Miscellaneous News

[Jura The idiot]

interestingly, Up to 20,000 migrant kids may be sent to military bases

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The Pentagon confirmed it may house up to 20,000 unaccompanied

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as part of the Trump administration’s plan to prosecute each person caught illegally crossing the border.

The locations could include four that have already been reviewed by the

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, (HHS) or could include other military installations or tent city locations not yet named.

“HHS has requested DoD to determine its capabilities to provide up to 20,000 temporary beds for unaccompanied alien children at DoD installations,” said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Davis in a statement. “While four bases (three in Texas and one in Arkansas) have been visited by HHS for possible housing, it doesn’t mean any or all children would be housed there.”

“HHS and DOD are working closely to determine the requirements and timing for support,” Davis continued. “Secretary Mattis’ guidance has been clear: that the DoD will support our federal partners.”

DoD has previously said it would be responsible for the base security; HHS would be responsible for feeding and caring for the minors.

More than 21,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed into the U.S. since January, according to statistics reported by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

On the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., questioned how DoD would be able to handle the influx of children.

“The Department of Defense has been asked if it can house 20,000 unaccompanied children between now and the end of the year. How will that work? Is it even feasible? How is the administration keeping track of the families who have already been separated and what are their plans and timetable for reuniting?” Schumer asked.

On Wednesday as part of his executive order to end the administration’s policy of separating children and parents who crossed together, President Donald Trump directed Mattis to “take all legally available measures to provide to the [DHS Secretary,] upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families.”

Trump also directed that DoD would “construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law. The Secretary, to the extent permitted by law, shall be responsible for reimbursement for the use of these facilities.”

Virginia Republican Rep. Rob Wittman, who chairs the panel’s seapower subcommittee, said he expects the Pentagon to quickly retrofit military facilities to accommodate families after ironing out the logistics with DHS.

“It’s a matter of getting facilities, getting them ready, making sure you have enough water there,” Wittman said. “You get families together, meet their needs, and do it quickly. If anyone can do it, the military can because they’re used to dealing on that scale.

The Pentagon is also sending 21 military attorneys to the border to help the Department of Justice move through a backlog of thousands of prosecutions of illegal immigrants being held in detention centers there.

Members of the House Armed Services Committee said they have not yet received any details from the Pentagon on the plans to house migrant children.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the panel’s ranking member, said he has asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for additional information.

“Obviously the policy is just ridiculous,” Smith said. “There are far, far better ways to treat children when they cross as refugees seeking asylum than to lock them up in various places. “I’m very concerned with how we are treating these children.”

 

[Franklin]

The "Red Scare" is back.

Russia, China and the new Red Scare

Amid America's fractious political landscape, where cross-party trust is all but absent and bombast seems the currency of the day, concern is growing that wariness about foreign influence from Russia and China is morphing into paranoia.

The latest example came this month when two top Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee accused the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council in a letter of acting as an agent of China and demanded that the environmental advocacy group turn over internal documents.

The NRDC has vigorously refuted the allegations, declaring it is "proud of our work, in China and elsewhere."

The letter, experts say, seemed aimed not so much at rooting out Chinese influence as smearing the environmental movement at large by associating it with foreign adversaries. It was sent at a time when alarm about covert foreign influence in the U.S. occupies a space in American political dialogue perhaps not seen since the Cold War and Sen. Joe McCarthy's rabid investigation of artists, activists and labor to discern whether communists and communist sympathizers were trying to undercut American institutions amid a wider Red Scare.

"There are a whole lot of other organizations you could find, so why would you pick one like this, where it would be a public slog and one where people would really disagree with you?" says Abigail Grace, who until recently served on the National Security Council staff under President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump. "Politicization of this is going to be a way for us to end up in a 1950s McCarthyist situation very quickly."

Of course there are differences. Communism in both Russia and China has long since given way to forms of authoritarian capitalism, so rather than rivalries based on competing ideologies, the tension is more emblematic of a recent return to economically driven great power politics. China, for its part, has been accused of rampant industrial espionage and massive theft of U.S. government information, while Russia's broad agenda of destabilization set its sights on influencing the presidential election.

But the renewed hostilities between America and two of its most recent adversaries – and the audacity of their violations – have created a domestic climate in which nearly any association with the countries is politically toxic.

Democrats have long sought to exploit the situation at the highest level, suggesting President Donald Trump is in the service of Vladimir Putin, with presidential nominee Hillary Clinton famously calling Trump a "puppet" of the Russian president during a 2016 debate. The notion that Trump could be a "Manchurian Candidate" has loomed over the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigative team has established ties between Russian interests and people involved in Trump's campaign.

Russia was the impetus for the Democrats to urge the Federal Election Committee – so far unsuccessfully – to develop new guidance to prevent foreign spending on U.S. elections, after it was revealed that Moscow used social media platforms like Facebook to spread propaganda.

And Senate Democrats have gone after one of their favorite targets, the National Rifle Association, with a Russia-themed twist, accusing the group of being a pawn of Moscow and of being a pass-through for Russian funding of the 2016 elections. The FBI is reportedly investigating whether the organization illegally directed money from a top Kremlin-linked banker toward Trump's presidential campaign.

In the current climate, even developments that might not have drawn much attention are getting headlines when a connection to Russia is introduced. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, for example, found herself having to answer for an appearance in the company of Putin in 2015. And an analyst on MSNBC earlier this year asked a congressman whether the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee had been "compromised by the Russians."

Internationally, it's much the same story, with European political parties facing accusations about the nature and extent of their ties to Moscow, while the implications loom uncomfortably over any such disclosure.

In the U.S., as Trump fends off the Mueller probe and touts the benefit of repairing fraught ties with Moscow, Republicans have struggled to distance themselves from Russia, dampening their criticism of the Kremlin. While some have not been shy about turning Russia to their advantage – even this year attributing protests of environmental policy to Russian meddling – to a large degree, the GOP has instead turned its concerns about foreign influence on China in particular.

"The Russian case has gotten all caught up in American domestic politics, and that has, to a certain degree, diluted and distracted attention from the Russians because there are so many conservatives who are just denying that there is any real Russian effort to try to undermine the election, because that would reflect poorly on Trump," says Michael Swaine, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace. "So there's a logical resistance to looking at the Russians too closely, for political reasons. That doesn't exist in the Chinese case."

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, in particular, has focused on rooting out Chinese influence operations: Last month he published an op-ed in The Washington Post warning of "China's malevolent economic behavior" and sent a letter to the Wilson Center, a federally funded nonpartisan think tank in the nation's capital, asking about the political affiliation of a guest speaker on a panel that the center planned to hold on Chinese influence operations.

Discerning the line between legitimate worry and overblown paranoia, however, has proved to be a challenge. Robert Daly, a former diplomat to China who now directs the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center, says that the letter to the NRDC is particularly troubling.

"Where does this stop? Can American organizations work to promote human welfare, regardless of our legitimate geo-strategic concerns, or not?" Daly says. "We're in a global competition for leadership with China. Do we really mean that Americans cannot also work, in an apolitical way, to advance human welfare in China?"

China's activities in the U.S. are understood to range from espionage and targeted efforts to influence particular individuals, to broader information campaigns aimed at burnishing China's image in the U.S.

"It runs all the way from pretty threatening to pretty benign," Swaine says.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, for example, testified before a Senate panel in February that the bureau is concerned about Chinese influence on college campuses. Confucius Institutes, for example, which are funded by Beijing and partner with American universities, are seen as vehicles for exerting Chinese influence in the U.S.

But Wray's remarks also provoked outrage from Chinese student associations and Asian advocacy groups, which warned of having "every Chinese student or scientist assumed guilty until proven innocent of a national security threat."

And just last month, after the president defied even those in his own party by offering a lifeline to a Chinese telecom company that the intelligence community says poses a national security risk, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers responded by seeking an ethics investigation into Trump's business practices with China.

With public concern heightened about the intentions of Beijing and Moscow, experts who spoke with U.S. News say that the letter sent to the NRDC suggests that U.S. organizations are now facing the prospect of similar scrutiny – and may signal the rise of a new tactic that brands perceived political opponents as Chinese or Russian fronts.

"Of course, that's what's going to happen. That's what happens in a McCarthyist witch hunt. This is the template, right?" says Kaiser Kuo, a freelance writer and former director of international communications for the Chinese search engine Baidu, who frequently writes about and hosts a podcast on China. "I don't think it's risen to that yet. But we're teetering toward it. And I do worry."

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[PanAsian]

The "Red Scare" is back.

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It's also easier for Americans who want to do so to target China and Chinese because of racism and more cultural differences than compared to say Russia and Russians.

 

[PanAsian]

The US has the right to enforce its border, but there was absolutely no need to do so by forcibly separating children from their parents. The article you linked claimed that the only way to prevent that was to change the Flores law. This was demonstrated to be a lie shortly after when Trump signed an executive order to stop the practice.

Look, this is not about immigration. It's about basic human decency. Deport them or detain them, but keep the kids with their parents!

Let's remember you haven't provided a single reference investigating the situation and you should re-read the article as well as learn more about Trump's executive order to understand what they actually say.

Your supposed "basic human decency" position is merely turning a blind eye on how to handle difficult realities, even deliberately sweeping risks to children and known criminality under the rug, as well as blatant double standards.

If according to you these illegal immigrants are fleeing oh so disastrous neighborhoods, hometowns, and countries, how can the US trust their proof of familial ties or lack of criminal records from the authorities of such neighborhoods, hometowns, and countries?

How does your supposed "basic human decency" propose to deal with children only accompanied by adults proven to be criminals?

 

[timepass]

Lockheed Martin To Supply F-16 Block 70 Fighter Jets Worth $1.12B To Bahrain....

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a foreign military sales (FMS) contract to supply 16 F-16 Block 70 fighter aircraft, the newest generation of Fighting Falcon, to Bahrain, the Department of Defense announced Friday.

“Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas; and Lockheed Martin, Greenville, South Carolina, have been awarded a $1,124,545,002 fixed-price-incentive-firm contract for F-16 production. This contract provides for the production of 16 F-16 V Block 70 aircraft,” the statement says.

This contract involves 100 percent foreign military sales (FMS) to the Kingdom of Bahrain, the release said.

The Block 70 is the newest and most advanced F-16 production configuration, combining numerous capability and structural upgrades. The aircraft has improved radar systems, advanced weapons capabilities and enhanced battlespace awareness.

Work will be performed in Greenville, South Carolina; and Fort Worth, Texas. The work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2023.

This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. FMS funds in the amount of $551,027,050 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity, the statement added.

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[timepass]

Harrowing audio reveals desperate sobbing of children separated from their parents at US immigration centers..

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2049812785062372

 

[SilentObserver]

So, the following is allegedly a Gaokao essay question from this year:



I have a feeling that some folks on this forum would've aced it without much strenuous effort.

google translation:

"National Roll II:

(Applicable areas: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hainan)

During the fight against fighter aircraft during World War II, most people believed that protection should be strengthened in areas where the fuselage was bombed. But one expert believes that precautions should be taken"

I wonder why these specific provinces were chosen.

 

[solarz]

Let's remember you haven't provided a single reference investigating the situation and you should re-read the article as well as learn more about Trump's executive order to understand what they actually say.

Your supposed "basic human decency" position is merely turning a blind eye on how to handle difficult realities, even deliberately sweeping risks to children and known criminality under the rug, as well as blatant double standards.

If according to you these illegal immigrants are fleeing oh so disastrous neighborhoods, hometowns, and countries, how can the US trust their proof of familial ties or lack of criminal records from the authorities of such neighborhoods, hometowns, and countries?

How does your supposed "basic human decency" propose to deal with children only accompanied by adults proven to be criminals?

What's so difficult to understand? If the adults are inadmissible, send them back with their kids. If they are admissible, keep them with their kids.

Funny how other countries in the world are able to secure their borders without needing such measures.

 

[solarz]

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This boy seemed devastated—quiet and withdrawn. He barely spoke. I asked if he needed a hug. I kneeled down in front of the recliner, and this kid just threw himself into my arms and didn’t let go. He cried and I cried. And to think he’s been in a facility for a month without a hug, away from his parents, and scared, and not knowing when he’ll see them again or if he’ll see them again. While I held him, I heard the men standing behind me muttering that I was ‘rewarding his bad behavior.’ Thankfully, it was in English, so I don’t think the boy understood what they were saying, but it just revealed their attitudes toward these kids.

Heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking...

 

[Jura The idiot]

Jun 22, 2018

interestingly, Up to 20,000 migrant kids may be sent to military bases

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and
DHS: We need 2,000 beds on military bases in next 45 days

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The Department of Homeland Security has asked DoD to have 2,000 beds

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ready within the next 45 days — and that is just the start of what the agency has asked the military to be ready for.

“The Department of Defense has received a request for assistance from the Department of Homeland Security to house and care for an alien family population of up to 12,000 people. DHS requests that DoD identify any available facilities that could be used for that purpose,” the Pentagon said in a statement late Tuesday.

The formal request was necessary to enable DoD to begin the process of deciding how it will fulfill the request — either by tasking members of the active duty or reserves, or contracting out the support — and eventually pursue reimbursement from DHS for the support.

DHS has already visited multiple locations in Texas and Arizona. Earlier this week Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo and Fort Bliss in El Paso would be used to house unaccompanied immigrant minors and families who crossed the border. Last week, Time Magazine reported that Camp Pendleton in California and Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma

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DoD is preparing to receive up to 20,000 unaccompanied minors, and according to Tuesday’s memo, will now prepare for 12,000 family members.

If there are no current buildings available on the bases, “DoD has been asked to identify available DoD land and construct semi-separate, soft-sided camp facilities capable of sheltering up to 4,000 people, at three separate locations. DHS prefers the facilities to be built in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, or California.”

Within the next 45 days, however, DHS has asked DoD to be ready for the first 2,000 illegal immigrants, with a note that “a timeline will be developed to add additional capacity.”

It’s not the first time the bases have been used in this capacity.

In 2014, Lackland Air Force Base was used to detain immigrant children, and at the time, HHS installed a fence to separate the children from the rest of the base, a defense official said.

In addition, a complex with an 1,800-bed capacity was used in 2016 at

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to house unaccompanied minors who immigrated to the U.S. And about 700 immigrant children stayed at

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in New Mexico that same year. The minors spent about a month at the facilities.