US Marine Corps orders removal of all Confederate paraphernalia from bases around the world

The push to erase US civil war history from all walks of American life has reached the military, with the Marine Corps ordering that all materials relating to the Confederacy be removed from its bases around the world.

The order was issued by the head of the Marines, Commandant General David Berger, in a memo to top staff that included a list of initiatives that he is “prioritizing for immediate execution,” Military.com reports.

Berger’s order came in the wake of a congressional hearing on the rise of extremism in the US armed forces. The US military is deployed in over 150 countries around the world. It is not known if there is a hard deadline for all paraphernalia containing Confederate symbols to be purged from bases.

Confederate symbols have long been the focus of intense debate in the US. The discussion heated up in the wake of the 2015 Charleston church shooting when local governments across the country faced calls to remove statues and monuments honouring Confederate figures.

The movement gained wider public support following the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The fiasco saw white supremacist groups and a loose gathering of right-wingers clash with left-wing and ‘anti-fascist’ protesters over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee.

A recent survey carried out by The Military Times found that more than a third of all active-duty troops say they have personally witnessed an example of white nationalism or ideologically driven racism from another person within their ranks in recent months.

https://www.rt.com/usa/481845-marines-confedarate-symbols-remove/

US lists leader of Iran-backed Shi’ite militia in Iraq as ‘global terrorist’

The United States has declared the leader of the Iran-backed Kataib Hizbullah (KH) militant group in Iraq a terrorist following a number of recent rocket attacks on bases hosting U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq.

A State Department official on February 26 said the United States had listed Ahmad al-Hamidawi, head of the armed faction of the group, as a “specially designated global terrorist.”

The action will freeze U.S. assets that he might hold and make any transactions with him a crime. Kataib Hizbullah was declared a terrorist group in 2009.

“Today we are intensifying our pressure on this terrorist group,” Nathan Sales, the State Department counter-terrorism chief, told a news conference.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/02/us-lists-leader-of-iran-backed-shiite-militia-in-iraq-as-global-terrorist/

Trilateral Commission Member Eric Schmidt Leads AI Ethics Board

The Pentagon is leading the way to create ethics standards for the use of AI in warfare as well as civilian government. Who is Chairman of the Defense Innovation Board? Trilateral Commission member and ex-CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt!

Schmidt, who ran Google under the credo “Do no evil” and then proceeded to use AI to dominate the Internet, censorship, political candidates, etc., is now the dominant force on the panel that is creating the ethical standards for the use of AI is government and warfare.

Also sitting on the board is Walter Isaacson, former President of the Aspen Institute and of the Trilateral Commission. ⁃ TN Editor

The Pentagon is adopting new ethical principles as it prepares to accelerate its use of artificial intelligence technology on the battlefield.

The new principles call for people to “exercise appropriate levels of judgment and care” when deploying and using AI systems, such as those that scan aerial imagery to look for targets.

They also say decisions made by automated systems should be “traceable” and “governable,” which means “there has to be a way to disengage or deactivate” them if they are demonstrating unintended behavior, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

https://www.technocracy.news/trilateral-commission-member-eric-schmidt-leads-feds-ai-ethics-board/

YouTube Takes Down 100 Videos by Prager University, Sparks Lawsuit, PragerU Loses (Updated)

It appears that we finally have an answer to a question that was being sought in a PragerU lawsuit against YouTube: Is the company a private publisher which can editorialize its content? Or, has it become a public forum by virtue of its wide adoption and, therefore, required to remain politically neutral in accordance with constitutional principles?

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/02/youtube-takes-down-100-videos-by-prager-university-sparks-lawsuit.html