CNBC’s Post

The Daily Takedown: It’s almost awe-inspiring—the sheer gall of the Democratic Coalition to feign moral indignation while willfully misrepresenting the facts. They would have you believe that addressing the very policies that may have contributed to a national tragedy is somehow an act of insensitivity. As if acknowledging reality is an insult to those who suffered. No, what’s actually insulting is their blatant attempt to shield DEI policies from scrutiny by exploiting grief as a political cudgel. Trump’s decision to highlight hiring standards in the wake of disaster isn’t “attacking” DEI—it’s recognizing that when lives are on the line, qualifications should take precedence over ideological purity. If there’s even a possibility that compromised standards played a role, a responsible leader asks those questions. But instead of engaging in an honest discussion, they shriek that Trump is “politicizing” the moment—when in reality, they are the ones using the tragedy to deflect from potential systemic failures. And let’s not forget the breathtaking irony: the same people who spent four years accusing Trump of being “reckless” are now outraged that he’s demanding accountability for aviation safety. The same crowd who insisted “lives are at stake” over COVID protocols now argue that questioning hiring policies affecting air traffic control is beyond the pale. If hypocrisy were jet fuel, these people could power the entire airline industry.

"Why hasn't the USS Boxer gotten more attention from the press and Congress! They should be asking Secretary Del Toro hard questions about..." he said while sharing a news article written by a reporter who clearly watched members of Congress question the Secretary about the USS Boxer this week. 🤦♂️ Friends, the USS Boxer has gotten PLENTY of attention from the press -- the defense trade press. Military.com in particular have covered Boxer RELENTLESSLY, but their investigative report from last summer is a highlight. Please stop basing your assessments of the press' attention on UNREALISTIC expectations about what the New York Times or CNN chooses to highlight on a given day. People sometimes ask me how reporters make a determination of whether something is newsworthy. Here's the first thing I do (spoilers, I don't look at the Times or CNN): I check whether it's been covered by the reporters I know pay attention to the same issues. Of course, I'd like you to read my coverage at Breaking Defense, but if I don't cover something, here's several outlets who potentially did: USNI News ✔ Defense News✔ Defense One✔ Inside Defense✔ There's plenty of others out there, but those are the ones that I personally check for the issues on my beat. If none of us covered the issue? Well, shame on us. Send us tips. We'll do better next time. But best of luck finding a major issue that not one of the dozens of defense reporters across these outlets didn't latch onto. https://lnkd.in/d8zPiJss

I never post on LinkedIn about political issues. But his latest antics are even more morally reprehensible than I thought was possible, even for him. Any insinuation that this horrible tragedy was in any way connected to efforts to correct decades-old imbalances through DEI is dangerous, divisive and dumb. The investigations are ongoing. Nowhere, has anyone else tried to blame this tragedy on DEI factors. Standard training programs for air traffic controllers have not changed. 2 of the Blackhawk pilots have been recognized as a highly trained - one with over 500 flight hours and another with over 1000. Others have raised more realistic potential contributing factors, which are well-know and documented for that area, such as flight congestion and air traffic wait times. He spews out baseless and unfounded claims. And even though he may backpedal, the damage has already been done. He has already painted the picture: DEI = hiring unqualified people = tragedy. Shame on anyone who condones or at worst, excuses this behavior. #DEIStillMatters Trump blames DEI, Army pilot error for deadly Black Hawk collision

Today marks the 163rd anniversary of the start of the Civil war with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Of the 85 union troops, how many of them survived the two day 3,000 cannon ball bombardment of the Confederates? Was it one quarter? One half? Nope, all of them. Did all of the union troops get to go home alive? Nope again. Two soldiers were killed in the surrender ceremony. I did not fight in the civil war and I am arm-chair quarterbacking from over a century and a half away, but it seems that bad risk management was to blame. In a long lost American tradition of randomly shooting guns off into the air to mark just about any occasion, the Union troops were half way through a 100 gun salute to the Stars and Bars when a spark ignited a pile of cartridges. 💥I can understand something like that happening in the heat of battle, but for a ceremony you would think that they would have better controls for keeping the cartridges covered between shots or placing them at a safe distance. Similar mistakes are made almost daily in the United States (all be it, without cannons). Between 2017 and 2021, fire departments across the country responded to nearly 4,500 fires per year at structures that were under construction. The number one cause of those fires was heat sources being too close to combustible materials, abandoned or discarded materials or products, and electrical failures or malfunctions.

I happen to have been Advisor to WHs when such rare and terrible occurrences have occurred. Nothing is unnecessarily rushed -- not investigation, media releases or top levels meetings. In the WH senior Cabinet sits and waits telephones ringing and ringing. Taking a macro view of this next day the rising autocrat oligarch can attempt to micromanage government. That never works for the Executive in Chief/Commander in Chief. What serves is week to week preparation and training. What is required of a president though optional for a CEO is trusting the multi layered organization in place. We can expect 47 to seek to quickly apportion all blame far from himself and terminate a non maga loyal long service professional over this in favor of some 47 lackey. I'm sad for the families and angry that that the president does not offer cool measured response with benefit of days of discovery. But who needs facts? 🙃 A gesture of party unity would be appropriate in this moment of terrible loss Admiral Ron Scott SOCOM, JCS Advisor to White Houses From the story below: - Making up claims like that is irresponsible and horrible, not least because it's painful for the families involved. It certainly seems like Ds could point out that Trump is gutting federal capacity, and that will lead to many more accidents like this one, though." "I'm not blaming Trump for last night's crash but imagine if Biden fired 100 FAA officers a week prior to a plane crash," added the Krassentstein brothers, a pair of online influencers. "What would Fox News cover for the next two weeks?" "The head of the FAA had imposed fines on Musk and SpaceX for violating air safety regulations," said Bluesky user DianaResists. "Musk forced the FAA head to resign because he 'over-regulated' air safety requirements. At the time of the Potomac plane crash Trump had not replaced the FAA Administrator." - Read "‘Trump should be investigated’: President bashed for ‘utterly horrible’ comment on tragedy" on SmartNews: https://lnkd.in/e2Bkktp7

Donald Trump sinks to a new low and blames "diversity" for the tragic plane crash in Washington D.C. — avoiding the truth that our Federal Aviation Administration’s leader resigned after Elon Musk pressured him to. Trump then got brutally fact-checked to his face... "Are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?" a reporter asked Trump during a press briefing. "It just could have been," said Trump, offering no evidence. "We have a high standard. We've had a much higher standard than anybody else and there are things where you have to go by brain power." The implication here is that diverse hires are somehow lacking in brain power — an assertion that is certain to please Trump's racist base. "You have to go by psychological quality and psychological quality is a very important element of it," he continued. "These are various very powerful tests that we put to use, and they were terminated by Biden and Biden went by a standard that's the exact opposite." It must be pointed out that Michael Whitaker, the FAA's leader, stepped down from his role on January 20th after Elon Musk demanded that he leave. And Trump wasn't done there... "We don't even yet know the names of the sixty-seven people who were killed, and you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?" asked CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "No, I don't think so at all," said Trump. "I don't think were the names of the people— You mean the names of the people that are on the plane? Uh, you think that's going to make a difference?" "Does it comfort their families to hearing you blaming DEI?" asked Collins.

Over the next four years, any issue that arises will be blamed on diversity. The message being pushed is clear: if it weren’t for Black people in jobs they "don’t belong in," nothing bad would ever happen. This was the underlying narrative used by the President of the United States—at the bully pulpit. The ways this parallels the end of Reconstruction are not only shocking but terrifying people keep talking about fascism in Europe--you just need to look at our own history to see what's going on. At this point, these statements function as racial slurs and should be treated as such when reported. The reality of increasing air traffic controllers had nothing to do with lowering standards; it was a response to a shortage of people willing to take on the job. The claim that diversity initiatives compromised safety is both false and dangerous. This is outrageous. If this is what they mean by being “anti-DEI,” they really mean being anti-Black labor at all levels. Under this logic, any mistake made by a person of color is the collective fault of all people of color. Meanwhile, when a white person makes an error, it’s just "human error." The double standard is glaring.

9/11 Commission Report - "We hope the terrible loss chronicled in this report can create something positive-an America that is safer, stronger and wiser. That September day we came together as a nation. The test before us is to sustain the unity of purpose and meet the challenges now confronting us". "We learned about an enemy who is sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal" "We learned that the institutions charged with protecting our borders, civil aviation, and national security did not understand how grave this threat could be, and did not adjust their policies, plans, and practices to deter or defeat it. We learned of fault lines within our government - between foreign and domestic intelligences, and between and within agencies. We learned of the pervasive problems of managing and sharing information across a large and unwieldy government that had been built in a different era to confront dangers". Something to reflect on as we pause for a moment today to think of the many innocent lives lost. #neverforget #911 #commission #report

Here's a distribution chart of when defense appropriations were enacted each year for the past 48 years (since the start of the fiscal year was moved to 1 Oct). The most common time is in December, which is not surprising, but notice the long tail after December. Only twice have defense appropriations been enacted in January (neither time was after an election), and it has never happened in February. So if Congress does not finish appropriations in December, history suggests that the next most likely time will be March.