Pentagon has no idea where Trump thinks he will get the money for his parade.

Courtesy of the Military Times:  

President Donald Trump’s proposed military parade has a potential date and location: Veterans Day in Washington. 

But there’s still the question of how it will be paid for. 

“When we talk about the options — the composition, the theme, the date, the location, the associated costs — all those are being looked at as part of the options that are being created,” said Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Rob Manning. “The funding stream is a line that they [parade planners] would have to provide details on.

”No money was allocated for a parade in the fiscal 2019 budget, and none was previously identified in the fiscal 2018 budget, which ends Sept. 30, six weeks before the planned parade date.

The White House budget office has estimated that the parade options Trump is considering would cost between $10 million and $30 million. 

Trump also said this:

“But the generals would love to do it, I can tell you, and so would I,” Trump said on Fox News.

But when asked about that:

On Monday Pentagon reporters asked which generals had indicated they would want a parade; Manning said he did not know. 

“I don’t know what specific generals told him that,” Manning said.

I'm going to guess that none of them told him that, and that he just made that up like he makes everything else up. 

The good news is that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is keeping Trump from declaring war on Iran. The bad news is that he may not be able to do it for long.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

For weeks, Mattis had been resisting requests from the White House to provide military options for Iran. Now Trump made clear that he wanted the Pentagon to deliver a range of plans that included striking Iranian ballistic missile factories or hitting Iranian speedboats that routinely harassed U.S. Navy vessels. 

“Why can’t we sink them?” Trump would sometimes ask about the boats. 

National security adviser H.R. McMaster and his staff laid out the president’s request for Mattis in a conference call, but the defense secretary refused, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. At that point, McMaster took Mattis off speakerphone, cleared his staff from the room and continued the conversation. 

“It was clear that the call was not going well,” one official said. In the weeks that followed, the options never arrived. 

In his first year in the Pentagon, Mattis has been one of the least visible and most consequential members of Trump’s foreign policy team. In Situation Room meetings, he has established himself as a commanding voice, reining in discussions before they devolve into chaos. State Department ambassadors say they have spent more face-to-face time with him than they have their own boss, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. 

A foreign policy establishment that views Trump as erratic and unreliable uniformly praises Mattis.

The current opinion from White House sources is that Mattis in the one Trump cabinet member who is NOT afraid of him. 

The problem of course is that Trump sees himself as the master of all he surveys.

How long he is willing to accept the word "no" from Mattis remains to be seen.

He may eventually start to undermine and attack Mattis just like he has undermined and attacked Jeff Sessions, the FBI, and even his own staff members.

When that happens who draws the line in the sand that keeps him from attacking any country that he believes does not pay him the respect he feels he deserves?

It appears that Donald Trump might get his giant military parade after all.

Courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces. 

Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but a Jan. 18 meeting between Trump and top generals in the Pentagon’s tank — a room reserved for top-secret discussions — marked a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning. 

Surrounded by the military’s highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump’s seemingly abstract desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive, the officials said. 

“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.” 

Shows of military strength are not typical in the United States — and they don’t come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.

Well yeah, how can you be a fascist dictator if you do not have a huge expensive military parade to celebrate your leadership?

We reported on this idea way back in September, but at that time we just laughed it off as absurd.

Pres. Trump says the U.S. may have military parade down Pennsylvania Ave. on July 4 to "show our military strength" https://t.co/QL9OUZ2UFf pic.twitter.com/yIO8kAxsSW

— ABC News (@ABC) September 18, 2017

But now the Pentagon is actually considering it?

Of course giant military parades are a favorite of megalomaniacs.

Like Hitler.

And Vladimir Putin.

You know, all of Trump's idols. 

However we typically do not indulge our psychotic leaders here in America.

But then again we also do not typically elect psychotics to be our leader here in America, so I guess we are just making this up as we go along.

Donald Trump is demanding a strategic plan for a preemptive attack against North Korea. The Pentagon is worried that if they provide one, he will actually use it.

I want to blow something up.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The White House has grown frustrated in recent weeks by what it considers the Pentagon’s reluctance to provide President Trump with options for a military strike against North Korea, according to officials, the latest sign of a deepening split in the administration over how to confront the nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-un. 

The national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, believes that for Mr. Trump’s warnings to North Korea to be credible, the United States must have well-developed military plans, according to those officials. 

But the Pentagon, they say, is worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act. 

The tensions bubbled to the surface this week with the disclosure that the White House had abandoned plans to nominate a prominent Korea expert, Victor D. Cha, as ambassador to South Korea. Mr. Cha suggested that he was sidelined because he warned administration officials against a “preventive” military strike, which, he later wrote, could spiral “into a war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans.”

Donald Trump is desperate to find something to change the narrative away from these Russian investigations. 

It is folly to believe that he would not allow the death of thousands in order to accomplish that goal.

Megalomaniacs do not see people as human beings, they see them as a means to an end.

Pentagon considering a possible nuclear response to the next cyber attack. WTF?

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The Pentagon is reportedly pushing a new retaliation tactic should the U.S. ever be hit by a devastating cyberattack: America could nuke the culprit. 

The New York Times reported Tuesday that a pre-decisional draft of the Defense Department’s 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, which details U.S. nuclear strategy, includes “large cyberattacks” as an example of a non-nuclear strike on American lives and infrastructure that could be countered with nuclear weapons. 

“Three current and former senior government officials said large cyberattacks against the United States and its interests would be included in the kinds of foreign aggression that could justify a nuclear response,” the Times wrote of the new strategy. The officials stressed, however, that “other, more conventional options for retaliation” could also be used in response to a cyberattack. 

The Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, was commissioned last year by President Donald Trump and is currently being reviewed by the White House. It will need the president’s approval before it’s made final.

No, no, no, no, no!!!

As much as I want there to be a more robust response to the next cyber attack you cannot kill potentially millions of innocent people becasue their government is hacking our email accounts.

Nuclear weapons are the final deterrent, NOT the opening salvo in response to an attack.

Especially a non-lethal cyber attack.

Besides who believes that Putin's puppet would actually allow this response to a Russian attack, which is the most likely?

And while the Pentagon is apparently losing its collective mind, the Trump Administration has still done virtually nothing to defend us against the next online attack from our enemies.

American cities suing the Pentagon for failure to share information that would keep military criminals from buying guns.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The cities of New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are suing the U.S. Department of Defense over its legal failure to report service member crimes to the FBI and national gun background check database, multiple outlets reported Tuesday. 

For decades, the Pentagon has defied federal laws intended to keep firearms away from criminals like Devin Patrick Kelley, The New York Times notes. The 26-year-old was convicted of domestic assault before he purchased a rifle and killed dozens of people in Texas in November. Felonies and domestic violence convictions legally prohibit gun ownership. 

The democrat-led cities’ lawsuit now seeks to prevent more “senseless carnage” by requiring the Defense Department to fix other “deadly gaps” in the background check database and comply with existing reporting laws under federal court supervision, according to Reuters. It was filed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said his city “relies on this reporting when making the crucial decision whether a license-to-carry applicant should be permitted to carry a firearm.” 

“We’re joining in this suit because reporting these records is absolutely critical to those decisions,” he said in a statement. “The background check system only works if it contains the proper records.”

Kind of a shame that you have to sue your own government in order to force them to provide information to keep US citizens safe. 

But of course we are talking access to guns here, and the only thing more American than that is mom's homemade apple pie and using the Stars and Stripes as seat covers for your pickup truck. 

Late last night the White House issued a warning accusing Syria of preparing to gas its people. US defense officials have no idea why.

Statements from @PressSec on #syria pic.twitter.com/gEqPAf6WBk

— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) June 27, 2017

Okay so this was broadcast on cable news last night. (I personally saw it toward the end of the Rachel Maddow Show.)

And on the face of it this seems like kind of a crazy way to announce that the president of Syria is about to murder his own people again. Typically this would be addressed through diplomatic channels and the public would only become aware if there were an imminent military response planned by the United States. (And seriously what does "pay a heavy price" even mean?)

But then it gets even weirder.

Courtesy of The Independent: 

The White House has said it believes the Syrian government is planning a chemical weapons attack and warned Bashar al-Assad that his regime will “pay a heavy price” it it does so. However, several US defence officials have said they are not familiar with the intelligence that informed the statement.

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on Monday night on the allegations or what form US retaliation would take. 

Several sources across the US State Department, Pentagon and Central Command, which oversees the country’s military operations in Syria and Iraq – said that they did not know what had prompted the unprecedented threat to the Assad regime. 

Okay, okay, let's back the fuck up here.

Are we to believe that the White House received intelligence that the Pentagon did not receive which justified a threat like this?

I call bullshit.

I am beginning to think that Donald Trump is becoming so desperate over those Russia investigations that he is literally considering plunging this country into a war simply to distract the public.

So did Russia know about the chemical attack in Syria ahead of time? Yeah, maybe.

Courtesy of the AP:

The United States has made a preliminary conclusion that Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week, but has no proof of Moscow's involvement, a senior U.S. official said Monday. 

The official said that a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons. 

The U.S. official said the presence of the surveillance drone over the hospital couldn't have been a coincidence, and that Russia must have known the chemical weapons attack was coming and that victims were seeking treatment. 

The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on intelligence matters and demanded anonymity, didn't give precise timing for when the drone was in the area, where more than 80 people were killed. The official also didn't provide details for the military and intelligence information that form the basis of what the Pentagon now believes.

As you have probably already predicted the Pentagon refutes this accusation:

A Department of Defense spokesman discounted an Associated Press report that claimed Russia knew in advance about the chemical weapons attack in Syria last week that left more than 80 people dead. 

“I’ve seen nothing that corroborates this definitive statement,” Major Jamie Davis told the Daily Caller in a statement Monday. “We continue to review the available intelligence surrounding this incident.” 

Boy who to believe on this one.

A report from the highly respected Associate Press news agency, or a statement from Donald Trump's Pentagon reported on the Daily Caller and Info Wars?

Boy that is a conundrum alright.

Just like back in the Vietnam era, Trump Administration is hiding the troop deployments from the American people.

Oh boy, I have an army of my own now too!

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Even as the U.S. military takes on a greater role in the warfare in Iraq and Syria, the Trump administration has stopped disclosing significant information about the size and nature of the U.S. commitment, including the number of U.S. troops deployed in either country. 

Earlier this month, the Pentagon quietly dispatched 400 Marines to northern Syria to operate artillery in support of Syrian militias that are cooperating in the fight against Islamic State, according to U.S. officials. That was the first use of U.S. Marines in that country since its long civil war began. 

In Iraq, nearly 300 Army paratroopers were deployed recently to help the Iraqi military in their six-month assault on the city of Mosul, according to U.S. officials. 

Neither of those deployments was announced once they had been made, a departure from the practice of the Obama administration, which announced nearly all conventional force deployments.

The excuse for this is that Trump wants the element of surprise, as if the enemy is not aware when large numbers of American soldiers land on their shores unless they read it in the America press first.

What seems to actually be happening is that Trump is escalating conflicts all around the globe and keeping the American people out of the loop.

That is essentially the tactics used during the Vietnam era to keep us from knowing how many of our soldiers were fighting and dying in a war that we had already lost.

And you can bet your ass that if the Trump Administration is not going to tell us how many troops are being deployed, and where they are fighting, that there is no way they are going to keep us apprised of the casualties that result from those decisions.

Here let be take a moment to laugh at the people who claimed they were not voting for Hillary because she was a "war monger,"  and then further claimed that Trump was antiwar.

Fucking morons!

Pentagon awards President Obama the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Sarah Palin stomps her bony feet in protest.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

President Obama on Wednesday received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service from Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, prompting a backlash from critics that include former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R). But the award is more common than they apparently know, as numerous senior officials have received it, including the last two presidents. 

The award was adopted in 1947 and recognizes “exceptionally distinguished service of significance to the Department of Defense as a whole or distinguished service of such exceptional significance” to a part of the Defense Department for their awards to be considered insufficient, according to a Pentagon fact sheet on the award. 

“The service or assistance may have been rendered at considerable personal sacrifice and inconvenience that was motivated by patriotism, good citizenship, and a sense of public responsibility,” the fact sheet said. 

Palin criticized the decision Wednesday night, saying “this is what happens when you grow up thinking every kid gets a trophy.” She shared a Breitbart News Network story with the sarcastic, if incorrect, headline: “President Obama awards himself Distinguished Public Service Medal.”

Ummm, really? This is what happens when you grow up thinking every kid gets a trophy.... https://t.co/x4KVfarWpU

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) January 5, 2017

No, he did not "award himself" a medal. He fucking earned it by being one of the greatest presidents in our lifetime.

You know I saw part of the speech that the President made at this event and it was extremely emotional for both he and members of the audience.

The President demonstrated great respect for those involved the defense department, and expressed his gratitude to them for the hard work they have done on behalf of the American people.

In contrast Sarah Palin demonstrates her pettiness and lack of respect by mischaracterizing this award ceremony and farewell speech in the way that she has in that tweet.

But then what more could we expect from the meanest of the mean girls.

Perhaps she should go back to giving Julian Assange a reach around, and blowing kisses at Vladimir Putin.  

She has chosen her side, and it is clearly not the side for America.

The Pentagon is getting a little fed up with the never ending Benghazi witch hunt.

Courtesy of Politico:

Assistant Secretary of Defense Stephen Hedger complained in a letter to the committee on Thursday about its continued demands for information, and implied that the panel is grasping to make assertions based on theory rather than facts. 

“[W]hile I understand your stated intent is to conduct the most comprehensive review of the attack and response, Congress has as much of an obligation as the executive branch to use federal resources and taxpayer dollars effectively and efficiently,” the letter reads. “The Department has spent millions of dollars on Benghazi-specific Congressional compliance, including reviews by four other committees, which have diligently reviewed the military’s response in particular.” 

Hedger also complained that Defense Department interviewees “have been asked repeatedly to speculate or engage in discussing on the record hypotheticals.” 

“This type of questioning poses the risk that your final report may be based on speculation rather than a fact-based analysis of what a military officer did do or could have done given his or her knowledge at the time of the attacks,” he wrote. 

"Yeah I realize you don't know anything factual, but what do you imagine Hillary Clinton MIGHT have been doing while those four brave Americans were being killed by obvious Islamic terrorists, instead of doing her job and protecting them?"

Always a good sign of a non-biased, fact based, totally non-political investigation.

Pentagon seems determined to thwart President Obama's ability to keep a very important campaign promise. To close Guantanamo Bay.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

To slow prisoner transfers, Pentagon officials have refused to provide photographs, complete medical records and other basic documentation to foreign governments willing to take detainees, administration officials said. They have made it increasingly difficult for foreign delegations to visit Guantanamo, limited the time foreign officials can interview detainees and barred delegations from spending the night at Guantanamo. 

Partly as a result of the Pentagon's maneuvers, it is increasingly doubtful that Obama will fulfill a pledge he made in the 2008 presidential election: to close the detention center at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama criticized President George W. Bush for having set up the prison for foreigners seized in the "War on Terror" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., and then keeping them there for years without trial. 

When Obama took office, the prison held 242 detainees, down from a peak of about 680 in 2003. Today, with little more than a year remaining in his presidency, it still holds 107 detainees. 

Pentagon officials denied any intentional effort to slow transfers.

The article goes on to say that this Pentagon obstructionism was part of the reason that the President removed Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and that since then he has lit a fire under the defense department to get this process moving at a faster pace.

Even if the Pentagon cooperates however the Republicans are set to block Obama from moving the most dangerous detainees to Federal prisons, though it sounds as if the President is perfectly willing to use executive orders to bypass them if necessary.

It is hard to blame the President for losing his patience with this since he has been working on it virtually his entire time in the White House.

One thing that can be said about President Obama, when he makes a promise he does everything in his power to keep it.

Pentagon officials respond to the idea of a Donald Trump presidency, "This is not the country I joined to defend. I am turning in my papers. I’m moving to a farm."

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

The plans of the next president are personal to the officers of the Pentagon, who are threatening to retire if The Donald becomes commander-in-chief. 

Republican presidential candidate and business mogul Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to build up the U.S. military if elected president. 

But it is not clear he will have the experienced commanders within the ranks to do it.

Here is some of what those experienced commanders had to say:

Some said repeatedly hearing Trump and the other GOP candidates spelling out a plan that is only a more brazen—and perhaps reckless—version of the current strategy was not reassuring. 

This Daily Beast correspondent has heard such sentiments from at least a dozen commanders in the past few months. Such conversations can also be heard at common areas—in cafeteria lines and around lunch tables. 

There are fears of being asked to carry out futile war plans that would bring instability. Almost all of today’s commanders are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all know someone who died in combat; indeed, they may have sent someone on a mission that ended with death. And because of that they bring a unique vantage point to lessons learned, from the frontlines where the cruelty of warfare is impossible to miss. Those who send them, meanwhile, sit thousands of miles away and learn what is happening through the filter of distance.

And so in the course of conversation, plots of a different kind emerge—contingencies in case Trump really is elected to the White House. 

“By 2016 I will have my 20 years in and can get out of here,” one military official said, referring to the amount of time a service member needs to collect retirement pay. 

“This is not the country I joined to defend. I am turning in my papers. I’m moving to a farm.” 

“Personally, I hope no one will be called upon to serve under a President T… I can’t bring myself to type the words,” said retired Rear Admiral John Hutson.

So apparently they are not buying Trump's quote,  “I will be so good at the military your head will spin.”

Gee go figure.

(H/T to Occupy Democrats.)

Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake release report accusing Pentagon of using taxpayer money to promote "paid patriotism" at sporting events.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The Pentagon has paid more than $9 million to professional sports franchises the past four years, including $6.8 million to stage “paid patriotism” events, Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain disclosed Wednesday. 

The events ranged from full-field displays of the American flag to enlistment and re-enlistment ceremonies and emotional reunion events where a service member returns to the surprise of family members. 

“Unsuspecting audience members became the subjects of paid marketing campaigns rather than simply bearing witness to teams’ authentic, voluntary shows of support for the brave men and women who wear our nation’s uniform,” the report by the Arizona Republicans said. 

“It is hard to understand how a team accepting taxpayer funds to sponsor a military appreciation game, or to recognize wounded warriors or returning troops, can be construed as anything other than paid patriotism,” it states. McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

According to Politico more than10 million dollars of taxpayer money has been spent in the last four years alone: 

In the report unveiled Wednesday, the two senators cataloged $879,000 spent by the Georgia Army National Guard with the Atlanta Falcons on color-guard performances and video board tributes and $450,000 spent by the same unit on the Atlanta Braves. Beyond Atlanta, investigators say the Defense Department paid the Seattle Sounders soccer team $128,000 over the past four years on “a compelling Army National Guard public service message” to be played at games and $115,000 spent was spent on the Indiana Pacers for perks including parking passes and access to a luxury conference room. College sports programs and NASCAR were also dinged by Flake and McCain, along with the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS. 

But the bulk of the spending was associated with the NFL, where four teams received more than $500,000 a piece over the past four years from Defense Department contracts. 

I actually wrote about this back in May where I suggested that this program has likely been going on for far longer than the four years cited in this investigation, and that it is quite likely that taxpayer money was spent in various other places as well, such as cable news channels and reality shows.

Personally I have a very strong suspicion that if one were to follow the trail of evidence that it would lead right up to Dick Cheney's secret super villain hideout.

Hmm, I wonder if it is because of things like this report which convinced Sarah Palin's pet Senator to suggest doing away with the Senate?

The Pentagon and the gay bomb.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

On the Family Research Council’s Washington Watch, host Craig James took a call from a listener who asked him if it was possible that the Pentagon had secretly used a “gay bomb” on America, leading to a rise in the number of openly gay people in the country, reports Right Wing Watch. 

According to the caller, identified as “Tom,” if you Google “Pentagon gay bomb” you will discover an article stating that the Pentagon was using “certain chemicals and aphrodisiacs to spray — and to put on the soldiers so they are attracted to other men as a weapon in wartime.” 

“My question is, and I wonder, did some of those techniques get used on the American people? Just a thought,” Tom asked. 

The former NFL running back, turned conservative talk show host, stammered a bit before replying, “I don’t know anything about that. That’s the first I’ve ever heard of it, it sounds kind of out in left field, like you said. It’s out there for sure.”

Damn right it seems kind of "out there."

In fact it seems so ridiculous you would at first think it is some Right Wing conspiracy theory straight from the imagination of Alex Jones. (Who by the way Raw Story links to in this article.)

However if you Google the term "Pentagon gay bomb" you do in fact discover that there really was a proposal to make just such a weapon.

Don't look at me like that, here read it for yourself:  

Documentation obtained by the Sunshine Project, an anti-biological weapons non-governmental organization, found that the Ohio-based Wright Lab requested a 6 year, $7.5 million grant to create a variety of non-lethal weapons. The bluntly titled project, called “Harassing, Annoying and ‘Bad Guy’ Identifying Chemicals” reads like a bawdy proposal penned by a Bond Villian- Auric Goldfinger perhaps? 

It proposed a bomb “that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another”. While the laboratory also came up with similarly questionable ideas, such as bad-breath bombs, flatulence bombs and bombs designed to attract swarms of stinging insects to enemy combatants, one has to admit that the gay bomb is certainly the most novel.

Well this is certainly going to convince the Righties that the surge in homosexuals coming out of the closet is the result of some military tampering, and not simply an indication of just how many LGBT folks have been living under oppression for all of these years.

And do you know what? Maybe they have a point.

How else can we explain that pop icon Barry Manilow recently married his "gasp" male business manager?

I mean are we to believe that THIS man has been gay all of these years?

Okay, bad example.

Personally I cannot believe the Pentagon would bomb their own citizens into gayhood....gaydom....gayness? Well you get the drift.

However, it might explain my love of show tunes.

Wonkette's Fartknocker report has Sarah Palin calling for an increased arms race with Russia and China.

Click meth mouth to launch video

Here is the babble straight from the media whore's mouth:

"Ever get the feeling that no one's listening? (Why do I think she gets that feeling ALL of the time?) For years the Pentagon has been issuing the same warning. China is building better missiles, aircraft, and submarines that will allow them to launch surprise attacks on targets that are potentially far from its borders. Recently the Pentagon senior weapons developer, Frank Kendall, he told Congress the same thing. He said, and I quote, 'We're at risk and the situation is getting worse.' He then explained that he became, quote, 'Alarmed.' Oh goodness, 'alarmed' is not a good word coming from the mouth of a Pentagon official, Additionally China has developed electronic warfare capabilities, and anti-satellite weapons designed to undermine our nation.  So what have we been doing while China quietly, but aggressively, has been building up its military forces? (Have you heard of drones?) Well the Obama administration has responded to this kinda like it has all other threats, with impotence. (Oooh, a knock on Obama's sexuality. How Sarah Palin of her.) In his first term as President Obama cut 478 billion dollars in our defense spending. And another six billion in cuts coming in the future. Many Americans don't know that our troops, they often go into battle supported by decades old airplane, and tank designs, and using weapons that date back, well even before the Reagan administration. (And yet they still manage to win virtually every military encounter. Imagine that.) Um sometimes we're not well equipped, and yet we're cutting back? Against these threats on the globe that are ramping it up? America is the most advanced nation in the world. There's no excuse for standing aside and watching any other country erode our military superiority and build weapons that can match, or exceed our own. No America has to lead, because if we don't someone else will and we may not like the road that they lead us down.

As Wonkette points out these antiquated weapons designs that Palin is bitching about are still state of the art by comparison. and more than sufficient:

Those “airplane and tank designs” include the F-15, an aircraft that entered service in 1976 and has literally never lost a dogfight. They include the B-52, which entered service six full years before Ronald Reagan warned America of the dangers of socialized medicine, and which is currently in line for a major upgrade to its internal weapons bay thanks to a decision made by Barack Obama’s Pentagon. They include the M-1 Abrams, which remains the most ass-kickin’ main battle tank on the planet despite entering service while John Lennon was still alive. 

As Pfc. Track Palin might be able to explain to his mother, current war plans in East Asia don’t call for a lot of tank battles, mostly because the Pacific Ocean is still a thing that exists. Watch the full video, and note how Palin fails to mention that China’s only aircraft carrier is a 25-year-old Soviet tub designated for training. 

I am not precisely sure where Palin is getting her military spending numbers, however it should be noted that we are currently outspending China on our military by almost triple:

The U.S. spent $664.3 billion on defense in 2012 but will spend about $574.9 billion in 2014, while China spent $139.2 billion in 2013 and will spend $148 billion in 2014, the New York Times reported on Feb. 3. 

It should also be mentioned that our current arsenal would give ANY country, including China, serious heart palpitations if they were to consider an attack. And that is not even including our nuclear capabilities.

No the President is clearly making the right decision is dramatically cutting back our military spending, and we as a country made the right decision in keeping Little Annie Warmonger as far away from the White House as possible.

Hey do you remember when I claimed that the Pentagon spent a half million dollars on Viagra? Yeah well I was wrong, it is 41.6 million dollars.

Courtesy of Roll Call:  

Remember this recent story about the Pentagon’s Viagra budget of more than $500,000 last year? The Military Times threw some shade on it with its own reporting, which put the tally at $41.6 million, and $84.2 million on erectile dysfunction drugs overall. 

Then there’s this: 

And since 2011, the tab for drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra totals $294 million — the equivalent of nearly four U.S. Air Force F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Okay in my earlier write up there were a few of you who argued that the five hundred thousand was not that bad considering that some of these medications were for elderly veterans.

So now I have to ask, do you feel the same now that it's 41.6 million?

The Pentagon spent more than half a million dollars on Viagra last year. Well gee that's money well spent.

Courtesy of Fox News:  

The Department of Defense (DoD) spent more than a half a million dollars on the male enhancement drug Viagra last year, according to government contracts. 

The Pentagon issued 60 contracts worth$504,816 for the drug in 2014. All 60 contracts were awarded to Cardinal Health Inc., a pharmaceutical distribution company based in Dublin, Ohio. 

Last year DoD also ordered $3,505 worth of Levitra, and $14,540 of Cialis, other popular erectile dysfunction drugs. 

The contracts were filed under "Troop Support."

(Well of course it was.)

DoD began offering Viagra to soldiers as a medical benefit in 1998, when the drug cost $10 a pill. Due to inflation, one pill now costs $25. At the time the military's policy only allowed for six pills a month per patient, and the DoD said they would "not replace lost or stolen pills."

Tricare the military's health care provider also covers  penis pumps, "penile implants and testicular prostheses," and hormone injections to treat Erectile Dysfunction.

Can't have a fighting man who can't get it up now can we?

But then considering how many female military personnel are raped or sexually assaulted each year, perhaps that money would be better spent on sensitivity training rather than on various ways to give men a means with which to carry out those assaults.

Pentagon extends benefits to spouses of military members in same sex marriages.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

The Pentagon on Wednesday announced it would extend federal benefits to same-sex spouses of military personnel and civilian defense employees, following up on a Supreme Court decision that overturned a key portion of the Defense of Marriage Act. 

The benefits will be available to all legally married spouses regardless of sexual orientation beginning no later than Sept. 3, according to a Defense Department announcement. 

“The Department of Defense remains committed to ensuring that all men and women who serve in the U.S. military, and their families, are treated fairly and equally as the law directs,” the announcement said. 

The Pentagon also said it would allow leave for couples who are not stationed in jurisdictions that recognize same-sex marriage – including 13 states and the District of Columbia – so they can travel elsewhere to be married. 

Same-sex spouses will be eligible for entitlements such as military health benefits and housing allowances on a retroactive basis if they were legally married before the June 26 Supreme Court decision, according to the announcement. Entitlements will begin at the date of marriage for those who wed after the ruling.

I am constantly amazed at how fast the LGBT community is gaining acceptance, and how quickly their homophobic detractors are being shut down.

Have I told all of you how awesome it is to be living during this time in America?

How Obama fired a general and took control of the Pentagon.

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I found this to be very interesting, in that I remember how many people were dismissing this President as being too conciliatory to get the top military brass to respect him.

Clearly they, like just about everybody else, underestimated him.

Always a mistake.