One of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s first actions after confirmation has been to order a “60 day stand down” to combat extremism. This follows the widespread and mostly baseless establishment fantasy that “right-wing extremists” and “white supremacists” are running rampant and pose some immediate threat to the country.
Read the full storyTag: military
Troops Fear SecDef Austin’s Stand-Down Will Single Out One Form of Extremism, Ignore Others
The pending military stand-down to address “extremism in the ranks” may bring results that go beyond what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expected to achieve, according to active duty service members who are scheduled to attend the mandatory sessions.
Austin on Friday ordered all uniformed and civilian leaders in the Defense Department to set aside a day soon to discuss “impermissible behaviors” related to extremism.
Read the full storySecretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Issues 60-Day ‘Stand Down’ Order to Address ‘Extremism’ in the Military
Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has issued an unprecedented “stand down” order for the entirety of the United States military over the course of the next 60 days, for the purpose of addressing alleged “extremism” in the military’s ranks, as reported by Breitbart.
Austin announced the decision in a Tweet on Wednesday, saying that he “met with senior leaders to discuss extremism in the military. As a first step, I’m ordering a stand down to occur over the next 60 days so each service, each command, and each unit can have a deeper conversation about this issue.”
Read the full storyCommentary: Vets’ Service Is Worthy of Reflection on Veterans Day—and the Rest of the Year
This Veterans Day, we have great reason to thank our many veterans and reflect on the immeasurable value of their service.
Celebrated every year on Nov. 11, what we now know as Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day, for the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War I.
Read the full storyMilitary Mail-in Ballots Cast for Trump Discarded in Pennsylvania, Federal Investigation Finds
Nine military mail-in ballots cast for President Donald Trump were discarded at a local Pennsylvania board of elections office, a federal investigation concluded.
The FBI and Pennsylvania State Police began an investigation Monday at the request of Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, U.S. Attorney David Freed said in a statement. Salavantis requested federal assistance following reports of issues with a small number of ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections.
Read the full storyTennessee Star National Correspondent Neil W. McCabe Gives Inside Take on Anonymously-Sourced Atlantic Story Attacking Trump
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed National Correspondent Neil W. McCabe to the show to discuss The Atlantic Story claiming Trump made disparaging remarks about US military members.
Read the full storyFBI Investigates Trump Support Detail Helicopter Shot Mid-Flight Over Virginia
The FBI is investigating the shooting of a military helicopter during a training mission this week in northern Virginia, injuring one crew member who was aboard, officials said Wednesday.
The Air Force helicopter was flying over Middleburg on Monday when it was shot from the ground nearby, according to authorities. The helicopter made an emergency landing at the Manassas Regional Airport, and federal agents were called to the scene to investigate, the FBI said in a statement.
Read the full storyPastor Raleigh Washington Discusses His Past and Present Life in the Military and Ministry
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Pastor Raleigh Washington to discuss his military and ministry experience.
Read the full storyRep. Green Questions Security of Military Program That Recruits Non-Citizens For Vital Defense Work
U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) is questioning the security of a program that helps the military recruit foreign citizens for vital jobs.
Green said he sent a letter to National Security Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch (D-MA-08) calling for a hearing to examine vulnerabilities in the Department of Defense’s MAVNI (Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest) program.
Read the full storyJudge Michael Warren Commentary: Remembering What Memorial Day Actually Means During COVID-19 Times
With much of the nation shutdown due to COVID-19, one might not even remember that May 25, 2020 is a Monday – or, more importantly, Memorial Day. The customary Memorial Day festivities of barbecues, beer, wearing white, traveling, and shopping will be truncated, if not arrested. But perhaps this is a sublime unintended consequence of social distancing and sheltering at home orders. If it settles our minds and let us focus on first things first – actually giving Memorial Day its due.
Read the full storyMike Murray Commentary: A Military Option to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic and Prevent an Economic Depression
The current national strategy for fighting COVID-19 will fail. And the failure will be catastrophic. It will impact you and those you love. Continuing on the current track, even for the next seven days, will seal our doom. The measure of failure will be massive economic collapse that places millions out of work and threatens internal peace and security.
This will be to the 2000s as the Great Depression (1929 – 1933) was to the 1900s. But it need not be.
In a real war – and this is a real war where our livelihoods and security are at risk – a Wartime President always employs the Military Option.
Read the full storyDeWine Signs Occupational Licensing Board Reciprocity Bill Into Law
Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law Senate Bill 7, which proponents say will ease employment transitions for military husbands and wives who relocate to Ohio with their active-duty spouses.
Read the full storyCommentary: Do We Own Our Military?
The preamble to the Constitution lists a number of core functions for the American government. Any American who has ever listened to “Schoolhouse Rock” (or maybe just an obsessive listener like yours truly) can name them all:
Read the full storyHousing Companies Subject Military Families to Serious Illness From Disgusting Housing Conditions, Military Wives Say
Housing companies subject military families to serious illness by purposefully covering up unsanitary housing conditions, military wives say.
Read the full storyCommentary: Neglect of Foreign Policy Led to the Deep State
Questions of foreign policy, particularly those of war and peace, are among the most critical in politics. A lost war can destroy an empire and erase a nation. Victory can attain safety, security, and prosperity for many generations. An inconclusive campaign—such as our neverending stalemate in Afghanistan—can sap national confidence and shatter the minds and bodies of a generation of veterans.
Read the full storyCommentary: The Military-Intelligence Complex
Much has been written about the so-called Resistance of disgruntled Clinton, Obama, and progressive activists who have pledged to stop Donald Trump’s agenda. The choice of the noun “Resistance,” of course, conjures up not mere “opposition,” but is meant to evoke the French “resistance” of World War II – in the melodramatic sense of current loyal progressive patriots doing their best to thwart by almost any means necessary the Nazi-like Trump.
Read the full storyCommentary: Trump Sticks to His Principles for Our Troops
The Democrats’ presidential candidates were quick to attack President Trump’s foreign policy during their latest primary debate, but in the process, they revealed their own utter lack of any foreign policy plan for America.
Read the full story84 Percent of Female Army Recruits Fail the Combat Fitness Test
The Army’s Combat Fitness Test (CFT), the successor to the previous Physical Fitness Test (PFT), has proven an astonishing failure, particularly when it comes to female recruits, as reported by ClearanceJobs.com.
Read the full storyPresidential Hopeful Sen Liz Warren Pushes Bill Imposing Green New Deal Climate Goals on the U.S. Military
by Michael Bastach Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation to conscript the military into the fight against global warming, mandating non-combat bases meet the goals of the Green New Deal. “[C]onsistent with the objectives of the Green New Deal, the Pentagon should achieve net zero carbon emissions for all its non-combat bases and infrastructure by 2030,” the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate wrote in a Medium post published Wednesday. Warren introduced the bicameral bill Wednesday with Democratic Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar. Warren said the military can help “win” the fight against global warming by phasing out fossil fuels at non-combat bases. “We don’t have to choose between a green military and an effective one,” Warren wrote. “My energy and climate resiliency plan will improve our service members’ readiness and safety, all while achieving cost savings for American taxpayers.” “Our military understands that, and it’s time our elected leaders did as well. Together, we can work with our military to fight climate change — and win,” she wrote. Democrats have argued global warming comes with national security risks since the Obama administration, in particular during the push to pass cap-and-trade legislation that failed in 2010. The Pentagon listed global warming as a “threat multiplier”…
Read the full storyConservative-Backed Ohio House Bill Would Clear Hurdles for Military Spouses Seeking Employment
A bill making its way through the Ohio House would make it easier for military spouses living in the state to obtain professional licenses, a policy championed by the conservative Buckeye Institute. House Bill 133, sponsored by Rep. Rick Perales (R-Beavercreek), would grant full professional licenses to military spouses who hold a license from a different state, so long as the requirements of the other state are similar to or stricter than the requirements in Ohio. If the out-of-state license doesn’t meet Ohio’s standards, then spouses would qualify for a temporary license in Ohio. While testifying Wednesday in support of the bill, The Buckeye Institute research fellow Greg Lawson told the story of Brianna McKinnon, who was a certified teacher living in Washington state before her husband was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “When Brianna and her husband got settled in Ohio, she learned that the state makes it very difficult for military spouses to get an Ohio job license so they can quickly begin working in their chosen professions,” Lawson said. “To get an Ohio teaching certificate Brianna would have to take numerous college courses, take a number of exams and she would have had to pay…
Read the full storyOhio Bill Would Drastically Lower Tuition for Military Members
by Amanda Johnson Service members, spouses of service members and dependents will be able to pay in-state tuition at all public institutions in the state of Ohio under proposed legislation passed by the Ohio House. Currently, there are just a handful of exceptions for some members in the military to achieve in-state status for tuition purposes. “If you are an Ohio resident on full-time, active duty status with the military, you and your dependents are considered residents as long as Ohio has remained your state of domicile and you have fulfilled your tax obligation to the state while on active duty,” Ohio University’s website states. This exception also applies to non-residents on full-time, active duty status with the military and those who are members of the Ohio National Guard. According to Rep. Rick Perales, state law needs to be all-encompassing and include all members of the military, such as those members who serve in reserve units. “Without a place to permanently call home, it is hard to justify limiting a dependent’s college choices to the state in which his or her parent or guardian was last stationed,” Perales said. “House Bill 16 is a small step Ohio can take…
Read the full storyCommentary: Trump is Smarter Than the Generals
by Christopher Roach A bipartisan consensus among the foreign policy elite holds that America needs to maintain its de facto overseas empire. This includes both preserving stability, as well as fomenting deliberate instability, including regime change in places like Syria. This consensus among elected officials, defense contractors, general officers, talking heads, and various experts is not shared by the vast majority of Americans, who elected Barack Obama and Donald Trump on their promises to end “stupid wars” and put America first. The American people have good instincts on these matters. The Confused Syria Campaign Our Syria campaign has been a confused affair from the beginning. In the waning days of the Arab Spring, Obama supported various rebel factions seeking to oust Bashar al-Assad, as he had earlier in Libya and Egypt. Syrians soon found themselves in the midst of a brutal civil war, and in this vacuum—as in Iraq only a decade earlier—jihad tourists from all over the Middle East soon joined the fray. The various enemies of the Syrian regime included the so-called “moderate” rebels, Kurds, and Sunni extremists, the latter of which were divided between al Nusra and ISIS. There are no obvious good guys here, and…
Read the full storyCommentary: The Art of the Veto and How Trump Can Force a Vote on the Wall
by Robert Romano There won’t be any vote on wall funding this year or any year at the rate we’re going — because nobody in Congressional leadership is apparently willing to stick it in a bill and simply vote on it. Even to defeat it. Until the end of the year, Republicans are in complete control of the House of Representatives. Under the leadership of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), however, the only vote on any wall funding that occurred did not happen until the March 2018 omnibus spending bill. And then, it was just the measly $1.6 billion supplement that President Donald Trump had requested — in Feb. 2017 — that was intended to be attached to the FY 2017 spending bill that was still being resolved in the early days of the Trump administration. Instead, it took more than a year to get done. Even now, to date, House Republicans have not even had a show-vote on a messaging bill that McCarthy promised to fully fund the wall — even though such a vote would be practically meaningless. The House has not even sent a spending bill with the wall…
Read the full storyCommentary: Meet Them With Tanks?
by George Rasley Conservative social media is awash with advice for President Trump on how to deal with the army of invading Central American aliens who are rapidly approaching our Southern Border. There is a strong current of opinion that says the whole “migrant caravan” is a set-up by Soros and his minions and that Democrats are cynically hoping for some sort of election-changing incident in which some poor Central American is martyred at the hands of the American military that the Left despises anyway. Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018 In the view of the “it’s a set-up” crowd the illegal aliens should be somehow treated “humanely” but not allowed to enter the United States. Who will corral them and where they will be interned is left to imaginary friends in the federal workforce who will be mobilized to the Southern Border. It may indeed be a set-up and…
Read the full storyBlackburn: Privatization Of Military A Bad Idea For Fort Campbell, Nation
Privatizing the military is a bad move, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn said in an op-ed Friday in the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. Blackburn, a Republican who is running for Bob Corker’s U.S. Senate seat, represents the 7th Congressional District, which includes Montgomery County and Fort Campbell. The representative mentioned the death of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Taylor J. Galvin, who was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell. He died while supporting Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. She also mentioned the ongoing threats from nations like China and North Korea. “This is why the call to privatize the United States military is a non-starter. Our military commanders in the field are on the front line,” she wrote. “They work each day to execute their mission and the best way to support them is to be certain they have the tools and equipment they need — not take them away and hand everything over to a corporate company.” President Donald J. Trump’s budget proposal calls for a new round of military base closures in 2021, raising questions over the future of Forts Knox and Campbell, WDRB News reported. The plan, unveiled in May as part of the administration’s…
Read the full storyTrump Goes Where No President Has Gone Before: Establishes A Space Force as Sixth Military Branch
Space … the final military frontier to Make America Great Again. President Donald Trump has ordered the creation of a sixth military branch, The Space Force. His 2020 presidential campaign sent an email out earlier this week soliciting votes for a logo for the branch. Supporters may vote for one of six options (see below). “President Trump wants a SPACE FORCE — a groundbreaking endeavor for the future of America and the final frontier,” the email said. “As a way to celebrate President Trump’s huge announcement, our campaign will be selling a new line of gear. But first we have to make a final decision on the design we will use to commemorate President Trump’s new Space Force–and he wants YOU to have a say.” Trump in June announced he was instructing the Pentagon to take steps to establish “a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces,” Business Insider reported. Liberals have jeered the president’s proposal while lawmakers and military leaders have received the call with a lukewarm response at best. One American hero with a unique perspective is embracing the proposal: former astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin cheered President Trump’s plan to develop Space Force, The Washington…
Read the full storyLee Company Sends a Cease and Desist Letter to Diane Black’s Gubernatorial Campaign
The Lee Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to the gubernatorial campaign of Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) on Friday, calling for the removal of information alleging the company wrongfully fired a veteran who once worked there, The Tennessee Journal’s On the Hill reported. GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee is the owner and former CEO of the Lee Company, a leading plumbing/HVAC business in Middle Tennessee. The Lee Company said Black’s campaign was “deliberately misrepresenting” the facts surrounding the legal dispute with an Army National Guard member who claimed wrongful termination in a federal lawsuit, The Journal quoted The Tennessean as saying. “We have learned that the Diane Black for Governor campaign is deliberately misrepresenting actions taken by Lee Company that relate to a former employee who served as a Tennessee National Guardsman,” according to the letter by Lee Co. general counsel Jason Hale. “You have also misrepresented our company’s attitude toward and treatment of veterans in these communications.” A Black campaign website removed material about the case and instead linked to a Tennessean article about the lawsuit, The Journal said. Black spokesman Chris Hartline said the campaign received a “vague letter that does not dispute any specific allegations.” “We are committed to the…
Read the full storyGrand Ole Opry Honors Military Families at Special Tuesday Night Opry
Several country artists took time to perform, meet and greet honored military families, active duty military and veterans at the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday, May 22.
Read the full storyIndustrial Base Analysis Picks Up Steam; Recommendations to White House by April
General Dynamics’ Lima tank plant, the only factory in the US capable of building main battle tanks. WASHINGTON: President Trump’s sweeping review of the national security industrial base — from shipbuilding to microchips, strategic minerals to vaccines — is almost halfway done. A score of working groups across the government, not just the Pentagon, will submit…
Read the full story‘Blood Stripe’ Director Breaks Down New Film About Female Veteran
Though female veterans are the American military’s fastest growing population — stories about them are not often told or heard. “Blood Stripe,” one of the most recent films to be recognized by the , is looking to change that. The title “Blood Stripe” refers to the scarlet band on the trouser leg of a Marine Corps…
Read the full storyBill Hennessy Commentary: Assessing Antifa as a Military Strategist
by Bill Hennessy If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal, we can flee from him. If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve. Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory. ~ Sunzi, The Art of War (Public Domain Books) Antifa activists regularly describe themselves in terms of a ‘defense force;’ but back in their ‘Occupy’ days, they were ‘the 99%’ and ‘revolutionaries;’ and before that, they were the ‘Black Bloc.’ Through it all, they were and are self-proclaimed ‘social justice warriors.’ So let’s take them at their word, and examine Antifa within a military construct – without the blinding rage and disgust they so richly deserve. Pretend both Antifa and the wretched white supremacists in Charlottesville are neither good nor bad. Neither your enemy nor your…
Read the full storyCommentary: Stop Diverting Our Defense Dollars To Sex Change Surgery
by ConservativeHQ.com Staff Last week, the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2018 (“NDAA”) without incorporating a policy that ensures that limited military resources are not be used for sex-reassignment surgery and other gender transition efforts for service members. Next week, the House will vote on the Make America Secure Appropriations Act, which will provide a large increase in funding for the Department of Defense. Our friends at the Family Research Council have asked us to join them in encouraging conservative activists across the country to contact their Representatives to demand that they stop diverting our defense dollars to Bradley Chelsea Manning sex change surgery. Taxpayer dollars need to be protected from funding non-essential sex-change surgery and hormone therapy efforts intended to change a person’s gender. Estimates for these efforts, including the amount of time lost for the transition process, are about $3.7 billion over the next ten years. This is an irresponsible use of taxpayer funds. With the costs estimated for sex-reassignment surgery and hormones, the military could purchase twenty-two F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Planes, which cost $166.7 million each, or 116 Chinook Helicopters, which cost $31.8 million each, or 3,700 Tomahawk missiles,…
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