science

DOGE To Confront The DoD Checkbook

Authored by R. Jordan Prescott via RealClearDefense,

With unprecedented zeal, Special Government Employee Elon Musk and his DOGE team have descended upon multiple agencies to execute its cost cutting agenda. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said DOGE will be welcomed at the department but simply accessing its accounting systems will not provide the visibility needed. The Department of Defense has failed seven consecutive audits, its financial information systems are a disaster, and solutions have been elusive.

Thou Shalt Be Audited

In 1990, Congress passed The Chief Financial Officer Act and one provision required every agency to be audited in full. Between 1991 and 2013, DOD only subjected itself to partial audits. In 2014, Congress required DOD to comply in full by 2018.

Unsurprisingly, DOD failed this first audit. The DOD Inspector General identified 20 material weaknesses, which are shortcomings that, in simple terms, means errors will occur but they won’t be caught or corrected before it is too late.

For the next seven years, audits never reported less than 25 material weaknesses. The associated “notifications of findings and recommendations” would average almost 2,500 reissued and 850 new NFRs every between 2019 and 2023.

Big Checkbook, Antiquated Calculators 

Two major deficiencies have persisted throughout — the Fund Balance with Treasury (the department’s checking account) and Information Technology.

In the former, the department can’t balance its $800 billion-plus checkbook and lacks the tools to research discrepancies or produce the receipts.

On the latter, the department simply has too many obsolete systems; in 2021 the DODIG reported the department wouldn’t be retiring 140 legacy systems until 2036.

In 2017, the department’s Chief Financial Officer began using a data platform called Advana to build the missing universe of transactions so desperately needed to support auditability.

However, Advana is a data repository, not a tool for validating data; reliability is the responsibility of system owner from which Advana is drawing. Moreover, Advana does not have access to data across the entire department.

To overcome these challenges, the Deputy Secretary of Defense “decreed” in May 2021 that data sharing would be maximized. More pointedly, Advana would be the “single source of truth” for objective, informed decision-making.

Beginning with the 2022 audit, the DODIG began recommending the department use Advana to address the aforementioned Fund Balance with Treasury deficiency.

In May 2023, the Government Accountability Office credited the department with progress but noted its remedial plans still lacked basic details, such as interim dates to track the steps taken to achieve auditability.

Similarly, the DODIG identified problems with Advana. In October 2024, the DODIG examined whether billions of dollars in Ukraine assistance had been used in accordance with federal law.

The DODIG tersely reported “DOD did not.”

The DODIG found the department did not have documentation for $1.1 billion in outlays. More notably, the DODIG identified the amount as Questioned Costs, those transactions that may constitute legal or regulatory violations.

To date, Congress has appropriated $111 billion in Ukraine assistance

In 2025, the DOD budget totals $850 billion and the Senate Armed Services Committee Chair is aggressively pursuing a $200…

There Is A Method To The ‘Madness’

Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times,

It’s common knowledge that President Donald Trump expresses original, off-the-wall statements in pressers and speeches. To some folks, this comes as a shock, although it’s a common occurrence.

Oftentimes, Trump’s ideas stun both Congressional members and foreign leaders. Why does he come up with so many out-of-the-box ideas? There likely is solid reasoning behind these zingers, although not all of the ideas pan out.

First, Trump has declared that our northern neighbor Canada could become the 51st state. 

However, Puerto Rico likely has a better chance at statehood than Canada does. In other words, “that dog won’t hunt,” as evidenced by the opposition by Canadians, their premiers, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The president appears to be applying leverage on Canada to pick up the slack in reducing drug trafficking entering the United States and urging reciprocal fair trade with America, which would obviate the need for tariffs.

Next, the president stated that he would help to rebuild Gaza and transform it into a prosperous and secure center of business.

Most are aware that America might only play a small part in the process. Trump may have floated this idea to persuade Arab leaders in the region to play a larger role in Gaza’s reconstruction and stability. Several Arab leaders claim to care about the Palestinian cause, so they can back up this claim by taking in more Palestinians and helping to rebuild Gaza with their know-how and wealth.

Third, it is also highly unlikely that Greenland will become part of the United States as Trump would like, although plenty of Greenlanders aren’t satisfied with how Denmark treats them.

Trump wants to exert more influence over Greenland to bolster the security umbrella that stretches from Alaska all the way over the Arctic to Greenland. A greater American presence could help mitigate the malign activities of China and Russia in the Arctic region.

Fourth, the president has threatened Mexico with tariffs if the government doesn’t help to halt lawless migration with its attendant drugs and human trafficking into the United States. 

President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by deploying Mexican National Guard troops to key areas of the U.S.-Mexico border, and Mexico is helping to return illegal immigrants to some Central American nations.

Fifth, Trump utilized similar threats regarding Panama and stated that if the country failed to push back against Chinese influence and charge fair prices for marine vessel transits, he would take over canal operations. 

President Jose Mulino has been open to these demands. The country has agreed not to renew its Belt and Road agreement with China due to China’s undue port influence on both sides of the canal. Apparently, Mulino will also help shut down the lawless migrant hub known as the Darien Gap.

Sixth, common sense informs us that Trump won’t halt the Russia-Ukraine war as quickly as he predicted. 

Based on historical precedent, wars are difficult to unwind. He’s likely throwing out ideas to see which ones will stick in bringing Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to…

Russia & The US’ Diplomatic Choreography At The UN Shows Their Commitment To A “New Détente”

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

Any claims of Russia “backstabbing” or “selling out” China are absurd and driven by a desire to sow discord…

The “New Détente”, which refers to the ongoing efforts between Russia and the US to enter into a rapprochement in the New Cold War similar in spirit to what they agreed to half a century ago during the Old Cold War, is no longer speculation after the US’ pivot towards Russia at the UN. The US joined Russia in vetoing a resolution from the General Assembly that condemned Russia for its special operation and then Russia sided with the US in supporting the latter’s more neutral one in the Security Council.

This diplomatic choreography was clearly coordinated between Putin and Trump to show the entire world that they’re committed to the “New Détente”. In parallel with what was unfolding on the world stage, each leader also spoke highly about the future of their economic ties, with Trump hyping everyone up to expect “major economic transactions” while Putin hinted at cooperation in the aluminum and rare earth industries. This followed their representatives discussing Arctic energy cooperation in Riyadh.

It was foreseen in early January that “Creative Energy Diplomacy Can Lay The Basis For A Grand Russian-American Deal”, which readers can learn more about from the preceding hyperlinked analysis. The two dozen compromises suggested near the end have already been agreed upon in part as proven by the US withholding Article 5 guarantees from NATO countries’ troops in Ukraine, ruling out its membership in NATO, discussing energy cooperation with Russia, and flirting with other forms of sanctions relief.

Unlike what some have claimed, Trump isn’t trying to pull a so-called “Reverse Nixon” by incentivizing Russia to turn against China like his predecessor half a century ago incentivized China to turn against the erstwhile USSR, which is unrealistic to expect in any case. Rather, as explained in the analysis about creative energy diplomacy, the purpose is to incentivize Russia into placing limits on its resource and eventually military cooperation with China in order to erode its strategic advantages vis-à-vis the US.

From Trump’s view, this will avert the scenario of Russia turbocharging China’s superpower rise and thus even the odds of reaching a grand deal with the People’s Republic that’ll be more in the US’ favor, while Putin sees this as managing the global balance of power. From his perspective, Russia is incentivizing the US into relieving pressure upon it and unofficial paying reparations for the proxy war via investments into its resource industry and economy as a whole, all while redirecting the US’ military focus elsewhere.

The Kissinger-inspired pragmatism behind this arrangement is predictably opposed by each country’s most zealous supporters, both at the civil society and state levels, but more on the US’ side than Russia’s. Furthermore, even though China officially supports the emerging Russian-US rapprochement, it’s likely still very suspicious of this process but is playing it cool for now in order to not attract negative attention. These trends must be managed by both parties…

Massie Teases Senate Run – Jewish GOP Group Threatens ‘Unlimited’ Spending To Stop Him

Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie is teasing a potential run for Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat in 2026, and a Jewish Republican group is already threatening to unleash “unlimited” spending to thwart any such bid, given his frequent opposition to legislation pushed by the pro-Israel lobby. 

On Thursday, Massie posted a poll on X, asking if he should stay in the House, run for Senate in 2026, or run for governor in 2027. A Senate campaign was the choice of 67% of the respondents.

If you were me, would you:
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 20, 2025
The libertarian-minded Massie opposes all foreign aid. At his own political peril, he dares to make no exception for the State of Israel, which is among the world’s richest countries. He has also voted against legislation that would infringe on free speech by, for example, punishing colleges that allow students and professors to say the wrong things about Israel.

Add it all up — and stir in the fact that he’s a member of a party whose legislators almost universally toe the pro-Israel line — and Massie is likely the House representative the pro-Israel lobby would most like to eliminate. The idea of him ascending to the Senate has pro-Israel forces racing to DEFCON1. 
In March 2020, Massie explains his effort to prevent a massive Covid stimulus package from being adopted without a recorded vote (Susan Walsh-AP) 

“If Tom Massie chooses to enter the race for US Senate in Kentucky, the RJC campaign budget to ensure he is defeated will be unlimited,” warned Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks in a statement to Jewish Insider. The Republican Jewish Coalition has tried to defeat Massie before. In 2020, the RJC backed Republican Todd McMurtry in challenging Massie in the GOP primary — only to see Massie trounce McMurtry in an 81% to 19% rout. 

So intense is their opposition to Massie that last year, pro-Israel forces starting preemptively spending money to weaken Massie’s Senate prospects. Despite the fact that Massie faced no viable GOP opponent nor any Democrat opponent at all, the intentionally-vaguely-named United Democracy Project — the independent campaign-spending arm of the mighty American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — said it would spend $300,000 on ads on Fox television affiliates in Kentucky. “We are trying to shine a light on the radical anti-Israel record of Tom Massie,” said spokesman Patrick Dorton. “We want every single voter in the state of Kentucky to know about his anti-Israel actions.”  Here’s their over-the-top ad: 

https://t.co/hEJYFaBcPp pic.twitter.com/yoIdIg0pEX
— United Democracy Project (@UnitedDemocProj) May 9, 2024
In a direct challenge to the Israel lobby, Massie has pushed for the Department of Justice to compel AIPAC and its associates to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law that requires individuals and organizations that work to advance the policies of foreign governments to disclose their relationships, actions and compensation. 

Thomas Massie has publicly stated that every Republican member of Congress, except himself, has an “AIPAC babysitter” to ensure they vote in line with the American Israel Public Affairs…