Posted on 12/23/2024 3:47:56 AM PST by george76
A little-known environmental provision in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has no impact on military operations, but will instead serve to “protect the native vegetation,” a Navy spokesperson ..
The nearly $884 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday includes an initiative to “manage, control and interdict the coconut rhinoceros beetle” — an invasive species of insect that bore holes into the canopies of palm trees — “on military installations in Hawaii.” By the Navy’s own admission, the initiative’s purpose is to preserve vegetation, and thus is effectively unrelated to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) stated mission “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”
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While coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRB) don’t pose an operational threat to Navy installations in Hawaii, the invasive insects cause significant harm to the environment,” a spokesperson from Commander, Navy Region Hawaii told the DCNF. “CRB damage and kill palm trees, including the native loulou-hiwa palm (Pritchardia martii), and have potential to significantly reduce coconut production and palm stands … It was important for the Navy to fund projects related to CRB control to protect the native vegetation on Oahu.”
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The spokesperson justified the effort on the grounds the Navy is meant to serve as a “steward” of the environment, adding that “biosecurity has become an increasing priority and preventing new introductions of invasive species is critical.” Biosecurity became a DOD priority under former President Barack Obama in 2015, when the agency completed the Regional Biosecurity Plan (RBP) to limit the potential for invasive species to be spread in the Pacific as part of “the environmental impact analysis for a plan to potentially relocate military personnel from a base in Okinawa, Japan.”
The Navy also funded an initiative to combat coconut rhinoceros beetles in fiscal year 2024, authorizing the creation of a “2,500 feet containment zone around Navy sea and air ports” and establishing “bi-annual surveys and treatment of palm trees,” the DOD spokesperson told the DCNF. The fiscal year 2025 NDAA does not clarify how much federal funding will go toward the coconut rhinoceros beetle initiative.
In addition to the coconut rhinoceros beetle containment push, the fiscal year 2025 NDAA also greenlights hundreds of millions in funding for “minority serving” schools and bankrolls the cryogenic freezing of service members’ sperm.
The Pentagon notoriously failed its seventh annual audit in a row in November after not fully accounting for its budget of over $824 billion. The agency has not passed a single audit since it became legally required to perform them in 2018.
Moreover, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office released Tuesday found the Navy wasted over $1.8 billion on an initiative with “weak oversight” to modernize cruisers. The federal government ran a deficit of roughly $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024 while the U.S. national debt currently exceeds $36 trillion, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s deficit tracker and U.S. Treasury data.
The U.S. Senate passed the roughly 1,800-page fiscal year 2025 NDAA Wednesday with 85 members in favor and 14 against, with the legislation now slated to travel to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
“There’s a half a billion dollars in there of foreign aid,” Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, who voted against the bill, said in a video on X following its passage. “We have to do better than this. This is not what you all voted for.”
“Navy Admits DOD Will Shell Out Funds For Obscure Environmental Initiative With No Impact On Military Readiness”
Take that, Putin!!!! We don’t need no spending on military readiness because WE ARE AMERICA, and therefore INVINCIBLE!
“Coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRB) have not spread to all parts of Hawai’i. Their range in the Hawai’ian Islands is currently limited to O’ahu, certain parts of Kaua’i, and recently found on Maui and Hawai’i Island. You can help prevent accidental transport of CRB in Hawai’i by limiting the movement of infested breeding material.”
I have no problem with trying to deal with the beetle on military bases as would a computer mogul who is a large Hawaiian landowner on his own land.
“Semen cryopreservation (commonly called sperm banking or sperm freezing) is a procedure to preserve sperm cells. Semen can be used successfully indefinitely [citation needed] after cryopreservation. It can be used for sperm donation where the recipient wants the treatment in a different time or place, or as a means of preserving fertility for men undergoing vasectomy or treatments that may compromise their fertility, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery. It is also often used by trans women prior to medically transitioning in ways that affect fertility, such as feminizing hormone therapy and orchiectomies.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semen_cryopreservation
Pest control sounds like a contractor’s job.
I have no problem with combat area personnel, men or women, freezing their gametes, given the risks of injury or death.
The government continues to prove it has no respect for the people that voted it into power but it only uses that power to make the government more powerful and add more people to its payroll.
Don’t you just love the inventive ways that money is stolen from you and spent on worthless sh**? Merry Christmas!
Heck DoD, if it’s that serious I think you ought to declare a 12th General Order: “To cease my mission only until after all dung beetles have been successfully terminated with extreme prejudice”. And for pete’s sake move the readiness level to DEFCON 2.
“The spokesperson justified the effort on the grounds the Navy is meant to serve as a “steward” of the environment,...... Biosecurity became a DOD priority under former President Barack Obama in 2015,”
I think I smell the problem.
EC
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