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Biden/Harris will campaign on a promise of amnesty/citizenship to 11 million illegal aliens currently in the US. Experts tell us the actual number is most likely over 20 million.  WHILE PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL CAMPAIGN ON CONTINUED IMMIGRATION REFORM, HE DOES NOT CURRENTLY HAVE A CITIZENSHIP PLAN TO RUN ON.

Amnesty-for-all will be a complete disaster for the country.  “Amnesty for all” means ALL; forward deployed drug cartel members, MS-13 gang members, sex slave entrepreneurs, those out of work, those who don’t want to work, those sucking on welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, government housing and the many hard-working honest folks who love this country.  As long as they are old enough to vote, the democrats want them and will get them if Biden is elected.   

The republicans must counter this with a plan that makes sense for citizenship and will actually benefit the nation. 

The purpose of this memorandum is to not only present a citizenship plan for President Trump to campaign on, but also solve a huge piece of the overall illegal immigration problem. 

All persons residing in the U.S. are supposed to fall into one of three categories; that is, a U.S. citizen or those with a Green Card permanent resident status or temporary inhabitants with Visitor or Student Visas.  However, an estimated twenty million inhabitants exist outside those categories; WE DO NOT KNOW WHO THEY ARE, WHAT THEY DO OR WHERE THEY RESIDE. This plan is simple, self-regulating, and does not require supplemental regulations or a federal bureaucracy to execute. 

Phase One, 1 January, 2021 thru 30 June, 2021:  The President prepares an approximately 10-page law based on the procedures explained herein followed by Congressional passage of the Immigration/Citizenship Reform Plan.  The language in the law must be very specific and not subject to interpretation or change by States or local authorities.  The reason for specificity in the law is to preclude the requirement for federal bureaucrats to interpret the law and re-write it into policy with unintended consequences. 

Also, in Phase One each state will set up illegal alien card registration sites (hereafter IACard.  The logical solution is to add one or two positions to each DMV office.  Additionally, in Phase One, every law enforcement agency in the United States will forward information to the Homeland Security on every felony committed by an undocumented inhabitant (who, what, when and where).  The Department of Homeland Security will establish and maintain a national database of these cases which allows for an immediate check against an application for an IACard.

Phase Two, 1 July thru 31 December, 2021:  Every undocumented inhabitant in the U.S. will be invited to report to an IACard registration site in the state where they reside in accordance with a published alphabetical schedule (last name beginning in A, B, C, or D report during July, 2021, etc.).  the DMV will check into the Homeland Security felony data base and if the applicant has a felony conviction, that person will be taken into custody, deported and will NEVER be eligible for an IACard.  This is an example of the specificity of the language that must be in the Immigration/Citizenship Reform Law; one strike and out. 

Prior to appearing at the IACard registration site, each applicant must download a Federal Form, Employer’s Statement of Employment, fill it out and have it signed by their employer. No employer signature, no IACard.  The form must contain a statement of strong penalties for any employer signing a false statement.  Registration fee for the IACard is $50 per year. 

WHEN PHASE TWO ENDS IT WILL NEVER BE REPEATED.  EVERY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN THE UNITED STATES ON 31 December, 2021 will be either A LEGAL HOLDER of an IACard or THEY ARE DEPORTABLE.  That is, on 1 January, 2022 we will know how many employed illegal aliens there are, where they live, where they work, what they do and how many direct family (spouse and children) members they have.  The remaining non-IACard holders need to be located and deported.   

Phase Three, 1 January, 2022:  This is the phase that begins to change behavior and thereby solve the dual problems of undocumented inhabitants and unsecured borders.

On 1 January, 2022, the day following the initial 6-month registration period any employer who employs an undocumented worker (no IACard) will be subject to a fine of $25,000 for each worker, first offense; $50,000 each worker, second offense. No exceptions, no excuses. No employer is going to risk his livelihood over the employment of an illegal alien. Laws change behavior and add accountability of employers into the immigration solution.   

This simple act of requiring illegal aliens to carry an IACard will have four positive and immediate results:

• First, employers will protect themselves from potentially heavy fines by only hiring inhabitants who have a valid IACard.

• Second, undocumented inhabitants who choose not to apply for an IACard or were denied an IACard will not be able to find an employer who will take them on.  They will therefore be unemployable, will be constantly liable for deportation if detained for any reason and will likely return to their country of citizenship.

• Third, foreigners contemplating illegal entry into the United States in order to work will soon learn that no employer is going to hire them and illegal entry will be futile. This inevitable behavior change will, by default, reduce illegal immigration to a trickle. 

• This will provide Border Patrol officers the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the illegal entry of drugs, terrorists, gang members, those operating in the slave/sex trade as well as those seeking asylum.  

Phase Four, 1 July 2022 thru 30 June 2023:  This phase begins the twelve-month reissue of IA Cards; $50 fee.  The card color will change each year.  ONLY (again, specificity in the law) those inhabitants holding an IACard can receive a renewal card.  Additionally, they will be denied renewal if they have been unemployed and made less than $5000 or if they have been convicted of a felony.  Once denied, they will be detained, deported and NEVER receive another card. Any IACard that is not renewed by the annual renewal date will automatically be moved to the government’s deportation list.

In order to fund the Immigration/Citizenship Reform Law, a provision in the law will require IACard holders to pay 10% Federal income taxes on gross income.  Employers must issue a 1099 using the individual’s IACard number to identify them to the IRS.  The IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers and the data base will list earned income and taxes paid for the previous year. 

During the IACard renewal process, the DMV registration center will access the IRS data base to determine if the applicant has in fact been employed, made at least $5000 and paid taxes.  No tax records, no renewal and the applicant will be detained and deported.  The Federal Government will retain 2% of the tax revenue to fund four national data bases for The Immigration/Citizenship Reform Plan. The remaining 8% will be returned to the States in proportion to the number of IACard holders. 

Any IACard holder convicted of a felony will have his card pulled, be detained and deported.  That person’s file and IACard number will be annotated at the national registry to ensure that any future attempts to reapply will be denied.

An IACard holder who loses his or her job may immediately place an employment application to a National IACard holder registry website maintained by the Department of Labor.  This database will describe the IACard holder’s skills and be broken down by zip code.  An employer seeking to hire a carpenter, for example, has two options. One is to make direct contact with an IACard holder; second is to review the Department of Labor national data base of unemployed IACard holders.

There will be four related national data bases associated with this plan.  First is the basic national data base with the personal data and card number of each IACard holder, maintained by Immigration and Naturalization Services.  Second is the data base of taxpaying IACard holders maintained by the IRS.  Third, is the data base of undocumented known felons in the US; maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.  Finally, there is the jobs-available register at the Department of Labor. 

An IACard holder will have the following four privileges:

• One, they may apply for a State vehicle operator’s license and will be tested in English. A provision of the law will be that every state must prominently display the individual’s IACard number on the State Driver’s License.  Additionally, every applicant must show proof of auto insurance.

• Two, a current IACard will authorize the holder to legally cross US borders. 

• Three, legal holders may apply for an IACard Dependent Card (using the sponsor’s IACard number with a suffix) for their spouse and children (no extended family members).  If granted, the sponsor will be authorized to escort the dependents across the U.S. border.

• FOUR, AFTER LEGALLY HOLDING AN IACARD FOR FIVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS, THAT PERSON IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR U.S. CITIZENSHIP FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR IMMEDIATE FAMILY (SPOUSE AND CHILDREN).

President Trump’s campaign pledge will be that long-term, hardworking, honest illegal inhabitants deserve amnesty and chance at citizenship.

Remember, these people are here illegally.  Therefore, they will NOT be eligible for social security, welfare payments, food assistance programs, Medicare, Medicaid, or social services.  This will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year in federal and state assistance payments.  

Conclusions:

• Is this plan doable? Yes.  Is it 100% full proof? No, but no system can be.

• This plan is an efficient, simple, inexpensive way to document nearly every US inhabitant.

• This plan will readily identify illegal inhabitants who are currently a drain on Federal and State support systems and provide for their deportation. 

• If employers want foreign workers, they must become involved and accountable. Their only requirements are to hire IACard holders and to report employee earnings on a 1099.

• This program will drastically reduce the practice of unscrupulous and frequently deadly human trafficking.

• Enforcement:  Let’s say a person is stopped for a traffic violation.  If the driver’s license contains an IA Card number the law enforcement officer can immediately access the Homeland Security data base to determine if the person has a felony conviction, if the card is overdue for annual renewal or if the person is on a deportation list.  If any violations are found, the alien will be arrested, detained and deported. 

• For this to work two things have to happen.  First, the Congress has to pass a pure, non-watered down, straight-talk law with specificity that is not subject to interpretation by bureaucrats at the Federal, State or Local levels.  Secondly, INS, Homeland Security, IRS and Department of Labor, will need to develop high-speed, simple, secure, data bases that are immediately accessible by State and Local officials.  We cannot afford to create a bungling bureaucratic morass that is incapable of supporting down to state and local officials on a minute’s notice. 

• Immigration reform is not about amnesty or open borders; it is about accountability and changing behavior.

This Immigration/Citizenship Reform Plan will get illegal alien citizenship into the presidential campaign and highlight the insanity of the democrats’ amnesty-for-all program. 

PS: I have been trying for eight years to get someone in the White House to read this.  Additionally, my do-nothing republican congressman will not even read it, let alone work it towards a solution.  If anyone out there can get this plan some high-level visibility, I would appreciate it.  If you need a digital copy, reach out to me at MandDcovault@yahoo.com. 

Lt Gen Marvin L. Covault, US Army retired

Joe Biden’s campaign platform is beginning to creep out of his basement and so far, it is not a pretty picture. That was the opening line to a recent blog and the subject was
BIDEN’S “PLAN” FOR EDUDATION. For those of you who missed the blog, Joe got an “F” on education.   This time, let’s look at a second pressing national issue, immigration. 

All persons residing in the U.S. are supposed to fall into one of three categories; that is, a U.S. citizen or those with a Green Card permanent resident status or temporary inhabitants with Visitor or Student Visas.

The democrats would have you believe there are 10-12 million illegal residents.  Professors from MIT and Yale, using more sophisticated methodology, estimated in September 2018 that as many as 22.1 million undocumented aliens could be in the U.S.  They came to three conclusions; that 10-12 million is no longer viable, for sure there are at least 16 million and more likely over 20 million.  One thing is for certain, we do not know who they are or where they reside.

A nation that cannot secure its borders against drug traffic, criminals, gangs, human trafficking and illegal aliens has a serious national security problem.

President Trump has worked this issue and managed to bring it under reasonable control.  But the democrats will absolutely reverse all of those gains.  Why? It is common knowledge that the democrats see illegal aliens in general and Hispanics in particular as a valuable future voting bloc.

In a recent news conference, President Trump outlined 42 things Biden will do if elected. Nineteen of them had to do with immigration:

1. Abolish immigration detention.
2. Stop all deportation.
3. End prosecution of illegal border crossers.
4. Support the deadly sanctuary cities.
5. Incentivize illegal-alien child smuggling.
6. Expand asylum for all new illegal aliens.
7. Cancel all asylum cooperation agreements with Honduras, Guatemala, with El Salvador.
8. Taxpayer-funded lawyers will be given to all illegal aliens.
9. Abolish immigration enforcement against illegal workers.
10. Restore Catch and Release policies for illegals.
11. Grant work permits for illegal aliens.
12. Provide taxpayer subsidies and welfare for illegal aliens and new immigrants.
13. Federal Student Aid and free community college for illegal aliens.
14. Sign new immigrants up for welfare immediately.
15. End requirement for immigrants’ self-sufficiency and maximize their welfare.
16. End all travel bans, including from jihadist regions.
17. Grant mass amnesty.
18. Vastly expand low-skilled immigration to the United States.
19. Increase refugee admissions by 700 percent.

The fact-checkers, democrats and main-stream media went crazy saying there is nothing in the Biden’s platform that says he will take those actions.  Of course, they are correct; Biden will not RUN on open borders and amnesty for all.  But President Trump is also correct; if Biden is elected, he will execute these actions.  He won’t have a choice; the democrat party will demand it. Why?

For decades the democrat party has been synonymous with identity politics, particularly Black American voters.  Additionally, for several years they have seen the illegal alien Hispanic community as a new political identity target.  In 2016 Hillary Clinton was running on a platform promoting, “a pathway to citizenship.”

Trumps 2016 victory was a huge setback for the democrats’ plans for two reasons.  One, Immigration reform was an over-arching issue in Trumps campaign and it was the exact opposite of what the democrats intended to do.  Secondly, Trump not only campaigned on stopping the continuous flow of illegal immigrants, drugs, criminals, terrorists and human trafficking, he immediately set out to fix it.

Biden’s 14-page platform on immigration is littered with soft language and propaganda. For example, “Biden will move immediately to ensure that the U.S. meets its responsibilities as a nation of immigrants.” He says he will, “End prolonged detention.”  That is code for catch-and-release which was the Obama/Biden centerpiece and the reason we now have over 20 million illegals.  Then there is, “End the mismanagement of the asylum system.” More catch-and-release. “Welcome immigrants in our communities.”  That is to say, amnesty for all.  The one thing his website does NOT say, is how he will reduce illegal immigration. 

Let’s be clear about what is happening with Biden on immigration.  As pointed out there is the soft language in his printed platform and then there are the direct answers to questions during rare occasions when he is being questioned by the media. 

Earlier this year during the democrat primaries, there was open dialogue concerning, “Support for the elimination of criminal penalties for entering the country illegally”. That democrat position is a euphemism for open borders.  Why don’t they just come clean and say it, we democrats are for open borders?

During a recent interview Biden was asked if he would introduce immigration reform legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants promptly after assuming office.  “I already have the bill,” Biden said. And, he continued, “I will get it done in the first week.”  There it is, amnesty, pure and simple. In that interview, Biden went on to say, “illegal immigrants should have access to the same health benefits everyone else has.”

Homeland Security reports that from fiscal years 2017 to 2019, ICE agents arrested and eventually deported around 205,000 convicted criminals and about 36,000 immigrants with pending criminal charges.  Over that same period, ICE deported around 17,000 known or suspected gang members and 145 known or suspected terrorists. Keep your powder dry because Biden says he, “Will limit ICE’s ability to deport criminals.”

Doing the math on the 258,000 deportees cited above, over a 24-month period that would be, an average, deportation of 353 really bad folks a day.  So, when Biden emphatically declares he, “Will not deport a single soul in my first 100 days in office, that’s about 35,000 criminals that will still be in our neighborhoods but shouldn’t be.  Furthermore, what is the intellectual point about not doing something the first 100 days?  Is he signaling that deportations may be eliminated all together?  Given that he wants to reverse every gain made during the Trump presidency, that would be a valid conclusion. 

Then there are the democrat-established sanctuary cities; a place of refuge for illegal aliens and criminals.  Biden has said he will, “expand sanctuary locations.” Another scary proposal.

Amnesty-for-all is not only a slap in the face to the millions of upstanding citizens who worked through the immigration system legally but the long-term ramifications of amnesty-for-all are unthinkable. Once amnesty-for-all is initiated the precedent is set and precedent is a powerful force.  Organizations are generally change-averse and that includes this country. But once the work has been done to overturn the rock, the next time it is easy.  It is highly likely that amnesty-for-all will become the norm in the future every time the democrats are in power. 

How many will there be the next time?  There are actually hundreds of millions of people world-wide who would jump at the chance to immigrate to the US. The prospect of a second round of amnesty-for-all will likely result in all of our borders being overwhelmed by attempted illegal entry.  

Consider that you are one of those want-a-be poor folks in Guatemala and you can foresee crossing an open border, getting on welfare, enroll in Medicare, free legal assistance,  reside in government housing in a sanctuary city, have a government-issued work permit and look forward to guaranteed citizenship.  You build it and they will come….. by the tens of millions.

There are about 47 million Hispanic citizens in the US plus another 20 million illegals.  Politically, this is the holy grail for the democrats.  The democrats foresee a dynasty in power for years to come if they can get a strong hold on this Hispanic identity group. The complete revamp of the immigration system in the nineteen immigration initiatives outlined above by President Trump will certainly do just that.   

P.S. One thing Biden conveniently left out of his platform was a position on restraining illegal- entry children in cages.  You will recall the mainstream media going nuts and reporting, “Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing.” You will recall that was headline news until the media finally discovered that the pictures were file photos from the Obama era. 

Finally, I cannot help but take a swipe at Speaker Pelosi.  How many dozens of times has she lectured us during her weekly news conferences saying, “No one is above the law.”  I’m suggesting she needs to modify that as follows: No one is above the law except the millions of illegal aliens living among us.

Bottom line:  Open borders, amnesty-for-all and failure to deport illegal immigrant criminals are irrational policies, defy intellectual honesty and threaten our national security.  They may provide an up-side for the democrat party but, Joe, is there any value-added for America?  I think not.

On the upside, Joe, you are at least consistent;  an “F” in education reform and now I’m giving you a “F” in immigration. 

Marv Covault, Lt Gen, US Army, retired.

I’m old, seen a lot, moved 26 times while in the military but I have never lived in fear and still don’t.  But I do believe tens of millions of Americans today are doing just that, living in fear.

Fear: An unpleasant emotion caused by a belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. 

To illustrate what I believe many Americans are living with today are a series of statements and thoughts that could be attributed to many of you out there. 

I lived in (fill in the blank) for years and then moved to the suburbs.  I was recently back in town and found myself fearful as I walked the streets.

There is so much hatred and violence in America, I find myself being very careful what I say in public.  Violent revenge seems so commonplace today.  I’m often afraid for my physical safety.

I’m tired of being unjustifiably lumped into a large category and falsely accused of being a racist.  Like most Americans I have opinions on the subject of racism.  But I find myself reluctant to speak up or speak out because I don’t want to:

1. End up in a heated argument
2. Lose a friend
3. Be publicly castigated for having an opinion
4. All of the above

I am a registered republican and will probably vote for President Trump in November but I will not put a Trump sign in my yard and live in fear that (fill in the blank).  Drive around with a Trump bumper sticker?  Are you kidding, and get keyed in the parking lot, or worse? No way!

I sounded off the other day on Facebook about (fill in the blank) and got so much negative reaction.  I’m afraid it may come back to haunt me:

1. In my current job
2. For promotion consideration
3. In future job interviews
4. All of the above

I use to enjoy getting together with friends wherein we would usually end up having a lively debate about politics.  I can’t do that now for fear of ending the friendship. 

I am a college student, a conservative, and a member of the campus Republican Club.  I have always believed in speaking out about what I believe and politics in particular.  But now I can’t. I am constantly verbally abused and fearful of physical attacks.  I also have to keep my mouth shut during classroom discussions for fear of getting a grade lower than I deserve from my left wing/socialist professor.

I’m being considered for a big promotion at work but, like a lot of us, I did some stupid things in high school and college that I’m not proud of.  But these days there are no statutes of limitations on insensitive remakes or immature actions.  I’m afraid they will be dredged up and ruin my opportunities for advancement.

I’m proud to be an American, consider myself to be a patriot and for years have daily flown the stars and stripes outside our home.  Because of hateful remarks and threatening emails, I have chosen to take the flag down.  I fear for the safety of my family.

A friend of mine asked me the other day why I don’t wear my MAGA hat any more.  Are you kidding me?  Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats are getting verbally and physically assaulted all over the country. 

I am most afraid that the Trump hatred is breaking up my family. My brothers continue to refer to President Trump as a racist.  I have spent hours on line researching and I could not find any factual substantiating information leading to conclusions that President Trump is, in fact, a racist.  Quit to the contrary, here is some of what I did find:

-Jesse Jackson publicly applauded Trump’s “will to make things better” for underserved communities. Jackson also thanked Trump for meeting with him in 1984 and in 1988 when he ran for president at a time when the United States would’ve found the idea of a black president laughable.

-Donald Trump, pictured with Muhammad Ali and civil rights activist Rosa Parks, receiving the Ellis Island Award in 1986 for contributing to the conditions of inner-city black youths.

-Jesse Jackson thanks Donald Trump for contributing millions to inner city charities including the Rainbow Coalition.

-Then there is the photo of Donald Trump, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at the launching of Rainbow Coalition’s Wall Street Project, 1996.

 Question, do any of the above scenarios apply to you? Uhuh, I figured they would. Is this what we have become as a nation? Are our most basic and sacred constitutional rights being denied to us?

Shouldn’t we expect that all reasonably-minded leaders, republicans and democrats alike, should be equally appalled that so many Americans are living in fear while ignorant thugs and well-financed anarchists burn loot and murder in our neighborhoods thereby destroying the livelihood of thousands of hard-working small businessmen and women? 

There is debate about who said it, but whomever it was, they were correct; “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Our nation, with legions of hate mongers daily preaching to the masses, is on a tenuous path right now; a path with no goodness. 

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

Joe Biden’s campaign platform is beginning to creep out of his basement and so far, it is not a pretty picture.  At this time, let’s just look at one pressing national issue, education. 

Education is perhaps this nation’s greatest disgrace.  Yet every four years we go through the same song-and-dance.  The democrat sells his/her soul to the teachers’ unions promising to spend more billions of dollars, to regulate top-down, which then requires a bigger inefficient and ineffective Department of Education bureaucracy.  This is a decades-old formula for failure as our world rating in education continues to decline. 

Snapshots that illustrate the problems in government-run public schools:  Providence, RI:  Only 5% of eighth graders are proficient in math.  Newark, NJ: 21% proficiency in math.  North Carolina: 44 % of North Carolina third-graders are not proficient in reading.  Wisconsin: Black American eighth graders perform only slightly better than white fourth graders in reading and math.  Nation-wide, two thirds of eighth graders are not proficient in math and reading. And so it goes across the country.

One cannot adequately analyze education results without getting inside the government-run public schools vs charter schools discussion. Let’s begin by understanding what a charter school is.

Facts shared by nearly all the states: Charter schools are authorized by the State Board of Education. Charter schools are TUITION-FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS of choice that are operated mostly by independent non-profit boards of directors.

Myth # 1: “Charter schools are unaccountable, private schools that take money away from district schools.” Truth: Charter schools are 100% accountable to state authorities. Charter school students are typically funded at $0.73/dollar compared to district school students. Charter schools do not receive capital funding for buildings or transportation.

Myth 2: “Charter schools don’t serve a diverse population of students; they get to hand pick their students to populate their schools.” Truth: If a child is eligible to attend a public government school, parents may apply to any charter school.  If a charter school receives more applications than its capacity, a lottery is conducted. Discrimination based on race, national origin, or religion is prohibited.

Myth 3: “Charter schools exclude economically disadvantaged students by not providing transportation or food.” Truth: Most charter schools provide transportation and food without receiving any funding to do so.

Myth 4: “Charter school are not academically superior to government-run public schools.”  Truth: In New York City, for example, charter school students are predominantly black and Hispanic and live in low-income neighborhoods. In 2019, most students in the city’s government-run public schools failed to pass state-wide math and English standard tests while most of the charter school students passed both subjects. Ironically, in a number of minority communities, traditional public school and charter school classes are co-located in a common building.  In one co-mingled building in 28 different classes less than 10% of the government-run public school students tested to a proficient level while 81-100% of charter students were proficient.

Why is this happening?  There are three significant differences:  One, government-run public schools are top-down highly regulated vs charters with their own organization, planning, and programs. Unlike district schools, charter schools are independently operated, allowing them the freedom to use innovative school models and customized approaches to curriculum, staffing, and budgeting.

Second: Government-run public schools are highly unionized while charters are not.  There are great/gifted teachers, good teachers and also bad teachers.  Because of attitude, aptitude, expertise and lack of desire, some teachers should choose a different career.  The bad teachers will say, I present the material but I can’t make the students learn.  While that is a true statement, the great/gifted/good teachers, by contrast, can make the students want to learn. For anything short of criminal charges, a school principal generally does not have the time it takes to fight the teachers’ union through a dismissal.  On average it takes about two years of effort to fire a teacher for poor performance. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, it takes at least five years.

Finally, third, the bottom line is accountability.  Fact: an unacceptably high percentage of government-run public school students routinely fail standard tests.  When they do, what happens? Nothing positive. Students fail in fourth grade get passed on to fifth grade, in sixth grade they fall further behind and this pattern persists until a point, usually in high school, when the failing student feels frustrated, hopelessly behind, ridiculed and takes the only road he/she can see and drops out of school.  Across this great nation, on an average school day 7000 students drop out and join the ranks of the disadvantaged.  Accountability?  Zero. 

By contrast, if charter students do not measure up to standards, the school is subject to being shut down by state law.  Is accountability important in education?  Yes, the ultimate arbiter.

Back to the opening question; what is Joe Biden’s platform on education?

The bottom line: He has no plan to help education, period. He conveniently fails to mention charter schools on his official campaign website.  Specifically, he has made two public statements: “There are some charter schools that work.”  Wow, what a resounding endorsement!  And, “I will stop all federal funding for for-profit charter schools.” Only about 16 percent of charter schools across the country are operated by for-profit entities.

More telling than what he is saying is what he is doing; i.e. giving 100% support to teachers’ unions which have already endorsed his candidacy.

That leads us to the question, where are the teacher’s unions on charter schools?   Here is a summation of the misinformation they are spreading: Charter schools are privately-operated, deregulated, segregated, poorly-supervised, de-unionized, scandal-ridden contract schools that drain much-needed funds from demonized public schools. Oh, by the way, those are all lies.

The United Teachers Los Angeles, representing 600,000 K-12 teachers provides a good example.  One of UTLA current demands, as a condition of getting students back in classrooms this fall, is that privately operated charters that get government money be shut down; that would be 100% of them. Why? Charters threaten traditional schools, because the empirical record shows that urban charters, particularly those in poor neighborhoods, create better learning outcomes.

Teachers’ unions across the country are generally campaigning against charters and specifically working to influence local and state authorities to not approve new charter applications.  Examples: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, proposed a state budget that would put a freeze on new charter schools and cap enrollment at existing ones.

Recently the Chicago Board of Education denied three proposals for new charter schools and rejected the renewal of an existing charter following a union-led pressure campaign. The Chicago Teachers Union has called for a moratorium on all new charter schools.

We are now in a counter-revolution against education reform led by teachers’ unions pressuring democrat politicians across the nation to turn down charter applications. In California local school district officials can now veto charter applications.  

So, Mr. Biden, by all means, lead this nation down the continuing path of big-government, over-regulated, over-priced, failing education.  While that may not be what you actually want for America’s future, it is so pathetically obvious that you are pandering to the unions for their vote.  Where is your accountability?

BREAKING NEWS:  25 July in the Wall Street Journal.  “Education Secretary DeVos recently announced that her department will award at least $85 million over five years for the Washington D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

The scholarships let lower-income parents of children trapped in failing public schools attend the charter or private schools of their choice.  According to the Education Department, nearly 98% of students with Opportunity Scholarships graduate from high school compared with 69% of D.C. public school students.  Some 86% go on to college, while more than 90% of scholarship recipients are black or Hispanic, and the average family income is less than $27,000 a year.

Enter Joe Biden, whose own children benefitted from private schools.  But in his recent unity platform with Bernie Sanders, Biden specifically calls for eliminating the D.C. scholarships. There is no moral or fiscal justification for killing the scholarships.”

Sorry Joe, you just got an F in education.

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

Politics combined with bad events too often leads to a rush to bad policy. This is not breaking news, but it is, unfortunately, too often true.  Why is that the case? 

One of the principle reasons is that we get caught up in the moment and consumed by emotion and perceptions rather than taking a deep breath and looking at the facts associated with the issue.  This article is about a little history, current events and two questions. 1) Have we in the past month redefined racism? 2) Are we consumed with emotion and ignoring the facts?

RACISM, HISTORICAL CONTEXT: General Ulysses Grant, commander of the federal forces in the Civil War, believed in abolishing slavery. He was a champion of African Americans and throughout the Civil War used his influence and leadership to assist slaves escaping from the Confederate states.  President Lincoln, a Republican, agreed with General Grant.

Although President Lincoln had previously “freed” all slaves by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1863, during the siege of Richmond Virginia, the final months of the Civil War in 1865, General Grant and President Lincoln met frequently to discuss and plan for what freedom and equality should mean for the freed slaves. Their plan included the right to own property, to vote and hold office. The freed slaves would have access to all educational opportunities, public transportation and commercial activities; the rights enjoyed by every white citizen.  Black Americans would finally be aligned with the basis of our democracy guaranteed in the Constitution that “all men are created equal.” 

The Civil War ended when General Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April the 9^th, 1865.  Five days later President Lincoln was assassinated. The vision President Lincoln and General Grant had for the freed slaves died with the President. 

Lincoln’s Vice President, Andrew Johnson, a Republican, was sworn in as president.  Johnson was a weak, indecisive president and sided with the powerful Democrat leaders in the Confederate states to restrict the freedoms for the freed slaves.  The grand Lincoln/Grant plan for post-war reconstruction never came to fruition. 

One of the darkest periods in American history, from 1868 through the early 1870s the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) 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 in response to newly gained civil and political rights by southern blacks. Fact, THAT WAS PURE RACISM.

It is estimated that there was a KKK organization in nearly every county in the former Confederate states.  President Johnson turned a blind eye to the KKK devastation.  After becoming president in1869, Grant used US military forces to attempt to crush Klan activity in the South.  However, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again.

At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide. Today the Klan’s identity is unclear and their numbers are estimated to be less than three thousand.

For a period of 99 years, from 1865 until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Democratic party was the party of segregation.  Black Americans could not walk into a restaurant of choice, sit down and order a meal; NO BLACKS ALLOWED, the sign on the door read.  Blacks could not attend a school of choice; segregation meant 100% black/white separation in education.  Blacks could not take a seat of choice on public transportation; BLACKS SIT IN THE BACK OF THE BUS, the sign said.  WHITE ONLY WATER FOUNTAIN, the sign said. 

Racism defined:  Segregation, supported by the Democrat party for 100 years, was pure, unadulterated, unambiguous, in-your-face racism.  That was racism defined by facts.

Finally, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made segregation illegal in all states. But the Democrat party did not relent easily; 90% of lawmakers from states that were in the Union during the Civil War supported the bill compared with less than 10% of lawmakers from states that were in the Confederacy.

Fast forward to today where we define racism and racist in a different way.  I believe we can credit Hillary Clinton for the new methodology.  On September 9th, 2016 during a presidential campaign speech, Hillary stood behind a tel-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 me and about 75 million of my closest friends.  Which, by the way, many believe was the beginning of the end for her campaign. 

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, it is now proper to label all nine hundred thousand cops racist because of a very few tragic interactions between police and black men. 

When I say, “very few” I mean it.  Back to some facts.  In 2018 police, while they had an estimated 50 million official interactions with the public, killed 47 unarmed persons; 23 white, 17 black, 5 Hispanic, and 2 unknowns. 

Looking at the numbers, each of those deaths was, literally, about a one-in-a-million happenstance.  Each one was tragic, especially for family and friends, but, back to facts, we do not live in a perfect world; bad things happen.  Bad things will always happen. Case in point; On 17 June, officer Garrett Rolfe and Rayshard Brooks, according to the video tape, were having as calm, cool-headed conversation about intoxication when in an instant the situation escalated to a point wherein two men were faced off each with a “deadly weapon”, a taser and a gun.  Yes, bad things can and will happen; another one-in-a-million.  But one could reach the conclusion that one-in-a-million illustrates tremendous restraint on the part of police.  

But, you say, those 17 unarmed blacks killed by police in 2018 represent 36% of the 47 fatalities while Black-Americans make up only 13% of the population.  You are correct, BUT.  In 2018 those Black-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders and committed about 60% of robberies.

In the current environment, calling someone or some group racist no longer needs to be backed up by facts. It is now acceptable to put a racist label on someone you don’t even know but do it because you are angry at them for something they said or did. But what is even worse, individuals and groups are often publicly called racist for simply having differing opinions on public matters and public policy. 

Where has all of this ugly, loose, racist talk gotten us?  George Floyd died a tragic death at the hands of Minneapolis policemen. Under the new “rules” for defining racism, at warp speed, accusations were made and conclusions drawn that the Minneapolis police force is fundamentally racist.  From that incident, politicians and extremist groups across the nation came to the same conclusion about their cities’ police forces. Defund/disband them.  This is a classic example of politics combined with bad events too often leads to bad policy.

Furthermore, what has flowed on from the defund/disband policy is the conclusion that anyone who disagrees with the new policy must therefore also be a racist. Just that easily and just that quickly America became divided on another issue.  Why, because sides were drawn up based on emotion and perception vs facts. 

The racism issue is further inflamed by discussions over slavery.  Senator Tim Kane, 2016 Vice Presidential candidate, Harvard Law School graduate, emphatically exclaimed recently that, “slavery was created in the United States.”  Ergo, the US is solely to blame for racism. 

This type of inflammatory rhetoric does not pass the history test but does throw gasoline on the racism fire.  

The facts, Senator Kane, are as follows: Man’s inhumanity in the form of slavery has been one of the great travesties in the history of mankind.  Slavery has existed in almost every civilization, dating back 3500 BC. Furthermore about 600,000 Americans died in our Civil War to decide that slavery should no longer exist in the US.  President Lincoln made the ban on slavery official on January 1^st, 1863 when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, thereby freeing all slaves.

Leftist Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declared, after a few days of protests and violence, “The sheer number of unarmed black people who are killed by police as compared to other groups reveals police brutality for what it is: systemic racism. You have to look at the systemic patterns of policing and how they disproportionately result in the deaths of Black people.”

Governor Walz statement is another prime example of emotional, fact-less rhetoric combined with politics leading to a rush to bad policy, defund/disband the police. How would that work out in Minneapolis given that car-jackings were up 45%, homicides 60%, arson 58% and burglaries 28% from January through May, 2020 compared to the same period last year

Minneapolis is not alone with respect to increasing major crimes. In San Francisco, homicides before the riots this year had increased by 19%, burglaries by 23% and arson by 39%. Philadelphia reported a 28% increase in commercial burglaries, 51% in shootings, 22% in auto theft and 28% in retail theft from last year.

Will defunding/disbanding police forces make these crime stats better? Quite the contrary.  I would expect the following to begin happening immediately.  Breaking and entering will go off the charts rapidly.  This will lead to massive new “community watch” initiatives.  Gun sales spiked more than 80 percent in May as consumers responded to safety concerns and civil unrest.

Remember Travon Martin, the 17-year old Black man who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman.  The case was headline news for months.  Hold on to your hat because there will likely be a Martin/Zimmerman situation happening nightly across America when the police are gone, or at least in scarce numbers, or untrained resulting from lack of funds and/or unable to function under new restrictive rules of engagement. 

All this mess is application of the classic, “people are entitled to their own opinions, no matter how wrong or off base, but they aren’t entitled to their own facts.”  But as Joe Biden said, “We choose truth over facts.” In other words, what feels like the truth takes precedent over the facts.  Nice going Joe, and where has that great proclamation gotten us over the past few weeks?  I’ll tell you where; more dead people, hundreds of injured police, more hatred, tens of millions in damaged property and a little anarchy in Seattle (or, as the Seattle mayor called it, “a summer of love.”) 

If we want to be proactive and actually try to reduce the number of one-in-a-million tragic police actions, why not first look at the hot-heads, the poor performers, the anger management failures inside the police ranks and then do something about it. The police know who these malcontents are but have negotiated such ridiculous agreements with the police unions that they are nearly powerless to get them off the streets. 

The union leaders say, “The job of a union is to protect the interest of its members, at any cost.” “At any cost” translated means policemen like Officer Chauvin charged with murdering George Floyd are still on the street in spite of being investigated 17 times in 19 years for misconduct in the line of duty and only disciplined once.

I began the above discussion with two questions; 1) Have we in the past few weeks redefined racism? Yes, I believe the jury is in and they have spoken.  We do have a new definition of what racism consists of, emotion and perceptions.  2) Are we consumed with emotion and ignoring the facts? Yes, consumed by, obsessed with and led by emotion and perception.  The facts be damned. 

This overall impact of all this across the nation is?  We have for several years been consumed with a culture of hate and blame.  That just got multiplied by some factor yet to be determined.  We have made continued progress in reducing factual, in-your-face racism since outlawing segregation in 1964.  Have actions over the past few weeks, led by the “left” set us back a few years or decades?  Unfortunately, probably yes. 

Oh, and don’t forget, by some deductions I am at a loss to understand, all this mess is the fault of the Republicans!?

A final question.  What do you do when you have an emergency, call 911 and it goes to voicemail?  Think about it. 

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

Donald Trump surprised a couple hundred million Americans in 2016 by winning the election few expected him to win.  After the fact, it became obvious that the American people wanted change.  I believe they still do.  We are sick and tired of the Washington mess; how they act, what they say, their privileged positions, what they fail to do and that they have generally lost perspective on what America is all about.

Obvious problems go unfixed, things we do not care about get an inordinate amount of attention and the constant blame and bickering is distasteful, shameful and just downright disgusting.

We are inside five months before the November elections.  What follows is a list of issues you could be looking for as you go about deciding who to vote for:

SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY:  When Special Interest Groups have an inordinate influence over our elected officials, it is bad for the nation. Look for a candidate who wants to limit special interest money flowing into politicians’ pockets or into the campaign process. 

A BALANCED BUDGET:   Future generations have a right to be protected from debts accumulated by present-day politicians.  This nation absolutely cannot sustain the levels of deficit spending (averaging more than $1 trillion per year) over the past 12 years. Look for someone who has the courage to begin a balanced budget dialogue.  Tax-and-spend is not a valid economic policy.  

SIMPLIFY LEGISLATION:  The Affordable Care Act left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. The ACA was about 2,700 pages followed by over 20,000 pages of implementing regulations.

Legislation should be a few pages not a few hundred pages, written in understandable English, with enough specificity to preclude thousands of pages of implementing regulations prepared and enforced by hundreds or thousands of bureaucrats.

LEGISLATION, FROM THE PRESIDENT:  It is difficult to find references to legislation prepared in the Obama or Trump White House and sent to the Congress for action.  Preparing bills in the White House is the logical way for a President to lead the nation. Failing to do so delegates the task to groups of Congressional staffers from varying committees whose results then get mashed together into an illegible, illogical mess; example, Obama Care.    

PURE LEGISLATION:  Each year Senators and Representatives attach tens of thousands of earmarks that are totally unrelated to the primary Bill.  This process results in untold billions of dollars in fraud, waste and abuse. There are examples of Bills with literally hundreds of earmarks.  Earmarking may be a key reason why polls show that more than 85% of Americans disapprove of how Congress conducts itself. 

SUNSET LEGISLATION:  Milk goes bad; so do laws. Unfortunately, most laws stick around long after they have served their intended purposes.  A sunset provision should be included in every statute; It should state that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific date unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. 

LINE-ITEM VETO:  Line-item veto is an executive authority to nullify specific provisions of a law without vetoing the entire piece of legislation.  Forty-four State Governors have some form of line-item veto power. 

While a Presidential line-item veto law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998, the next administration should seek new legislation in relation to an attempt to get a balanced budget amendment.  That is, in a case where the Congress could not present a balanced budget, the President would have line-item veto power. 

REMOVE ANNUAL BONUSES FOR GOVERNMENT WORKERS:   A small percentage of hard-working Americans are in a situation that will ever provide for a bonus. When we read about the hundreds of millions of dollars going to government employees in organizations that have been less than sterling (the Veterans Administration, for example), it just does not pass the smell test. 

DE-UNIONIZE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES:  Unions came into existence for good reasons; child labor, unsanitary working environment, unsafe conditions. Over the past century those poor conditions went away with child labor laws, OSHA protection and EPA regulations. Thereafter unions set their sights on office workers. Since most office workers cannot complain about their working conditions, what has evolved is unionized protection against being an ineffective employee.  Bottom line, it is nearly impossible to fire a bad government employee. 

The overall impact of union protection is that government employees no longer believe they have to be accountable for their actions or the quality of their work in order to remain on the job. Without accountability, any organization is, at best, mediocre.

There is a lot more water to be drained in the Washington swamp, vote for someone who at least promises to try.

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

I know, this is too long.  But a couple days ago I received an email from a highly respected former boss and long-time friend.  The use of military forces in the on-going crisis is a current question that perhaps I should attempt to answer because, he reminded me, I am the only senior commander that has done this in the past 50 years.  So, I will use Thomas Jefferson’s excuse; when finished writing a long letter to a friend, he apologized for its length, saying, “if I would have had more time it would be shorter.”

Background:  March, 1991 the nation saw, on film, five white LA police officers brutally beat a black gentleman, Rodney King. 

While all of us had viewed the taped beating over and over in great close-up detail, a year later those five white police officers were found not guilty by an all-white jury.  That verdict was announced at 3:15 p.m. 29 April, 1992 and Los Angeles erupted, most particularly in South/Central LA.  

The final tally was as follows: 55 killed, over 2000 injured, about $1 Billion dollars is damages, over 10,000 rioters were directly involved in looting and destruction, over 1000 buildings seriously damaged or destroyed, the fire department responded to more than 4000 fires. This was not taking place at 5^th and Elm street; it covered an area of about 100 square miles of built-up urban terrain; by far the most difficult terrain in which to operate.  The largest riot in US history. 

At the time I was the commander of the 7^th Infantry Division (2-star position) at Ft Ord CA about 350 miles north of LA.  7^th ID, by design, was the most rapidly deployable division in the world.  

President George H.W. Bush had already dispatched 1000 Federal riot-trained law enforcement officials, FBI SWAT teams, special riot control units of the US Marshals Service, Border Patrol, Bureau of Prisons personnel and other Federal law enforcement agencies. 

At about the 36-hour point, May the 1st at about 2 a.m. we, 7^th ID, received a call from our military higher headquarters in Atlanta, and were told, “a military force may be needed in LA but don’t do anything yet.”  Dumb order, we immediately began to plan for a rapid deployment.  Six hours later at about 0800 we received a second call, “there will be a military deployment but it will not be the 7^th ID.”  CNN was following everything related to the riots live and continuously. 

Thirty minutes later we watched President Bush, live on TV, walk into the White House Briefing Room and announce, “I have decided to deploy the 7^th ID to LA to help secure the city.” Game on.  By the next morning we had 12,000 Soldiers and Marines (from nearby Camp Pendleton) deployed in LA and I was in charge of the entire mess.  

Later on, in a meeting with President Bush, he told me he had received a phone call from his long-time friend, California Governor Pete Wilson who had told him he wanted the 7^th ID to immediately deploy to LA.  So, he said, I just went to the briefing room and made the announcement.  Everyone in the military chain of command heard it at the same time I did.  

Interestingly, the president’s words, “…deploy and help secure the city” were the first, last and only words of guidance I received zero elaboration from my three-star boss, four-star boss, Army Chief of Staff or the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Why no guidance?  Because they knew I had spent 29 years training, studying, and being mentored to be ready for that moment.  They also knew that the biggest enemy of crisis planning and execution is time.  There isn’t enough of it and they all knew the last thing I needed was someone looking over my shoulder and grading my work. 

The keys to success in dealing with a crisis are to lean on your strengths, avoid your weaknesses at all costs (to include weak leaders) and decentralize execution. 

Two hours after the president’s announcement the deployment was underway and by noon, I was on the ground in LA with a skeleton planning staff.  What became immediately apparent was that no ONE was in charge of the multitude of federal, state and local agencies involved. All I could see and sense was chaos. And most concerning was that the California National Guard was streaming into the city with no deployment plan in place.

I called back to Ft Ord and had a dozen of the Division’s best “iron majors” (experienced, mature, articulate officers) flown in the first afternoon and I assigned them as my personal liaison to the Governor, Mayor, Chief of Police Gates, Sheriff Block, Highway Patrol, all the Federal Agencies, the CA National Guard and the Marines. Before dispatching them, I looked them in the eye and told them exactly what they were to do. “You stay about 3 feet from your principal at all times and tell me everything they do, everything they say and who they communicate with. There can be only one boss of this mess and it’s me.  You understand?” 

Their first mission was to get their principal on a conference call with me that afternoon at which time I gave the participants my first deployment briefing and told them to thereafter be on a conference call with me at 8 a.m. every day wherein I would give them an overall assessment of the night’s activities and what was to be accomplished in the next 6, 12 or 24 hours.  Principals only on the conference call. The Governor was not amused about the “principals only” part and it got a little ugly but it worked. 

As if President Bush’s surprise deployment announcement at 0830 that morning wasn’t enough; he saved another one for later in the day.  At 6 p.m. CA time, President Bush presented an update briefing to the nation.  First topic of the speech was, “I have decided to Federalize the California National Guard.”  At that moment, with those words, I became the Commander of the CA National Guard and they all became federal US Army soldiers.  That was actually a blessing because we immediately took charge of their rally points, established training stations (particularly to train rules of engagement) and integrated them into the overall deployment plan. 

My purpose here is not to necessarily criticize Governors, Mayors, Police Chiefs, etc in the cities recently being burned and looted but rather to explain why it can make sense to consider deployment of federal military forces early in the crisis. 

First of all, none of the on-scene leaders, governors and mayors have years of experience in crisis-action planning or execution.  The US military does, from top to bottom.  So having a senior military leader on the scene and in charge with all the assets of the Defense Department at their disposal can be a value-added game changer. 

It became obvious the past few days watching and listening to the city and state leaders as the riots got worse and deadlier, that no ONE was in charge.  If no ONE person is in charge, no one is in charge.  If no one is in charge there is no plan. That was the situation I found in LA in 1992 and it is what became very obvious as I listened to the governors/mayors/police chiefs during the George Floyd uprising. 

From my experiences in LA in 1992, I see many advantages to the use of federal troops early. Here are some:

Mass: The US military has lots of soldiers and they can deploy rapidly to any city. I had, on the ground, over a thousand squads (9-person teams). What we have witnessed in the past few days the initial call-up of 500 National Guardsmen in Minnesota and a couple hundred Military Police from Fort Bragg to New York were tokens, too small and too ineffective.

Experienced leaders: The leaders I had in LA had years of training in crisis-action planning and execution. Governors and mayors have nothing like that available to them.

Existing operating chain of command: Never underestimate the value and power of injecting an existing, experienced entire chain of command into a crisis situation. There was no down-time, no learning-curve; we became immediately operational.  The governors/mayors had nothing like that available to them and could not put it together.

Communications:  Integral to the in-place chain of command was existing communications protocols that were utilized and practiced on a daily basis in training and transferred directly into the LA area of operations.  None of this was in place prior to our arrival which made their daily operations difficult to impossible. 

Mission:  Every leader and soldier understand “mission.” My overall mission statement to Task Force LA was to rapidly create a safe and secure environment for every citizen in LA. Just as important, that mission was picked up by the media, transmitted and understood by the millions of LA residents.  Additionally, that overarching mission was filtered down through the chain of command, increasing in specificity to every soldier so that the squad leaders were telling their soldiers that their mission was to maintain complete situational awareness of their assigned area of operation (a street corner, or city block) and be prepared to report any unusual activity and/or the gathering together of a crowd.  During recent events across America did anyone hear a mission statement.  Did we see an ever-increasing de-escalation of hostilities?  Quite the contrary.

Rapid reaction: The troops where on 18-hour shifts throughout the 100 square mile area.  Their company and battalion headquarters were nearby in schools and parks.  Every headquarters had multiple rapid-reaction forces of varying sizes who were prepared to move immediately to any area where the squad or platoon leader needed back-up.  Another capability beyond the locals reach. 

“Mission creep” are the two ugliest words in the English language.  When left to their own devices, governors/mayors/police chiefs will try a little of this first, then some of that, well that didn’t work let’s try a curfew, and so it unfolded; one failure after another until they find something that works or the looters just grow weary of their efforts.  Upon deploying throughout LA during that initial 24-hour period, we were in a forceful, dominant position.  Trial and error was not part of out game plan. 

To the contrary, what we saw over the past days across America was people dying, businesses destroyed and everyone pointing fingers at the failure of the police to gain control. Trial and error is a process but it rarely works in a crisis because time is the biggest enemy.  You don’t have enough of it (time) before the looters roll in for another night of mayhem.  I am not implying that political leaders don’t mean well and hope for the best; what I’m saying is, hope is not a process. 

Rules of engagement: Day after day during the George Floyd uprising, I could not discern the rules of engagement for the police departments.  For the US military, rules of engagement is a given. It’s one of the, “don’t leave home without it” issues.  Every soldier must have a complete and thorough understanding of ROE.

I wrote the rules of engagement on the plane in route to LA, called them back to my Chief of Staff who had the printers standing by. They were no seen by a lawyer, not presented for approval to higher authority (time is our enemy) and they also never changed.  ROE cannot be vague and ever-changing.  Before they were on the streets of LA in 1992, every soldier had a 3×5 card in his/her breast pocket that spelled out in plain, non-legalese verbiage what they could and could not do.

-No crew-served weapons (machine guns) allowed. 

-Rifle selector switches will never be set on automatic or 3-round burst mode.

-Bayonets will not be locked onto the rifle.

-Every soldier has the inherent right of self-defense. 

-No rounds chambered unless you must fire in self-defense.

-Rifle position one: no round chambered.  Magazine full and in place in the rifle. Rifle held with both hands diagonally across the chest with muzzle up (port arms).

-Rifle position two: Rifle at port arms with magazine removed and in ammo pouch.

-Rifle position three:  Rifle at sling arms, magazine removed, muzzle up. This is designed to be a less threatening posture but still, if necessary, he/she could unsling the rifle, insert a magazine, lock and load in 5 seconds or less.

-Rifle position four: Rifle at sling arms, magazine removed, muzzle down.

What were the rules of engagement in Minneapolis, New York or Washington DC?  Could the general population discern what they were?  I think not.

Managing change:  Early in the crisis we were operating in 6-hour planning cycles, then to 12, then to 24 and finally to sustainment.  As the crisis de-escalated, general orders and ROE rifle positions would be changed.  Changes would move down from ONE central source to every soldier in a matter of minutes.  Additionally, daily operational orders did not need to be one size fits all. The entire area was divided into identifiable zones that could be easily referenced with specific applicable instructions.

Unity of command is critical:  Throughout this latest crisis, the trick has been to sort out what was and was not to be done during the next day by listening to daily media pronouncements from the governor, mayor and chief of police.  No unity of command equals confusion, often chaos, and results in little if any progress.  On day eight of the rioting in NY city we saw the mayor and chief of police speaking publicly and giving conflicting guidance to the police force.

President Bush did me a tremendous favor by federalizing the CA National Guard.  Without that, unity of command would have been very difficult.

Have a clear concept of operations and TTP (tactics, techniques and procedures: The issues we used in Task Force LA were implemented quickly and effectively. Such as:

1. In LA hundreds of CA Highway Patrolmen were on the outskirts of LA waiting for orders.  We sent several cars/patrolmen to every fire station.  When called out, the patrolmen would provide escort for the firemen and immediately establish a secure perimeter with arrest authority thereby providing firemen the opportunity to do their work. 
2. Our directive to the LA police and sheriffs’ deputies was simple; make arrests, transport and process criminals.  Period. How many times in the past few days have we seen on TV several police cars with lights and sirens streaming down a street followed by one 10-passenger paddy wagon?   Wrong answer.  Put large numbers of arrested offenders into city buses along with a couple policemen who were arresting officers.  Transport them to a very large (auditorium, sports stadium) facility where the accompanying police can describe the offenses during processing.  “Processing” should take 6-8 hours; keep them off the streets.  Special attention should be given to those offenders who resisted arrest; jail cells if available.  
3. Proactive, proactive, proactive.  An experienced, coherent military force will immediately get ahead of the power curve and take the advantage away form the rioters. For example, in LA we had quick reaction forces (QRF) of varying sizes at company, battalion and brigade headquarters all over the 100 square mile area of operation.  A call from a squad leader reporting “crowd gathering” would be dealt with in minutes while the “crowd” was likely less than a dozen people vs the normal crowds of hundreds we have been seeing consistently on TV the past few days.  LA police and buses were on station with every QRF and routinely accompanies a QRF to take care of arrests. 
4. “Peaceful marches”.  They were prohibited in the afternoon because the crowd would tend to grow, linger into the evening and move towards a target area for looting. Proactively prohibit that type of behavior. 
5. Begin curfews well before dark.  The recent New York curfew beginning at 11 p.m. was pure insanity.  By then the looters have distributed their cache of weapons, bricks, clubs, etc. and have all the momentum for the remainder of the night. 
6. Manage information flow from ONE command headquarters.  I was routinely out and about LA at night.  At 8 a.m. I hosted a conference call with all the principals; governor, mayor, police chief, sheriff, etc. The intent was to provide a SitRep (situation report) of the previous night’s activities, by sector.  Then, describe for them what steps would be taken, by sector, over the next 6 or 12 or 24 hours.  That information was the SINGLE SOURCE for their use as they dealt with the media that day.  If one of them got off message, my liaison major was to contact me directly and I would deal with it. 

It was equally important to manage information up the chain of command.  I did this  by sending out a daily SITREP to my bosses.  They, in turn, may or may not have commented on it and dutifully forwarded it to the service chiefs and the JCS Chairman, Colin Powell.  When he came to LA to visit the troops, President Bush kindly told me he had the SITREP delivered to his quarters every morning at 0500 and felt comfortable that he had what he needed to know for the day ahead.    

7. Redefine the battle space.  In the 7^th Infantry Division, we trained hard every day and night to close with and destroy the enemy.  The initial priority in LA was to redefine the battlespace where the objective was to create an environment where no one would die.  It was remarkably easy.  Your soldiers are so well trained, responsible and agile of mind and body, that a chat with their squad leader about the rules of engagement was all it took.  By contrast, New York City Mayor De Blasio said, after repeated nights of looting and burning, “When outside armed forces go into communities, no good comes of it.  We have seen this for decades.” He went on to explain that, “The National Guard is not trained to handle rampant looters and violent thugs.”  Has he been living on the back side of the moon?

My intent was to develop a contrast between what ended up to be a successful, large, complex crisis undertaking in 1992 with deployed federal troops in contrast to the chaos, indecision by governors/mayors in a disastrous situation that has gone on far longer that it should.

My answer to the title question, is yes, federal military forces should be engaged in national civil disturbances crises.  

Was Task Force LA perfect?  Not by a long shot but then dealing with crisis rarely is.  Did we make mistakes?  Certainly.  But the bottom line is, once our forces deployed and got on the scene no one lost their life and the rioting, looting and burning quickly stopped. 

Lieutenant General Marvin L. Covault US Army, retired.  Author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders.   

Our ability to legally vote and ensure that our vote is properly counted is one of the underpinnings of a successful democracy, right up there with freedom of speech. 

Is voter fraud a problem in the United States? Yes, even a small amount is a problem that should be solved.  How prevalent is voter fraud?  The correct answer is, no one knows because fraud is a crime and folks don’t go around advertising that they are breaking the law. We have choices: do nothing, take a chance that it might get exponentially worse or try to fix it.

Voter fraud is in the news right now because democrats are clamoring for a dramatic change from voting booths to mail-in voting. Their argument is that because of COVID-19 it will not be safe to assemble and vote in November. 

Is the pandemic a good enough excuse to take a chance and suddenly shift the nation to mail-in voting?  Good question, let’s take a snapshot of the current problem and then you decide. 

California:  It has been determined that 1.5 million individuals were registered even though they no longer were eligible to vote. Recently California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an order ensuring that every registered voter will receive a mail-in ballot this fall. 

Disregarding several warnings, Mr. Davis was convicted of registering his four dogs and his deceased father to vote.  Or take Mr. Lerma, an illegal alien from Mexico who voted multiple times under a false identity.  Mr. Hall was involved in a scheme with eight other individuals where they solicited hundreds of false and/or forged signatures on voter registration forms by offering homeless people $1 and/or cigarettes for their participation.

Other cases out of California include individuals who forged the signatures of voters, being paid $5 per signature.  

Voter registration rolls are notoriously inaccurate and out of date, containing the names of voters who are deceased, have moved, or otherwise have become ineligible. 

 Having thousands of ballots arriving in the mail for individuals who no longer reside at a registered address risks those ballots being stolen and voted.  

North Carolina: In 2018 in the 9th Congressional District race was overturned because of illegal vote harvesting that included altering and forging absentee ballots.

Oregon:  A survey of one county found that five percent of registered voters admitted that other people marked their ballots, and 2.4% said someone else signed their ballots.  It is suspected the actual number was much higher, given that most people would not want to admit being a party to a crime. Likely tens of thousands of mail-in ballots are being cast in Oregon by individuals other than the registered voter.

New Jersey: A candidate bribed voters with $50 payments for mail-in ballots. 

The Election Assistance Commission found that 28.3 million ballots in federal elections between 2012 and 2018 were lost or disappeared in the mail.

Virginia: An investigation found 592 examples where registrants were simultaneously registered in another state. There are about 11,600 dead people on Virginia’s voter rolls, all of whom would receive mail-in ballots if an election were held by mail.

New Mexico: The Public Interest Legal Foundation found more than 3,000 individuals registered multiple times; 1,700 registrants who are dead; 1,500 voters aged 100 or above, 64 of whom are over 120 years old. All of these supposed voters would receive mail-in ballots.

These are just a few examples of the ongoing voter fraud in America. Collecting these examples just took a few minutes on Google.  Imagine if we went state by state and searched out voting and voter registration investigations.   Absentee and mail-in ballots are the tools of choice of election fraudsters because they can operate outside the supervision of election officials, making it easier to steal, forge, or alter ballots, as well as to intimidate voters. 

Ballot harvesting is the collecting and submitting of absentee or mail-in ballots by volunteers. In California, campaigns can legally go door-to-door as often as they want and offer to collect the filled-out ballots and drop them off to election officials. Fraud comes into play when one questions the collector’s intentions. Could they be motivated to NOT deliver the ballots once they are collected?

Going entirely to by-mail elections would unwisely endanger the security and integrity of the election process, particularly if officials automatically mail absentee ballots to all registered voters without a signed, authenticated request from each voter. 

These cases demonstrate that significant election fraud does exist and, unchecked, can compromise the integrity of the entire election process. 

Speaker Pelosi’s $3 trillion Heroes Act, recently passed by the House says that states “shall permit a voter to designate any person to return a voted and sealed absentee ballot.”  In effect it would impose ballot harvesting nationwide. 

We should not revamp our voting system with a knee-jerk change/solution just because of the potential for COVID-19 still to be an issue in November.

Conclusions:  One, voter fraud in America is a problem.  Two, with a concerted effort the voter rolls and voting procedures can get cleaned up with a little common sense and attention to detail.  Three, moving the nation to mail-in voting, as a reaction to the pandemic, does not solve the kind of problems enumerated above and could well make things a lot worse leading to many contentious election results like the 9^th District in North Carolina in 2018.

Here is what could/should happen leading up to the November elections:

1.  Election fraud is a crime. The US Attorney General should put pressure on all of the State Attorneys General to get involved and clean up the mess.  State election officials appear unable or uninterested in doing so. 
2. Ban ballot harvesting across the nation.  For those who cannot go to the voting stations (military, infirmed, etc.) tighten the requirement for a signed request for an absentee ballot and do the entire process with specific due dates well ahead of election day. 
3. If we are concerned about social distancing requirements, extend voting over three days to alleviate the crush and long lines.  How could that happen?

Our Constitution (article 1, section 4) specifically gives congress the power to regulate the, “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections.” In 1845 congress passed a federal law designating, “the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November” as the time for Federal elections.  Easy to change it with a two-sentence law passed by Congress.  “The 2020 national elections will be held 1-3 November, 2020.  No results will be released until every voting station in the nation is closed.” Period.

In the 2016 presidential election there were about 240 million eligible voters.  Only 58% of them voted.  Pathetic.  Extending the voting period from about 12 hours to 3 days could hopefully elicit more interest and a greater turnout. 

4.This is the 21^st century, everyone needs a valid ID. It is about time we stopped the nonsense of arguing about voter ID. The state DMV facilities could easily provide a valid ID for those few legal citizens who do not have a driver’s license, a passport or a federal ID.  Remember, there are over 20 million illegal aliens in the US and many of them already vote illegally. 

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

If someone asked you if you have the Corona virus, unless you were just tested negative, there are only two correct answers.  Yes, I do.  Or, I don’t know.  Why don’t you know?  Because you can be spewing the virus into the environment for up to five days before actual symptoms begin.  That is, what’s called being asymptomatic.

Therefore, literally tens of thousands of Americans are walking around right now infecting others and neither party is aware it is happening. You just might be one of them?

We all know we need to balance health with opening the economy.  To do so, we need every US citizen playing a role.  I am not convinced we, either collectively as a nation or as individuals, are doing all we can/should to bring down the daily numbers of infected and defeat the pandemic. 

From May 1st through the 20th, the US has averaged 22,000 new cases of COVID -19 each day.  That’s too many.  Can we do better?  Yes we can but we all have to play a role.

I am intrigued by information floating around the internet recently written by Dr. Erin Bromage, Associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts. He provides some interesting information that can help us understand how the virus is most likely transmitted. 

Dr. Bromage tells us that the virus can move from an infected person to another via airborne virus droplets. While this still needs to be confirmed experimentally, infection can occur, through 1000 infectious viral particles you receive in one breath or 100 viral particles inhaled with each breath over 10 breaths, or 10 viral particles with 100 breaths. Each of these situations can lead to an infection.

Dr. Bromage goes on to say, the droplets in a single cough or sneeze from an infected person may contain as many as two hundred million virus particles which can all be dispersed into the immediate environment. For you skeptics out there, let’s, for the sake of argument, assume he is 99% wrong, that it is 2 million virus particles, not 200 million. You only need to take in 1000 to become infected. 

Additionally, note that the virus does not need a cough or sneeze to spread. A single breath releases 50 – 5000 droplets; and, again, you only need to take in 1000 to become infected.

Some of the smallest infected droplets can hang in the air for a few minutes, filling every corner of a modest sized room with infectious viral particles. All you have to do is enter that room within a few minutes, take a few breaths and you have potentially received enough virus to establish an infection.

The issue here is masks.  While it is confirmed that most cloth face coverings will not filter out all the virus particles you breath IN, it is estimated that the amount of airborne virus particles EXPELLED by an infected individual is decreased by as much as 75% when masks are worn.  

Just from my infrequent ventures into town, I have concluded that a very small percentage of our residents wear masks when in public.  While recently in a national box hardware chain store, I noted that a small fraction of the customers and employees were masked up.  Imagine if one of the employees who purpose is to roam the isles ready to answer (where can I find lock washers?) was in fact asymptomatic.  That employee could fill the air (50-5000 virus droplets with each breath) while you are standing in that same air zone getting the answer, “lock washers are in isle 5.”  That type of engagement could potentially happen hundreds of times over that employee’s five-day asymptomatic period. 

Generally, those who choose not to wear masks say, “I’m being careful and ‘they’ (CDC for example) says a common cloth face covering won’t help much anyway”.  These folks are completely missing the point.  The cloth face covering is NOT principally a protection for you, its primary use is to keep you, a potential asymptomatic virus carrier, from infecting many other people.    

In order to rapidly move forward in defeating the pandemic we have to convince the public that wearing a cloth covering of some type can perhaps cut down by 75% the number of infected virus droplets you are spewing out in public.  This is simple.  Everyone has access to a cloth mask.

One additional point on masks.  Elderly folks and those with a variety of existing health issues are more “at risk” to contract the coronavirus.  Now that stockpiles are being refurbished with critical health equipment, everyone in the most at-risk categories should be provided with N95 protective masks to further decrease their vulnerability to airborne virus particles.   

We all want the stores, restaurants and bars to reopen.  The unemployed want to and need to get back to work.  Why not help out by wearing a mask?  What do you have to lose?

There is a second issue that should be considered in countering this pandemic.  Fact, because viruses are sensitive to temperature changes and cannot survive above normal body heat, your body uses fever to help destroy the virus. We have been told for the past three months that a fever is one of the Corona virus symptoms. 

Let’s say you are generally feeling fine, you get up in the morning and stick a thermometer in your mouth and it reads something above 99 degrees.  In this pandemic environment that becomes an OMG-moment.  Do I have “it”?

What do you do?  If you are smart you call your doctor and begin exploring how to get tested.  You do not go to work.  You isolate yourself from your family.  You begin disinfecting everything you have touched that morning. 

The point being, something as simple as routinely taking your temperature every single morning and insisting that everyone in your family does so can become a very effective first-line of defense.

President Trump’s pandemic task force should cause selected companies to immediately begin manufacturing hundreds of millions of thermometers just as they did with ventilators, masks and personal protective equipment. Then do a mass distribution across the country.

We need our leaders, President Trump, the governors, mayors, local health officials to better energize the entire population.  Every day we hear them tell us to 1) wash your hands, 2) don’t touch your face and 3) use social distancing.  Generally, we all get that and do our part.  But that is not enough. They must add 4) EVERYONE SHOULD ALWAYS WEAR A MASK WHEN IN PUBLIC and 5) TAKE YOUR TEMPERATURE EVERY MORNING to the “must do” list. 

If everyone will do all five of those things, It is reasonable to believe we can drastically reduce the number of daily new cases from the current 22,000 to a much lower numb. 

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

On April 4^th I published an article on my blog entitled POLITICAL PORK, YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.  In that article I pointed out over $100 billion of democrat goodies that are completely unrelated to COVID-19 relief.  Some examples to refresh you memories:  $300M for migrant and refugee assistance, $90M for the Peace Corp, $526M grants to Amtrak, $1B for more Obamaphones, $3B upgrade for IT at the VA, $25B for transit infrastructure, $15B for the Community Development Fund, $9.5B for higher education.

Little did we know that Speaker Pelosi was just getting started with her wish list. The $3 trillion HEROES Act, which stands for the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, passed the House on 15 May. 

The passage of this bill was likely the most egregious application of power politics in our history.  The Pelosi power machine was at full-throttle.  While the Senate reconvened 1 May after the spring break, Pelosi left the Representatives home while she put together the bill.  Upon completion, she reconvened the House for an immediate up-or-down vote.

What, do you suppose, were the Representatives’ most likely thoughts before they voted?  It might have been, I wonder what the bill says?  Didn’t they read the bill before voting?  Unlikely since it is 1,800 pages long.  Well, at least the executive summary?  It’s 90 pages. 

What did not happen before the vote was the meeting of a single House committee to consider the provisions of the most expensive bill in history and take into account expert witness’ views.  Not a single amendment or input from republicans was allowed. The bill passed along partisan lines.  

But I digress; this article is about more political pork and democrat platform issues.

A couple of examples: First the Act forbids the government from sharing any information with you about lower-cost health options such as association plans; some of which are up to 60% cheaper than Obamacare.

Secondly, the bill dictates voting by mail to the states. While voting by mail exists in five states there are horrific down-sides.  Because the ballot is cast outside the public eye there is concern for coercion by family members and others. 

Voter registration rolls are notoriously inaccurate, containing names of voters who are deceased, have moved, or otherwise have become ineligible.  In 2018, California was sued over maintaining 1.5 million inactive voter files.  

But the principle piece of pork is a doozie; It directs nearly $1 trillion to state and local governments, including $500 billion for state governments and an additional $357 billion for local governments and counties, mostly in the form of unrestricted aid that doesn’t need to be used to offset coronavirus costs.

Let me take a shot at restating the intent of the trillion dollars for indebted state and local governments.  It goes something like this: lets add a trillion dollars to the federal debt so that certain state and local governments can get out from under most of their debt, they can continue with their irresponsible fiscal policies and can have all the nation’s tax payers pay for it.

Just for a moment, stop and think about the precedent this sets for the future.  Scary.

One trillion dollars, easy to say, more difficult to comprehend.  If you were to spend one dollar per second, it would take you over 32,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

On 18 May the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board provided some insightful thoughts on fiscal responsibility by comparing the states of New York and Florida.

The leading lobbyist for Pelosi’s plan is New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo.  His antagonist is Florida Senator and former Governor Rick Scott.  Both were first elected governor in 2010.  The comparison of their economic planning and fiscal management during the 2010-2019 time-frame tells an enlightening story.

In 2010 NY population was 19.4 million, FL was 18.8.  While FL population grew 2.7 million, 2010-2019, NY increased by only 75 thousand. 

NY has increased spending by $43 billion since 2010 about $570,000 for each additional person while the FL budget has increased by $28 billion, a $10,400 increase per new resident.

While NY has a top state and local tax rate of 12.7%, FL has no income tax. NY has a growing budget deficit while Scott inherited a large deficit in 2010, but paid down state debt and built a surplus. The difference is spending. 

For example, NY spending on worker retirement benefits has nearly doubled since 2010 and is six times greater that FL.  The cost to service the NY debt has doubled.

New York state and local government debt in 2010 was $317 billion.  By 2019 the total has grown to $374 billion and is expected to be $433 billion by 2023.

NY’s biggest cost driver is Medicaid, 40% of the state budget and twice what it spends on education.  By comparison FL spends equal amounts on schools and Medicaid. 

NY spends about $76 billion a year on Medicaid, three times more than FL. 

NY spends about twice as much per Medicaid beneficiary and six times more on nursing homes as Fl though its elderly population is 20% smaller. 

NY spending on Medicaid has squeezed spending on transportation causing trains and roads to fall into disrepair.  Conversely FL has increased transportation spending ten times more than NY between 2010 and 2019. 

Many high-earning individuals are leaving the high taxes of NY.  NY lost $9.6 billion in adjusted gross income to other states in 2018 while FL gained $16 billion. 

The rate of private job growth in FL has been about 60% higher than in NY from 2010 to 2020.  Finance jobs expanded by 25% in FL compared to 9.7%in NY. 

The awful truth is we may never be able to pay down this new $1 trillion in federal debt, but every year taxpayers have to service the debt.  The policy question here is why taxpayers in FL and other well-managed states should pay higher taxes to rescue a NY political class that refuses to restrain its tax-and-spend governance.

Oh, and lets not forget about Illinois with over $200 billion indebtedness for pensions and health insurance benefits alone.  And then there are those democrats in California who have worked up a whopping $1.5 trillion in state and local government debt. 

You, the taxpayer, have a choice here. One, you can believe how Speaker Pilose described the bill to the House membership just before they voted, saying, “This is a very strategically planned piece of legislation that is tailored strictly to meet the needs of the American people regarding the coronavirus pandemic. To do anything less would not be responsible.”

Or you can remind yourself it is never a good idea to take Speaker Pelosi at her word, “……. STRICKLY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REGARDING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC.” Really?

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders