Author: admin

One view of the warring efforts by Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Houthis in Yemen is that they are independent actions and that Israel should seek cease fires, hostage release and peace negotiations with each of them.  That kind of thinking fails to consider the definition of the overall problem in the Middle East.

FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBLEM:

Iran has the 3^rd largest world reserves of oil and the 2^nd largest reserves of gas.

The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention and thereby are currently giving their economy a $35 billion-a-year boost.

Since 1984 Iran has been designated “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.” For four decades the Iranian leaders have consistently articulated their twofold objectives; “destruction of Israel and “death to America”.

The Trump administration renewed UN sanctions on Iran and enforced them.  Iran’s foreign currency reserves fell from $128 billion in 2015 to $15 billion in 2019.

During the Trump administration, Iran’s capabilities and options were reduced and the U.S. was gaining ground in Middle East countries’ acceptance of Israel’s right to exist and prosper as a friendly neighbor. For the Biden administration it has been three plus years of appeasement. Biden has rewarded the Ayatollah to the tune of about $100 billion; that is, massive revenue from the non-enforcement of U.S. oil sanctions over three years, a $6 billion ransom payment and a $10 billion sanctions waiver.

Tehran has used its so-called “proxy army” of more than a dozen militias and terror groups across the Middle East with outposts around the world to help foment instability, carry out attacks, and expand the scope of the Islamic Revolution.

Iran has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars towards training and equipping Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi terrorist organizations with thousands of rockets, missiles, drones and other warfighting equipment.

The Houthi have conducted hundreds of attacks against regional targets in Saudi Arabia and are now endangering world shipping in the Red Sea.  When Trump took office, he put the Houthi organization on the world terrorist list.  Biden, immediately took them off the terrorist list for no reason other than to undo a Trump initiative.

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE ABOVE:

While war fighting in the Middle East appears to be separate wars they are not.  What is going on right now in the Middle East is Iran’s promised destruction of Isreal and creation of a new Iran-controlled Middle east.

Placing responsibility for negotiations on Netanyahu is absolutely the wrong approach and will not end well. 

Let’s be honest about what Homas, Hezbollah and Houthi are; they are Iran trained, equipped, financed and led forward-deployed forces. Iran calls all the shots. 

We and the remainder of the world have to take “negotiations” directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The U.S. must lead this effort because the United Nations is helpless and cannot lead anyone towards a productive end of anything.

A WAY FORWARD

Begin by getting President Biden on the phone with all of the other 30 NATO country’s leaders.  Ask for their naval forces to converge on the Persian Gulf with U.S. carrier battle groups providing total control of the air. Then call on our allies in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, Latin America and Africa to also participate in the Persian Gulf.  That is, nothing going in to Iran and nothing coming out without Coalition approval; a 100% embargo.  

Three years ago, Iran opened its first oil terminal in the Gulf of Oman, a move that allows it to avoid using the narrow Strait of Hormuz shipping route that is vulnerable to being shut down. Therefore, expand the embargo into the Gulf of Oman.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE MIDDLE EAST EMBARGO COALITION ARE TO:

Get this multi-nation impenetrable embargo in place within two to three weeks.

Immediately convince Iran’s leaders that the embargo will last until all terrorist aggression has ceased throughout the Middle East.

The embargo will shut down oil and gas exports and thereby shut down Iran’s financial support to world terrorist organizations.

The embargo will shut down Iran’s import of all nations’ supplies of hardware and software that support their large and expanding weapons manufacturing and export capabilities.

As of January 2024, Tehran has exported drones and/or drone technology to at least five countries on four continents as well as to at least seven of their force projection terrorist organizations and militias in the Middle East.

Drones pose a continuing threat to Middle East security because of their low cost, widespread availability, and potential deniability, since their point of origin can be disguised.

Iran’s missile proliferation efforts have enormous destabilizing potential for the region. Iran has about 20 different ballistic missile models as well as cruise missiles with delivery ranges up to 2,000 kilometers. Nine different Iranian missile models can reach Israel.

BOTTOM LINE:

For four decades Iran has been allowed to build a force projection capability consisting of Iran-trained, equipped and led terrorist organizations operating outside Iran’s borders. Take away Iran’s ability to support those forces and they will no longer be a significant conventional threat to Middle East stability.

Simply stated, we need to stop thinking about 12 Iran-supported terrorist organizations as independent operators and begin referring to them as forward-deployed elements of the greater Iran military establishment.

Forward deploying forces is not a new concept. For example, the U.S. has had forward air and land forces on European soil continuously since WW II and in South Korea since the armistice was signed in 1952. 

IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALI KHOMENEI:

He is the most powerful figure in Iran; the country’s Supreme Leader since 1989. He is head of state and commander-in-chief. He has authority over the national police and the “morality police.” The Ayatollah also controls the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps which is in charge of internal security, and its volunteer wing, the Basiji Resistance Force which has repeatedly quelled internal dissent. When the Iranian people begin to rise up against their leaders, the world should support them.

Upon implementation of the Middle East Embargo Coalition, send the following message, signed by the leaders of all participating nations, to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Supreme Leader, naval and air forces of the world are enroute to establish and impenetrable shipping embargo in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Ground forces will not invade your nation if you adhere to the following conditions.

 CONDITION ONE FOR ESCALATION: 

The coalition is taking the same position of that practiced by NATO nations over the past eight decades. That is, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them . . . shall be considered an attack against them all.” 

The point being, the Coalition is hereby advising you that if there are any counter attacks, including cyber, conventional military, manned air, drones of any kind, missiles, rockets or nuclear, against any Middle East Embargo Coalition member from this moment forward by your forces in Iran or any of the terrorist or militias forward deployed that you support in any way, will result in an immediate escalated response from the Middle East Embargo Coalition nations. 

The response will be to immediately transition from an air and naval operation to an all-out air-ground operation.  The Ground operation’s intent will be to accomplish the following: 

All military forces and every associated facility and military item will be dissolved and/or destroyed.

Military forces resisting the Coalition ground force will become casualties or captured. POWs will be incarcerated.

Any military leader of a company-level sized force or larger may surrender in-mass if every person in the unit comes forward with their uniforms and every piece of equipment associated with their military duties. The equipment will be destroyed and the personnel released to go home.

Any individual military member may, of their own choosing, appear at a designated site with uniforms and equipment, surrender his/her allegiance to your military and be released to go home. 

Within hours or days, you will have no military force or military equipment.

Your government will cease to exist.

The coalition will provide all support necessary for a new government of-the-people and by-the-people to be selected and seated.

The general nature of the Iranian society will include equal opportunities for all men and women alike in education, property ownership, general rights and privileges, professional careers in law, medicine, teaching, government, etc. 

THE SECOND CONDITION that will cause the Coalition to escalate to ground operations described above has to do with your intent to become a nuclear power. If it is determined that you have completed development of a nuclear weapon or that you have purchased or bartered for and have on hand all the necessary elements to produce a nuclear weapon within days or if you have purchased a completed nuclear weapon, the Coalition ground forces will engage and take down that entire nuclear capability and destroy every associated facility you have hidden underground or inside mountains.

At this point, Ayatollah, you are possibly concluding that this Coalition is likely to be an impossible undertaking. We are telling you a coalition effort is certainly within the art of the possible. You will recall in 1990 Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces attacked, defeated and occupied Kuwait. Many believed it was a stepping-stone move towards the Saudi Arabian oil fields. In January 1991 a 39-nation coalition attacked and defeated Saddam Hussien’s vaunted “Mother of All Armies” in just six weeks of air and ground operations. Please pay attention to these numbers which tell a powerful story.

Coalition: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces.

Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries, 425,000 of which were from the United States.

Coalition air component size: 2,250 combat aircraft, 1,800 of which were American.

Coalition airlift: 509,129 passengers and 594,730 tons of cargo carried.

Coalition sorties flown: 100,000+.

Aerial refueling: 15,434 sorties and dispensed 110.2 million gallons of fuel.

Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,000.

Number of smart bombs dropped: 9,342.

30mm depleted uranium rounds fired by A-10 manned aircraft (tank-killers): 782,514.

Duration of air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days.

Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,280 in inventory.

Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups on station: 6.

Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26.

Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000+.

U.S. combat related deaths: 147

Iraqi military deaths: 100,000+.

Ground war duration: 100 hours.

The U.S. has done it once and we can do it again. That, Supreme Leader, is a glimpse into your future if you so choose.  It is up to you. The message to you articulated in this memo is not a “threat”, it Is a “promise”. From this day forward, your relationship with your forward deployed terrorist organizations and various militia’s must not include offensive military actions or training them for military actions or financing them to further their offensive actions or providing them with military equipment to carry out military actions or assisting them in planning for military actions.  Cease being a sponsor of world-wide terrorism, cease being a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East.

 You, Supreme Leader, must understand that, from this moment forward,  one more Hamas rocket into Israel or one more missile by Hizballah into Israel or one more drone from Houthis into the Red Sea shipping lanes or into Saudi oil production areas or one more attack on U.S. anti-terrorist forces throughout the Middle East, you will be personally responsible for initiation of Coalition ground-force operations inside Iran and the mayhem resulting from it.  We are not doing this to the great Iranian people, we are doing it for them.

You may import food, medicine, medical equipment for humanitarian purposes after the supplies have been inspected by Coalition force members.

We, the leaders of the following listed Coalition nations, hereby pledge our willingness and equipment to fulfilling the Middle East Embargo Coalition commitment.

In alphabetical order: (for example)

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, India, Israil, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, United Kingdom.

End of the memorandum to Iran’s Supreme Leader. Copy furnished to the world.

Note to President Biden: 

President Biden, you and VP Harris are in fact complicit (“association or participation in a wrongful act”) in the on-going wars in the Middle East.  Knowing that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, knowing that Iran has been and continues to finance, arm and encourage thousands of rocket and missile attacks against Israeli civilian targets, and knowing that Iran’s Supreme Leader has for decades publicly declared his objective to destroy Israel; in spite of all that knowledge you have orchestrated a policy of appeasement towards Iran for the past 3 ½  years.  By lifting sanctions, you have allowed Iran to develop the financial strength to train, arm and encourage Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi to put the entire Middle East on a path towards WW III.  

And in the first four months of the Israeli/Hamas war, Iran-backed terrorist groups and militias attacked U.S. and allied forces stationed in the Middle East over 150 times, killing three and wounded dozens without a U.S. response from our Commander in Chief, you.

That, Mr. President is your legacy.

A WAY AHEAD:

Neither Biden nor Harris have demonstrated the leadership skills or credibility to initiate the Middle East Embargo Coalition force described above. This then is a recommendation that, if elected, President Trump do the above beginning on 20 January, 2025.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

BACKGROUND: The Columbine High School massacre occurred April 20, 1999.  Seems like yesterday. According to Post Data, there have been 417 school shootings since Columbine which reportedly exposed over 383,000 students to school shooter violence and trauma.  

So, you ask, what have we learned in the past 25 years about school shootings? Here are some thoughts:

One, we obviously have little or no on-going deterrence in the majority of school security programs.

Two, the majority of schools rely almost entirely on local law enforcement to respond.

Three, this “911 outside-in” concept of operations will inevitably result in first responders arriving on the scene in some number of minutes after it is determined a shooter is on campus.

Four, in most cases casualties from the shooter have occurred before first responders arrive.

Five, multiple law enforcement organizations will show up; police, Sheriff’s deputies, highway patrol, fire department, etc. Result, no one is in charge. First responders may not be familiar with the area of operations.  What does “left wing third floor of building B” mean to the first on-scene arrivals? Who is going to brief the arriving first responders?

I refer you to the Uvalde TX massacre 24 May, 2022 at the Robb Elementary school.  There were 376 responders and no one in charge. A 600-page report revealed that the shooter was locked in a classroom with 9-and 10-year-old children for 37 minutes.  Armed law enforcement officers were outside the classroom waiting for a key to unlock the door while the shooter was executing 19 children and 2 teachers.  And how many similar shooter incidents have there been with the same after-action reporting of delays and incompetence since Uvalde?

I rest my case as I outline what needs to change.

THESIS:

The 61 million parents of school-age children and the 82,423 School Board members are all hoping there will not be a shooting in their school.  When there is a shooting, and there will be a next time, everyone hopes the first responders will get there quickly. Everyone is also hoping there will not be casualties.

News flash…….” hope “is not a process!!

The first responsibility of all school administrators is to provide a safe and secure environment for learning.  The first responsibility of school-age parents is to demand safety as the first priority in their school.

Wake the hell up America, the “911 outside-to-inside in minutes” concept of operations, while well intended, has not worked for the past 25 years and won’t work for the next 25.

All of this begs the question, is it possible to have an “inside-to-outside security force concept” which can and will respond to a shooter incident in seconds?  Yes, it is within the art of the possible and I can recommend that concept to all 129,000 schools across the country.

WHERE TO BEGIN WHEN BUILDING A NEW CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS?

The concept can take on a life of its own by working from three simple questions.

One, what are the tasks to be performed? 

Two, what are the conditions in the area of operations? 

Three, what are the standards of performance that will result in success?

Tasks/conditions/standards is a proven starting point for solving complex multifaceted operations involving people as the operators.

The tasks:  Have in place a continuous, internal, all-encompassing, highly trained security force that is capable of reacting in seconds to any potential or actual on-campus shooter.  From this, there will be lists of individual and leadership tasks for everyone involved for which they must sustain proficiency.

Conditions: The conditions for this operation are consistent and relatively unchanging.  Daylight operations.  Large, perhaps multiple-floor buildings with many hallways. And a target-rich environment with at least hundreds if not a few thousand students, faculty and staff on site every school day.

Standards. An organization without standards is a failed organization. With a concept based on proactive response in seconds, this will then dictate the levels of training to ensure the overall objectives are met every time.

THE DOWNSIDE OF AN INSIDE-OUT SECURITY OPERATION.

The thought of having armed faculty on site every school day just does not have a good feel.  However, it is possible to develop a security force operation wherein a weapon will never be visible until the moment it becomes necessary to engage a shooter.

THE INTERNAL ON-SITE SECURITY FORCE:

The size will be dictated by the size of the building, number of entrances and numbers of students.

For this scenario let’s say the force consists of a leader and eight operators. The leader should be a person of authority on the staff every school day. The best solution is to assign security operations to the Vice Principal as his/her highest priority responsibility.

The operators should all be volunteers for this additional duty and will work in two-person teams. The team approach provides increased confidence that my team mate has my back at all times and an operator will feel more confident about using deadly force without hesitation when it is called for.

Team schedules must be constantly coordinated so that at least one member will be in the school house while classes are in session.

Security force members will train to the extent that they are as comfortable with their weapon as they are with their tooth brush.

Seek training assistance and training facilities from the County Sherrif and/or the local Chief of Police.

All potential team members in training will undergo a psych evaluation.  The purpose is to determine if the operator has, under certain circumstances, the will to inflict deadly force on a shooter.

OPTIMIZE THE ENTIRE AREA OF OPERATIONS, some examples:

Make it user friendly, optimize relevant technology, limit the number of entrances, preferably to one with metal detectors. 

In compliance with fire safety regulations, the fire exits should all be covered by a continuous-feed camera and an alarm system for whenever that door is opened and that reports continuously to the operations center.

For operational reasons name every potential entrance with a letter designation; door “A” will be Entrance Alfa or Bravo, Charlie etc.

All of the technology will flow to the Operations Center.  Best case, the center will be the Vice Principal’s office or adjoining room. Additional long-range cameras will continuously provide a view of the parking areas. 

Again, for operational clarity, every hallway should be named.  For example, use states.  Hallway Iowa, Colorado, etc. For example, “Entrance Charlie just breached, shooter is moving down Nebraska towards the intersection with Minnesota.”

There should be a “shooter alarm” on the wall with every fire alarm, both covered by a camera.

COMMUNICATIONS DISCIPLINE

Every security team member and their leader will be equipped with a small radio that will be turned on and will be on their body every minute they are on the campus.

Each day will begin with a comms check of every radio with the ops center.  There will be absolutely zero chatter on the radios ever.  The only time there is a transmission it will be to activate the teams and cause them to immediately deploy to their first designated station, according to the standard number of seconds.

EQUIPPING SECURITY OPERATORS

Every team member will have at their place of work, be it a classroom or office, a secure immovable “box.” It will have a digital panel that will open in a couple seconds with a 3-digit code known only to the operator. 

Every box will hold a pistol, loaded with a round chambered and the safety on. There will also be a second loaded magazine. Additionally, there will be a lanyard to put around their neck with a master key to open every door in the building.  Why the key? Remember the law enforcement personnel outside a classroom in Uvalde waiting for a key to unlock the door and thereafter engage the shooter.

Hanging next to the box will be a red, armored vest with “SECURITY” in big letters front and back. The vest will have a special pocket for the extra, fully loaded, magazine.

The point of explaining the above is that within a few seconds after a breach has occurred, the ops center will know it and seconds later phone calls go out simultaneously to every operator. When the operators’ phones go off, they immediately get to their vest, open the box and out the door, armed and deploying to their first position perhaps within 10-15 seconds. 

AN EXAMPLE SCENARIO

An alarm goes off in the ops center. The Vice Principal (call sign, Security 2) sees an open door from the reporting camera at fire exit Charlie and yells into the phone, “breach, breach at fire exit Charlie, I say again, breach at fire exit Charlie.”

Through multiple training scenarios Team 2 knows they are closest to fire exit Charlie and deploy directly towards that location. All teams will deploy to a location associated with a breach at exit Charlie. All teams will be reporting to the ops center via phone.

“Team 4 out the door” Each team reports “out the door” and subsequently report when at their assigned destination.

About now the Vice Principal, Security 2, has sounded the campus-wide alarm for possible shooter on site. All teachers and staff immediately lock their doors and everyone is on the floor face down.

Security 2 also calls 911 to report a possible shooter and tells the operator to stay on the line for in-process reports. .  “Fire exit breached, all operators are armed and deploying with red vests.”

“This is team 2 at Charlie, door open no one in sight.”  If a shooter entered from Charlie, he/she will most likely be moving down Alabama hallway.  So, under the Charlie scenario, Team 4 knows they are to deploy to Alabama. 

“This is Team 4, one male on Alabama headed for Texas, has a long gun.”

Security 2 to 911 operator.  “Shooter sighted inside armed with a long gun.”

Each of the Security Teams deployed to a designated area that was associated with a breach from Charlie.  Similar but different scenarios exist for breaches at Exit Alfa, Bravo, Delta, Echo, etc. etc.

The Security Teams will have trained to every scenario and know without radio conversation where to go. Based on those exercises the Security Leader will know within about 5 seconds what time every team will be in place.  THAT’S WHAT TRAINING TO ESTABLISHED STANDARDS IS ALL ABOUT and it is not rocket science. It’s common sense.

The Principal (call sign Security 1) also has a radio and is monitoring all the action.  He/she is the logical one to get outside to meet and brief the arriving first responders so they can assist but also so they do not get in the way.

Back to the action:

“This is team 4, the shooter has seen us and is running to evade or escape. He will be at Team 3 location in seconds.

“This is team 3, roger all, ambush set, IPRF (in position ready to fire), OUT.  The “OUT” signals to everyone that radio silence is now in effect and the next transmission will be from Team 3.

“This is Team 3, shooter down, alive, need medics.”

When shots were fired, all teams abandoned their current locations and moved toward the sound of gunfire to assist if necessary.

Security 2 reports this to 911 operator who is keeping the deploying first responders in the loop.

“This is Security 1, just informed first responders are on the way.  Team 3, your location and shooter status please.” 

“Team 3 located at the end of Montana.  Shooter with leg injuries, bleeding heavily, applying pressure.”

This is Security 1; I will escort medics to your location ASAP.

Security 2 informs 911 operator that the shooter is wounded and in custody.

“Security 2, this is Security 1, give the all-clear over the campus intercom.  Tell all personnel to remain in their locked rooms until told to do otherwise. Also provide this public address to 911 for immediate release……..A shooter at Smith Elementary is in custody as of 0942 this morning.  The shooter did not have contact with any students.  No one was injured.  All classes have been cancelled for the day.  Students will be released at 11 o’clock. Students not having transportation will be kept in the dining hall.”

“Security 2 this is Security 1, all security team members are to report to the end of Montana immediately to debrief law enforcement when they arrive.  Also, the entire security team will attend the AAR in the conference room at 1230.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Timely situational awareness is a critical factor in any operation; the larger the organization the more difficult it becomes. But in this case, with a limited number of security personnel and with all of them hearing every phone transmission in real time, situational awareness becomes a positive as long as strict communications discipline is maintained.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Every one associated with security must know the ROE and train to them.

First:  The first rule of ROE is the right of self-defense.

Second: if a shooter is obviously armed, preemptive fire is allowed.

Third; there are two levels of attack, to disable the shooter or use deadly force.

If the shooter has not raised his weapon to fire, consider incapacitating him/her by firing rapidly below the waste. If the shooter gives any indication, they are about to fire, aim for center of mass with deadly force.

In the above scenario Team 3 observed the shooter moving rapidly towards an exit with his rifle pointed down.  Team 3 opened up rapidly firing their semi-automatic pistols at the shooter, waste down to incapacitate him.

TRAIN THE STUDENTS AND FACULTY

Hold periodic mandatory assemblies for everyone on campus. Go over the concept. Everyone must know to lock their door and get on the floor.  Everyone will be expecting to hear rapid movement by the Security Teams in the hallways.  Everyone will know there is a possibility of hearing shots fired.  Everyone knows they are to remain in place until they get an “all clear” from the principal only on the campus-wide speakers.

Drill into the heads of everyone at the assembly that it is important that, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, DO SOMETHING.  IF YOU HEAR SOMETHING, DO SOMETHING.  Tell them exactly what to do.  Make the points by providing some examples. For example, have a student walk across the stage with a jacket on and it appears that the butt of a pistol can be seen outside the pocket.  Tell them that if they see a gun of any kind anywhere on campus and the person is not wearing a red security vest, they have permission to pull the nearest alarm located in the hallways.

Explain that the words “gun” “rifle” and “pistol” are absolutely verboten on campus even if used in jest.

TRAIN THE STAFF AND FACULTY

Insure they know and understand the operations plan in detail and are 100% committed to it.  If they are not, they must go do something else.

Emphasize that if a student sees or hears something they are likely to tell their teacher. Tell the staff and faculty what they are to do immediately.

TRAIN THE PARENTS

Hold a series of Parent Teacher Association evening meeting at the school early in the school year and do as many as necessary in order to have some assurance that everyone has had an opportunity to attend.

Explain the “Inside to out in seconds” concept in detail, emphasizing that the “911 outside to in in minutes” will not keep your children safe. Explain the Uvalde TX mess ending with 17 small children killed and hundreds more traumatized.

There undoubtedly will be some loud-mouth parent preaching to the audience that the school has no right to have armed teachers. Plan on it and be prepared to deal with it.

UNANNOUNCED EXERCISES.

One and only one person will know there is going to be an unannounced exercise this morning.  The Principal will call the Sheriff and Chief of Police at 0930 on a school day and tell them that he/she will begin the exercise in a few seconds. 

The Principal gets on the campus intercom and says, “this is an exercise, this is an exercise.  There has just been an exercise breach at Exit Charlie.  I repeat this is only an exercise but everyone is to take actions as if it was real.” Then the stop watches come out, the Vice Principal calls the operators on the phone, activates the campus-wide alarm, calls 911 all the time emphasizing it is an exercise only.

When it is concluded all the times the operators checked in on their phones; “Team 3 out the door”, “Team 4 at first location”, etc.

When it is over, from the ops center calculate how many seconds it took for every team to call in their repots and actions.

CONDUCT THE AAR IMMEDIATELY AFTER SCHOOL

An After-Action Review, AAR, is a tool developed by the U.S. Army and advertised by Havard Business School as a valued technique to get important immediate feedback from any group or organization-wide activity that can be fed back into improvements. The “R” in AAR does not stand for “report”.  A report can take days to months to prepare and may be keyed on finding fault and placing blame.  While the AAR keys on individual accountability and immediate fixes.

An AAR is a gathering of the key players to answer three questions.

One, what did we do good? In this security exercise the answers would key on the timing of all the communications and deployments. 

Two, what could we have done better? Team 3 is new and missed the standard time of getting out the door.  Team 2 initially deployed to the wrong destination.  The Sheriff’s deputies didn’t arrive for 20 minutes after the 911 call. Etc. etc.

Three, how do we institutionalize the fixes?  Saturday morning, we will go through all the breach scenarios again to improve timing and communications. Etc. etc.

An AAR is not a blame game. A successful AAR is based on honest accountability from every leader and player.

Hundreds of AARs take place throughout the U.S. Army every day.

A SALARIED SECURITY OFFICER ON CAMPUS

There is a role they could play.  Be visible at the main entrance every morning to monitor the metal detector. Conduct the morning radio comms check. Physically visit every entry point to ensure they are locked and alarms and cameras are functioning. Occupy the operations center when the Vice Principal is absent.  Stand in for a missing security team member.

CONCLUSIONS

Many schools across the country have a retired law enforcement officer on salary and have thereby declared themselves to be “secure.”  They are not secure. One person simply cannot be more than one place at a time to successfully deal with a breach of security. Security will result from a highly trained and capable multi-person security force. 

Local law enforcement first responders can never match the reaction times of an internal security force that is in-place every minute of every school day.

Once the equipment is in place, this is not an expensive operation by a group of faculty volunteers.

This proactive inside-out in seconds concept of operations can in and of itself be a deterrent to potential shooters. Credible deterrence is a powerful and effective force.

BOTOM LINE

Lessons that should have been learned at Columbine 25 years ago have never replaced the 911 outside-in concept. We can and we have to do better to stop killing kids in our schools.

This is not a federal or state government issue.  God help us if the Departments of Education get involved with thousands of bureaucrats and reams of regulations to guide us.  This is a local issue that can and should be solved locally. Just do it.

There is an old saying that sort of defines what is going on with respect to school security.  “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”  What we “got” is more dead kids. There is one more that is apropos when dealing with an organization (such as a school district), “Change or die.” in this case literally more kids will die of we don’t change.

Note to subscribers.  If you agree with this concept, please take the time to get a copy to your local Board of Education and Superintendent of schools for their consideration.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

BLAME,” to find fault with, to hold responsible, to place responsibility for.”

The Biden/Harris Administration blamed the Afghanistan debacle on, “the generals”, blamed tangled supply chains on “inflation”, blamed the over-all economic nose-dive on “COVID and Putin” blamed surging lawlessness on “COVID and guns”, blamed out-of-control fuel prices on “Putin and the Ukraine invasion”, blamed gas prices on “fuel company CEOs”, Blamed increasing inflated prices for everyday essentials on “CEOs” and on and on and on. 

Truth just doesn’t seem to matter to Biden/Harris; they will say whatever it takes to get past the moment. “The border is not open.” The truth: Every statistic associated with illegal immigration tells us just the opposite.  Biden/Harris June, 2022: “We have the fastest growing economy in the world.”  The truth: More than 50 countries were growing faster. Biden/Harris, “People have record savings.”  The truth, wealth losses in the U.S. exceeded $10 trillion in 2022, the most significant catastrophic vaporizations of wealth and savings in U.S. history.  Biden/Harris, “The economy is in a better place than it has been historically.”  The truth:  During the Trump presidency, before COVID, median household income rose by $6,446, the largest three-year gains in income for middle-class families in history. Under Biden/Harris, wage increases lagged behind increases in inflation. Biden/Harris, “America is in a position to tackle a worldwide problem (inflation) that’s worse everywhere but here.” The truth: U.S. inflation was higher than in Japan, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Canada. Repeatedly, Biden/Harris, “we have created more jobs than any administration in history”. Truth, tens of millions were temporarily without a job when covid shut down America.  When businesses reopened, those millions returned to work, their jobs were not “created”.

The political left picks up on blame, it spreads, it is deemed an acceptable course of action by our liberal media and liberal institutions of higher learning. We are creating a next-generation of leaders who believe blame and untruth are acceptable leadership tools.

President Biden is now almost irrelevant in his final days in office, but the Biden/Harris blame game lives on in Kamala’s campaign speeches. They have consistently used blame as a leadership tool and it is a disaster.

This is not to say that the Republican politicians are not players in the Blame and Hate game, but everything former President Trump says is immediately fact checked by the main-stream media and widely reported while Biden/Harris can count on the media to eagerly report their erroneous findings and conclusions.    

THESIS: Culture is a powerful and pervasive force in any organization. An “organization” could be a small team of two or three individuals or it could be the whole country. We know that every individual has a definable personality; bubbly, solemn, self-serving, introverted, optimistic, mean, the list is long.  “Culture” is the personality of an organization; caring, harsh, entrepreneurial, selfless, hateful,  bureaucratic; again, a long list. 

In the 1990s this new culture began to emerge.  It started with a new meaning for the word “spin”. When a potentially negative issue emerged, the Clinton White House would “spin” the issue to make it look as though someone else was responsible. The blame game took root, grew, migrated to the U.S. Congress and transformed it into today’s blame-everything, dysfunctional, grid locked organization.  And then it spread across the country. Today we have a deeply engrained culture of blame everywhere.

Additionally, in the past few years the country has been trending towards a culture of hate and it is moving like a wild fire. 

Hate: “to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.” 

And here is the worst part, babies are not born with hatred in their little hearts. But they will learn hatred, bullying, the use of vindictive language, disregard for civil discourse, at home, in school and from the media. A culture of hate is already on track to become a generational problem.  

Hatemonger: “one who incites others to hatred or prejudice”. We saw that recently on compasses across the nation with hatemongers preaching to and leading uninformed rioting student bodies about antisemitism. We hear it every day from those with deeply ingrained hatred towards former President Trump, notwithstanding the success of many of his policies that lifted America’s standing, economy and security.

Chuck Shumer, Senate minority leader, after the Supreme Court decision to make abortion a states’ rights issue vs federal law, “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price, you won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” Hatemongering on a national scale by a senior leader of the Democrat party.

Representative Maxine Waters outside the Federal Building in her California district.  Railing against President Trump and his Cabinet, ““Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them. You tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Hatemongering.

Civil discourse, agreeing to disagree and the golden rule are in danger of becoming a thing of the past We are waking up to an America we don’t know or like, an America that has lost its goodness.

HOW CAN WE COUNTER THE CULTURE OF BLAME AND HATE?

First, we have to define an alternative. There are four steps to changing the culture of any organization.

One, define the existing culture. Not always easy but doable.

Two, answer the question, is it what we want the culture to be? In this case absolutely no.

Three, define what we do want the culture to be.

Recall on 20 January 2021 newly sworn in President Biden provided us with an impassioned plea for national unity.  But he did not define “unity” or a specific path forward.  Then a few hours later he signed a pile of Executive Orders that torpedoed many of President Trumps policies that enhanced the lives of most Americans including the 73.6 million who had voted for him. For example, Biden insured that energy independence for the first time in over 50 years would be gone.  He reopened the border and sacrificed the safety and security of all Americans. Etc.

Kamala is now campaigning on, “a new way forward” without defining WHAT it is or HOW to achieve “it”. She recently defended her flip-flop on major policies and issues by emphasizing that, “My values have not changed. The Wall Street Journal rightfully acknowledged that her statement on values, “can be read any way you want. We take it as a studied wink to her left flank that she’s on their side but can’t say so clearly until she’s elected.”

Four, having clearly defined WHAT you want the culture to be, then have a plan to implement and institutionalize it.

Sometimes it is instructive to look at issues by putting them on a spectrum of behavior; that is, look at the polar opposites.  Good/evil. Selfless/self-serving. Accountability/blame. Then there is today’s issue with hate on one end of the spectrum and on the other end is trust, respect and love. We simply have to get on the correct side of the Blame and Hate spectrums.

From that it is easy to suggest an easily identifiable alternative to  the hate and blame culture; it could be a culture of Accountability, Respect and Trust.

ACCOUNTABILITY: “the obligation to bear the consequences for failure to perform as expected.” 

Accountability is a foundational element of leadership.  A person who attempts to dodge accountability for their policies, beliefs and actions turns to lying about results.  The conclusion from we-the-people is that if he/she consistently lies about the little things, they will also likely lie to us about the big stuff.  And it is the big stuff that can and does negatively impact the lives of Americans every day.

The seriousness of the absence of accountability goes further.  Very high up on the line-up of desirable leader character traits are trust and respect.  Without accountability, neither trust nor respect will become part of the leadership equation. We cannot trust someone who lacks the moral courage to tell us the truth about the most important issues facing we-the-people.  Without trust and accountability how are we going to respect that person as our leader?

 If you are looking for a single word that sums up the attributes of accountability, trust and respect it would be integrity. A person of integrity will consistently display moral commitment, selflessness and confidence to speak out and act out with honesty and honor. A mid-1900s radio personality, Edward R. Murrow summed it up accurately with this, “To be persuasive you must be believable; to be believable you must be credible; to be credible you must be truthful.”  Amen.

CULTURE:  Having discussed the Biden/Harris character, or lack thereof, we also must consider the larger issue; it is about the organization, i.e., the collective U.S.A.

As pointed out, culture is a powerful and pervasive force in every organization and every organization, no matter how large or small, has a culture. Too many times senior leaders in industry, the military, education, government and politics pay little or no attention to the culture of their organization until they wake up one day and figure out that it is a disaster and is dragging the entire organization down. The point being, culture needs attention all the time. 

A leader does not build or change an organizational culture by sending out an email or memo or making a speech on “unity” (Biden) or talking about “a new way forward” without defining it (Kamala).  The leader defines what the culture currently is, decides what he/she wants it to be and then sets in motion all the initiatives necessary to institutionalize it. It’s a lot of work; a leader must get the majority on board, make them actively participate and sell it, talk about it openly and frequently.  Everyone in the organization should be able to define the culture and its impact on the environment in which they live and work. 

Why are great leaders great?  Some people will refer to a successful leader as a, “born leader.” No such thing.  First is desire.  If a leader does not want to lead or is uncomfortable in the seat, they will likely fail.  Secondly, is preparation.  Great leaders have years of experience at the first-line leader level, the operational level and finally at the strategic level. They are good at what they do as a result of a combination of formal leader development training, self-initiated study, having been properly mentored and by having experienced many successes and failures along the way. 

I believe we can all agree that being president of the United States may be the most difficult, the most demanding leadership position in the world.  A best-case scenario would be for the president to have experienced at least years if not hopefully decades of leader development at tactical through strategic levels, experienced near-term and long-range planning successes and failures, learned how and when to deal with direct-report subordinates as well as dozens, then hundreds or perhaps thousands of worker-bees at the lower levels, experienced how to deemphasize self-interests by always seeking the greater good for the organization as a whole and keeping that thought in the forefront of every action and reaction.

President Biden has none of this training and has, therefore, failed the American people on so many fronts. His natural reaction is to turn to what 50 years of politics taught him; play loose with the truth and resort to blame, blame and more blame.

The scarcity of information on Kamala Harris’ leader development is at least alarming if not down-right dangerous. What we have seen over the past three years gives us pause.

The office of the Vice President has a staff off 47 individuals, hand selected. The staff has recently been described as, “a revolving door, a staff exodus of key aides heading for the exits.” Resulting in a 91.5% turnover.  One former VP Harris staffer says aides have to, “endure, a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism.”  How do you believe VP Harris’ accountability, respect and trust is doing?

BOTTOM LINE:

Almost nothing damages the reputation of a leader faster than attempting to dodge an issue rather than deal with it.  Blame is a dodge.  Nothing positive will ever come of it.

Our lives are defined by how we deal with adversity.  When failure manifests its ugly head, the last course of action should be to abandon accountability because doing so ensures there also will be no trust or respect going forward.

A thought from an unknown author, “The only thing that happens when you throw dirt is that you lose ground.”  Blame does not inspire, it breeds malcontent, discord, disarray, frustration and ultimately, in this case, failure for the entire nation.

WHAT TO DO?

We should begin to answer that question by defining where we are today on the issue of who will lead the country next year. Having looked at the dismal Biden/Harris administration’s three-year track record, at their lack of basic leadership capabilities, at their “unfavorable” polling results that are over 50% for both and over-all what they have done towe the people vs done for America and considering Trump’s many highly successful policies and presidential experience why are Harris and Trump in a dead heat?

One would consider that while Trump has been campaigning for about two years and Kamala for just a few weeks having never received a single vote for the presidency, maybe it is worth looking a something new for the last two months of the campaign.

MR. TRUMP, TAKE ON THE ISSUE OF THE CULTURE OF BLAME AND HATE IN AMERICA TODAY.

BACKGROUND:

About 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat, diplomat, sociologist, political scientist, political philosopher, and historian came to America to study this seemingly wonderful and successful up-start nation called the United States of America.  He traveled throughout the 21 states and departed with some worldly and brilliant conclusions.

In 1835 he published Democracy in America and the most famous conclusion from his writings is the thought that America is great because it is good; and when it ceases to be good it will likewise cease to be great.

That is where America is today. We have lost our goodness via a deeply seated culture of Blame and Hate. While Trump continues to campaign relentlessly on the objective of Making America Great Again one can (should?) conclude that his entire campaign missed a step. That is, in order, first tackle the Goodness and then go for the Greatness. 

My contention is that we cannot succeed in being “great again” without restoring some level of goodness to America. I do not believe it is too late. What does Mr. Trump have to lose, he is just treading water right now and getting nowhere as the clock runs down.

NOTE TO SPEECH WRITERS:  using some of the above information put together a highly advertised, dynamic speech in which you do not mention the existing MAGA.  Introduce a new MAGA, Make America Good Again.  MAGA-2.

Explain the thesis that we cannot achieve greatness until we regain some acceptable level of goodness.  This can possibly be a dynamic shift in campaign dialog on both sides. Everything the Democrats have done TO America in the last few years, broke the middle class financially, degraded trust and respect for law and order, destroyed most major cities, vastly degraded safety and security for the American people, degraded military capability and with that lost our deterrent force, led us into the greatest vulnerability since WW II by support to Iran that made them financially able to support their forward deployed forces such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis. All of that and more has accelerated the Democrat dialog of Blame and Hate. Goodness is gone.

Explain that on day one of a new Trump presidency you will sign Executive Orders on the subject of a new Culture of Accountability, Respect and Trust.  It’s easy to remember, ART. One of the Executive Orders will direct the new Secretary of Education to mount an immediate and vigorous campaign to make Accountably, Respect and Trust the operational culture in all of the 140,000 schools where it will be explained, talked about daily and be a part of every classroom activity.  The intent is to begin now to build a new, changed, better generation of Americans. 

An Executive Order will direct immediate action in every element of the Federal Government to use the new culture every day in every way.

Trump will tell Americans that on one day one he will meet with the entirety of the leadership in Congress to include Committee Chairs to sell the new culture.

One of the president’s most senior advisors will be the Culture Czar.

President Trump will not have difficulty instilling the ART culture in the military because that was the culture when the military was the most capable, most feared in the world before nonsense like Biden/Harris Diversity, Equality and Inclusion killed the basis of any great military; that is, 100% equal opportunity to be all you can be followed by measures of meritocracy.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Conclude every campaign speech with the thought that Make America Great Again is obviously necessary because of the Biden/Harris mass destruction of society, education, the military, world standing, energy independence, family financial security, increased vulnerability from the newly formed China/Russia/Iran/North Korea cabal, and lack of internal safety and security for all Americans. 

Finally tell America, “But we cannot successfully Make America Great Again unless we also successfully Make America Good Again.”

Remember about May of 2022, most everyone in the Republican party was already deciding what the Party would do after the expected across-the-board landslide in the November mid-term election.

Wake the hell up Republican Party, we are about to have our collective ass handed to us again in November 2024.  Given the state of the economy, our nonexistent internal national security, open borders, our vulnerability in a world with four openly aggressive adversaries (Russia, China, Iran and North Korea), our nonexistent deterrent posture,  the pathetic state of our military readiness, our increasing regulation-nation, our administration led by a president who can’t walk or talk, a vice president who has accomplished absolutely nothing in three and a half years, given all that, Republican candidates across the nation should be 20 points ahead.  Whatever small lead Trump had disappeared in one week after VP Harris entered the presidential race.  Think about it.  Also, with the overall pathetic state of the Biden administration and Biden himself, why wasn’t Trump 10-20 points ahead in most states?

Just when the main stream media was waking up to the fact that Biden cannot lead and the Democrat Party is in complete disarray, they now have a new darling of the Democrat Party and it will be all-hands-on-deck to get her elected.  VP Harris’ handlers will keep her behind the teleprompter where she has a very productive delivery, minimize her press conferences If any and avoid circumstances wherein she is likely to revert to the “wordsalad /cackling” delivery she has so frequently demonstrated as VP.  

THE OBAMA PART OF THE EQUATION: In a speech in Columbia, Missouri just before the 2008 election Barack Obama declared, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America” Do not under estimate how powerful and dangerous Obama has been and can continue to be in his behind-the-scenes “transformation” agenda. In an interview near the end of his terms in office, Obama stated, “People would ask me, knowing what you know now, do you wish you had a third term? And I used to say, you know what, If I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in a front man or front woman, and they had an earpiece in and I was just in my basement in my sweats looking through the stuff, and then I could sort of deliver the lines, but somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony I’d be fine with that.”

Obama has been leading the nation the last four years through his disciples in many key Biden administration positions.  A Harris victory in November is an Obama dream come true. Our country is on a very slippery slope moving towards a socialist nation and this could put the final piece in place. Do you want the government to control everything you do, say, have, etc.? We are currently moving in that direction and in four more years your once-great country will be unrecognizable.

THE TRUMP APPROACH: The Republican leader, Mr. Trump is struggling with his narrative.  In his campaign stump speech his new phrase is, referring to VP Harris, “she is a terrible person.” While that might be true, every time he says it, probably another hundred thousand women decide not to vote Republican in November. 

His campaign rallies are packed with tens of thousands of loyal followers but in spite of their enthusiasm it can be misleading?  Does he have tens of millions of followers that include millions of Independents and Democrat cross-overs? That’s what he needs to win and everything he says from now on will be treated negatively by the majority of the mass media and every Democrat.

We need a revived offensive, a new tactic, a different approach to the campaign, a different approach to the voters and we need it NOW.

WHAT TO DO? GET EVERY REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE IN THE COUNTRY SINGING FROM THE SAME SHEET OF MUSIC WITH “IR FACTS” AS THE LYERICS.

OK, what’s an IR Fact sheet?  It is a very focused one- or two-page paper that lays out issues with irrefutable (IR) facts.  There will be dozens of them.  They can and will be updated whenever necessary and immediately dispatched to every candidate.  This will allow every Republican candidate, from the local dog-catcher to the president, to have on-hand at all times a three-ring binder of what the Republican party is for, what they are against and why.

For tomorrow’s campaign speech, the candidate can simply pick a few subjects from the binder and he/she is ready to go.

January 2022, President Biden, from the podium at a virtual Democratic National Committee grassroots event, questioned what Republicans “are for” and suggested that they “don’t stand for anything.” That statement, kicking off the 2022 election year, should have been a red-flag wake-up call at RNC headquarters. It should have generated an all-hands-on-deck reaction. Nothing that I can find suggests that the RNC was anything other than asleep at the switch.

Here is a way to do this and get it done and executed by the time the Democrat Convention is over on 22 August.

The RNC can take the lead on this initiative with the Co-chairs Lara Trump and Michael Watley at the head of the table.

Of course, the media will get their hands on the IR Fact sheets and the contents can chip away at their nonsensical negative responses to what the Republican campaign is selling to the American voters. It will also force VP Harris’ speech writers to back off on a lot of the untruths they are having her try to sell. 

RNC IMMEDIATE ACTIONS:

Lara and Michael should put out a memo to everyone in the RNC headquarters; here is a draft example:

All hands-on-deck except emergency leave for the next 10 days. This is not an eight-to-five endeavor, we will work as long as it takes. We are going to provide IR Fact sheets to every Republican candidate in America on every subject the Republican Party is now or should be involved in and a lot of what we see the Democrats in general and VP Harris in particular are proposing that is harmful to this nation.

Lara, Michael and the senior staff will meet in the conference room tomorrow at 7 a.m. We will spend however many hours it takes to complete the list of issues. Following that, the issue list will be distributed to you, the researchers/writers, to prepare the first draft of their assigned IR Fact sheet.

We will also compile a list of email addresses for every Republican candidate in America. We will then tell them what is coming in the next 10 days and to get their three-ring binder ready. The administrative requirements are as follows:

• Every paper will NEVER be longer than 2 pages, font 12.
• Every paper will begin with this sentence: The purpose of this IR Fact sheet is to……..
• We (Lara and Michael) will work from the conference room all day every day to review your papers from first draft to final product. No appointment required, bring it in whenever a draft is completed.
• We will build the table of contents as the draft papers come in and provide each paper with an identifiable number, 1 through whatever, for ease of handling and identification.
• Every paper and each iteration of the table of contents will have a notice in the upper right corner that will say, AS OF (DATE).
• As time passes it will be necessary to update the papers and get them immediately into the hands of the candidates.  As a revised paper goes out it will have a revised AS OF date on it. Every candidate in the country will be simultaneously and immediately updated on revised or new information on a daily basis if required.  
• First draft papers are due on day one.  Cochairs from the conference room will immediately turn that draft around with questions and comments for more work to be accomplished. 
• Every fact in every paper must be absolutely IRREFUTABLE.
• Every paper will be written as if you, the author, are the candidate selling the issue to the voters.

Here is a starter list of issues that need to be transformed into IR Fact sheets. Remember it is the Biden/Harris administration so she should get directly linked to all of Biden’s failed policies and programs. But this is not just about Biden and Harris, this is about the Democrat agenda. Begin by breaking down the written policies coming out of their convention.

1. The Founding Fathers envisioned a limited government, especially at the Federal level. But over time the bureaucracy in the Executive Branch has grown into a fourth branch of government with a life of its own and unintended power. We want a federal government that works for we-the-people and is not bent on controlling every aspect of our lives. RNC: expand on this with some examples of government over-reach and regulations to which voters can personally relate.

2. March 2021, the American Rescue Plan, $1.9 trillion: At that time every economic indicator told us the pandemic-riddled economy was on the way back and improving every day. Biden/Harris immediately initiated their (and Obama’s) tax-and-spend economic philosophy by sending a check to 90% of American households. It was completely unnecessary and is largely responsible for kick-starting the worst inflation in 40 years and that we are still experiencing today. RNC: fill out the details of this bill and what a disaster it has become for every American.

Democrats will campaign saying, “our economic policies are bringing inflation down.  That’s not the point they caused inflation in 2021.  Include in the IR Fact sheet lots of data as to what the Biden/Harris administration has done to every family.

Rising interest rates (perhaps a separate IR Fact sheet) have negatively impacted every family and business in America.  Why did interest go up?  To fight the rise in inflation.  It’s all on Biden/Harris.

3. November 2021, Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act. Everyone knows our infrastructure needs help but how much of that Act is actual infrastructure and how much is “pork”? The bill was 2700 pages long so it’s another piece of legislation that no one read and did not pass muster in Congressional Committee hearings. Additionally, Democrats claimed the bill would pay for itself without raising taxes. But the Congressional Budget Office concluded most of the pay-for provisions were false and ultimately the package would add $256 billion to the deficit. RNC: Fill out the details in an IR Fact Paper.

4. July 2022, Biden signed into law the “CHIPS” Act, providing $52 billion in incentives for semiconductor production in the U.S. Fine, we need to reduce our reliance on foreign-made semiconductors. But what’s in the remainder of the $280 billion law? More pork that we will borrow money to pay for? More tax and spend? RNC: Fill out the details into the IR Fact paper.

5. “We want the Secretary of Defense to get in his lane and stay there. Secretary Austin said, “The DOD will elevate the climate as a national security priority, integrating climate considerations into DOD’s policies, strategies, and partner engagements. The DOD will incorporate climate-risk assessments into wargaming, modeling, and simulation, and bolster mission resilience and deploy solutions that optimize capability, and reduce our carbon footprint.” Mr. Secretary, the only thing climate has to do with warfighting is to ensure our service members take weather into account when planning a combat mission. Military actions are always about “WET”, weather/enemy/terrain. RNC: fill out the details into an IR Fact paper.

6. In 2016 Hillary started the mass-name-calling routine with, “You know to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters (that would have been about 35 million Americans) into what I call the basket of deplorables, the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.” Biden picked up on it in his 2020 campaign and as president, he has openly accused white Americans who support Trump policies as racist, white supremacists, and “an existential threat to our nation”. Those kinds of lies are ugly, ignorant, and unamerican. Of course, there are right-wing extremists in our nation but an intelligent person recognizes there are also left-wing extremists. Those thugs are not mainstream Republicans or Democrats that care about our country. They do not represent either party’s public policy positions. For Biden/Harris to paint 70 million conservative Americans with that brush is demeaning. Every candidate should vigorously attack this kind of rhetoric and rightfully call out the Democrats and Democrat leaders for perpetuating that message.

7. The recession of 2008 was an Obama/Biden challenge. They attacked it with a Democrat-endorsed tax and spend offensive that resulted in the slowest economic recovery since World War II. After eight Obama/Biden years the GDP growth was declining in their final year in office. This is exactly the path Biden/Harris are following. It didn’t work for Obama and it won’t work now. RNC: expand on this point, it’s a powerful example of where we are and are headed.

8. Do An IR Fact Paper of campaign one-liners that contrasts the Trump/Vance economic plan with the Biden/Harris plan: In 2017 Trump cut taxes for everyone. Labor participation rates went up. Median household income grew. Poverty rate among Black Americans fell below 20% for the first time. Unemployment rates for Black Americans went under 6% for the first time. Female employment set new record highs. From 2017 to 2019 wages for the bottom 10% of earners grew at more than double the rate they did during the Obama/Biden administration. In the two years following the Trump tax reductions, household incomes rose by more than they had in the previous eight Obama/Biden years combined. Every candidate should hammer these stats every day, the average voter does not know all of this.

9. Corporations don’t pay taxes, people pay taxes. Corporate tax is an additional element in the cost of producing a product just like the cost of raw materials, salaries, plant operations, marketing, etc. RNC, do an IR Fact Paper on the debilitative impacts of raising corporate tax rates, another Obama/Biden debacle that Biden/Harris are bringing back. Trump lowered corporate tax rates and reversed the downward trend in business investment, companies could compete price-wise on the global market, corporate wages went up, bonuses went up, and 401(k) matching went up. Increased corporate taxes inevitably leads to lower wages and less hiring. Republicans are for keeping corporate taxes at the levels established by Trump.

10. VP Harris is proposing a whole range of tax increases.  Do an IR Fact paper listing all of them.

11.. RNC: do an IR Fact Paper on the Democrat’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Democrats said it will reduce the deficit by $300 billion. Despite the ridiculous title, the Inflation Reduction Act is nothing more than another tax-and-spend tactic that will only serve to exacerbate current inflation issues. Here are some specifics according to the Wall Street Journal:
-It will hurt Americans in every tax bracket. More than half the new taxes would be on those making less than $400,000.
-It is a far-reaching tax on manufacturing that could be devastating.
-It will make the U.S. less competitive and drive more jobs overseas.
– It will discourage new investment and create negative economic growth. An estimated 25% of the impact on corporations will fall on employees and lower wages. About 30% of the corporate tax will fall on consumers.
– It will decrease gross domestic product by an estimated $68 billion with over 200,000 jobs lost. The U.S. tried this in 1986. It didn’t work and was repealed in 1989.
Candidates need to tell the voters that this is the kind of debilitating nonsensical thinking they will get from the Democrats.

12. Do an IR Fact paper on the debilitating effects of government over-regulation. Here are some starter facts: The Obama/Biden administration added 20,642 new regulations. Just during 2015 new regulations imposed over $22 billion in regulatory costs. During the Trump administration, the ratio of regulations deleted to regulations gained was 3.2 to 1. The Trump administration reported eliminating $198.6 billion in overall regulatory costs. It should be noted that a key to becoming energy independent under Trump, was the rollback of stifling energy production regulations. With gas prices soaring to $5+ a gallon, many of us have been asking why can’t we just go back to whatever we were doing in 2019. Here is the beginning of the answer and candidates across the nation should be explaining this every day. Biden has blamed the increase in gas prices on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He knows that is a lie and he also knows the truth about why gas across the nation went to $5 a gallon. In his first 16 months in office, the Biden/Harris administration and Congressional Democrats have initiated over 100 actions (executive orders, policy decisions, new regulations) deliberately designed to make it harder and more expensive to produce energy in America. Thirty-two of these anti-energy proclamations were enacted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republicans are for energy deregulation back to the 2019 norm for regaining energy independence and for stopping the export of our strategic oil reserves.

13. Republicans are for open debate in public and Congress on critical issues. Here are some reasons it is not taking place. Instead of engaging in legitimate debates based on the merits of each side’s position, Progressives tend to shut down the exchange of ideas by too often simply asserting that, for example, “securing our border is racist, the 2nd amendment is racist, prosecuting crime is racist, cutting taxes is racist, school choice is racist, voter ID is racist” and the list goes on and on. Whenever they do not agree with a position, they characterize that position as racist. Not very intelligent. The irony of all this is that from the end of the Civil War in 1865 for the next 99 years the Democrat Party was the party of segregation which is, next to slavery in general, the most damning and demeaning of all actions against Black Americans.

14. Biden and the Democrats have created what they believe is a cute new campaign tactic by referring to conservatives as “MAGA Extremists.” Here is the proper response to that nonsense. Yes, says the candidate as the opening to a campaign speech, I am a MAGA Extremist, there are about 70 million of us, and here is some of what we are extremely interested in:

   -/Energy independence

–Year-to-year economic growth,
-Lower taxes for everyone,
-Employing more women and Black Americans than any time in history,
-Support for Israel,
-No nuclear weapons for Iran,
-shutting down North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing,
-Secure borders,
-Best-qualified leaders for Executive Branch Departments

 –-Each NATO country paying their share

-Deregulating the federal government,

-Support to small businesses,

-Lower corporate taxes,

-States’ rights,

-Criminals in prison,

-Support for police,

-If you can work and there are jobs available, get one.

If all that is “MAGA extremism”, sign me up. Republican candidates should begin to campaign on being a MAGA extremist and throw that thought right back in the Democrat’s faces.

15. Biden/Harris and the Democrats have been exercising a great tactic for spending trillions of dollars on pork and debilitating laws. They do it by putting together legislation that is literally thousands of pages long, that no one voting on it has read and that has not been vetted by open debate in Congressional Committees. We need to elect a Congress that will protect We-the-People from this nonsense. For example, ‘amnesty for all illegal aliens’ was hidden in the multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better Bill and fortunately caught and deleted. Here is another Democrat gem; paying couples who make $299,999. a year a Child Tax Credit; it’s called vote buying.  My all-time favorite is “$10 million for gender studies in Pakistan.”

16. Republican candidates should agree the world needs to reduce carbon emissions. But, explain that the Biden/Harris Democrats’ obsession with electronic vehicles (EV) does not compute; do the math. To be effective the world, not just the U.S., needs about a billion EVs of the 1.446 billion total. To build one EV battery requires 250 tons of earth materials (lithium and rare metals). Mining, transporting 250 tons of stuff, processing it, and building an EV battery produces massive amounts of carbon to the point that an EV battery does not become a net reducer of carbon for several years then it must be replaced with a billion new batteries. One more problem is that China controls about 80% of the known supply of lithium. How do you think that is going to work out? Secondly, we will need massive new worldwide sources of electricity (U.S. demand is estimated to increase by 50% by 2050) to recharge a billion EV batteries every day or so. Again, the carbon footprint is massive with billions of tons of iron and concrete to build “carbon-free” wind turbines and solar panels that, oh-by-the-way are mostly produced in, you guessed it, China. Candidates need to get this information out to the voters. Yes, we need to reduce carbon and create more electricity so let’s begin some dialogue on expanding the use of natural gas, quickly building a lot more nuclear power plants, and a full court press on fusion research. And let’s stop using our hard-earned tax money to pay thousands of dollars in tax credits to the rich folks who can afford to buy a Tesla. Do the math.

17. Education is a national disgrace: Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the U.S.; that’s a student every 26 seconds, 7,000 every school day. In the U.S. high school dropouts commit about 75% of the crimes. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time. Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students. Hundreds of thousands of students are routinely tested across the U.S. Here are the results:
Reading Comprehension, percent NOT proficient,
grade 4, 59%,
grade 8, 66%,
grade 12, 76%.

Math, percent NOT proficient,
grade 4, 65%,
grade 8, 66%,
grade 12, 63%.

The new GOP campaign platform calls for school choice to be the universal option. Democrat leaders oppose it because the education unions are against it. 

18. “The border is secure.” Has been the Biden/Harris administration position.  First of all, it is a direct insult to every American’s knowledge that it is a blatant lie.  In the IR Fact Paper (perhaps 2 or 3 of them) hammer home the numbers of aliens and the dollars.  Reveal the real annual tax payer cost by Including the hidden cost of the many tax-payer supported Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs spending billions.

19. No administration in history has so deliberately, by policy, threatened the internal national security as Biden/Harris with their open borders.  Do an IR Fact Paper on the millions of “got aways” comprised of criminals, gang members, terrorists, human traffickers, Cartel operators and drug dealers.  Hammer home the 100 + young Americans who die every day from Cartel drugs crossing the border. There is blood on the hands of Biden/Harris.  Make this a headline campaign issue. 

20. Biden/Harris mandated application of DEI throughout the Executive Branch.  DEI is pure poison to the military organization.  Lay this out for voters as corporations across the country are coming to the conclusion that DEI is a failed concept.

21. Republicans are fed up with boys competing in girls’ sports and the voters should be also. RNC: Need an IR Fact Paper with a few brief horror stories to emphasize the fallacy of this nonsense. For example, a University of Pennsylvania athlete, Lia Thomas, competed on the man’s swim team for three years, switched to the girl’s team, set records and was nominated for NCAA Woman of the year award.

22. Kim Jong Un is a dangerous and unpredictable nut case, and, since Trump departed, he has aggressively resumed long-range missile and nuclear testing. Trump met with him one-on-one three times and shut him down. RNC, jump on this one and embarrass the hell out of Democrats for putting this issue in their too-hard box. We must do something before it is too late.

23. Iran has been the world’s leading supporter (funding, training and equipping) of terrorists for 40 years. Through aggressive sanctions on Iran, Trump had Iran in serious financial trouble which in turn limited support to terrorists.  Biden/Harris lifted sanctions and otherwise provided them about $100 billion dollars and an oil export business that provides all the funding needed for Hamas, Haskalah and Houthis to aggressively turn the Middle East into a potential World War three situation. Lay this one out with a lot of numbers. Trump put the Houthis terrorists on the world terrorist list; Biden/Harris immediately took them off the list.

24. The Biden/Harris Infrastructure and Jobs Act, 2022, $1.2 trillion.  Good idea, much needed, bipartisan support, etc. However, only about $250 billion actually goes to real infrastructure; roads, rail, bridges, water, etc.  What happened to the other $850 billion?  The Biden/Harris tax-and-spend administration at work.

25. Blame, blame, blame. Republicans need to get fired up over the complete absence of accountability by our government leaders. Need an IR Fact Paper on this subject with lots of examples since January 2021. We need to get voters fired up over the Democrat blame game.

26. Green New Deal: RNC: Republicans need a few short hard-hitting stories about the Greens’ nonsensical approach to problem-solving. For example, the Keystone pipeline, under construction, would safely and with no carbon footprint deliver about 850,000 barrels of oil per day and Biden/Harris killed it within hours of being sworn in. That oil has to move somehow so let’s use trucks and rail tankers; 4,357 of them that will burn 1,951,064 gallons of carbon-belching diesel fuel per day. It’s a simple math problem.

27. Israel has been our most valued ally and friend in the Middle East for decades. It was a month before Biden reached out to the Israeli leader after the inauguration and the Biden/Harris team failed to attend Prime Minister Netanyahu’s presentation before the U.S. Congress on 24 July.  Despicable disrespectful behavior demonstrated to the whole world.   

28.Do an IR Fact Paper on law and order beginning with the looting, burning, destruction, assaults on innocents, and police causing loss of life over the summer of 2020. Publish all the numbers associated with those crimes. They were led by leftwing extremists, Antifa, and the radical elements of Black Lives Matter. Harris was a national leader in the movement to instantly provide bail money to the criminals so they could get back on the street to join the crimewave. She tweeted, “If you’re able, chip in now at @MNFreedonFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” Later on, in the summer Harris is quoted as saying on national TV, “This is a movement, I’m telling you, everyone beware, protestors are not going to stop before election day in November and they’re not going to stop after election day, they should not. We should not.” The “movement” was in fact a bunch of low-life left-wing thugs joined by local gangs to loot and destroy.  It was obvious to everyone but Senator Harris.

29. RNC: Call out the Democrats for pushing for an expansion of the Supreme Court expressly to pack the court with left-wing justices. Purely for political gain, the Democrats want to challenge the 250-year concept of separate-but-equal branches of government. And while doing so, they relentlessly say the Republicans will destroy democracy.

30. Strategic oil reserve. We have one. “Strategic” is the key.  Beginning 2022 the reserve was 621 million barrels.  Biden/Harris have released 45% of the reserve reaching the lowest level in 40 years and threatening national security in that we have only a 17-day reserve in case of an emergency. It has previously been drawn down for emergency reasons, for example when Iran invaded Kuwait in 1991 oil imports were disrupted.  Biden/Harris drew the strategic reserve down in an attempt to reduce rising gas prices for political gain.

31. On “60-minutes in 2020 Nora O’Donnel addressed Senator Harris saying “The nonpartisan GovTrack has rated you as the most liberal senator.”  The IR Fact Papers needs to track VP Harris’ voting record in the Senate and draw some conclusions about her liberal standing in the overall Progressive liberal movement.

32. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) ACT passed in the House in July, 2024. The Acct simply requires proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. The House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it, “An extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill.” 198 House Democrats voted against it.

Illegal immigrants and non-citizens across the nation are being improperly registered to vote, allowing them to cast illegitimate ballots in federal elections. The SAVE Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act to clarify that states must require proof of citizenship when registering individuals to vote in federal elections. Why wouldn’t every Governor, regardless of party affiliation, want a fair election in their state?

All 47 Democrat Senators have so far refused to comment on the bill and President Biden has already vowed to veto the measure if it passes the Senate. Senate Majority leader, Chuck Shumer, can find ways to delay a vote until after the November election.

Every Republican running for any office should make this Bill a priority issue in every campaign speech.  Every incumbent Democrat Representative who voted against SAVE and is running for reelection should be publicly ridiculed every day by their Republican opponents.

For years, Democrats have called any Republican suggestion of requiring “voter ID” a “racist” requirement.  On the campaign trail, ask them to explain why it is racist. Then ask them if the law requiring every American who wishes to travel by airplane, effective May, 2025, to have in their possession a “Real ID” is also racist.? Proof of citizenship is required to get a Real ID

33. Unemployment defined, sort of: If you do not have a job but are looking for one you are “unemployed.” Makes sense. But you are NOT unemployed if you do NOT have a job and are NOT looking for one. Surely there is one too many “nots” in that sentence. Nope, that’s our government at work.  RNC, do some research on the “Welfare to Work” program that President Clinton initiated while in office. It made sense and it worked until Obama/Biden killed it.  Lay it out in an IR Fact Paper for all Republican candidates to consider.

34. Biden/Harris have been advocating for taxpayers to pick up the tab for $1.77 trillion student loan debt even though it is unconstitutional to do so. They call it “good economics” but in reality it is simply old fashioned vote-buying. 

35. Energy independence is just good common sense. Something sorely lacking in the Biden/Harris administration. In 2020 the U.S. became a net exporter of petroleum for the first time since 1949. Biden/Harris quickly turned the U.S. back into net importer of crude oil, about 3 million barrels per day.

Biden’s concept of foreign relations is to refer to Saudi Arabia as a “pariah nation” then go begging for oil imports which they logically declined.  So, he revitalized the oil industry in Venezuela which, under the ruthless dictatorship of Maduro, is a pariah nation. And so it goes in the Biden/Harris administration.

There are many more fact-based issues that need to get into the hands of Republican candidates.  Get to work, RNC.

BOTTOM LINE:

This election is too important for the future of our country to lay the responsibility all on the Trump/Vance campaign team.  We need every Republican candidate talking the same language.  This program will work but it needs centralized planning with decentralized execution and that logically falls on the shoulders of the RNC coleaders, Lara Trump and Michael Watley.  Make it happen.

 

“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” Ayn Rand.  Strikes a nerve doesn’t it?

A mammoth, sprawling, uncontrollable federal government was never the vision or intent of the founding fathers.  Organizations have a propensity to grow to a point of diminishing returns; it ceases to be efficient, effective and/or no longer performs the functions for which it was created.  At that point a large organization will tend to look inward and become self-perpetuating rather than value added.

 Some or all of that could apply today to the Departments in the Executive Branch of the federal government. This results in two major problems that must get fixed. 

First, a too-large organization is very expensive to maintain.  A more effective and efficient Executive Branch will be much smaller and less expensive. Every 1% reduction in end-strength equals about a $1.5 billion saving in annual salaries plus billions of dollars more in long-term retirement pay and benefits.

Secondly, and more importantly, the annual U.S. budget boils up out of this massive organization. Every government-funded program is maintained and sustained inside these bureaucracies.  These programs are this organization’s PRODUCT.  General Motor’s product is vehicles; the Executive Branch’s product is taxpayer supported programs.  The question is, what is the value added of those programs?  An in-depth review will undoubtedly find programs that have existed for decades, their original purpose no longer relevant, programs that sounded good at their inception but have failed in execution, programs to solve a problem that should have been the purview of state or local officials, programs initiated to solve a short-term problem but live on forever.  The list is long.  President Reagan summed up the problem with this statement, “Government is like a baby, an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”

NATIONAL DEBT: 

Before we launch into how to fix spending, a word about national debt.  The out-of-control spending and debt increase is a relatively new problem. The Obama/Biden administration swamped us with more debt than all of the 43 previous presidents combined.  And now increasing debt annually has become the norm.  The Congressional Budget Office has been telling us for several years that annual debt increases is “not sustainable”, aka there will be a day of reckoning and it will be ugly.  

It is difficult to get our minds around the almost $35 trillion debt that is increasing by a mind-bending $1 trillion every 100 days.  If you had stood on a street corner in 1960 handing out dollar bills, one dollar per second, you would just about now finish giving away the first billion dollars. Your federal government spends a billion dollars about every 8 hours, 24/7.  You would be on that street corner for 62,000 years to hand out the first $1 trillion. If you were paying off the current debt at one dollar per second, it would take you over 2 million years.  Unsustainable. We have to do something about spending and we have to change the way we think about debt. 

A frontal assault on the Executive Branch could result in the first major attempt at reducing annual federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars; something the current Executive Branch and Congress collectively are incapable of doing. 

THE REGULATION NATION:

The Obama/Biden administration led us down the path to become a “regulation nation” by using their bureaucracy to effectively bypass Congress with massive regulation oversight which is often referred to as a “stealth tax.”  In their sprint to the finish in 2016 nearly 4000 regulations made their way through the federal bureaucracy, costing billions of dollars per year and wreaking havoc on American businesses in particular

In 2017, a week after the inauguration, President Trump sent a message to the Congress, the government bureaucracy and the American people with his Executive Order, “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs”, that required agencies to revoke two regulations for every new rule they want to issue.

On 20 January, 2021 a few hours after being sworn in, President Biden cancelled the Trump 2 for 1 Executive Order.

In 2020, the Trump administration’s regulatory costs were about $20 billion. In 2021, Biden’s first year, the cost exploded to approximately $200 billion.

In Trump’s first year, 2017, the Federal Register finished at 61,308 pages the lowest count since 1993 and a drop of 36% from Obama’s 95,894 pages in 2016 which was the highest in history.

REGULATIONS IMPACT:

 Regulations are a tax on every American. The Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that overall regulatory costs to the economy are at least $2 trillion; about 8% of the gross domestic product. If you think of regulation costs as a tax, it would be larger than federal income tax. Or, if it was a country, U.S. regulation would be the world’s eighth-largest economy.

FIX IT AGAIN:

The federal government can be fixed but it will take strong leadership, attention to detail and, if done properly, at least six months of hard work. It needs to happen and the sooner the better.  The American people are looking for someone to lead us away from growing governmental control, growing entitlements and out-of-control government spending aka uncontrolled taxation. The Trump/Vance team can do this.

Reducing the size, reach, budget and influence of the sprawling Executive Branch should, become a major issue in the remaining months of this presidential campaign. Here is what could be accomplished in three phases.

PHASE 1: Now through November 2024. Make Executive Branch transformation a high priority issue.  Trump and Vance talk about it at every stop on the campaign trail. Use the above regulation nation statistics for emphasis.

Some of you reading this know and can communicate with candidates for House and Senate seats this year.  Those of you who believe the following program is necessary, encourage your candidate to support Executive Branch transformation as a priority in their campaign. 

PHASE 2:  Nominate Executive Branch Leaders, November, 2024-January 2025. The President/Vice President-elect should concentrate their selection process on principals and their deputies who understand organizations, who have successfully led large complex organizations and who will lead the effort to re-think their mission and to restructure their organization to most effectively and efficiently accomplish their mission.

PHASE 3:  January 2025 through at least, June 2025 execute the transformation.

This will be a difficult process because we are talking about change, massive change.  We must recognize that for any large organization, especially one as large as the Executive Branch, change is hard. Fear of the unknown is a powerful human force, especially in government with an entrenched, layered bureaucracy that is stiff, stifling and in many respects self-serving.

Vice President Vance will provide hands-on leadership from start to finish with periodic in-progress reviews to the American people.

How does all this get accomplished? It is a long and tedious process, even explaining it is a long, tedious read, but there are no viable shortcuts to re-thinking, re-designing and re-structuring large organizations and make them be all they can/should be. 

FIRST, the Vice President Vance should set up a senior Spending and Debt Reform Task Force consisting of the deputies of all the departments, agencies and commissions. They will be the change agents and become the junkyard dogs of Washington.  

SECONDLY, define the end state and end date for the campaign. For example, the VP might say, “Over the next six months our task force will look inside every organizational element of the Executive Branch.  We will assess their mission (is it relevant today), their structure (too many or too few people), layering (is it OK or dysfunctional), can the organization integrate (communicate) vertically and horizontally efficiently and effectively on a day-to-day basis? Is the organization as a whole agile (able to deal with change as a matter of course) and is there overall value added for the government and especially for the American people?”

THIRD, organization charts. The process begins in every named organization by putting together a very detailed organization chart. That’s the visual for the task force and it provides an immediate sense of the size, complexity and layering.  Big government is layer after layer after layer; some of which produce nothing; they exist just to oversee what is being produced at the layers below.  Why the organization chart?  Because it allows the task force to begin the analysis and restructure at the bottom of the organization. One cannot reorganize and restructure top down; to be successful it must be a bottom-up process. 

Using the Department of Agriculture as an example, there are 65 different organizational elements that come under the headings of “departments, agencies, councils, institutes, programs, foundations, services, authorities, offices of, boards and facilities.” Inside them are departments, directorates, branches, sections, cells and individual elements.  Every one of those becomes a “box” in the organization chart.  Each organizational box must list the name of the element, number of employees and the grade of the leader, GS 10, 12, whatever.

Within the Department of Agriculture, for example, the deputy Secretary, part of the VP’s senior task force, will form his/her own internal departmental task force. The Department Task Force’ first action will be to send out an internal memo to the leaders of every “box” to submit in one week a no-more-than-two-page report to the Deputy Secretary.  The report format should include, as a minimum:

First, a one or two-sentence mission statement that describes what it is that element collectively does; for example, “responsible for writing, executing and enforcing Department Regulation 135, Beef Export Program, and reporting results quarterly to ………”

For this “box” the Department Task Force’ assessment would begin by determining whether or not Dept Reg 135 Beef Export Program is any longer needed?  If so, could the mission be accomplished with fewer people?  Could the same number of employees also be responsible for Dept Reg 246, Pork Export Program? Do we need the report quarterly? And most importantly, what is the value added to the overall Department of Agriculture mission.

There are probably tens of thousands of worthless reports written every year by an entrenched bureaucratic mass that lives on forever sucking up tax dollars, stifling initiative and being a roadblock to progress.

Secondly, the report should describe the grade structure of all the employees in the box.

The Task Force job is to determine if the grade structure is commensurate with the degree of complexity of the mission? Could two or more similar “boxes” be combined, perhaps scaled down and led by this same leader (a span of control issue)? Is the leader a “working leader” or just grading the papers of his/her subordinates and passing them up the chain?

Third, describe a typical work week; number of meetings, amount of travel, etc.  

This can reveal a lot about an organizational element and its leader.  Many meetings are just to fill up time, or are a daily social coffee clutch, or make the person in charge feel like he/she is actually “leading”.  Many meetings are a colossal waste of time. If employees have time to attend too many meetings, they probably are not very busy to begin with. A personal note; I once worked with a senior leader who was so anti-meeting he would require everyone to remain standing for the entire session.  Food for thought.   Is the travel critical to success, nice to have or perhaps just to fill up the work week? Travel is very expensive.

Four, what regulations and/or directives guide your work? 

After reviewing the answers to the other questions, it may become apparent that these regulations are no longer necessary.  Another piece in getting the big organizational picture.

Five, product.  A list, in single sentences, of major accomplishments in the past 12 months.

The task force will then determine if the accomplishments are in line with the mission or are they just doing “busy work”?

Finally, a short statement of value added to the department of…..(agriculture).  That is, “Without us the Department would not/could not do the following……….”

The Task Force review of the input is all about policy, practices, process, grade structure commensurate with overall responsibility, span of control, layering and value-added determination.  When  VP Vance randomly attends Departmental Task Force sessions, he will be grading their work and progress; are they tough enough, too tough, thorough enough, on the right track or being overly protective of the status quo?  The VP will also be able to pick up strong-points and pass them along to other Departments as best practices. 

Once the task force has worked its way up from the bottom, looking at every element, their individual mission and value added, then and only then will they be capable of looking back and seeing how many subordinate elements are off track, irrelevant, unnecessary or even counterproductive.  They will then be capable of restructuring, re-aligning, re-tasking and  reorganizing the subordinate elements to create an organization that is more focused, aligned, responsive, innovative, agile and rid of pockets of resistance.

What must be emphasized here is the importance of the bottom-up review process.  As the task force works up from layer to layer on the organization chart, they will come to some conclusions about value added at each level. Having reached the top of the org chart it is possible the Vice President’s senior task force could conclude that an entire department’s continued existence should be questioned.  A prime example is the Department of Education.  Education in America is a national disgrace and not getting better in spite of the hundreds of billions of tax dollars expended by the department since its inception 40 years ago.

This process may look tedious and time consuming, because it is.  But unless you begin at the bottom and unless you include every element, you will never achieve an acceptable level of success.

CONCLUSIONS: 

The task forces must be especially mindful of the phrase “we provide oversight.”  That is a red flashing light that an organization does not, in and of itself, produce anything of value. They simply exist to grade papers, expand their purview, inhibit progress and expend tax dollars.  As President Reagan reminded us, “The most terrifying words in the English language are, ”I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

During the process, it is important to not lose sight of the overall objectives.  First, the objective is NOT to reach some specific lower number of federal employees.  Secondly, the objective is to rid the government of “boxes” in the organization charts that have no “value added”; they just exist because they have always been there.  The end state is an organization that is leaner, more focused, more efficient, more effective, and agile.

WHY DO ALL OF THIS WORK?  THREE REASONS:

First the most common attempts at downsizing, in my experience, used numerous times over the past decades, have been to declare a hiring freeze or order an across-the-board xx% personnel cut, neither of which make any sense nor achieves any positive results. 

Secondly, what I have described above has never been done before.  We have just allowed the Executive Branch to grow without ever undertaking a necessary and insightful pruning process.

When completed, many positions (perhaps tens of thousands of them) will be eliminated. It will then take a couple years of shuffling the deck by the Office of Personnel Management to get folks reassigned or retired, but it is within the art of the possible and worth the effort. 

Third reason we are doing all this work is that the U.S. budget is the sum of what all of the Executive Department’s agencies, councils, institutes, programs, foundations, services, authorities, offices of, boards and facilities need to accomplish their missions.  If, the task forces finds that perhaps thousands of Executive Branch “boxes “are unnecessary, it follows that perhaps tens of thousands of actions, programs and policies can be eliminated because they are outdated, unnecessary and/or redundant.  Budget requirements can be downsized by potentially billions of dollars.

There is also a states’ right issues in all of this.  As the federal government grows a natural outcome is that they over-reach into areas that are better and more effectively handled at the local and state level.  Federal over-reach tends to result in a one-size-fits-all approach to problem solving and it is usually ineffective and inefficient. 

President Reagan summed all of this effort up with three of his famous conclusions: “Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.” “Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” And, “Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”

BOTTOM LINE:

Getting spending and hence debt under control will resonate with the American people a lot more than the tax-and-spend economic baseline of some administrations.  This is a necessary, positive endeavor that needs to be embraced by both political parties. 

This action could be the first step towards government operating with a balanced budget.

This action can solve the regulation nation problem.

This operation will not cost the taxpayers a cent but it will save them billions.

This will also send a powerful message to Congress.  Congress has become increasingly irresponsible over spending and debt.  They need a wake-up call and if enough politicians will campaign and win with this message, the Congress will be obliged to listen and hopefully change.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

IT’S AS SIMPLE AS “TASKS, CONDITIONS AND STANDARDS”

Let’s begin at the end with a conclusion. The Secret Service could have conducted themselves more professionally while planning and executing the protection of President Trump in Butler Pennsylvania. The attempted assassination will of course be investigated officially by the FBI and Congress and unofficially by the media and personal opinions. 

The Secret Service mission statement. “We have an integrated mission of protection and financial investigations to ensure the safety and security of our protectees, key locations, and events of national significance.  We also protect the integrity of our currency and investigate crimes against the U.S. financial system committed by criminals around the world and in cyberspace.”

All of the investigations should begin by defining the state of training of the Secret Service agents involved with, ensuring the safety and security of our protectees.

TASKS/CONDITIONS/STANDARDS

TASKS: A blinding glimpse of the obvious, there are a series of tasks to be performed before and during the conduct of a protection function. The tasks differ for each level of the agents; Patrol Officer, Elite Officer, Bodyguard, Agent, Field Agent, Senior Agent, Special Agent.  That is, the tasks to be performed by agents assigned to be up close and personal with the protectee differ from the agents who are responsible for assessing the area of operations and developing the overall plan for execution.

Tasks fall into two categories, individual and collective tasks. Every individual task for a specific grade, Field Agent for example, must be performed to a specified standard under varying conditions.

 For those Secret Service agents in leadership positions, there is a separate set of tasks called collective tasks.  Just like the individual tasks, every collective task must be performed to a specific standard under varying conditions.  Individual and collective tasks must be written and be the centerpiece of all training manuals.

The first question, by the FBI and Congressional Oversight Committee investigators to the Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle should be, do you have an official publication specifying every individual and collective task to be performed by every agent at every level involved in the security of protectees?

The second question is, can you define the task proficiency level of every Secret Service person involved before and during the Trump rally in Butler Pennsylvania?

CONDITIONS:  For every individual and collective task there is a defined condition. For example, is the protectee inside or outside, in a vehicle, walking down a line of people shaking hands, moving through a crowd, or stationary speaking to a crowd, is it daylight or dark? The conditions further define and complicate each individual and collective task. Tasks and conditions are always linked and result in defining a standard of conduct.

STANDARDS: An organization without standards is a failed organization.

For every individual and collective task there is a specified standard of performance. Until an agent, at any level, is proficient in every task associated with their grade, they are in an unqualified status. There can be no exceptions for gender, especially when it comes to physical capabilities.

Old saying, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” The training manual listing of tasks by grade and condition that must be performed to standard at all times under varying conditions is the road map for a successful organization, especially one with a life-or-death mission every day.  If such a document does not exist, the proficiency level of every agent can and should be called into question.

A final note about standards. As stated, an organization without standards is a failing organization.  A second absolute truth is that an organization that begins to reduce standards to accommodate a lesser qualified person or group is on a slippery slope from which there is no recovery.

MERITOCRACY:

Tasks/conditions/standards is the lifeblood of meritocracy.

Can we think of any organization in government that is more dependent on meritocracy than the Secret Service, given their protectee mission?  Any agent at any level should absolutely not be in the field with a protectee unless they are proficient in every task. Period.  “One-the-job training” should not even be in the Secret Service lexicon.  ‘On-the-job observation” should certainly be part of the training process as long as the observer is not part of the head-count required for the mission.  

Are the proficiency levels of all agents the same?  Certainly not; not all will achieve a max score on the physical tests, not all are equally qualified on the shooting range, etc. But there are absolute minimums that must be achieved. No exceptions. That is what meritocracy is all about. Periodic written evaluations should specifically point out strengths and areas for improvement for every individual.  Periodic evaluations should always have a section whereby the rater can answer the question, “what is this individual’s potential to successfully serve in positions of greater responsibility.”  Leaders at every level should be recognized as those who are the best and brightest regardless of race and gender. Meritocracy is part of the process of developing and enforcing a daily operating culture of trust and respect.

The point of the above dissertation on tasks/conditions/standards is that the training level/certification of every agent at Butler Pennsylvania before and during the shooting should be the opening question to the Secret Service Director.  If she cannot answer that question in great detail, that, by implication speaks volumes about the current status of the Secret Service. 

CAN AN ORGANIZATION BE DISTRACTED FROM TASK/CONDITION/STANDARD?

Once inaugurated, Biden directed the leaders of every department and agency in the Executive Branch to make Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI, a priority within their management agendas, and they were given 100 days to assess the state of DEI within their own workforces and associated policies. From that assessment, they were to move forward with implementing agendas. Additionally, each organization was to hire a DEI czar with a staff reporting directly to the Department/Agency leader.

The DEI folks will tell you, “Inclusion is about all employees feeling their voices will be heard.”  That is a feel-good thing, it’s an all-about-me thing.  It flies directly in the face of being the best team member you can possible be every day and the combination of all that collectively creates, maintains and sustains an unbeatable force.

The vast amount of written material, the large staff requirements and the long-term continuous training requirements all associated with DEI are not only disruptive to daily operations but also can be confusing and difficult to understand and implement.  

DEI, A DESTRUCTIVE CULTURE IN THE SECRET SERVICE ORGANIATION?

In a podcast, February 2023, the DEI Director Loucious Hires III described DEI as a “mission imperative” and the “ultimate goal” to spread DEI with the agency via seminars on “respectful use of pronouns” and striving to be the “gold standard.”

The Director outlined how “every action at the Secret Service should be informed by DEI” and claimed “the ideology makes the organization stronger.” Every employee should consider how every action is reflective of equity”

In the DEI world equity means that “opportunities are shaped to fit with the needs of each individual in a way he or she feels is fair”. Stated another way we dumb-down standards to the lowest common denominator. By contrast, the all-encompassing imperative in an organization with a life-or-death mission is that the standard is as high as possible for every action and for every agent.  The standard is there for the taking by everyone and is the heart and soul of meritocracy.  “Fair for everyone” is not an acceptable operative culture for the Secret Service.

This begs the question, does every agent have his or her head in the game every day and on every mission or is DEI a mental distraction?

CONCLUSIONS:

 he Secret Service failed at Butler Pennsylvania.  It is imperative that every stone is overturned and examined to definitely determine what were the causes.  General training regimen?  Leadership?  Insufficient preparation?  Etc. Etc.

Once the causes are found, there must be organizational changes in leadership, training, culture, etc.

BOTTOM LINE:

“Zero defects” is not an appropriate goal for any organization.  We do not live in a perfect world and zero defects is not achievable so don’t try to go there.

But there must be more/better oversight, planning, training, defined standards to be comfortable that a Butler Pennsylvania does not occur again.

The investigation should not be about Republicans and Democrats, it is too important to let that nonsense interfere. It should not be about blame. Blame is the easy way out; find a scapegoat and move on. 

The investigation must be about two things; what didn’t work and how does the Secret Service fix itself.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

If I was having a chat with President Trump right now it would go something like this:

You have been campaigning the last sixty days or so as if it was September and October.  That’s OK but there is still four months to go and the same tune is getting old and tiresome.  We have all heard the generalizations, “the border is a mess”, “inflation is the worst ever’, “Biden is the worst president in history”, etc. etc. While those are all true can there be a new and different way to get the points across?   

Another thing that is disadvantageous about selling generalizations is that they can come across as opinions and not facts and the opposition then calls them lies because they have a different opinion.  Biden and most of the main-stream media frequently refer to you as “a liar.”  And they say it so loud and often that more and more people will begin to think, “if everyone says so, maybe it’s true.”

There is a way out of this but it is going to take some work and the new concept may shock a few folks.  That’s OK too. There is truth in the old saying, “If we always do what we’ve always done, we will always get what we always got.” Which may not be the best case.

Thesis:  Don’t continue telling the voters this is the worst administration ever and hope they believe you.  Hope is not a process!  Do this by giving them enough irrefutable facts and information that will cause each individual to come to the conclusion that it is in FACT the worst administration and the worst led presidency in history and therefore the democrats must be defeated in 2024.  

Additionally, don’t spend all your time on just “Biden.”  Spread your message of failure to the “democrat party.” This could convince more voters to also support their Representative and Senate republican candidates.

CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS: Here is a starter list of issues for you to consider.

Announce your Vice President NOW.  Why now? Another appropriate quote, “There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Brutus

FACT:  The democrat party has never been this disarrayed, dismayed, divided, damaged or disgusted.  They have no leader.  CNN pole early July, “Three-quarters of US voters say the Democratic Party would have a better shot at holding the presidency in 2024 with someone other than Joe Biden at the top of the ticket”

While the democrats don’t even know who their candidate is going to be and the Democrat Convention is only a few weeks away, now is the perfect time for the Trump campaign to strike with some big, positive news; the Vice President selection.  The media will be all over it while the democrats can’t find their collective ass with both hands.

Be different.  Be decisive. Make new news.

The second part of the concept is to lay out a very specific, itemized close-hold plan for issues to be discussed every week after the close of the Republican Convention until the first of November.  Close the convention speech with a tease, telling the media and voters to “tune in” every Monday morning at 10 a.m. Here is an example of the first week’s campaign speeches.

Monday 22 July, 10 a.m.: Bidenomics and the Middle Class Melt Down.

Biden was, for months, talking about the glorious Bidenomics every time he got behind a teleprompter.  That has ended because his handlers probably concluded that most of the public has figured out what a disaster it is for them, especially the middle class.

Every day that week have a new speech FILLED with irrefutable convincing facts and let the voters draw their own conclusions about this administration’s handling of the economy. For example, discuss:

Trump Inflation numbers from Jan 2017 to Jan 2021.

What causes inflation?  Too much money chasing too few goods. Too few goods because of world-wide Covid shutdowns. Too much money because the democrats, to show off their spending skills and to buy votes, unnecessarily passed out $1.9 trillion in the American Rescue Plan, 11 March, 2021.

Explain in detail how the economy was already rebounding by March 2021 and the democrats Rescue Plan was ill planned, unnecessary. and was in fact foolish because there had already been two timely previous Covid relief payouts.

Detail the price rise for fuel from $2 a gallon to $5 or $6 that drove a price rise for every product because of the number of times everything we purchase is in a truck going somewhere before you buy it.

Give a detailed history lesson on inflation in America and that this was the worst in 40 years.

What was the price rise for basic necessities for a middle-class family of four.

Wages did not keep up with inflation.  Detail how many thousands of dollars of buying power have been lost.

Compare everything to what it was January 2021 and what it still is today compared to your last year in office.

Another example:  

Monday, 29 July, 10 a.m.: Our nation is no longer secure.

The first responsibility of a president is the safety and security of American citizens.

The Border Patrol estimates 1.8 million “gotaways” entered the U.S. illegally during the past 3 ½ democrat-led years.

What is a “gotaway”?  They are illegal immigrants who are detected by cameras and other means but successfully evade apprehension.

Why do they evade contact with the Border Patrol?  The straight answer is they evade because they have a criminal record or they are gang members, Cartel operatives, drug dealers, human traffickers and terrorists.

 In FY 2020 there were 136,808 gotaways and by FY 2023 that had increased to 670,674; and increase of 390% under the Biden administration.

1.8 million gotaways is more national security deviants than the combined populations of Montana and North Dakota.

1.8 million democrat policy-aided gotaways is more than the 1.4 million recorded in the entire decade from 2010 to 2020.

Over 13,000 “criminal noncitizens” have attempted to enter the U.S. and have been already apprehended by Border Patrol agents in Fiscal Year 2024; a rise from 4,269 in FY 2019

Terrorists. FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist is a federal database of people who are either known or suspected terrorists.

Terrorist Watchlist apprehensions (north and south borders) for FY 2020 was 299. The FY 2023 total was 736. The questions these facts raise are:  How many terrorists on the FBI Watchlist have arrived undetected?  How many terrorists have arrived who are not even on the Watchlist?  Where are they now?  Have they populated existing and new terrorist cells all over the country?  Are they training?  Are they waiting for guidance from home base to attack? How vulnerable is our national security to terrorists’ attacks resulting from this administration’s open border policies?

Gangs: Altogether within the U.S., the FBI reports that some 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs are criminally active with about 1.4 million members. Transnational gang members are included in the gotaway crowd. Transitional gangs move us forward from the urban neighborhood street gang that controls a few city blocks and pushes a little dope, to something larger, more violent, and linked and aligned to more advanced and sophisticated crime organizations in Latin America.

 MS13 is the current leading transnational gang example. It is the largest street gang in Latin America and one of the world’s largest and most violent gangs. They are part of the gotaways plus those who are not detected. American gangs are responsible for 48.9% of violent crimes, 42.9% of property crime, 39.9% of drug sales and 13% of all homicides. 

Cartels in the U.S.: There are at least 13 U.S. cities that are used as distribution hubs by the Mexican drug cartels. These cartels primarily employ Mexican nationals to oversee their distribution operations in the U.S.  Cartel operatives are part of the 1.8 million gotaways.

Drugs: It’s encouraging to hear the main-stream media and the Biden administration crow about U.S. authorities intercepting hundreds or even thousands of pounds of fentanyl at the Mexican border. That is, until the Border Patrol authorities tell us they estimate the recovery is only about 5% of what gets successfully into the U.S. and distributed throughout the country. On average in 2023, 307 young Americans died EVERY DAY from drug overdose, the majority from fentanyl.  There is blood on the hands of the democrats in general and Biden and Harris for facilitating the drug trafficking via an open border.

The border was not yet completely secure under President Trump but there was an all-out effort to get to that point. The first afternoon of his presidency, Biden began cancelling the Trump administration’s efforts to close the border. 

BOTTOM LINE: In the history of our once-great nation, there has never been a political party, an administration or a president/vice president who have used policy to open the border and thereby facilitate the degradation of our national security and do so simply to create a democrat-friendly identity group who will vote to continue this open border nonsense.  And, by the way, the open border is costing the American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

Another example:

Monday, 5 August:  Voting and voter fraud.

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. 

Voter registration rolls are notoriously inaccurate and out of date, containing the names of millions 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 used as fraudulent votes.

Covid changed voting habits. In 2020, 69.4% of voters cast ballots by a nontraditional method, mostly mail-in ballots.  That was up from 23% in the 2016 election. That volume overwhelmed ballot counting facilities across the country to the extent that there simply was not enough time to verify voter signatures and addresses. Some examples:  

North Carolina: In 2018 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.

Here is how bad the voter rolls are across the country.  Judicial Watch conducted a study of voter rolls in 37 of the 50 states.  The results revealed that 353 U.S. counties in 29 states had 1.8 million more registered voters than eligible voting-age citizens. In other words, the registration rates of those counties exceeded 100% of eligible voters, some as high as 130%. Those facts alone define the potential for fraudulent vote counting in one of every four counties in America.

Ballot harvesting is another problem because it relinquishes control of ballots into the hands of individuals who are not legal officials in the voting process; a broken chain of custody issue.

Mail-in ballots are the tools of choice forelection fraudsters because they can operate outside the supervision of election officials, making it easier to steal, forge, or alter ballots.

The bottom line is that when millions of ballots are being mailed out to addresses of dead or relocated or non-citizens, the door is wide open for fraudulent mail-in ballots. We as a nation are better than this.  Governors and State legislators need to look at this problem right now, get proactive and take every possible action to prevent voter fraud in their state.

The bottom line is that every ballot should have a voter ID number on it.  That could be a social security number, the number on your Real ID card or a passport number.  Is that too much to ask for the privilege of voting? The democrats call voter ID “racist”.  How stupid can they get?  By federal law May 2025 one must have a “Real ID” just to get on an airplane in the U.S.  Is a plane ticket more important than a secret ballot?

Three-quarters of voters, and even two-thirds of democrats, said they would be more confident in election results if every voter was required to show government-issued identification at the polls.    

Voting rules are a states’ rights issue which is a good thing but by implication, they also have to operate their system responsibly and legally.

Monday, 12 August: High interest rates are a killer for individuals, families, businesses and economic growth.  The current high rates are directly related to Biden’s inflation.  Lay that out for voters.

Monday 19 August: The pathetic state of US/Iran relations and the general mess in the Middle East. 

The Trump administration renewed UN sanctions on Iran and enforced them.  Iran’s foreign currency reserves fell from $128 billion in 2015 to $15 billion in 2019,

During the Trump administration, Iran’s capabilities and options were reduced and the U.S. was gaining ground in Middle East countries’ acceptance of Israel’s right to exist and prosper as a friendly neighbor.

Notwithstanding that for 40 years Iran has been the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and routinely declares “death to America”, the Biden administration has spent three years exercising a policy of appeasement. Biden has rewarded the Ayatollah to the tune of about $100 billion; that is, massive revenue from the non-enforcement of U.S. oil sanctions over three years, a $6 billion ransom payment and a $10 billion sanctions waiver.

Iran has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars towards training and equipping Hamas, and Hizballah terrorist organizations in the past few years. In Yemen, Iran has provided a wide range of weapons, training, advanced equipment such as unmanned aerial systems, and other support to Houthi militants, who engaged in hundreds of attacks against regional targets in Saudi Arabia and are now endangering world shipping in the Red Sea. 

When Trump took office, he put the Houthi organization on the world terrorist list.  Biden, immediately took them off the terrorist list for no reason other than to undo a Trump initiative.

Monday, 26 August: Why increasing corporate taxes is a bad idea.

Corporations don’t pay taxes, people pay taxes.  Every corporation has a “product” and a cost associated with it; raw materials, salaries and wages, paying the light bill, etc. etc. etc.  Add up the costs, plug in the desired profit and you have the sales price.  Adding a corporate tax is just another item in the cost of production.  The tax gets added on and passed on to the buyer of the product. The higher price also reduces our position in the global market.

Raising corporate taxes is just another democrat anti-business move.

Monday, 2 September: Cut spending by reducing the size of the President’s budget submission.

GROUND TRUTH:

A mammoth, sprawling, uncontrollable, federal government currently numbering about 4.3 million plus hundreds of thousands of contract employees was never the vision or intent of the Founding Fathers.  Organizations have a propensity to grow to a point of diminishing returns; cease to be efficient, effective, and/or no longer perform the functions for which they were created.  At that point, a large organization will tend to look inward and become self-perpetuating rather than value-added for the greater good.

Some or all of that could apply today to the Departments in the Executive Branch of the federal government. This results in two major problems that desperately need to get fixed. 

First, a too-large organization is very expensive to maintain.  A more effective and efficient Executive Branch will be much smaller and less expensive. Every 1% reduction in end-strength equals about a $1.5 billion saving in annual salaries plus billions of dollars more in long-term retirement pay and benefits.

Second, and more importantly, the annual U.S. budget boils up out of this massive organization. Every government-funded program is maintained and sustained inside these bureaucracies.  These programs are this organization’s product.  General Motor’s product is vehicles; the Executive Branch’s product is taxpayer-supported programs.  The question is, what is the value added of those programs?  An in-depth review will undoubtedly find programs that have existed for decades, their original purpose no longer relevant, programs that sounded good at their inception but have failed in execution, programs to solve a problem that should have been the purview of state or local officials, programs initiated to solve a short-term problem but live on forever.  The list is long.  President Reagan summed up the problem with this statement, “Government is like a baby, an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”

A complete and total re-look at the entire Executive Branch will be the number one responsibility of the Vice President for at least the first six months in office.

Note to the Trump research group:  there is a complete concept of operations on how to do this in a book, Fix the Systems, Transform America chapter 4.

Monday 16 September: Cut spending by insisting on changes in the way Congress operates.

In 2020 when the pandemic was beating up every aspect of our society the Congress concocted a 5,593-page-bill monstrosity for Covid-19 relief, The Cares Act.  Of course, it passed; nearly everyone could use a little relief from Covid and the taxpayers were stuck with the bill, all $1.8 trillion dollars.  But here is the pathetic part; under the guise of helping Americans through the pandemic, members of Congress took the opportunity to pork-up the bill with dozens, if not hundreds, of earmarked funding directives that had absolutely nothing to do with Covid or Covid relief.  Here is a sampling:

$10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan,

$300 million for fisheries,

$100 million for NASA,

$300 million to Endowment for the Arts,

$300 million to Endowment for the Humanities,

$300 million to Public Broadcasting,

$500 million for Museums and Libraries, 

$720 million to Social Security Administration,

$315 million to the State Department,

$90 million to the Peace Corp,

$492 million to National Railroad Passenger Corp,

$526 million grant to Amtrak. 

$4.7 billion in foreign aid to nine countries.

The takeaway from this example is that under different circumstances, each of these expenditures could have/should have seen the light of day in one or more congressional committees where expert witnesses would have testified to the pros and cons of passing the funding.

The second takeaway is that the Covid Relief Act was not a one-off occurrence. Producing multi-thousand-page bills has become the norm. No one who votes for them has actually read them and therefore do not know what they are voting for or against. Should we be borrowing money for earmarks that have never been exposed to public scrutiny? If viewed separately by the American taxpayers, would they all pass the smell test?  Absolutely not.

For years politicians have been emphasizing the need for infrastructure spending.  So, in 2021 Congress finally passed, in a bipartisan vote, a $1.2 trillion Infrastructure bill which, by the way, is also funding universal pre-K, child care, enhanced child tax credit, earned income tax credit, Affordable Care Act subsidies, Medicaid expansion, medical hearing benefits, affordable housing, Pell grants, children’s nutrition, immigration, state and local tax deductions, etc. etc. etc.  Only about 25% of the expenditures actually exist for real infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports. What happened to the remaining $900 billion?

President Trump should declare that he will not accept and will not sign into law bills that Senators and Representatives have not read, bills that have not had every expenditure vetted and voted on in Committees, bills that go way outside the law’s main subject and intent. 

This action, along with a smaller President’s budget, will cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars annually and put us on a path to balanced budgets.

Note to the Trump research group:  there is a complete concept of operations on how to do this in a book, Fix the Systems, Transform America chapter 5.

Other examples for the campaign:

The truth about “tax cuts for the wealthy.”

The pathetic state of education in America.

20% of U.S. students do not graduate high school.

Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students. Those “dropout factories” account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year. One in six students attend a dropout factory.  One in three minority students (32%) attend a dropout factory compared to 8% of white students.

In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes.

Of those graduating high school, over 20% are unable to pass the test to enter the U.S. military because they are functionally illiterate.

On average, 7,000 students across the country drop out of school every school day thereby creating a linkage to a life of crime and/or welfare.  About 70% of prison inmates do not have a high school diploma.

Why do they drop out?  The main reason is they got behind in K-5, further behind in Middle School and eventually became frustrated, disenchanted and just gave up

.

Average U.S. annual spending per public school student is over $14,000 in 2023.  That is about 34% higher than the average of the other 37 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Currently our number one “solution” to improving education results in the U.S. is for the feds to throw money at the problem. It’s not working.

The Department of Education’s 2024 budget is $90 billion; a $10.8 billion increase over 2023 and we keep falling further behind in world rankings and become an ever-increasing nation of functional illiterates.

Note to researchers:   The National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, also known as the “nation’s report card” provides proficiency data for elementary, middle and high school students over the past several decades.

Regain energy independence and replenish the oil reserves.

Return the military to its former greatness as a credible deterrent force.

Note to the trump researchers; see article, HOW DID THE U.S. MILITARY FALL OFF THE CLIFF? WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. www.WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

World peace forever.

Note to the Trump research group:  there is a complete concept of operations on how to do this in a book, Fix the Systems, Transform America, chapter 8.

Cabinet nominations.

Another beneficial Monday surprise for late August could be to announce the proposed nominees for Secretary of State, Defense and Treasury.  Emphasize their background training, intellect and overall qualifications to head these critical positions. Contrast this with the Biden formula for building his Cabinet which was to end up with, “the most diverse in history.”  Which has absolutely nothing to do with being the best qualified to serve the American people.

This will give voters an opportunity to get to know the leaders of the next administration and give them more reasons to vote republican.

CONCLUSIONS:

Why not?  Why not roll out a fall campaign that is different, more factual, more interesting and that will keep the democrats and liberal media off balance. The public will love it and Monday mornings will certainly be more interesting.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

BACKGROUND:

While campaigning in 2016, Hillery Clinton poisoned the water with her prepared hate message declaring: “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables; the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.” With that, she falsely and carelessly indicted tens of millions of Americans. Half of his supporters at that time would have been in the 35 to40 million range. That’s a lot of folks to insult without one piece of evidence to back it up.  Pretty stupid actually. But it opened the door for the democrat leadership to pursue stupid.

Thereafter it has been OK for the democrats to routinely, ignorantly lump tens of millions of Americans into despicable categories, “racist” and “white supremacist” being the most common descriptors.

September, 2022 in an address to the nation President Biden declared, “the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” That elevated the number insulted, again without a shred of evidence, to around 70 million. Doubled the stupid. 

Biden went on to compare Republican ideology to “semi-fascism.” Can he even define what semi-fascism is? Fascist: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader.” There is no definition for semi-fascist.

Segregation is most egregious form of discrimination by published policy, defining where you can live, sit on a bus, shop, eat or go to school.  Biden, speaking to Black leaders gathered at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, drew a parallel between MAGA Republicans and segregationists in the 1950s who tried to prevent Black and white Americans from going to school together. Has Biden conveniently forgotten that segregation was an underpinning of the Democrat party, particularly in the South, for 99 years until outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Biden is of an age to recall democrat, George Wallace’s “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech given at his 1963 inauguration as Alabama’s Governor. 

During his 2020 campaign Biden declared, “rooting out systemic racism in this country” is one of my top priorities.” Systemic defined: relating to or affecting the entire body or an entire organism.

The question is, where has all these insane unsubstantiated accusations led us?   The Left wing of the Democrat party concluded that this could all be solved by systemically (see definition in previous paragraph) institutionalizing diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, into every facet of our lives; education, industry, politics, society in general, etc. In retrospect perhaps we can now conclude this woke DEI move by the left could be labeled, adding insult to injury.

 WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT OF DEI ON AMERICA?

Once inaugurated, Biden directed the leaders of every Department and agency in the Executive Branch to make diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, a priority within their management agendas, and thy were given 100 days to assess the state of DEI within their own workforces and associated policies. From that assessment, they were to move forward with implementing agendas. Additionally, each organization was to hire a DEI czar with a staff reporting directly to the Department leader.

PUTTING THE IMPACT OF DEI INTO NATIONAL SECURITY PERSPECTIVES:  

The President’s job description can easily be broken down as follows:

• Leader of the American people
• Leader of the U.S. Executive Branch of Government
• At times, considered “Leader of the free world”
• And, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Military.

As Commander in Chief, the president’s relationship with DOD, as an organization requires a different mindset. The U.S. Military, consisting of 2.1 million uniformed men and women as of end FY2023, is an organization unlike any others, for example:

• It is in a constant state of turnover with hundreds of thousands of new enlistees and departees per year.
•  It is in constant motion. Nearly all of its active-duty members will be reassigned with a permanent-change-of-station move within every 3-year period.
• Unlike any other organization its mission is to be the best in the world at deterring or, if necessary, destroying enemy forces anywhere in the world.  
• The U.S. Army, in particular, is defined by its task’s to be performed. Furthermore, for every single task there are definedconditions and for each combination of task/condition there is a defined standard. There are “Individual” task/condition/standards for every person as well as “collective” task/condition/standards for every leader. 

(I will speak to the Army situation as that was my service for 32 years}?

ONE SIZE FITS ALL APPROACH: (a look at DEI)

The U.S. military is not the Department of Transportation but Commander in Chief Biden obviously doesn’t realize or understand the ramifications of treating the military with the one-size-fits-all DEI Executive Order. For example:

DIVERSITY:

Diversity is defined as “The presence of differences within a given setting. In the workplace, that can mean differences in race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age and socioeconomic class.”

Any American who can pass the entrance exam, is a high school graduate, is not a criminal, is physically fit and of a proper age and shows up at a recruiting station can get “hired.” None of the “diversity” elements are even considered.  The U.S. Military is naturally a cross-section of America.

While the military is already the quintessential diverse organization, the problem with DEI is that the diversity process of counting and identifying the numbers of individuals in each diversity category (race, ethnicity, gender, etc.} is the first step in splitting the organization into identity groups and then treating them differently. This is a complete anathema to any military organization and becomes a barrier to everything the military seeks to achieve.  Anathema defined: A vehement denunciation; a curse

EQUITY:

Equity is the process of ensuring that practices and programs are impartial, fair and provide equal possible outcomes for every individual. Equity takes into account the fact that not everybody is starting at the same level.

Equity as defined above, is pure unadulterated poison for the U.S. Army. Everything that happens from day-one forward keys off of a designated standard that ensures every single person clearly understands they have an equal opportunity to excel.  Every day is a be-all-you-can-be day. Some will flunk out and someone will be heralded as the number one graduate. Achieving “equal outcomes for every individual” is a road block to establishment of an organization-wide culture of meritocracy in every individual and/or team endeavor.  

“Equity” implies that individuals will be treated differently because, “everyone is not starting at the same level.”  Certainly, they are not all at the same level on day one; isn’t that part of the diversity?  Isn’t that, in and of itself discriminatory? Rather than trying to implement equity gobbledygook, isn’t the point to simply challenge everyone to be-all-they-can-be given whatever they bring to the organization?

The Equity folks tell us limitations (not starting at the same level) are what, “define barriers and give rise to advantages, ultimately leading to an inequitable process.”  NO, everyone starting at the same square-one and encouraged to be-all-they-can-be every day actually ends up defining the organization. it is the beginning of a diverse, meritocracy-based organization, something the DEI folks simply do not understand.

INCLUSION:

Inclusion in the U.S. Army that grows in every individual as they accept the daily dose of an all-important, all-consuming culture of Accountability, Trust and Respect. 

Accountability for each soldier being able to meet the standard for every individual and collective task associated with their specialty and their rank and that they have-the-back of their team members on their right and left.

Trust that my team members on my right and left have-my-back as well and are proficient in their job performance.

Respect for my leaders knowing that they got where they are based on their merit, not because of a quota promotion.

 The DEI folks will tell you, “Inclusion is about all employees feeling their voices will be heard.”  That nonsense is a feel-good thing, it’s an all-about-me thing.  It flies directly in the face of being the best team member you can possible be every day and the combination of all that collectively creates, maintains and sustains an unbeatable force.

BACK TO BIDEN’S ECECUTIVE ORDER:

The DEI Executive Order was issued 25 June, 2021.  It is important to note that he was acting in his role a leader of the Executive Branch of government. He was obviously NOT acting as the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Military. Notwithstanding Biden’s error,

the new Secretary of the Department of Defense, General, Lloyd Austin, U.S. Army retired bought-in to the DEI mess hook-line-and-sinker.

The Executive order directs that every Department create an internal DEI organization headed by a senior civilian who reports directly to the Secretary of Defense, State, Education, Transportation, etc.

 HOW IS DEI WORKING OUT?

26 MARCH 2024, the Wall Street Journal published an insightful article; highlights from the piece:

• Memo to companies: Go ahead and cancel your DEI programs. That’s more or less the message of a recent report commissioned by the U.K. government finding that diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
• The report, presented to Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch by an independent panel, found there’s little evidence DEI efforts have any positive effect on corporate culture.
• Definitive claims of what works can be misleading or inconclusive.
• It’s hard to say what DEI even means: The terms diversity and inclusion are conceptually ambiguous, rapidly evolving, and often conflated.
• U.S. companies spend some $8 billion a year on DEI training.
• A legal backlash is gathering momentum.
• This is no way to run a company, a government or an economy. Companies profit from diverse and inclusive workplaces, but that’s often the opposite of what DEI programs produce.

TRANS GENDER SOLDIERS:

Trans has become a fact of life in American society. As a slice of Americana, the military will have trans issues.  Here is the guidance that needs to be specifically issued by the Commander in Chief to the entirety of the U.S. Military:

If a female declares that she wants to become a man-soldier, fine but two things will not happen. One, the taxpayers will NOT pay for elective surgery of any kind nor the recovery down-time. Second, there will absolutely NOT be revised standards to accommodate his trans status.  That restriction includes the existing men’s minimum passing PT test score.

IMPLEMENTATION OF DEI vs THE ACCEPTED U.S. ARMY SYSTEM:

The vast amount of written material, the large staff requirements and the long-term continuous training requirements all associated with DEI are not only disruptive to daily military life but also confusing and difficult to understand and implement.

Compare the following simple situation in a non-DEI Army which is a system fully understood by everyone serving in it.

• First of all, it is overlaid by an easy to understand, institutionalized operational culture of accountability, trust and respect.
• The daily routine is 100% unquestioned equal opportunity for everyone every day in every endeavor; simple and unquestioned. 
• Self-motivation comes from understanding that every effort, every accomplishment is driven and graded based on merit and merit alone will define their future recognition and advancement. 
• This system does not have to be taught, discussed or deconflicted because it is lived every day by every soldier.
• A be-all-you-can-be organization encourages and recognizes innovation at every level.  Give a soldier a problem and they will seek out a way to get to the objective faster and cheaper with a bigger bang for the buck.  In the vast military industrial complex, it is the successful companies which get a prototype in the hands of soldiers as fast as possible to get their assessment and then produce a bigger/smaller, lighter, more deployable, more effective, more efficient system.

WHAT KIND OF MILITARY DO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT/DESERVE/NEED?

The morning company PT session is completed.  Before being released for breakfast, the First Sergeant announces that everyone will be back in formation in X minutes with their 80-pound rucksack for a cross-country 15-mile movement to contact before breaking for lunch.  How is the 5-foot 6-inch 120-pound wanna-be trans man -soldier performing in this training mission? He will likely spend a good portion of the training day in the accompanying ambulance.

Special operations teams will huddle on a morning and one will say, what shall we do this morning?  Someone will speak up and say, let’s do fifteen and off they go for a 15-mile run.  Because they can. Because they know they need to be at that level of conditioning.

In 1967 in Vietnam, I was well acquainted with a group of about 50 U.S. Army soldier artillerymen. The 1^st Cavalry Division Commander had decided he needed more immediately responsive fire power in that operational area.  As a trial-run he had a 155mm howitzer battery (100-pound projectile, range about 10 miles) placed on a mountain top in the Central Highlands, (mountains about like our Appellations Mountains). Everything had to be delivered by helicopters; there were no roads or vehicles.  There was a constant resupply of those hundred-pound projectiles that first had to be broken down at the supply pad and then hand carried hundreds of feet to the firing positions. Those 50 soldiers worked 16-18 hours per day, part of which was perimeter security at night.  The mission was so successful that it lasted six months. During that period those soldiers never once set foot in a structure, never had a prepared meal, a hot shower or a single day off. That artillery battery never stopped providing fire support to their comrades in arms.  Never for a moment as they occupied mountain after mountain for six months.

What’s the point?  The Army does not train for that specific mission to move cross county 15 miles with an 80-pound load or to specifically run 15 miles or to work 16–18-hour day for 6 months straight but they train for anything like it in terms of proficiency, dedication, fitness, attitude, team work and staying power.

The point is that something as simple as 100% equal opportunity in a be-all-you-can-be team, constantly graded on merit against fixed standards in a culture of accountability, trust and respect has been and can always be successful. That is if it is not overlayed with the confusion and confliction of something as expensive, useless and damaging as DEI.

CONCLUSIONS:

Wake the hell up America.  This country has never in its history been more vulnerable than it is at this very moment. And our Commander in Chief isn’t. Isn’t the Commander and isn’t the Chief.  As the saying goes, “he wouldn’t recognize a soldier if he had one standing on his chest.” To satisfy the Left’s wokeism, he has squandered away our deterrent capability; our enemies do not fear us and our former allies don’t trust us. We lack the necessary munitions for sustained combat. But, By God we have an active, dedicated, fully-manned and completely uninformed DEI organization dictating our military’s future and ensuring that no one’s feeling’s get hurt along the way. 

My wife and I sit on our back porch most evenings watching the horses graze.  Our property backs up to the Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) training areas and for years we could hear the sounds-of-freedom all day and night; the near constant sounds of helicopters, artillery and mortars impacting, the unmistakable chatter of M-60 machine gun and rifle fire.  But not now.  I’m assuming the O and M (operations and maintenance) budgets are a fraction of what they should/could be.  Routinely about 30% of the Air Force’ planes can’t fly.  Navy ship-building is years behind schedule.  A China-invades-Taiwan sophisticated computer-generated war game about a year ago revealed that if the U.S. Navy was engaged our ship-to-ship offensive missile stock would be depleted in about a week.

THE NEXT COMMANDER IN CHIEF’S TO-DO LIST:

1. Immediately put together a crisis plan to restock critical military supplies, weapons and ammunition.
2. Restock the Strategic Oil Reserves that Biden sold off while trying to lower gas prices before the 2022 elections.
3. As soon as the new positions are filled, hold a Commander in Chief’s classified meeting at the White House with the following attendees:

Secretary of Defense, Secretaries of all the Military Services, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Military leaders of each of the Military Services, Military Leaders of the 11 Unified Combatant Commands (Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command, European Command, Africa Command, Northern Command, Southern Command, Space Command, Special Operations Command, Strategic Command, Cyber Command and Transportation Command.

At that meeting, cover the information above on DEI. 

At that meeting, task the Secretary of Defense to immediately develop, with input from all the attendees, an action plan to rebuild Military readiness and deterrence. That plan is for the Commander in Chief to take to Congress for funding.

At that meeting inform all attendees that their entire DEI staff positions are to be immediately deleted and all aspects of the DEI program are to be immediately shut down forever.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

The world is frantically searching for answers to the question, what to do about Iran? The discussions seem to quickly turn into a debate about military options; who will/should do “it”, what military actions will be best/possible, when to strike, where to strike, why course of action A is better than others and how to strike (conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, drones, missiles, manned aircraft, etc.).

Every day there seems to be a new version of the above.  Perhaps they all miss the mark.  Let’s begin by dissecting the problem.

FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBLEM:

1. Iran has the 3^rd largest world reserves of oil and the 2^nd largest reserves of gas.

Iran is exporting more oil than at any time in the past six years, around 3 million barrels per day, giving its economy a $35 billion-a-year boost, 

The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention and thereby created an increase of 20 % oil production over the last 12 months and will continue to grow throughout 2024, currently averaging about 3.2 million barrels per day.

2. Since 1984 Iran has been designated “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.” Tehran played a major role in forming Hezbollah and helping it conduct attacks in Lebanon, including the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and embassy, which together killed more than 300 people.

3. For four decades the Iranian leaders have consistently articulated their twofold objectives; “destruction of Israel and “death to America”.

4. Iran recently demonstrated their force-projection capability by launching over 300 drones and missiles in a single failed attack against Israel.

5. The UN is a toothless bureaucracy and in its current configuration worthless with respect to their mission, “to achieve and maintain international security.”

6. The Trump administration renewed UN sanctions on Iran and enforced them.  Iran’s foreign currency reserves fell from $128 billion in 2015 to $15 billion in 2019,

7. During the Trump administration, Iran’s capabilities and options were reduced and the U.S. was gaining ground in Middle East countries’ acceptance of Israel’s right to exist and prosper as a friendly neighbor.

8. For the Biden administration it has been three years of appeasement. Biden has rewarded the Ayatollah to the tune of about $100 billion; that is, massive revenue from the non-enforcement of U.S. oil sanctions over three years, a $6 billion ransom payment and a $10 billion sanctions waiver.

9. Tehran has used its proxy army of more than a dozen militias and terror groups across the Middle East with outposts around the world to help foment instability, carry out attacks, and expand the scope of the Islamic Revolution.

10. Iran has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars on training and equipping Hamas and Hizballah terrorist organizations in the past few years. In Yemen, Iran has provided a wide range of weapons, training, advanced equipment such as unmanned aerial systems, and other support to Houthi militants, who engaged in hundreds of attacks against regional targets in Saudi Arabia and are now endangering world shipping in the Red Sea.  When Trump took office, he put the Houthi organization on the world terrorist list.  Biden, immediately took them off the terrorist list for no reason other than to undo a Trump initiative.

11. Currently, the U.S. has about 4,000 troops deployed throughout the Middle East. Since 7 October, 2023 there have been over 150 Iran-sponsored attacks on these soldiers. In January three U.S. soldiers were killed and 40 others injured when an Iran-backed militia struck their base in Jordan.

12. NUCLEAR WEAPONS: Periodically since 2021 various sources have speculated that Iran could possibly produce a nuclear weapon within “weeks”.  Do they now have one?  No one knows or they are afraid to tell.  But the bottom line is that IRAN CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH A NUCLEAR WEAPON. This Coalition concept of getting Iran’s attention can also be used on the nuclear issue.

CONCLUSIONS FROM THE ABOVE:

• Erase oil and gas exports from their economic equation and Iran would become basically a poor country.
• Iran’s land-force military capability is of little concern in the larger context of their intent to destroy Israel and death to America.
• Iran has been, is currently and will continue to be THE problem in the Middle East and for the past three years the Biden Administration has supported that destabilization, thereby threatening Israel, threatening world-wide shipping lanes and de facto supported Iran’s soon-to-be nuclear capability.

Given the above information and conclusions, we can now more clearly define the problem with Iran.  Without gas and oil exports, Iran is basically a poor nation that would be unable to support terrorist organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, training and equipment. With their billions of dollars from oil and gas exports, Iran is a world-wide threat to international stability and security. 

Simply stated, the problem is that for four decades Iran has been allowed to build a force projection capability consisting of Iran-trained, equipped and led terrorist organizations operating outside Iran’s borders. Take away Iran’s ability to financially support those forces and they will no longer be a significant conventional threat to Middle East stability.

The intent of this essay is to get the current administration off its collective butt, cool off the armed conflict in the Middle East, and get the attention of the Iranian Ayatollah who feels comfortable blowing off criticism from the remainder of the world.

BOTTOM LINE:

We need to stop thinking about 12 Iran-supported terrorist organizations as independent operators and begin referring to them as forward-deployed elements of the greater Iran military establishment. Forward deploying forces is not a new concept. For example, the U.S. has had forward air and land forces on European soil continuously since WW II and in South Korea since the armistice was signed in 1952. 

Accepting that Hamas, Hizballah, Houthis and militias in Iraq and Syria are an active and essential part of Iran’s military efforts in the Middle East leads us to the conclusion that, in fact, Iran attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, just as in a bold move they tried and failed miserably to attack Israel directly with drones and missiles on 13 April, 2024. 

Direct action needs to be taken against Iran and the UN is incapable of leading such an effort.

Course of action A is to take the fight directly to Iran with an American-led coalition of nations.

We know that an American-led Coalition is possible because we did it in Desert Storm,1991 against Saddam Hussein after Iraqi forces invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990. Call it Operation Middle East Freedom, 2024

PHASE ONE:  BUILD THE ORGANIZATION AND DATA BASE.

Use the existing G7 as the base of the coalition. The Group of Seven is an intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union is a “non-enumerated member”.  Invite all other nations to join the coalition with air assets and missiles or just in name only.

Define the end-state. Take away Iran’s ability to support their forward-deployed terrorist organizations that are destabilizing world-wide peace and stability.

Immediately begin a detailed intelligence gathering operation using the capabilities of all coalition members.  Emphasis will be on Humint, human intelligence resources to accomplish the following:

• Determine the exact location of every Iranian air defense asset.
• Determine the exact location of every combat aircraft and helicopter.
• Determine the address of every facility that is engaged in the production of weapons, drones, military gear and ammunition.
• Build a data base of everything associated with production, transportation and exporting of gas and oil.

PHASE TWO: FORWARD DEPLOYMENT

Move the coalition force to Saudi Arabia; just as we did in 1991.

PHASE THREE:  EXECUTE

The intent of Operation Middle East Freedom is to use airpower to minimize Iran’s 40-year reign as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. No boots on the ground at this time for Operation Middle East Freedom.

FIRST STRIKE, unannounced, will destroy all of Iran’s air defense assets; command and control and air defense weapons systems.  Their 2024 inventory of combat aircraft is 219 plus 126 helicopters; destroy them on the ground with air and missile munitions. 

SECOND STRIKE: Take down their capability to export millions of barrels of crude oil per day and thereby reduce financing to support forward-deployed terrorists and militias. This strike will include a 2-hour warning to Iran’s leaders to immediately remove all civilians from every area that is engaged in any activity associated with drilling, production, transport and export of gas and oil.

Three years ago, Iran opened its first oil terminal in the Gulf of Oman, a move that allows it to avoid using the narrow Strait of Hormuz shipping route that is vulnerable to being shut down.  Take out the pipeline and terminal capable of handling 1 million barrels per day of export oil.

When the second-strike warning is issued, ensure that it is available to the whole world. Take away Iran’s ability to claim the coalition targeted civilians and caused some ridiculous number of causalities. 

THIRD STRIKE: Iran has become a major producer of weapons, missiles, ammunition and drones to supply their forward deployed terrorist organization. Use aerial attacks to destroy every weapons production site; some are undoubtedly deep underground.

Iran’s military-industrial complex has been growing rapidly since the mid-1990s. Today, it reportedly exports weapons to fifty-seven countries, many in conflict areas, in violation of UNSCR 1747. 

Iranian military equipment suitable for regional proxies and other customers includes but is not limited to small arms and ammunition, explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), communications equipment, night-vision goggles, thermal scopes, high-power sniper rifles, long-range mortars, man-portable air-defense systems and artillery rockets.

DRONES:  Iran’s military-industrial complex has produced thousands of advanced drones used for surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat against U.S. forces as well as American allies in the Middle East. The drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, have become one of the greatest assets of the Iranian-backed “Axis of Resistance”, a network of militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.

As of January 2024, Tehran has exported drones or drone technology to at least five countries on four continents as well as to at least seven proxy militias in the Middle East.

Drones pose a continuing threat to Middle East security because of their low cost, widespread availability, and potential deniability, since their point of origin can be disguised.

Drones to Russia: October, 2022 the Ukrainian Defense Minister announced, “Approximately 300 Iranian drones remain in the Russian arsenal and they plan to buy several thousand more.”

MISSILES: Iran’s missile proliferation efforts have enormous destabilizing potential for the region. Iran has about 20 different ballistic missile models as well as cruise missiles with delivery ranges up to 2,000 Kilometers. Nine different Iranian missile models can reach Israel.

PHASE FOUR, SANCTIONS:

Every nation in the coalition will agree to participate in the most severe sanctions imposed on Iran that have any impact on rebuilding their gas/oil export business, on rebuilding their military industrial capabilities and on their ability to transfer financing to any of their forward deployed terrorist organizations and militias.

MESSAGE TO IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALL KHOMENEI:  Hi is the most powerful figure in Iran; the country’s supreme leader since 1989. He is head of state and commander-in-chief. He has authority over the national police and the “morality police.” The Ayatollah also controls the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps which is in charge of internal security, and its volunteer wing, the Basiji Resistance Force which has repeatedly quelled internal dissent.

Simultaneously with the beginning of the FIRST STRIKE, this official Coalition message will be delivered to the Ayatollah and also publicized to the world. 

Date and time🙁as the first strike begins)

Memorandum for: Ayatollah All Khamenei

Subject:  This strike is the beginning of Operation Middle East Freedom. The Coalition of (number) nations intends to take away your capability to continue to be “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.”

There is no intent to cause military or civilian casualties.

In future strikes you will be warned at least two hours prior to the strike. When the message announcing the 2-hour dispersal alert to you, the coalition will also use all available communications means to inform your citizens because we do not trust you to protect them.  Any reports of citizen casualties, if they are true, is on you and the world will know that. 

Ayatollah, there are three circumstances explained next that will cause the coalition to escalate the operation to include ground operations.  

CONDITION ONE FOR ESCALATION: 

The coalition is taking the same position of that practiced by NATO nations over the past eight decades. That is, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them . . . shall be considered an attack against them all.” 

The point being, the Coalition is hereby advising you that if there is any counter attack, including cyber, conventional military, manned air, drones of any kind, missiles, rockets or nuclear, against any Coalition member from this moment forward by your forces in Iran or any of the terrorist or militias forwarded deployed that you support in any way will result in an immediate response from the Coalition. 

The response will be to immediately transition from an air-only operation to an all-out air-ground operation.  The Ground operation’s intent will be to accomplish the following: 

• All military forces and every associated facility and military item will be dissolved and/or destroyed.
• Military forces resisting the Coalition ground force will become casualties or captured. POWs will be incarcerated.
• Any military leader of a company-level sized force or larger may surrender in-mass if every person in the unit comes forward with their uniforms and every piece of equipment associated with their military duties. The equipment will be destroyed and the personnel released to go home.
• Any individual military member may of their own choosing appear at a designated site with uniforms and equipment, surrender his/her allegiance to your military and be released to go home. 
• Within hours or days, you will have no military force or military equipment.
• Your government will cease to exist.
• The coalition will provide all support necessary for a new government of-the-people and by-the-people to be selected and seated.
• The general nature of the Iranian society will include equal opportunities for all men and women alike in education, property ownership, general rights and privileges, professional careers in law, medicine, teaching, government, etc. 

THE SECOND CONDITION that will cause the Coalition to escalate to ground operations described above has to do with your intent to become a nuclear power. If it is determined that you have (1) completed development a nuclear weapon or (2) that you have purchased or bartered for and have on hand all the necessary elements to produce a nuclear weapon within days or (3) if you have purchased a completed nuclear weapon, the Coalition ground forces will engage and take down that entire nuclear capability and destroy every associated facility you have hidden underground or inside mountains.

THE THIRD CONDITION that will cause the Coalition to escalate to ground operations described above has to do with your barbaric dehumanizing of women in a modern world.

During the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Iran, women’s rights have been severely restricted, compared with those in most developed nations. The World Economic Forum in 2017 ranked Iran 140, out of 144 countries, for gender parity. In 2017, in Iran, females comprised just 19% of the paid workforce, 

Ayatollah, as you are well aware, you formed up the “Morality Police Force” in 1979 and still control them today.

While Iran has reported that the morality police force was abolished in 2022, the same day Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israel,13 April, 2024, you ordered your morality police force in several cities to take to the streets to arrest women accused of flouting its strict Islamic dress code.

Under Iran’s sharia, or Islamic law, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Offenders face public rebuke, fines or arrest and reeducation centers.

The laws have become a political flashpoint since protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the country’s “morality police” in 2022 spiraled into the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Women who are too casually dressed are frequently arrested for “inciting public opinion”, sometimes tortured, sometimes killed and often detained in re-education centers. 

Ayatollah, this rabid discrimination against women is unprecedented even in neighboring Muslim countries.

This barbaric behavior must be stopped and it is up to you to do so. The morality police force must once-and-for-all be completely disbanded. 

Act immediately, the Coalition is watching and waiting for positive actions.

At this point, Ayatollah, you are possibly concluding that this Coalition is likely to be an impossible undertaking. We are telling you a coalition effort is certainly within the art of the possible. You will recall in 1990 Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces attacked, defeated and occupied Kuwait. Many believed it was a stepping-stone move towards the Saudi Arabian oil fields. In January 1991 a 38-nation coalition attacked and defeated Saddam Hussien’s vaunted “mother of all armies” in just six weeks of air and ground operations. Please pay attention to these numbers which tell a powerful story.

Coalition: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces

Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries, 425,000 of which were from the United States.

Coalition air component size: 2,250 combat aircraft, 1,800 of which were American.

Coalition airlift: 509,129 passengers and 594,730 tons of cargo carried.

Coalition sorties flown: 100,000+.

Aerial refueling: 15,434 sorties and dispensed 110.2 million gallons of fuel.

Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,000.

Number of smart bombs dropped: 9,342.

30mm depleted uranium rounds fired by A-10 manned aircraft (tank-killers): 782,514.

Duration of air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days.

Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,280 in inventory.

Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups on station: 6.

Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26.

Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000+.

U.S. combat related deaths: 147

Iraqi military deaths: 100,000+.

Ground war duration: 100 hours.

That, Ayatollah, is a glimpse into your future if you so choose.  It is up to you. The message to you articulated in this memo is not a “threat”, it Is a “promise”. From this day forward, your relationship with your forward deployed terrorist organizations and various militia’s must not include offensive military actions or training them for military actions or financing them to further their offensive actions or providing them with military equipment to carry out military actions or assisting them in planning for military actions.  Cease being a sponsor of world-wide terrorism, cease being a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East. You, Ayatollah, must understand that one more Hamas rocket into Israel or one more missile by Hizballah into Israel or one more drone from Houthis into the Red Sea shipping lanes or into Saudi oil production areas or one more attack on U.S. anti-terrorist forces in the Middle East and you will be personally responsible for initiation of phase two Coalition ground operations inside Iran and the mayhem resulting from it.  We are not doing this to the great Iranian people, we are doing it for them.

We, the leaders of the following listed Coalition nations, hereby pledge our willingness and equipment to fulfilling the Coalition commitment.

In alphabetical order: (for example)

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, India, Israil, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, United Kingdom.

End of the memorandum to the Ayatollah.

Note to President Biden: 

• During your first three years in office, you have played nice with Iran allowing them to build a sophisticated military-industrial complex and establish an extensive weapons-export capability.
• You have provided the Ayatollah with billions of dollars used to support terrorist activities.
• You have expanded their training, equipping and funding of active terrorist organizations and militias, thereby destabilizing the Middle East.
• You have softened the previously imposed sanctions, particularly on gas and oil exports, to enrich Iran to embellish its across-the-board destabilizing activities culminating on a long-promise of attack on Israel.
•  And in the first four months of the Israeli/Hamas war, Iran-backed terrorist groups and militias have attacked U.S. and allied forces stationed in the Middle East over 150 times, killing three and wounded dozens without a U.S. response from our Commander in Chief, you.
• That, Mr. President is your legacy.

A WAY AHEAD:

1. Get the above information (readers please help) into the hands of a senior official in the State Department, DOD and the National Security Advisor’s staff. Initially handle it as close-hold and eyes-only in order to keep it from leaking from the Government into the media as an official action.
2. Get President Biden involved. 
3. The President should send the Secretaries of State and Defense to Saudi Arabia to meet with Mohammed Bin Salman and get him on board to accept the Coalition onto Saudi soil.
4. The President should call each G-7 nations and ask them to sign on to a close-hold eyes-only probable campaign. Aks them to help expand the Coalition membership.
5. Set the operation’s timeline.
6. The President will offer up our entire air cargo fleet to rapidly deploy the Coalition’s forces into the Middle East and then our entire air-refueling fleet in support of Coalition air-ops execution. See again the amazing numbers from Operate Desert Storm in 1991.
7. Select the best air component commander for the Coalition; it may be other than a U.S. officer. Select the best ground component commander, who also may not be a U.S. soldier.  Select the best overall Coalition Commander, hopefully a U.S. leader.
8. Execute soonest and make the world a more safe and secure place.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

“In our country 80% of homicides are committed with guns, whereas in England the figure is only 4 %.

More Americans have died of gunshot wounds in the United States since 1968 than have been killed in all the wars we have fought here and abroad since 1775.”

Those are a couple compelling, attention-getting facts recently presented by Joseph Blocher, a distinguished professor of law at Duke University.

SOME U.S. GUN STATS: There was covid-period record-setting statistics associated with fire arms.

• In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S.,more than in any other year on record,
• Some gun-data history: While 2021 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population. On a per capita basis, there were 14.6-gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2021; the highest rate since the early 1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3-gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.
• Suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths were suicides, 26,328.
• 18,874, the number of firearm deaths, excluding suicides in 2023.
• 36,357, the number of firearm injuries in 2023.
• 6,192, the number of children and teenagers shot in 2023.
• 14 million, the number of guns Americans purchased in 2023.
• An estimated 82.9 million people owned at least one firearm in 2023.
• In 2023 the average decrease in homicides across U.S. cities was 12.3% and gun injuries declined in record amounts since 2021.
• Gun sales have declined steadily since 2020.
• 494.4 million, the cumulative total of firearms produced for the U.S. market since 1899.
• Gun ownership increased 28% from 1994 to 2023.
• In 2023, 72% of gun owners said they keep a firearm for protection.
• Only 6.06 million firearms are registered in the U.S.
• Women accounted for half of all gun purchases between 2019 and 2021 and first-time gun owners were more likely to be female.
• An estimated 40% of 52 million households have a least one firearm.
• An interesting fact is that federal data over the past 50 years show a direct relationship between the number of guns produced and deaths from fire arms for that same period.

These facts beg an answer to the question, can there be an intelligent discussion about gun control leading perhaps to some resolution?

As of right now gun control is hopelessly in the hands of politicians. The Republicans simply say, “I support the Second Amendment” which is a non-solution, implying the status quo is fine. It isn’t fine.   

The Democrats seem to imply that “gun control” is synonymous with “outlaw all guns.” Not a reasonable, practical, or intelligent approach.

With those two hardline political positions, neither party appears to be looking for a practical, workable, fair solution that keeps in place the “right to bear arms” guaranteed by the second amendment to the Constitution as well as increased safe-guards against the availability of guns to those who would use then to harm themselves and others. We need a plan, not an argument. Any planning process begins with assembling facts and assumptions and articulating a desired end state.

FACTS AND ASSUMPTIONS RELEVENT TO ANY GUN CONTROL PLAN:

How many fire arms are in circulation in the U.S? No one knows for sure but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has conducted exhaustive studies as recently as 2023 and concluded from historical production rates, exports and attrition rates over many decades that there could be as many as 378 million guns in circulation in the U.S.  

Fact, there are no existing federal laws requiring all guns to be registered by local, state or federal authorities.

Fact, serial numbers on newly manufactured guns became more standardized and required by law in the United States with the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968. But there are many tens of millions of guns in circulation without a serial number.

Fact, we do not know who has firearms or how many each individual owns.

Bottom line fact: there is no national data base of information with which to develop consistent “control” laws for all U.S. citizen gun owners.

Fact, in recent years women’s firearm ownership has increased 178%. Assumption, this is for self-protection from our on-going crisis of lawlessness.

Assumption, there are tens of millions of guns in homes across the U.S. that have not been used for long periods of time and under the right circumstances could be given up by the owners.  Case in point, in my younger years I hunted frequently and still have a number guns that I have not used or even fired for several decades. I could/would turn them in and take them out of circulation.

Part assumption, part fact, THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS, NOW.

Bottom line fact, President Biden desperately wants his legacy to include gun removal from private citizens, the Second Amendment be damned. 

BIPATISAN SAFER COMMUNITIES ACT: On June 25, 2022, President Biden signed into law this Act which is the first major federal gun control bill passed since the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

The Act has more to do with mental health, school safety, and funding for related programs than it does with banning or restricting specific types of firearms, which is likely why it received enough Republican support to pass the House and Senate.

COURSE OF ACTION ONE FOR GUN CONTROL:

March, 2024, Biden’s Department of so-called Justice launched an initiative, under the guise of the Safer Communities Act to confiscate your guns. The National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center is designed to provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

“Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others. The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”

Most will admit on the surface some of the provisions could be helpful.  But when put into practice it can become a national disaster.  Keep in mind this national program was not authorized by Congress.  This is a Biden administration Executive Order-type operation.

The operable questions here are, who are the people who, “pose a threat”? Where does the information/intelligence emanate from?  Who is authorized to raise this “red flag”? Is the information coming from a disgruntled neighbor?  From a jilted lover?  From a jealous workmate? From a hated family member? From an “extremist”?

 Keep in mind that your president has declared in a prime-time speech that, “MAGA extremists are a threat to America.” There you have it you will be doing the president’s bidding if you turn in your neighbor who is part of the 75-100 million citizens who the democrats categorize as MAGA extremist members; most of whom are probably gun owners.  And don’t forget that 72% of them own guns for personal protection of their family in Biden’s lawless society.

Supporters of ERPO say that using ERPO authority as a confiscation tool is a far-fetched claim. 

Far-fetched?

If I had claimed on 20 January 2021 that Biden would turn the southern border over to the Mexican cartels you would have said, that’s too far-fetched.

 If I had told you the porous border would allow such volume of illegal drugs that over 300 drug overdoses would happen every day with no counter action by the president, you would have said, that’s too farfetched.

If I had told you the Biden administration would create a border situation that would allow millions of criminals, gang members, cartel operatives, terrorists, drug dealers and human traffickers into the U.S., you would have said, that’s too farfetched.

If I had said Biden would cut and run from Afghanistan leaving $70 billion dollars’ worth of military arms and equipment for the Taliban, you would have said, that’s too farfetched. 

I could go on and on: ruined the military, insulted long-term allies, pulled sanctions from Iran thereby enriching them, abandoned our energy independence and then begged for imported oil from Venezuela, reduced the strategic oil reserves to dangerous levels, supported defunding police setting off the rise of a lawless America, put together the perfect storm for inflation to rise from 1.4% to 9%, caused interest rates to quadruple, have taxpayers pay for $1.2 trillion student loan debt, invite 11 million un-vetted illegal aliens into our country and give them a debit card and free travel, etc. etc. If these Biden-created crisis issues had been predicted on 20 January 2021, they would have all seemed too farfetched to become a reality. But here we are.

The point being, do not under-estimate what this administration is ready, willing and able to do to the American public. It’s all about power and control, your constitutional rights be damned.

Currently, the weaponized justice system crisis existing at the local, state and federal levels across the country cannot be trusted to recognize an honest citizen’s right to due process.  This red flag operation will likely operate in this order:

First, authorities will accept the accusation that a named person is a threat as fact and immediately pronounce sentencing; confiscate personal weapons, slander the accused’s good name and reputation and finally, perhaps, look for the truth of the accusation that the citizen is a threat to the community and/or themselves.  

Interestingly, this new Biden administration arms control roll-out does not focus on the armed and dangerous criminals and gang members who are roaming our streets and guilty of most of the homicides. This is about focusing on you and your guns; the guns that 72% of you say are to protect your family.

Bottom line, Course of Action One could quickly become an authoritarian dictatorial disaster threatening Constitutional rights. And, this is a big AND, the only ones left with guns will be the criminals.

One of the greatest visionaries the world has ever known, Thomas Jefferson.summed it up best about 240 years ago, “There is no justification for taking away individuals’ freedom in the guise of public safety.”

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, REAL ARMS CONTROL

The operative word is “control”.  In order to have real arms “control” we have to know where each gun is, who owns it and how to identify it and then reap the benefits from that data. Is that even possible?

Yes, it is possible; think, vehicles.  Vehicles are killing machines; more than 44,000 Americans died in vehicle accidents in 2023. Every vehicle is registered.  Every vehicle has a serial number. We pay a tax every year for the privilege of owning a vehicle. Every vehicle has to undergo an annual safety inspection.  That’s “control.”

You, tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners are saying right now, I don’t want to register my guns because I don’t trust the government with that information.  Yes, getting actual “control” over guns in America is going to be an inconvenience and an intrusion, but it is a necessary step if we are going to get to the heart of the gun problem which is armed criminals and gang members killing people in our lawless society. We have to have data to get to the end state.  A plan without a declared end state is not a plan.  Please just read on.

Full disclosure:  I am a gun owner; pistols, rifles, shotguns.  As a small boy growing up on an Iowa farm, there were many ways for youngsters to earn 25 or even 50 cents doing special tasks.  I saved my money and at age 10 ordered my first gun, a single-shot 22 caliber rifle, from the Sears and Robuck catalog which was about 2 inches thick and the Amazon.com of that era.  Not much background checking for a gun purchase in those days. In my younger years I hunted, but most of my guns are of no use to me now.   No one in the family wants them. I only need to keep one for family protection.  What to do with them? I know folks with the same situation and have done the following:  Go to a local gun “show.”  As you are unloading the guns you hope to sell at the “show” someone may likely approach you in the parking lot, inquire if you wish to sell them, make you an offer and the next day he/she may be on their way to Chicago with a load of guns that no one in the world knows about and that will be in the hands of street gang members for the next Saturday night Chicago shootout.

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, PHASE ONE:

Spring, 2025, with a new administration in place, Congress could pass the Gun Control Act of 2025.  It should not be more than a few pages long and can be published in every newspaper in the country.  The Act must contain the following directives:

1.Every county Sheriff’s Department will be the focal point for the Gun Control Act, 2025. All of the data on firearms they collect will be sent to the State to establish an up-to-date accurate gun-data collection point.

2. Any local, state or federal gun registration system currently in-being will become null-and-void upon passage of the Gun Control Act of 2025.

3. Before the end of calendar year 2025, every gun owner will have carried all of their firearms to their local Sheriff’s Department to register their weapons, by make, model caliber and type; for example, Winchester, model 336, 30 caliber, lever-action, rifle, serial number NC123654) and have a serial number engraved if one does not already exist. The states will provide each Sheriff with a block of serial numbers.  That data along with the owner’s name and address will be forwarded to the State’s central gun data collection point.

4. Also, while at that 2025 visit to the Sheriff’s Department the owners may turn in any weapons for destruction, no questions asked, as part of a federal government nation-wide Gun Buy-back Program and receive $100 dollars per weapon.  The Sheriff’s Department will be responsible for security of those weapons and for operating a weapons destruction program that will be personally observed by a Sheriff’s Deputy. I would probably participate in that program.

5. As of December 2025 every firearm manufactured in the U.S. must have a serial number before sold to dealers.  Every firearm imported into the U.S. must have a serial number.  And every firearm in the inventory of every gun dealer in the U.S. must have a serial number.

Note, by the end of December, 2025 it is conceivable that every firearm in the country, all 387 million of them, will fall in one of two categories.  Category One consists of firearms that are registered/serial numbered, legal and we know exactly where they are located. Category Two consists of all other firearms. It follows that local, state and federal officials can/should participate in a single continuous task, 24/7; that is, find the illegal firearms and whoever possesses them because both are in violation of the law.

  This is the beginning of “gun control.”

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, PHASE TWO:

6. January, 2026 the States will assess a $25 tax on every registered gun on the State’s Gun Registry, payable by 31 January, 2026. The owner of the gun has two choices. One, they may pay the tax and receive a 2026 registry card for each firearm, the same system used for the annual registry of vehicles.  Two, they may take the firearm along with the tax notice to the Sheriff’s Department, turn in the weapon for destruction, receive $100 from the Federal Gun Buy-back Program, have the gun removed from the State Gun Registry with no tax due.

Note, by the end of Phase Two, 31 January, 2026 it is assumed that perhaps tens of millions of the current estimated 378 million guns in circulation will have ceased to exist as part of the Federal Gun Buy-back Program.

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, PHASE THREE, From 1 February,2026 forward:

7. Anyone in the “possession” of an unregistered/non-serial numbered firearm will have committed a felony offense and will be subject to arrest. “Possession” means on their person, stored where they reside, in their vehicle, in a separate storage facility or any other space that would logically lead one to believe the weapon is, at least temporarily in their “possession.” If the gun has been borrowed from someone else, they are still in “possession.”

8. Anyone arrested for possession of an unregistered/no Serial numbered firearm will be jailed.  If that arrest is their first or second, they may be eligible for bail if the presiding judge is led to believe they are not a flight-risk or a threat to society. The judge may not, under any circumstances, set bail for any amount that is less than $100,000.  If this is their third or more arrest, “three strikes and out” comes into play. There will be no bail and they will remain in jail until tried and sentenced if found guilty.

9. Under no circumstance will any prosecutor or attorney general or judge be allowed to downgrade the charge of possession of an illegal firearm from a felony to a misdemeanor.

10. If found guilty of possession of an illegal firearm, the sentence will be a minimum of five years in jail without possibility of parole.

11. If I have a registered and serial numbered rifle I don’t need, can I sell it to my neighbor?  Sure, just go to the Sheriff’s Office, have them initiate a background check on the buyer and if cleared change the registration data for the owner of that firearm.

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED?

We have created a plan with positive identifiable end states.

For those individuals who are so depressed and mentally disturbed that they are contemplating suicide, one of the reasons they turn to suicide by gun is that guns are too readily available; 378 million of them.  Reduction of the inventory under the Federal Gun Buy-back Program should significantly reduce availability.

Every law-abiding gun owner has participated in a simple federal program that will protect their rights rather than put them in a situation wherein they could, at any time, be unjustifiably labeled a threat to society just because they own a gun.

DETERRENCE IS A POWERFUL FORCE:

Focused local law enforcement. 378 law enforcement officers were shot in the line of duty in 2023. With a justice system that requires incarceration of criminals for possession of a firearm, local law enforcement can focus on arresting those in passion of an illegal firearm. 

States’ Bureau of Investigation can focus on the larger issues associated with movement, distribution and sale of illegal firearms in their state.

Focused Federal ATF. The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can focus on their mission to,” investigate and prevent federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms”. But now, they no longer have to be concerned with all firearms, just that number that are not registered and/or not serial numbered. 

With this law supporting all law enforcement agencies those gun “shows” mentioned above will now be crawling with authorities who are inspecting every firearm in the area for a serial number. 

More deterrence. Every one of the 1.4 million gang members in the 33,000 U.S. gangs should begin to think twice about strapping on their illegal gun before hitting the streets every night and possibly facing 5 years in jail without parole.

Additionally, with all of this focus and deterrent action, anyone contemplating buying an unregistered gun will find them increasingly scarce commodities and likely very expensive.

This law could/should become a deterrence model for all law enforcement.  That is, define the felony along with an appropriate sentence. Some might consider that too controlling but the reality today is we simply cannot trust our prosecutors, attorneys general and judges to act as keepers of the peace for the public’s safety and security. 

Recent case in point, a New York police officer, Jonathan Diller, was shot and killed by a career criminal, Guy Revera, who had been arrested 21 times.  Eleven times the charges were for a felony offence to include possession of a gun just 12 months earlier. Blood is on the hands of the local prosecutor and judge who allowed Rivera to be on the streets.

What has become common-place is for criminals with long wrap-sheets to be turned loose without bail to commit another crime.  This is not rocket-science; career criminals should be in jail thereby reenforcing the deterrence to convince individuals that crime does not pay.

CONCLUSIONS: 

We need some type of positive control over the growing inventory of weapons.

The focus of any program should be getting the guns away from criminals NOT from law-abiding citizens.

This plan to focus local, state and federal officials on illegal firearms is another reason in the long list of reasons to close our southern border.

A Federal Buy-back Program is a positive, easy, non-invasive step.

“Gun control” is a serious and very political national issue.  It is but should not be politically divisive.  We can and should find some satisfying dialogue that protects law abiding citizens and simultaneously targets gun-toting criminals.

If properly presented this issue/plan should become a bipartisan initiative.

If the plan is executed, we may need more prison cells. 

This proposed Gun Control Act, 2025 will actually be about rights, responsibilities and creating a better America.

 RECOMMENDATIONS:

Candidates for federal office in all political parties should, right now, put this gun control program on the campaign platform and support it.  

The Biden administration won’t so the next administration should immediately kill the despicable, invasive and probably not Constitutional REPO program the Justice Department is currently launching to confiscate your guns.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com