1. Environment, 2. Health, 3. Operations in Hot Zones, 3.1. Venezuela, 3.2. Congo, 3.3. Arctic, 3.4. Pakistan, 4. BioChem. Previous Week 190428-Polemic.
Other topics: Cuba, Polio, Civil Unrest, Gain of Function, Dual Use, Conspiracy Theory, Marine Mammals, Disinformation
-1. Environment: GAO to Review If Climate Change Hinders Military Contractors' Response to National Security Threats. Climate Change Forcing Military to Reconsider Its Priorities. Lawmakers Probe Navy, Marine Corps Plans on Climate Change. Air Force Can't Start Storm Repair Projects at Tyndall Due to Funding Gap. Pompeo 'Can't Rank' Climate Change on List of National Security Threats.
-2. Health: House Democrats Attempt to Block Border Wall by Using Popular Veterans Bill, holding health, medicine and defense budgets hostage for political purposes has a long and dishonorable history.
-A. Military medicine history via film: Copper Masks and Faceless Men, post WWI plastic surgery. The Five Commandments, the hapless U.S. Marine private McGillicuddy (an Army Private Snafu clone), violates health commandments, endangering himself (and sometimes his fellow soldiers), shortcomings that the narrator takes schadenfreude pleasure in pointing out. Child Men, Fast Women, Venereal Nightmares and Racial Uplift, racist STD prevention embedded in the same time line as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Gene Kelly’s Unknown Wartime Star Turn, a WWII attempt to destigmatize PTSD. Those Are Things You Don’t Forget. How a Young Audrey Hepburn Helped the Dutch Resistance During World War II.
-3. Operations in Hot Zones:
-3.1. <ADDED 190505-181209-4>. Juan Guaidó Says the Moment Is Now, to Remove Maduro, Sparking Clashes in Venezuela. Doesn’t matter who wins, in terms of infectious disease everyone loses. Four Dead in Venezuela Clashes after Opposition Uprising, Human Rights Group Says. More Clashes in Venezuela’s Political Crisis. Venezuelans Return to Daily Struggle after Violent Unrest. What’s next for Venezuela after Days of Tumult. Coup Underway In Venezuela.
-A. House Armed Services Lawmaker Says US Military Action in Venezuela Would Be in Supporting, Logistical Capacity, besides the inevitable mission creep of combat and security missions to protect logistics supply, staging and distribution, will this also include Humanitarian Aid of an already collapsed national health system and increasing number of refugees Venezuela Migration to Colombia Tops 1.2 Million amid Crisis, Pentagon Plans to Send Navy Hospital Ship to Assist Venezuelan Refugees, especially as US will likely insist the Cuban doctors be ejected, Trump Threatens Cuba as Us Supports Venezuela Uprising, reducing further the number of medical personnel, No Cuban Troops in Venezuela, Cuban Diplomat Tells AP, <ADDED 190331-181209-4>3. [Cartoon, Cartoon]. U.S. Has Done 'Exhaustive Planning' on Venezuela Scenarios: Shanahan, why am I nervous as this reminds me that the same thing was said for Iraq which had unrealistic planning assumptions that were not identified (in other words warning were ignored); How an Elaborate Plan to Topple Venezuela’s President Went Wrong. A U.S. Military Intervention in Venezuela Is Not Completely Unthinkable Anymore. WOTR Chronicle of a Failure Foretold: Trump Turns the Screws on Cuba.
-3.2. Beni: Second Outbreak of Ebola at Mabuku Hospital, The Triage Center of the Ngote Hospital Center Reduced to Ashes. DRC's 23 Ebola Cases Today Top Daily Record. Beni: Three Health Facilities Close in Vuhovi Following Mai-Mai Threats. ISIS Makes Inroads with Militant Groups in Congo <ADDED 190421>, 190421-Polemic-3.2. Union Calls for Protection of Healthcare Workers. Attacking the Ebola Response Endangers the Republic: Dr. Nestor Lubi. DRC Ebola Cases near 1,500 after Deadliest Month. Cliches Can Kill in Congo, Ebola is spreading out of control, but it's not because of a fight over conflict minerals. Ebola Outbreak Deaths Top 1,000 in Congo amid Clinic Attacks, Ebola Outbreak Deaths Top 1,000 amid Worsening Security Situation. The World Has Never Seen Anything like This: WHO Chief on Battling Ebola in a War Zone. Urgent Steps Are Needed to Prevent Ebola from Spinning out of Control in the DRC. Why this Ebola Outbreak Is a Special Challenge. A Total Psychosis in the Head of Motorcycle Taxi Drivers after the Murder of Their Colleague, Angry Rutshuru Protest after the Murder of a Taxi Driver, More on the Motocyclists' Riot in Butembo. Four Militiamen Killed in New Attack in Beni. Violent Clashes Between Soldiers and Rebels in Beni. <ADDED 190505-180513-1.1>.
-3.3. US Navy Plans to Send More Ships into the Arctic as it Looks to Establish New Polar Port. U.S. Navy Plans to Extend Its Reach in the Arctic$. A War Plan Orange for Climate Change 2017. 190414-Polemic-1, 190414-Polemic-1, 190324-6, 190224-Polemic-1.1, 181230-3.1, ##↓↓ . In the original Roman strategic language Antebellum meant “prepare for war”, the consequences deriving from the preparations for and sustainment of belligerent conditions on health, environment, society. Navy Report to Congress Aligns with Current Assessments of Arctic Threat Levels and Capabilities Required to Execute DOD's Strategy, Melting Arctic Ice Opens up a New Frontier for US Military Competition with Russia and China. The Cold War and Environmental History: Complementary Fields. What Happens in the Arctic Doesn't Really Matter, ¿Right? Video.
-3.4. Killings of Police and Polio Workers Halt Pakistan Vaccine Drive, 190505-VCP-Pakistan.
-4. BioChem: Russian Disinformation and the Measles Surge in Europe, [Tweet], 190217-VCP-Ukraine, 181223-VCP-Ukraine, 181111-VCP-IIUSA, 181021-VCP-Israel, <ADDED 180902-180422-1‡>8A, 180902-VCP-Russia, 180826-VCP-USA -*, 180826-VCP-Russia. 190428-4. Studying Russian Disinformation Campaigns. Note that China’s Three Warfares is very similar, Germ Warfare Undeniable. WOTR The New Age of Propaganda: Understanding Influence Operations in the Digital Age -2- -3-, 190421-Polemic-3.3. Russia’s Long Game: Paralyze Europe’s Ability to Act in its Own Self Interest.
-A. Beluga Whale with Russian Harness Raises Alarm in Norway, Licence to Krill: Why the US Navy Trains Whales, Dolphins and Sea Lions, media is being outraged about this but it actually has a long history Russian Spy Whale: the Disturbing History of Military Marine Mammals -2-, not to mention the use of dogs, bears, horses, pigeons, elephants. A Beluga Whale Is Allegedly a Russian Spy. There's a Long History of Marine Mammals in the Military. From Russia with Blubber: A Beluga Whale Spy on Arctic Patrol.
-B. <ADDED 190505-181118-VCP-China>. COA Minister Claims Taiwan Will Not Get ASF Unless Biologically Attacked.
-C. Why Researchers in Rochester Are Testing a New Smallpox Vaccine. Will support conspiracy theory of US developing bioweapons and the GOF/ Dual Use debate. <ADDED 190324-181111-VCP-II-USA>6. Why Officials in Oregon Are Practicing for a Plague Outbreak.
-D. The Biological Warfare Dilemma. The 1971 Smallpox Epidemic in Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Biological Warfare Program. The Deadly Germ Warfare Island Abandoned by the Soviets, in May 1988, 50,000 saiga antelope which had been grazing on a nearby steppe dropped dead – in the space of an hour. The Sverdlovsk Incident Was One of the World’s Worst Bio Weapons Mishaps. 190505-5. There is no open source definitive proof of mass die offs on saiga antelope or other animals (to include humans), which indicates how difficult it is to prove or disprove a bioattack or other bioevent, and how easy it is to obscure what may have happened, and have rumors of the incident that may or may not be based on some fact.
Snapshot Version of 190505-Polemic.
1) Environment presenting some Prioritizing and Funding issues. 2) Remember those inspiring and insipid health films. 3) The powers that be mull over what to do with Venezuela, while the Congo remains exciting and may get more so, and there is a search for a cooler operating environment and marine comrades. 4) Apparently lies can lead to disease outbreaks and other Biological Warfare Dilemma.
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