Tag: US Government

U.S. government civilians will have a little less in their pay checks this month:

Civilians working for the U.S. government in South Korea will see 5% less post allowance in their next paycheck as the dollar continued its climb against the won. 

The change in post allowance — the equivalent of the tax-free cost-of-living allowance received by service members and their families — took effect May 7 and will remain in place at least until May 21, according to the State Department’s website.

Post allowance rates in South Korea are based on an employee’s duty station and are between 15% to 25% of a worker’s annual spendable income, which is calculated by salary and family size.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I figured it was only a matter of time before the leaker got caught. There are ways of tracking down people who print out classified documents and post them online:

A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has emerged as a main person of interest in the disclosure of highly classified military documents was taken into custody Thursday by federal agents, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced.

Investigators believe that the guardsman, who specializes in intelligence, led the online chat group where the documents were posted. Garland identified the guardsman as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, and said he would be charged with the unauthorized removal of classified national defense information.

FBI agents converged Thursday at Teixeira’s Massachusetts home and heavily armed tactical agents took Teixeira, who was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, into custody outside the property, “without incident,” Garland said.

Yahoo.com

You can read more at the link, but from what I have read about this guy he was posting these documents to essentially win arguments and be the cool guy in the chatroom he was part of. Hopefully he spends more time in jail than the last major leaker to be a deterrent to this type of behavior.

Cutting “woke” may make for good politics in Republican right, but it is going to little to save money in the Defense budget:

A variety of social issues can fall under the “woke” umbrella, including diversity, equity and inclusion training, funding for women’s reproductive health and support for gender identity initiatives. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., Jordan and other Republicans have argued the military’s attention to “the left’s social agenda” has hurt readiness.

“If we’d focus on getting rid of all the ‘woke’ in our military, we’d have the money we need to make sure our troops get the pay raise they deserve, we’d have the weapons systems and training that needs to be done so that we’re ready to deal with our adversaries around the planet,” Jordan said Sunday on Fox News.

Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., insinuated last month that transgender service members were taking financial advantage of the Pentagon’s policy to provide hormone therapy, mental health care and surgeries for troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria. She said a cadet at Fort Sill, Okla., had told her that he enlisted in the military because he wanted the government to pay for gender reassignment surgery.

“It was shocking that he would actually verbalize that in front of all those officers and other cadets standing there,” Bice said in December during a House Armed Services committee hearing. “This is an issue, and I do think we should be looking at it.”

The cost of transgender care is minuscule when compared to the overall size of the defense budget. The Pentagon spent $15 million treating transgender troops from 2016 to 2021, including about $3 million for surgery, according to the Defense Health Agency. The parts of the spending plan dealing with personnel are so vast and expensive that carving out items targeting “woke” culture will have a negligible impact, said Michael Herson, president of the lobbying firm American Defense International and a former Defense Department official.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but if Congress wants to save money than look at wasteful military acquisitions programs which they probably won’t because they produce jobs in influential voting districts.

This is definitely a major issue for DOD employees working overseas that need routine medical care:

Many civilians were caught off guard in October when DHA announced they should make plans to find health care in the surrounding Japanese communities. Limited access to care has created a crisis that puts individuals, their coworkers and their families at risk, according to the post.

The DHA Indo-Pacific region director, Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Heck, said in October the agency is mandated by law to prioritize health care for active-duty service members and their families. 

As of Jan. 1, DOD employees like schoolteachers, commissary workers and contractors are limited to urgent or acute care and some specialty clinics at base hospitals. Some U.S. civilian employees of Stars and Stripes fall into this category.

For routine health maintenance and ongoing care for chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease or cancer, they are encouraged to seek Japanese health care providers. The alternative is to rely on space-available appointments after the military hospitals schedule service members and their families.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link. I have used doctors off post while stationed overseas before and the biggest issue is understanding what you are being told because English translation may not be that great depending on the hospital. The other issue is how far some of the hospitals are from the U.S. military base causing increased travel times away from work.

This statement from Kiron Skinner from the State Department is just bizarre:

Kiron Skinner says the U.S. is fighting a racial war of civilizations pitting the Americans against a non-Caucasian foe in China for the first time.

What about the Pacific War, part of World War II, waged between the U.S. and Japan? So the U.S. State Department’s policy planning director is factually inaccurate. 

Also her being Afro-American may have tinted her lens, putting the situation in a racial perspective. After all it is plausible that the U.S.-China rivalry, now being expressed in a trade war, is a clash of values, not race, as one of my Western friends argues.

On the surface, my friend’s argument may make sense and it looks like Skinner is out of her depth. That is by and large the reaction so far to her remarks at a security forum in Washington in late April, reflecting the “She is wrong but what if she proves right” kind of sentiment. 

Korea Times

How does someone working at the State Department forget about Imperial Japan during World War II? You can make an argument that the U.S. fighting the communist North Koreans and the Chinese during the Korean War was a clash of civilizations.

It is just troubling that this is one of the senior people making policy in the State Department.

Fair. One isn't hearing much about the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress. https://t.co/rxtwYH6zEk

— the oranckay (@oranckay) November 9, 2018

Remember Reality Winner?  Well she is about to be sentenced for leaking Secret information to the media and it is not looking good for her:

A Georgia woman who mailed a secret U.S. report to a news organization faces the “longest sentence” ever behind bars for a federal crime involving leaks to the news media, prosecutors said in a court filing.

Former National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner, 26, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 23 by U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall in Augusta. She pleaded guilty in June to a single count of transmitting national security information when she worked in Augusta as a translator at an NSA facility.

Winner’s plea deal with prosecutors calls for imprisonment of five years and three months. But the sentencing judge isn’t bound by that agreement. Winner’s crime carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

The Trump administration has made prosecuting government employees who leak sensitive information to the media a high priority, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged to clamp down on leaks last year.

In a court filing Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Winner’s case said the 63-month sentence they’re recommending is plenty stiff to deter other government workers from leaking sensitive information, even if it could be tougher.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but I have no sympathy for people who leak Secret information to the media.  What makes this even more pathetic for her is that the information she leaked CNN had already reported on back in October 2016.  A federal official told CNN that Russia may have compromised the personal information of Florida, Illinois, and Arizona voters.  Reality Winnner’s leak of the document just confirmed what was already known.

Democrat wants Trump to figure out how many would die in war with North Korea https://t.co/UCU8uSr5Yu

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) November 2, 2017

I tend to think that Kim Jong-un is probably sleeping very well considering he is nearing his strategic goal of obtaining a nuclear weapon with a reliable delivery system.  Once this goal is achieved he pretty much guarantees himself the ability to prevent outside regime change.  Additionally the whole world is not against North Korea, they have enough partners internationally that they continue to bring in enough revenue and components to advance their nuclear and weapons programs:

McMaster told MSNBC in an interview, “I think he should not be [sleeping well] because he has the whole world against him… He’s isolated on this.”

He described North Korea’s missiles as a “grave threat” but declined to confirm that the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile the North tested recently can reach New York. “I’m not going to confirm it,” McMaster said. “But as I mentioned, really, whether it could reach San Francisco or Pittsburgh or Washington — how much does that matter, right? It’s a grave threat.”

He added it is intolerable for North Korea have nuclear weapons that could threaten the U.S., and all options including a military option should be on the table.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters the previous day that the U.S. is willing to hold talks with the regime and added, “We do not seek regime change.”

But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal the same day, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence ruled out direct talks. The U.S.’ strategy doesn’t involve “engaging North Korea directly,” he said.

The shambolic Trump administration has frequently made it difficult to discern any clear line in the fog of obfuscation and braggadocio that emerges from it.

McMaster, an Army lieutenant general, is seen by some in the U.S. mainstream media as the most rational in the national security team and is thought to stand his ground against President Donald Trump if necessary.  [Chosun Ilbo]

By the way the past week has had a lot of White House intrigue involving H.R. McMaster.  Factions in the White House are unhappy that McMaster has been cleaning house in the National Security Council.  He even fired a staffer named Ezra Cohen-Watnick that an article last month in the Atlantic proclaimed him as,  ‘The Man McMaster Couldn’t Fire.’

Now right wing elements want President Trump to fire McMaster because of his house cleaning.  However, President Trump has come out and supported McMaster today.

That didn’t take long for LTG McMaster to shakeup the National Security Council and oust Bannon:

President Donald Trump reorganized his National Security Council on Wednesday, removing his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, and downgrading the role of his Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, according to a person familiar with the decision and a regulatory filing.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was given responsibility for setting the agenda for meetings of the NSC or the Homeland Security Council, and was authorized to delegate that authority to Bossert, at his discretion, according to the filing.

Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again “regular attendees” of the NSC’s principals committee. [Bloomberg]

You can read more at the link.