Military veteran Michael Stanley, known as Major Mick, rows his homemade boat, Tintanic, along a canal as part of a challenge to raise funds for St Wilfrid’s Hospice, in Chichester.
Good for you, Major Mick!
Category: Military
Ex-Mexican government minister busted for drug trafficking
Mexico’s former defence secretary has been arrested in Los Angeles on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, becoming the latest in a string of senior officials accused of collaborating with the very criminal groups they were supposed to be confronting…
(General Salvador) Cienfuegos was Mexico’s top military official during the 2012-2018 presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, and played a key role in the militarized “war on drugs”…
Generations of the Mexican military have been implicated in drug violence: the country’s first anti-drug czar Gen Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo was arrested in the late 1990s and convicted of taking bribes from drug cartels…
But the armed forces remain one of the country’s most trusted institutions, “despite their known issues with corruption and human rights abuses”, said Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez, a sociologist in Mexico City.
It can’t happen here! Right?
Not when you can make as much or more as a “consultant” to drug companies, military weapons manufacturers, Republican Party, Democratic Party, blah, blah, etc..
Brits new drone flies indoors – and kills people
The UK’s Ministry of Defence is developing a twin shotgun-toting drone that is able to fly inside buildings, as well as identify prospective targets using AI vision, reports digitaltrends.com. The six-rotor drone presently exists in a prototype version called i9. It will be used primarily for indoor conflicts where a situation is deemed too dangerous to send in live personnel. While the drone has various autonomous features, the weapons will be remote-controlled by a soldier responsible for firing them…
The Times newspaper explains this is the UK military’s first weaponised drone that can fly indoors. This is achieved using a mix of “physics and AI” that enable it to overcome a problem called “wall suck.”
Apparently, murder doesn’t suck!
Hundreds of former national security officials endorse Biden
We are former public servants who have devoted our careers, and in many cases risked our lives, for the United States. We are generals, admirals, senior noncommissioned officers, ambassadors, and senior civilian national security leaders. We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We love our country. Unfortunately, we also fear for it. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven America needs principled, wise, and responsible leadership. America needs a President who understands, as President Harry S. Truman said, that “the buck stops here.”
Many of these folks recorded videos about their endorsement. I simply picked one at random to illustrate their call for responsible leadership. Look and listen. Think about why we dare not leave this dangerous buffoon in power a minute longer than required by law.
And, then, think about joining the fight to change the out-of-date Electoral College law that put this dolt into office.
Swiss skipped wars for 200 years — No need to upgrade their jet fighters!
The people of Switzerland will vote later this month on the future of their country’s fleet of fighter jets. The Swiss Air Force would like to replace its aging F/A-18 Hornet fighters, but opponents cite the fact that Switzerland has enjoyed two centuries of peace and is surrounded by friendly countries, making new jets an unnecessary purchase. The country will vote on the issue on September 27…
Switzerland plans to spend $6.6 billion on new airplanes, acquiring the first in 2025 and enough to retire all of the Hornets by 2030.
If Swiss parliamentarians can’t think of anything more useful to spend that amount of money on – I’d wager there are plenty of taxpayers, especially those with families, who would come up with suggestions.
Battalion of Black Women in WW2
Major Charity Adams reviews the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion
“The unit was set up to determine the value Black women brought to the military. They ultimately ran the fastest mail service in the European Theater during World War II. More than 6,500 Black women ultimately served in the auxiliary corps during the war, as both officers and enlisted women. They came from all over the country, many in search of opportunities unavailable to them in the civilian sector.”
Taking care of business in wartime.
Black Medic may now be recognized for lives he saved on D-Day
Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson Jr. was an Army medic in the only all African American combat unit in the Normandy invasion on D-Day.
He got seriously wounded that June 6, 1944, but went on to help save scores of his fellow soldiers’ lives…
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation to posthumously award Cpl. Woodson a Medal of Honor for his heroism.
“His valor was never fully recognized due to the color of his skin. That’s unacceptable,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
Even though his own injuries caused his own eventual collapse on the battlefield, he treated over 200 injured military personnel of all colors, that day. Keeping his comrades-in-arms alive was the only imperative.
Trump is more like Auschwitz than Iwo Jima, IMHO…
Thanks, gocomics.org
Trump flails/fails in pandemic — Army Corp of Engineers comes through
The commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is Todd Semonite, a stocky three-star general who recently turned sixty-three. Every workday for the past forty-one years, he has served in uniform. On his left wrist is a FitBit; on his right, the kind of Casio calculator watch that he has worn since he was a teen-ager. In high school, in Vermont, Semonite wasn’t the biggest guy on the football team, but he played varsity center; he told a newspaper that size is “not really a disadvantage if you work hard.”…
He knows how to work hard.
George Washington created the position of chief engineer at the outset of the Revolutionary War, to oversee the design and construction of military batteries and fortifications. The Corps was formally established in 1802. Combat engineers solve problems through math and physics: they move troops (build the bridge) and protect them from attack (blow up the bridge). The military runs the Corps, but ninety-eight per cent of the agency’s thirty-six thousand employees are civilians: geographers, biologists, ecologists, architects…
…This past spring, when covid-19 overran the United States, Semonite was determined to provide vital infrastructure quickly. He told me, “America needs a capability to step up when something gets really, really hard.”
The article is about what he and the Corp, did, how they did it…and, most of all, it’s a tale written for readers of the NewYorker. We expect damned good writing and a thorough knowledge of the subject – to educate us on the topic.
Done.
Pentagon OKs travel to all states save three — so far…
California, Florida and Michigan are the only states to which service members aren’t allowed to travel for permanent change-of-station moves, temporary duty and other non-essential purposes, per a Monday release from the Pentagon, as Minnesota and North Carolina are now green.
As cases continue to climb in those states, several others ― including Texas and Arizona ― are also experiencing an increase in daily diagnoses, though they continue to be green-lit. All told, 48 states and territories and eight countries are good-to-go as of Monday…
Those decisions could be made by a combatant commander, civilian service secretary or the Defense Department’s chief management officer.
Almost anyone with a brain and an inclination to consider reality might soon decide to add in Texas and Arizona. And any other state run by dumbass politicians more concerned with campaign donations than the safety of citizens.
