Welcome back to the Scuttlebutt. It’s been a rough week. Last weekend was great, visited with “The Usual Suspects” another couple that we hang out with a lot, travel with, camp with… We also do a lot of coop work with them, this weekend it was sausage making. About 40 LBS worth, so that’s what’s on the grill, grab some and have at it.
This week however started with learning that a guy I served with, worked with for over twenty years, sponsored into my Masonic lodge, etc… passed in the ER. That was followed by a call from the wife of my Brother, the best man at my wedding, and so on, saying that he doesn’t have long. Oh, and the guys putting in the new fence hit the power cable going to my woodshop with their auger. Let’s hope that’s the end of this shit for a little bit.
Pour yourself something from the bar, and as always, please notice the cup at the tip jar Where we restock. I would like to welcome the new faces and tip the hat to all those folks sending business my way. My blog will always be free, but comments require you to join and pay a very nominal fee.
I got shouted at and cussed out on this, my little spot on the internet. I figure if you want to call me a ~0~< $^~<3r, you can buy me a coffee first.
The title of this week’s piece? Yeah, I don’t have all the answers. On a couple of the things this week I would welcome your input because there doesn’t seem to be a winning position.
You may remember when Biden’s handlers decided by a presidential decree that the USN would be putting an emergency pier and port system on the beach at Gaza to help the poor little terrorists get resupplied? Well, the system is kept on a ship named the USNS 2nd LT John P Bobo, the ship pictured at the top of the page, while it was handling these pier pieces in Guam back in 2019.
The Bobo was duly dispatched from Jacksonville FL to the Med, with a Pentagon-imposed deadline of 1 May to start receiving supplies.
You may also remember CDR Salamander, myself, and many others ranting at length about the poor condition of our ships and ship repair facilities. (Here’s Sal’s latest piece on the lack of capabilities and facilities: hp/the-boxer-is-2024-navys-canary? As always, Sal is worth the read, and you should go look at his take on this.)
The problem seemingly has not been as important to the PTB in the Pentagon as DIE, Funding interstate travel so that military personnel can get abortions, sex change surgery, and attend seminars on maximizing diversity in the workplace.
That may now have to change though, because first the Boxer, which Sal talks about above; a very significant international statement aimed at the PRC, had to turn back and tie up to the pier until there is room to re-drydock her for further repairs, delaying her and the MEF’s deployment yet again… Then the Bobo had an engine fire on the 11th of April and had to turn around and limp back to Jax, where she sits while they evaluate how to fix her. Further, several other ships involved in this ‘build a port’ exercise also had problems, including the Army Landing Craft Utility Ship Wilson Warf (which broke down in Tenerife) and the Army Logistics Support Vessel General Frank S Besson spent a week in the Azores before getting to Souda Bay Naval Base. It’s looking more and more like this port isn’t going to get built on time, if at all. (and that’s without the mortar and missile attacks we expect the various Muslim factions will start up, once we start trying to build the damn thing.)
All of this is not just a political embarrassment. Yes, the fact that one of our big deck amphib assault vessels is down, yet again, and can’t go point out to China that the US Marines are always just on the horizon, in case Free China calls for help is a political ‘Aw Shit.’ Yes, the fact that our president promised (without checking with the navy or Congress) to build a set of piers in Gaza so that the Hamas wing of his party would shut up, and now that’s not happening, is going to be a huge bone of contention with OAC and the rest of the terrorist sympathizers in the DNC.
However, big picture, that’s not as vital to the real world as the fact that two of our ships, on missions that we said were important to us, broke down en route and had to come home. The Military exists, not to act as a social experiment test tube like Corry Beach and company want them to be, but as a threat. Our job is to be that guy in the corner with the Tommy gun pointed in your general direction, while the boss points out that pissing us off, and messing with our interests was a “bad idea.”
Deterrence MUST be Job One. That is the military’s reason to exist. We haven’t been doing well at that, because of all the other things that congress critters thought were more important. When we are no longer the biggest fleet in the world, and our ships have to come limping back home from missions they were designed to excel at, that doesn’t deter aggression.
Job Two is if Job One fails, to kill people and break things. Killing lots of people, and breaking lots of things, until the people who were not deterred say “OK, we get it, we’ll quit pissing you off, we surrender, quit killing us and breaking our shit!”
That job requires that we have big deck Amphibs with MEFs embarked dropping those jarheads on the beach, where they can do their thing. It requires that we be able to put a set of piers where there were no piers, or where we blew the piers up because they had people and gear on them that was part of our “kill and break” list.
Why? Because the Marines are going to turn over the job of killing and breaking to the Army as soon as they can, and the Army needs a lot of gear to move inland while killing and breaking.
If people like Iran, North Korea, Russia, and most importantly the PRC start deciding that we can’t do that ‘Job Two’ then we can no longer do Job One. That will embolden them even more than Biden’s “don’t” did to Iran. That means that Job Two becomes far more likely. Can we still succeed at ‘Job Two?’ well, that’s a good question. A question that becomes more real-world testable every day that we fail in full view of our enemies. Something to remember, the only thing more expensive than winning a war, is losing one. And the only thing more expensive still, in the long run, is giving up without a fight.
Maybe the Hamas wing of the DNC will support revitalizing our shipyard infrastructure NOW since it is affecting our support of the Gaza Terrorists.
The next thing I want to talk about today is TikTok. I’m a little conflicted on this subject, to be honest with you. Look, I’m second to no one in my loathing of the PRC and all the evils that they bring to the table. I also do not doubt that TikTok is being used to spy, both directly and indirectly on Americans, and to act as a propaganda source and poison pill factory against American interests.
Oh yes, I know, “TikTok has repeatedly said that it has never shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government and that it would refuse any such requests.”
I also know that the PRC has a law REQUIRING any company to allow the government access to any data the government “deems necessary to support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts” and requires the direct presence of ChiComParty officials in the business structure. With these laws in place, and a Social Credit Score system managed by the government for access to “privileges” like the right to use your phone… Well, let’s just say that I don’t believe TikTok.
One telling thing was when the PRC embassy started a full-court press with all of their employees and lobbyists to fight the bill banning TikTok. Does this sound like something that isn’t being used to spy on Americans?
It’s a weapon being used against us, of that I have no doubt.
AND
If the government can write up a bill forcing the sale or banning of TikTok this week, who can they do that to next week? I’m not sure that Senator Rand Paul is correct, (In fact, you could say that about almost anything that comes out of his mouth… He’s as much of a bomb thrower as Marjorie Taylor Greene, and about as useful, which is to say as useful as tits on a boar.) Paul sees this as a “First Amendment” issue. Considering that this is a foreign espionage operation, I am not so convinced that the First covers it. As Senator Rubio put it: "It's not about the content of the videos that are online. It is about the dangers to our national security that are presented by the way this company functions."
All in all though, I’m more than a little concerned with the amount of power that this creates as a precedent. I welcome your thoughts on the subject.
Finally, we have the Federal Trade Commission, which just banned Noncompete Agreements, effective in 120 days. I hate the concept of an NCA, it ties employees to a position with a company that may be toxic in the extreme because once you start working for them, you can’t leave and work in your field for X years. That means you can’t go off to work for a different company even if you’re being paid shit wages, with a horrible manager. (Gosh, it’s just like being in the military, only without the uniform, and you get to go home most nights.)
NCA’s unpopularity is bipartisan, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are writing legislation to reform or remove them… About the only people that are for them is the US Chamber of Commerce, which is to say, business owners.
So, you would think I’m a fan of this ruling by the FTC, right? Not so fast. Here’s the thing. If Congress does it, that’s fine, it’s legal, or if it’s not the SCOTUS will say so. But a bunch of unelected bureaucrats…? I’m not loving it. The precedent this establishes is not one that I’m happy with. Do it right, do it legally, pass a law. Again, I welcome your thoughts on this.
Quote of the Week: I can’t decide, so you get two.
"All the woke colleges that banned comedians because 'speech is violence' are camped out on the lawn chanting 'death to Israel.' This is the dumbest time there's ever been to be alive." —Jimmy Failla
"How many times does [Trump] have to prove we can't be trusted?" —Joe Biden (emphasis mine)
Until next time I remain,
Yours in service.
William Lehman.