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As I write this the US has become diplomatically and militarily disengaged from Afghanistan. The pundits are already saying, “we lost another war.”  Did we? 

The 9/11 attack was a wake-up call for America.  Up to that point no one wanted to say the words, “global war on terrorism”.  But there it was, an enemy we could not defeat at our borders; we needed to take the fight overseas.

We had to go after their leaders and planners. We had to interdict their training areas. We had to restrict their movements and cut off their finances.  

Many of the tentacles of the 9/11 attack lead back to Afghanistan to Osama bin-Laden, al Qaeda, and the training and planning areas supported by the Taliban. Enter the US military with a specific mission; reduce the likelihood that terrorists could/would attack the US again killing thousands more.

 Has the military accomplished that mission?  Yes, they have and in the process of fighting that “war” many service members came home in a flag-draped coffin or with life-changing mental and physical damages.  The question will always be asked, was it worth it?  That is a rhetorical question because we will never know the answer to the question, what would the terrorists have done to us if we had not gone on the offensive? 

So, if we accomplished the mission, why are we leaving such a mess in Afghanistan? Fair question.  

First, when we arrived in Afghanistan there was no standing military force to be defeated; we could have accomplished that in days.  The enemy was the men tending to their livestock or working in the fields during the day and at night they were building bombs and mining roads and trails. There was no clear picture as to what to blow up and who to kill.

Secondly, when we arrived, we found a country little changed over perhaps hundreds of years. We found a culture of religious fanatics who treated all females like pieces of property. We found a Muslim nation with a deep-seated belief that it was their sacred duty to be part of a world-wide holy war; the Jihad.

Given that set of circumstances the US did what it has historically done; morphed the mission into nation-building. We set out to build schools, medical facilities, a free democratic government, freedom of expression and a military sufficient to challenge the Taliban.

Has it worked?  Not very well.  Why?  We have for years battled against a deep-seated culture. For example, government outreach and central control is an anathema to a people that are a multiethnic and mostly tribal society.   Their first allegiance is to their tribal leaders.

We took it upon ourselves to challenge their culture, their way of life. Women there will still be subjected to Sharia law and its gruesome consequences with thousands of cases where women are physically tortured, beaten, mutilated, burned alive, forced to marry at a very early age, raped or sold into prostitution.

Afghanistan is a corrupt nation at every level and in all their dealings to the point that corruption is culturally acceptable.   Could we change all that in 20 years?

Change of subject, how could the US withdrawal have been handled differently and perhaps more successfully?  First, why announce it to the world with an end date of 9/11 as if it will be a celebratory event?  Given the announcement the Taliban quite naturally dusted off their nation-wide take-over plan.

The summer is the fighting season for the Taliban, when their ability to conduct operations is at its highest level.  The drawdown should have been done in the winter without an announcement.

A different scenario might have looked like this: When men and equipment began to be moved out of an area, the Taliban would immediately take notice and put together a quick operation to retake the area.  When the Taliban showed up, we could have initiated a pre-planned counter offensive and slammed the invaders with everything we have and ensured the Afghan military was a big part of the operation.  Create a morale-boosting win for the Afghanistan troops.  Create confidence in the minds of locals that they can be protected. Create a belief in the minds of the Taliban that retaking the country will be difficult and costly. 

Did we lose the war?  We accomplished the military mission.  Were we there too long?  Maybe not long enough if Afghanistan again becomes an Iran-financed exporter of terrorist activities targeting the US.  Did we leave them an adequate military force to counter the Taliban?  We know how to do a superior job of training but we can’t make them want to fight.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

If you stood on a street corner handing out dollar bills, one dollar every second, you would have to stand there 12,600 years to dispense 400 billion dollars. “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money” is famously attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen in the 1960s. Times have certainly changed, now politicians throw around trillion-dollar figures like it is of little consequence.  I will get back to the $400 billion story shortly.

Since the Biden inauguration we have been deluged with progressive plans:  The American Rescue Plan, The American Family Plan, The American Jobs Plan.  Good public relations titles but what do they mean and where are they taking us?

THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN, $1.9 trillion, over 600 pages:  The Biden administration led us to believe it was to stimulate the economy, fight COVID-19 and help those most in need.  Keep in mind that this was the third act by Congress to address pandemic issues.  The CARES Act, March 2020 authorized $2 trillion to do deal with COVID-19 relief.  And in December 2020 Congress added another $833 billion.

Why the March 2021 American Rescue Plan?  The US economy was not in recession, unemployment had fallen to 6.2%. There was no economic crisis to alleviate and only about 75% of the previous $2.8 trillion COVID relief had been spent.  It is estimated that 95% of the March 2021 “relief” package will actually be spent after 2021, after the economy has recovered and after unemployment drops further.  And, as we have discovered, the “relief” in terms of increased unemployment benefits has become a plague to small businesses who are again open for business but cannot find enough workers. 

One example of questionable “rescue” in The American Rescue Plan is child tax credit rescue.  $3,600 for each child under age 6; for each child ages 6 to 16, it’s increased from $2,000 to $3,000. It also makes 17-year-olds eligible for the $3,000 credit. This includes families making $150,000 per year.  This is not a “safety net” for the poor, it is designed to pull the middle class into a dependency mind-set for government handouts.

What we now know is the American Rescue Plan was just the beginning of a colossal spending spree by the Biden Administration and the Democrat -controlled Congress.   

AMERICAN FAMILIES PLAN, $1.8 trillion dollars:  Generally, it includes four new programs:  1) Two years of free pre-kindergarten; 2) Virtually free child care for everyone; 3) Paid family and medical leave; 4) Two years of free community college.  Three comments:

First of all, they are not “free”. Second, President Biden’s sales pitch is that, “they will create jobs and growth”.  How?  Third, the defining word never used by the proponents is “entitlements” but that is what they are or will become. Entitlements can be a scourge on the nation forever.

• Entitlements always start small but rapidly grow.  Medicaid was once a safety-net program but now, for example, covers 37% of Californians. Medicare started as a program for seniors; democrats now want to cover everyone over age 55 while the socialists want Medicare for all.  Social security benefits have steadily increased since the program began in 1935. Food stamps and nutrition programs started as help for the poor, now cover tens of millions.

• In 2019 entitlements consumed 56% of the federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office tells us spending on the three big entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is growing unchecked on autopilot. By 2028, spending on these programs will claim over 73 percent of all federal revenues. These programs are simply unsustainable in their current form and the new entitlements in President Biden’s expanded welfare-state will exacerbate the whole entitlement issue.  

• Another downside is that the growth of entitlements will, without fail, negatively impact financing for national security issues such as military readiness. For example, at the end of the Obama/Biden administrations the US Army had exactly one “fully combat ready” brigade and 50% of Air Force and Navy combat aircraft could not get off the ground.

• Entitlement reform is a recurring Congressional idea but it just never happens.

THE AMERICAN JOBS PLAN, aka the Infrastructure Bill, $2.3 trillion, from a 12,000-page White House fact sheet:   The Biden administration says the plan, “….is a historic investment that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China”. 

Infrastructure as many people think of it (construction or improvement of bridges, highways, roads, ports, waterways, and airports) accounts for only about $157 billion, or 7%, of the plan’s estimated cost. So, what is the other 93%? Here are some examples.

$400 billion to solidify community-based care for aging and disabled Americans. Please go back to the opening paragraph to get reacquainted with what $400 billion dollars represents. My purpose here is not to debate the merits or deficiencies of the proposed program but rather to point out that a US commitment to spend $400 billion should not be buried inside an infrastructure or any other bill.  Where is the committees’ reports on this?  Where is the input from experts testifying before those committees?  Is there any national debate or polling on the issue? What are the reasons for not having this as a stand-alone bill? Have those voting on the bill even read it?  What the hell has happened to the legislative process? 

$300 billion would give targeted aid to manufacturers and small businesses across industries, regardless of any infrastructure connection. Ditto the questions in the previous paragraph. 

$180 billion for public investment in technology and research and development including $50 billion for the National Science Foundation to establish a “technology directorate”.  This is not about infrastructure.  Again, if worthy, write a stand-alone bill and debate it.

Additionally, the fact sheet says the plan “tackles inequities based on gender,” though it doesn’t say how. 

An added note on the Jobs Plan, aka the Infrastructure Bill, $2.3 trillion:  The infrastructure plan in the Senate has, for some time, been undergoing bipartisan negotiations; meaning Republican Senators are insisting the Democrats strip out various tax and spending proposals that have nothing to do with “infrastructure”.  While the Democrats are agreeing to some of the Republican demands, the issues being weeded out are being stuffed into the Democrat’s follow-on $3.5 trillion dollar budget reconciliation bill. That turn of events is what has prompted Speaker Pelosi to insist that the House will not vote on an Infrastructure Bill until the $3.5 Budget Reconciliation Bill has also passed the Senate.  The Democrats want it all and have figured out how to make it happen. 

THE $3.5 BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL:  As if all of the above is not a disaster in the making, President Biden and Congressional Democrats have come to an agreement on an additional $3.5 trillion budget package. They are calling it the “Human Infrastructure” budget proposal.

If passed it would be the largest budget in US history. The broad provisions address climate change and expanded Medicare.  Included would be federally-funded child care, home care, housing investments as well as a $120 billion “pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants”; aka amnesty.  One hundred and twenty billion dollars!!

Amnesty for illegal immigrants has the potential to become the largest domestic disaster in our history.  The signal amnesty would send around the world would unleash a stampede of millions to US borders. Amnesty would set a precedent and precedent is a powerful force that once put in place cannot be erased in the minds of those planning to be physically in the US and in line for the second round of amnesty. 

Included in the $3.5 trillion package would be an unleashing of major elements of the Green New Deal. These initiatives would likely ravage the existing fossil fuels industry prematurely and, experts believe, result in severe power shortages across America. 

The Democrats expect to get the $3.5 trillion package through Congress by using a back-door provision.  That is, rather than try to get 60 votes in the Senate this bill will be processed as “budget reconciliation”. As opposed to needing 60 votes reconciliation bills need only a simple majority. This bill is expected to pass the House by a party majority and the Senate with the Vice President breaking the 50-50 party tie.

WHERE ARE THE RESCUE PLAN, FAMILY PLAN, JOBS PLAN AND THE 3.5 TRILLION DOLLAR PLAN TAKING US AND WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

• This array of Democrat proposals represents the largest re-working of the American economy and federal funding since FDR’s New Deal. 

• This incomprehensible amount of money must come from somewhere and that is from American taxpayers.  But “soaking the rich”, increased capital gains tax, increased corporate taxes, wealth taxes, death taxes and ultimately taxing the middle-class etc. are not without downsides for the country.  The current inflation spike is driving up every-day costs for all Americans and is considered by many economists to be a direct result of this reckless spending.

• All of the thousands of individual programs in these legislative actions will automatically require thousands of pages of new government regulations which will in turn require thousands of bureaucrats in new and/or larger government departments and agencies.

• “Government mandated” will become the everyday bi-line for Americans with out-of-control regulatory restrictions and unfathomable bureaucratic oversight for everyone, every day.  Initiative, innovation and the American dream has guided us to the top of the world in terms of opportunity, standard of living, freedom and justice.  All of that is in jeopardy with big-government becoming out-of-control bigger.

• In a welfare-state, disincentivized upward mobility and equity become the norm, displacing the freedom to be all you can be.

• Americans will find themselves, at every stage in their lives, passing from one set of government controls to another.  

• The Congressional Budget Office has pointed out that federal investment is grossly inefficient. It produces half the return of private sector investment and it reduces state and local government investment that otherwise would come into play

• In 2019, pre-pandemic median household income grew 6.8% with higher increases among blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women. Unemployment for these classes hit historic lows. The Democrat’s socialist economic growth-inhibitor agenda will kill all of that momentum.

• The pandemic has provided new insights into Americans, one of the most revealing is that a government check can disincentivize millions from going back to work.

• “Tax and spend” was the baseline for the Obama/Biden administration for eight years and it was an economic disaster. When the economy is over-regulated, over-supervised and over-taxed there will always be very limited GDP growth.  When the economy grows everyone wins.  In 2017 taxes were cut, deregulation was set in motion, the economy grew, wages went up, family income went up, unemployment hit historic lows for minorities and women.  This resulted in the greatest federal revenue in history in 2019.  Growth, not increased taxation is the path to success. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

THE FUTURE IS NOW AND ITS UGLY

By about 4 p.m. on 20 January 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order that threw the oil and gas industry into turmoil.   In part it was a 60-day suspension of new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits for U.S. lands and waters. This served two purposes for the new administration; first it was an obvious gotcha to reverse Trump policies on energy. Secondly, it was a gift to the environmentalists and climate-change advocates.

BACKGROUND:  Throughout much of its history, the United States has imported more petroleum than it has exported. A report, February, 2021 by The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) tells us that, “2020 marked the first year that the United States exported more petroleum than it imported on an annual basis. Unfortunately, thanks to President Biden, EIA expects the United States to return to being a net petroleum importer on an annual basis in 2021.”

Was this immediate knee-jerk policy well thought out?  Had there been any debate in Congress?  Did President Biden or his handlers know, on the afternoon of 20 January, what the US public reaction would be? No. 

What it ended up to be is Bidens first new “tax” (a rose by any other name…..) and it has negatively impacted every single American.  In six months, crude oil prices are up 54% and the price for gasoline at the pump has skyrocketed.  Additionally, transportation costs for every single product we buy has gone up because, at some point, every single product comes out of the back of a gas/diesel guzzling truck.  Result, higher prices for everything for everyone. 

But beyond US gasoline prices, the unanticipated consequences are more far-reaching with huge national security implications.

THE US STANDING IN THE WORLD OF OIL:  It has taken the US about 50 years to overcome our dependency on foreign oil.  For the leading nation in the fee world, “dependency” is not a good place to be. It reduces or negates leverage that we need in dealing with other countries and regions. Here is a prime example of what can happen when we are dependent on others to supply us with petroleum.   

OIL EMBARGO:  Many of you will not remember the 1973 oil embargo.  There was a nation-wide gasoline shortage, long lines at the pump, lots of inconvenience but beyond that, the geopolitical implications were huge.   

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo against the United States in retaliation for the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military and to gain leverage in the post-Arab-Israeli war peace negotiations.

The price of oil per barrel first doubled, then quadrupled, imposing skyrocketing costs on consumers around the world.

 U.S. allies in Europe and Japan had stockpiled oil supplies, and thereby secured for themselves at least a short-term cushion. These circumstances precipitated a rift within the Atlantic Alliance. European nations and Japan found themselves in the uncomfortable position of needing U.S. assistance to secure energy sources, even as they sought to disassociate themselves from US Middle East policy. 

In response to these developments, on November 7, 1973 the Nixon administration announced Project Independence to promote domestic energy independence. It has taken us about 50 years to get there. Forecasters expect US net imports of crude oil to increase from its 2020 average of 2.7 million barrels per day (b/d) to 3.7 million b/d in 2021 and 4.4 million b/d in 2022.”

OIL AND GEOPOLITICS:  That short history lesson brings us back to today’s geopolitical situation.  Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.  The Iranian Supreme Leader has for years declared openly that it is Iran’s duty to destroy America and Israel. Iran is our enemy. 

After the Obama/Biden 2015 Iran Peace Treaty was in place, Iran’s GDP grew 12.3%, much of that growth was attributed to the oil and gas industry.  Iran’s support to global terrorist groups was at an all-time high, spending as much as $700 million per year to support global terrorism.

US sanctions on Iran, imposed by President Trump in 2018, caused Iran’s GDP to drop by 4.8% in 2018 and 9.5% in 209 according to the International Monetary Fund. Additionally, the IMF estimated that inflation soared to 30.5% in 2018 and 35.7% in 2019. Iran was crippled economically as were their contributions to terrorists.

President Biden has returned to the bargaining table with Iran. Iran’s leaders have already taken advantage of a less hostile climate, reviving petroleum sales, increasing production almost 20% in 2020 to 2.4 million barrels a day in April, up by 1,30,000 barrels per day from March. Iran could increase production to almost 4 million barrels a day in three to six months.

When President Trump cancelled the Obama/Biden deal with Iran, senior Iranian officials admitted that after signing the US/Iran deal they never ceased operations to produce a nuclear weapon. But Biden is so committed to reviving the deal as part of his anti-Trump agenda that in recent weeks, during six meetings with Iranian negotiators, the US has already indicated they will lift sanctions in return for “nuclear compliance”. What nuclear compliance? Iran has admitted being capable of having a bomb within six months; which probably means they already have one.  Decreased sanctions will only lead to a stronger and more aggressive Iran, increased global terrorism and a more destabilized Middle East.  There is an old saying, “if you want a deal bad enough, that’s what you will get, a bad deal.”

One additional note on Iran’s nuclear weapons:  Iran will probably never admit that they have a nuclear weapon because Israel has repeatedly vowed to do everything possible to destroy it.  Furthermore, if Israel did launch a first-strike that would provide Iran an excuse to attack Israel.  All of this is very destabilizing for the Middle East region.   

Note to President Biden: oil isn’t just about leases on US public land and pandering to your environmentalist base; it is a global issue and our soon-to-be dependency puts the US at an enormous disadvantage and, by extension, at greater risk.   

IRAN/AFGHANISTAN CONNECTION:  We can foresee a whole new set of problems emerging.

The Taliban have been sweeping through Afghanistan as the US and other forces pull out of the country and Afghan security forces surrender or flee.  Additionally, within the past few days, the Taliban secured the main border crossing into Iran.

Just a few weeks ago, published estimates were that the Taliban might be in control of the capital, Kabul, within three years.  Reality is, Kabul, a city of at least six million people, is already falling.  The Taliban have blown up the power infrastructure, there are serious issues with the water supply and the city is being overrun with refugees from adjoining provinces; a humanitarian disaster in the making.  

In spite of being the most benevolent nation on earth for the past century, there is no shortage of enemies that want to take us down.  I believe there are four enemies at the top of the list.  Iran, as pointed out above, North Korea, Russia and China.

IRAN/AFGHANISTAN POTENTIAL:  Given the gravity of the overall situation in that region, one could build a credible argument that Afghanistan, with Iran’s direction and support, could once again become a safe haven for terrorists and terrorist training thereby ratcheting up the global war on terror with a particular focus on taking down the United States. 

NORTH KOREA:  Their foreign minister, speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, September 2017, warned that a strike against the US mainland is “inevitable”. This from a rogue nation which has, for many years, been starving its people in order to spend whatever it takes to develop a nuclear weapon, an intercontinental ballistic missile to carry it and/or a submarine capable of launching a short-range missile on an unsuspecting enemy.

North Korea is estimated to have approximately 30-40 nuclear weapons plus a significant quantity of chemical and biological weapons. Are they capable of attacking the US?  Yes, but why would they?  What greater bragging rights could “The Great Leader” Kim Jong-Un garner than having taken down the great and powerful United States?  Reason enough?  Enough to worry about and do something about it as President Trump did in 2018.

Kim Jong-Un threatened America in the UN speech and President Trump went on the offensive, setting up a one-on-one meeting with Kim in Singapore.  Imagine the private conversation they must have had concerning the “inevitable” NK strike against the US. It might have gone something like this as President Trump handed Kim a close-up, clear, 8-10 photo of Kim on his big white stallion riding at his sea-side retreat: “Kim, we know where you are 24/7 and can reach out to you on a moment’s notice.  Just thought you should know.”

Delivery of those weapons is North Korea’s main problem.   President Trump confronted Kim personally and conveyed a strong message that missile testing is a bad idea.  Now, after only 4 ½ months into the Biden Administration North Korea is at it again. On 4 May, they fired a new type of solid-fuel short range ballistic missile and tested two separate multiple rocket launch systems. Biden’s reaction, “We will respond if North Korea escalates.”  Well, Mr. Biden, renewed missile testing is escalation!

RUSSIA:  The US has been Russia’s nemesis for the past 75 years; we engaged them in a Cold War for about 50 of those years at tremendous expense to the US.  Putin would like nothing better that to see the US fall. 

Putin and his crowd probably at least had knowledge of the pipeline cyberattack in May, 2021.  Whatever the case it was an excellent trial balloon with no ramifications. Proof of concept.

At their meeting in June, President Biden handed Putin a list of 16 critical infrastructure targets that, “should be off-limits to attack, period, by cyber or any other means.”  When the world is becoming more and more concerned about cyber warfare, should Biden be so naïve that he believes Putin is above using that highly prioritized list to take down our country?

Oil and gas are responsible for more than 60% of Russia’s exports and provide more than 30% of the country’s GDP.  Following a lean 2020, Russia is having a resurgence of oil and gas prices. With that comes power and influence, especially over European nations, our allies, who are currently suffering from a shortage of natural gas supplies. 

CHINA:  they are on track with a long-range strategic plan to rule the world and in the process, significantly reduce US global influence. 

During what was to have been a simple meet-and-greet meeting, 18 March 2021, between our new Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Advisor Sullivan with top-ranking Chinese diplomats, a former Chinese ambassador to the US, in a 15-minute speech, publicly dressed down the US charging hypocrisy on human rights and its treatment of minorities, criticized U.S. foreign interventions, and accused U.S. officials of possessing a “cold war mentality. This was a dramatic shift in demeanor by the Chinese towards America. Why did it happen?  Here is one theory. 

Vengeful and dangerous. During a visit to China in 2016 to attend a G20 meeting, the Chinese had literally rolled out the red carpet for G20 heads of state who had already arrived.  When President Obama arrived on Air Force One, the Chinese refused to provide a staircase to deplane.  Obama, lacked the fortitude to crank his aircraft and depart immediately; so, he disembarked through an emergency exit in the plane’s belly.  When Obama finally met the Chinese delegation on the tarmac there was a harsh verbal exchange during which one official was caught on video shouting, “This is our country! This is our airport!”.  

Why the snub?  This was Obama’s eighth, and last, meeting with the Chinese president.  During those meetings, Obama was prone to “lecture” Xi Jinping about China’s human rights or the lack thereof.  The Chinese leaders are vengeful and dangerous with long memories. They will give you a big smile and a small bow while simultaneously stabbing you in the back.  So, in my opinion, in March of this year during the first formal interaction with the Biden Administration, the Chinese took the initiative and turned the tables on our Secretary of State on the subject of human rights. Live and learn.  

China has a grand plan for Taiwan in particular and the South China Sea in general.  Thirty-three years ago, when I was the deputy policy guy for the Pacific Region, China was building shacks on stilts in the shallow waters along Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea, planting the Chinese flag on them and claiming it was China’s territory.  Today that built-up “reef” is one square mile in size and home to a military base with a 10,000-foot airstrip and a missile defense system.  There are also five other military bases in the South China Sea built on similar built-up reefs.

Why is China interested in the South China Sea?  It has an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil, 190 trillion feet of natural gas and 50 percent of all the fishing vessels globally. Thirty percent of the world’s shipping trade, about $4 trillion worth, flows through, as China claims, Chinese territorial waters.  Availability of “local” oil and gas could become the solution to China’s Achilles heel.   

For decades China has wanted to reclaim Taiwan and rid itself of the embarrassment of the flourishing democratic independent Chinese nation next-door.  They now have a navy capable of challenging the US and acquiring Taiwan (as they have Hong Kong) will solidify their efforts over the past 30 years to develop the South China Sea.  Now could be the time when China will force a confrontation with US Naval forces in the Western Pacific and bring to the forefront the question that has been hanging out there for the last 30 years, is the US willing to go to war to protect Taiwan?

THE THREAT/ VULNERABILITIES:  None of these four enemies have the capability to launch conventional forces, land or air, to defeat us.  Having said that, I believe this nation is more vulnerable today than perhaps at any time since the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783. 

CYBERATTACK by individuals, foreign organizations or by enemy nations is becoming too commonplace.  The recent cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, one of the US’ largest pipelines and shutting it down for five days in May, 2021 demonstrated how quickly our economy can be negatively impacted. US intel sources believe the strike emanated from inside Russia.

POWER GRID: Frequently we hear talk about the vulnerability of our power grid. There are thirty substations in the U.S. that play a critical role in the nation’s electric grid operations. A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report says, “Destroy nine interconnection substations and the entire United States grid could be down for at least 18 months, probably longer,” Experts say such an attack would be “irrecoverable.”  For example, how do we pump water to 330 million people every day without electricity?  Tens of millions would die. What nations are probably capable of doing this? The answer is China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

EMP: Perhaps the most devastating attack could come in the form of EMP, electromagnetic pulse. That is, a huge burst of electromagnetic energy from a nuclear explosion high in the atmosphere over the US on a scale that could destroy any electronics that it comes in contact with. It would instantly shutdown all transportation, computers, networks, electronic equipment, medical and communication systems.  There would be no timely resupply of anything. 

Within two days all food, bottled water, guns, ammunition and hand tools will have been looted.  Millions of people in the targeted region would find themselves in a 1700’s environment. Currency would be worthless. There would be no law and order. A state of anarchy would exist everywhere.  Within days millions would be dying every day, first simply from lack of water and later for a whole array of reasons.  What nations are probably capable of doing this?  China, Russia, North Korea and in the near future, probably Iran.

A Taepo Dong-2 missile launched from North Korea could deliver and detonate a warhead 300 km above the US.  It could set up a devastating electrical field over nearly all of the United States.

For a more thorough understanding of the impact of EMP, read One Second After by William Forstchen with a forward by Newt Gingrich. 

Will these catastrophic events happen?  Hopefully not but can they happen?  Yes.

VULNERABILITY:  There was not a general sense of vulnerability during WW I or WW II or Korea or VN or even the last twenty years but now I believe we are more vulnerable than ever in our history.  It will not be China hordes attacking over the California beaches.  It will not be that obvious; we won’t see it coming and it could be tomorrow.  Trump was brash, unpredictable and rubbed a lot of the world leaders the wrong way but friend and foe knew he was up to the task of protecting America, he would do what he said he would do, he could be counted on to attack and attack hard if threatened and our allies knew he would have their back.

For example, Obama/Biden ignored the growing ISIS threat in the Iraq/Syria region, calling it the “JV squad”.  By the time Trump took over ISIS had established their own country (califate), had put together a government of sorts, were collecting taxes and building a safe-haven to plan, train and finance terrorism against the US.  Trump immediately focused on the problem, put together the resources and destroyed ISIS and its califate within a few months.

What causes a nation to become vulnerable?  In a word, WEAKNESS; either real or perceived and sometimes perception is more dangerous than reality.

The US is the leading economy in the world with the best and most capable military that can deploy and strike anywhere at any time.  The question is, is that enough to keep China, Russia, Iran and North Korea at bay? Six months ago, I would have said yes with some slight reservations. Now my answer is no.  Our enemies are more emboldened than ever and our allies are beginning to have doubts about a lot of things going on in the US, and perhaps also doubts about our leaders.  The world watches and listens to everything we say and do.  We are constantly under the microscope, being analyzed and sending signals.

SIGNALS:  What signals are we sending, not just to China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, but the remainder of the world? Here is a sampling:

1. A nation that refuses to secure its borders is not acting like a world leader. Can a nation that accepts the fact that criminals, terrorists, MS 13 gang members, drug dealers and human traffickers are illegally coming into its society be respected? The number of illegal immigrants in the last six months is unprecedented; over one million that we know about.
2. Renewed foreign oil dependency provides other nations leverage against the US every day and it was caused by a Biden administration politically motivated self-inflicted wound.  Can we expect our allies to understand that?

3. Houthi, a terrorist organization controlling Yemen, is supported by Iran, fires Iranian-made rockets into Saudi Arabia disrupting oil refining and is a destabilizing force in the Middle East.  The Biden administration has formally notified Congress that it will remove Yemen’s Houthi rebels from our list of terrorist organizations.  How serious do our allies believe we are with respect to the war on global terrorism? 

4. What did not go unnoticed by our allies was the weeks-long absence of any contact or mention of our decades-old relationship with Israel by the new Biden administration. 

5.Who is in charge?  That is the key question being asked by our friends and enemies around the world.  Who speaks for America? Who is writing the script for Biden’s teleprompter? Until six months ago there was no question about who was running the show in the US.  

6. The world listened to President Biden, saying in his inauguration address that he would be the uniter of all Americans and reassure our allies that “America is back”.  But have his actions conveyed the same message? World leaders were soon listening to Biden explain that the US has been and remains systemically racist.  Systemically: “In a manner that affects the entire system.” Is that what we want the world to believe about the greatest nation on earth?  

Biden goes on to tell us that internal white supremacist terrorism is the deadliest threat to the United States and our democracy.  And who are the white supremacists?  Senior Democrat leaders defines them and anyone who was or is a Trump supporter; all 70 million of us?  Is that rational? Is any of that an intelligent deduction?  I think not.  To add insult to this discussion, the Biden administration is pushing for indoctrination of every school child to make them believe that in the US each of us exists in one of two groups, the oppressed or the oppressor.  That is supposed to unify our nation?  That is what we want the world to believe?

And Biden’s new cabinet has chimed in: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for a worldwide “stand down” of the U.S. military in April to focus on extremism in the ranks.  Attorney General Merrick Garland declares that white supremacy is the greatest threat to our country today. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken asked the United Nations to investigate racism in the United States. Why? What good will it do except give our enemies fodder to criticize us.  Who will make the assessment, UN members from China or Russia or Iran or North Korea?  What is this administration thinking? 

7. After decades of working “peace negotiations” in the Middle East, the Trump Administration finally hit on a successful formula.  That is, convince the leaders of Arab nations that Israel is not their enemy and that Iran’s end-state is Middle East hegemony.  From this initiative, a number of Arab nations reached out to Israel and normalized relations.

This is in contrast to the Obama/Biden/Kerry formula which is to make nice with the Palestinians in Gaza and have them share a state with Israel. That has always been a failed formula because the Palestinian government does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and Hamas is a terrorist group dedicated to Israel’s destruction. The Palestinian National Authority (the Gaza Strip government) has been Hamas since 2007.  Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union and is supported by the governments of Syria and Iran. Hamas is the organization that fired over 4000 rockets into Israel in May, 2021.

The Biden administration will have nothing to do with the Trump peace plan simply because it is a Trump plan and they will in all likelihood return to the failed Kerry plan.  Our allies are as interested in Middle East peace as much as we and are completely baffled by Biden’s Middle East policies.   

8. World leaders have watched crime in America increase dramatically in 2021 and continue unabated. Our cities are being burned and looted like a third-world country.  Leaders the world over were immediately questioning some of Biden’s Executive Orders such as lifting the ban on travel from hostile Muslim nations and why stop building the wall on the southern border. Our loyal allies are asking, what is happening to the United States? 

WHY ARE WE VULNERABLE?  There are three good reasons; emboldened enemies, confused allies and self-inflicted wounds.  And in just the past six months the needle has moved considerably in a negative direction.

It was not my intent to produce an article with so much gloom and doom.  At the conclusion of President Biden’s inaugural address, most of us had a sense of calm and hopefulness concerning the state of our divided nation. But actions have spoken louder than words and within hours it became clear that President Biden’s foremost intent was to vengefully erase every Trumpism no matter how positive it might have been for the American people, for our allies and against our enemies.  The extent to which our vulnerability has ratcheted up in just the first six months of the Biden Administration is alarming and dangerous.  Where will it take us?

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

THE FUTURE IS NOW AND ITS UGLY

In my 32 years of military service, I spent a lot of time in joint assignments but for this piece, let me limit my comments to the US Army, the service I know best. 

The Army always has been and always will be a product of America.  Those entering come from every background, every community and even some with questionable alliances with radical groups such as white supremacists; but they all have one thing in common, they volunteered and, like it or not, they are going to be brain-washed and indoctrinated.

Day one: At the end of that first day in the Army they all have the same hair style, that is, no hair, and they all are dressed alike.  There is a reason what soldiers wear is called a “uniform.”

Many will arrive with a chip on their shoulder based on their upbringing, education, talent, physical prowess etc.  But that “chip” gets knocked off very quickly by a drill instructor who has been especially selected and trained based on his or her abilities to “read” people and indoctrinate/train them.  It’s not a complex formula, just “tear them down and build them all over again.”

Day two: they begin to understand that their life in the Army will revolve around two concepts.  One is the mission and secondly, above all else, you are responsible for the person on you right and left.  Soon it begins to sink in that if I am responsible for those on my right and left, that means that they are also responsible for me.  One day it’s a white guy, perhaps the next day it’s a black gal.  Hmmm, “interesting concept”, they say to themselves, “someone always has my back, I’m not alone, this is my team.”

The mission.  Early on it is a training mission and later on it may be a combat mission.  Either way, mission is mission, it is the focus of the day and every soldier has a leader who will take me through it.  Trust, Respect. 

Background: there are 190 military occupational specialties (MOS) in your Army; infantry, artillery, aviation mechanic, medic, intel specialist, you get the picture.  Within your MOS, you will be faced with a task list.  It is a long list.  This is what you must learn, this is what you will do. Additionally, for every task there is a standard that must, without fail, be achieved.  The third factor is condition; day/night, wet/dry, rested/sleep deprived, fully-manned/short staffed, etc.  Task/Condition/Standard, the basis of all US Army training and execution. 

Do all soldiers end up with the same proficiency in their MOS task list? Yes and no. They will all be proficient but some to a greater degree because from day one it is emphasized that this is an organization where you are given the opportunity to be-all-you-can-be.  While be-all-you-can-be is individualized, you also understand you are first and foremost part of a team with primary responsibility for the guy or gal on you right and left.  Accountability.   

There is no organization in the world that is better at equal opportunity than the US Army. Period.  Be-all-you-can-be every day.  On day-one you were a private E1.  The cream raises to the top and you get promoted, Private First Class and eventually to Sergeant, E5.  Now you are a team leader. 

As a leader, in name and rank, your professional life takes a big turn.  You are now faced with a new, longer and move complex list of tasks.  It is called the collective task list and is less MOS-specific.  That is, the leader tasks for an infantry Sergeant are about like the leader tasks for a medic team leader. 

Becoming a leader in the Army is not a do-it-yourself operation.  You get training and mentoring.  The cream continues to rise, you get promoted to squad leader E6, then Sergeant First Class E7, the senior non-commissioned leader of a 30-person platoon.   E8 is a Master Sergeant/First Sergeant of a 100-person company. 

The cream of the be-all-you-can-be, equal opportunity crop will become a Sergeant Major E9 of a battalion, then perhaps a brigade, a division (10-15 thousand soldiers), a corps, an Army and there is always one super star, currently Michael Grinston, who is Command Sergeant Major of the whole US Army, 1,005,500 men and women active, National Guard and Army Reserve. Be-all-you-can-be. 

Along the way, whether serving 2 years or 32 years, all of these soldiers, through the above-described process, became imprinted deep in their souls with a culture of accountability, respect and trust.  In all situations, day-in-and-day-out, soldiers know they will be held accountable for their own actions as well as those of the unit they lead.  From day one they learned to respect and trust the soldiers on their right and left as well as their leaders. 

Culture is a powerful and pervasive force in every organization, be it just a team or a cast of thousands or a million-person Army.  When every person understands the culture and lives it every day, that is a winning organization.

With that tutorial, let’s get to the issue at hand, extremists in the ranks of the US Army, more specifically racists and white supremacists.  This did not seem to be a public issue until the events at the Capitol on 6 January of this year. 

Then some idiot politicians got behind a microphone and descided the Army National Guard protecting the Capitol and the politicians inside needed to be “vetted.”

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee: “You’ve got to figure that in the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative… there are probably not more than 25 percent of the people that are there protecting us who voted for Biden,” Cohen said. “The other 75 percent are in the class, the large class of folks, who might want to do something.” Translation, you voted for Trump, you are likely a racist and/or white supremacist and must be weeded out.  Brilliant.

Not to be outdone the D.C. Mayor, Muriel Bowser, felt the need to inform us that, “When you have Guardsmen and women coming from all over the nation at this time, I do think that it is prudent to make sure that they are being vetted and that anybody who cannot pledge allegiance to their missions, and may be pulled by other views, needs not only to be removed from this duty, they need to be removed from the Guard.”

Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal wanted us to know that as much as ten percent of the U.S. military is compromised of racists or extremists.  

Then in early February retired General Lloyd Austin, the quintessential product of a be-all-you-can-be, equal opportunity, merit-based organization, is President Biden’s pick to be Secretary of Defense.   He put on a suit, went to his confirmation hearing and testified that he would, “work to rid racists and extremists from the ranks of the U.S. military.”

Later he informed us that, “The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies, but we can’t do it if some of the enemies lie within our own ranks,”

Sec Def Austin announced a 60-day “stand down” and ordered military leaders to have, “needed discussions with the men and women of the force in an effort to weed out extremism in the ranks.”  Sec Def Austin later went on to say, “We shall adhere to our core beliefs and values and reaffirm the oaths we each took to uphold and support the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. My Point of Contact for these efforts is Mr. Bishop Garrison.”

Mr. Garrison, with a title of Senior Advisor to the Sec Def for Diversity and Inclusion is armed with a mandate from President Biden and a $40 million budget.  It is well documented that Garrison’s point-of-departure thinking is that if you are a Trump supporter that makes you a racist, misogynist and extremist.  You couldn’t make this stuff up. 

The Democrats in Washington are doing a great job of denigrating your great soldiers, of questioning their integrity, their competence and patriotism. But I don’t believe for a minute that the American public is buying into their nonsensical insults and misguided delusional thinking.  

Perhaps there is a little light at the end of the woke tunnel; to their credit, two four-star commanders, Admiral Charles Richard, head of the US Strategic Command and General James Dickinson, head of US Space Command testified before the House Armed Services Committee this week, stating that the risk of extremism in the ranks is virtually nonexistent and that their units are among the best, most professional in the world. How would you like to be a fly on the wall when Special Assistant Bishop Garrison shows up for an “office call” with those two brave souls?  Don’t bet the farm on the longevity of those two Generals. 

So, who are the extremists in the ranks?  Extremist defined: “A person who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm.”  Beyond the norm; I contend that there is nothing “normal” about your soldiers.  They are extremely well trained, extremely dedicated, extremely patriotic and extremely deadly when called on to execute what they have been trained to do; blow things up and kill bad guys.                      

Imagine this scenario: A squad is in contact with the enemy and you stop the action for a moment, put blinders on one of the soldiers and ask him this question:  Can you tell me the color of the skin of your fellow soldiers on your right and left?  The soldier would look at you like you were born on the back side of the moon and say (you fill in the blanks), “What the _ _ _ _ are you talking about?  Not only do I not know, I don’t give a _ _ _ _.  Only thing I know is they have my back; now get the _ _ _ _ out of my face, I’ve got to shoot some terrorists to protect your sorry ass.”

One of the great pleasures when being lucky enough to command soldiers is to meet most mornings for a few minutes with your Command Sergeant Major.  Here is an example of the conversations I envision going on throughout the chain of command.  Sgt Major: “The Sec Def told us to do what?  You can’t be serious.  What does he want me to do if I find an extremist, take him out and shoot him? What the hell is he thinking?”  Perhaps all that with some spicier words. 

The Sec Def will send down some radical left-wing flunky who, as the saying goes, “wouldn’t recognize a soldier if he had one standing on his chest”, he/she will give the canned speech to the soldiers.  But I’m convinced your soldiers are too good, too competent, too well trained, too patriotic and too encased in a culture of accountability, respect and trust to buy into all the divisive woke BS; especially after their Sergeant has a chat with them. 

EXTREMISTS IN THE MILITARY? GOD I HOPE SO.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

LONG-RANGE STRATEGIC PLANNING AND THE GREEN MOVEMENT

The ability to conduct long-range strategic planning is a critical component for the success of any large organization.  The US government is a large, very large, organization with almost zero demonstrated ability to build and execute a long-range strategic plan, (hereafter, LRSP).  What does that have to do with the Biden administrations Green movement?  Everything.

Aside from the Defense Department, politicians and government bureaucrats generally have little or no training or experience in strategic planning.  Here is how government “planning” too often works: a politician gets the ball rolling with an idea which morphs into a political movement and may take on a life of its own.  Then, it may become a House/Senate bill consisting of a several hundred-page to-do list.  After becoming law, it is passed on to government bureaucrats who implement with perhaps thousands of pages of instructions, regulations and new organizations.  All of this without a clue as to whether the original idea is doable because they missed the first step in LRSP which consists of executing a very deliberate up-front process to determine the viability of the idea, the art of the possible. 

Let’s begin with a short tutorial to describe what LRSP is all about.  In its simplest form it is just the answers to the following questions: who, what, when, where, why and how.

Strategic planning must always begin at the end with a coherent vision of the end-state; one that can be clearly articulated in a sentence or two.  This first step is a must-do because of the truth in the old saying, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

The very next step is to conduct an exhaustive review of limiting factors.  For example, does the science exist to make it happen?  Can we find and hire the necessary expertise?  Do the raw materials exist in the quantities we will need now and for decades ahead?  Will the price of our product be reasonable enough for success?  What will the competition do?  What is the viability of the market for our product? And on and on and on until leaders get to the point where they can determine if the idea is a viable vision or hallucination. It is all about the art of the possible. 

To illustrate the above brief comments on the subject of LRSP, let’s look at President Biden’s declaration that we will, “Achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035″, “Net-zero emissions by 2050” and “Cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030”.  Along with those goals, Democrats are pushing to have a majority of US-manufactured cars be electric by 2030 and every car on the road to be electric by 2040.  In total that says to we-the-people, shut down the coal/oil/gas-fired electric producing plants and drive electric cars.  Are we to believe those statements/directives in any way represent the results of an all-inclusive LRSP?  No; not only no but hell no, not even close.

Let’s say that instead of making the above announcement to everyone, President Biden said to his Secretary of Energy, Granholm, “ put together a LRSP for those issues”.  If the president had set in motion a comprehensive LRSP on energy, what follows is some of what the planners would be considering with their questions, discussions, research and findings. 

 In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Mark Mills brought to light the fact that the International Energy Agency (IEA), generally regarded as the world’s most important source for energy information, recently released a 287-page report entitled, The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions.   

Here are some highlights and lowlights from that IEA report. 

• Transitioning from today’s energy production (coal, oil, gas, nuclear) to clean energy (wind, solar, batteries) requires minerals, lots of minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel and what are called, “rare-earth metals”.  Demand will explode by an estimated 4,200% (lithium), 2,500% (graphite), 1,900% (nickel) and 700% (rare-earth metals).  Supply and demand drive pricing. When these dramatic increases occur and with greater competition for the metals, what will happen to the price of these minerals, and hence the price of a battery-powered car? Raw material costs already account for some 50-70% of total battery costs. 

• All of this mining requires a mining industry, massive transportation, refinement facilities and infrastructure to support them that does not exist and there are no plans to build them.  And to do so will cost a least hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.

• Production of an electric car requires six times more minerals than a conventional car.  An on-shore wind plant requires nine times more minerals than a natural gas fired plant and a wind turban will need to be replaced in an estimated 20 years.  In just the past ten years, as the transition to wind and solar has begun, the minerals needed to produce a unit of energy has increased by 50%.  And that effort only increased the wind and solar share of energy production by 10%.

• With greater demand for minerals there is another long-range consideration, declining resource quality.  Already we are experiencing mineral quality falling across a range of commodities. For example, the average copper ore grade in Chile declined by 30% in just the past 15 years. 

• The IEA reported that on average it takes over sixteen years to move a mining operation from discovery to production. 

• Environmental consequences:  The new demand for minerals creates a global mining boom that will produce an enormous environmental footprint.  First, it demands huge quantities of water and, coincidently, about half the known global lithium and copper sources are in water-shortage areas.  Additionally, there will be extensive contamination from acid mining, contaminated drainage and wastewater.

• The IEA points out that the mining of “energy transition minerals” will occur mainly in countries with “low governance scores”.  That is, where corruption and bribery pose high-risk operations.

• Viability of access to “energy-transition-minerals”, ETM:  While the top three global oil and gas producers account for less than 50% of oil and gas supply, the top three producers of key ETMs control more that 80% of global supply.  But, most importantly, China controls most of that 80% and today the US isn’t even in the game.

• To contrast our position today with China, America is now 100% dependent on imports for some 17 key minerals, and, for another 29, over half of our needs are imported thereby creating tremendous vulnerability.

• The IEA report also poses a critical question on future net carbon savings. Mining, transporting, chemical processing and refining of billions of tons of earth materials will create a new and massive carbon footprint which could conceivably create new carbon emissions in greater volume than that which is saved by driving electric cars.

• What do we do when we run out of one or more of the essential minerals to support battery energy?

• What if the cost of producing batteries for vehicles increases the cost of a vehicle out of the range of lower- and middle-class families?

• The planners would look at the Paris Global Climate Accords and conclude that the accords do nothing to address the IEA revealed shortcomings.  Nations set their own goals, nothing is enforceable and there are no penalties for noncompliance. The accords also state that the 139 “developing countries” (which, according to The World Bank, includes China and India) would need assistance from “developed” countries. Wherein India promptly estimated that it would need “at least US $2.5 trillion” in aid by 2030 to achieve its emissions reduction targets.” And then there is China’s “pledge”; they will build hundreds of new coal-fired plants and continue to increase emissions of carbon dioxide at least until 2030.

• Vehicles currently account for about 30% of US carbon emissions.  A single electric car battery weighing 1,000 pounds requires extracting and processing some 500,000 pounds of materials creating a huge carbon footprint.  Averaged over a battery’s 7–10-year life, each mile of driving an electric car “consumes” five pounds of earth and, Americans alone, drive some 3 trillion road-miles a year. 

• Replacing the energy output from a single 100-MW natural gas-fired turbine, itself about the size of a residential house (producing enough electricity for 75,000 homes), requires at least 20 wind turbines, each one about the size of the Washington Monument, occupying some 10 square miles of land, requires some 30,000 tons of iron ore and 50,000 tons of concrete, as well as 900 tons of nonrecyclable plastics for the huge blades. With solar hardware, the tonnage in cement, steel, and glass is 150% greater than for wind, for the same energy output.  

• Could we learn some long-range strategic planning lessons from China?  In two generations, China has built 500 entire cities from scratch; moved the majority of their1.4 billion population from poverty to the middle class; initiated a global Silk Road infrastructure initiative in underdeveloped countries.  By comparison China has 40,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, the US has none; it took ten years for a bus line in San Francisco to pass its environmental review; and it took us 16 years to build the Big Dig tunnel in Boston. China’s emergence as a world leader in commerce and military preparedness is all about long-range strategic planning on a global scale.

Long-range strategic planning begins by answering a long list of questions.  This International Energy Agency study goes a long way towards surfacing the critical issues that must be considered to determine a way ahead for any Green movement without just borrowing trillions of dollars to throw at the problem.

This LRSP will demand that we take a close look at the electric vehicle issue. 

• One electric car battery, weighs in at about 1000 pounds.  To produce one battery requires digging up and processing about 500,000 pounds of raw materials such as cadmium, cobalt, lead, lithium, and nickel. For example, for some of these type materials, the end product is about one half of one percent of the weight of the material dug out of the ground.

• Numbers of vehicles:  US has about 290 million, there are over 1 billion world-wide.

• There is some mind-numbing math associated with electric vehicles: Vehicles in the US travel about 3 trillion miles per year.  Divide that by 290 million vehicles and we have 10,344 miles per vehicle per year.  The average elective vehicle can travel about 200-300 miles and then must be recharged.  That means each vehicle battery must be charged about 40 times per year. Forty charges per year for 290 million US vehicles equals 11.6 billion charging actions.

• CO2 emissions from vehicles is not just a U.S. problem.  To achieve success all nations need to be involved. To that point, there are about one billion vehicles in the world today. It would take 250 billion tons of materials to build a battery for every car, once. Currently, electric car battery life is seven to ten years and then we need to dig another 250 billion tons, and again and again.  Is that feasible? By the way, replacing one vehicle battery-pack currently costs anywhere from $1000 to $6000.  In years ahead when the demand for raw materials increases exponentially, will battery costs be prohibitive for lower and middle-class income families?

Where does the electricity come from to achieve the total annual charging requirements as well as all the other electrical needs?  in the Green movement world, it comes from solar and wind production which leads us to more mind-numbing numbers about the tons of minerals to build wind and solar produced electricity.

• The American Wind Energy Association says it takes somewhere in the range of 200 to 230 tons of steel to make a single wind turbine. The steel tower is anchored in a platform of more than a thousand tons of concrete and steel rebar, 30 to 50 feet across and anywhere from 6 to 30 feet deep. Add to that 45 tons of nonrecyclable plastic blades and 2 tons of rare-earth elements. Then after a life-cycle of around 20 years, start over.

• If we want wind to produce half the world’s electricity, we will need to build about 3 million more turbines. Three million turbines at 230 tons of steel each equals about 690 million tons of steel.  To produce steel for one turbine requires about 150 tons of coking coal and about 300 tons of iron ore, all mined, transported thereby producing hydrocarbons.  Will battery-powered vehicles actually give us net zero carbon emissions? Probably not.

• More bad news.  Cement is the second most-consumed resource in the world, with more than 4 billion tons produced globally every year which generates about 8% of global carbon emissions. Then there are the emissions from all the trucks, trains, ships, bulldozers, cranes, and other equipment involved in turbine construction. Again, what will be the net carbon reduction?

• Another downside to wind is that the turbines are so preposterously expensive that no one would dream of building one unless they were guaranteed a huge government subsidy, also known as tax dollars.   

• Another disturbing question; what do we do for power when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine?  The most obvious answer is that we must maintain, at all times, a fully operational backup power source. Or do we just heat half the houses, run half the manufacturing plants, recharge half the vehicles and cell phones?  Because of the requirement for near 100% backup, some experts predict a wind farm’s power will actually cost around $25,000 for every home it powers.

• The discussion of cement/steel requirement for energy from wind are sobering.  I’m sorry to report that energy from solar power requires even more cement and steel than wind turbines to produce the same amount of electricity.  Additionally, production of solar panels requires large amounts of silver and indium.  Mining of these metals is expected to increase by 250% and 1200% respectively over the next twenty years and some day we will likely run out of both. 

• Solar panels require other “rare-earth” elements which are not currently mined in the US.  Demand for these elements is expected to rise 250-1000% by 2050.  Access to these metals is questionable.  For example, the Republic of the Congo produces 70% of the world’s raw cobalt and China controls 90% of cobalt refining. 

And then there are the geopolitical issues associated with global mining of essential minerals to support the gas emission goals issued by the Paris Accords and the Biden administration. What leverage do we have over China to cause them to give us access to the rare metals they control in Africa?  Probably none. Will future wars be fought over control of essential mineral deposits?  Could be.

The carbon gas issue is a global problem; If the US goes to zero carbon it will not solve the problem unless the other 194 countries become major contributors.  So, what if the answer to the math problem tells us there is only enough required minerals on earth to provide a battery to the world’s vehicle fleet only once or twice or ten times.  If that is true, and it could be, by the end of this century hundreds of millions of electric vehicles will be in the scrap heap and we will be desperately trying to rebuild the gas and oil industry and cars to again run on gas. 

The point being, we must have those answers and empty political sound bites will not provide them. 

What will our electric bill look like in a carbon free society?  For example, last year about 400,000 natural gas workers produced about 35% of U.S. electric power.  The same size labor force, 400,000, accounted for solar’s miniscule 0.9% share. When it comes to solar energy, the outrageous production-to-labor-force ratio is a glaring and expensive.

There are nations that are actively studying the electric vehicle issue; according to a British Professor Kelly, if all of the UK vehicle fleet is replaced with electronic vehicles, they would need the following materials: about twice the annual global production of cobalt; three quarters of the world’s production of lithium carbonate; nearly the entire world’s production of neodymium; and more than half the world’s production of copper.  And this is just for the UK’s 32 million vehicles.

OK, you get the picture, there is a tremendous amount of research that must go into the up-front part of LRSP before the leader begins making promises he/she cannot possibly deliver. 

The above questions, discussions and discovery is just a small fraction of what the planners would look at for weeks or months just to determine the answer to one question, is this a viable vision or is it hallucination?

All of this data leads us back to the question, can we spend trillions of dollars in support of a political-motivated soundbite that may or may not produce a net loss of carbon emissions and/or may not be feasible given the known quantities of minerals needed?

Recall up front I described the LRSP process as simply answering the questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.  Vision is WHERE the leader is taking the organization. If the vision statement is viable, here is a quick look at how the remainder of the LRSP process will unfold. The next step is mission.  

Mission answers WHAT.  Mission is a declaration to everyone in the organization, in this case that would be we-the-people, of WHAT it is we are all collectively going to do. Mission is not a paragraph, it is a single, clear, understandable statement.

One of the most memorable and important mission statements in our history was delivered on 25 May,1961 by President Kennedy before a joint session of congress; “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon.” Brief, clear, concise, memorable, repeatable, inspirational and, most importantly, believed to be within the art of the possible. 

Next is the leader’s statement of intent.  Intent is the most powerful tool available to a leader.  A leader who uses intent in strategic planning is letting everyone in the organization inside his or her head.  Intent answers WHO, WHEN and WHY.  Intent is a few short paragraphs, preferably less than one page.  Brevity and clarity are paramount.  Who is going to be in charge?  What is the timeline from vision to execution?  Why are we doing this?  During World War II, General Eisenhower famously said, “American soldiers will do anything you ask of them as long as you tell them why.” 

The hardest part of any LRST is the strategy piece, determining HOW we are going to proceed from vision to execution; how, in general terms, we are going to get to the end state.  Strategy is the long pole in the tent. Without a solid strategy, all we have is empty rhetoric.  Unfortunately, many times (particularly in Washington) the strategy is left out of the planning process and without the “how” the process just flounders and ultimately fails, having wasted billions or in this case perhaps trillions of dollars in a failed project.

A LRSP will be a phased operation.  It’s a little bit like getting on an airliner; you can’t get a boarding pass until you make a reservation.  You can’t go through security until you get a boarding pass. You can’t get on the airplane until you go through security.  Phases are absolutely essential and they will be based on objectives achieved, or time-phased or both. 

A second reason for phasing is that on day-one of plan execution there is a lot you may not yet know, but more importantly, especially early in the game, you may not know what you don’t know.  

In every phase there will be a deliberate process orchestrated by the leader to determine centers of gravity for each new approaching phase.  Centers of gravity are persons, places, things or circumstances that are central to success.  That is, they can significantly assist in success or can cause failure.  Once determined, the centers of gravity become must-watched issues. 

LRSP is not rocket science but it can be the key to success for any long-range significant undertaking.  In organizations where LRSP is not routinely used (the federal government), that organization will flounder and waste unimaginable amounts of time, energy and money.   

THREE FINAL THOUGHTS:

It is a certainty that the scope of increased mining to satisfy mineral requirements will create an enormous, new carbon footprint.  The question is, from the totality of the Green movement, will there be a net overall reduction in carbon gases? This must be determined by scientists and engineers, not politicians.  We-the-people need to know the answer.  And we need to know now.

Secondly, generally speaking the Green movement is based on a false premise and false promises.  A principle underpinning of the pro-green argument is that the energy source is “renewable.”  Technically, yes wind and sun are renewable.  But, in the larger sense, in order to harness that renewable wind and sun it will be necessary to mine, transport and refine literally billions of tons of minerals, many of which are already classified as “rare.”  For example, the world needs about 3 million more wind turbines in order to produce 50% of the world’s electric needs.  To build 3 million turbines will require mining of about 1 billion tons of iron ore and not one ounce of that iron ore is “renewable.”  Then, in about 20 years we replace all 3 million worn out wind turbines with another billion tons of iron ore. 

Finally, the vast majority of the 195 countries cannot afford any of the Green movement.  Do we print a few extra trillion dollars to bankroll them into Green compliance?

We-the-people need an in-progress-review briefing from our leaders on the status of the long-range strategic plan for the Green movement.  Don’t hold your breath. 

P.S. For anyone looking for a detailed discussion of how to lead an organization and conduct long-range strategic planning, try reading Vision to Execution, a book for leader.  Available on Amazon books. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of Vision to Execution a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

SYSTEMIC RACISM.

Background:  There has been systemic racism, at least on a regional level, in the United States.  A nation that tolerates slavery is undeniably racists. 1865/post-Civil War; denying liberties for freed slaves in the former Confederate states was systemic racism. 1864/post-Civil War; Democrat-led proliferation of KKK organizations in nearly every county in the deep south was systemic racism. 1865-1964, for 99 years an underpinning of the Democrat party platform was segregation.  That was pure, unadulterated, unambiguous, in-your-face systemic racism.

In 2016 Hillary Clinton set the stage for a new way to define racism with these prepared remarks: “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”  In two sentences she defamed tens of millions of Americans with zero facts to back up her assertions and it stuck to the Democrat party. Since 2016 the Democrat party has expanded on what Hillary started to where we are today; that is, if you disagree with my platform or you are in agreement with President Trump’s policies you are a racist. That’s where the Democrats came up with their claim that systemic racism is rampant across the nation.

With that background let’s get to today’s issue, systemic racism.  First, define systemic.  It is “a practice, or set of beliefs that has been established as normative or customary throughout a political, social, or economic system; relating to or affecting the body as a whole.”  The body as a whole; that’s us, you and me. 

President Biden says over and over “The fact is, systemic racism touches every facet of American life.”

In order for Biden’s systemic racism theory, “touching every facet of American life”, to be true, how many of us have to be actively involved in being a racist?  100 million, 200 million?  Stop reading right now.  Stop.  Before you go on take a few minutes to mentally cycle through your personal list of extended family members, neighbors, associates at work and friends.  While doing this keep a tally of those who you believe are racist. For this exercise let’s further simplify racism as those white people who hate Black Americans and Black Americans who hate White Americans.  This may take you awhile.  Keep going.

Ok, how many did you come up with.  I’m guessing, maybe two or three.  Maybe only your weird Uncle Fred.  I came up with exactly zero and I spent thirty-two years of my professional life interacting with Black Americans on a daily basis.  I honestly believe if we asked all Americans to take this personal survey we would come up with similar results.  So, who are the tens or hundreds of millions of racists touching “every facet of American life” day-in and day-out that Biden and the remainder of the Democrat party leaders are talking about?

I am seriously ashamed of this nation’s Democrat leaders who have made an intellectual choice to casually throw around the word racist as they go about their daily duties. I am enraged at those Democrats who work tirelessly to politicize racism for political party gain.  I have absolute disrespect for those who seek to destroy the gains in integration and are so intellectually dishonest about Black achievements over the past fifty years. 

Not to be underestimated, the Democrat leadership, aka the president, has taken the final step and allowed systemic racism to be morphed into an equally ugly and unfounded description of tens of millions of us, we are now also white supremacists.

Conclusion: the charge of systemic racism in America is a crock of crap.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY.

CRT, is based on the assumption that throughout US history, since the first slaves arrived in 1619, all American institutions and laws have been intentionally crafted so that white people can put up social, economic, and legal barriers between the races in order to maintain their elite status. From these assumptions the CRT folks have concluded that the source of poverty and criminal behavior in minority communities is due exclusively to these barriers.

But what if the assumptions that led us to the theory are not valid?  I recently watched on TV a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer and spokesperson.  When asked to define CRT he responded, “CRT is a pack of lies.”

Here are some thoughts I gleaned from work by John Horvat II, a brilliant scholar, researcher, educator, speaker and author.  His bottom line is that CRT must be rejected if this country is to survive.  Here are some CRT underpinnings to ponder:

CRT seeks to divide our society into two groups, the oppressors (white people) and the oppressed (black people) followed by constant struggle between the two.  Result, a deep-seated national culture of blame and hatred.

CRT sees race as the preeminent prism through which all things are considered; history, economics, sociology, science, virtually all aspects of life. All current governing and cultural structures are tainted with racism, systemic racism.

CRT teaches that those who are oppressors are incapable of ridding themselves of their biases. They are irredeemable (as Hillary told us in 2016) and incapable of exercising free will to change.

CRT sees reform of race relations as impossible.  Because racism is systemic, the present institutions cannot be redeemed or modified.

Given that CRT tells us all things must be seen through the prism of race, including the sciences, its promoters declare falsely that science, reason and logic are “white” ways of knowing things. 

CRT weakens the bonds that create trust of individuals, of institutions and of government.

CRT is irreconcilable with traditional Christian teachings.

CRT is totalitarian and allows for no opposing theories.

CRT holds that America and white Americans are irredeemably racist. The solution is reverse racism which is called equity. “Equity”, not to be confused with equality, further transforms all elements of America from merit-based to equity based.  Under equity, mediocracy will reign supreme. 

Irrespective of this clear and present danger to our country, Critical Race Theory, Project 1619, and ethnic studies are being incorporated in public schools all over America. It’s part of an anti-racist mission that is anything but.

Imagine a couple of youngsters, one black, one white, from the same neighborhood; they are best friends, walk to school together, play ball after school and are in and out of each other’s homes frequently.  Then, while getting their required weekly dose of CRT instruction, they suddenly look across the classroom at one another and think, wow I thought he was my friend but he is actually my enemy. Indoctrination.

CRT is potentially the most dangerous initiative ever undertaken in our history with almost unimaginable ramifications. For example, Damon Young, a senior editor of The Root and an occasional New York Times contributor, adds, “Whiteness is a public health crisis. It shortens life expediencies, it pollutes air, it constricts equilibrium, it devastates forests, it melts ice caps, it sparks (and funds) wars, it flattens dialects, it infests consciousnesses, and it kills people”.  

In line with the woke revolution, President Biden’s Department of Education has signaled its intent to impose the most radical forms of Critical Race Theory on America’s schools.

CRT, in the process of being included in educational curriculum at all levels, is purely and simply indoctrination.  It will guarantee the perpetuation of systemic racism and white supremacy in this country for generations.

Culture is a powerful and pervasive force in any organization.  If we think of the US and an organization, over the past 20 years we have seen a culture of blame cultivated in Washington politics and spread across the nation.  A culture of blame is so powerful and debilitating it has rendered our Congress ineffective. Then in 2016 Hillary started the hate culture movement.  CRT has the potential to take both the cultures of blame and hate to new levels with devastating consequences for generations to come.

CAMPAIGN HOME ROOM.

Is CRT the solution to our pathetic failed education standards in elementary, secondary and higher educational institutions?  Are we to be satisfied with an ever-increasingly racially divided nation?  Are we to knuckle under to the Democrat leaders claims of systemic racism and white supremacy being taught to all of our youngsters? Is there no alternative solution?

The above, in this article, are what I call BGOs, blinding glimpses of the obvious.  None of the above will fix racism or education and will probably make them worse.  So where do we go from here with this discussion?  I have for the past few years been advocating a race relation/education reform solution. 

By comparison with Biden’s Department of Education, which is planning to continue to throw tens of billions of dollars at education to fix our pathetic system, what I am proposing is free.  While the Department of Education will increase regulations and control of education from the top down, what I propose is completely run at the local level by County Boards of Education, superintendents and school principals.  While the federal government mandates more failed curriculum changes, to include CRT, my solution is a proven concept and will fix education and race relations for generations to come. I call it Campaign Home Room.

It is always a good idea to begin long-range strategic planning with a statement of the problems to be solved.  

Problem # 1: Race relations and education are not what they should be and we are moving in exactly the wrong direction. We need to change direction quickly or it will be too late.

Problem # 2: We are suffering from a culture of blame in both race relations and education.  Blame is a powerful and pervasive force that is polarizing and provides no hope of moving forward.  Blame must be supplanted with something positive.

Problem # 3: Kids are not born bigoted and hateful.  They learn it.  We have to change what they learn.

Problem # 4: Federal education programs costing hundreds of billions of dollars and utilizing thousands of bureaucrats have not worked.  We have to decentralize decision making and execution.

Problem # 5: Every day thousands of U S students drop out of school and every year thousands more graduate from high school functionally illiterate. They do so because they got behind.  We have to figure out why and fix it.

There is no quick fix for what has brought us to this impasse.  The solution will only come if we change what our youngsters learn, how they think, what they believe in and how they behave.

All of these problems can be solved through a comprehensive Character Education program involving every school and every student in America.  It will take a well thought out strategic campaign plan to reach all 60 million students.

This Concept of Operations, called Campaign Home Room, is not a guessing game.  The strength of this concept is that there are existing successful models to lean on and learn from.

Strategic planning becomes easier if we can put a frame around the organization to gain focus on all the involved parties. The organization in question will consist of the following: 

• 142,000 schools
• 180 million adults with children under age 18
• 60 million K-12 students
• 4.5 million teachers
• 2.4 million Home Room volunteers
• Over 200,000 Superintendents, Principals and Education Board members

That is about 250 million, three of every four Americans, will, in some way, be involved in Campaign Homeroom.

The concept is simple:  The first twenty minutes of every school day will be devoted to Home Room period in which volunteers will teach a Character Curriculum every school day in every school to every student, grades K-12.  Doing so will reset the value base in this country and establish a culture of accountability, respect and trust. 

There was not and never will be a quick fix to the deep-seated five problems outlined above. It will take a generation to accomplish.   It will transform America.

Here is the curriculum: accountability, citizenship, commitment, compassion, courage of convictions, courtesy, confidence, healthy habits, honesty, honor, humility, integrity, judgment, leadership, morality, perseverance, punctuality, respect, responsibility, self-respect, selfless service, sportsmanship and trust. That is, teach and talk about values.  Call it the Character Curriculum. There will need to be three versions of the curriculum; elementary k-5, middle school 6-8 and high school 9-12.  Out of this will come an overpowering culture of accountability, respect and trust across America.

This curriculum is transformational and this is what it will do:

• ACCOUNTABLE students do not resort to blame.
• Students who are steeped in COMMITMENT, CONFIDENCE, PERSEVERANCE, PUNCTUALITY and RESPONSIBILITY do not skip school, fall behind or drop out.
• Students who are deeply rooted in TRUST and RESPECT will strike down bullying and are unlikely to become racially bigoted adults. 
• Students who are COMPASSIONATE, COURTEOUS, HONORABLE, GOOD CITIZENS and demonstrate the COURAGE OF THEIR CONVICTIONS do not join street gangs.
• Students who have accepted HONESTY, MORALITY AND INTEGRITY as their guiding light will likely be life-long upstanding citizens.
• Students who understand, live and accept a life of SELFLESS SERVICE are unlikely to become self-serving adults.
• Students who have an understanding that there is a lot they don’t yet know and even part of what they believe they know might be incorrect, have the quality of HUMILITY. 
• Students who understand SELF-RESPECT recognize that they are now better than they used to be and can be counted on in times of temptation because they are morally dependable. 
• With this value base, students across the nation are more likely to exercise good JUDGMENT and become great LEADERS.

The concept of using character education to “indoctrinate” youngsters has been effectively used by a national organization called The First Tee.  It uses golf as the medium to bring kids together.  The outcome is almost immediately transformational. I was involved with a First Tee chapter which provided character education to all of the 4^th graders in a North Carolina county.  The teachers very reluctantly observed the process until after about two months they all had an OMG moment.  “What have you done to my students, they were asking, they are more attentive, more engaged in learning, more polite and understanding.”  Studies of The First Tee program have shown that 100% of character education translates directly into the classroom and 80% into the students’ homes.  A mother said to me, “what have you done to my teenage daughter, she now acts like a real human being?”

To be completely up front here, I have spent the last few years attempting to market this concept to include sending the Campaign Home Room document to President Trump, the VP, COS, White House principal deputies, Secretary DeVos and North Carolina political leaders, all to no avail. My conclusion is that it rarely, if ever, makes it through the mail room.  All of the details for a national campaign of character education are contained in a 25-page White Paper.  If any of you are interested, I will forward a digital copy to you upon request; my email, MandDcovault@yahoo.com

BOTTOM LINE.  Our country is in trouble, serious trouble and moving in exactly the wrong direction. The kids are our future and what they learn today will define the future of America.

Just for a moment imagine, across this country, 60 million K-12 youngsters in 2.4 million Home Room classes at 8 o’clock every morning in every school in America being taught and mentored by 2.4 million volunteers on the subject of character.  Campaign Home Room is within the art of the possible and “we the people”, not we the government, can make it happen and transform America.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

I’m bothered by a lot that is going on in America today.  Here are some of them. 

We are to believe there was no such thing as voter fraud anywhere during the 2020 election. Now fixing the actual voter fraud problem is considered racist.

Three days after the 2020 election Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent Democrat Party spokesperson, called for a blacklist, entitled The Trump Accountability Project, with the objective of archiving the names of individuals who “elected, served, funded, supported, and represented President Trump.” Where was the national outcry against this?

H.R.1391 – American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, aka Covid Rescue Plan.  It bothers me that only 9% of the $1.9 trillion was related to actual covid relief.    

President Biden was selling infrastructure legislation to improve roads and bridges.  But only 5% of the $2 trillion, misnamed, “American Jobs Plan” is actually for roads and bridges.  It is a reasonable public policy objective to expand medical care for the elderly and disabled, but it bothers me that $400 billion for that is called infrastructure.

I’m bothered that U.S. debt has now passed the value of our GDP and no Democrats seem concerned. We are printing money at a rate never envisioned.  When does inflation kick in and how hard will the blow be?  Most Americans cannot remember how debilitating for everyone the President Carter economy was with 14.8% inflation and interest rates at 18%. 

By Executive Order, President Biden has authorized US taxpayers to pay for abortions overseas, while consistent polling shows that 77% of Americans are opposed to it.

We have a generation of “educated” Americans who know almost nothing of our nation’s history.  But it is getting worse.  Now they are learning revisionist history about what horrible people Americans have always been and are today. 

Workers’ rights are being demolished. The House passed the miss-named bill, “Protecting the Right to Organize Act”.  Wall Street Journal said, the bill “brazenly opposes workers choices.”  It would effectively repeal right-to-work laws on the books in most states which allow employees to decline union membership. 

The Iran-backed terrorist group Houthis took control of Yemen in 2014. With U.S. assistance, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of nine nations against the terrorist network in Yemen. Without the Saudi effort, it is quite possible that the Houthis would have successfully transformed Yemen into a terrorist operational and training safe haven with deadly consequences for the United States and the international community.  In another knee-jerk I’ll-show-you-Trump action, President Biden is removing the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists from the Global Terrorist list.

To add insult to injury, Biden has put a hold on Trump-negotiated arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth billions of dollars. 

Under the guise of the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, Biden included hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out financially mis-managed democrat-led cities and states without demanding those governors and mayors take the steps necessary to become fiscally responsible.

It bothers me that the alleged offenses against Hillary Clinton, the FBI Director, intelligence leaders, et al have been swept under the rug; perhaps the most egregious actions by trusted government officials against an existing administration in the history of this nation.  

Pelosi’s House passed H.R. 1 which is the most sweeping change in our election laws in history. It federalizes and micromanages the election process administered by the states, imposing unconstitutional mandates and reverses decentralization of the election process.

States and cities are defunding police while crime rates are rising at alarming rates. 

Whenever there is a “mass shooting” the Democrat leadership ramps up their arguments for massive gun control.  But where is the debate about mental health screening in the US? Reality is that if you suffer from a mental illness, as most mass-shooters do, you may find a confusing and often contradictory system of doctors, clinics, institutions, home care, and drug regimens that is hardly a system at all.

Biden will follow the lead of Presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama who all gutted our military forces reducing combat readiness to dangerously low levels. It’s easy to cut but it is a long hard road to get readiness back to acceptable levels when we need it.  Our allies and enemies alike, carefully watch our combat readiness and act/react accordingly.  Nothing deters enemy intent to do harm more than fully combat-ready U.S. forces.

FBI Director Wray has testified before Congress saying, “Antifa is a real thing.”  He went on to say, “We have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa.” Contradicting that, our head-in the-sand leader calls Antifa, “an idea

The Biden corporate tax rate increase from 21 to 28% is what the Wall Street Journal calls “political fakery”; implying it is a tax against CEOs and rich share-holders. WSJ goes on to say, “Everyone knows corporations don’t really pay taxes, they are ultimately paid by some combination of customers in higher prices, workers in lower wages and shareholders in lower returns on investment.  In other words, Biden’s corporate tax increases will hit he middle class hard in the value of their 401k, the size of their pay packets and what they pay for goods and services.” What make the corporate tax hike more onerous is that most large economies in the world are in the process of lowering their corporate tax rates thereby making it even more difficult for US corporation to compete price-wise in a global market thereby forcing more US manufacturing overseas. 

I’m bothered that the minimum $15 wage will probably become the law of the land, negatively impacting small businesses and putting another 1.5 million out of work.  Cost of living varies significantly from state to state.  This is more big-government one-size-fits-all democrat thinking.   

The Black Lives Matter anti-police underpinnings are explained by totally false data with respect to police killing Black Americans.

It is OK to have an abortion in the final tri-mister of a pregnancy (aka premeditated murder) conducted by taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood.

Open borders bother me a lot.  What is happening on our Mexican border is inhumane, out of control, getting worse every day, expensive, expanding the covid pandemic, filled with undesirables, increasing drug tracking to new levels with no end in sight and it was all predictable with an instant return to the Obama/Biden catch-and-release policy.  The Biden solution seems to be, find more beds rather than to stop incentivizing the illegals to come.   

North Korea has ramped up its weapons and missile testing.  September, 2017, the NK foreign minister, speaking before the UN said a North Korean nuclear strike against a US city is “inevitable.” President Trump promptly set up the first one-on-one meeting with Kim Jong-un. I suspect at that meeting President Trump would have casually showed Kim a clear 8×10 close-up color photo on Kim riding his big white horse at his vacation retreat.  And Mr. Trump would have said something like this, Kim, we know where you are and how to reach out to you 24/7, now let’s chat about all this testing and your plan to nuc one of my cities.  Predictably, since the election, Kim has renewed a full-court-press on testing.  Asked if President Biden would sit down with Mr. Kim, a White House spokesperson said, “that is not his intention.”  

I’m bothered a lot that Biden will abandon the most successful Middle East developments in decades; that is, after 70 years Middle East nations, led by Saud Arabia, have concluded that Israel is not their enemy.  They now realize their real and imminent danger is Iran and its intent for Middle East dominance and control. 

Biden tells us he spent his first few days in office reaching out to our allies and other world leaders like Putin and Xi Jinping.  But it took 30 days for him to call Netanyahu.  The signal is clear, the US/Israeli relations will return to the Obama/Biden/Clinton/Kerry cold-shoulder policy.

The Biden cabal will completely ignore these underlying economic facts: Prior to the Covid outbreak, there were 750,000 more jobs to fill than there were unemployed, and the lowest 20% of income earners were gaining income in percentage terms more quickly than the top ten percent. The United States became the first serious jurisdiction in the world that had begun to address the almost universal problem of income disparity. Obama/Biden “wealty redistribution” is and will always be an economic disaster.

Six corporations control 90% of the media in America and we wonder why 93% of all reporting on the Trump administration was negative.

While Biden and all democrat leaders continue preaching falsely that the Trump tax cuts only benefited the wealthy; the fact is they reduced the taxes of every American corporation and the taxes of 83% of individual American taxpayers.

I’m bothered that Major league sports have gone political.

We “graduate” thousands of functionally illiterate high school seniors every year and 7000 youngsters drop out of school every day.  And the democrats believe we can solve the problem by throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at it. 

We don’t do enough to solve the homeless problem.  

On a highly advertised and rare appearance by the President to explain his $2 trillion infrastructure plan, he launched into a tirade over the Georgia Legislature’s voting rights law.  Not only did he totally misrepresent every facet of the new law, he then emphatically played the race card. He and his writers had obviously not read the law or just decided we are too stupid to not understand what a mess the president made of the whole subject.

We could fill this page with a list of circumstances that require US citizens to show a personal ID.  Voter ID is absolutely necessary to protect the sanctity of the right to cast a legal vote. Democrat arguments against Voter ID are without factual underpinnings and essentially play a false race card.  A recent Gallop poll found that 80% of Americans believe voter ID is necessary.  If a voter ID system would include a personal voter ID number (similar to a SSN) then every know voter fraud system could be defeated.

The word “sanctuary” bothers me a lot.  The Democrats, by action rather than words, have evolved a new definition.  “Sanctuary cities” today are Democrat led, soft on crime, anti-ICE, degraded police force, pro-criminal prosecutors, deportation-blocking, low-to-no bail policies, out of control homelessness, drug infested and fiscally incompetent.  But if you are a drug-dealing, machete-wielding, homeless, MS13, illegal alien, this is your home sweet home.  And some governors want to declare a sanctuary state.

Democrat mayors have been running many of our largest cities for decades. Some stats from Robert Charles, Association of Mature American Citizens.

The top-ten American cities for homelessness are sanctuary cities. In this group are Los Angeles (55,000 homeless), Seattle (12,000), San Diego (9,000), San Jose (7,000), San Francisco (6,000), and Las Vegas (6,000).  

Of the top-ten “most dangerous cities” in America all have Democratic mayors.  Those cities are Detroit, St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, Baltimore, Stockton, Cleveland and Buffalo.  These cities that are too deep in poverty, have a weak tax base and lack sufficient infrastructure to attract corporate investment.  They lead the nation in murder, manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.

For the mayors to fix this is, of course, difficult but it’s not rocket science.  First, stop, just stop what the hell you have been doing for years or even decades and do things like: lower taxes, less regulation, incentives for business investment, stronger law enforcement, cooperation with federal immigration officials, comprehensive anti-drug policies and attack gang violence. These actions are right out of the Trump playbook which means these mayors will likely continue with a failed system.   Or why not take Trump’s ten-point plan, The New Deal for Black America With A Plan for Urban Renewal, and just use it?

The $2 trillion infrastructure bill, “The American Jobs Act”, contains hundreds of billions for “green” projects.  Have we forgotten that in the 2009 Obama/Biden stimulus bill, only 15 jobs were created for every $1 million spent on green jobs? 

I have been bothered for a long time about Democrat economics.  The Obama/Biden economy formula was TAX AND SPEND, which in modern day economics has never successfully brought any nation quickly out of a recession or caused the GDP to grow at an acceptable rate.  That formula has now morphed into SPEND AND TAX and they believe it will work better?  Obama/Biden economists believed cutting taxes would blow a hole in the deficit.  Just the opposite is true.  The Trump tax cuts caused the overall economy to grow, taxpayers and corporations made more money and as a result federal revenue hit all-time highs.  Tax increases must occasionally occur, but there has never been a tax increase in American history that did not have a negative effect on the economy.

Is it right that people who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees of real or questionable value?

Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars is being earmarked in non-related bills in Congress to pay off democrat-controlled city and state debt without demanding they fix the processes that got them over their heads in debt in the first place.

Consider the fact that private schools have remained open covid-free while government schools closed doing possibly irreparable damage to millions of youngsters.

I am obsessively bothered that education in the United States is an unmitigated disaster. School closures during the pandemic have revealed teachers’ unions for what there are; that is, a greater part of the problem than the solution.  The “demands” issued by the teacher’s unions as a condition of reopening schools tell us all we need to know about their priorities.  Their demands included Medicare for all, institute an national wealth tax and a millionaire tax, defund police, housing security, paid sick leave for parents of school children, charter school moratorium and financial support for undocumented students and families.

The left wing keeps telling us that “free health care is free” and they believe we are dumb enough to believe it.

Earmarking in Congress was costing us millions of dollars in pork, then billions and now trillions (see covid relief and infrastructure bills). Earmarks are legislation that cannot stand scrutiny of the normal legislative process; that is, expert witness testimony during committee hearings.

It bothers me a lot that our president will never be capable of holding an extemporaneous news conference. 

The fact that VP Harris, as the new border crisis czar, has failed to visit the border for a first-hand understanding of the problems, speaks volumes about her approach to dealing with a crisis, her leadership skills in general and her overall qualifications to be VP/president. 

National legalized marijuana is coming; which means it will too-easily be available to youngsters resulting in reduced mental development. Follow the science. 

The Keystone pipeline, when completed could have transported 800,000 barrels of oil a day with no carbon footprint.  Now that oil will be carried by a combination of 500 rail tankers and 950 tanker trucks all belching carbon pollutants. We are to believe that is a “green” solution to anything?

The Biden knee-jerk reduction in public land and off-shore drilling will lead us back into dependence on foreign oil, carrying with it unimaginable negative geo-political ramifications. 

It bothers me that I no longer hear the National Anthem played at sporting events.

This summer could be more violent than last if the Floyd trial verdict does not suit BLM and Antifa.  Last summer’s “mostly peaceful” burning/looting/murder were for the most part acceptable to Biden/Harris.  In an interview Harris said about the riots, “This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop.  And everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before election day and they’re not going to stop after election day.  And everyone should take a note of that. They’re not gonna let up and they should not”

It bothers me a lot that the Democrat leadership believes it is OK to be crude, ugly, distasteful, disrespectful and downright ignorant to openly and publicly call someone or some group racists simply because they disagree with their thinking, policies, conclusions, or theories.

Part of the new liberal mantra is that equity is synonymous with equality.

In some states gas has gone up over $1 a gallon since the election and there is no end in sight; an unintended consequential “tax” on every business and family in America. 

Pelosi’s House also passed an anti-police bill that will deny “qualified immunity” to police men and women thereby placing them in jeopardy of civil liability for doing their jobs. It will be nearly impossible to recruit a quality force.

I am especially bothered that the Democrat leadership continues to preach the existence of systemic racism across the nation. Their accusations are unfounded.  Background:

Segregation is systemic racism.  To understand segregation, we need to understand how it came about. The commander of Union forces in the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant was a champion of African Americans throughout the war. President Lincoln advocated for abolition of slavery and signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1^st, 1863.

During the final days of the Civil War, in 1865, Grant and Lincoln met frequently to discuss what “freedom” should mean for those enslaved. Their plan included the right to own property, to vote, hold office and have access to all schools, public transportation and commercial activities. 

Five days after Lee surrendered to Grant, President Lincoln was assassinated. The Lincoln/Grant vision for the freed slaves died with the President. 

During the post-war period, President Andrew Johnson, sided with the former Confederate states’ Democrats to restrict equality for freed slaves.  This, and other factors, led to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, threatening the lives and livelihood of all freed slaves. One of the darkest periods in American history, the Ku Klux Klan functioned as a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists. The Klan’s goals included the political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy over Black Americans.  That is systemic racism.

For 100 years following the Civil War segregation was a principle pillar of the Democratic party platform; segregation was pure, unadulterated, unambiguous, in-your-face systemic racism. During presidential elections in the 1960s, Democratic candidate Governor George Wallace is best remembered for his segregationist views, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made segregation illegal in all states and over the last 50 years there has been systemic progress against systemic racism.

I believe we can credit Hillary Clinton for the current Democrat practice of branding large groups of Americans as racist.  On September 9^th, 2016 during a presidential campaign speech, Hillary stood behind a tele-prompter and read these prepared remarks, “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”  In two short sentences she defamed tens of millions of Americans.  

The lasting impact of that insane Clinton speech was to make it OK to throw around the word “racist” with complete disregard for facts to the contrary. For example, if you supported President Trump’s policies, you are a racist.  But that was not enough.  Now we are being additionally lumped together as white supremacists.

Outside the racist rhetoric from the Democrat leadership and their main-stream media lackies, you can hear Black American leaders from all over this country articulating the absurdity of group-racism and systemic racism.

Conclusions: 

All of the above collectively tell a story.  The rational, respected, patriotic Democrat Party we have known for decades no longer exists.

The radical left thinking outlined above will not be reported on objectively by the main-stream-media.  There was an era when journalists believed they could dramatically improve the world by exposing evil and corruption through the craft of writing. That profession is dead and gone, today’s Democrats are protected from evil and corruption.

To my Democrat friends who voted against Republican candidates in the 2020 election, what you are getting is big government, centralized power, centralized control, identity group segregation to divide and conquer, wealth transfer leading to an intrenched welfare state with a disincentivized work force. Non-merit-based hierarchy will become the norm in business, education and government.

President Trump, love him, hate him or anywhere in between, in retrospect, every policy he set forth had one overarching intent, is this what is best for the American people.  By contrast, every decision, declaration, executive order, in President Biden’s first couple months, has been a low blow to John Q. Public.  

And by the way, the president’s impassioned 20 January pledge to us all to unify the nation, went from number one on Biden’s hit parade to nonexistent. 

Whatever you thought you were voting for in the 2020 elections, my “botherings” above is what you are getting.  You need to give your party a new name, whatever is appropriate, but don’t call it the Democrat Party, that party is dead and gone.  If you are having trouble, here is a suggestion, call it The New Regressive Party, not of the people, not by the people nor for the people, so help me God. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

Within a very few hours after being sworn in as our president, Biden was at his desk in the oval office singing 17 executive orders. This was the beginning of a 50-day series of events in which he clearly has demonstrated the he may be, for the most part, unaware of what he was doing. 

During the executive order signing on 20 January (17 orders) and the additional 20 signed during the first week, there was no fanfare, no gathering of sponsors as he signed each order, no holding the folder up so all could see his signature.  But most importantly, there was no verbalizing of what the executive orders are to accomplish, why it is important to give the orders immediately.  Nothing, zip.  Some have even suggested he was, in fact, just signing blank pieces of paper.  

After watching the so-called campaign over the summer and fall months, we all became aware of the extent to which Biden’s handlers were calling all the shots.  Pre-selected questions at fake “press conferences” by pre-selected loyal main-stream media was the norm.  Following the inauguration, it became immediately obvious to the casual observer that he was being controlled to the maximum extent possible. 

But eventually his handlers knew the president had to make a “public” appearance.  The choice was with Anderson Cooper at a CNN carefully orchestrated town hall.  What could have possibly been less threatening? The main topic of discussion was, of course, Covid; the one subject on which the president had been totally immersed for months.  What could possibly go wrong? 

The questions were, of course, carefully scripted and presumably rehearsed.  Ready, set, go.

Things were going along OK until the president got off-script in an unehearsed moment and said, “It’s one thing to have the vaccine which we didn’t have when we came into office.  But a vaccinator, how do you get the vaccine into someone’s arm?”

Stop reading for a moment and just think about the last 12 months we all spent with some level of pent-up anxiety, inability to be with loved ones, cancelled trips, praying for the next medical breakthrough and, for many, a complete life-style change.  Who among us could possibly forget that we have or have not received a vaccination? 

Vaccinations under Operation Warp Speed began across the country on 14 December.  Biden got his first shot on 21 December and the second on 11 January. 

Back to the CNN townhall:  Biden went on to say, “We came into office there were only 50 million doses that were available.”  In minutes he went from thinking zero to 50 million doses available. 

It is not as if Biden was not involved in the planning for vaccinations during the two months preceding the CNN townhall session; on 8 December the president elect rolled out his program to administer 1 million vaccine doses per day in his first 100 days in office.  Maybe Biden is not the only one with his head in a dark place.  By 8 December President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was already planning to administer a lot more that 1 million a day during the winter and spring of 2021.  Actually, on 20 January the average was 1.7 million shots being administered per day across the country. 

The townhall debacle immediately presented Biden’s staff with a stark reality; we cannot trust him to speak extemporaneously.  Should any of us be surprised that he is yet to hold an open press conference?  And when it does happen will it be completely open as in Trump-open?  Don’t hold your breath.

On 26 February Biden visited Texas following the power grid shutdown.  Closing out the visit, at the microphone, he was attempting to thank the governor and a number of Texas elected officials.  He struggled with the names, halting, “no that’s not right, (long pause) what am I doing here?  (pause) “I’m going to lose track here.” 

Jesse Waters, Fox News a couple weeks ago: During his opening monologue, Waters showed three brief tapes of President Biden in action.  If you get your news from the main-street-media, you will not have seen these clips.  I found them difficult to watch and found myself feeling sorry for him.  The subject in all three is Covid numbers. 

In the first clip he is seated with a Black History Month logo behind him, I do not know the venue.  When the tape begins, he is commenting on a Covid fatality number that he cannot recall.  “Over 500 I think, it”….. He is patting all his pockets furiously looking for a card, he says, “I have a card, I carry a card with me every day” ….. continuing to seek out the card, looking around helplessly, then says, “folks affected by” ….. he finds and shows the card, it looks to be a folded 5×7 card.  He has the card but appears dazed and cannot remember which number he is looking for.  Cut.

Second:  He is standing behind a microphone and says, “I carry a card with me”…..again searching his pockets and cannot find it….. looking around obviously seeking help. “I don’t have it with me, I must have given it to my staff.” A hopeless look on his face, long pause then goes on saying, “Do I have that around”…….long pause……”anyone”…..looking around……”where is my staff?”

Final clip:  Seated at his desk in the Oval Office looking down at notes, “I carry a card”, again searching pockets, looking around for help, hopeless, dazed look on his face “I carry a card…… left it on my desk.”  He was at his desk. 

Like I said previously, difficult to watch even though the whole sequence was only about a minute long. 

On 8 March Biden made some comments on International Women’s Day while attending the promotion of two female generals.  At the end of the speech, Biden thanked his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as follows, “I want to thank Sec ……. the former general ….. I keep calling him ‘General.’ My …… the guy who runs that outfit over there.”  “That outfit over there” being the Department of Defense in the Pentagon. 

Conclusions:  Since we see very little of our president, period, and even less of him in an unscripted situation, we find ourselves thinking, hoping perhaps that his health isn’t as bad as some make it out to be.  But what if it is actually worse?

Why did he even run for president?  I place the blame clearly on his family and closest advisors.  They, more than any of us, have been fully aware of his inabilities.  They have to have known that he lacks the energy and mental acuity to think through and work long-range strategic domestic and foreign policy issues. 

He simply cannot handle the toughest job in the world. He cannot lead this once-great nation in his current state.   

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

As I begin this, President Biden has completed 50 days in office.  Time for an assessment.

Keystone Pipeline: Within the first few hours he shut down the keystone pipeline construction, put thousands of workers and their families without a paycheck and, without warning, enraged Canada, our most trusted ally, neighbor and largest trading partner.  Instead of “transporting” 800,000 barrels of petroleum a day by carbon-free pipeline, we will be using carbon-belching trucks and trains. BTW, an 84-car train will carry 60,000 barrels of oil; one tanker truck hauls 210 barrels.  Who is doing the math in the oval office? The important thing is, it negates a Trump win.

Suspension of new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits on public land:  Just on “public land?” That doesn’t sound so bad until you consider that in eight western states, 97% of the oil and gas extraction is from public lands. Secondly, it has taken over 60 years for the U.S. to regain oil independence.  The geopolitical ramifications of returning to imported foreign oil are too mind-blowing to comprehend. 

Final point: the impact of Keystone and public land drilling prohibition has had an immediate impact; The price of crude oil and gasoline at the pump in the US have risen sharply.  Winners and losers.  Winners are Russia and Iran; both were suffering economically with oil their principle export; rising crude prices has given them a reprieve.  Losers; every person and business in the US suffers economically when gas prices go up.  This is a colossal failure of reasoned thinking but it negates a couple more Trump wins.

Border Wall immediate shut down:  Another 5000 jobs immediately lost.  Additionally, Border Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said the shutdown will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Also consider that 270,000 tons of unused steel bollards are on hand. Wouldn’t it make sense to just finish out the existing, funded contract?  No, they needed to wipe out another Trump win.

Immigration “reform”:  The on-going humanitarian and national security crisis on the Mexican border was absolutely predictable with the advent of democrat catch-and-release policy, AKA open borders.   There were nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants in February, up a whopping 97% over February 2020 and predictions from border control officials is that it will get “much worse.”

Drugs crossing from Mexico to the US:  Drug seizures from January to February, 2021:  cocaine increased 13%, methamphetamine up 40% and heroin up 48%.  Fentanyl seizures are up 360% from a year ago. Good work by the border folks, but, undoubtedly, unknown quantities successfully crossed the border and have been distributed across the nation.  Cartel-produced cocaine heavily laced with China-produced fentanyl will kill many Americans.  Open-border fallout.

I have said this before but it is worth repeating; all of these illegal immigrants can be categorized as follows:  All are unemployed and additionally many are also criminals, drug dealers, gang members, cartel operatives, Covid-19 carriers, sick, in need of major medical care, children who need free education in Spanish and those previously deported.

Open borders wipe out another Trump win, and that’s good for America?  Another view of the problem:  look out your window and watch the buses go by.  As Pem Schaeffer recently pointed out, 2000 bus loads of illegal immigrants dispatched across the U.S. arriving in your town to be greeted, fed and housed. And for how long?  And that’s just the February arrivals.  There are more to come, millions more. Why?  Because the border is open. 

Thank you, President Biden or Chief of Staff Klain, or Kamala or Susan Rice or whomever the hell in in charge.  And, BTW, when the bus arrives in East Overshoe, Montana, the Covid carrier on the bus has probably infected most of the other 49 passengers. Just deal with it America, open borders is just what we need now, right Mr. President?

Stop all ICE operations for 100 days: Of the 85,958 illegal aliens removed from the U.S. interior in 2019, more than 75 percent, 64,991, had criminal convictions. Another 13,498 had pending criminal charges. Using this database, on average, ICE deported 215 criminals per day.  Biden’s 100 -day shut-down will keep 21,500 criminals in our communities who could have been/should have been deported.  What is the purpose?  Net gain for America, zero.

“Preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation”: Of course, transgender individuals need and deserve society’s full support and understanding.  But, does that include destroying women’s sports as we have known it forever? Consider this:  Olympic, World, and U.S. Champion Allyson Felix’s 400 meters lifetime best of 49.26 seconds was bettered in 2017, more than 15,000 times by men and boys around the world.  In swimming 13–14-year-old boys are faster in races of 200 meters or less than the womens’ world records.   There is no longer a level playing field in women’s sports thanks to our president’s pandering to a democrat identity political group.  

Defunding Police: HR 1280, “The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act”, a seemingly innocent title, passed the House a couple weeks ago without a single Republican vote.  The wording buried in its 66 pages would cost police departments hundreds of millions of dollars.  But perhaps even worse is the provision that limits “qualified immunity”; that is, a long-standing policy that protects government officials from civil lawsuits for their conduct on the job. Now how are cities going to recruit the best and brightest? When Republicans tried to add an amendment to HR 1280, saying “……. condemns calls to ‘defund,’ ‘disband,’ ‘dismantle,’ or ‘abolish’ the police”, 219 Democrats voted against it. If it passes the Senate, Biden will sign it; and this will make America safer while current violent crime stats are going off the charts?

To further put this ridiculous law into context, while in 2019 the U.S. violent crime rate fell for the fourth straight year, and property crime fell for the 18th straight year, the National Commission on Criminal Justice reported a “steep increase in rates of violent crimes in the early summer of 2020 has continued through August across a broad range of American cities.”

Homicide rates between June and August increased by 53 percent over the same period in 2019.  The 2020, crime wave began with the George Floyd riots and police defunding actions in major cities. Led by BLM and Antifa thugs, the killing, burning and looting of thousands of small businesses raged across America.  Recall Kamala Harris’ reaction to the rioting, “They’re not gonna let up, and they should not.”

Election “reform”: H.R. 1, For The People Act of 2021 recently passed by the House of Representatives is a complete disaster. It certainly is not an act that is “for the People”; it is a bill especially designed to prescribe, from the federal level, detailed implementation of the worst of the states’ 2020 election rules, procedures and results. Many agree that passage of HR1 strikes such a serious blow to one of our most sacred rights, free and honest elections, that it threatens the very existence of our Constitutional Republic.

Some of the requirements:  Automatic voter registration, ban witness signature requirements, states must allow mail-in ballots and ballot-harvesting, prevents removal of ineligible voters from voter rolls, forces states to allow voting without an ID.

Here is what will happen if this law is passed.  Poorly maintained voter registration rolls in most states is the launch point for many types of voter fraud.  For example, Judicial Watch won a federal lawsuit requiring Los Angeles County to remove an estimated 1.5 million ineligible voters from its voter rolls.  In 2020, all of those 1.5 million ineligible voters would have received a mail-in ballot.  HR 1 will require ineligible voters to receive a mail-in ballot.

With HR1 and now S1, if passed, states’ rights on elections procedures will all be superseded by federal law.  All the pieces will be in place so that results of future elections will be determined by which party can out-fraud the other.  House and Senate democrats are calling this the most significant legislation in decades. 

Workers’ rights demolished: The House just passed the miss-named bill, “Protecting the Right to Organize Act”.  Despite the name its provisions are, quoting the Wall Street Journal, “brazenly opposed to giving workers choices.”  WSJ continued, “The legislation, which President Biden has promised to sign if passed by the Senate, would be the most significant overhaul of private sector collective bargaining laws since the 1940s. It would effectively repeal right-to-work laws on the books in most states which allow employees to decline union membership and not pay union fees.” This is blatant democrat pandering to an identity group.  Mr. President, where does individual liberty fall in this scenario?

Middle East misguided policies:  Former Secretary of State John Kerry (perhaps the worst in history) has been and still is obsessed with Middle East Policy.  His/Obama’s/Biden’s view is that nothing positive can happen in the Middle East until the Palestinians are satisfied.  FYI Kerry/Biden/Obama, Hamas is a terrorist organization and since 2006 has been the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, the current-day Palestine. 

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has waged war on Israel since 1987 and is committed to Israel’s destruction.  In 2019 Iran agreed to pay Hamas $30 million monthly in exchange for intelligence on Israeli missile capabilities.

The Obama/Biden/Clinton/Kerry approach to Middle East policy clearly explains their openly non-support of Israel. 

Four years of hard, imaginative work by the Trump administration changed everything. Post -Trump, most Middle East nations (Iran and Iran-supported terrorist nations excluded) now, for the first time since the 1948 creation of modern-day Israel, no longer view Israel as their enemy.  Quite the contrary, many Middle East countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have seen the light that Iran’s goal is Middle East hegemony and they, Iran, are the greatest threat to Middle East peace.    

Saudi Arabia’s very cool view of Obama/Biden/Clinton/Kerry morphed into great respect for Trump’s America and its view of Middle East issues.  From that transition, the Saudis took on critical efforts in their area, namely military action against the Houthi terrorist organization which waged a successful coup in Yemen in 2014.  Yemen remains one of the primary fronts in the global fight against terrorism and extremism. With U.S. assistance, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of nine nations against the terrorist network in Yemen. Without the Saudi effort, it is quite possible that the Houthis would have successfully transformed Yemen into a terrorist operational and training safe haven with deadly consequences for the United States and the international community.  

So, where is President Joe Biden on all this?  In another knee-jerk I’ll-show-you-Trump action, he is planning to remove the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists from the Global Terrorist list. Unbelievable.

To add insult to injury, Biden has put a hold on Trump-negotiated arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth billions of dollars.  Have they lost their minds?

Bail out cities and states:  Under the guise of Covid relief, Biden pushed through a $1.9 trillion package that included hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out financially mis-managed democrat-led cities and states. While at least two thirds of the states are financially stable and have substantial rainy-day reserve funds, tax payers will now be paying the bills for those governors and mayors who will not take the steps necessary to become fiscally responsible. Is there some sense of Biden unity in all that?

Disincentivized unemployed:  Biden claims the $1.9 trillion giveaway will lift people out of poverty.  His view of value added defies human nature.  Once the government is willing to give you a living income, where is the incentive to work?  

What’s coming next? 

$15 minimum wage:  Biden will not give up on a $15 minimum wage irrespective of the facts:  First, a one-size-fits-all approach makes no sense with the cost of living drastically different from state to state.  Secondly, tens of thousands of small businesses across the country are barely hanging on because of Covid.  Kicking them in the gut while they are down only adds insult to injury.  Experts expect at least 1.4 million low-wage workers will become unemployed; a Biden view of putting working families first.

Cut defense spending:  Biden will follow the lead of Presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama who all gutted the forces reducing combat readiness to dangerously low levels. It’s easy to cut but it is a long hard road to get readiness back to acceptable levels when we need it.  Our allies and enemies alike, carefully watch our combat readiness and act/react accordingly.  Nothing deters enemy intent to do harm more than fully combat-ready U.S. forces.

Gun control:  I’m fine with some changes; no one needs a weapon in three days.  Extending background-check timing to 10 days or a couple weeks is OK as long as the system is designed to effectively identify those who absolutely should not have a weapon. Also, no one needs a 30-round magazine.  The problem with gun control, as the democrats see it, is that “control” is synonymous with “no guns”, period.

Increased taxes:  Biden and the democrats continuously use this easy sound bite; “the very wealthy should pay their fair share.” That thought, soak the rich, is appealing to many.  What Biden will not do, even with a teleprompter, is define “fair share” and discuss the details/potential negative ramifications.  For example, in 2017, the top 1% of taxpayers paid more income taxes than the bottom 90% combined. Included in the bottom 90% are the 44% who paid zero federal income tax.  Is that not a “fair share” by the rich?

Biden hypocrisy: Next to Covid, “white supremacy” seems to be his new favorite topic.  He never seems to pass up an opportunity to inject “those domestic terrorist white supremacists” whenever possible.  Yes, there are white supremacists in America.  Yes, they are a threat.  Yes, they need to be dealt with.  But, consider that on the other end of the radical political spectrum is Antifa.  It is these violent anarchists who led the murder, looting, burning rampage across America for months on end last summer.  Biden will not mention Antifa; he will not even acknowledge that they exist.  His definitive exclamation during a presidential debate last fall was, “Antifa is an idea, not an organization.”

FBI Director Wray has testified before Congress saying, “Antifa is a real thing.”  He went on to say, “we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa.” 

The trial concerning the death of George Floyd is ongoing.  The defense will present two meaningful arguments.  One, the knee-on-the-neck was an acknowledged and accepted method of constraint taught by the Minneapolis Police Academy.  Secondly, the defense will show that Floyd had a fatal level of fentanyl in his system and died of an overdose.  If the jury believes that, cities across the country will burn and Antifa will be at the forefront of the murder and mayhem.  What then will Biden and Kamala say and do?

Bottom line:

President Trump threw a giant monkey-wrench in the Obama/Biden machine that was designed to, “transform America.”  That democrat 2009-2016 transition included federal domination of policies and procedures affecting every American, thereby stomping on States’ and individuals’ rights. Big government was their answer to every issue. Nothing in Biden’s first 50 days has been made clearer than his belief that it is OK for big government, big bureaucracies, and a regulation-nation to dominate we-the-people.  Hang on to your hat America, there is a lot more of the nonsense suggested above to come. 

What happened to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”?

What has happened to Bidens inauguration-day impassioned plea to trust him to be president, “for all the people”?

Do President Biden and his handlers have no clue that all those Trump policy reversals have infuriated 75 million Trump supporters?  Do they actually believe they can unite America with a soft voice, teleprompter statements and recriminating remarks about President Trump every time he gets behind a microphone?  Has the president already forgotten about uniting America or did he never really mean it in the first place?

Actions always speak louder than words especially when they are the actions of the president of the United States.

And that is just the first 50 days of the Biden Administration.  God help us.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.