Monday, March 9, 2020

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- March 9, 2020

The US Army will begin screening as many as 1,000 new recruits per week at either Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; or Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Pictured: Soldiers stationed on US Army Garrison Casey in South Korea undergo screenings, February 26

Daily Mail: Marine stationed just outside DC and a Navy sailor posted in southern Italy become latest US service members to test positive for coronavirus

* Marine stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia tested positive on Saturday
* Follows a sailor at Naval Support Activity Naples testing positive a day before
* Previously a soldier and his wife stationed in South Korea tested positive

A Marine stationed in northern Virginia has become the first U.S. service member on American soil to test positive for coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

'A U.S Marine assigned to Fort Belvoir, VA tested positive today for COVID-19 and is currently being treated at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital,' the Pentagon said in a statement on Saturday.

The Marine had recently returned from overseas where he was on 'official business', according to the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Mark Secretary Esper and the White House have been briefed.

Fort Belvoir is the home to numerous significant military organizations, including the Defense Logistics Agency, the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, and the Military District of Washington's 12th Aviation Battalion, which provides rotary-wing movement to the DoD and Congress.

Read more ....

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- March 9, 2020

Sailor in Italy, Marine in Virginia test positive for coronavirus -- Navy Times

US Army orders stop to movement of troops in South Korea and Italy due to coronavirus -- the Hill

23 US soldiers quarantined after possible coronavirus infection in Norway -- Stars & Stripes

Iwo Jima 75th anniversary reunion called off due to coronavirus concerns -- Marine Times

Officials Prepare to Keep Pentagon Building Running in Event of Major Coronavirus Outbreak -- Military.com

US intel says Taliban won't honor agreement with US, even as Trump says they 'really want to make a deal' -- Business Insider

Nuclear Threats Are Growing. How Should U.S. Missile Defenses Be Upgraded? -- Loren Thompson, Forbes

Arrows of Misfortune: US Missile Defence System in Dire Need of Upgrade - Forbes Analytic -- Sputnik

Destroyers left behind: US Navy cancels plans to extend service lives of its workhorse DDGs -- Defense News

Navy Wants Frigate Now, Despite Esper Review -- Breaking Defense

US Army takes 40-mile shots from extended-range cannon in demo -- Defense News

Elbit Systems to provide infrared missile warning system for U.S. Air Force F-16s -- Defence-Blog

Pentagon pilots wide-ranging programs to reduce active-duty suicide -- UPI

Keeping an F-35 flying requires proficiency in over 700 tasks — meet the airmen who can do them all -- Business Insider/US Air Force

Northrop’s Late B-2 Work Spurs U.S. Cut After $2B Outlay -- Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg

Pentagon to award mobile nuclear reactor contracts this week -- Defense News

Boeing awarded $800M to support P-8As for U.S., South Korea, New Zealand -- UPI

The intelligence community is developing its own AI ethics -- C4ISRNet

As Pentagon vacancies peak, time runs out to fill jobs -- Defense News

Civilian vacancies at Trump’s Pentagon hit new high -- Politico

Finland pulled troops from an Arctic military exercise with the US and 8 other countries over coronavirus concerns -- Business Insider

UK RAF fighter jets scrambled after Russian military aircraft approaches British airspace -- TASS

Europe ship-killing missile passes first firing trial -- Defense News

US, Russia remain largest exporters of weapons in the world -- TASS

Russia Retains Number Two Spot Among Global Arms Exporters – Think Tank -- Sputnik

Who were the largest major arms exporters in the last 5 years? -- Defense News

Russia’s Pacific Fleet Forms Two New Anti-Submarine Strike Groups -- Sputnik

China disputes report it fired laser at US Navy plane -- Navy Times/AP

Hundreds of Vietnamese fishing boats intrude into Chinese waters, think tank claims -- SCMP

North Korea fires 3 unidentified projectiles, says South Korea’s military -- Military Times/AP

Japan commissions its first submarine running on lithium-ion batteries -- Defense News

S-400 air defense deployment to begin in April, Erdogan says -- TASS

Who Wouldn’t Want to Make Our Nuclear Weapons Safer? -- Patty-Jane Geller, RCD

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

State Department blames ‘swarms of online, false personas’ from Russia for wave of coronavirus misinformation online

Anonymous said...


Trump retweets White House photo of him fiddling, says he doesn't know 'what this means'
Peter Weber
14-18 minutes

March 8, 2020

If anybody else had tweeted a doctored photo of President Trump playing the fiddle as the new coronavirus spreads throughout the U.S. and wreaks havoc on the U.S. and global economies, the White House would probably protest vociferously. When White House social media director Dan Scavino tweeted out such a photo, saying Trump's next tune is "Nothing can stop what's coming," though, Trump retweeted it with the message: "Who knows what this means, but it sounds good to me!'"

Who knows what this means, but it sounds good to me! https://t.co/rQVA4ER0PV

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2020

Trump, of course, wasn't playing the violin over the weekend — he was playing golf at his private club in Florida. And since historical and cultural references to leaders fiddling are scarce, especially in times of disaster, lots of people on social media had no problem identifying what they believed the meme meant. Some were curious why Scavino tweeted it, however, or why Trump retweeted it.

After your followers google "nero" and "fiddle," they're going to demand you fire Dan Scavino for sabotaging you this way.

Anonymous said...

Donald Trump claimed the plunging stock market was 'good' for consumers because it is based on cheaper gas Monday as Wall Street faced a fall so dramatic trading was briefly halted. 'Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!' Trump tweeted Monday, one of a string of tweets accusing the 'fake news' of prompting the sell-off. He accused the media of 'inflaming' the virus outbreak and dismissed the collapse in oil prices as the result of Saudi Arabia and Russia 'arguing.' As the Dow Jones lost a year's gains, he was shuttling across Florida from Mar-a-Lago to a $100,000-a-head fundraiser - and tweeting that flu was worse than coronavirus. 'Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil,' Trump continued in another tweet Monday morning. 'That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!' Markets all over the world plummeted Monday over the growing threat of the virus spreading, but Trump has not addressed the economic impact as the coronavirus death toll bypassed 20 in the U.S.

Anonymous said...

PDATE: Upon accessing Trump’s financial disclosures for 2018/2019, there is no current investment in Thermo Fisher Scientific listed. There are still some concerning issues; this report only covers disclosures up to May 19, 2019, so any new acquisitions would not be listed. Moreover, there are still trust accounts listed, such as DJT Holdings, that do not detail the nature of the holdings and specify “entity's other holdings and assets are reported elsewhere” in the listing.

Considering that it was confirmed that Trump did previously own stock in this company and that the Thermo Fisher Scientific president of the China division was a special CEO guest at a state dinner for Trump in China in 2017, it is difficult to say what his business relationship continues to be with the company that is receiving this huge government contract or what direct benefit Trump might be deriving from any continued relationship. We also do not have the disclosures of his children and any other relatives and what stock they are specifically invested in and if they stand to benefit personally.

The fact that the Unites States declined to use coronavirus test kits available from the World Health Organization in Feb., well before the outbreak in the Unites States is also suspect. Stay tuned, I am still digging…

In case you missed it, here is the original article: Trump Could Profit From Coronavirus

Bob Huntley said...

It is also good for consumers when a major retailer goes bankrupt and all its stock is put on clearance.

Anonymous said...

Coronavirus
“He’s Definitely Melting Down Over This”: Trump, Germaphobe in Chief, Struggles to Control the Covid-19 Story
Publicly, he sees it as yet another (“Fake News”) media war; privately, he worries about virus-carrying journalists on Air Force One. But cancel his rallies? “I’m not going to do it,” he says.