Judi McLeod
Canada Free Press
Aloha Hawaiians! If you see what you think are soldiers from the Communist Peoples Republic of China Army wandering about in your neck of the woods Tuesday through Thursday next week, your imagination is not playing tricks on you.
But don’t worry while Chinese soldiers will have boots on the ground in Hawaii, they are only really “simulating”. For the first time in history the U.S. Army will host the Communist Peoples Republic of China’s Army on American soil Nov. 12-14, 2013.
“Simulating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to a fictional third country”.
You can’t make this stuff up when GridEx 2 is doing it for you.
GridEx 2 (there was already a GridEx 1in November of 2011) is a massive ‘emergency drill’ planned to take place across the whole of North America with thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, FBI antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies, in the United States, Canada and Mexico (who) are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid. (New York Times, Aug. 16, 2013).
“Fears about the possible detonation of a nuclear warhead in the skies about the United
States, for the purposes of creating an electromagnetic pulse aimed at sizzling electronics on the ground, have led a number of public figures to call for significant steps to strengthen the power grid. Ex-CIA head R. James Woolsey is planning a campaign to convince state governments to pass laws requiring utilities to harden their electronics against potential EMP attacks. The exercise is touted as a unified move “to test the resiliency of the U.S. power grid to withstand major damage causes by a natural disaster or deliberate attack”.
“A key objective of GridEx 2 is to learn how governments would handle a loss of electrical power that is large enough to drastically affect the delivery of common and essential goods and services.” (NYT)
Hoping that the U.S., Canada or Mexico aren’t GridEx 2’s “fictional third country” and that the soldiers out on reconnaissance in Blue Hawaii don’t stamp ‘Made in China’ on it.
The New York Times reported on GridEx 2’s massive, Nov. 13-14 drill on August 16, but never mentioned the participation of the Peoples Republic of China’s Army.
China’s Xinhua Agencies kicked in on November 6 reporting that American and Chinese soldiers will train together in the November exercise.
“The US military Pacific Commander, Samuel Locklear, said here Tuesday that a joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise to be held this month helps improve the relationship between the United States and China.” (Xinhua Agencies, Nov. 6, 2013)
”Locklear told a news briefing that the Pacific Command’s Army component commander in Hawaii has been looking forward to the Nov. 12-14 exercises “for some time”, as the Army will host the People’s Liberation Army soldiers of China to train together in a field environment, simulating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to a fictional third country.
“Summing up his expectations for the joint exercise, Locklear said both militaries can learn something in disaster management and “better prepare tomorrow than yesterday”.
“In relation to our ability to do this with our Chinese counterparts”, he said, “this kind ofexercise gives us a place to start, and get into the rhythm of understanding and trusting each other.”
“The joint exercise was announced during an August visit to Washington by Chinese Minister of National Defense Chang Wanquan, as China and the United States expand their military-to-military relationship and explore cooperation opportunities in non-traditional security areas.”
On August 19, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel escorted China Minister of National Defense Gen. Wanquan during an honor cordon at the Pentagon.
In a same day press conference, Gen. Wanquan said China’s military has never supported any hacker actions, expressing at the joint press conference that the cyber space is a new field and cyberspace security threats have become a world wide problem. “China is one of the major victims of hacker attacks, suffering serious threats from network attacks,” he said.
Meanwhile, let’s hope the last one out of the GridEx 2 simulation exercise turns North America’s lights back on.
China deploys new bomber with long-range land attack missile (Bill Gertz FreeBeacon)
China’s military recently deployed an upgraded strategic bomber that will carry the military’s new long-range land attack cruise missile, capable of attacking Hawaii and Guam, according to a draft congressional report.
The Oct. 8 draft of the forthcoming report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also reveals that China has developed a new armed drone nearly identical to U.S. military’s Reaper. The Chinese missile-firing drone likely was developed through Chinese cyber espionage against U.S. defense contractors.
In other news:
The United States has more people in jail than high school teachers and engineers
by Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg blog
America has become a gigantic gulag over the past few decades and most of its citizens don’t know, or just don’t care. One of the primary causes of the over incarceration in the U.S. is the absurd, tragic failure that is the “war on drugs”, and indeed nearly half of the folks in prison are there for drug related offenses.
Making matters worse is a rapidly growing private prison system, which adds a profit motive to the equation. Recently, I wrote an extensive rant against the private prison system and provided details on how it works in: A Deep Look into the Shady World of the Private Prison Industry.
Now here are some of the sad facts. There are 1.57 million people in federal and state prison (does not even include county and local jail) according to the Department of Justice. That’s above the nation’s 1.53 million engineers and 1.05 million high school teachers.
More from the Huffington Post:
If sitting in a prison cell was a job, it would be one of the most common jobs in the United States. In 2012, there were some1,570,000 inmates in state and federal prisons in the U.S., according to data from the Justice Department.
By contrast, there were about 1,530,000 engineers in America last year, 815,000 construction workers, and 1 million high school teachers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
There were also 750,000 car technicians.
Yep, you know it. USA! USA!
