What's The Deal With The Drones Over Colorado/Nebraska?

Mystery drones (but not this one) are flying over Nebraska and Colorado
and everybody wants to know why. Image via the New York Times.

There are  apparently swarms of drones in recent weeks flying in a grid pattern over eastern Colorado and western Nebraska, and everybody is wondering why.

Understandably, it's freaking people out.

As the New York Times explains:

"The drone sightings started in northeast Colorado around mid-December and have only grown more widespread since then. 

Almost all the sightings have occurred between sunset and about 10 p.m. though (Palisade, Nebraska resident Missy) Blackman said sheahd seen them out later one night in Nebraska and, for the first time on Wednesday, during daylight hours.

She said she looked at them through binoculars and did not see any markings, just plain silver and white coloring.

Across the state line in Colorado, Captain Yowell tried to photograph the drones on Tuesday night with the camera he uses to document crime scenes, but came away without a clear image. He estimated that up to 30 drones were flying each night, though not all in the same place."

The New York Times reports it could just be some mapping operation by the oil and gas industry, but why do it at night?

Understandably, this whole thing has gotten people pretty freaked out.

Sheriff Todd Combs told the New York Times, "There are many theories about what is going on, but at this point, that's all they are....I think we are all feeling a little bit vulnerable due to the intrusion of our privacy that we enjoy inourrural community, but I don't have a solution."

I  had pretty much decided the mystery drone nerds are prankters just out to freak out as many people as possible. But who knows?  The  FAA, FBI, and local and regional law enforcement said they don't know what's going on.

However, there is tantalizing evidence this week from the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Says the Gazette:

"Air Force Global Strike Command, which is based in Louisiana, has confirmed that it conducts counterdrone exercises out of F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, where it is based.

The command oversees underground Minuteman silos spread across northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska, the area where the drones have been spotted nightly the past two weeks.

The Air Force isn't claiming ownership of the drones, but neither is it denying it.

F.E. Warren didn't respond to an emailed question Friday on whether its counter drone effort has anything to do with the recent sightings."

The Gazette says that maps of the areas where the drones were spotted is pocked with dots where drones are forbidden, with the best guess being these are spots were the military does not want drones over missile silos.

All this could be a test of technology that detects and tracks civilian drones, says the Gazette.

If all this is true, then I'm glad the military is trying to protect missile silos from drone attacks. On the other hand, if this is true, I'm vaguely disappointed.

Like most people these days, I kind of prefer the outlandish conspiracy theories, even though the truth is almost always much more bland that the wild stories people make up.

U.S. Military Advisor Says Head Scarves Are "Passive Terrorism." The Internet Mocks

Look carefully at this scene from the opening
credits of the early 1970s sitcom "Mary Tyler
Moore Show" The woman in the lower left
is wearing a scarf on her head. She
must have been a terrorist  

So here's something that might give you a bit less confidence in U.S. military intelligence and preparedness.

A document is being distributed within the military that tells us that Muslim women who wear headscarves known as the hajib - the majority of them -- are practicing "passive terrorism."

That's right, the mere act of wearing a head covering is terrorism, at least according to some guy named Tawfik Hamad, who, according to The Intercept, is a self-described former Islamic extremist and fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

According to The Intercept, Hamad believes, "the hajib contributes to the idea of passive terrorism' and represents an implicit refusal to 'speak against or actively resist terrorism.'"

Which would come as news to so many women who do wear the hajib and who live peaceful lives and speak out against terrorism.

The overall manual the military has does contain a lot of sensible information, at least the parts not written by Hamad.

It was first released to the military in 2011 but was re-released to the military as part of a renewed push to combat terrorism.

This time, though, the hajib causes terrorism idea has captured the imagination of social media, often hilariously. Hey,  stupid, simplisitic ideas need to be mocked, right?

Basically, every head covering is fodder for this meme.

Under the hashtag #PassiveTerrorism, people have been showing all kinds of examples of women amd others with their heads covered, and so therefore are terrorists.

This includes nuns, old women shielding themselves from rain, a pug in a head-covering robe and a cat with a pink scarf tied around its head, Mother Teresa, Queen Elizabeth, Amish women, Orthodox Jewish women, random guys and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousatzai.

You noticed I got into the act in this post. The photo up at the top is from the opening credits to the old 1970s "Mary Tyler Moore" show. Notice the old woman in the lower left in the background.

She's got a scarf on her head. My God! There were Islamic terrorists in Minneapolis in the early 1970s! Who knew?!?!?

It's cold and rainy outside my house in Vermont as I write this. A little while ago, a ran out to get the mail. I wore a hat because of the weather. A head covering!

I guess I'm a terrorist, too!

Fond Farewell To The Hug Lady Of Texas

The Hug Lady of Fort Hood, Elizabeth Laird, died Christmas
Eve. She's estimated to have given out at least 500,000
hugs to deploying U.S soldiers. 

Elizabeth Laird, 83, of Texas passed away on Christmas Eve.

You probably never heard of her, using just her real name. But she was famous, especially around Fort Hood Texas, as she was known as the "Hug Lady."

She made it her job to hang out at the local airport, giving each and every deploying soldier a hug as they departed, and then giving them another hug when they returned from their deployments.

Estimates are she gave at least 500,000 hugs.

"I mean, 1 O'clock in the morning, she was there, and she would say a prayer for the soldiers. She'd hug each one as they walked out the door. And then when you came home at 9 a.m. on a Sunday or whenever time you arrived, she was waiting for you when your plane flew in," Col. Christopher Garver told NPR. 

Of course, sometimes a person Laird hugged would never come home.

"What people don't understand is, a hug from her might be the last body contact of affection someone could have experienced. I know it for a fact, because I know some of the people she hugged who came back home in a body bag," retired Command Sgt. Maj. William "Joe" Gainey told the Killeen (Texas) Daily Herald. 

 No doubt the community loved her. When she was sick, dying of breast cancer back in November, a GoFundMe page was set up to pay some of her medical expenses. The goal was to raise $10,000. But in short order, the GoFundMe effort collected close to $95,000.

There's talk of changing the name of the deployment center at Fort Hood after Laird. They're also discussing giving Laird a posthumous Presidential Metal of Freedom for her efforts.

I can't think of a person more deserving of getting that metal.

Funeral services for Laird are scheduled for today in Killeen, in a church that has the capacity to hold about 2,500 people. A big place, but I doubt there's enough room there for everyone who wants to pay respect.

If there's a heaven, I'm sure Laird has hugged everybody up there already.

Rest in peace, Hug Lady. And thank you.

Military's Got Muslim Girl's Back, Even If Donald Trump Doesn't

Melissa Chanc Yassini said her daughter, 8. was frightened
by Donald Trump's rhetoric on Muslims and was afraid
the Army would take her away. Members of the U.S.
military responded to this fear in the best possible way

A week ago or so, a woman named Melissa Chance Yassini, a Muslim, put a note on Facebook about her daughter Sophia, 8.

Here's what the message said:

"Sad day in America when I have to comfort my 8 year old child who heard that someone with yellow hair named Trump wanted to kick all Muslims out of America. She had began collecting all her favorite things in a bag in case the army came to remove us from our homes. She checked the locks on the door 3-4 times. This is terrorism. No child in America deserves to feel that way."

Now, technically it's true that Donald Trump is not advocating kicking "all Muslims out of America" but I get the kids point. Trump and his ilk are stirring up all this anti-Islam business and making life pretty scary for law abiding American Muslims.

According to the Huffington Post, Yassini's post went viral, and thousands of people clicked on it or otherwise responded. One of those was Kerri Peek, of Colorado, who is both a mother and a Army veteran.

Peek sent a photo of herself to Yassini, and wrote, "Please show this picture of me to your daughter. Tell her I am a mama too and as a soldier I will protect her from the bad guys."

In the message, Peek also issued a call to "friends in the armed forces" asking them to show solidarity with the Yassinis. "Post a picture of you in uniform with the hashtag #IWillProtectYou to let these children know that we will not hurt them. That they are safe here in America."

As is always the case, members of the U.S. military stepped right up to the plate. A bunch of them responded with just that hashtag on social media like Facebook and Twitter.

"Real soldiers fight for ALL Americans. Because it's ALL Americans who REALLY make America great," wrote JP Thompson on Twitter, to give you a typical example.

Another, veteran David Bruce responded on Facebook, according to Upworthy: "I am not Muslim....But when anyone says the Army that I served with will go on to remove Muslims from my country, they'll have to take me, too."

Yassini was greatful for the support, says Unworthy. "Christians, atheists, Jews, every walk of life, every stage, have reached out to Sofia and I with overwhelming support and love...I read each and every message to (Sofia). And now she understands that we're all part of a fabric which is America."

I know I'm getting all Kumbaya on you now. I know the reality is there are jerks in this nation who are insulting Muslims in the streets, torching Mosques, even physically attacking them. 

I'm hoping the Islamaphobes in this country are the small minority. I'm hoping most of us understand that while a small minority of people who call themselves Muslims are terrorists and generally awful people who ought to be locked up, most Muslims are as peaceful as most Christians, or as peaceful as most Americans.

Not everyone in the military is as nice as those who responded to the #IWillProtectYou social media movement.  But it does give me  even more confidence than I had that the U.S. military really is the good guys and gals.

Fear In Texas: The Great U.S. Invasion Of 2015!! EEEK!!!

A U.S. military map for the Jade Helm
military exercise in the American Southwest
this summer. Some paranoid Texans
think the government is going to
put them in concentration camps,
but probably not.  

Texans are bracing for an invasion of that great state by the U.S. military.

Um, yes, Texas is already part of the United States, like it or not, but some Tea Party and conspiratorial types are saying the military will invade anyway.

This all started from a long planned military exercise called Jade Helm 15.

Parts of the southwestern United States, including Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, will be stand-ins for rugged Middle Eastern terrain.

(As Gawker notes, they're using the Southwest for this exercise because you can't really train for a war against Iran inside Iran. They might object.)

The military exercise divides different areas of the Southwest into friendly and hostile areas, for the purposes of training. Texas is marked as "hostile"

That means, according to Tea Party kooks, that the military is going to take away everybody's guns, lock up the Christians, and, I don't know, make everybody get gay married or something.

A website called AllNewsPipeline has the scoop. It's on the Internet, so it has to be true. Here's what AllNewsPipeline tells us what's really going on:

"Numerous 'FEMA Domes' are being rushed to completion across the state of Texas in locations suchas Lumberton, Brownsville, Pancho Maples and Kingsville are raising alarms with many who view these structures as 'FEMA death domes' used to house insurgents following the red and blue list round up of gun owners, Christians and patriotic supporters of American and the U.S. Constitution."

The conspiracy wackadoodles say
Walmart is closing Texas stores to help
the government set up concentration camps.
Nope the stores are closing because they're
underperforming or need renovations.  

Adding fuel to the fire was the closure of six Walmarts in western Texas. And what do failed Walmarts have to do with the Great Invasion of 2015?

Walmart is saying the stores closed because nobody shopped there, or the stores need to be renovated, which sounds plausible.  But no! They're going to be detention camps for all them god fearin' Christuns being oppressed by that evil Muslim Jihadist Obama.

Or something like that.

All this Tea Party right wing conspiracy craziness would be good for just a chuckle, and then we would move on except for one thing:

People who should know better, who are in charge, are buying into this craziness. Or at least pandering to it.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he has told the Commander of the Texas State Guard to monitor the millitary training exercise, so that the U.S. government doesn't get any ideas and kill all the Texas Christians and take their guns. Or something.

Rest assured, says Gov. Abbott, that the Texas State Guard will ensure that Texans'  "safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed" by this evil U.S. invasion U.S. military exercise in the state.

The ever reliable Texas U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert also chimed in. He's always fun to listen to with his extreme rhetoric, and he doesn't disappoint here:

"This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law. Certainly, I can understand these concerns.

When leaders within the current administration believe that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans or even 'cling to guns or religion,' patriotic Americans have reasons to be concerned."

 Of course U.S soldiers, the ones participating in the military exercise are patriotic American citizens. Isn't it kind of insulting to think these fine soldiers would set up concentration camps or something to detain and kill other Constitution loving Americans?

Yep, but oh well.

It's no secret a lot of Texans, with all those conservatives, don't like President Obama, which is totally fair enough. NPR quoted former Texas Lt. Gov David Dewhurst as saying, "Unfortunately, some Texans have projected their legitimate concerns about the competence and trustworthiness of President Barack Obama on these noble warriors. This must stop."

Don't count on it stopping, Mr. Dewhurst.

That's because there's money to be made. All these conspiracy organizations need a source of income. If the U.S. "invasion" of Texas doesn't happen, then these whackadoodle groups can say they "prevented" it, and if need be, do a money beg to take advantage of it.

And the Texas governor's pandering, and Gohmert's babble around all this is just being pro business, right? Keep that conspiracy industry going. Plus, throwing red meat to this constituency won't hurt in future elections.

Do Schools Really Need Army Tanks?

The San Diego School District is ready for
trouble.  They have a tank much like this
ready to, I don't know, invade their own schools.  

Kids these days.

You need an elite military operation to keep them under control.

That's what you'd think, anyway, by recent revelations that schools are buying enough military hardware to make Vladimir Putin blush.

A prime example is the 18-ton mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, or MRAP,  that the San Diego Unified School District recently bought.

You know, because of all those improvised explosive devices those snotty nosed kids are always leaving strewn around.

And Bonus! The MRAP was government surplus, so the San Diego Unified School district got this behemoth for the low, low price of $5,000, says KPBS, the San Diego area public radio station.

What a deal!

According to KPBS, San Diego Unified School District Police Chief Ruben Littlejohn said the MRAP is not at ALL militaristic. Oh no, not at all.

He said weapons were removed from the MRAP and replaced with medical supplies, teddy bears and other comforts in case there is an emergency at one of the district's schools.

Because the best way to help an injured or scared little kid is to blast through with an army tank. Sorry. I mean a pretty MRAP.

I'm glad this is coming to light, because it's all so silly and maybe we can get somebody to put a stop to this.

There's at least one sane San Diego School Trustee, Scott Barnett who says the tank, sorry, warm fuzzy MRAP is a huge waste and mistake. 

Meanwhile, we learn that the Los Angeles school district has invested in grenade launchers says the Los Angeles Times.

 Oh joy!

The school district also has automatic weapons and a tank just like San Diego, says the L.A. Times.  The school district says they have no intention of using the grenade launchers on students, say, when they start a food fight in the cafeteria.

I'm don't think I'm that reassured.

They just have the grenade launchers on hand in case the police department wants to borrow them. Um, then why don't you just give them to the police?  It would just eliminate the middle man during an emergency.

Talking Points Memo says a lot of school districts are getting military hardware from the Pentagon. School districts in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada and Utah have received military equipment.

One school district in Edinburg, Texas has a full SWAT team ready to go.

Maybe all this military stuff is at the ready in case the Student Council declares independence and the school districts want to put down the rebellion?

Look, I get it. School administrators across the nation are understandably freaked out by school shootings like that awful one in Newtown, Connecticut back in 2012.  They want to be ready in case something really bad happens.

Will kids feel more secure, though, if they feel like they're in an armed camp, primed for war, instead of a school?  Will some troubled kid see all this military hardware and declare his own war, with his own gun?

I know it's harder, and much more uncertain, to discourage violence, or at least flag the right person to prevent anyone from picking up a gun at a school and opening fire.  In the worst case scenario, if a school shooting starts, will the military gear actually help?

I wonder if we should be teaching kids that we're perpetually on a war footing, and they ought to be afraid, too.

Teaching kids to be afraid all through life cows them, and discourages them from exploring, thinking, trying things, taking risks.

Or maybe these war-ready school districts WANT people to grow up to be easily controlled, obedient and never think for themselves?

Let's Join The Blue Angels In Flight

Let's join this Blue Angel guy on a wild flight.  

In what has to be the coolest video of the month, let's get into the cockpit of the Blue Angels and enjoy the flight.  

The video makes me want to sign up to be one of their pilots, but then again, I can barely manage the half hour drive down Interstate 89 from St. Albans to Burlington, Vermont.

So we'll just enjoy this video together and deal with this vicariously.

Just don't get motion sickness, OK?

I Love The Ferguson Police. Maybe.

Are the police in Ferguson overdressed here?
Photo by Jeff Roberson, Associated Press.  

Yep, that's right, I think the police out there in trouble Ferguson are  totally boffo. They've done us all an enormous favor.  

Or, they, and other police officials down there, are rapidly pushing this nation toward a crisis, I'm not sure yet.

No, I don't like that police in Ferguson shot an unarmed black teenager. No, I don't like that they played dress up, pretended to be soldiers with ridiculous amount of gear, and military trucks and gear.  I don't appreciate them arresting journalists who are trying to tell us what's going on.

I don't like that the police are trampling First Amendment rights. Or telling people "I will fucking kill you" for the high crime of walking down the street.  Or telling a CNN producer to get out because those "niggers" might do anything. 

The reason I love the job police in Ferguson are doing is because they've finally got us talking about whether arming local police to the teeth with hard core battle weapons is a good idea. They've got us talking about how our rights to peaceable assembly and speech are threatened by goons who say they are trying to keep the peace.

Police in Ferguson have us talking about race, crime, rights, poverty, freedom. I have no idea if all the talking we're doing because of Ferguson will improve things, but it's better than silence.

Look, I get it. Ferguson is complicated. There are a few criminals, looters, violent offenders, and jerks amid the hundreds, or thousands of peaceful protestors that have been out every night in Ferguson.

You've got to control the creeps, arrest them, put them away, but at what price? Isn't there a better way than to also treat everybody who lives in and near Ferguson like they are terrorists?

WAR GAME ARE FUN!

They brought the dogs out in Ferguson. Photo
by David Carson, St. Louis Post Dispatch  

We can start by police nationwide, who are taking advantage of federal giveaways to receive enought high tech arms to make Vladimir Putin blush.

Do we really want local cops to constantly act like third rate actors making some sort of lowbrow military Rambo movie? Yeah, in extreme events, some of this stuff might come in handy. But once in a blue moon. Do we really need entire invading armies to execute basic search warrants?

The juxtaposition of peaceful protests and police so pimped up in military gear it looks like they're in a knock down, drag out battle in Baghdad is disturbing to say the least.

The Economist has a good summary of how Congress, awash in military hardware campaign cash, perpetuate this extreme militarization of what used to be the nice police on foot patrol in your neighborhood.  

"In this as with so much else in American governance, it starts with federal cash. Every year Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets out the Defense Department's budget and expenditures. The version passed in 1990, in the wake of the sharp rise in drug related violence, allowed the Defense Department to transfer military gear and weapons to local police departments if the were deemed "suitable for counter-drug activities. 

"....The American Civil Liberties Union found that the value of military equipment used by American police departments has risen from $1 million in 1990 to $450 million in 2013."

Apparently, defense contractors weren't making enough money off of wars overseas. The bottom line would get even better if they encouraged police to declare war on us. The shareholders must be so excited. 

 U.S. News and World Report has a pretty good take on this point: 

"Have no doubt, police in the United States are militarizing, and in many communities, particularly those of color, the message is being received loud and clear: 'You are the enemy, ' writes Tom Nolan, a 27-year veteran of the Boston Police Department and professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, in an op-ed that appeared in DefenseOne in June, more than a month before the Ferguson riots.

Is that what police in this country really want? That we are their enemy? That is truly scary. 

FIRST AMENDMENT

I also love the police efforts to detain and shut up journalists covering the unrest. Yeah, like THAT'S going to work.

Lord knows some journalists are jerks, too, bloviating about nonsense and puffing up their over inflated talking head egos even more. But the truth is, most journalists, imperfect as they are,  just want to tell us what's going on. They want to make us understand the deal. And the have the First Amendment right to do so.

Apparently, the cops in Ferguson think the First Amendment is bullshit, and reporters should just shut up and regurgitate their happy little press releases.  I hope the national conversation about this crisis eventually convinces them otherwise. But I'm not totally optimistic on that one.

At least Ferguson has gotten so much attention, and drawn so many journalists, that police in Ferguson have ended up playing whack-a-mole. They detain three or so journalist to shut them up, and 30 journalists come in to yak and yell about journalists being detained.

I guess police in Ferguson police haven't figured out how to control the entire media like China has, which is a good thing.

And by the way, you Second Amendment enthusiasts. Where were you when they were trampling the First Amendment? I bet you'd be howling in the streets if the police trashed the Second Amendment as badly as the First. Aren't all the Constitutional Amendments important?

Who knows if the reaction to Ferguson will improve things in this country? At least we can count on minor victories.

The cop that told peaceful citizens and journalists to leave or "I will fucking kill you" has been reassigned away from Ferguson. (When asked for his name the "I KEEL YOU" cop said "Go Fuck Yourself" so I guess that's his unusual name)

I don't know how the rest of the Ferguson story will play out. I don't know if police will back away from arming themselves to the teeth.  I wonder if anyone will be held accountable for trashing Constitutional rights.

But something better change, dammit.

to

Good People of the Week Awards

Yesterday,   I posted something on a corporation being totally abusive and awful.

So, as a counterweight, I'll feature some people who popped up in the news last week who took on a much more positive tack.

Texas A&M alumni and students block a potential
Westboro Baptist Church protest at a funeral. 

First we go to Texas A&M, where an alum, a soldier, Lt. Col. Roy Tisdale, who was killed at a Fort Bragg training exercise.

As they often do the vile Westboro Baptist Church threatened to picket the soldier's funeral, to yell things like God Hates Fags and similar lovely sentiments. They often go to soldiers' funerals because the wackos of Westboro think that's the right thing to do.

Anyway, students and alums at Texas A&M quite reasonably thought that Tisdale's family should not be subject to Westboro's abuse during the funeral.

So, an "Aggie" Ryan Slezia decided to gather up people from Texas A&M to form a "human wall" to block Wicked Westboro. The 650 people or so who showed up wore purple shirts, the school colors so that the funeral could go on in peace.

It turns out Westboro didn't show up. They often say they are going to, but wimp out. Which is a good thing.

Next, we find a man who finds seeks out purple hearts for sale. But not to collect them for himself. Zachariak Fike, who at last report was a member of the Vermont National Guard, finds them in antique stores and auction sites, and tries to find the owners of the Purple Hearts and their families.

Fike already has a Purple Heart of his own, having been injured in Afghanistan in 2010. So far, he says his record for returning the medals if 5 for 5.

So I complain about lousy people yes, but there's a lot of good ones out there, too.