It Takes This Long?

Our Federal government is just now (as I write on Sunday) starting to thinking about deploying a high-tech drone detection system to New York State.

…federal officials are finally preparing to deploy a high-tech drone detection system to New York State.
The drones that comprise the detection system will ostensibly help both state and local law enforcement figure out what has been going on over the past month or so….

Preparing to deploy. This, after weeks of National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby and Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh insulting our intelligence by feeding us utter BS about nothing to be seen here, we don’t know what these things are (maybe commercial aircraft!), but they’re not dangerous.

Sadly, dangerously, this long delay in getting around to deploying even the beginnings of a response isn’t only due to the incompetence of the Biden administration. It’s also from the shameful timidity of the Biden administration in its desperation to avoid even the appearance of offending one or another of our enemies, even before we know who the perpetrator is.

But—and this is the dangerous part—more than either of the above, this delay is from the glacially slow decision-making capability of the Pentagon bureaucracy that has supplanted the decision-making of serious, operational senior officers who are practiced in deciding and acting in fluid environments.

That last, far more important than any wasteful spending cuts (important as those are in their own right) must be the first and primary target of any reform moves, whether from DOGE or from in-government reformers. That bureaucracy, no matter how well intended, must be ripped out root and branch and surrounding dirt, and wholly replaced by those operational officers, men and women who’ve grown up in the combat and combat support branches.

So Long

And no thanks for the memories.

Many government bureaucrats are leaving their jobs even before the Trump administration gets sworn in next month.

Government bureaucrats are abandoning ship ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, anticipating either their termination or an intolerable upending of the status quo at their agencies.

Not merely leaving in consonance with the change of administration, but bailing out? Well, there is that bit about their Know Better agendas being deleted.

Some key government officials, including those whose posts are not necessarily tied to political appointments, have taken it upon themselves to exit government service in light of the initiative and Trump’s return.

For instance:

  • Christopher Wray is quitting as FBI director
  • FAA chief Michael Whitaker—even though he had widespread support and didn’t seem in line to be replaced before his term was up
  • Gary Gensler is quitting as SEC Chairman

Buh-bye, luv ya, mean it.

Cynicism of the Progressive-Democratic Party

Former President and current President-elect Donald Trump (R) wants to deport, in phases, all the millions of illegal aliens that the Progressive-Democrat Biden administration has let flood across our borders. Included in that is the cancelation of the work permits that Biden and his syndicate have issued so many—potentially 3.3 million—of those illegal aliens.

The objections to that part of the broad deportation plan is illuminating.

Their removal from the workforce—which, because of the intricacies of federal immigration law, would take months or more to play out—would create fresh challenges for employers already struggling to fill open positions.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick American Immigration Council Senior Fellow:

It will have an enormous impact across the US in a wide range of industries, regardless of whether those people get deported or wind up leaving the US.

This has been Party’s and their Leftist supporters’ modus operandi from Obamacare to now: get folks hooked on the system while destroying alternatives (no, you can’t keep your doctor, no, you can’t keep your insurance plans, no you can’t have secure borders or sound immigration law or policy), leaving subsequent administrations hamstrung in efforts to stop the ongoing damage and undo the destructive systems.

It’s time to point out—loudly and often—the destructive nature of giving illegal aliens work permits and getting so many businesses across so many industries hooked on illegal aliens as cheap labor.

Then set about undoing those incentives for illegal aliens to continue flooding across our borders. It’ll be expensive and disruptive to do, but that price will only increase the longer we delay doing it. And it will lead to much better outcomes for our citizens, our society, and our culture on the other side.

The alternative to permits for illegal aliens? Making it easier to enter our nation legally, streamlining while making more thorough the vetting process for who we let in, raising or eliminating altogether visa quotas for those wanting to come in to work or to visit (while strictly enforcing the limits on visit duration).

How Can He Trust Them?

Former President and current President-elect Donald Trump (R) is being inundated with visits from CEOs who in the past have castigated him, his policies, his character, his integrity, even censoring him outrageously (excuse the redundancy). Some are even throwing millions of dollars at him his inaugural fund.

Titans of the business world are rushing to make inroads with the president-elect, gambling that personal relationships with the next occupant of the Oval Office will help their bottom lines and spare them from Trump’s wrath.
In the weeks since the election, Trump and his advisers have been flooded with calls from C-suite executives who are eager to get face time with the President-elect and his team at Mar-a-Lago, the private Florida club where the transition team conducts much of its planning for the second term.

Even as they smile in his face, though, they’ve already shown their true colors with their prior attacks. They’re only mouthing words of approbation today in hopes of avoiding the consequences of their disingenuosity.

How can Trump trust them? He can’t. He can use them, but he should keep in mind an old maxim: keep his friends close and his enemies closer.

At bottom,

Il capo d’azienda e mobile, qual piuma al vento
In pianto o in riso è mensognero

Cancel the Contract

And award it to another manufacturer. Former President and current President-elect Donald Trump (R) has long wanted a better aircraft for Air Force One, correctly identifying the current iteration as woefully limited in capability and badly obsolescent. Boeing has long had the contract for Air Force Ones, and they have the current contract to build a new, fully capable model.

Boeing is badly failing at this, too, even as it continues to fail at producing commercial aircraft, it fails at producing vehicles that can reach the ISS and return safely, its moon rocket is over budget and behind schedule, and on and on.

The long-delayed [Air Force One replacement] project has fallen so far behind schedule that Boeing has told the Air Force that it expects to deliver the new jets after Trump leaves the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. That means the airplanes wouldn’t be ready until 2029 or later.

And:

Boeing has booked more than $2 billion of charges tied to the fixed-price contract, which has gone over budget and been troubled by production glitches and management issues.

The delay is startling given that Boeing isn’t building the planes from scratch. During Trump’s first term, Boeing started to overhaul two 747s that were built for a Russian airline that never took the jets.

Such sloth is wholly unacceptable. It’s time to cancel the Boeing contract altogether and award it to a reputable company that will take seriously the task of building and outfitting a modern, fully capable Air Force One aircraft. The delay associated with the changeover, even if it involves building a new airplane from scratch, won’t be materially different from the delay Boeing presently is inflicting. Does anyone really have any confidence that Boeing would deliver soon after 2029?