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[Order Daniel Greenfield’s new book, Domestic Enemies: HERE.]
Last year the United States Army recommended that military service members struggling with inflation should apply for Food Stamps. This year, the Military Family Nutrition Access Act was introduced in the Senate to make more military families eligible for food stamps.
In the past, Senate members and elected officials had tried to get military families off food stamps. Measures like the “Remove Service Members from Food Stamps Act” in 2000 set out to boost military pay. Bush and Gore both promised to end the need for food stamps and the number of personnel on food stamps dropped into the low thousands. It’s now over 20,000.
Instead of ending the need for food stamps, politicians are trying to make them easier to access.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has better ideas for where to spend the defense budget. The Pentagon is asking for $114 military to fund its DEI initiatives which would focus on “ensuring our entire workforce lives by fundamental values that bolster unit cohesion”. This is a euphemism for leftist political indoctrination which has already gravely undermined morale.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a term that represents replacing merit and equality with government intervention or ‘equity’ to achieve the ‘correct’ outcomes through measures such as affirmative action, penalizing people based on their race and spreading the idea that differences in outcomes are due to ‘systemic racism’ and ‘whiteness’ that have to be stamped out.
The millions will be spent on, among other things, fighting “problematic behaviors” and force officers to impose “a climate of inclusion that supports diversity” that ”is free from problematic behaviors.” Not only is the Defense Department determined to function like a college campus, but it wants to spend over $100 million to wreck what’s left of morale in the military.
The $114 million budget request represents a 32% increase from the previous year’s $86 million DEI budget. While the $114 million budget has made headlines, it’s a slice in a much bigger pie.
The Defense Department’s Equity Plan reveals billions in ‘equity’ spending including “investing over $1.4 billion in programs that address legacy impacts from past DoD actions.”
The Pentagon is already spending $400 million on conservation.
What is the national security priority involved in “managing and restoring habitats and wildlife populations” and “the conservation and recovery of threatened and endangered species, as well as common wildlife such as migratory birds and game species”?
Isn’t this properly a job for the Fish and Wildlife Service? Do we not already have enough environmental agencies that the United States military needs to be transformed into one?
The military isn’t allowed to protect the border, but it’s tasked with protecting plants.
The good news is that the San Clemente Island paintbrush is off the endangered species list, thanks to the work of the U.S. Navy, the bad news is that the Navy is unready to fight a war against China. But that is what happens when leftist agenda items, not winning wars, become the mission. The military is asked to do everything except defeat our enemies.
Last year the Defense Department had a $3 billion “climate” request. This year it’s $5 billion.
Meanwhile a quarter of enlisted personnel are having trouble feeding their families. But the Department of Defense is spending $12 million on the 13,000 square foot ‘Guam Cultural Repository’ to hold local artifacts. There’s an entire Department of Defense Cultural Resources Program that works with Indian tribes in America to “manage” cultural resources.
Much of what the military does, does not actually need to be done by the military.
The $114 million DEI funding request is only the tip of a very large iceberg that will expand the command and control of the DEI bureaucracy within the military, but the Defense Department budget request is rotted through with leftist agendas even far beyond those nine figures.
The Pentagon keeps failing annual audits and can’t account for much of its spending. Under Biden, the DOD budget has become a checking account for woke policies. The sheer amount of money passing through the military has made it all too easy for leftists to steal what they want.
All under the guise of national security.
Parts of the DOD that people don’t even think about are going fully woke. After acknowledging poverty among military families, the Equity Action Plan hijacked it with DEI language to help “Latinx” students and promote “inclusive educational experiences” with “Robot-Assisted Instruction”.
The Department of Defense’s education arm, DoDEA, will have a “division that focuses solely on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. This division will examine, identify, and eliminate inequities, barriers, and gaps in DEI in all aspects” and force teachers into using “culturally responsive teaching strategies” to indoctrinate students to hate America and support the Left.
Instead of helping the children of military families, the Pentagon is pushing DEI on them.
The DEI agenda claims to stand for social justice, but in reality it’s redistributing money from working class taxpayers and military families to highly paid consultants and DEI personnel like Kelisa Wing, the head of DoDEA’s DEI unit, who had ranted about “white folx” with the “CAUdacity to say that black people can be racist too” who enjoyed a $164,000 salary.
The children of military families are going hungry so that DEI can gorge itself on the defense budget. This isn’t social justice: it’s a shameless act of treason and a horrifying injustice.
Soldiers are on food stamps while military DEI consultants live in mansions.
The right number for the Defense Department’s DEI budget should be zero and less than zero. Past funds allocated to this ideological effort to politicize the military and poison its culture should be clawed back. The Pentagon needs to shed all extraneous equity and environmental responsibilities and focus on national security. And once the government isn’t spending billions on “equity” and “climate”, it will have enough left over to take care of the troops.
Paton would have the whole bunch busted down to Private No Class and had them peeling Potato’s
Might as well give everyone food stamps. Tracing the money flow, it is really an economic stimulus for small business, such as Mom and Pop grocery stores. And one can practically live on food stamps, combined with other scams grifters have come up with. Why else do we have an obesity epidemic? I remember in the 1970s we had the “Hunger Project” as so many people were not getting enough to eat, now we need an “Obesity Project” 🙂
While I understand the need for generalizations sometimes, I do get tired of these blanket statements about obesity. There’s good reason for these generalizations, granted. But not everyone is obese from sitting around in front of a screen & stuffing themselves with donuts or something. I have learned some people are obese from thyroid issues, & the medicine to treat the condition causes weight gain as well.
That said, food indoctrination has been going on for decades too. How many commercials do you see telling you about the health benefits of eating carrots or mustard greens? How many advertise fast food, beer, soda, & on children’s channels, candy & junk cereal?
But all this is really off topic from what this article is about. I am ashamed of how our military is run. Our soldiers deserve far better than this. Reading this article makes me think, it’s true…the lunatics are running the asylum!!!
Yes, there are different causes for obesity. I’m not sure I suggested otherwise?
That said the current diet and sedentary forms of work definitely play a role in the overall increase.
Individual experiences will differ.
My apologies Mr Greenfield, my comment was not directed at you or your article which wasn’t on the subject of obesity. It was a comment posted here that put it in my mind.
I find all your articles to be well written, thoughtful, & insightful… & I have never heard you express an unkind word. If you thought I was correcting you, please accept my apology.
Just remember how Obama has that Solder hold t hat Umbrella over him least it got all wet and melted like with Dorthy and the Wicked Witch and forced Military Wedding to relocate so he could play a few holes of Golf
Obama had nothing but contempt for our soldiers. And showed it.
How the DEI Racket can now be dislodged from the government and corporate world and cultural and educational
institutions and the Defense Department, etc,etc,etc., is a mystery to me.
Once these rackets get installed and entrenched is is near impossible to be rid of them.
Too many people are making money off the racket or have become dependent on the DEI Racket.
Pay the service man or woman enough so they can buy food in the grocery store. This seems to be something congress has a hard time understanding. Not everything can be bought at the PX.
Why does the government humiliate our service men?
Cut some the waste spending congress is so good at. Start with the congressional slush fund that pays for sexual law suits against congressmen.
This is a Maoist cultural revolution. We must all reject this subterfuge and subversion.
Hold onto your values and beliefs.
This is a psychological war on American values and foundational principles.
Never surrender.
indeed it is and that’s a vital message
Don’t feel sorry for soldiers on food stamps. Its their own fault for joining in the first place. In fact, the entire food stamps’ program should be discontinued. Do your research and find out just how much that program is costing each year. That program and many other programs will tell you why we have a 34.5 trillion dollar national debt.
Nothing has changed in 45 years since I was an e-3 supporting a family. Crappy quarters, shop with coupons and hope that you didn’t have a major vehicle breakdown.
How the VA and military can overlook a wounded combat veteran that needs special treatment, yet worry more about converting some pervert to their dream sex is beyond me.
Stand firm and God Bless America.
This has been a recuring issue for years. The problem is not the base pay, the problem is the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS). The way it used to work, enlisted service members who lived in the barracks or dormitories ate at the dining hall without charge. Members who were married, commissioned officers and senior NCO’s who lived in base housing or off base received an allowance for the purchase of food. Military members can buy their food at the commissary, a government supermarket where the prices run about 5 to 10% below their civilian counterparts. The BAS is now $460.00 a month, tax free. Not bad. The only problem for the married service members is the allowance is the same whether you have no dependents or six. Married enlisted troops in the lower ranks with dependents always have always had a problem making ends meet for this reason. The military tries to work around this by finding jobs on base for military spouses. Of course, this creates the need for day care facilities on base, which is also problematic.
Congress constantly grants pay increases to service members. I am sure the brass hats and service secretaries tell legislators that the base pay must increase to stop service members from signing up for food stamps, but it never does.
The commissary, in many years past, was heavily subsidized and was truly affordable by all service members. Instead of all of the giveaways to illegals and those unwilling to work, go back to the old system and provide everything a.soldier and their family needs to live.
US military recruitment and volunteer service is reaching a point of woke DEI chaos. A 2023 Pentagon study found that 77 percent of all Americans between ages of 17 to 24 are ineligible for military service due to: obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, low or substandard entrance test scores, criminal records, and the fact that a recent national survey found that only 9 percent of young Americans were willing to consider military service!
Can you really blame them when the US military has become a woke politically correct madhouse of Biden and his cabals diametrically opposed values to that of the nation’s Founders? Exactly how is this sock puppet and his DEI Punch and Judy Show going to inspire America’s young people to fight for this country? As long as this pathetic joke and his administration remains in the White House, our recruitment crisis is only going to get worse!
The U.S. Dept of Defense(Pentagon)should be to protect America and Americans not building Cultural Centers or Dance Studios
“Shameless acts of treason” seem to be depressingly common in thus administration.
Paying the soldiers more would cut into the ROI of all the higher ups in the military/industrial complex. In a way, the military is a reflection of our society in general. Those tasked with doing the heavy lifting are the lowest paid. It almost looks like the soldiers are paid from the rounding off of the multi-billion dollar contracts handed out by the politicians who make more off their investments than the soldiers who risk their lives.
I am proud to have served in the Army for 25 years. It’s toll was 3 marriages. They were alone and hungry. I have 3 boys 4 if you count my MP son died in OIF,AND 1 DAUGHTER and 2 grandchildren. Please spend some of the billions on our family members who live in need.I hope 🙏 you’ll have some pity on them.
Help our own military families, to be able to make food available for our children 🙏. Please stop spending money to line the pockets of Big Business and Politicians. Thankfully FROM A 100% DISABLED VETERAN…