even a DOD corruption issue. With our strong tradition of civilian control of the military, congress can make the pentagon do things that are corrupt without there being much if any rot in the military structures.
Even that last example aside, attacking the party that happens to be in power right now because they haven't magically fixed a series of bureaucratic issues that go back decades is just cheap political theater (not that anyone here in particular is doing that, but just saying.)
Agreed, the audit is not a partisan issue. What is happening to Trump is a political/law warfare witch hunt that is 100% partisan.
The DOD procurement, Goldwater-Nichols Act, CoComs dysfunction is also not partisan. Those are problems that requires attention by Congress because the Military will not fix it on their own.
As I understand it, Goldwater-Nichols was imposed by congress, and will really only be repealed/fixed by congress. Uniforms have a role in the dysfunction, but the core of the system, and any perverse incentives it creates are largely a congressional issue. But again, as you said, this really can and should be a bipartisan issue.
As to the DJT stuff, let's assume for a moment that you are right and every single state and federal case against him is bogus (I would call it improbable, but you are entitled to your own opinion.) If he wasn't a crook to begin with there would be no excuse to prosecute him. Full stop end of story. He brags in public (and private for that matter) about fleecing people, and he has a documented history doing so. (Even if it's mostly in narrowly legal but completely unethical ways.)
Its politics, so his opponents would find some other way to attack him, but it wouldn't be with the courts if he wasn't a dirty rotten scoundrel. If we all stopped nominating and electing crooks for five freaking milliseconds, then we wouldn't have to prosecute politicians for crimes. Just saying.
Regardless of the political issues at hand Y'ALL: STOP VOTING FOR TARABLE PEOPLE. Looking back at history, Alexander Hamilton DIED dulling Arron Burr, someone form his own party who he felt was unfit to be president. Who did Hamilton endorse a short time before the dule? None other than his political arch-rival Thomas Jefferson who actively fought against Hamilton's crowing achievements in the treasury department. Why did he endorse Jefferson? Because he was a good and honorable man, and regardless of politics it is better for the nation to have a good person who wrong about policy in power than a bad one who 'has it right.'
PS: I apologize for the spelling/grammar errors in my last post. Hopefully there are less this time. ;)
We had a great network of Chinese assets on the ground ten years ago. They all strangely disappeared and met untimely demises simultaneously. You’ll not find much public about it but OUR intelligence agencies only woke up to the leak after the damage was done. I don’t think we ever recovered on the ground in the Middle Kingdom.
The CIA got overconfident and lazy. They imported an internet based system designed to support agents in the 3rd world to China. 'This internet-based system, brought over from operations in the Middle East, was taken to China under the assumption that it could not be breached and made the CIA "invincible," Foreign Policy reported.' https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-found-cia-spies-leak-2018-8?op=1
They did that too. But that was a separate operation. The actual story of the CIA breach is longer and more complex than business insider explains. Apparently the Iranians noticed it first and found that front ends of the oh so clever system that the CIA was so proud of could be found with a well designed google search. This allowed them to find people accessing those sites. They passed that onto the Chinese. In addition the Chinese appear to have recruited a Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former, and disgruntled CIA case officer, who the FBI found had books full of secrets about the CIA networks in China in his hotel room in 2012.
It's all about hiding costs. Congressional budget cutters are always asking "How many people work at the White House?" The official number is artificially low because it only counts those who work in the Executive Office of the President. It doesn't include countless detailees from other Federal agencies, military aides, Secret Service agents (both Presidential detail and uniformed guards), and groundskeepers.
As I've said for years in regard to Chinas spending, NATO comparative spending, Russia's spending, direct GDP or currency comparisons are pure b.s. and good for nothing but politicians to gloss over facts. One is not thinking about defense spending properly unless one is thinking in PPP. Chinas PPP to the US is currently running about 4 to 1. So even at their admitted spending levels of 2 1/3 hundred billion dollars, they are buying probably 1/4 -1/3 more military capacity than the US each year as they spend almost 100% of it domestically. Given their hidden expenses they could be out spending the US and all its Pacific allies combined by a significant margin.
The point about endless wars supported and then abandoned by the US is on target. We're paying for kinetics rather than engagement and development. As one diplomat reportedly stated to a US diplomat, "When we engage with China, we get an airport. When we engage with the US, we get a lecture." And when the lecture is delivered by the likes of Biden, Austin, or Blinkin, it lands like a wet noodle.
And yet, the smartest people in the think tanks keep saying that aircraft carriers have been obsoleted by missiles and drones. Maybe we should be encouraging the PRC to build 20 of these. That would show them!
Whatever the Chinese number is, it is very clear that China gets more "stuff" for its money than we do, and unlike in the Cold War days, we can't even comfort ourselves with the thought that our stuff is better. Certainly our stuff is not sufficiently better to compensate for the lack of numbers.
I sure wouldn't be too comfortable as Putin sharing a long border with China, that has 8x Russia's defense budget. Oh sure, China is your buddy... for now, anyway. And meanwhile on the other end, Russia confronts Europe, which with Ukraine has 3.5x Russia's defense budget. All I can say is Vlad better keep modernizing his nukes.
Putin as an ally would have required trading Ukraine. When faced with that choice, we chose inaction and now have nether the ally nor an intact Ukraine. Saving face with Ukraine was probably far more valuable than trying to make Russia an ally, especially if they just invaded a neighbor. By having Putin as a temporary (and assuredly unreliable) ally we would show ourselves to be morally bankrupt, and having them on our side wouldn't really add that much strategically anyways (This isn't the cold war, the Russians' pre-war economy was like the size of Spain.)
Essentially, we could have China as an ally right now under the same terms: you can take Taiwan, we'll keep buying your cheap crap, and let you have your way in international affairs. In return, all we would get is some sort of guarantee that China wouldn't attack US forces.
Biden and his gang are doing a great job of making America look morally bankrupt. How much money did Hunter get from Ukraine and China less 10% for the big guy!
You just exposed yourself - again - for the idiot you are. You are also a liar. You pretend to be a republican. You pretend to be in the service. Begone. Go back to your little HAMAS hut at an Ivy League campus.
First off, I am flattered that you think that I am smart enough to get accepted into an Ivy (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵)
Second, can you do anything but insult people you don't know on the internet?
I didn't claim to be in the service. I claimed to have a set ship-out date. Which I do. I would love to share exactly what I'm doing and my enthusiasm for service, but I feel the need to protect my privacy here. Internet haters like you are the reason that I can't share any more personal information.
I also didn't claim to be a diehard conservative. I am though a registered republican, because I feel that that my vote will count more that way, and unlike some people I'm not allergic to either label and I keep my eyes open for good ideas from all quarters.
If you look at defense spending as a percent of GDP, very clear that our Asian friends need to do more. To have defense spending proportional to China's, India should be spending $151 not $81.5, Japan should be spending $155 not $46, South Korea should be spending $64 not $46.4.
And indeed, we should be spending $1,090 not $742.2.
It's almost like only one country is seriously preparing for war in Asia...
D.C. knows that it can print more money any time it wants to, and on better quality paper, to solve major problems in times of crisis. Why should they worry when systemic racism and homophobia are causing Climate Change?
"D.C. knows that it can print more money any time"
It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble, it's what you think is that ain't so. The days of printing money are over, DC just doesn't know it yet.
It goes without saying that we need to increase defense spending across the board - it is the lowest it has ever been since WWII as a percentage of GDP. But good luck getting the Dems to spend on defense without requiring ruinous increases for domestic entitlements on top of what they already spent (spurring inflation). They are not better than the Germans or other socialist countries in Europe that don't want to spend on defense. That whole "Peace Dividend" BS from the 90s that put us here.
And Cdr. Sal, I know you feel a certain way, but you remind me of the guys who can find defeat in what are partial (yes) wins - being an absolutist. You are being overly negative as you lean into your criticism. I am not into self-licking ice cream cones, white washing or making apologies for mistakes, but it wasn't all stupid or for no reason nor is a calling every strategic repositioning a defeat very constructive. Stupid stuff like the way the Afghan withdrawal was done? Sure. And the collapse that we allowed by doing it that way sure makes everything we did prior to that seem futile. But that isn't the same as saying the Taliban or Al Qaeda kicked us out...we made decisions and they were executed poorly.
And yes, instead of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time - due to the lack of defense spending and available resources - we leaned into counter-terrorism at the expense of a focus on combined arms air/land/sea battle with peers/near peers. With all the problems, though, it isn't as if we don't remember and know what to do. We just need to spend the money necessary to make it happen. This was exacerbated by China/Russia feeding covert support into the terrorists and Pakistani ISI to keep us there and busy and with our eye off the bigger ball (not to mention, a lot of Chinese/Russian VIPs and oligarchs have a stake in the drug trade that was at the center of a lot of resistance to US due to our efforts to stop poppy growing that supplied tribal chiefs with money).
We have the list of what needs to be done, but one more time: missiles - lots and lots of missiles of all types to go on platforms and for reloads. We need to increase the Air wings, because we can do that faster (F-35, NGADs, B-21s) and they provide stand off defense, deterrence and attack options. They can't stand alone, but they are the tip of the spear that allow us to buy time and distance while reaching out and touching someone when necessary. Then the Navy - same concept, longer timeline. Plus all the logistics, supply and repair facilities that the Navy needs to sustain operations across the world in a conflict.
Hopefully we can get some old yards back in the game - best way to incentivize it is to open that yards with funding for immediate refurbishment of reserve ships and establishing an upgraded Naval reserve force to man them. Whatever we can use - not for every day missions, but upgraded, in port as reserves and ready to join the fleets for a year or two to give us some more hulls with missiles (first upgrade/repair propulsion and fueling, work on SPY-6 installation and comms (Link 16) while installing MK-41 or ADL Systems, etc.). This will allow us to stand up repair yards, get them funded (contract revenue), give them work to perfect systems and personnel acquistion/training while new designs/ships come on line.
Then, once we have the arms length defense, deterrence, offensive strike and air/sea dominance established again, the Army can be brought into fighting form. I'd like to see enough funding to do all at the same time, but - again - probably not with the weanies we have in DC. China will be an air and sea war, mostly, with ground troops in support (mostly Marines) while Russia in the EU would be Army/Air Force in air/land battle with a short battle of the Atlantic to ensure supplies and then get some carrier groups in the North Sea/Baltics for strike...but secondary to the land battle. Hopefully EU spending on their own ground forces would be enough to supplement us and deter Russia until we can get our ground forces restored.
Long post, I know. Sorry. It is the grocery list of action items, though...very high level.
"It is the grocery list of action items, though...very high level."
- And when it comes to the magnitude of the final sum total of that list? Along with quality of our leadership? Color me an absolutist like our host as well.
We too are going to follow in the footsteps of Jerome Barzetti
I believe that was also the point of "spending a lot more" across all areas of defense, as I wrote. An absolutist, in this sense, is "well, everything wasn't perfect so we suck" basically. I beat the crap out of a guy, but he hit me a couple of times and I had to go do some other things and left - so even though he didn't make me leave, I lost. No, sorry, I don't see that.
As to the evaluation of the DC weanies in Congress and the Defense bureaucracy - including a lot of Flag officers - sure, I agree. They haven't done it yet and aren't talking like us. At this point if the Admirals (and other service leaders) weren't hopelessly politicized, we'd have another revolt to wake people up to all of this.
Time is growing thin, but as with Reagan in the 80s rebuilding our conventional capabilities and morale (nationally and in the military) - it can be done.
I believe we were probably more competent, less partisan and not quite as bureaucratic at the time among other such things as the industrial base. IMO? Ain't gonna happen.
A very small, but vocal, minority. Not you or I, right? Anybody you know running around saying "From the River to the Sea!" and other anti-Semitic BS?
They are running their games on Trump, but even if convicted any such conviction will all be overturned on appeal due to various defects (and the fake charges based on tortured interpretations and applications of statute). The Dems just wanted it all to happen before the election so he'd be tarred with the convictions long before the appeals could be completed to overturn the biased "convictions".
If we just shipped more Army equipment to Ukraine, we could take care of the Russian threat for pennies on the dolor. We could spend like 5%-10% ish of defense spending on shipping weapons to Ukraine and then distribute the rest of the army budget to the USN, USAF and USMC and we would probably be better off on both fronts than we are now. (That's an extreme example, but I think you get the point)
As Sal has said numerous times, we are a maritime power, and we need to return to those roots.
A bonus for those afraid of the "deep-state": the first sessions of congress saw a standing continental army after independence as a threat to civil liberties, however they only really argued about the cost-benefit analysis of having a standing navy, and whether it should be made up of small costal defense ships or an ocean-going fleet comprised mostly of frigates. If you're interested in the early history of the USN, Ien W. Toll's "Six Frigates" is a compelling read even for (relative) naval history noobs.
But how is China's diversity and inclusion? What are they doing about climate change? Are they combating inequities? These are the actual priorities China should be focusing on.
An excellent summary by CDR Sal of everything we already know. The question now becomes What is to be done or What can be done?
I submit that nothing can or will be done because the people in power responsible for this mess will do everything they can to cling to power. Just watch the Soviet show trial going on in NYC. In fact, I suspect the members of the Deep State think they are doing a terrific job.
Like any alcoholic, America will have to hit rock bottom before she will turn herself around. We are heading toward a situation not unlike like China under Mao and the Gang of Four in the 70s and Russia under Gorbachev and Yeltsin in the 1990s.
Soviet show trial. What? What? Do you know anything about our legal system? Do you know anything about Donald Trump? Before he ever became president, it was well known that he would just refuse to pay small businesses and threaten them with lawyer. This was systematic. He is a known cheater and liar, and people know that before he ever became president. He's being prosecuted out of his mind because he has committed lots of crimes. Full stop. Now his bill is coming due.
Cut the personal insults. You don't know shit about me.
I am a registered republican shipping out to serve our nation later this year.
I am truly open to hearing you opinion. This is probably the best chance you will have to really change someone's mind on this week.
However, if you can't answer with anything but 6 different iterations of 'f*ck u' than I will have to conclude that I was right all along, and you are just a partisan hack job pulling stuff out of your ass.
Lynne Cheney Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush are also registered Republicans. You may discover that you are not serving our country but the uniparty and the globalists that likes to jail political opponents on ridiculous charges based on absurd legal principles. While you are over there please look for the WMD that I never found in Iraq.
Every recent trial in New York State is because they essentially played Bill of Attainder games in the State Assembly. - That should concern everyone no matter their politics.
Now there are rumors that boxes of classified materials found at Mar a Lago might have been sent by the GSA and seeded with classified materials. - That should concern everyone no matter their politics.
The Manhattan District Attorney investigating Trump, Pomerantz just pleaded the Fifth when asked under oath if he deliberately broke laws while investigating Trump. - That should concern everyone no matter their politics.
Thank you for the civil reply! Comments numbered based on order of introduction in your previous post:
1: Bills of Attender
I must confess that I had forgotten the significance of a 'Bill of Attender.' As I understand from reading Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 and your description, it sounds like the issue is that the NY assembly effectively declared that DJT is guilty of something without a trial. That would defiantly not be a good look. However this isn't just anyone, this is former president they are talking about. The difference is that the legislative branch is supposed to be a check on the executive branch, and an impeachment is basically the legislature declaring that the president or a judge (or some other official) is guilty of a crime, without a normal trial.
All that is kind of beside the point though because when I looked up "ny legislature bill of attender against trump" and what came up was:
i) an article discussing a proposed law to allow cameras in the court room (an effort that had been going on before this whole thing)
ii) an article discussing whether the NY legislature passed a law to allow Changed Its Laws So E. Jean Carroll Could Sue Trump.
iii) some other E. Jean Carroll stuff
iv) A article explaining that the NY law that allowed to Trump to be prosecuted was actually passed at the behest of a republican Attorney General some time ago.
The list goes on. Nowhere did I see anything besides laws that would make it easer to prosecute Trump, some of which were orchestrated by republicans in the past. Did I miss something here? I get the "NY legislature attacking former president" is kind of a bad a bad look, but an independent judiciary is supposed to make that issue irrelevant. Constitutional review and all that. We should remember that Attorney General is a political position, and just because someone is prosecuted for something doesn't mean they are guilty. Seach engines being biased and all that, am I missing something?
2: Mar-a-Lago classified docs
'Apparently' they GSA didn't pack any boxes, they just handled the shipping of a pallet of Trump's stuff to Mar-a-Lago when he left. As far as we know, there could have been tampering. However, if a bunch of boxes of documents labeled "classified" documents were shipped to my house, I would probably you know, talk to someone at a relevant government agency make sure I am allowed to have that stuff not hide it in a closet and deny access to law enforcement and said relevant government officials. Again, I'm not an expert but something about his DJT's response is makes me think he is culpable.
3: Pomerantz pleading the Fifth
Yeah, this looks verry suspicious. I've got nothing on this. Only that the 5th amendment was created for a reason. But then again, if he didn't have anything to hide, he must have realized how bad it looked to repeatedly invoked the 5th when under that questioning. So yeah. Doesn't look good.
Finally, there is defiantly stuff here that doesn't look good. However, without confirmation on 2 and 3 I don't think I'm convinced there is a widespread which hunt. That being said, I will defiantly be following all 3 of these stories going forward.
Thank you Jetcal1 for taking the time to answer my previous question, and to anyone else who read my reply.
They passed a law to change the statute of limitations.
"However this isn't just anyone, this is former president they are talking about." Irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it's the school custodian, or the President. You don't change laws to enable prosecution.
The National Archives screens all boxes and the Archivist signs a statement attesting that they have every single classified document. Nor can we attest to the chain of custody can we?
Remember the testimony about the Laptop is disinformation letter? Funny how that changed under oath ain't it?
Unlike many of the other denizens of DC? "Slick Willie" et al., for instance. My favorite is former Speaker of the House and onetime Presidential candidate Dick Gebhardt. He owned a beachfront house and told the bank it was a vacation home so he would get a lower mortgage interest rate and told the IRS it was investment property so he could deduct maintenance expenses. So, tax fraud or bank fraud?
As Trump himself once declared, he knows how crooked "the swamp" is because he has been, as you say, part of it.
Absolutely. As I wrote somewhere else recently, we need to prioritize putting good, honest people in charge. Getting our preferred policy implemented should come second.
Another example of just blatant self dealing is Nancy Pelosi. She and her husband have gotten phenomenally wealthy playing the stock market with non-public information. When she was speaker I believe she blocked a bill that would have prevented members of congress form insider trading this way. The clip of her dismissing the idea of restricting congresspeople's stock trading makes my blood absolutely boil every time I see it. Congresspeople should just invest in broad index funds so they are tied to the success of the whole country like the rest of us. Technically, she isn't even committing a crime.
Ok rant over.
I guess I would buy the argument that DC is full of crooks, but I don't think that putting another one in charge or letting criminals walk free because "everyone is doing it" is going to fix anything. In fact, I think it normalizes the type of atrocious behavior we don't want to see. If you show evidence that someone I voted for is corrupt or a criminal, I will be walking in front of the grocery store the next day getting signatures for a recall election or impeachment petition and I hope other people like you who care will join me.
Take heart, my brothers. Much that is inevitable never happens. Remember with me the once mighty Soviet Union, destined to bury us, as Kruschev and many Western experts predicted. And a challenging foe they were. Until one day we all awoke to the news that they were no more.
The west has its problems, in no small part to our meddling adversary. The Chinese, on the other hand, have already lost the race to get wealthy before they get old. Now their dictatorship is racing to achieve power parity with the western world before they collapse due to demographic and fiscal catastrophe. They’ve got ships and they’ve got men. What they don’t have is 250 years of naval warfare and dominance knitted into their DNA.
As one of the French Emperors, Louis XIV I think, used to say: “We shall see.”
Good times, weak (or dumb?) men. Recipe is ripe for what's coming, sadly.
As someone who used to "deal with data from China", totally agree with the well founded concern over the accuracy of what China provides. Have to share genuine concern over state of U.S. "data" with regards to DoD budgets and spending. Also with how the money goes into the U.S. system and produces a very poor return on investment for reasons that are legion. So, if they are spending more than they say and overcoming systemic deficiencies with mass quantities (see Sherman tanks), and we are getting "less bang for our bucks" spent, where are we really when we compare the correlation of forces?
you know the answer
Agree, but the threat - it must be honored. What's more expensive than the very best military on the planet?
The second best...
I saw that "pacing threat" nonsense immediately.
Pleased to see that you addressed it at the end CDR.
"pacing" yeah, we're all just ambling along, in step with China, towards the edge of a cliff. No problems at all. We should be running flat out like our hair is on FIRE!
(and sending posts like these to every congress critter we can )
I missed that part but wow! you are right! That is just an excuse to kick the can right down the road!
We’ve always known they were lying. It was politically expedient to ignore the magnitude for a long time.
I’ve sworn off beer for a while (I like to see my toes), but I am reconsidering given the state of the world.
It’s stunning that our own deficit in intelligence assets in China continues to grow so the analysts are likely pulling assumptions out of their asses.
We can’t recruit people for our military, what makes anyone think we can recruit foreign agents willing to risk their lives for our republic?
I'm old enough to remember all the Wizards and Experts that pretended to know to the second decimal place the USSR budget numbers. The Chinese enigma is far more unknown than the USSR ever was.
Aviation Sceptic is spot-on about what the real numbers are with our military/DOD. The DOD lies and also is not able to account for ~$2 Trillion in assets. I believe that the DOD and the MIC are among the most graft filled, corrupt entities in America, and they seem to be bulletproof.
"I believe that the DOD and the MIC are among the most graft filled, corrupt entities in America, and they seem to be bulletproof."
Do not underestimate the Healthcare Industrial Complex. They are a little brother but with a glandular issue.
No shortage of orgs that would qualify. Sadly.
What percentage of total assets is this? And what assets are these? Are we missing fighter jets, or infantry helmet liners, uniform items and rifle cleaning kits? Because if it is the later, that makes total sense and is probably not corruption, and if it's the former than, well, we have a problem. Why? one of these categories is items that have long service lives and are interacted with a lot. The other is disposable items that are broken and lost in the normal course of use. Decades later, we've probably lost a lot of helmet liners and cleaning kits, and if we didn't, it would probably mean that we are overburdening our solders with paperwork and red tape.
"The Department of Defense's (DoD) audit is a large effort that involves a combination of independent public accounting firms and the DoD Office of the Inspector General. The audit is made up of 29 sub-audits of the department's services, and all must pass for the overall audit to be approved." DOD has ~$4 Trillion in assets. This is the fifth or sixth year in a row that the DOD has failed the audit. Feel free to spend a few minutes on Google for more details.
How ironic that DOD can't pass an audit while Trump is being threatened with jail and confiscation of his property because he might have overvalued his assets in the 90s - regardless of the fact that he paid off all his loans with interest. I have yet to see anyone in the DOD Comptroller's office held accountable.
Nothing about what Biden is doing to Trump is right, its a political hit job only worthy of a banana republic. You are right, no one in DOD will be held accountable.
Biden, Garland and their friends have turned Lady Justice into a street walker.
The DOD has never passed an audit.
I did some digging, and DOD auditing started in 2017. So far, the pentagon has failed every audit. This isn't a Republican/Democrat issue. Financial accountability is important, and I would agree that there is probably a fair amount of self-dealing going on. However, I don't think just passing an audit is going to fix big-ticket-procurement waste and corruption, which is probably the biggest issue right now. Take our favorite program to hate, LCS. The decision was made to buy BOTH types of ships to preserve jobs in multiple congressional districts (we assume.) The DOD passing an audit would not have changed the outcome of this clear self-dealing. Infact this wasn't really even a DOD corruption issue. With our strong tradition of civilian control of the military, congress can make the pentagon do things that are corrupt without there being much if any rot in the military structures.
Even that last example aside, attacking the party that happens to be in power right now because they haven't magically fixed a series of bureaucratic issues that go back decades is just cheap political theater (not that anyone here in particular is doing that, but just saying.)
Agreed, the audit is not a partisan issue. What is happening to Trump is a political/law warfare witch hunt that is 100% partisan.
The DOD procurement, Goldwater-Nichols Act, CoComs dysfunction is also not partisan. Those are problems that requires attention by Congress because the Military will not fix it on their own.
As I understand it, Goldwater-Nichols was imposed by congress, and will really only be repealed/fixed by congress. Uniforms have a role in the dysfunction, but the core of the system, and any perverse incentives it creates are largely a congressional issue. But again, as you said, this really can and should be a bipartisan issue.
As to the DJT stuff, let's assume for a moment that you are right and every single state and federal case against him is bogus (I would call it improbable, but you are entitled to your own opinion.) If he wasn't a crook to begin with there would be no excuse to prosecute him. Full stop end of story. He brags in public (and private for that matter) about fleecing people, and he has a documented history doing so. (Even if it's mostly in narrowly legal but completely unethical ways.)
Its politics, so his opponents would find some other way to attack him, but it wouldn't be with the courts if he wasn't a dirty rotten scoundrel. If we all stopped nominating and electing crooks for five freaking milliseconds, then we wouldn't have to prosecute politicians for crimes. Just saying.
Regardless of the political issues at hand Y'ALL: STOP VOTING FOR TARABLE PEOPLE. Looking back at history, Alexander Hamilton DIED dulling Arron Burr, someone form his own party who he felt was unfit to be president. Who did Hamilton endorse a short time before the dule? None other than his political arch-rival Thomas Jefferson who actively fought against Hamilton's crowing achievements in the treasury department. Why did he endorse Jefferson? Because he was a good and honorable man, and regardless of politics it is better for the nation to have a good person who wrong about policy in power than a bad one who 'has it right.'
PS: I apologize for the spelling/grammar errors in my last post. Hopefully there are less this time. ;)
We had a great network of Chinese assets on the ground ten years ago. They all strangely disappeared and met untimely demises simultaneously. You’ll not find much public about it but OUR intelligence agencies only woke up to the leak after the damage was done. I don’t think we ever recovered on the ground in the Middle Kingdom.
The CIA got overconfident and lazy. They imported an internet based system designed to support agents in the 3rd world to China. 'This internet-based system, brought over from operations in the Middle East, was taken to China under the assumption that it could not be breached and made the CIA "invincible," Foreign Policy reported.' https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-found-cia-spies-leak-2018-8?op=1
The Chinese accessed our SF-86 and 87 and figured out who was where and when.
They did that too. But that was a separate operation. The actual story of the CIA breach is longer and more complex than business insider explains. Apparently the Iranians noticed it first and found that front ends of the oh so clever system that the CIA was so proud of could be found with a well designed google search. This allowed them to find people accessing those sites. They passed that onto the Chinese. In addition the Chinese appear to have recruited a Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former, and disgruntled CIA case officer, who the FBI found had books full of secrets about the CIA networks in China in his hotel room in 2012.
Those stories are hard to read. All those years of work and lives waisted.
It's all about hiding costs. Congressional budget cutters are always asking "How many people work at the White House?" The official number is artificially low because it only counts those who work in the Executive Office of the President. It doesn't include countless detailees from other Federal agencies, military aides, Secret Service agents (both Presidential detail and uniformed guards), and groundskeepers.
As I've said for years in regard to Chinas spending, NATO comparative spending, Russia's spending, direct GDP or currency comparisons are pure b.s. and good for nothing but politicians to gloss over facts. One is not thinking about defense spending properly unless one is thinking in PPP. Chinas PPP to the US is currently running about 4 to 1. So even at their admitted spending levels of 2 1/3 hundred billion dollars, they are buying probably 1/4 -1/3 more military capacity than the US each year as they spend almost 100% of it domestically. Given their hidden expenses they could be out spending the US and all its Pacific allies combined by a significant margin.
The point about endless wars supported and then abandoned by the US is on target. We're paying for kinetics rather than engagement and development. As one diplomat reportedly stated to a US diplomat, "When we engage with China, we get an airport. When we engage with the US, we get a lecture." And when the lecture is delivered by the likes of Biden, Austin, or Blinkin, it lands like a wet noodle.
To be fair, how many African countries do you think really would rather have an airport than a gender studies endowment?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13370451/How-Chinas-new-Fujian-aircraft-carrier-challenge-mighty-navy-ocean-supremacy-Beijings-gold-buying-spree-sparks-fears-war.html
And yet, the smartest people in the think tanks keep saying that aircraft carriers have been obsoleted by missiles and drones. Maybe we should be encouraging the PRC to build 20 of these. That would show them!
Quite a humors turn of events. Who knows though. Maybe we are both wrong.
Whatever the Chinese number is, it is very clear that China gets more "stuff" for its money than we do, and unlike in the Cold War days, we can't even comfort ourselves with the thought that our stuff is better. Certainly our stuff is not sufficiently better to compensate for the lack of numbers.
I sure wouldn't be too comfortable as Putin sharing a long border with China, that has 8x Russia's defense budget. Oh sure, China is your buddy... for now, anyway. And meanwhile on the other end, Russia confronts Europe, which with Ukraine has 3.5x Russia's defense budget. All I can say is Vlad better keep modernizing his nukes.
Someone like Richard Nixon would have turned Russia into an ally against China. Instead, we managed to drive Russia into China's arms.
Putin as an ally would have required trading Ukraine. When faced with that choice, we chose inaction and now have nether the ally nor an intact Ukraine. Saving face with Ukraine was probably far more valuable than trying to make Russia an ally, especially if they just invaded a neighbor. By having Putin as a temporary (and assuredly unreliable) ally we would show ourselves to be morally bankrupt, and having them on our side wouldn't really add that much strategically anyways (This isn't the cold war, the Russians' pre-war economy was like the size of Spain.)
Essentially, we could have China as an ally right now under the same terms: you can take Taiwan, we'll keep buying your cheap crap, and let you have your way in international affairs. In return, all we would get is some sort of guarantee that China wouldn't attack US forces.
Biden and his gang are doing a great job of making America look morally bankrupt. How much money did Hunter get from Ukraine and China less 10% for the big guy!
I would just remind you that all our allies breathed a sigh of relief when Biden was inaugurated... And there was no such breath with his predecessor.
You just exposed yourself - again - for the idiot you are. You are also a liar. You pretend to be a republican. You pretend to be in the service. Begone. Go back to your little HAMAS hut at an Ivy League campus.
First off, I am flattered that you think that I am smart enough to get accepted into an Ivy (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵)
Second, can you do anything but insult people you don't know on the internet?
I didn't claim to be in the service. I claimed to have a set ship-out date. Which I do. I would love to share exactly what I'm doing and my enthusiasm for service, but I feel the need to protect my privacy here. Internet haters like you are the reason that I can't share any more personal information.
I also didn't claim to be a diehard conservative. I am though a registered republican, because I feel that that my vote will count more that way, and unlike some people I'm not allergic to either label and I keep my eyes open for good ideas from all quarters.
If you look at defense spending as a percent of GDP, very clear that our Asian friends need to do more. To have defense spending proportional to China's, India should be spending $151 not $81.5, Japan should be spending $155 not $46, South Korea should be spending $64 not $46.4.
And indeed, we should be spending $1,090 not $742.2.
It's almost like only one country is seriously preparing for war in Asia...
D.C. knows that it can print more money any time it wants to, and on better quality paper, to solve major problems in times of crisis. Why should they worry when systemic racism and homophobia are causing Climate Change?
In the meantime: https://mrts.substack.com/p/when-you-have-to-rob-peter-to-pay?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1539405&post_id=144202777&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1i2jd&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
"D.C. knows that it can print more money any time"
It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble, it's what you think is that ain't so. The days of printing money are over, DC just doesn't know it yet.
DC is lucky in that the other currencies are worse.
It goes without saying that we need to increase defense spending across the board - it is the lowest it has ever been since WWII as a percentage of GDP. But good luck getting the Dems to spend on defense without requiring ruinous increases for domestic entitlements on top of what they already spent (spurring inflation). They are not better than the Germans or other socialist countries in Europe that don't want to spend on defense. That whole "Peace Dividend" BS from the 90s that put us here.
And Cdr. Sal, I know you feel a certain way, but you remind me of the guys who can find defeat in what are partial (yes) wins - being an absolutist. You are being overly negative as you lean into your criticism. I am not into self-licking ice cream cones, white washing or making apologies for mistakes, but it wasn't all stupid or for no reason nor is a calling every strategic repositioning a defeat very constructive. Stupid stuff like the way the Afghan withdrawal was done? Sure. And the collapse that we allowed by doing it that way sure makes everything we did prior to that seem futile. But that isn't the same as saying the Taliban or Al Qaeda kicked us out...we made decisions and they were executed poorly.
And yes, instead of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time - due to the lack of defense spending and available resources - we leaned into counter-terrorism at the expense of a focus on combined arms air/land/sea battle with peers/near peers. With all the problems, though, it isn't as if we don't remember and know what to do. We just need to spend the money necessary to make it happen. This was exacerbated by China/Russia feeding covert support into the terrorists and Pakistani ISI to keep us there and busy and with our eye off the bigger ball (not to mention, a lot of Chinese/Russian VIPs and oligarchs have a stake in the drug trade that was at the center of a lot of resistance to US due to our efforts to stop poppy growing that supplied tribal chiefs with money).
We have the list of what needs to be done, but one more time: missiles - lots and lots of missiles of all types to go on platforms and for reloads. We need to increase the Air wings, because we can do that faster (F-35, NGADs, B-21s) and they provide stand off defense, deterrence and attack options. They can't stand alone, but they are the tip of the spear that allow us to buy time and distance while reaching out and touching someone when necessary. Then the Navy - same concept, longer timeline. Plus all the logistics, supply and repair facilities that the Navy needs to sustain operations across the world in a conflict.
Hopefully we can get some old yards back in the game - best way to incentivize it is to open that yards with funding for immediate refurbishment of reserve ships and establishing an upgraded Naval reserve force to man them. Whatever we can use - not for every day missions, but upgraded, in port as reserves and ready to join the fleets for a year or two to give us some more hulls with missiles (first upgrade/repair propulsion and fueling, work on SPY-6 installation and comms (Link 16) while installing MK-41 or ADL Systems, etc.). This will allow us to stand up repair yards, get them funded (contract revenue), give them work to perfect systems and personnel acquistion/training while new designs/ships come on line.
Then, once we have the arms length defense, deterrence, offensive strike and air/sea dominance established again, the Army can be brought into fighting form. I'd like to see enough funding to do all at the same time, but - again - probably not with the weanies we have in DC. China will be an air and sea war, mostly, with ground troops in support (mostly Marines) while Russia in the EU would be Army/Air Force in air/land battle with a short battle of the Atlantic to ensure supplies and then get some carrier groups in the North Sea/Baltics for strike...but secondary to the land battle. Hopefully EU spending on their own ground forces would be enough to supplement us and deter Russia until we can get our ground forces restored.
Long post, I know. Sorry. It is the grocery list of action items, though...very high level.
"It is the grocery list of action items, though...very high level."
- And when it comes to the magnitude of the final sum total of that list? Along with quality of our leadership? Color me an absolutist like our host as well.
We too are going to follow in the footsteps of Jerome Barzetti
https://www.iconichistoricalphotos.com/the-weeping-frenchman/
I believe that was also the point of "spending a lot more" across all areas of defense, as I wrote. An absolutist, in this sense, is "well, everything wasn't perfect so we suck" basically. I beat the crap out of a guy, but he hit me a couple of times and I had to go do some other things and left - so even though he didn't make me leave, I lost. No, sorry, I don't see that.
As to the evaluation of the DC weanies in Congress and the Defense bureaucracy - including a lot of Flag officers - sure, I agree. They haven't done it yet and aren't talking like us. At this point if the Admirals (and other service leaders) weren't hopelessly politicized, we'd have another revolt to wake people up to all of this.
Time is growing thin, but as with Reagan in the 80s rebuilding our conventional capabilities and morale (nationally and in the military) - it can be done.
I believe we were probably more competent, less partisan and not quite as bureaucratic at the time among other such things as the industrial base. IMO? Ain't gonna happen.
Never know...leadership makes a difference.
The America of Ike and Reagan became an Obama nation.
Oh, I don't know...people still have common sense and seem to be coming around.
I don’t thinks so. The hooligans at Columbia and the kangaroos presiding over Trump’s case suggest otherwise.
A very small, but vocal, minority. Not you or I, right? Anybody you know running around saying "From the River to the Sea!" and other anti-Semitic BS?
They are running their games on Trump, but even if convicted any such conviction will all be overturned on appeal due to various defects (and the fake charges based on tortured interpretations and applications of statute). The Dems just wanted it all to happen before the election so he'd be tarred with the convictions long before the appeals could be completed to overturn the biased "convictions".
Super Hornets and F-15EX, too. But we need tankers and transports just as badly. Both air and sea ones.
If we just shipped more Army equipment to Ukraine, we could take care of the Russian threat for pennies on the dolor. We could spend like 5%-10% ish of defense spending on shipping weapons to Ukraine and then distribute the rest of the army budget to the USN, USAF and USMC and we would probably be better off on both fronts than we are now. (That's an extreme example, but I think you get the point)
As Sal has said numerous times, we are a maritime power, and we need to return to those roots.
A bonus for those afraid of the "deep-state": the first sessions of congress saw a standing continental army after independence as a threat to civil liberties, however they only really argued about the cost-benefit analysis of having a standing navy, and whether it should be made up of small costal defense ships or an ocean-going fleet comprised mostly of frigates. If you're interested in the early history of the USN, Ien W. Toll's "Six Frigates" is a compelling read even for (relative) naval history noobs.
But how is China's diversity and inclusion? What are they doing about climate change? Are they combating inequities? These are the actual priorities China should be focusing on.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/priorities/
Surprisingly North Korea does not show up on the graphic. Any reason as to why, or just smaller than $5.7B?
Just wait. That fuckery will show up.
An excellent summary by CDR Sal of everything we already know. The question now becomes What is to be done or What can be done?
I submit that nothing can or will be done because the people in power responsible for this mess will do everything they can to cling to power. Just watch the Soviet show trial going on in NYC. In fact, I suspect the members of the Deep State think they are doing a terrific job.
Like any alcoholic, America will have to hit rock bottom before she will turn herself around. We are heading toward a situation not unlike like China under Mao and the Gang of Four in the 70s and Russia under Gorbachev and Yeltsin in the 1990s.
Soviet show trial. What? What? Do you know anything about our legal system? Do you know anything about Donald Trump? Before he ever became president, it was well known that he would just refuse to pay small businesses and threaten them with lawyer. This was systematic. He is a known cheater and liar, and people know that before he ever became president. He's being prosecuted out of his mind because he has committed lots of crimes. Full stop. Now his bill is coming due.
You are so incredibly stupid that you are unworthy of a reply.
Please. If I am so wrong please educate me. I do my best not to be stubborn.
No way to educate a gender studies major from Columbia University. Go back to your pup tent.
Cut the personal insults. You don't know shit about me.
I am a registered republican shipping out to serve our nation later this year.
I am truly open to hearing you opinion. This is probably the best chance you will have to really change someone's mind on this week.
However, if you can't answer with anything but 6 different iterations of 'f*ck u' than I will have to conclude that I was right all along, and you are just a partisan hack job pulling stuff out of your ass.
Lynne Cheney Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush are also registered Republicans. You may discover that you are not serving our country but the uniparty and the globalists that likes to jail political opponents on ridiculous charges based on absurd legal principles. While you are over there please look for the WMD that I never found in Iraq.
I left you an answer upthread.
The key is Bill of Attainder.
Lol. I pity the fool.
Every recent trial in New York State is because they essentially played Bill of Attainder games in the State Assembly. - That should concern everyone no matter their politics.
Now there are rumors that boxes of classified materials found at Mar a Lago might have been sent by the GSA and seeded with classified materials. - That should concern everyone no matter their politics.
The Manhattan District Attorney investigating Trump, Pomerantz just pleaded the Fifth when asked under oath if he deliberately broke laws while investigating Trump. - That should concern everyone no matter their politics.
Thank you for the civil reply! Comments numbered based on order of introduction in your previous post:
1: Bills of Attender
I must confess that I had forgotten the significance of a 'Bill of Attender.' As I understand from reading Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 and your description, it sounds like the issue is that the NY assembly effectively declared that DJT is guilty of something without a trial. That would defiantly not be a good look. However this isn't just anyone, this is former president they are talking about. The difference is that the legislative branch is supposed to be a check on the executive branch, and an impeachment is basically the legislature declaring that the president or a judge (or some other official) is guilty of a crime, without a normal trial.
All that is kind of beside the point though because when I looked up "ny legislature bill of attender against trump" and what came up was:
i) an article discussing a proposed law to allow cameras in the court room (an effort that had been going on before this whole thing)
ii) an article discussing whether the NY legislature passed a law to allow Changed Its Laws So E. Jean Carroll Could Sue Trump.
iii) some other E. Jean Carroll stuff
iv) A article explaining that the NY law that allowed to Trump to be prosecuted was actually passed at the behest of a republican Attorney General some time ago.
The list goes on. Nowhere did I see anything besides laws that would make it easer to prosecute Trump, some of which were orchestrated by republicans in the past. Did I miss something here? I get the "NY legislature attacking former president" is kind of a bad a bad look, but an independent judiciary is supposed to make that issue irrelevant. Constitutional review and all that. We should remember that Attorney General is a political position, and just because someone is prosecuted for something doesn't mean they are guilty. Seach engines being biased and all that, am I missing something?
2: Mar-a-Lago classified docs
'Apparently' they GSA didn't pack any boxes, they just handled the shipping of a pallet of Trump's stuff to Mar-a-Lago when he left. As far as we know, there could have been tampering. However, if a bunch of boxes of documents labeled "classified" documents were shipped to my house, I would probably you know, talk to someone at a relevant government agency make sure I am allowed to have that stuff not hide it in a closet and deny access to law enforcement and said relevant government officials. Again, I'm not an expert but something about his DJT's response is makes me think he is culpable.
3: Pomerantz pleading the Fifth
Yeah, this looks verry suspicious. I've got nothing on this. Only that the 5th amendment was created for a reason. But then again, if he didn't have anything to hide, he must have realized how bad it looked to repeatedly invoked the 5th when under that questioning. So yeah. Doesn't look good.
Finally, there is defiantly stuff here that doesn't look good. However, without confirmation on 2 and 3 I don't think I'm convinced there is a widespread which hunt. That being said, I will defiantly be following all 3 of these stories going forward.
Thank you Jetcal1 for taking the time to answer my previous question, and to anyone else who read my reply.
They passed a law to change the statute of limitations.
"However this isn't just anyone, this is former president they are talking about." Irrelevant. It doesn't matter if it's the school custodian, or the President. You don't change laws to enable prosecution.
The National Archives screens all boxes and the Archivist signs a statement attesting that they have every single classified document. Nor can we attest to the chain of custody can we?
Remember the testimony about the Laptop is disinformation letter? Funny how that changed under oath ain't it?
"he has committed lots of crimes"
Unlike many of the other denizens of DC? "Slick Willie" et al., for instance. My favorite is former Speaker of the House and onetime Presidential candidate Dick Gebhardt. He owned a beachfront house and told the bank it was a vacation home so he would get a lower mortgage interest rate and told the IRS it was investment property so he could deduct maintenance expenses. So, tax fraud or bank fraud?
As Trump himself once declared, he knows how crooked "the swamp" is because he has been, as you say, part of it.
Absolutely. As I wrote somewhere else recently, we need to prioritize putting good, honest people in charge. Getting our preferred policy implemented should come second.
Another example of just blatant self dealing is Nancy Pelosi. She and her husband have gotten phenomenally wealthy playing the stock market with non-public information. When she was speaker I believe she blocked a bill that would have prevented members of congress form insider trading this way. The clip of her dismissing the idea of restricting congresspeople's stock trading makes my blood absolutely boil every time I see it. Congresspeople should just invest in broad index funds so they are tied to the success of the whole country like the rest of us. Technically, she isn't even committing a crime.
Ok rant over.
I guess I would buy the argument that DC is full of crooks, but I don't think that putting another one in charge or letting criminals walk free because "everyone is doing it" is going to fix anything. In fact, I think it normalizes the type of atrocious behavior we don't want to see. If you show evidence that someone I voted for is corrupt or a criminal, I will be walking in front of the grocery store the next day getting signatures for a recall election or impeachment petition and I hope other people like you who care will join me.
Take heart, my brothers. Much that is inevitable never happens. Remember with me the once mighty Soviet Union, destined to bury us, as Kruschev and many Western experts predicted. And a challenging foe they were. Until one day we all awoke to the news that they were no more.
The west has its problems, in no small part to our meddling adversary. The Chinese, on the other hand, have already lost the race to get wealthy before they get old. Now their dictatorship is racing to achieve power parity with the western world before they collapse due to demographic and fiscal catastrophe. They’ve got ships and they’ve got men. What they don’t have is 250 years of naval warfare and dominance knitted into their DNA.
As one of the French Emperors, Louis XIV I think, used to say: “We shall see.”