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DOGE-ing toward the best Department of Defense ever

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5 months ago

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President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth have made it very clear. The United States will have the best Military in the world, bar none.  This goal is being established to deter and prevent conflict, not start it, slip into it, or perpetuate it.  The President and Secretary of Defense have also said we will grow the military and also cut inefficient spending.  This message is not an oxymoron – with the DOGE raids on other departments, the horror stories of fraud, waste, and abuse are far worse than we thought.

In one of his first public comments on the impending arrival of DOGE to DOD, Secretary Hegseth made it clear that attacking fraud, waste, and abuse would happen on a scale never before seen in the notoriously inefficient DOD.  Secretary Hegseth said that DOGE is “here, and they’re going to be incorporated into what we’re doing at DOD to find fraud, waste and abuse in the largest discretionary budget in the federal government,”.  The Secretary said full system access would be given to DOGE, “with proper safeguards and classifications” to ensure redundancies are identified, eliminated, and that non-core priorities and activities would relentlessly be ridden from the DOD.  Secretary Hegseth said, “With DOGE, we are focusing as much as we can on headquarters and fat and top-line stuff that allows us to reinvest elsewhere”

Appointing the best Military Leadership

In the tradition of “Plucking”, which has ample legal and historic precedent, a whole new slate of uniformed and career Senior Executives are needed across the DOD.  Although spending close to $1 Trillion a year, the situation is dire.  The bases look shabby, the number of aircraft, ships, and missiles is shrinking, deterrence is failing, and until the election of Donald J. Trump, there was a recruiting and retention crisis.  It all begins with leadership and many need to go.  The initial top five list of firings could include:

General “C.Q.” Brown (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff):  The Pentagon has run aground, and the Skipper is always relieved in these situations (as the Captain of the U.S.S. Truman just experienced).  General Brown has been front and center in promoting the toxic and cancerous DEI culture and that culture has been fired by Secretary of Defense Hegseth, hence General Brown’s services are no longer needed.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti (Chief of Naval Operations):  The Navy should be the lead service in building deterrence to China.  Yes, the Navy had a perfect badminton score in the two large missile attacks by Iran on Israel and the Houthis in the Red Sea, but the Navy is in bad shape.  The ship numbers are dwindling, collisions are occurring, the Navy is shooting down its own aircraft, use of autonomy is lethargic, and there is more rust than paint on most Navy ships.  The once mighty U.S. Navy is a shadow of what it was.  Admiral Franchetti has DEI roots, time for a new Skipper.

General Randy George (Army Chief of Staff):  The Army needs to radically transform into a new, smaller force structure and needs fresh leadership to conduct this process.  The term, “Transform” has routinely been used by Army leadership.  “Transform” usually means a perpetuation of stodgy, passive aggressive behavior to shield the traditional Army structure from cuts.  Those days are gone, and new leadership is needed.  The Army may shrink drastically and even transfer entire units to the Navy and Air Force; traditional Army think will fight this tooth and nail.  Sergeant Major of the Army Michael R. Weimer has shown distinct leadership and may serve well as acting or permanent Army Chief of Staff.

General David W. Allvin (Air Force Chief of Staff):  The Air Force will be the key partner with Navy as deterrence is built in the Western Pacific.  The Air Force needs to disperse, harden, and camouflage post haste while building force structure with pervasive autonomy and AI.  New leadership is needed to do this with alacrity.

All the uppity O6s who mouthed off with Woke, DEI, and Trump Derangement Syndrome Blather:  Colonel Christina Bembenek, current Commander of the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade in Germany is a poster child for this behavior.  She and others were coddled and encouraged in their hateful virtue signaling.  Time for them to go before a retention board before they are forced out.

Schwacking the Overhead

When I started on the Office of the Secretary of Defense Staff, I had one person working for me.  When I left, I had up to 75 personnel on my staff.  I felt far more effective with three to five sharp staffers than with 50 to 75 (and most of thm were well above average).  Most uniformed or civilian bureaucrats learn the gameplay really quick.  More staff and more funding means more success and prestige, ergo, grow everything no matter what the question.  Get a new task?  Demand more staff and resources.  Those days are over.

The deepest part of the Deep State in the National Security World are the Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs).  In theory, they were supposed to work the hard, technical problem sets.  Unfortunately, they have become the jobs program to employ Democrats when they are out of office.  I can say this as a material witness for six years while with one FFRDC.  The big three are Mitre, Rand, and The Aerospace Corporation.  Billions can be saved downsizing these organizations that are overflowing from the C-Suites with woke ideology which clouds their thinking and thus outcomes.

Eliminating the dysfunction of the Acquisition Process

Even the layperson knows the Department of Defense Acquisition Process is broken.  The high religion of dysfunction within DOD has been the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS).  This is the insane system that transforms requirements into programs that are supposed to deliver aircraft, ships, tanks, etc.  Since the end of World War II, this process has brought the outcome of yesterday’s solutions, delivered tomorrow, at unaffordable costs to a venerated high art form.

The Hudson Institute has bravely stepped forward and instead of the tired “let’s reform it” gibberish, they put it very simply, “burn it down” and start over.  Having had to participate in the torture of JCIDS for 100s of meetings, no question JCIDS has to be eliminated.  The spectacle of this process was little different than the bloodshed of the Roman Coliseum or the chaos of Wipeout USA.  President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are correct.  We can build a far bigger and better Military with far less.

All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization.

The post DOGE-ing toward the best Department of Defense ever appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Politics

Hulk Hogan’s Death Certificate Released

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15 hours ago

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August 2, 2025

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Hulk Hogan’s death certificate was obtained by TMZ on Friday.

Hogan passed away at the age of 71 last Thursday from acute myocardial infarction. He also had a history of leukemia.

The wrestling legend was rushed to the hospital last week after emergency responders received a phone call for “cardiac arrest.”

The death certificate revealed Hulk Hogan was cremated in Clearwater, Florida.

“Hulk’s official cause of death was previously revealed as a heart attack. His medical records also showed a history of atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. HH was also diagnosed with a form of cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), though details surrounding the cancer are unclear,” TMZ reported.

Hulk Hogan death certificate / TMZ

President Trump praised Hulk Hogan for his “absolutely electric” speech at last year’s RNC convention.

“We lost a great friend today, the “Hulkster.” Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week. He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive. To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!”

Hulk Hogan and his wife were baptized in December 2023.

“Total surrender and dedication to Jesus is the greatest day of my life. No worries, no hate, no judgment… only love!” Hulk Hogan said.

RIP to an American icon.

The post Hulk Hogan’s Death Certificate Released appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Stephen A. Smith SLAMS Zohran Mamdani and the Democrat Party

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15 hours ago

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August 2, 2025

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Stephen A. Smith SLAMS Zohran Mamdani and the Radical Democrat Wing: “Either the Party Ends, or the United States Ends”

In a bold and fiery statement that has made waves across social media and major news outlets, commentator Stephen A. Smith unleashed a scathing rebuke of the radical left’s takeover of the Democratic Party. Targeting the likes of New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Senator Bernie Sanders, Smith warned of the existential threat their socialist ideas pose to the future of the United States.

Smith reacted to a recent statement by Mamdani, who argued that “no

The post Stephen A. Smith SLAMS Zohran Mamdani and the Democrat Party appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Trump Gets Backlash Over RNC Chair Endorsement: An LGBT ‘Ally’ Who ‘Just Tried to Pass Amnesty’

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16 hours ago

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August 2, 2025

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Get ready for the next clash of conservatives.

When Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley announced Thursday he is entering the race for Senate in North Carolina, he did more than put a second high-profile name in the running in the Tar Heel State.

He set up what could be a bruising battle for leadership of the GOP on a nationwide scale.

In a July 24 post on the social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump, the hands-down heavyweight of party politics, heartily endorsed Whatley in the North Carolina race, and at the same time endorsed Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, the party’s current national treasurer, to step into Whatley’s place.

But there’s already a groundswell of opposition to Gruters. And one of his most vocal opponents is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

As the Sunshine State news website Florida Politics noted in a July 16 report, DeSantis slammed Gruters in a news conference where DeSantis appointed Florida state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to the post of Florida chief financial officer.

It’s a job Gruters has been running for since May of last year.

While appointing a rival to the vacant post, DeSantis made his distaste for Gruters painfully clear.

“If George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO?’ my response would be, no, I can’t do that without betraying the voters that elected me,” DeSantis said, according to Florida Politics.

He accused Gruters of siding with teachers’ unions in battles with the state government, as well as supporting the marijuana industry (a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational use failed in November).

According to the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis and Gruters clashed over a bill Gruters supported that would have put the job of chief immigration officer in the state in the hands of the state’s agriculture commissioner.

In a post on the social media platform X, DeSantis called the bill “truly contemptible” and described it as “amnesty.”

And as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported in January 2020, Gruters had a history of sponsoring pro-gay legislation in the state before appearing to reverse course.

“I’m an ally of the LGBTQ community,” he told the newspaper.

More recently, in April, Gruters made the wrong kind of headlines when the U.K.’s Daily Mail, a British outlet with a major North American presence, revealed he was a follower of 60 accounts on the adult-themed OnlyFans site.

(“I typically engage accounts that are recommended or interact with my account,” Gruters told the Daily Mail. “That said, I will review my follows and remove any content that may be considered questionable.”)

Conservative media users aren’t letting that past go.

“Perfect for San Francisco, nightmare for Florida,” one pro-DeSantis account on the social media platform X declared.

“Gruters just tried to pass amnesty for illegal aliens in Florida,” wrote another user.

The conservative pro-life website LifeSiteNews made its view clear in its headline and summary head about Trump’s endorsement.

“Trump endorses LGBT ‘ally’ Joe Gruters to be next RNC chair,” the headline declared.

The summary headline?

“Donald Trump has endorsed Joe Gruters to lead the Republican National Committee despite the Florida lawmaker’s liberal stances on LGBT ‘discrimination,’ immigration, teachers’ unions, and marijuana.”

According to Florida Politics, Gruters was the first Florida lawmaker to make an official endorsement of Trump in the Republican 2024 primary — snubbing DeSantis’ short-lived, mistake-in-hindsight primary challenge to the 45th president.

That no doubt plays a role in both Trump’s support for Gruters and DeSantis’ opposition, but there appear to be deeper factors at play here.

In a job as crucial as the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, having anything less than sterling, unblemished bona fides is going to be a problem with a voter base with a limited trust in establishment politicians, even if they have an “R” next to their name.

Questionable positions on “trans” issues, illegal immigration, and drugs — not to mention raising eyebrows by following OnlyFans models — are serious red flags for any contender for the job.

Trump has proven over and over again what he can accomplish with sheer force of will, and he’s almost single-handedly responsible for revising the ideological power of the Republican Party after the dormancy of the post-Mitt Romney world.

As the titular head of the party, as well as probably the single most influential human being in the world, much less the American GOP, he could almost certainly install any chairman of the party he chooses.

However, the situation now is the midterms are approaching next year, and the magic “Trump” name is not on the ballot — which means the energy of the party faithful is going to be at a premium for all of the Republican Party.

The question for Trump is, is a clash with conservatives worth it?

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Trump Gets Backlash Over RNC Chair Endorsement: An LGBT ‘Ally’ Who ‘Just Tried to Pass Amnesty’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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