Pentagon bloat, etc. thread

[Vrede too]

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce that Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan will take over from Jim Mattis as acting secretary of defense as of Jan., a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters.

Patrick M. Shanahan:
No relevant education, just like Dolt .45.
No military service, just like the Chickenhawk in Chief.
Career merchant of death, Boeing. Ike is saying, "I warned you."

Also, O Really, University of Washington grad and Regent.

... He next served as senior vice president of Airplane Programs at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, beginning in December 2008.

In April 2016, he became senior vice president, Supply Chain & Operations, for Boeing.His responsibilities in that position included manufacturing operations and supplier management functions, carrying out advanced manufacturing technologies, and global supply chain strategies.

Shanahan was a member of the Boeing Executive Council.

Hmmm, Boeing 737 Max?

Trump's likely pick for Pentagon job makes 'trains run on time.' Can he do much more?

Does crashing soon after takeoff count against on time performance, or is that "landing" ahead of schedule?

Anyhow, Mussolini did not get the trains to run on time. That's a myth.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/loco-motive/

Great pick, 45SHOLE.

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Trump Budget Would Cut Spending for Nearly Every Agency Except Pentagon

... The budget peels back many of the promises the president made either on the campaign trail or in tweets. For instance, the president has stated an intention to pull back from military interventions in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere — but his budget insists on an even bigger military budget. And the cash flow to the Pentagon, combined with ongoing tax cuts for the rich, puts the lie to the idea that Republicans care about deficits and balanced budgets.

The budget calls for $750 billion in military spending, a nearly 5 percent increase over 2019 spending. And it calls for a 9 percent cut in all other discretionary spending, which covers nearly everything else — including priorities like education, affordable housing, environmental protection, scientific and medical research, public health, and diplomacy, among others — taking it from $597 billion in 2019 to $543 billion in 2020. The proposal also calls for additional cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Dismantling Government (But Not the Pentagon)

As in his past budgets, the president has proposed cutting budgets for nearly every government agency except the Pentagon, Homeland Security and Veterans’ Affairs, with few exceptions.

Under the president’s plan, the cuts just keep on coming: the Department of Education would take a 12 percent cut; the Department of Energy would take an 11 percent cut; Health and Human Services would be cut by 12 percent; Agriculture by 15 percent; Transportation by 22 percent and the State Department, a whopping 23 percent.

Within each of those departments are even deeper cuts to a select few agencies and programs. For example, the budget calls for a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, a long-running target for this administration, and a 31 percent cut to the Corps of Engineers, which prevents and addresses flood damage, among other functions.

The cuts also hit programs that Trump had promised not to touch. The proposal cuts Medicare by $846 billion over 10 years. It cuts Medicaid by nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years and replaces the lost funds with a $1.2 trillion “market-based” health care plan....

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence
Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City
(audio and transcript)



King, who had been a internationally known civil rights leader for the 12.5 years since the Montgomery bus boycott began, was assassinated on the one year anniversary of turning his attention to Vietnam and militarism. Coincidence? Perhaps.

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Which U.S. Congress Members Support Ending Which Wars

Yemen
Afghanistan
Syria
Korea
Venezuela

No recent bills:

Iraq
Somalia
Libya
Mali
Niger
Pakistan

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Revealed: The U.S. military's 36 code-named operations in Africa

[O Really]

So Lady O and I took a very nice walk along the Animus River trails in Farmining, NM.
At one section, there is a large pavilion, named the All Veterans Memorial https://farmingtonnm.org/listings/all-v ... orial-park

This memorial park recognizes veterans of all wars the US has fought in since the Revolutionary War. As you go along from one war to another, the monuments tell how many killed, how many wounded, etc. Maybe it wasn't the original intent, but the memorial overall just pointed out that in the history of the US, there has never been a shortage of wars, and that the US isn't the "peaceful nation" some think it is. Tellingly, at the end of the display, where the current Iraqi/Afghanistan war is, total killed/wounded has not been engraved yet. And just past that is another monument, blank, apparently just waiting for the next war.

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Trump officially puts military in charge of federal background checks

President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Wednesday officially making the U.S. military responsible for virtually all security background checks for millions of federal workers, the latest step by the administration to tackle a daunting backlog of security clearance cases.

The order calls for the National Background Investigations Bureau, currently under the civilian Office of Personnel Management, to be absorbed by the Department of Defense under a reorganized, and renamed, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

Though Congress mandated in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that a majority of the investigative bureau's caseload be transferred to the Defense Department in phases, Wednesday’s order lifts the entire bureau -- and the 95 percent of all federal background checks it processes -- and places it all under military authority....

Are we becoming a military dictatorship when we give the Pentagon control of critical HR functions and data?

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17 Years, 41 Military Operations, 19 Countries. It’s Time to Repeal the 2001 AUMF

[neoplacebo]

Saw a story on Yahoo news this morning that says a US carrier force and some bombers are being sent to "the Middle East" as a show of resolve to Iran. The story had a photo of the perennially stupid John Bolton along with some quotes from his cleverly concealed mouth. Not sure if Netanyahu ordered this but would not be surprised; trump will welcome any conflict or issue that will detract from his more personal problems.

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"A new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that in 2018, the nations of the world spent over $1.8 trillion on its militaries. The United States remained by far the top military spender, at 36% of the world's total ($649 billion). China was the second-largest spender, at $250 billion."

TRENDS IN WORLD MILITARY EXPENDITURE, 2018

Sign on to H. Res. 302, Supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

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Colbert paraphrased: NK nukes, US-engineered coup in Venezuela, looming war with Iran and WTF Syria? - Who do we need reassuring us from the Pentagon podium?



https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation ... 77459.html

[1 CAT FAN]

There's only one Nation

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Elizabeth Warren unveils plan to stop 'corruption' at the Pentagon

Note that "stop 'corruption'" is the headline writer's phrase and does not appear in a Warren quote or even in the article. Rather, these are long overdue common sense ideas that will enhance accountability and fiscal responsibility for our most bloated and wasteful agency.

[neoplacebo]

Elizabeth Warren unveils plan to stop 'corruption' at the Pentagon

Note that "stop 'corruption'" is the headline writer's phrase and does not appear in a Warren quote or even in the article. Rather, these are long overdue common sense ideas that will enhance accountability and fiscal responsibility for our most bloated and wasteful agency.

I started laughing at "common sense ideas that will enhance accountability." That pretty much guarantees that it won't go anywhere. I read just the other day that the Pentagon found something like 9 billion dollars that they can now do whatever they want to with. At the time I thought this was a dangerous thing to say; trump could lose that much money in two days and Fox News would swoon over the sheer idea of it. Where logic is an enemy and truth is a menace......twilight zone.

[Vrede too]

I started laughing at "common sense ideas that will enhance accountability." That pretty much guarantees that it won't go anywhere. I read just the other day that the Pentagon found something like 9 billion dollars that they can now do whatever they want to with. At the time I thought this was a dangerous thing to say; trump could lose that much money in two days and Fox News would swoon over the sheer idea of it. Where logic is an enemy and truth is a menace......twilight zone.

I did not predict success , at least not before 2021 and maybe not then. Certain that it will never happen if Dem candidates shun talking about it.

[O Really]

I did not predict success , at least not before 2021 and maybe not then. Certain that it will never happen if Dem candidates shun talking about it.

Once the Republicans managed to change the entire concept of the military/industrial complex to "defense" and made every useless excursion an exercise in "protecting our country" then meaningful reform was doomed. Republicans are much better at branding and building word associations than Dems, and it's not going to be possible anytime soon to make people willing to attack "the brave heroes of our greatest military..."

[Vrede too]

Once the Republicans managed to change the entire concept of the military/industrial complex to "defense" and made every useless excursion an exercise in "protecting our country" then meaningful reform was doomed. Republicans are much better at branding and building word associations than Dems, and it's not going to be possible anytime soon to make people willing to attack "the brave heroes of our greatest military..."

Harry Truman (D) changed the name to Department of Defense.

"Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing heavily on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive."

The only sane, honest, pro-democracy, fiscally responsible and truly patriotic pols are Dem, but there's little difference on foreign and military policy between the Repugs and many other Dems. That's why we need strong leadership from pols like Warren, and the effort still may fail.

[O Really]

Harry Truman (D) changed the name to Department of Defense.

Yes, but that was only part of the problem. Even with that, the "Pentagon" and all it represents wasn't very popular during/after Vietnam. Now "the military" is synonymous with "the brave young men and women who risk their lives to save Amurica and the Amurican way of life..."

[Vrede too]

Agreed, we need more heroes like Warren, Manning and Snowden.

[O Really]

Agreed, we need more heroes like Warren, Manning and Snowden.

Right - well, one out of three anyway.

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