Tag: defense department
‘They Work’: Biden Urges Employers To Hasten Vaccine Mandates

‘They Work’: Biden Urges Employers To Hasten Vaccine Mandates

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

President Joe Biden on Thursday pressed companies to put COVID-19 vaccination mandates into place while the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) completes a new rule requiring companies with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccination or routine testing.
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US-Mexico border.

Biden Cancels Billions For Trump’s Military-Funded Border Wall

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

President Joe Biden is cancelling billions in funding for construction of a wall at the southern border that had been authorized by his predecessor, according to The Hill.

Donald Trump had used emergency powers in 2019 to raid Defense Department coffers in order to fund his precious border wall after Congress declined to fully fund the project. Now the White House says some of the leftover funding will be used to help reverse the environmental damage caused by construction of the wall.

"Consistent with the President's Proclamation terminating the redirection of funds for border wall, no more money will be diverted from other purposes to building a border wall," a Biden administration official said Friday. "Today, the Department of Defense will begin cancelling all wall projects using the diverted funds, and will take steps to return remaining unobligated military construction funds to their appropriated purpose as permitted by law."

The move follows on Biden's immediate cancellation upon taking office of the state of emergency Trump had declared at the southern border. In total, Trump had secured some $16 billion for his precious wall, with about $6 billion of it being appropriated by Congress, according to the Associated Press. Now some of the $1.4 billion in funding that had been appropriated for the wall will instead be used to address environmental damage caused by the wall, including soil erosion in the San Diego area and increased risk of flooding in the Rio Grande Valley.

According to the AP, as of mid-January, the government had spent $6.1 billion of the $10.8 billion in work it had contracted to have done. Trump reportedly worked "feverishly" his final year in office in order to complete more than 450 miles of the wall.

In January, following the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Trump traveled to Texas to take one last sad little victory lap on the wall, declaring, "I kept my promises" on completing 450 miles of wall.

Based on the amount still under contract, another 214 miles would have been built, bringing the total to 664 miles.

But President Biden brought that chapter to a close on Friday. Good riddance.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn

Gen. Flynn Repeatedly Took Foreign Payments Despite Official Warnings

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is among the many allies of Donald Trump who faced criminal charges and was granted a presidential pardon while the former president was still in the White House. Flynn's foreign interactions were a major source of controversy during the Trump years, and according to Guardian reporter Murray Waas, Flynn was warned about accepting foreign money even before Trump was elected president in 2016.

The office of the Defense Department's inspector general, Waas reports, "has uncovered evidence that Michael Flynn accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign interests and governments, despite repeated warnings by the DoD and the Justice Department that his conduct might be illegal."

In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. But Trump defended Flynn vigorously, claiming that his former national security adviser was a victim of political persecution from "the deep state."

"While pleading guilty in 2017," Waas explains, "Flynn also admitted to committing another crime: related to his acceptance ofhundreds of thousands of dollars from the government of Turkey without registering with the Justice Department as an agent of a foreign government, whichwas required by law. Now, according to people familiar with the confidential findings of the recently completed IG investigation, The Guardian can reveal Flynn was warned years earlier that his acceptance of foreign money and his not registering as a foreign agent likely would be illegal."

Waas adds, "Moreover, Flynn's conduct occurred while he was a private citizen, long before Trump became president. Taken together, this appears to constitute powerful new evidence discrediting Trump and Flynn's claims of political persecution by those opposed to Trump's agenda."

Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign in 2015, and according to Waas' reporting, Flynn was first warned about accepting foreign money in 2014. Flynn resigned as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in August 2014.

"The new disclosures portray how a former military officer, despite his training to obey rules and orders, was instead driven by personal profit to break the law," Waas reports. "The Defense Intelligence Agency first warned Flynn, in an 8 October, 2014 letter, that his acceptance of foreign money might be a potential violation of federal law, as well as the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which similarly prohibits such foreign payments to government officials." In that letter, the DIA warned Flynn, "The Emoluments Clause.… as interpreted in Comptroller General opinions, and by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, prohibits receipt of consulting fees, gifts, travel expenses, honoraria, or salary by all retired military personnel" from foreign interests.

Flynn received another warning on November 30, 2016 — this time, from the Department of Justice. At issue was his work for a lobbyist for the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an authoritarian who has gone to great lengths to undermine the system of checks and balances in what was once one of the more democratic countries in the Middle East. Flynn, according to Waas, was warned that he might be violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.

But despite that "warning not to take foreign money," Waas notes, Flynn "still accepted $45,000 from RT — a Kremlin-controlled media organization described by…. intelligence agencies as the 'Kremlin's principal international propaganda outlet' — $22,000 from other Russian interests, and $530,000 to serve as a lobbyist for Turkey. And despite the warning from the Justice Department, Flynn did not comply with the FARA statute."

Clark Cunningham, a professor at the Georgia State University College of Law and expert on the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, told The Guardian, "There is little doubt that money received by Flynn to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government or to promote Russian interests would be considered emoluments."

Acting Defense Secretary Corrects Trump On North Korea Missile Launch

Acting Defense Secretary Corrects Trump On North Korea Missile Launch

Contrary to Trump’s assertion, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan admitted on Wednesday that North Korea’s recent missile tests did, indeed, violate United Nations resolutions against such actions, according to CNN.

“Let me just be clear: these were short-range missiles. Those are a violation of the UNSCR,” Shanahan said of the early May North Korea short-range ballistic missile tests.

Trump had a different assessment, saying on Monday that, “My people think it could have been a violation. I view it differently.”

Whether or not it is a violation is easy to figure out. In 2006, the United Nations passed a resolution stating that North Korea could not “conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile,” according to CNN. The resolution also imposed sanctions against North Korea for such actions.

Military experts like Shanahan agree it was a short-range ballistic missile test, violating the resolution.

Shanahan’s background includes years spent working at Boeing, where he served as vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.

Trump’s background includes losing a billion dollars in a decade as an unsuccessful businessman.

Unlike Shanahan, Trump was unperturbed by North Korea’s first missile tests since 2017, downplaying them as “some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me.”

Trump has a soft spot for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, telling a crowd in September that the two wrote each other beautiful letters and “fell in love.” Trump has held two high-profile meetings with Kim in what he has called an attempt to improve relations and work toward denuclearization of North Korea, with little success.

The latest batch of missile tests did not sit well, with Shanahan repeating the claim that they were a violation.

“A short-range missile, is that a violation? Yes,” Shanahan said. He added that his job is to enforce sanctions and “be ready in the situation that diplomacy fails.”

When it comes to trusting Kim or his own advisers, Trump seems to side with murderous dictators over Americans.

Published with permission of The American Independent.