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I mean seriously, Navy manpower woes are the gift that keeps on giving. There are three (!!!) more NAVADMINs that show the Navy is really struggling to keep its people, especially its technical people, from leaving.

The first is NAVADMIN 186/22, which concerns Special Duty Assignment Pay (SDAP). SDAP is an additional monthly pay for Sailors that are in hard-to-fill jobs or qualify in difficult assignments. The Navy uses SDAP to help incentivize Sailors taking the hard duty assignments, because a few hundred dollars extra a month might motivate someone to fill that position.SDAP has been changed for nuclear-qualified Sailors in the following manner:

Billet / NEC            Level    Pay              Change  RDMC/EDMC/CVN DLCPO     7        525.00           +75.00  N33Z NEC                6        450.00           New  NPTU W/SUPERVISOR NEC   6        450.00           No change  SEA W/SUPERVISOR NEC    5        375.00           No change  SHORE W/SUPERVISOR NEC  3        225.00           -75.00  SEA W/OPERATOR NEC      2        150.00           No change  SHORE W/OPERATOR NEC    1         75.00           -75.00 
NAVADMIN 186/22

So what does that mean? In a nutshell, shore assignment SDAP was lowered, while at-sea SDAP was either added or increased. The N33Z NEC refers to an at-sea Sailor that qualifies as an Engineering Watch Supervisor (EWS), which is the senior most enlisted watchstander on a nuclear power plant.Since SDAP is an incentive pay, this is yet more proof that the Navy is trying to push Sailors towards at-sea assignment and to qualify as an EWS at-sea. They wouldn’t bother increasing SDAP if Sailors were already filling those roles without issue.What about technically-savvy officers? Well, NAVADMIN 188/22 changes the accession rules for the Baccalaureate Degree Completion Program (BDCP), which is a program where civilians or enlisted Sailors that have at least 60 credit hours can apply to get a commission, where they get paid while they finish their degree. It’s not as great a deal because it doesn’t pay for tuition, however it does land you a job as an officer afterwards, with the catch of requiring an 8 year commitment. If that sounds a bit long, it is, because a normal ROTC commitment used to be only 4 years…which was increased to 5 years, and for aviators, to 5 years AFTER you qualified to fly (which ends up becoming 8-10 years).BDCP eligibility was extended to…you guessed it…the technical fields of cryptology, cyber, intelligence, networks and oceanography. The only reason to extend this program to those fields is because the normal methods of obtaining officers are not working.The last odd NAVADMIN is 184/22, which simply says that the O-6 continuation board will immediately follow the O-7 selection board. For those not in the know, an O-6 in the Navy is a Captain and an O-7 is a Rear Admiral.Now, normally this board is one of many that are on a routine schedule without any real attention paid to it. Remember that Captains eligible to be reviewed for selection to admiral are well past the 20 years needed to retire, and are allowed to hang out until 30 years of service. They can hang out longer if a continuation board allows it. Since the board already meets on a schedule, why would someone need a NAVADMIN to change when the board meets, and inform the rest of the Navy?Simply put, there was a significant uptick in O-6 retirements after the last O-7 selection board. I asked a few people in the know (who asked to remain nameless) and the word was that the Navy Personnel Office apparently didn’t bother to communicate with a lot of O-6s that were not selected for O-7, and a lot of them submitted retirement requests in response to this poor treatment. While nobody is entitled to be selected for O-7, its not hard to communicate with officers to let them know they weren’t picked. Especially for someone that has given over 20 years to the Navy, you would think the Navy could reciprocate and treat them with respect. The number of retirements stung Navy manpower, hence the short NAVADMIN to try and prevent this from happening again this year.Now, that’s all speculation, but given all the other things happening…is anyone surprised? I sure wasn’t. I am surprised at just how bad recruitment and retention are getting. I had predicted that 2023 would be the breaking point, but that was before the vaccine mandate and terrible withdrawal from Afghanistan. I think those events have accelerated a process that was underway long before this year. I see more and more servicemembers that would otherwise happily stay on a few extra years because they enjoyed the job instead decide to leave for greener pastures. When you go all out to make the Navy a miserable place to work, why would anyone be surprised that you have to increasingly bribe people to stay in?This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

For the past several decades the political left here in the United States has been waging a guerilla style war on individualism.  That side of the political spectrum believes in collectivism, which is a belief system where individual humans have no true value.  Collectivism is the defining issue of the political left.

Individual identity, individual rights, and individual liberty have all been the very bedrock the United States was built upon.  Ever since the 1960s, the Democrat party has veered further and further to the left. Most Democrats today embrace collectivism, rather that individualism. 

Unfortunately, the most rabid collectivists infected American colleges and Universities back in the 1960s, turning them into centers of indoctrination, rather than centers of learning.  From these indoctrination centers, collectivism has spread like a cancer across the United States.

Collectivists here in the United States worked particularly hard to infect the education departments of colleges and Universities, turning them into mills that produce collectivist high school and grade school teachers.  Particular emphasis was placed on creating collectivist school administrators and principles.  Teacher unions also became institutions of collectivist indoctrination.

Collectivist educators worked tirelessly to create clever sounding collectivist indoctrination schemes in order to stealthily indoctrinate American children, right under the noses of their parents.  Two of the most common schemes are Critical Race Theory and Social and Emotional Learning.

Until I read this article, UN Program Teaching Kids ‘SEL’ Really Seeks To Kill Individualism (thefederalist.com), I was unaware that one of these schemes originated with the United Nations.

School districts around the world are racing to implement Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs in the name of improving their students’ social and emotional skills. In fact, according to the global purveyor of SEL standards, 27 states so far have adopted K-12 SEL competencies, and all 50 states have adopted SEL competencies for pre-K students. But where is this massive push for SEL coming from, and what are the motives behind it?

The answer to this question is becoming clear: The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a primary force behind the SEL movement worldwide. A major way UNESCO advocates for SEL is through UNESCO’S Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. The Gandhi Institute produces an online publication called The Blue Dot, which features articles from SEL experts and others around the globe that highlight “the relationship between education, peace, sustainable development and global citizenship.” Invoking Gandhi’s name in the title of this United Nations entity is meant to pull at the heartstrings of anyone who hears it. But should our heartstrings be pulled?

But why? What is it UNESCO wants to instill in children? UNESCO’s materials make it clear that SEL is intended to foster not only kindness between students, but cooperation with a global agenda rooted in the doctrine of collectivism. Nandini Chatterjee Singh, a program specialist for the Gandhi Institute, says “SEL skills are powerful competencies” that have been shown to “instill pluralistic thinking.” The institute’s website further says it is seeking to teach children to “exhibit prosocial behavior for … a peaceful and sustainable planet.”

In short, proponents of the sustainable development goals and SEL want to instill “pluralistic thinking” in your child in the name of global peace. They want children to be taught to value the “collective good” over individual liberties, rights, and property despite the fact that the freest, most prosperous nations in the world are founded on individual liberties, rights, and property.

The United Nations has long been an international institution devoted transforming the globe into a Socialist one world government.  As you can see from the following quotes from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization website, Social and Emotional Learning is a key to making this collectivist hell happen.

At UNESCO MGIEP, we recognize the urgent need for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to be mainstreamed into education systems to transform education and shape a future that is geared towards providing peace and human flourishing. SEL can be described as learning that allows all learners to identify and navigate emotions, practice mindful engagement and exhibit prosocial behaviour for human flourishing towards a peaceful and sustainable planet

Central to envisioning and shaping a more sustainable and peaceful future is youth. The mass mobilisation of youth towards sustainable development requires empowering youth with information and involving them in policy’s development, promotion and implementation. At UNESCO MGIEP, we work with youth organisations and young people worldwide by supporting their initiatives and curating youth action towards kindness and transforming education.

UNESCO MGIEP’s efforts in prevention of violent extremism include the development of an entirely youth led guide that puts forth youth-centred actionable recommendations for a wide range of stakeholders as well as capacity building for youth in SEL.

UNESCO MGIEP aims to mobilize the world’s youth to achieve the 17 SDGs through transformative acts of kindness. This campaign attempts to create a positive culture of kindness, in which every young person’s selfless act matters!

The Global Collective for SEL and Digital Learning is a multi-stakeholder alliance mobilized to promote Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and digital learning as critical new dimensions in achieving the Sustainable Development

A few days ago I was a tad surprised to see California Governor Gavin Newsom do something sane, namely attempt to keep the remaining Nuke plant in California open:

The draft legislation — which would be attached to the state’s budget as a trailer bill — would help extend the power plant’s operations for an additional five to 10 years beyond its scheduled shutdown dates in 2024 and 2025.

The forgivable loan, if authorized, would be lent by the state’s Department of Water Resources.

Diablo Canyon — California’s last remaining nuclear power plant — generates about 8.6% of the state’s total electricity supply, according to the Governor’s Office.

Now of course I’m not a fan of a “forgivable loan” to a big Utility, which is another way of saying it’s a payout so one might dismiss this a giving in to the reality of not kneecapping the power grid while making some friends with taxpayer money at the same time but with the energy crunch in California keeping that 8.6% of the power supply up is vital even if the left has done all it can to reduce demand by chasing people away.

I figured he was being mugged by reality, but then I saw this

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed pilot programs where people could use drugs under the supervision of trained staff in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles, a blow to a long-fought battle to tackle the cities’ overdose crises.

In his veto letter, Newsom said he has “long supported the cutting edge of harm reduction strategies” but said the unlimited number of sites allowed by the bill “could induce a world of unintended consequences.” He did not go into detail about what those consequences could be.

John Sexton at Hotair, where I saw the story has it pegged:

It’s probably safe to assume the “unintended consequences” Newsom is most concerned about about are the ones that could damage his run for president in a couple of years. … And while “safe injections sites” are an easy call in deep blue California, the idea would be a non-starter in many states. 

Now a broken clock can be right twice a day but an ultra liberal California governor making two sane decision in less than two weeks? Yeah he running in 2024

The NFL has made a bit of a deal about their managing to get the suspension of Deshawn Watson up to 11 games from 6.

Of course their faux outrage is amusing given that they could have imposed a harsher penalty right at the start but they had no interest in it.

It’s all rather amusing, the reality is they want Watson to play games because there’s money in it and they don’t want a lot of debate or trouble with the players union, and given the owners records in this regard the idea that this is anything more than just a big theatrical production is a joke.


The continuing violence against churches and pregnancy centers and the continual apathy of leftists in authority concerning said violence keeps taking us closer to the advent of actual violence in return.

Of course once that happens the left and the media will have no problem at call condemning it.

That the public has been so willing to go along with all of this has been one of the biggest cultural changes in my lifetime.


Yesterday I noted that some feminists are figuring out they’ve been sold a bill of goods, In researching for that piece I spotted this from Stacy McCain’s site that expands on the subject:

What we are witnessing in the 21st century are the late-stage effects of cultural decadence, where children raised in chaotic environments — with divorced or never-married parents, no religious influence, surrounded by drug abuse and other social pathologies — grow up to become dysfunctional adults who exercise toxic influence in the lives of others. Institutional commitments to “inclusion” and “diversity” make it difficult to avoid these dysfunctional people, and we are forced to tolerate deviant behavior in our midst. Whether it’s riots on university campuses, drug addicts encamped on the streets or deranged lunatics threatening violence against us, citizens are expected to adapt to the increasing prevalence of antisocial behaviors, which become normalized.

Stacy wrote that four years ago and it’s only gotten worse. Of course as the left has now turned to spaying and neutering their own kids the gap between the birth rates of believing religious and ardent feminist leftist will continue to increase to the point where stealing election will be considered a necessity for them to retain any power outside the bluest of blue zones.

Unexpectedly of course.


The only thing sadder then the fact that Dr. Fauci will retire without any consequences for the havoc that he has wrought on this nation and perhaps the world is the fact that he may in fact believe that he has no done so.

If you had to find someone who could be the model of Sir Humphrey Appleby in the US Fauci is it.

I’d close this section with a vulgarity but as I noted a few days ago Fauci is only one good confession away from being right with God.


Finally speaking of getting right with God my church St. Bernard’s Parish at St. Camillus Church is looking for adorers who wish to spend an hour with the Blessed Sacrament.

We used to have a 24/7 Adoration chapel but COVID did away with that. For now we are looking at Mondays 8:30-7 and Tuesdays 8:30-4 in the main church but come Advent we hope to have the Chapel open one day a week from about 9 AM to 7 PM.

If you live in the Fitchburg/Leominster area and have an interest let me know via comments.