Military Strikes on Iran Imminent
- Thread starter PalmettoTiger1
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C rations were the meal "choice" back during the Vietnam era,,in cans, heat and eat. MREs come in pouches, I don't know the shelf life, but it's in years (maybe even decades) MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) are fully cooked and safe to eat cold, but are usually heated to improve taste and texture. They typically come with a flameless ration heater (FRH) that uses water to create steam, or they can be warmed by boiling the pouch, using a vehicle engine, or placing them in the sun
if I understand correctly, it's a meal prior to going to combat...But, I don't know...never had lobster when I was in..must be a generational thing
Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that democrats come out of the woodwork to highlight questionable spending of republicans and the same happens with republicans vis a vis democrats. Maybe both should work together and find the waste overall. It might add to credibility
I don't benefit either way. If we're going to get upset over questionable government spending we could start here then revisit solyndra, subsidies for cars, studying shrimp on treadmills, gaying of maps, you name it... Seems as if some people's waste is another's good government. And, you know what, neither party, when out of power, is on moral high ground calling out the other.
Sort of my point all along with DOGE. That I am actually pro- the idea of DOGE but Elon went at it so incredibly ham fisted and partisan it turned off any support they would get.
Correct, DOGE cut anything they viewed as 'partisan' but without any actual thought about it. In the end their terrible analysis and process probably ended up costing the tax payers. If you wanted to bring accountability to spending in the government, you have a huge amount of support from me. But hiring idiots out of college with no experience, and having them just google search for terms like DEI and then terminate a program because the text appears, is very smooth brained and is partisan hack politics.
If we are going to be serious about DOGE, Elon didn't go ham fisted enough. Our government is so corrupt that if you try and stop the corruption people whine that you are stopping it too fast. Think about that for a second.
And NO, much of the spending is not just "spending i don't like". I'm talking about actual fraud and theft.
The system is fat. It's inefficient. Its why i pay $4200 a month for healthcare (with a $7500 deductible) while others get it for free.
We need to enforce the law. Hold people accountable. And get an honest freaking system. A little bit of cheating is not ok. A little bit of fraud is not ok. Where are Americans morals? When did we stoop so low as to allow this corruption into our society. We simply aren't holding people accountable.
The system is fat. It's inefficient. Its why i pay $4200 a month for healthcare (with a $7500 deductible) while others get it for free.
We need to enforce the law. Hold people accountable. And get an honest freaking system. A little bit of cheating is not ok. A little bit of fraud is not ok. Where are Americans morals? When did we stoop so low as to allow this corruption into our society. We simply aren't holding people accountable.
I still think they went about it the wrong way. They started at the source of the money - DC - and should have started where it's actually handed out - the states, cities, grants. That's where the fraud is. Just look at how much they're finding with home health assistants, medicaid, food,...I'd wager (figuratively)that with enough forensic accountants in all states we'd uncover $200-300billion fraud - each year. But we'd have to be dedicated to actually doing it.
well here's how it used to be, I'd imagine it works similarly now.....all congressionally appropriated funding has a shelf life. i.e, if not committed withing a certain period of time, it reverts back to the Treasury. I'm familiar with DoD and I know I won't get the time-frames right (it's been almost 40 years) but procurement money was good for like 3 years, R&D 5 years (again, I'm sure I'm not right on the years, but you get the idea) I believe what you're referring to though is end of year spending to solidify your next year's budget request. That is if you have a 2026 budget of $100 and only spend $90, then requesting $110 for next year won't fly because you only spent $90 last year. While that might be the lazy man's way of doing business, it really doesn't make a lot of sense. You could have forgone something in 2026 as a "nice to have" but for the next year you really need it. But if restricted to the $90 budget, now you can't afford it.
Yeah, honestly I don't remember them actually going after fraud at all. They mostly seemed to go after "woke" and "DEI" and other things they didn't like, rather than actual fraud. Most of their messaging about fraud was actually just their misunderstanding of the data itself, or just money going towards things they didn't like that they wanted to call fraud. Felt like they just got our data, made a bunch of partisan declarations, and then got out with the data. At least, my impression from the outside.
I heard an ad on the radio about the health share program I think it's called medishare...as the spokesperson said, "in about the last 20 years healthcare costs have tripled (I don't know if that's accurate)" and I thought to myself, anything of not happen in healthcare somewhere around 20 years ago??
one thing DOGE did highlight was the "scam" - I can't think of another word, but know that's not the best one,,,,of the NGO/nonprofit world. How money is granted to one who then subgrants on and on down the line, where some % of money actually goes for the intended purpose, without any accountability from the line of grantees as to how the money was actually spent.
No doubt they called out things that had been congressionally approved and called them fraud.
I don't love that our money is going towards things, and the money barely gets there. Think they should find some way to put a reasonable threshold for how much money needs to go towards the stated goal of givings, then add some level of required audit, etc to prove that out? Just like I don't love that more money than it took to film Titanic went to an ad campaign featuring a cabinet member and the company that received it was barely a business and had a connection to said cabinet member.
The meals served at Gitmo were always fantastic
when I asked why the joke was it was not lobster but reprocessed Iguana and the steak was the rats
LOL
Nothing like firing up a propane Weber grill while under fire and cooking medium rare steaks and grilled lobster tails
no question that non bid contracts need to be totally scrutinized. Like I posted in the past, we need some hard a--ed managers to come in to the upper management levels in the government to institutionalized some best practices. The way we've been doing it isn't yielding the best results for Americans.
yea, problem is the guy carrying the 70 pound pack on the ground doesn't have a vehicle. And if he did, some would call him out for being too soft to walk
Still works that way, Ned. Obviously tweaks since the early 1960s PPBS process that was established by McNamara, but the current PPBE (Planning Programing Budget Execution ) process is still basically the same barring any major changes in the last 5 years or so.
If not obligated, by the end of the appropriation period, the funds go into a 5 year expiration status and can't be touched, to allow for things to settle, corrections, and for contracts to fully execute after which time, the funds go back to the general Treasury funds.
The added bonus is when you get penalized for growback (funds that go unobligated and expire unused) it's often not just a one year blip, it hits for several years out into the future.
(note: for non military budgeteers i used army acronyms when asking ai for the below chart, "MPA" - the A stands for "Army" Military Personnel, Army... Navy would be MPN etc.)
| Appropriation Category | Acronym | Obligation Period | Primary Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Military Personnel | MPA/MILPERS | 1 Year | Pay and allowances for active and reserve forces. |
| Operations & Maintenance | OMA/O&M | 1 Year | Day-to-day operations, training, and civilian salaries. |
| Research, Development, Test & Evaluation | RDT&E | 2 Years | Scientific research, equipment development, and testing. |
| Procurement | Procurement | 3 Years | Purchase of operational end-items (missiles, aircraft, etc.). |
| Military Construction | MCA/MILCON | 5 Years | Large-scale construction and facility projects. |
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Government travel credit card issuance and use were made mandatory in 2000 for all official commercial travel.. Once the Defense Travel System (DTS) fully came on line in about 2003ish, they were able to really enforce that. (sucked for me personally, because i liked using my personal CC to get free airline miles and hotel points)
So, "grunts" have been ok in that regard, for +- the last 25 years.
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Or crack open bullets for the gunpowder to flare off some heat. On the food pack
well that makes me feel good. I haven't lost my memory totally. I can feel confident telling my wife "I didn't forget". I just wasn't paying attention to what you said"......Although, on second thought, I might be better off saying "sorry, I forgot"
No you haven't. Now you have me trying to remember all this programming and budget stuff from my time in DC. Dammit. Have acronyms swimming in my head. Lol. No matter what, though, I will NOT try to do the same with force management stuff.
I'm one of the ones who really enjoyed my time in the pentagon..Started in DCSRDA and then moved to OCLL. When in DCSRDA, I worked harder than any time in my career. It was the first time I had so much to do that I found myself going from project to project knowing I'd never be able to complete everything by suspense date/time...very stressfull
Reminder: You hate trump so badly that if he’s doing it, you’re against it no matter what.
We hit military targets on Kharg Island. I guess you could drop them in around the strait, but I’d think seizing Kharg would be more likely.
Green Ramp is going to be hopping tonight.
Reminder of the rage on the right when 13 soldiers died as a result of Biden ending a war, and comparing it to the acceptance of 13 soldier deaths in this war we didn't have to wage, like this anyway. Out and about so pardon any typos.
1. You don’t read my posts if you think I’m a typo/grammar nazi. 2. If you are out and about on a Friday night, you shouldn’t be on here. 3. The afghan thing was already going to end. Trump set that in motion. It was ended for all intents and purposes. All the Biden admin had to do was not eff it up. But they got in a hurry(to meet a magic date instead of it being conditions based) and we got what we got. Feel for not only the 13 but for everyone who had to deal with that sea of humanity.
The afghan war was mismanaged by multiple admins. It was in our best interests to leave. The execution of it was the failure. IMHO.
I don’t see this as a war of choice. I keep thinking what it would have been like if we would have waited for 2 or 3 more years while Iran continued to build more missile and drone capability. Or, if it would have started on irans terms not ours or with some other admin or potential admins. So far, militarily, this is going extremely well. Iran is a major regional power. It’s going to take more than 12 days to get this to a halfway favorable stopping point IMHO.