A FORT BY ANY OTHER NAME: One of the results from the death of George Floyd has been that major institutions are reexamining long-held positions. The Army is now seriously considering renaming bases and facilities that have long borne the names of Confederate leaders. When you think about it – it is pretty amazing that a nation’s military posts would honor generals who fought and lost a war to it. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said they were “open” to a discussion of rebranding locations like: Forts Benning and Gordon in Georgia; Forts Pickett, A.P. Hill and Lee in Va.; Fort Polk and Camp Beauregard in Louisiana; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Rucker, Ala. There are also many streets on Army installations that honor folks like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. As recently as a couple of months ago, the Army was firmly refusing to consider name changes. Former Generals like Cipher Brief Expert, General David Petraeus have been speaking out. Petraeus wrote a piece for The Atlantic this week titled “Take the Confederate Names Off Our Army Bases.” We were thinking that that change would likely happen until President Trump declared on Wednesday that his administration “will not even consider such a move.” For now, that might forestall a major political fight over picking new names. Imagine if the president could rename Fort Hood as “Fort Hannity.” And if his opponents had their way, they might replace Fort Benning with “Fort Bone Spur.” But we have a suggestion to avoid the fight and make some money. How about selling naming rights like they do for sports stadia and arenas like the Verizon Center and FedEx Field? Instead of Fort Gordon we could have Fort Google, or?
HOW DARE THEY SAY BAD STUFF ABOUT OUR PRESIDENT! The recent dust up in Lafayette Square and other George Floyd-related protests sparked tons of commentary. Some of it was supportive of government actions – and a lot was not. Want to know who was unhappy about former CIA officers criticizing President Trump? Sputnik News. The Kremlin-powered news service posted a story on June 3rd with the blaring headline: Ex-CIA Official Compares Trump to Gaddafi, Hussein Over Police Response to George Floyd Protests. The story picked up on quotes in the Washington Post from former CIA analyst Gail Helt and also drew on tweets from former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos, who said the photo op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church (after the area was cleared with chemical irritants, smoke grenades and rubber bullets) was reminiscent of scenes he had observed in the third world.
MISS-AD-VENTURES IN MARKETING: The US Veterans Administration has a marketing budget to let the country known that “VA Cares.” One of the things they do in order to get that message across is to sponsor features on some cable news networks. For example – they have a regular spot on “NESN” (the New England Sports Network) in which they tout “the VA Hero of the Week.” It generally includes a brief report on or interview with a Boston-area sports star and tags on a short VA commercial at the end. Normally, this would not rate a mention in The Dead Drop, but someone pointed out to us that the “VA Hero of the Week” this week is Boston Celtic legend Bill Russell. The spot is labeled: “Bill Russell Responds to President Trump.” The segment talks about Russell responding to the president’s tweet chastising quarterback Drew Brees’ latest position on kneeling during the national anthem. Russell tweeted a picture of himself (wearing a Presidential Medal of Freedom) saying “#Trump you projected your narrative that #TakingAKnee is disrespectful & #UnAmerican. It was never about that! You are divisive & a coward.” The way public commentary has been going of late, Russell’s tweet is not that unusual. But it IS surprising to see the Trump Administration’s VA sponsoring it and naming Russell the “VA hero of the week.”
VULNERABLE STATE? NBC News says that according to a cyber security firm, the State Department and a bunch of local governments are using email software that the National Security Agency says: “is being exploited by Russian government hackers.” Note they say: “IS BEING” not “is vulnerable to.” Hey, maybe the Russians WILL be able to find those missing Hillary Clinton emails.
A MAZE MISSILE MESS: Westech International, a company that provides maintenance for Minuteman III ICBM nuclear missiles was reportedly hit by “Maze” ransomware. The cyberattackers reportedly compromised an internal Westech network and encrypted files and exfiltrated data. At last report, the company has not paid the demanded ransom and the bad guys have started to post stolen documents including personnel files and company emails “which may or may not include classified information” according to Sky News.
ANOTHER MISSILE MISHAP: Task & Purpose says the Army appears to have inadvertently publicized plans for a new hypersonic weapon system in a post on the Army Secretary’s official Flickr page. Apparently, if you zoom in on some documents included in a photo taken at the Association of the United States Army’s 2019 Annual Meeting, you can see briefing slides which appear to offer some of the details for a new weapon system called “Vintage Racer – Loitering Weapon System.” It is unclear exactly how secret that is, though we suspect the Army didn’t want word to get out this fast. Then again, it is hypersonic.
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Remember former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who the Russians tried (and nearly succeeded) to poison to death in 2018? The Skripals survived of course, but another resident of their hometown in Salisbury in the UK was killed by accidental contact with the nerve agent meant for them. Now, according to a story in The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK (and picked up by the Washington Examiner) the Skripals have moved from the scene of the crime and have taken up residence in another country. Imagine finding that your new neighbor is Sergei Skripal and now, thanks to the Sunday Times, the Russians know where to look for him.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting/weird stuff we discovered:
MAKING YOUR (TRADE) MARK IN SPACE: The Dead Drop has mentioned a couple of times that Netflix has a new comedy series called “Space Force” starring Steve Carell. We watched the first episode and wanted to love it but the best we can say is that we did not hate it. No matter how long the series stays aloft, however, it is destined to make its mark. CBR.com (formerly Comic Book Resources) says the series, which premiered May 29,th might win a trademark war with the military service sharing their name. They quote attorneys as saying the US military has done little to secure the Space Force name while Netflix has been much more aggressive. Our view: there is plenty of room in space for the series and the service to co-exist. No one is likely to mistake one for the other, or?
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