Raw Intel

Want to know an organization's priorities? Follow the money. The skunk at the navalist picnic last week, in an already tough year, was the unexpected - by almost everyone - rather clunky MEMORANDUM of June 4, 2021 put our by the Acting Secretary of the Navy. You can read it in full here or below, but it outlines some significant cuts in to the Navy's teeth, - The Navy cannot afford to simultaneously develop the next generation of air, surface and subsurface platforms...prioritize of of the following (sic) capabilities and re-phase the the other two after an assessment of operational, financial, and technical risk. ... - The Navy cannot afford to own, operate, and…

This is the 4th and a half draft of this week's DivThu ... a much more simplified version. I did have a very long post, but decided that was unnecessary. It was better, especially with Part 2 - the Navy's Reading List - added below, to keep this rather simple as I think it speaks for itself. Let's go. Part 1: Navy Task Force One. If you were going to try to get the temperature of race relations in our nation, probably the worst time to do it in the last 35 years would have been over the summer and fall of 2020. As our Navy reflects the society it comes from, it would be only natural that the high emotions, cultural climate, and all that happened in that time period w…

Unless you live in a highly isolated environment where you don't spend too much time reading and understanding the nation you serve & live amongst others in the military in these co-ed quasi-monastic cloisters known as government quarters (yes, I'm looking at you DC GOFO community), you are well aware that the last place to look for any advice on issues of "gender" related issues is academia. Only a fool would ask academia for advice here, or someone who was a true believer and wanted a club to beat the pagans with until they convert. Maybe a bit of both. Of course, just like in corporate America where the weakest senior leadership fears their HR department more than …

If you think Critical Race Theory in high schools is of questionable utility, then you will love what has come to the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen. With the CNO endorsing one of the most high-profile race essentialists, Kendi, to the Navy at large there are no guardrails to the most divisive, and in many ways racist ideas from being brought into all levels of our Navy. You can call it “racial essentialism,” CRT, or just plain racism … but what we’ve tried to warn everyone about for over a decade and a half is here with bells on. There is bad news, and there is good news. First, the bad news; do you know who Claudia Rankine is? Neither did I until a little birdie…

Most who have had their kids enter college in the last couple of decades - especially the last decade - have seen the sociopolitical indoctrination of our kids in the world view of the diversity industry. They don't just get informed about how racist their nation is, they are told that their college, their classes, even they themselves are "problematic." For many who have not been in the military recently, you might think that this issue is mostly a problem at civilian liberal arts colleges and maybe it creeps in to STEM programs at public universities, but surely our nation's service academies are not wasting time injecting disunity and division in to our military's next…

Today we return to the subject of the addition to the CNO's reading list of a book that openly calls for the most sectarian view of race. Worse, it calls for the official application of racism in to official policy. For those who have not read his book, let me pull out how Ibram X. Kendi defines things in his book, "How to be an Antiracist," the book in question. Words mean things, and when people redefine words, you need to pay special attention; Now operationalize that concept in your mind every time in our Navy you hear, "equity." From Flight Surgeons to Nuke Power School - operationalize the above concept and how, once people read this CNO recommended book,…

A little different DivThu today. I’m not going to cover a specific outrage or Orwellian program, no, something different but more important. Consider this a war warning. Firstly, I need to repeat something for my Trump supporters here; until the Summer of 2020, he completely failed in this area. As people are policy, he failed in that he did not appoint people who understood what was going on in the larger culture. He finally caught on to what was going on and acted, specifically on Critical Race Theory, but that was him. He quickly saw what it was and took action. He needed dozens to hundreds of political appointees to see the problem and act on their own as he did, b…

It has been just about a year since the “new normal” following the defenestration of the divisive and sectarian secular religion of DEI from the Pentagon. Riding on a wave of court cases that continue to take apart decades of sanctioned bigotry, the change was abrupt and— except for the high priests and rent seekers whose entire worldview was bounded by their religion—not really missed all that much. Do not be complacent. It is easy to think that this is a permanent “new normal” but that would be an error. The action in the courts are important. The new leadership’s priorities in the Executive Branch are also important. However, without legislation, the latter is epheme…

As we watch another war wage in Europe fueled to a large degree by ethnic hatred and division, we find again people who are trying to promote the same cancerous mindset in our wonderfully diverse nation and Navy. One of the primary ways to inflame sectarian tensions is to encourage separation while at the same time instituting a series of preferences and punishments - unequal treatment - based on what group you are defined as. In the zero sum game that is promotion and desirable billets that impacts income and career prospects - that's just accelerant. The Diversity Bullies' diktat makes you disconnect your critical thinking skills. The fear that the commissariat has in…

After a summer where more and more people’s eyes have been opened to the divisive, sectarian, and even racist nature of Critical Race Theory and have risen in opposition to it and similar race-essentialist world view in to our schools, the next logical step is how people feel about it becoming an essential part of taxpayer supported public education. As we’ve discussed it in detail here, we know there is a problem in the US Navy where the Chief of Naval Operations has enthusiastically supported the works of one of the most high-profile advocates of the most cancerous forms of Critical Race Theory, Ibram X. Kendi. With that top cover, it was only a matter of time until its…

Today we're going to build off of last week's DivThu that was focused on the CNO, Admiral Giday, USN. We are going to tie in the connection between Critical Race Theory, Antiracism, and Marxism - topics everyone is talking around for reasons best explained by them if you can get them to actually answer a question. If you missed last week, click here and read it, watch the videos, then come back, We'll leave last week at the House, and go to the CNO in the Senate in this remarkable exchange with Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR). The CNO did not answer the question. He just repeated talking points from last week. He brings up unrelated topics ... as if Kendi's work has anythi…

The legal system works at the speed of smell, but we are getting closer to what may be one of the most important civil rights cases to come in front of the Supreme Court in the last half century. There are new readers coming to CDRSalamander every day, so once again let me set the foundation. The cornerstones are rather simple but essential for our wondrously polyglot experimental republic to survive; persons deserve to be judged as individuals; individuals deserve equal opportunity; people deserve to be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin; no favor should be given to nor ill-favor placed on any person based on something they can do nothi…

The last few Thursdays we've pushed back rather hard on the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gilday, USN. To be frank, he's earned it not just from me, but from Congressmen, Senators and commentators all over. If you recall, we tried to warn him back in February that his addition of the book "How to be Anti-Racist" by the highly problematic Ibram X. Kendi was a mistake. In the end, his defense of his choice and the excuses he gave - and those of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, USA - have been hollow mostly because their is nothing on the list that promotes the "critical thinking" they say they want, or attempts to get a full view of the…

What the RAF was doing is not new. What the RAF was doing is not isolated to the United Kingdom. Via SkyNews this is what broke earlier this week. (NB: first reports and all - as you will read downpost); The head of RAF recruitment has resigned in protest at an "effective pause" on offering jobs to white male recruits in favour of women and ethnic minorities, defence sources have claimed. The senior female officer apparently handed in her notice in recent days amid concerns that any such restrictions on hiring, however temporary and limited, could undermine the fighting strength of the Royal Air Force (RAF), the sources said. Official racial discrimination is wrong. It …

Remember my oft used phrase "otherwise unemployable people?" Remember how we've discussed here many Thursdays over the last two decades how the worst of academia was being invited in to our service academies and war colleges - and it would manifest itself throughout the fleet? Remember how - still to this day - the Diversity Industry's nomenklatura grows and shapes all to serve itself and its interests? We tried to warn folks back to when it started getting real bad in the Bush43 Presidency. We were - and still are - called all sorts of nasty names by people who cannot defend their secular religion. A solid confessional by Professor Russell Jacoby who, while the fetid wa…

Take a moment to think about all the news concerning the fragility of our maritime supply chain nodes. One good byproduct of this crisis is that the critical importance of merchant ships and maritime infrastructure to our national economy has come under the spotlight. For those who have spent their professional lives feeling like some Cassandra screaming in to a void of national disinterest – the opportunity to educate people while you have their attention is a once in a generation moment. In the US, in addition to the US Merchant Marine Academy, we have some states that have their own state merchant marine academies. It would be logical that the last year would have ins…

As everyone here is probably aware ... the drivers of sectarianism, division, and strife think they have the wind at their back and are on the march. There were some minor victories here and there for those who desire unity, equality, and a just society based on individual character - but make no mistake, the forces of division are on the march again. Those who desire to move to a point of unity for the citizens in our little experiment is self governance have for too long given the benefit of the doubt to people we should not have. We have let people slowly back away from the vision of a unified nation as best outlined by MLK over half a century ago, and now we find ou…

Remember, as they are mostly a military contractor, indirectly you are paying for this. From the irreplaceable Christopher Rufo; Beginning last summer, Raytheon launched a critical race theory-inspired training program called Stronger Together, encouraging employees to “becom[e] an anti-racist today.” Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes supported the campaign by signing an Action for Diversity & Inclusion statement, promising to “promote diversity” and “cultivate meaningful change for our society,” then asking all Raytheon employees to sign the pledge and “check [their] own biases.” ... Raytheon asks white employees to deconstruct their identities and “identify [their] privile…

Do I ever tire of DivThu? Yes, every Thursday I tire of it ... but we've been at it so long, why not? Do I get tired of the topic? Well, sure. Heck, almost 13-years ago I tired of seeing higher education organizations - always claiming poverty - spending millions of dollars a year, especially at the service academies, doing nothing but promoting the division of young men and woman on the basis of race and ethnicity. ...but ... especially in the last few years, there has been a wonderfully blossoming of the understanding of this cancer in higher education that bleeds out in to the general culture. That glimmer of hope and the fact that we seem to be getting traction is, re…

We started the "Keeping and Eye on the Long Game" over a decade and a half ago. Many of you have been loyal members of the Front Porch since that time, so I know you are not surprised where 2021 finds us. Look at it. Don't avert your eyes. You ... yes you ... allowed this to happen because you elected the people you elected and promoted those you promoted. You allowed other priorities to creep in where maintaining the world's dominate navy should have been #1. Sadly, many are either refusing to accept this fact or are acting as if it all of a sudden snuck up on them. Fire them all. China was already in the midst of a shipbuilding spree like few the world has ever…