2023 Defense Bill

The NDAA is a policy bill that sets policy and authorizes appropriations for the Department of Defense and other defense-related activities. It does not provide budget authority for government activities. 

Though the bill is an annual that has to be written each year, something drove me to look at the 2023 authorization.

On December 23, 2022, President Biden signed the bilateral, bicameral 2023 Defense Authorization Bill (Wiki article) into law.

Link to National Defense Authorization Act dot gov webpage for 2023 bill. The 4,409 page bill can be accessed directly.

A brief description.

A summary of the bill (pdf)

I tumbled into this warren when I stumbled upon an article about the Navy's problem child, the Littoral Combat Ship progeam.

Austal USA is the lead contractor for The Program. In this March 26, 2024 article,  attendees at the Surface Navy Association  National symposium are invited to "share" their disrespect for the program (excerpt below). Insatiably curtious (as was Elephant's Child), I wondered who is supporting it and why?

The Littoral Combat Ship was meant to start the Navy’s operational renaissance. But a chorus of naysayers and critics have put service leaders on the defensive, insisting that the troubled program has turned a corner

A recent panel discussion on the ship at the Surface Navy Association’s national symposium began by asking its audience for a show of hands.

"Raise your hand if you’ve ever said something bad about the Littoral Combat Ship,” the panel host said. “Raise your hand if you’re still saying bad things about the Littoral Combat Ship.”

Perhaps more significant than the sea of hands and knowing laughter was the fact that a panel focused on the program’s merits began by acknowledging its unpopularity.

This article describes Austal giving a delegation of high-ranking Marine Corp personnel and Congressmen a tour of the Mobile, Alabama shipyard on March 3, 2023.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2023

This Feb., 24 2022 report from the Gov Acctng Office (GAO) lists a number of problems with the program and gives the Navy's estimate of $60B to fund it (it doesn't say over what period of time).

Kenneth Braithwaite (Wiki article) was nominated by President Donald Trump^[22] to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Norway. His nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 21, 2017, by voice vote.^[22]

On November 24, 2019, after the firing of Richard V. Spencer, Trump appointed Braithwaite to become the U.S. secretary of the Navy. He was formally nominated on March 2, 2020,^[23] confirmed by voice vote on May 21,^[24] and sworn in on May 29, 2020.^[25][26][27]

In his 8 months as Secretary of the Navy, Braithwaite incurred approximately $2.4 million in travel costs paid by taxpayer funds. At the time, other senior civilian staff reduced their travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Braithwaite travelled more than any other senior Pentagon civilian. The week prior to Joe Biden's inauguration, Braithwaite spent $232,000 to fly to Wake Island, a tiny atoll where no sailors or Marines are stationed. He spent more than $24,000 to attend the Army–Navy football game. He made more than one visit to Hawaii during his 8 months. Braithwaite defended his extensive travel at taxpayer expense, saying, "I submit it's impossible to lead men and women deployed around the world from behind a desk in Washington."^[28]

Richard V. Spencer was fired for not following chain of command in the Edward Gallager case.

Edward R. Gallager was accused of murdering an ISIS operative. Charges were eventually dropped.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024 includes non-defense related authorizations, such as: 

 

Human trafficking

Requires a plan to counter human trafficking operations, including those by transnational criminal organizations 

 

Border wall materials

Requires the Department of Defense to reutilize, transfer, or donate any border wall construction materials 

 

Maritime domain awareness

Directs a strategy to improve maritime domain awareness and interdiction capabilities to counter seaborne threats in the Middle East 

 

Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative

Modifies the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to add an additional two-year period of performance 

 

Training Eastern European national security forces

Extends the authority to train Eastern European national security forces, and includes Cyprus among the countries eligible to receive training 

 

Engagement with Armenia

Encourages DOD to strengthen engagement with Armenia 

 

Study on commerciality

Requires DoD to conduct a study on the feasibility and advisability of establishing a default determination that acquired products and services are commercial 

And curiously of all....

this year's bill includes the Unidentified Anomolous Phenomena amendment. 

$883.7B

2024 Defense bill (pdf download)

Unauthorized Immigrants - Idaho

Original article from News From The States.

Report mentioned in article above describes Idaho’s unauthorized workforce and how their work, spending and taxes relate to Idaho’s economy. 

The true story about why and how Haitian immigrants came to Springfield by The Springfield News-Sun - 20.Sept.24

Trump's Legacy

Given my impotence, I've ignored politics. But it was impossible to ignore Shreve Stockton's mention in her book Meditations With Cows (pp. 143-148) of President Trump's gift to farmers in 2019 to compensate them for losses incurred when his tariff increases prompted China to buy their commodities from elsewhere.

(As a johnnie-come-lately, this post is no diff from any others; it's a means of keeping track.)

Here's what Rueter's had to say.

The above story inna nut shell...

After a series of tariff increases on Chinese imports, the government of China retaliated against U.S. exporters and U.S. exports, particularly of agricultural goods, dropped significantly. “Losing the world’s most populous country as an export market has been a major blow to the [U.S.] agriculture industry,” reported the New York Times in August 2019. “Total American agricultural exports to China were $24 billion in 2014 and fell to $9.1 billion last year, according to the American Farm Bureau.” The article with the quote disappeared from The Farm Bureau website on 22.Sept.24.

This article states that China's latest retaliation covers nearly 90% of America's agricultural exports!!!  In 2018, U.S. farmers’ soybean exports to China declined by 75%, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Politico.com's article on the farm bailout

Prompted by the above articles to look further into Trump's legacy, I found this article from The Pew Research Center that lists some items clearly. Below are the main points.

"Trump’s policy record included major changes at home and abroad. He achieved a string of long-sought conservative victories domestically, including the biggest corporate tax cuts on record, the elimination of scores of environmental regulations and a reshaping of the federal judiciary. In the international arena, he imposed tough new immigration restrictions, withdrew from several multilateral agreements, forged closer ties with Israel and launched a tit-for-tat trade dispute with China as part of a wider effort to address what he saw as glaring imbalances in America’s economic relationship with other countries."

Delving the archives, I read of the revolving door of his cabinet along with Mr. Tillerson's seeming disatisfaction.

Oct 4, 2017 - NBC News article about Rex Tillerson

Asked whether the president still has confidence in Tillerson, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Monday that he does.

Trump has already seen an unusually high level of turnover in his administration, with the departures of his national security adviser, deputy national security adviser, his chief of staff, press secretary, communications director — twice — his chief strategist, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the acting head of the Justice Department. Last Friday Trump accepted the resignation of Tom Price, the Health and Human Services secretary.

Slate's comment on "the Tillerson" name-calling.

August, 2, 2024 - Los Angeles Times

By M.L. Cavanaugh

When I was an officer in the U.S. military, I abstained from voting in national elections, one small way to keep the armed forces nonpartisan. Now, to uphold that same value and prevent the military from becoming a political tool, I believe that in November, everyone — civilians, service members, veterans, everyone — should vote for whoever has the best chance to keep Donald Trump out of office.

This is not a political statement. This is a strategic judgment based on fitness to lead — both to defend the United States and to protect the civilian-military balance that has enabled our nation to become the greatest in history.

Today’s U.S. military is the world’s most powerful weapon, and in the wrong hands it could become a potent political tool as well. This weapon must not be placed under an unfit commander in chief, as the former president showed himself to be during the previous administration and as he has vowed to be again if he regains power.

I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but an American who has fought in the forces that guard our country and our way of life, in the words of our military’s Code of Conduct. I fought in Iraq, earned two Bronze Stars and taught military strategy at West Point. My commitment to military values and nonpartisanship hasn’t changed since I rejoined civilian life. What’s changed is the choice presented in American politics. There really isn’t one, because one of the two major-party presidential candidates is clearly, demonstrably, irredeemably unfit to serve as commander in chief.

THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

Tracking turnover in the Trump administration by Kathryn Dunn Tempas

A Trump compatriot - Guo Wengui  (see section: G News and GTV)

A former compatriot & friend of Guo's - Steve Bannon

Bannon's involvement with the We Build the Wall gofundme & Trump's pardon

Election Violence

Since gun sales are what's been shoring up our GNP for the past thirty years, I thought to look into surmisals about the possibility of violence after the election.

Though there's a fair amount, I chose to note the opinions in this article in the July 31, 2024 Harvard Gazette.

The article references a panel discussion (link is to Youtube) convened by the Ash Center for Governance and Innovation and moderated by Erica Chenowith, academic dean for faculty engagement and the Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Sarah Birch, professor of political science at King’s College, London, studies violence in emerging democracies, primarily in Africa. Author of Electoral Violence, Corruption, and Political Order, her research suggests that "when it {violence} does happen it is not orchestrated by political elites."

Chenoweth noted an “overwhelming majority of Americans … categorically reject using violence to achieve domestic political ends under basically any circumstance,” citing poll numbers in the high 80 percent range. 

A recent poll, found that 10 percent of participants said “use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president,” and seven percent supported the use of force “to restore Trump to the presidency.”

(In case it doesn't occur to you, that means 90% were against using force to prevent Trump from becoming president and 93% opposed the use of force to restore him to the presidency. Regardless, the majority are opposed to violence.)

Most threats, the panelists agreed, are simply designed to intimidate.

Hardy Merriman, president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict concurred, "In general, there are lots of people who threaten and never enact political violence, and there are some people who enact political violence and never threaten."

This makes sense, he explained: "If you were serious, why would you tip people off with threats?” 

Poli-tick

 

13.Sept.24

After Anon commented, I looked up Kennedy. In the Wiki article it mentions one of his & Trump's major supporters is Timothy Mellon. Wiki estimates Timothy's worth at 14.1B. His Wiki page describes some of his political donations. 

One can only assume similar dollar amounts are flying around the other candidates. With that kind of money, it's hard to imagine ANY of them care about us little people...the fodder for the machine.

Capitol Siege Cases

George Washington University in Washington D.C., maintains a website with the litigation status of the Capitol Siege rioters.

Main Page

Here is an alphabetized list of the cases with details of the incident, charges and verdict.

Here's the text and photos from the case of the wearer of the fur hat: Alam, Zackary 

A media article describing some of Alam's offences and behavior.

American Democracy: thirtieth on the Economist's List

Economist’s Democracy Index labeled Taiwan a “full democracy” for the first time. In 2022, the index named Taiwan [PDF] the world’s tenth-most-democratic country, ranking it higher than its Asian neighbors (Japan ranked sixteenth and South Korea ranked twenty-fourth) and the United States, which was thirtieth. Recent elections have seen high voter turnout.

See the last paragraph in the section headed:

Has Beijing undermined Taiwan’s democracy?

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-taiwan-relations-tension-us-policy-biden