🎧 The Daily: Silicon Valley’s Military Dilemma | New York Times

Listened to The Daily: Silicon Valley’s Military Dilemma from New York Times

Should Big Tech partner with the Pentagon? We examine a cautionary tale.

Some great history and questions about ethics here.

I’m surprised that for it’s share of profits that Down didn’t spin off the napalm division to some defense contractor?

Of course some tech companies are already weaponizing their own products against people. What about those ethical issues.

🎧 The Daily: Deployed in the U.S., Just Waiting for the Caravan | The New York Times

Listened to The Daily: Deployed in the U.S., Just Waiting for the Caravan by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com

The midterm elections are over, and President Trump’s talk of the migrant caravan has dwindled. But thousands of troops sent to the southwest border are still there.

At nearly every turn, President Trump’s own generals tried to persuade him not to deploy active-duty troops to the United States border with Mexico. So what are 5,000 troops doing there?

On today’s episode:

Background reading:

He’s seriously deployed troops for a political reason and they’re going to be drawn down before the reason they’re supposed to be there happens?!

This is just the height of stupidity and government waste. Government institutions keep being eroded by Trumps ineptitude and fear-mongering. This is money and deployment help that would have been far better spent in Puerto Rico for the hurricane.

🎧 Episode 52: Warriors (MEN, Part 6) | Scene on Radio

Listened to Episode 52: Warriors (MEN, Part 6) by John Biewen from Scene on Radio

Do nations fight wars because men are naturally violent? Or do societies condition men to embrace violence so they’ll fight the nation’s wars?

Along with co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee, this episode features reporting by Barry Lam of the Hi-Phi Nation podcast, with scholars Joshua Goldstein of American University, Tom Digby of Springfield College, and Graham Parsons of the United States Military Academy, a.k.a. West Point.

👓 Troops at U.S.-Mexican border to start coming home | Politico

Read Troops at U.S.-Mexican border to start coming home (POLITICO)
All the troops should be home by Christmas, as originally expected, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said in an interview Monday.

👓 Wife of former Marine to be deported to Mexico Friday, after 20 years in U.S. | CBS

Read Wife of former Marine to be deported to Mexico Friday, after 20 years in U.S. (cbsnews.com)
Alejandra Juarez has lived in the U.S. for 20 years and has two daughters who are American citizens

🎧 The Daily: An Endless War | The New York Times

Listened to Listen to ‘The Daily’: An Endless War by Michael Barbaro from nytimes.com
Four American soldiers were ambushed by militants in a remote desert in Niger in October. It was all part of a shadowy war going back to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

👓 The Necessity of Questioning the Military | The Atlantic

Read The Necessity of Questioning the Military (The Atlantic)
Honoring the sacrifice of servicemembers requires understanding why they were put at risk, and demanding that those who did so hold themselves to account.

👓 Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn’t follow through | Washington Post

Read Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn’t follow through (Washington Post)
‘No other president has ever done something like this,’ Trump told the late soldier’s father.
It kills me that he’s so unfeeling, unkind, and generally has no empathy. The fact that he hasn’t caught on that people are going to fact check him and make him continually look like an even bigger looser is even more painful. The disrespect to our troops just becomes the icing on the cake. His actions really just hurt my brain because they just make no sense within the framework of humanity.