Across the military, officers and troops are quietly preparing for a war they hope will not come.
At Fort Bragg in North Carolina last month, a mix of 48 Apache gunships and Chinook cargo helicopters took off in an exercise that practiced moving troops and equipment under live artillery fire to assault targets. Two days later, in the skies above Nevada, 119 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division parachuted out of C-17 military cargo planes under cover of darkness in an exercise that simulated a foreign invasion.
Next month, at Army posts across the United States, more than 1,000 reserve soldiers will practice how to set up so-called mobilization centers that move military forces overseas in a hurry. And beginning next month with the Winter Olympics in the South Korean town of Pyeongchang, the Pentagon plans to send more Special Operations troops to the Korean Peninsula, an initial step toward what some officials said ultimately could be the formation of a Korea-based task force similar to the types that are fighting in Iraq and Syria. Others said the plan was strictly related to counterterrorism efforts.
In the world of the American military, where contingency planning is a mantra drummed into the psyche of every officer, the moves are ostensibly part of standard Defense Department training and troop rotations. But the scope and timing of the exercises suggest a renewed focus on getting the country’s military prepared for what could be on the horizon with North Korea.
As I reported last month the Navy has deployed special radar hunting warplanes to South Korea, supposedly for military exercises, but that is probably just a thinly veiled excuse.
And of course the Trump Administration is trying to loosen those restrictions on the use of nukes.
All of this seems like it is headed for a disaster for which we are simply not prepared to deal.
No wonder I am drinking so much damn coffee.
Because we’re SO good at winning wars.
ReplyDeleteSuffering through the fox no news con job show. sara droopy eyed @@ hucklenut cant understand why 90% of major news outlets have negative stories about the asshole liar for over a year straight. Why? because its the truth.
ReplyDeleteOT?"The twist: The country in question is China, not Ru$$ia. And the friend is
ReplyDeleteWendi Deng Murdoch,
ex-wife of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch."
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/kushner-warned-about-wendi-murdoch-says-her-exs-newspaper.html
"Since their divorce, Murdoch has been telling anybody who would listen that Wendi is a Chinese $PY--and had been throughout the marriage."<Michael Wolff
"America’s tweeter-in-chief plans to attack the free press next week. He desperately needs your help to succeed.
ReplyDeleteOr we can work together to redirect the energy, counteract rather than react, and reframe the conversation.
rather than argue against him directly or waste time refuting his attacks, let’s ignore his antics and make a positive, proactive argument. While he assails the free press, let’s use our voices to honor the essential work reporters are doing in this dangerous era.
Let’s have a conversation about why the free press is more crucial than ever.
Reporters are guardians of freedom. Their job is to pursue the TRUTH. the press is a pillar of a free society.
Democracy falls without it.
That’s why authoritarian leaders always attack the press. They seek to deny and distract from the TRUTH, and this requires undermining those who tell it. Corrupt regimes always seek to replace TRUTH with lies that increase and preserve their power. The Digital Age makes this easier than ever.
a double-edged sword. It’s great when a true story travels the globe instantly and results in inspirational action. Yet we live in an age of weaponized information, where nefarious memes and false narratives of dubious origin can also travel far.
These can become dangerous when repeated millions of times. 2004 book Don’t Think of An Elephant, repetition strengthens the synapses in the neural circuits that people use to think. 1 repetition strengthens the synapses in the brain’s circuitry. 2 “framing first” provides an advantage. 3 negating a frame by saying it’s “not” true activates and strengthens the frame. That’s just how our brains work.
Democrats and journalists — ignore the findings of the cognitive and brain sciences. They put their FAITH in the outdated idea of Enlightenment Reason, which dates back to the 1650s. they miss the often-implicit frames, metaphors and narratives that structure MORALly important TRUTHs. They WRONGly believe that bare facts and logic alone WIN the MORAL debates. professional troll armies prowling on the other side of our computer screens. A recent study of the strategies used by Russian and terrorist trolls online found that they have a strong grasp of basic brain science.
cyberwarfare expert Haroon Ullah: “Recent research into both the Russians’ and the Islamic State’s models of propaganda, as well as interviews with defectors, unveil that:
1) people tend to believe something when it is repeated,
2) Russia and Islamic State fanboys gain the advantage when they get to make the first impression and
3) subsequent rebuttals may actually work to reinforce the original misinformation, rather than dissipate it.”
Yet there’s a way to beat the troll strategy: “the key is to direct a ‘stream’ of pro-active, accurate messaging at the targeted audience.”
reframe to undermine the opposition’s frame, and repeat. #ProtectTheTrut
focus on TRUTH and its MORAL context. TRUTH is under attack. Let’s protect it, and express our appreciation for those brave journalists whose job is to spotlight it.
Don’t use any of his terms, images, or hashtags.
Ignore his antics — if you retweet it you can’t defeat it, and when you embed it you spread it. Deny him the virality he craves. Ignore his antics.
Shift the frame to focus on powerful, TRUTHful reporting.
Name the reporters, editors, and outlets — including state and local publications — doing important work that affects YOUR life. Link to their stories. Say why they matter. Say “thank you” to those who tell the TRUTH for a living!
This is about more than Twitter. This is about IDEAS and language in our politics, and who controls them. This about more than just one president — it’s about the Republican Party and authoritarians everywhere who seek to destroy the TRUTH and attack the public good.
It’s time to reclaim our power and frame the debate.
#ProtectTheTruth
George Lakoff
OT? Read this>
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Women-Power-Manifesto-Mary-Beard/dp/1631494759
Trump needs to be impeached or resign before he declares war w/North Korea and kills many Americans while he and his family members hide in an underground bunker and live. Fuck him and his - as well as his Administration members!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhx_fdOvnrI
ReplyDeleteVICE Vid>
'The Black Women's Defense League Taking Aim at Racism and Misogyny'