Author: admin

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

PART 1, WHERE WE ARE TODAY

THE PROBLEM AS DEFINED IN SOME RECENT HEADLINES:

HONDURAS DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY OVER GANG EXTORTIONS

EL SALVADOR: THOUSANDS OF TROOPS SURROUND CITY IN GANG CRACKDOWN

COLOMBIA’S ‘CAPITAL OF HORROR’ DESPAIRS AMID NEW WAVE OF GANG VIOLENCE

GUATEMALA BATTLES WAVE OF MEXICAN DRUG GANGS

MEXICO’S GANGS ARE BECOMING CRIMINAL CONGLOMERATES

OVER 200 GANGS ACTIVE IN PANAMA

THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT IS LOSING GROUND AS GANGS TAKE TERRITORY

GANGS RULE HAITI’S CAPITAL, KIDNAPPING AND KILLING THOUSANDS

As we move through this discussion, keep in mind that there are three crisis issues inexorably linked together facing Americans every day; gangs, cartels and drugs.

CRIMINAL GANGS IN THE U.S.

Some of the largest gangs in the US include the Latin Kings, 18th Street, MS13, Bloods, and Crips.

TRANSNATIONAL GANGS:

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, for example, has become a transnational organization in that leaders in El Salvadore have been sending representatives into the U.S. illegally, to gain control of local MS13 gangs. The representatives then connect the local MS13 gangs to leaders in El Salvador. This transnational alliance, called “The Program”, or “La Programma,” in which the leaders direct the American MS13 gangs to become more violent and to control territory. The gangs accomplish this by killing rivals and extorting legitimate businesses run by legal Central American immigrants and illegal businesses such as prostitution and gambling. The local, U.S.-based MS13 gangs then send a portion of their profits to the leadership in El Salvador.

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. The gang began in Los Angeles during the 1980s, formed by immigrants from El Salvador. The MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha, said to be a combination of Mara, meaning gang, Salva, for Salvador, and trucha, which translates roughly into street smarts. The 13 represents the position of M in the alphabet. MS13’s motto is, “kill, rape, control.”

MS13 is a transnational criminal organization with more than 10,000 members in the United States. They regularly conduct gang activities in at least 40 states and the District of Columbia.

It is important to point out that MS13 is not the only transnational gang organization in the U.S., the 18th Street gangs also continue to expand their influence in the United States. FBI investigations reveal these transnational gangs are present in almost every state and continue to grow their memberships

GANGS vs SOCIETY:     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.  Gangs are responsible for close to 40% of homicides in most Latin American countries.  A Portland study found that 49.1% of human trafficking victims were connected to a gang; 96.4% of the victims were female.

LAW ENFORCEMENT vs GANGS:

MS13 gang member apprehensions in the U.S. in FY 2023 were a trivial 178. In 2019 the FBI dismantled 217 of the existing 33,000 gangs; .0065%.

In 2020, 71% of gang members actively used social media for mobilizing and attracting vulnerable teenagers, video posting, bragging, and celebrating the life of a gang member.

WHO IS WORKING THE CRIMINAL GANG PROBLEM?

The National Gang Center (NGC) is a project funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The NGC is an integral component of the Justice Department’s mission to provide innovative leadership in coordination with federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems to prevent and reduce crime. The NGC disseminates information, knowledge, and outcome‐driven practices that engage and empower those in local communities with chronic and emerging gang problems to create comprehensive solutions to prevent gang violence, reduce gang involvement, and suppress gang‐related crime.

MEXICAN CARTELS: 

The current criminal landscape in Mexico is driven largely by the battle between the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS), though three other major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), Los Zetas, Gulf Cartel, and Juarez Cartel, all contribute to high levels of violence.

• Mexican drug cartels are leading suppliers of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other illicit narcotics to the United States.
• The cartels and the drug trade fuel rampant corruption and violence in Mexico, contributing to tens of thousands of homicides in the country each year.
• Since Mexico launched a war on the cartels in 2006, the United States has provided billions of dollars in security and counternarcotics assistance with limited success.

RECENT EVENTS:

Rising violence in 2018 helped propel President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, into office, with Mexicans’ desperation for basic safety a key driver of the vote for change. He promised a seismic shift, ending the war on drugs with a concept of operations he calls, “hugs not bullets.” It has been and continues to be a complete failure.

Reported in 2019: “The streets of Culiacan, the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, became a battlefield, with the Sinaloa cartel directly confronting the government and winning. The week before, thirteen police officers were killed in an ambush in Michoacan, likely by the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel. Overall, murders and kidnappings are at record levels and spreading through Mexico’s once-safer industrial heartland. Talk of Mexico becoming a failed state is again on the rise.”

Criminal gangs and cartels in Mexico, under AMLO rule are experiencing accelerated growth in seized territory, taking over elected and appointed positions in local governments, the murder of political rivals and extortion of local businesses.  Killing of government officials, candidates and political party members increased from 94 in 2018 to 355 in 2020.  Good, competent people are reluctant to run for office, fearing for their lives and the safety of their families. The situation is driving Mexican families to the U.S. in record numbers; about 30,000 in December, 2023. Ironically, by diversifying into migrant smuggling, cartels are profiting from the locals who are attempting to flee from cartel control.

Mexico is disappearing one village and town at a time.  The common scenario: Armed criminal gangs and/or cartel operatives will enter a town in force, start threating, extorting, torturing and killing locals until they relinquish all control. For example, organized crime groups operated in 16% of Mexico’s municipalities in 2017. Three years later in 2020 that number had increased to 29%.  Some of these facts from an exhaustive Wall Street Journal article 26 February, last month.

Cartels vs criminal gangs; criminal gangs vs cartels; cartel/criminal gang partnerships, etc. “Who’s on first?”

As the cartels continue at war against each other, Mexico’s criminal landscape has shifted over the past decade, with splinter groups and more that 400 criminal gangs emerging. Those groups partner with and fight against the remaining major cartels that control much of the drug trade. That proliferation has been both a challenge and asset for major cartels, but it has overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement.  The worse news is that most of these criminal organizations have ties inside the U.S.

The “splintering” is in some cases intentional and operationally advantageous to reinforce a well-known and successful operational concept, “maximum centralized planning, maximum decentralized execution.” The Sinaloa Cartel, for example, has split into more than 37 “small and medium sized cells.”  The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion operates with more than 36 cells around the country.

The proliferation of small gangs and the presence of powerful criminal organizations have overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement.

The criminal organizations in Mexico are extremely empowered by the fact that they believe there is no threat to them by the Mexican state.

It is generally held that by threats to individuals and/or their families or by choice many of Mexico’slaw-enforcementauthorities are actively and sometimes willingly participating in organized crime.

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. Their second choice for leadership positions are U.S. citizens who are of Mexican origin.

 This is where the transnational gangs in the U.S. come into play. They are the in-place foot soldiers for the distribution and sale of cartel-supplied drugs.

THE IMPORTATION OF FENTENYL:

The availability of massive amounts of fentanyl changed everything. Since it is so profitable and it can be moved in such small quantities, fentanyl has made the cartels much more empowered, controlling and rich, thereby overwhelming all levels of authority.

It’s encouraging to hear about U.S. authorities intercepting hundreds or even thousands of pounds of fentanyl at the Mexican border. That is, until we also hear the Border Patrol authorities tell us they estimate that 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.  Has your president ever mentioned this?

WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THE INVASION OF CRIMINAL GANGS, CARTELS and DRUGS? Let’s start at the top….

• The President: President Biden is so fond of warning us about “emerging existential threats”, shouldn’t criminal gangs and cartel operatives make the list and  at least rank up there with “MAGA extremists”?

• The Vice President: Isn’t this invasion related to the 3 million Biden illegal “got aways” at our nonexistent southern border? Should we expect something from VP Kamala, our border czar?  Dream on.

• Homeland Security: Isn’t this all about national security of our homeland or the lack thereof?  Where is Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas?  Still AWOL?

• The Attorney General: At its roots, isn’t this all about law and order?  What have we heard from the nation’s “top cop” the Attorney General?

• The FBI: In a couple Congressional hearings this year, the FBI Director has mentioned gangs but only in the context of them as a growing threat, with no mention of a solution to the problem.

• Drug Enforcement Administration: The mission of the DEA is to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States, or any other competent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal members of organizations, involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United States. How are they doing?  307 Americans overdosed per day.

• Congress: How about some specific focused Congressional hearing to get the above players activated?

• The National Gang Intelligence Center: NGIC is an agency of the US Department of Justice established by the FBI upon order of Congress in 2005. The NGIC is a multi-agency effort that integrates the gang intelligence assets of federal, state, and local law enforcement entities to serve as a centralized intelligence resource for gang information and analytical support. Ever heard of them?

• The Drug Czar: Dr. Rahul Gupta, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, ONDCP will have a $46.1 billion FY24 budget to advise the president, evaluate, coordinate, and oversee the international and domestic anti-drug efforts. of executive branch agencies. and ensures that such efforts sustain and complement State and local anti-drug activities. Ever heard from them?

• Transnational anti-gang (TAG) task forces:  These FBI TAGs continue to work with international partners to eradicate transnational gangs.  Success rate is about nonexistent.

• The National Gang Center: NGC is a project funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The NGC is an integral component of the Justice Department’s mission to provide innovative leadership in coordination with federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems to prevent and reduce crime.

The alphabet soup issue: POTUS, VPOTUS, HLS, DOJ, FBI, NGIC, DEA, ONDCP, TAG, OJP, NGC, OJJDP, etc. collectively equals tens of billions of annual tax dollars, thousands of bureaucrats and untold laws and regulations. The problems get studied to death year after year with little or no action at the point of execution which is every community in America. Case in point, with all that wasted money and manpower we apprehended a grand total of 178 MS13 members in the U.S. in FY 2023, while we lost, to drug overdose, on average, 307 young Americans EVERY DAY. 

The drug policy experts tell us, “The magnitude of this calamity now eclipses every previous drug epidemic, from the 1980s to the prescription opioid crisis of the 2000s. “

FYI, AN ONGOING ACTION BY EL SALVADOR’S NEW PRESIDENT:

President Nayib Bukele has declared a state of emergency and constructed a huge new mega-prison, the largest in the Americas, as the centerpiece. The prison will eventually house up to 40,000 inmates. Tens of thousands of gang members have been rounded up and the first group of 2,000 have been moved to the prison. President Bukele tweeted “This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, unable to do any further harm to the population.

Dramatic photos on line of “President Nayib Bukele’s gang prison” shows hundreds of inmates in tight formations completely helpless and totally compliant.  It is obvious that this is a prison where the inmates are neither running the show nor conducting gang operations from inside. Interesting

SOME CONCLUSIONS:

• All of this is sad news, bad news, going south rapidly and a true threat to our safety and security.

• As usual we are trying to solve a serious problem with a massive federal bureaucracy and by throwing billions of dollars at the problem repeatedly and getting the same failed annual results; the true definition of insanity.

• Our most senior leaders in the executive and congressional branches have, are currently and will in the near-term fail to lead.

• No society can survive without law and order at the local level; that must therefore be the point of execution. At the local level investigate, find the gang members, arrest them, try them and send them to prison. All the planning and funding must focus on that formula.

• We should probably begin to build more prisons.  

• Lack of law and order is consistently destroying our cities and their economy’s.

• Arresting criminals with long rap-sheets of 10, 20 some times more prior arrests flies in the face of the simple philosophy that if the criminals are off the streets and in jail, crime will go down.

The U.S. may have to consider using force in Mexico to take down the cartels.  I absolutely believe it can be done.  See the concept of operations at    THE U.S. IS UNDER ATTACK www.WeThePeopleSpeaking.com Sep 4, 2023

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD.

The current problem is our president: First, he will not admit he has a problem that exists in his administration.  If forced to address a crisis he will do so with the blame game.  Most of the time it begins with, “My predecessor…..” as he did 13 times during his recent State of the Union address. Cardinal rule, “Blame” is the first fallback position of a failed leader. Then he will let the issue die out of focus and then hope the left media comes to his rescue by dropping it from public view.

BOTTOM LINE:  this cannot be allowed to endure.

PART 2, LET’S CLEAN UP THIS MESS

We should recognize that the alphabet soup government agencies have proven they are, collectively, incapable of solving this problem with their current agenda.  Every year, within the local, state and federal governments we probably produce thousands of studies, have countless meetings spend billions of dollars and watch the problem get progressively worse every year because no ONE is in charge.  There is no specificity, no focus associated with the day-to-day efforts.  There are no identifiable positive results.  There are no best practices being shared from community to community. 

Here is what we need to do:

PHASE ONE, 2024: Elect a president who can lead, who can plan, who can act and will kick ass and take names.

PHASE TWO, 20 January, 2025. About 4 pm:

Begin the process of focusing we-the-people on criminal gangs. Begin the process of changing the culture of law enforcement in America. Criminals, once arrested, should not be intentionally and immediately put back on the streets to create another crime.  

The new president’s first Executive Order should specify his or her intent and look something like this (para 1-11:

1. The level of lawlessness and drug abuse in this country is unacceptable and a growing threat to our national security. Therefore, my intent is to rid our country of criminal gangs, cartel operatives and drug dealers by focusing our efforts on identifying every one of them, arrest them, give them a speedy trial and if convicted put them in jail, thereby dramatically reducing crimes of all types at all levels and simultaneously reducing the import, distribution and sale of illegal drugs.

2. To accomplish this, I am hereby declaring a narrowly focused national state of emergency to curb rampant lawlessness across the country.  It will NOT infringe on your day-to-day rights and privileges. It will NOT restrict your actions and activities.  It will NOT raise your taxes. But it will require you to be a willing participant and to respect and support all of our first-responders, law enforcement officers and those prosecutors and judges administering the judicial system.

3.This will be a focused effort with all actions from families, leaders and administrators at the local level to the Office of the President, seeking to take down criminal gangs, Mexican Cartel operatives and anyone associated with the transport, warehousing, production, distribution and sale of illegal drugs.

4. Upon publication of this Executive Order, every gang member is hereby designated a criminal guilty of a felony offense simply be being a gang member.

5. What is a “gang”?

• A group whose members share an identity, typically linked to a name, and often some other symbols.
• Members view themselves as a gang, and they are recognized by others as a gang.
• The group has some permanence and a degree of organization and leadership.
• The group is involved in some level of criminal activity.

This becomes the national definition.  No ambiguity, no soft-on-crime individual states, cities or communities.

6. The law:  it is illegal to be a member of an organization, whatever size, that is engaged in criminal activity. One does not have to physically engage in committing a crime (for example, selling illegal drugs), simply being a member of a gang that does it is, in and of itself, a crime. Being a gang member is a felony offence. If convicted, jail-time is hereby a mandatory sentence. We have to get specific about the law and its consistency among all the states.

7. Family involvement:  Across this country, tonight every family, particularly those with teenage youngsters, should have this conversation: Jimmy/Susan, if you are a member of a gang, as of today you are a criminal committing a federal felony offense and you are subject to being arrested, tried and sentenced to prison. The point being that at the dinner table within a few hours of signing this Executive Order there is focused initiative in tens of millions of homes across the entire nation and the 33,000 gang structures are under siege.

8. Human intelligence, Humint, will be the center of gravity for this campaign.  Definition: Center of Gravity can be a person, thing, circumstance or situation that is central to success of an operation or can cause it to fail.  There are an estimated 33,000 gangs in the U.S.  In order to take them down law enforcement must know who the members are, where they live and what criminal activities they are involved with. Certainly, there can and will be some surveillance involved in fact gathering.  But the bulk of the information will come from within the community.  People know who the gang members are and will be encouraged to share their knowledge.  But the bulk of the Humint will come from the members themselves. 

9. Amnesty: Every community will immediately set up and announce a short-term (weeks not months) amnesty program in which every gang member, cartel operative and drug dealer is offered the opportunity to make an appointment with law enforcement officials and in a confidentially recorded conversation denounce their membership, disclose the who/what/when/where facts about their organization and in exchange be offered amnesty from prosecution relative to past crimes in which they participated, with the exception of murder. The main objective of the interview is to gather all possible information about the gang’s leaders.  Acting on that information, the police should then arrest the leaders which will prompt the remaining members to apply for amnesty and effectively shut down the gang within days of activating this campaign.

At the end of the amnesty period, across the country the mass roundup of active gang members, cartel operatives and drug dealers will begin.

 10, Prosecutors and judges serve at the will of we-the-people they swore to protect.  They will use their power to the full extent of the law and if they choose to function outside the intent of this Executive Order, they should be removed and replaced.

11. Outside the bounds of this Executive Order, but still key to reestablishing law and order across the nation are two additional directives:

First, a too-often occurrence today when arresting an alleged criminal, is to discover they have a ridiculously lengthy “rap sheet” with a dozen or even dozens of prior arrests. Therefore, it is hereby directed that a third misdemeanor arrest will automatically be recorded and prosecuted as a felony crime. 

The second point has to do with minimum sentencing. If a gang member has been convicted of committing a crime and is sentenced, the minimum sentence will be two years in jail without parole just for being a gang member.  A gang member arrested with a gun will receive a minimum sentence of 4 years in jail without parole.

As the numbers of gangs and gang members diminish, there will be an impact on illegal drug distribution. The FBI and DEA must go with the flow, adjust plans and actions to take advantage of reduced foot soldiers to defeat drug importation, distribution and sale.

Sanctuary states and cities are not excluded from any of the above directives.

The objective of publishing this Executive Order is to dramatically and simultaneously launch the law-and-order campaign in millions of homes and in every community today. Tomorrow, actions should begin and will continue until the 33,000 gangs are gone from our communities.

Currently, the estimated 1.4 million American gang members are responsible for 48.9% of violent crimes, 42.9% of property crime,39.9% of drug sales and 13% of all homicides.  If we can get perhaps a million of them to accept amnesty in the next few weeks, the crime rates may be reduced to the point that our diminished police forces can effectively handle the remaining crime load.

The overall intent of this campaign is to create an enduring overarching culture of deterrence when it is time for teens to choose between law and order or a criminal street gang, they will think hard about the possibility of landing in jail for two years.

This must become the law-of-the-land.  No separate versions for the soft-on-crime individual states, cities or communities are authorized.

Logically, the Attorney General, Department of Justice, should take the lead for the following reasons: First of all, he/she is the existing senior cop in the country; no reason to create a new organization to do this. Additionally, two of the critical subordinate action organizations are already direct-reports to the Attorney General; they are, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

I request that every newspaper and news magazine publish this entire Executive Order at their earlies convenience. I want a couple hundred million Americans to have access to their own personal copy.

If this Executive Order, for any reason, becomes a partisan issue, we will be doing the American public a terrible disservice.

End of Executive Order.

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.

PART seven, 2024 Campaign Platform

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending.

PART SIX Transform Congress and Cut Spending.
There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

PART SEVEN: TERMS AND TURM LIMITS:

CHANGE THE LENGTH OF EACH TERM, LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TERMS AND CHANGE AMERICA FOR THE BETTER:

January 20, 2017 while the nation watched the inauguration of President Trump, I recall one of the talking heads, filling up some air time during the parade, launching into a diatribe about what President Trump needed to do to keep from losing the House and/or Senate majorities during the 2018 midterms.

So what? The so what of it all is that every day we see national issues, security issues, economic issues, crisis issues that are all tainted, delayed and debated in light of what it will “mean for the midterms.”  The debate is too often not about what is best, or in some cases, what is absolutely necessary for the nation, but rather how it will impact the November midterm election results. Sad but true.

The unfortunate nature of politicians is that the next election is their top priority and everything else is a distant second.  We need to change the environment and hopefully it might change their behavior.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Electing 435 U.S. Representatives to the House every two years is outdated and unnecessary. Their collective campaigns cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It is an unfortunate fact of life that a huge amount of the Representatives’ term in office is spent raising money and campaigning for reelection. Raising money has its own huge drawback in that politicians can become beholden to the big donors and lobbyists; perhaps not in the nation’s best interest.

The advantages of a four-year term for Representatives are so obvious and make so much sense, that it should become a priority to get it changed. One would think the Representatives themselves would be wholeheartedly in favor of a four-year term.

THE PRESIDENCY:

Then there is the presidency; four-year terms have a number of disadvantages. One, our government is woefully deficient at long-term strategic planning and too many of the serious issues facing a president need a longer-range look than four years can provide.

Secondly, a newly elected president has the first year to get his legislative agenda worked. The second year is too often consumed with keeping or getting a majority in the House and Senate during the mid-term elections. Depending on the midterm election outcome, the president’s third year may or may not be productive. The fourth year is a washout. The president is either put in a lame-duck nonproductive status or he/she becomes a part-time president and a nearly full-time candidate running for reelection. None of this is good news.

A one-time six-year term as president would wipe away most of the disadvantages of the four-year term.

TERM LIMITS

And while that amendment to the Constitution is working, why not take on the issue of term limits. There is something about the Potomac water; the more of it a politician drinks the more power-hungry they can become. Four terms, 16 years, for Representatives and three terms, 18 years, for Senators seems about right. There is an old saying that applies to organizations, “change or die”. Change and new blood for Congress can only be a positive thing because the current system, and the politicians running it are not serving the nation well.

SUPRENE COURT

And while we are at it, the Supreme Court could do with a little update. It seems so untoward that millions of Americans and half the politicians sit around hoping some eighty-year-old Justice of the Supreme Court will become too infirmed to continue serving or even die in order for a sitting President to “stack the court.”

Because the Supreme Court has become so politicized, there is extreme pressure for some justices to remain on the bench no matter their age, health, personal desire or capacity to do the job required of them. “Appointed for life” is just not the best answer.

In recent decades the average years justices have served on the Supreme Court is around 25 years. Are they ALL absolutely in their prime? One could argue not. We can do better than that? One would think so.

The Supreme Court is too important to become a political football. It is not difficult to fix this and thereby turn the court over periodically by limiting the term of office to twenty years. In recent years the average age at appointment has been about 52 years, retirement at about age 72 seems very reasonable.

CONCLUSIONS:

Why do this? The founding fathers were perhaps the greatest gathering of minds at any time in world history. But they did not have a crystal ball and could not get it all right. That is why there are 27 amendments to the Constitution. It is not difficult to build a case for a couple more. It all comes down to value added for the three branches of government and we-the-people.

BOTTOM LINE:

Change or die; the current terms and lack of limits are not good for today’s America.

If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you.

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

PART EIGHT, 2024 Campaign Platform

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending

PART SIX Transform the Congress and Cut Spending

PART SEVEN Terms and Term Limits

Part EIGHT Universal Service for all

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

While there are ten crises listed in PART ONE, solutions to all of them are actually contained in eight essays; PART THREE has both education and race relations and PARTS FIVE and SIX cover cutting spending in great detail. So, PART EIGHT is the final essay in the series to transform America as a platform for the 2024 campaign.

PART EIGHT: UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA

BACKGROUND, THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON SERVICE: 

Since the dissolution of the military draft in 1973 there have been sporadic conversations about a compulsory national service program for all young adults.  As part of the FY 2017 Defense Authorization Act, President Trump and the Congress established a National Commission on Military, National and Public Service.  Their specific mission was to, “accomplish two things:  Conduct a review of the military selective service process and consider methods to increase participation in military, national and public service in order to address national security and other public service needs of the nation. “

After two and a half years of extensive public engagement, the Commission issued its final report in March 2020, containing its findings and recommendations which include:

ONE, requiring women to register with the Selective Service System at age 18. 

TWO, increasing military outreach, particularly to those areas with a low-propensity to join the armed forces.

THREE, expand educational opportunities during military service and develop strategies to recruit and retain in high-demand occupations.

FOUR, expand civic educational programs in schools.

FIVE, significantly increase non-military service opportunities in order to create, “an expectation of service” by 2031.

The Commission’s report, entitled, “Inspire to Serve”, explains a vision that, “…. every individual will be exposed to voluntary service opportunities throughout their lifetime, beginning with young people….”.  They also repeatedly commented on the need to create an American culture of service by 2031.  What was most important about their report was what they did not say:

ONE, they completely failed to recognize the elephant in the room, that is the obvious question, do we need compulsory national service for everyone 18-years old? 

TWO, while they frequently emphasized the importance of creating a national culture of service, they provided zero insights into how that was going to be possible. 

ABOUT “CULTURE”:

There is a culture, either positive or negative embedded in every organization, large and small, and it is a powerful and pervasive force in every one of them.

You cannot imprint a new culture on an organization with a speech, memo, email or the words in a Commission report.  It is, in and of itself, a huge undertaking and it may take years for it to take hold.

The absolute best way to create the Commission’s culture of service is to make it a centerpiece of a compulsory service program wherein 99 + % of all young adults can be brought into it through daily discussions and actions over a protracted period of time. In due course, 99 + % of the U.S. population will have been subjected to an identical process.  “Indoctrination” is not a bad word when used in a positive way.  Indoctrination during compulsory service is how a “culture of service” can become part of America’s fabric.

The final Commission’s hearings were held by the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11, 2021, where their recommendations appeared to be well received by Senators of both parties. To my knowledge, nothing has happened.

THIS PROPOSAL IS A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR United Service for America, U.S.A.:

A concept of operations is a good place to begin a long-range strategic planning process.  Its purpose is to tell the story by first defining the problem to be solved, providing a vision of the end-state, that is, what we believe can be accomplished, and finally, filling in some of the blanks by describing the who, what, when, where, why and how of the concept.  When completed the concept of operations can become a public affairs tool, a sales pitch and/or a piece of legislation. 

BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING BY DEFINING THE PROBLEM:

 Begin with these two questions: Are there any identifiable problems that need to be solved? Yes. Is there an existing program that addresses these problems? No. Some wise person once said, “If you cannot define the problem, there is no solution.” So, here are…….

SIX PROBLEM AREAS:

These six youth-related issues will continue to plague this nation far into the future unless bold steps are taken now.

ONE, gangs:  The FBI reports, “there are some 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs with about 1.4 million members criminally active in the U.S. today. Youth gangs are the training ground for a life of crime.”

The average number of members per gang is reportedly 42.  About half of all homicides in the U.S. are gang-related.  The Justice Department reports that, “The average age of gang members arrested in the U.S. is 17 or 18.”  This information, in and of itself, is sufficient justification for a mandatory youth program in America.  We need to take these young adults off the streets and introduce them to a different way of life.

TWO, drop-outs and illiteracy: On average 7,000 students drop out every school day; 90% of them end up on welfare. Nationally, 68% of all males in prison do not have a high school diploma.

An education system in which more than half of students entering 9^th grade either drop out or graduate incapable of further education or satisfactorily performing in the private sector or the military is unsatisfactory.  Increasing proficiency and thereby providing a greater chance for a successful future can be a part of a universal service program.

THREE, youth obesity: It’s is a common, serious and costly disease.  From 2000 to 2020 obesity in the U.S. population increased from about 30% to 45% while severe obesity doubled.  Half of the obesity problem is with adolescents aged 12-19 years. Mandatory participation in daily exercise and counseling on healthy habits will help to establish a healthier future America. 

FOUR, culture: It’s a powerful and pervasive force in every organization; it is an organization’s personality. Is it caring, hateful, fast, energetic, visionary, risk-taking, vengeful?  America is drowning in a culture of hate and blame.  A year of character development can change young adults and henceforth, transform America.

FIVE, race: There is no way to explicitly measure the state of race relations in the United States, but they are at least not what they should be.  Fact: babies are not born bigoted, disrespecting or hateful.  While growing up they learn it at home, in school, on the playground and on the street. A universal service program’s character development along with integrated team work every day will enhance the understanding and cooperation among all races represented.  The U.S. military has successfully practiced this solution for decades.

SIX, welfare:  It is a fact that the more education one completes, the less likely they are to be on welfare. About 32 million households, or 27.1%, benefit from one or more of the following:  Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized lunches, public housing, unemployment and some sort of direct cash assistance.  Universal Service for America will provide young men and women the opportunity to be better prepared to hold good jobs and stay off welfare.

Given that background, the question before us is, should we have Universal Service for America?

In consideration of these six problem areas (gangs, drop-outs, obesity, culture, race and welfare), the better question is, are these problems in the process of being solved with or by other national programs?  The answer is an unequivocable NO.  Universal Service for America, or as it may become known as, the U.S.A. Program, can be a transformational undertaking and is therefore worth the effort to make it happen. It can become a “rite of passage” for 99 + % of Americans. 

What are the existing national service organizations?  There are national service organizations in existence, such as AmeriCorps, Youth Build, Senior Corps and the Peace Corps. What they have in common is that they are relatively small in size and they are 100% voluntary.  One of the most enduring government youth programs has been Job Corps, a free residential education and job training program for young adults, aged 16-24, run by the Department of Labor.  Let me provide some revelations about Job Corps in order to make a couple important points.

From July 2016 to June 2017, Job Corps reported 3,673 safety and security incidents among the 79,000 enrollees (drugs, assault, alcohol, security breach, serious injury) according to the General Accounting Office analysis.  Other headlines over the years include, “Job Corps is one of the most wasteful, least effective programs in the federal government; Congress spends billions on ineffective job-training programs; job Corps, a recipe for waste, fraud and failure; The Federal Job Corps training program is a flop; the government has taken on a role for which it was never intended, pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into a broken web of job training.”

CONCLUSIONS TO THIS POINT:

ONE: There are serious endemic youth-related problems that need to be solved.

TWO: With a historical success rate of zero, the U.S. government should not build and/or run the program.

HOW SHOULD THE U.S.A. PROGRAM BE ORGANIZED AND FUNDED? 

To avoid the pit-falls of the decades-old Job Corps program, Universal Service for America should be organized as a non-profit 501-C3 national non-governmental organization (NGO).  An NGO is a non-profit, citizen-based undertaking that functions independently of the government.  NGOs are organized on local, national and international levels to serve specific social or political purposes.  Despite their independence from the government, many NGOs receive funding from local, state, and federal governments. 

There are about 1.5 million NGOs operating in the U.S. Widely known examples are Doctors Without Borders and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).  The federal government should fund salaries, housing, meals, transportation and medical services for the U.S.A. Program.

OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS:

 For the U.S.A. Program to be successful it must be based on and encompass, as a minimum, the following nineteen resolutions:

ONE, at age 17 all U.S. citizens and non-naturalized immigrants must register for Universal Service for America with the existing Selective Service System. Congress should amend the Selective Service System Act with two changes:

Amend the enrollment age from 18 to 17.  This will provide Universal Service for America staff with a valid database of potential participants a year in advance of their reporting for duty at age 18.

Currently the law says that, “Failure to register with the Selective Service is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment.”

The law should be amended to read:  All American citizens must register with the Selective Service within 30 days after their 17^th birthday. Immigrants residing in the United States who are 17 through 25 years of age must registerwithin 30 days of arrival in the U.S. Those who have not done so by their 18^th birthday are subject to imprisonment for five years.  If, after one year in prison, they register with the Selective Service and report to the next available Universal Service for America program, the remainder of the 5-year sentence will be forgiven. 

TWO, attendance is mandatory for all high school graduates who are 18 years old plus all 18-year-old non-graduates.  Exceptions include: women who are pregnant or have a child; individuals who are physically or mentally impaired; and those who join the military immediately after high school graduation. Individuals who are head-of-households may apply for an exemption 

THREE, Universal Service for America will be 12-months in duration beginning June of each year. This needs some discussion:

Unlike AmeriCorps, Youth Build and Job Corps that may have up to 75,000 enrollees, Universal Service for America will have about four million on a continuous basis. That is almost twice the size of the entire U.S. military, active duty, Guard and Reserve combined. 

Compulsory service for all 18-year-old Americans and immigrants will be an enormous undertaking.  For a 2-year program, following the first-year enrollment of 4 million people, all succeeding years would have about 8 million continuously in residence.  For example, a small city, population 50,000, would have about 1,600 participants in residence at all times.  Conclusion, a 2-year program is probably too large to run efficiently and effectively.

If it is a 12-month program, that begs the question: What impact will it have on all of our colleges and universities which will, the first year of the program, be without an entire incoming freshman class? There are three possible solutions to this problem:

The first is exempt compulsory service for all high school graduates who will be enrolled as full-time college students by the fall semester after high school graduation.  There are enormous downsides to this alternative: It defeats the overall intent and purpose of the program, which is to create a culture of service for all Americans; many students have no business going to college, but may use college enrollment simply as a way to dodge the compulsory service; and it would create an unhealthy division in America for all times, meaning those who did and those who didn’t “serve”.  It will defeat the advantages resulting from “rite of passage”

A second alternative is to require all college students to attend at least two, and perhaps three or four summer sessions of Universal Service for America; the first immediately following high school graduation.  There are potential downsides for this alternative:  Every June there will be (in round numbers) about 4 million new candidates for Universal Service for America; about 2.5 million will be college bound in September and 1.5 million will begin their full year of service. 

If the college students are to complete their service commitment by attending only summer sessions, after the first year of the service program there will be an additional surge of 2.5 million (those having just finished one year of college), 6.5 million total for the second summer; then a summer surge to 8 million the 3^rd June and to 10.5 million for the 4^th June and 10.5 million every summer thereafter.

The logistics associated with those summer surge numbers would be staggering to begin with and creating these summer surges will likely negatively impact the overall quality of the program. 

The third, and probably the best, alternative is for the federal government to create a one-time bailout fund for colleges and universities to offset the no-freshman-class situation that will occur the first, and only, year of Universal Service for America.

Continuing with the program’s operational underpinnings:

FOUR, after 6 months in the program, anyone who is qualified to do so may enlist in the U.S. military.

FIVE, all attendees will be provided with a photo identification card with personal description information, a Universal Service for America ID number and expiration date.  The ID will enable free local public transportation while in the program. In conjunction with the Selective Service, each states’ DMV facilities will produce and issue the ID cards.

SIX, everyone will be stationed at a location removed from their home of record and will not be stationed with others from their home community.  

SEVEN, men and women participants will not cohabitate.

EIGHT, the majority will be stationed in urban areas.

NINE, every full-time attendee will be authorized vacation days over religious holidays and during July or August.

TEN, lodging, meals, uniforms, transportation and medical care will be provided.  Each attendee will receive a stipend of $500 per month.

ELEVEN, uniforms will consist of dark blue pants/shorts, white shirts and a red hat.  Uniforms will include a name tag, a Universal Service for America logo, which will include the American flag.

TWELVE, everyone will participate in physical training five days per week.

THIRTEEN, everyone will abide by the Universal Service for America Code of Conduct.

FOURTEEN, no one in the program is exempt from any local, state or federal laws. Universal Service for America will not provide legal counsel to attendees when apprehended for violations of the law.

FIFTEEN, transgender individuals will abide by local, state and federal rules in force for where they reside during their term of service.

SIXTEEN, mandatory unannounced drug testing will be the norm.

SEVENTEEN, all will participate in leader training by being team leaders or higher as they move through the program.

EIGHTEEN, this should be a no-frills experience for each participant consisting of long workdays, community service on the weekends, and basic accommodations. 

NINETEEN, there will be two Universal Service for America websites: One to keep the general public apprised of every aspect of the program; and the second will be an internal site available to leaders and staff.  Innovation has been the lifeblood of this nation since its inception; best-practices will be templated and shared. Additionally, the internal site can be used to clarify program policies and procedures.

PARTICIPATION NUMBERS for a 12-month, all-18-year-old program:

Using 2020 data, it is possible to forecast the approximate number of participants if Universal Service for America could begin operations within the next few years; 3.7 million 18-year-old high school graduates, plus 300,000 18-year-old non-graduates and some, yet to be determined, number of 18-year-old non-citizens living in the U.S.

A TYPICAL U.S.A. PROGRAM DAY:

The intent of the schedule is to address the problems associated with gangs, dropouts, illiteracy, obesity, culture, race relations and welfare. And most importantly, to build a culture of service to society.  The days will be tailored to individual needs with the objective of transforming lives and thereby giving them a greater chance at a successful life.

MORNING SCHEDULE:

Begin the day with mandatory physical training.

Then, gather in a classroom setting, in groups of about 25, with a volunteer instructor, and discuss elements of character development. Values are key drivers in our lives.  Our values motivate us, determine what we strive to become in both life and in the work place, determine how well we will fit into an organization.  Values are drivers in our decision making and set out moral compass. Character Development is value development; here are the building blocks:

Five days per week, following breakfast, participants will assemble, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then participate in a character development seminar.  The Character Curriculum will be, ACCOUNTABILITY, CITIZENSHIP, COMMITMENT, COMPASSION, COURAGE OF CONVICTIONS, COURTESY, CONFIDENCE, HEALTHY HABITS, HONESTY, HONOR, HUMILITY, INTEGRITY, JUDGMENT, LEADERSHIP, MORALITY, PERSEVERANCE, PUNCTUALITY, RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, SELF-RESPECT, SELFLESS SERVICE, SPORTSMANSHIP AND TRUST.

Just imagine the impact this can have with four million young adults having a substantive discussion about one of the subjects in the Character Curriculum five days a week and then adjourning to live/be/do/demonstrate those values on a daily basis.  It is a powerful initiative and will displace our current culture of hate and blame.

For the remainder of the morning, based on arrangements with local schools, those who have not graduated from high school, could, attend virtual classes and gain credits towards receiving a high school diploma.

Through arrangements with local Community Colleges, those participants interested in some type of technical training could take morning classes. 

Those seriously deficient in reading, writing and math skills could attend remedial morning classes.

Have an “open” period each morning for guest speakers, leadership training, lessons on U.S. history and civics; whatever subjects enhance the overall program.

AFTERNOON SCHEDULE:

Generally, this will be the time for community service.  There are so many ways to help out and become visible to the public in positive ways, for example:

Clean parks and playgrounds, volunteer at a museum, assist at a walk-a-thon or community run, deliver food to the homebound, work at a food bank, take care of animals at a shelter, tutor students who have fallen behind in their studies, walk kids home from school, donate blood, help kids with their homework, offer free music lessons, coach a youth sports team, teach adults internet skills, teach CPR, assist immigrants with conversational English, chaperone a field trip, help out at a community center, volunteer as a lifeguard, be a crossing guard, do social media for a local nonprofit, help set up a community event, organize a clothing drive, adopt a highway and clean it, participate in musical performances at nursing homes, deliver groceries to the elderly, write letters for a senior citizen, lead an exercise program, sponsor an animal at the zoo, work for a charity like Habitat for Humanity, volunteer at a fire station, teach self-defense, paint over graffiti, work with special-needs kids; there is no end to this list.

GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES FOR U.S.A.: 

For this Non-Governmental Organization, the federal government will be responsible for financing the bulk of operational costs, including salaries, housing, food, transportation and medical services.

The states will use their Division of Motor Vehicles facilities to produce and issue Universal Service for America ID cards for each 17-year-old as they register with the Selective Service.  

Local officials will provide free-of-charge public transportation.  They will also become points of contact for program officials to coordinate the use of participants to fulfill community service tasks.

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA LEADERS IN THE FIELD:

There is and always will be a perfect source of men and women to become qualified leaders and staff for the program. Annually the Defense Department retires thousands of men and women who have just finished 20-30 years of service, are looking for a second career and all have four things in common.  One, they are proven leaders.  two, they have years of experience teaching and training.  Three, they understand standards and have spent two or three decades living up to them.  Four, and perhaps most importantly, they have served in a totally integrated inter-racial environment with an overarching value base of accountability, respect and trust.  What more could one ask for in a person to lead and mentor these young adults?

OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS: 

It will not be practical to run the program with individual participants scattered across sparsely populated rural areas.  This will, by necessity, be a program where they are housed and operate in urban areas with population densities of at least 50,000.  The total U.S. population living in areas with at least 50,000 density is about 250 million.  Doing the math, there are about 5,000 urban segments, each with a population of about 50,000.  To accommodate all 4 million participants June through the following May would require housing nearly 800 participants per 50,000-population segment. A city of 200,000 would need to house 3,200 (800 x 4) etc. across the U.S. urban landscape. 

CONCLUSIONS:

Universal Service is a missing link in America and desperately needed at this point in our history.

This program will be expensive but the resulting transformation will make it worthwhile.

BOTTOM LINE: 

Goodness has been a hallmark of our nation, the greatest on earth.  But factors are currently in-play that seriously challenge that goodness today.  There needs to be a time and place when all Americans can contemplate goodness and thereby plan to live a more fulfilling and productive life by being all they can be. That time is now and that place is as an 18-year-old participant in Universal Service for America. Goodness doesn’t just happen, we can and must make it happen. 

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

There is an additional 15 pages of information in the book FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA that deal with planning, phasing and operations of the U.S.A. Program.

If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you. And thanks to those of you who stayed with me through the solutions to these ten U.S. crises.  We-the-people can do this and transform America.

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

previous published article…….First expenditure listed in The Cares Act should read:

$10 million for “gender programs in Pakistan

PART Six, 2024 Campaign Platform

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

PART SIX: TRANSFORM CONGRESS AND CUT SPENDING

BACKGROUND:

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 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.

Etc.

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 does 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?

Why has Congress become so continuously inept when it comes to responsible spending?  Simply stated, they do not have a set of established operational standards and

             any organization without standards is a failed organization.

Establish and enforce a set of simple standards and a lot of things in Washington can get fixed, quickly, including irrational spending of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, much of which is added to the national debt.   

However, keep in mind that change is a frightening concept to most organizations.  Fixing Congress will take courage and strong, sensible, insightful leadership. The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility.  Now is the time.  We just finished a fiscal year with $1.7 trillion in deficit spending; up 23% from the previous year.

$34 trillion in national debt is a frighting reality. But what is worse is the realization that no one in Congress is doing anything to shut down the deficit spending and continuous borrowing.  There are two ways to go about achieving real fiscal constraints. 

One, we have to realize that the president’s annual budget is the sum of what it takes to fund every branch and division in the massive Executive Branch bureaucracy.  We need to also realize that too much of that bureaucracy is outdated, unnecessary, redundant, providing no value-added and just needs to go away.  In Part five of this series, we addressed this problem with a solution to tear the U.S. Executive Branch apart piece by piece, rebuild it with elements that are actually providing value added and cut out hundreds of billions of dollars from the President’s budget each spring. But that project must wait for a president/vice president team of Republican fiscal conservatives; maybe 2024. 

The second way to cut spending is to change the way Congress operates.  Make it more efficient, more effective, more timely, more responsible.  Now is the time, right now with a new Speaker in the House of Representatives.  This can be Speaker Johnson’s greatest contribution, his legacy.  Certainly, it will be met with resistance but the American tax payers will welcome a simple, workable, inexpensive plan to cut spending rather than just keep saying, “we need spending cuts” as a sound bite and a headline.  Spending cuts should be a 2024 Republican Campaign Platform issue right now with every candidate headed for the White House or Congress talking about the solution to out-of-control spending.

FIX THE SYSTEM, TRANSFORM CONGRSSIONAL SPENDING

I am suggesting institutionalizing a set of seven new operational standards for Congress.  

Under the following plan, a small agency will be formed under the Inspector General (free from Congressional influence) inside the General Services Administration (an independent government organization) called the Congressional Legislation Standards Authority (CLSA) Their sole purpose will be to enforce these seven standards, to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation as explained below and to approve an annual budget on schedule/on time. The CLSA will NOT be in charge of the Congress.  They will NOT make policy.  But they will become the administrators of the day-to-day process of creating new legislation.  The Congress has proven that it is incapable of successfully and efficiently administrating themselves.  The CLSA would be something akin to the very valuable oversight we see from the Congressional Budget Office.

Since 1975 the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the congressional budget process. Each year, the agency’s economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates for proposed legislation. Their work is objective, impartial and nonpartisan. 

Under the CLSA every bill will first appear on a Congressional web site operated solely by the CLSA that is totally dedicated to enforcing the standards for every bill.  Every member of Congress will receive an alert each time a new bill is proposed and posted on a congressional new-legislation website.  This website will be managed solely by the CLSA; The sponsors of a bill may contact the CLSA at any time to update schedules, to notify members of committee hearings, to make changes to the legislation, etc.  But the CLSA employees are the only ones who can access the site to add, delete or change any piece of information.

The CLSA does not have the authority to recommend changes, additions or deletions to the intent of the legislation.  Their function is to determine if the proposed legislation meets certain established standards, with particular emphasis on Standard Number Three, Applicability. 

STANDARD NUMBER ONE, OUTLAW “EARMARKING”: 

An earmark is a provision inserted into a discretionary spending billthat directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process. Most earmarks are attached to a “must-pass” bill so that it is protected from non-passage or presidential veto. My definition of an earmark is an idea that would not have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting passed if, standing alone, it was exposed to the light of day.

STANDARD NUMBER TWO, SUNSET LEGISLATION:

This is a measure, within a statute or regulation, that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific future date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. Most laws do not have sunset clauses and therefore remain in force indefinitely. Keep in mind that many laws cause some new Executive Branch organization to be created.  Our government is full of agencies, divisions and branches that require annual funding, while having outlived their requirement to exit.

STANDARD NUMBER THREE, APPLICABILITY:

In the 2020, 5,593-page Covid-19 relief bill there were scores of organizations funded from this bill that had absolutely zero association with the Covid-19 outbreak or relief thereof.

Hereafter all of the provisions of a particular bill must clearly identify with the subject, purpose and intent of the bill which could save hundreds of billions of needless expenditures per year.  It will prevent publishing bills that are too lengthy to read; e.g., not a single Representative or Senator actually read the 5,593-page Covid-19 relief bill before they voted on it.

STANDARD NUMBER FOUR, STAND-ALONE:

Every bill will be a single-issue piece of legislation. Period.

STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS:

There are two different situations to consider.  One is the federal budget process and the other is all bills other than those in the budget process. 

The non-budget process bills will get processed in one continuous process not to exceed 90-days.  The CLSA will grade the scheduling of all activities to insure it is ready to be voted on within the 90-day timeframe.  The exception to this is, at any time the bill’s sponsor or committee may pull it from consideration. (We will get to the federal budget process in a few minutes.)

STANDARD NUMBER SIX, LEADERS CANNOT HIDE A PENDING BILL:

The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate continuously practice sitting on bills, not allowing them to be voted on for protracted periods of time. This will not be allowed.  Every bill will be voted, on or before the end of its 90-day life-span..

STANDARD NUMBER SEVEN, STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT: 

Every piece of legislation will be formatted with four specific sections and pages and appear on the CLSA website as follows:

SECTION ONE OF THE CLSA STANDARD FORMAT IS ALL ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY AND WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CLSA, Section 1, Administrative data

Current as of: ____ (date ____ All of the below data will be filled in as it becomes available from Congress.  For each new or changed data point, this “current as of” date will also be updated.

Title of the legislation:  ___   ($10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan)_________

Date which starts the 90-day calendar:    ( the date the CLSA initially sends this page out)

Not-later-than-date to be presented, debated and voted on the floor of the House of Representatives or Senate___(90 days after the above “start” date)_____

The member of Congress who is the principal sponsor: ______________________

co-sponsors: _______________________

                                               _______________________

                                                _______________________

Author of the proposed bill: ______________ (a member of Congress, the White House, a Congressional committee staff, Executive Branch Department, Non-governmental organization, lobbyist, private citizen, etc.)

Sunset legislation date:  ___(a date that must be included inside the Bill)_______

Schedule for committee hearings: ___(determined by congressional leaders)____

            ____(Foreign Affairs Committee)______

            ____(___etc.______Committee)______

COMMENTS ON DRAFTING OF LEGISLATION:  

LOBBYISTS. There are nearly 12,000 registered lobbyists in the U.S.  They work for businesses, professional associations, cities, states, non-profit organizations, etc.  They get paid to make things happen in government and mostly that is in the form of special interest legislation. Lobbyist are a prime source of today’s legislation and earmarks. It is not a completely negative concept but the downside is that they can too frequently get politicians to earmark appropriations that are self-serving and not in the best interest of the general public. 

CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE STAFFERS.  Staffers write much of the legislation today and therein lies a big problem.  Because many issues rarely fit nicely inside the domain of a single committee, there will ultimately be multiple committee staffers, working on behalf of their politicians and bringing their individual thoughts and prejudices to the effort. Too often, having begun in good faith to build a thoroughbred race horse, they end up with a camel. Under today’s system that “camel” ends up earmarked to some “must pass” bill and eventually in some Executive Branch, department or agency for execution. By then, the original intent for the bill may be so convoluted that it is potentially a complete waste of time, energy, money and is one of the causes of the gross inefficiency of government and over-spending.

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT, to include the president, should author a larger percentage of the bills than they do today.  Why?  Because they know the who, what, when, where, why and how details of their proposals and should not be delegated to lobbyists or congressional staffers. Why not let the experts, those who will be responsible for execution, do the up-front piece?  For example, if the Department of Homeland Security needs $400 million for border security, they should write the proposed bill and seek out some member(s) of Congress to sponsor it.

SECTION 2 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CLSA, Section 2, Legislative Intent

Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____

CLSA Intent:  ________________This narrative must be limited to one single-spaced page, font 12 and must begin with the words, THE PURPOSE OF THIS LEGISLATION IS TO…….

Intent is one of the least used and most important aspects of any law.  Congress and the authors of a bill should not leave it to the applicable governmental departments to infuse their own intent for what the laws should or should not be about. 

SECTION 3 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CLSA ,Section 3, Content Outline

Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____

            CLSA instructions: provide an outline of the major elements.  The format

will be similar to a Table of Contents but with a few sentences explaining each entry.

SECTION 4 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CLSA, Section 4, The entire bill

The Entire Bill, (e.g.HR-12 or S-16}

Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____

CONCLUSIONS about having Congressional Legislation Standards Authority oversight of day-to-day stand-alone legislation:

• “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan”.  After the fact; that’s when we found out about this and dozens more ridiculous “Covid-19 relief” packages.  Who knew about them before they became law?  None of us.  Why?  Because the Congress can waste our tax dollars almost at will while hiding behind a wall of anonymity. What happened to accountability?  Without standards there is no accountability.

• Under the above proposed CLSA-run program, we-the-people would have known on day-one who sponsored this insane earmark.  We would have known when a committee was going to discuss it.  We would have known weeks in advance when it was going to be voted on.  We would have known all this because it would have been a stand-alone bill, not hidden inside a 5,593-page unread bill.  Accountability and transparency would have been front and center. The fact is, this $10 million nonsense would never have made it to the floor for a vote because visibility to the press and to we-the-people would have caused it to go away. 

• Furthermore, one of the great advantages of a standards-based legislative process is that in all likelihood, the bill would never have been written because anonymity is non-existent.

• Journalists will use the CLSA website as a source for up-to-the-minute reporting on pending legislation.  Citizens can read it, learn what the legislation is all about, understand the positives and negatives of the intent and weigh in with their elected legislators before, not after, it becomes the law of the land and the check-is-in-the-mail.

• After about a year, this simple process will guide all new-legislation activities in the Congress and will be accepted as the new normal.  This process has the potential to save hundreds of billions of dollars per year.  It will have the effect of spending our tax dollars first in support of we-the-people.

• Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this more disciplined approach to legislation could have the long-term impact of  building towards a future balanced-budget mindset.  

• Successful, admired organizations operate this way every day. It is as simple as one-two-three.  One, thoroughly define a single TASK at hand.  Two, define the CONDITIONS, in this case stand-alone bills. Three, set and enforce the operating STANDARDS without exceptions. 

• Task, conditions, standards; this new approach to doing the peoples’ business in Washington is within the art of the possible and it will not cost a dime to adopt and institutionalize operational change.  But as noted earlier it will take great leadership to put it in place and make it happen.

THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS STANDARDS:

As previously stated above in STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS, there are two different situations to consider; the non-budget related bill with Sections 1-4 defined above, and now a look at the federal budget process legislation.  

THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS LEGISLATION: To develop and pass a new budget with twelve separate appropriations bills is supposed to be a standardized 8-month process from early February through the end of the current fiscal year on 30 September. 

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RESPONSIBILITIES:  Each October federal agencies begin compiling their budgets for the following fiscal year and submit their proposals to the President via the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  OMB edits, calculates, and coordinates the budget for final review and approval by the President.  The President then forwards the approved proposal to the House and Senate, traditionally by the first Monday in February.  

CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ACTIONS: The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the required congressional actions, February through September of each year, in order to have a completed, agreed upon and signed budget by 30 September. Upon receipt of the president’s budget, various Committees begin reviewing their respective sections of the budget; the process is spear-headed by the Budget Committee.

BUDGET RESOLUTION:  The Budget Resolution document is then worked in the House and Senate. The budget resolution process allows Congress to establish a framework within which the House and Senate will consider budget-related legislation and set revenue and spending levels. The Budget Act set a target date of 15 April for adoption of a budget resolution by both chambers. The CLSA will closely monitor the resolution process looking for violations of the standards on earmarking and applicability.

The Budget Act further sets a target date of 15 June for completing action on reconciliation legislation if required in able to complete the resolution. Without resolution between the House and Senate there are no rules, no timelines, no standards and no discipline. All of that leads directly to the chaos and disasters of completing a budget for all twelve separate appropriations bills by 30 September.

Following budget resolution and reconciliation, April through June, the 90-day CLSA standard window begins for passage of the twelve budget appropriations. 

Resolution and reconciliation during April, May and June sounds reasonable.  But in fact, that is the period when congressional ineptitude begins to impact the Budget Resolution process because they choose to disregard protocols and standards. For example, in six of the seven fiscal years, 2014-2020, Congress never adopted a formal budget resolution at all.

One of the most basic Constitutional tasks for Congress is to pass a fiscal year budget and do it on time.  However, Congressional indiscipline continues to place the day-to-day functioning of the federal government in jeopardy and thereby negatively affecting nearly all Americans.

Failure to pass the appropriation bills by 30 September results in either passing continuing resolutions (CRs) or shutting down the government.  Congress has used CRs in 40 of the 44 fiscal years, 1976-2020. In FY 2013 a full-year CR covered 7 of the 12 budget appropriations. As of 2020 it has been 23 years since all of the appropriations bills were passed prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year.  This is unacceptable institutionalized irresponsibility and ineptitude.  The system is seriously broken because of the failure of the senior leaders, House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader and Committee Chairpersons.

Continuing resolutions in the absence of a budget can waste billions of dollars. A new fiscal year budget will always drop obligations, programs and spending that are no longer needed or desired. Going forward into the new fiscal year, efficiency and effectiveness are hampered because of the absence of new fiscal year funding for essential new programs.

This has become so routine that Congress seems to treat this monumental failure as business as usual, as OK. Well, it is not OK. It is first of all against the law, The Budget Act of 1974. It is not fair to we-the-people who sent you there to do the peoples’ business and the first order of business is to have a budget.

On 18 January 2024 the House and Senate passed a third continuing resolution for the FY24 budget. To make this scenario even more pathetic, the president’s FY 2025 budget due to Congress on 5 February is now scheduled to be sent over on 11 March, thereby beginning the FY2025 budget process five weeks late.  Could this get any more pathetic?

The Congressional Legislation Standards Authority needs to come into play again as follows beginning with these website pages:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY and THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS (2 sections):

Section 1 is a standing annual directive to the Speaker of the House and the Leader of the Senate:

The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate are required to publish by, 15 January of each year, as Section 2 of the CLSA Annual Budget Process memo, a Concept of Operations for the next fiscal year’s Congressional budget process. Their narratives will cover the who/what/when/where/why and how of the process in great detail, emphasizing firm suspense dates for completion of each phase leading to an approved budget by 30 September.

Section 2, two documents, one from the House Speaker and one from the Senate Leader to their respective Committee heads involved with the 12 Budget Authorizations.

Each of the leaders’ directives will include special timing considerations for an election year in that August/September will be campaign time for most members of Congress.

Each document will emphasize that milestones will be set and not broken.  Committee chairpersons will frequently be required to brief their senior leaders on their progress, problems, issues and likelihood of meeting their deadlines. They are called in-progress reviews, IPRs.  IPRs will be scheduled on a regular basis; for example, every two weeks leading up to the finish of a particular budget timing segment.

If committee work is behind schedule, the senior leaders will direct night and weekend work to ensure on-time results.

Each document is a directive to their respective committees who are directly involved in the budget process associated with the 12 budget appropriations.

Speaker of the House memo to Committee Chairpersons:

Senate Leader memo to Committee Chairpersons:

CONCLUSION:

It would be impossible to find any other existing organization as undisciplined and irresponsible as the U.S. Congress.  That indiscipline, irresponsibility and pathetic leadership ends up with a bottom line of fraud, waste and abuse of power every year.  We-the-people are footing the bill for this annual mess and the country is suffering from it. Any candidate running on a platform to help fix it will get the attention of voters.

BOTTOM LINE:

Adding standards and discipline to how Congress Works will undoubtedly save hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money every year.

Every candidate who is running for the White House or Congress right now should have, Fixing How Congress works on their Campaign Platform.

 In the book, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, see Chapter 5, TRANSFORM, CONGRESS INTO AN EFFECTIVEAND EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION for more details on how to implement this reform concept.

If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you.

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