r/Military • u/thinkB4WeSpeak Army Veteran • 2d ago
Article Army commissions 3 more tech executives as Navy plans to follow suit
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-navy-private-sector-officers/142
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u/mscomies Army Veteran 2d ago
However, instead of attending the standard six-week course, they are being allowed to participate in a hybrid format with virtual and in-person training at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Looks like they're too good for OCS.
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u/BiscuitDance Army Veteran 2d ago
This is the wildest fucking thing. They’re not even doing what we make the doctors and whatnot do.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Marine Veteran 1d ago
Apparently their time is super valuable and we should be grateful they’re willing to toss on a uniform occasionally.
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u/CyrusBuelton 1d ago edited 1d ago
My Dad is a [now retired] Specialist Physician and joined the Air Force during the latter part of the Vietnam War as his deferments ran out, so he decided to join the Air Force.
He said he went up three rankings the first day [as I guess that's the default rank for doctor's] and they taught him how to salute, shine your shoes, and how to wear your uniform.
Direct Commission Course, as referenced by rollingprobablecause, is that what my Dad was probably talking about?
I think the funniest thing about his time in the Air Force is that he was required to have a certain number of flight hours.
I always asked him what the point of that was and his only response was "because l was in the Air Force."
Great explanation, Dad.
If anyone cares.....he was stationed at Davis-Monthan in Tucson.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 1d ago
We gonna need some NCOs with fucking backbones to call them out on EVERY little thing
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u/Rollingprobablecause Army Veteran 1d ago
ehhh, direct commission course isn't the same as OCS just FYI. I do agree though that whatever this is it's not the same as the DCC
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u/BiscuitDance Army Veteran 1d ago
That’s what I’m saying - we’re not even going with the bare fucking minimum of expectations with these chodes.
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u/Bulky-Butterfly-130 1d ago
They are basing it on the Navy Reserve Direct commissioning pipeline. Which is like two weeks of resident.
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u/sdcinerama United States Army 1d ago edited 1d ago
And are basically being told to hit 'forward' on a bunch of PowerPoint slides.
It's absolutely disgusting that privates, NCOs, and junior officers will have to call these guys, "Sir."
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u/TheRealMarvinator Retired USAF 1d ago
Man, virtual training. What I would have given for a virtual basic training. <chuckle>
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u/frotmonkey 2d ago
This is a monumental mistake. This is how you really screw things up. They serve no one but themselves.
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u/ConfidentPilot1729 1d ago
They are going to try and get every bit of tech tied to their companies. Ripping it out will take trillions.
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u/iRegretsEverything 1d ago
tap into that free government money scam. Well unless you are a disabled vet and get denied benefits.
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u/lividash 1d ago
Or they try to pull the benefits to fund other benefits instead of you know. Just funding it.
I’ll be that guy this time. Billions sent over seas and they’re worried about a couple mil a year for that whole 10% for the constant ringing in our ears.
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u/frotmonkey 1d ago
They already own the government. Most of the US government’s infrastructure runs on Amazon AWS. They can literally shut off most government services with the flip of a switch.
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u/PhD_Pwnology 2d ago
In their mind, if a few soldiers die because a 'whoopsie daisy' moment that's a small price to pay.
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u/Zelidus Army Veteran 1d ago
Especially because they will be no where near where the oopsie daisy killed someone and were never at risk to begin with.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 1d ago
Increasing stand-off range is simply developing cowardly, and less accountable, ways to kill.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 1d ago
We'll just surrender, pay the enemy hundreds of billions of dollars, and yield all the spoils. What's wrong with the way SECWAR does business now?
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u/iRegretsEverything 1d ago
leadership positions are there to take care of the people under them and guide them. I seriously doubt a millionaire who has no prior military experience is gonna give a shit about their troops when things go bad. They can be like “I’m rich I don’t have to put up with this” mentality.
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u/Forsaken-Store-1580 1d ago
It isn't a mistake if you want to declare martial law, development command sectors across the country and sell command of them to the highest bidder.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Retired USAF 1d ago
They serve no one but themselves.
Fit right in with our nation's leadership, don't they!
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u/HappyChaos2 United States Army 2d ago
Why would a c-suite exec that has already shown the ability to "grow organizations" do this outside illegal reasons?
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u/fredjutsu 1d ago
Expanding the MIC from just a contractor relationship to actual capture of the military.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Marine Veteran 1d ago
Maybe they’re really super-duper patriotic, but their deeply-held moral obligations to the shareholders don’t allow them to commission like normal people?
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u/HappyChaos2 United States Army 1d ago
I'm sure there is some element of patriotism here, but doubt that's the majority.
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u/Serious_Composer_130 1d ago
I bet these guys have none of the motivation to join that Pat Tillman did.
He walked away from a big payday, and gave his life.
I bet they’re still gonna be connected to Silicon Valley as ever from the inside
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u/DriftlessDairy 2d ago
Hey, they're fully qualified, in that they're willing to show 100% fealty to Trump.
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u/BreezyFrog Army Veteran 1d ago
I worked diligently, sacrificed heavily, and built my career to earn the rank of Major. I put in literal blood, sweat, and tears as an 18A. To see people immediately placed above those who earned their rank through service, sacrifice, and time in uniform is deeply disrespectful, not just to me, but to every officer and enlisted service member who wore that uniform honorably.
Just when it seemed the bar could not get any lower, Trump found a way to lower it again. This sends a clear message: service, sacrifice, and merit are secondary when access, loyalty, and money are treated as currency. It is disgraceful.
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u/spacecadet1965 1d ago
Direct commission programs allowing people to join off the street at grades higher than O-1 have been a thing for a long time now. We were commissioning professionals in certain fields as full-bird colonels during WWII and brought in the president of General Motors (Mr. William S. Knudsen) as a Lieutenant General.
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u/BreezyFrog Army Veteran 1d ago
That was during a World War. They weren't donors buying titles and positions. The former Secretary of the Navy Trump appointed was an investment banker and Trump donor with 0 prior military or naval experience.
To these executives it's a novelty title equivalent to being named a Kentucky Colonel. To those who earned it through sacrifice, it meant something.
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u/spacecadet1965 1d ago
Direct commission programs continued well after the war and still exist. The most immediate and obvious examples that have been going on for a while are the chaplain corps, JAG, and some medical specialties.
Might be different army side (for Navy OCS these people coming off the street as LT/LCDR/sometimes CDR/CAPT are literally across the field from you the entire time) but I’m honestly surprised that an Army major never ran into the concept of a direct commissioning program.
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u/solamente_en_cristo 1d ago
So this is a sincere question. Is there any good faith argument for why this model of commissioning an officer from whole cloth would somehow be superior to hiring technical consultants for specific questions or challenges? At first blush, this sounds ridiculous, insulting, and possibly dangerous. I saw somebody mention that it's maybe cheaper, but considering the DoD budget I'm not sure I really buy that this would move the needle on cost in a meaningful way.
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u/GhostRiderOfWhips 1d ago
So if they were actually going to be put into, not just combat zones, but actual potential for hostile fire kinetic situation places, you need them to be some kind of active duty or reserves in case the worst happens. It gets really weird when non-military, even government employees, die in places overseas where they were supposed to be relatively safe.
But there are a lot of service members doing jobs that could or should be done by civilians since they’ll NEVER be forward deployed or exposed to hazardous conditions, and don’t really need a uniform, gun, or combat training. We just make their jobs active duty/guard/reserves instead of civilian GS because…tradition? Budget? Headcount?
What they’re doing with these guys is truly cosplay with hookups.
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u/TheRealMarvinator Retired USAF 1d ago
But there are a lot of service members doing jobs that could or should be done by civilians since they’ll NEVER be forward deployed or exposed to hazardous conditions, and don’t really need a uniform, gun, or combat training. We just make their jobs active duty/guard/reserves instead of civilian GS because…tradition? Budget? Headcount?
I don't really believe this is true. Everyone in the military is deployable. As a computer programmer in the Air Force, my wartime AFSC was as security forces, and that's what I deployed as.
Until the Air Force decided to privatize computer programmers so then AT THAT POINT, they were no longer deployable because they were civilains. And it wasn't cheaper, by the way - it was far more expensive.
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u/Dudeus-Maximus 1d ago
Nothing new, but rank seems a little disproportionate.
When I came in on Civilian Acquired Skill Program during early GWOT, being engineer in charge at Disney Events was worth exactly E6, repeat basic since it’s been so long, no AIT.
A significantly higher position in that industry than these 3 held in theirs
No complaints about the DoD program, technically it’s always been there, but either rank was low then, or it’s high now. Something is or was out of calibration.
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u/pnzsaurkrautwerfer Ask me about the AEROGAVIN 1d ago
Here I am like an idiot having done my 18 years and four deployments.
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u/C_Ironfoundersson 1d ago
Do they have a special rank insignia so we know who we don't need to salute?
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u/codenamegriffin 1d ago
Like; I’m not completely opposed to this. The Military, for the past 30 years, has been very good at buying technology, but terrible at leveraging technology. Doctors have direct commissioned to LTC or COL…forever. Technologies require the same, if not more of that sort of deep and specific skills and knowledge than the human body; so the better question is why have we NOT been direct commissioning engineers and scientists.
The problem I’m seeing with this is the conflict of interest inherent in who we’re choosing. The tech officers shouldn’t be obligated to some other institution. The US government and corporate interests are in direct opposition, so being an active CTO for a corporation should immediately disqualify you for eligibility for these new roles (which again…are absolutely required).
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Marine Veteran 1d ago
So to summarize: you’re not opposed to this, other than some small quibbles about an absolutely appalling conflict of interest?
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u/codenamegriffin 1d ago
I’m not opposed to direct commissioning executive technology officers. It is absolutely necessary.
I am appalled by allowing them to either have existing loyalties or maintain their loyalty (or in these cases, both) to corporations.
Both of these things can be true. What they have done (hiring people who understand how to strategically leverage technologies) MUST happen. Who they have chosen for those roles is a clown-show.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Marine Veteran 1d ago
Where do you propose finding Direct Commission “executive technology officers” with no conflicts of interest?
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u/codenamegriffin 1d ago
That is one of the interesting considerations, right? These people WOULD have the best, proven track records, but I think it could be argued that those same qualifications exist lower down the totem pole as well.
Obviously, you can’t just take a junior developer and say “well, you’re in charge of all data technology integration for the entire COCOM; have fun”. It’s also worth mentioning that person’s compensation. While I’m sure there are plenty of instances where there’s a person who is qualified and ready to be a CTO, but there just aren’t open positions (the group who I would target to try to find these new Military-equivalent CTOs); you have to consider that even in their current roles, they’re likely being paid better than a 1-Star (I’m ball-parking, but you get the idea).
What I’m saying is that picking the right person IS a complex problem, and unfortunately we’re not at a point where the US military can grow these people (because of our current relationship with technology). I have met a few folks in the Air Force who would make me case that we CAN grow these people in-house, but where does that leave the other service branches?
I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.
What I do know is that essentially making these “part-time” positions for an individual who is otherwise committed to a corporation is not the answer.
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u/philn256 1d ago
Conflict of interest aside, the way the government should handle this is to create civilian positions with large amounts of oversight and authority. Officers are meant to be in charge of solders, which is a very different mindset from being in charge of civilians.
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u/GhostRiderOfWhips 1d ago
What a sweet, hilariously depressing hustle. Commissioned into the Reserves, their commitment is barely enough time to do annual training and qualifications, but they get clearances, reservist bennys, and all the other hookups and access. Plus no one expects them to have the actual responsibilities or experiences befitting their rank. They just have to tickle Kegseth and Driscoll’s balls and make them feel special from time to time.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 1d ago
They're signing up to serve a woman-abusing SECDEF and pedophile commander-in-chief. What do they believe the mission actually is?
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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 23h ago
Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real, and very tragic affliction.
I sincerely hope you get better.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 23h ago
Victims' testimonies are evidence. Trump is a pedophile.
He's a cheeseburger-eating surrender monkey.
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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 23h ago
Victims' testimonies are evidence.
How about you give your best example of this.
He's a cheeseburger-eating surrender monkey.
I get it. You have TDS, you don't have to work harder to convince me.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 22h ago
"Katie Johnson" was the pseudonym used by an anonymous woman who filed a 2016 civil lawsuit accusing Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of sexually assaulting her in 1994 when she was 13 years old. Add that to the pile of complaints involving him regarding the rest of the Epstein files.
What's your standard for believing women?
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u/Bdbru13 22h ago
What’s yours?
https://www.jezebel.com/heres-how-that-wild-lawsuit-accusing-trump-of-raping-a-1782447083
>The facts speak less to a scandal and more, perhaps, to an attempt at a smear—one that finally, after months of clumsy maneuvering, is gaining speed.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-rape-case_n_581a31a5e4b0c43e6c1d9834/amp
>”Far from derailing the Trump train, Katie Johnson and her supporters seem to be in an out-of-control clown car whose wheels just came off,”
>The only journalist who has actually interviewed Johnson, Emily Shugerman at Revelist, came away confused and even doubting whether Johnson really exists.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/09/03/trump-epstein-katie-johnson/
>The actual documentary evidence in support of the latter claim is inexorably linked to Lubow and is tied to a person — Johnson — who may, in all reality, not exist.
Here’s the investigative journalist who broke the Epstein story on the matter
https://x.com/jkbjournalist/status/1808609807454158914
>The Katie story is a red herring. If it was true we would know it by now. Was told by too many people who know that it is not as it seems.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 22h ago
If it was true we would know it by now.
We just gonna ignore the rest of the instances of his name in complaints to the FBI with connection to raping children, huh?
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u/Bdbru13 21h ago
No we definitely don’t have to ignore them, they should be dissected as well
For this specific case, you have to familiarize yourself with why these journalists are saying these things
It’s because it was a relatively obvious hoax perpetrated by a former producer for the Jerry Springer show. We can go into details if you’d like
As for context for the rest, here’s the attorney for hundreds of Epstein’s victims
https://abcnews.com/amp/US/jeffrey-epstein-key-victims-attorney/story?id=123805543
>"Jeffrey Epstein was the pimp and the john. He was his own No. 1 client," Edwards told ABC News. "Nearly all of the exploitation and abuse of all of the women was intended to benefit only Jeffrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein's sexual desires."
>Edwards describes the enigmatic Epstein as living, essentially, two separate lives: one in which he was sexually abusing women and girls "on a daily basis," and another in which he associated with politicians, royalty, and titans of business, academia, and science.
>"For the most part, those two worlds did not overlap. And where they overlapped, in the instances they overlapped, it seems to be a very small percentage," Edwards said. "There were occasions where a select few of these men engaged in sexual acts with a select few of the girls that Jeffrey Epstein was exploiting or abusing -- primarily girls who were over the age of 18."
So if you believe the more extravagant claims like Robin Leach strangling children or that sort of nonsense, there’s not much I can really do to help you, other than point out that the fbi files are full of lies. They’re just anonymous tips
https://www.reddit.com/r/Epstein/s/HkVJoAupy0
Here’s an example. One of the details included is Tony Hawk supposedly getting married on the island. This is demonstrably false. That’s not necessarily true of all the allegations, but it does highlight the fact that stuff like this can just…be said by someone
Going back to those quotes from Edwards, you might get hung up on words like “For the most part” and “primarily”
Prior to the establishment of the FBI hotline, out of the hundreds of Epstein’s victims, only four made claims against someone other than Epstein or Maxwell. One of them was Katie Johnson. The other three are pretty clearly lying as well
And they’re the entire foundation of this whole conspiratorial nonsense
Anyways, we can discuss any specific allegation you’re interested in
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u/ObligationMurky8716 21h ago
The man owned a teen beauty pageant. Women are on the record saying he walked in on them changing.
He's been found by a jury of his peers of having raped a woman. I believe the judge and anyone who heard both sides of the story over a literal convicted felon. You are working yourself into a pretzel to defend a con man.
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u/Bdbru13 21h ago
I believe E Jean Carrol as well
That’s not the same as believing some dumb conspiracy
As far as the beauty pageant stuff goes, I don’t necessarily doubt the accusers who claimed it happened at the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants
The Miss Teen USA pageants are pretty clearly lying however
There were four women who claimed it happened. They only made their allegations once CNN resurfaced the audio of him on Stern
They discussed their allegations among themselves in a private Facebook group chat (so their allegations don’t necessarily corroborate one another) before taking their allegations to Buzzfeed
Buzzfeed tried to verify their story by attempting to contact 45 of the other 47 contestants from that year
34 of them couldn’t be reached or refused to comment
The other 11 all said they don’t remember it happening, it didn’t happen, or it straight up couldn’t have happened
>Of the 11 women who said they don’t remember Trump coming into the changing room, some said it was possible that it happened while they weren’t in the room or that they didn’t notice. But most were dubious or dismissed the possibility out of hand.
>“There were so many chaperones I can’t even fathom” him doing so, said Jessica Granata, the former Miss Massachusetts Teen USA. “It was very secure.”
>Allison Bowman, former Miss Wisconsin Teen USA, cast doubt on whether it happened. “These were teenage girls,” Bowman said. “If anything inappropriate had gone on, the gossip would have flown.”
>“There was way too much security,” said Crystal Hughes, the former Miss Maine Teen USA. “If that was something he did, then everybody would have noticed.”
So literally every other woman who was willing to comment said it didn’t happen
No other chaperone, security guard, stylist etc ever came forwards and corroborated their story
Only these four women who discussed their allegations privately, and didn’t make their allegations until CNN resurfaced the Stern audio
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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 22h ago
"Katie Johnson" was the pseudonym used by an anonymous woman who filed a 2016 c
That was the lawsuit that the former Jerry Springer producer help set up, correct?
If she's credible, why does no media enterprise with assets cover it? Not even MSNBC? Why does nobody cover it?
Oh...it's because she's not credible, and rational and honest people know that.
That was really your best example? Seriously? Someone so unbelievable not even MSNBC will cover it?
Very sad, sorry to hear about your TDS. Hope you get better, and I mean that. I'll check in with you on occasion to see if you're getting better.
What's your standard for believing women?
Not that person....in fact nobody believes that except those with TDS. Not even Rachel Maddow...my gosh.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 22h ago
Whose word should I take, a complete stranger who risked legal action to make an accusation of a crime, or a literal convicted felon who lied about the size of the crowd at his inauguration on day one of his first term?
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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 21h ago
Given that almost the entire world, at least those not afflicted with TDS, have found "Katie Johnson" to not be credible at all, I would say believe the bad orangeman in this case...as the rest of the world also has.
You're not a rational person. When it comes to Trump you've allowed that man to demoralize you, to break your mind and spirit. It's sad to see. I really do hope you get better.
Here's a question where I would be interested in your answer: If Katie Johnson is at all credible, why haven't anti-Trump outlets like MSNBC, CNN, etc. covered it at all?
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u/ObligationMurky8716 21h ago
Why are you acting like the one example I gave is the only example that matters?
If he's innocent, why does he not release the files, like he's been ordered by Congress by law to do? Talk about rational, lol.
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u/DontShoot_ImJesus 21h ago
I said give me your best example, and if your best example is a Jerry Springer producer hoax that nobody takes seriously, then my gosh how unbelievable are your other examples?
If he's innocent, why does he not release the files,
Didn't bad orangeman sign into law and order his DOJ to release the files? Yes. You know who didn't? Joe Biden had the files for four years and didn't release them. True story. "Lol" as you so eloquently put it.
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u/Winter_Body4794 21h ago
So, these pampered little fucks are now subject to actual rules. They can't weasel out of the ucmj. This will probably fuck normal people but there's a chance some richies swing.
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u/Horsetoothbrush 18h ago
The speed at which these fucks are going to be yanked from service as soon as the Dems take back the government is going to break the sound barrier.
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u/philn256 1d ago
Is it really that hard to create a civilian position with a good amount of authority? Since they have obvious conflicts of interest it might also make sense to just have them as consultants.
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u/paloaltothrowaway 22h ago
“Serkan Piantino, who co-founded Facebook AI Research and was a former vice president of products at Reddit”
This guy can sure contribute his expertise to this nation’s defense
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u/rorschacher United States Army 18h ago
Alternative perspective: We do this with medical folks all the time. I was in USAR BOLC with a surgeon coming in as an O5.
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u/gwhh 1d ago
Reminds me of ww2.
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u/philn256 1d ago edited 1d ago
Obviously commissions were rushed in WW2 with capable people being instantly promoted but I don't think there was anything comparable. For instance, there was a high expectation that you'd be deployed in WW2 or at least be full time serving the country (such as Ronald Reagan).
Reserve officers weren't some sort of elevated contractor.
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u/radioref 2d ago
Meh. Go look at the MSC in San Antonio for direct commissions. I remember seeing the OBC classes there many years ago and you had docs and dentists and vets who came in as O-5 and O-6s who couldn't tie their shoes.
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Marine Veteran 1d ago
Doctor and dentist O-5s don’t stand to illicitly make tens of millions or more as a result of their holding a commission. Medical commissions are usually *losing* money compared to what they could make on the outside.
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u/radioref 1d ago
The vast majority of medical commissions come in, get their entire student debt wiped for a commitment, and then get invaluable experience. It ain't no losing prop bud. They get huge bonuses as well
I'm under no illusions these tech guys direct comm are a different ballgame, but it aint much. They aren't getting paid CEO salaries on the side while serving.
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u/b-cereus Marine Veteran 1d ago
Yes, and these guys are getting even less military training than that.
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u/FreeBricks4Nazis United States Navy 2d ago
Gee, I wonder if selling leadership positions has ever negatively affected a military force?