https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2945855/austin-orders-fort-stewart-armored-brigade-combat-team-to-europe/

I’d like to talk briefly about the idea in national defense of domains. While Information Technology people think of domains as website addresses, the national defense thinks of domains as one of 5 specific areas of warfare. As we all know from elementary history class, the Americans fighting the British used lanterns to tell if the British were coming by land or by sea.

http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/one-if-by-land-two-if-by-sea.html

Later, beginning with WWI, but really getting standardized in WWII, air became a domain for warfighting.

Most recently, we’ve added cyber. Most people accept that cyber is a real threat as far as warfighting domains.

Lastly, space. This is where many people aren’t fully convinced. However, it’s not a complicated concept. Our modern world relies heavily on satellite technology. Per the NASA website, “Satellites provide information about Earth’s clouds, oceans, land and air. They also can observe wildfires, volcanoes and smoke. All this information helps scientists predict weather and climate. It helps farmers know what crops to plant.”

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-satellite-k4.html

Most military strategists have been thinking in terms of “multidomain attacks” meaning coordinating an air attack with a land attack or a sea assault with an airborne operation. Think of D Day at Normandy – air, land and sea forces all converging on the same point. Then add the next two domains – cyber and space.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/russia-just-blew-up-a-satellite-heres-why-that-spells-trouble-for-spaceflight

This note is just a little context for the announcement that happened 10 minutes ago on the defense dot gov website.

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2945855/austin-orders-fort-stewart-armored-brigade-combat-team-to-europe/

Disclaimer: these are my personal observations

My 6yo has been studying piano at Neville Ottley’s school of music in Hyattsville, MD since she was 2 years old. Today, she got her first bank account and asked me how to put some money in it. I suggested she create a YouTube channel to earn money. She agreed to teach piano online. This is her channel. Please subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8FmxF-WlAkW8d1sm-OtfoQ

She follows the Little Mozarts music book series. https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Music-Little-Mozarts-Books/dp/B07QQCRSYJ

She started with a touch sensitive keyboard from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Casio-61-Key-Portable-Keyboard-CT-S300-dp-B07WN7NG5H

History:  

100 years ago – the most common job in the USA was farmer or farm labor

100 years ago, the cultural expectation of health was simple the absence of illness 

Now, we our culture has a very different idea of physical health. It’s a continual, active pursuit. How do we pursue physical health on a daily basis? 

Eating right, hydration, physical fitness, avoiding toxins (tobacco, caffeine, alcohol) , regular checkups – data cholesterol levels, vitamin D level, complete blood count BMI, body fat percent, bone density, etc., etc., etc. 

Fundamental paradigm shift: Mental Health is an active, continual, aggressive pursuit of health rather than the absence of illness 

How do we pursue mental health? 

#1 SLEEP!!!! Like your life depends on it 

1. Sleep hygiene – blackout curtains, a lower room temperature, a shower or bath within the hour before bed, silence,  
2. Sleep aids – generally avoid, but … melatonin 
3. white light is the enemy – screen night mode, sleep setting on all devices – computers, tables, smart phones, 
4. Sleep opportunity 
5. WHY? Why does sleep matter?  
6. Taking out the trash – brain feces 
7. Sleep experiments comparing sleep deprived behavior patterns to debilitating mental illness 
8. Like food and water, sleep is a physiological need 
9. A standard routine every night – kids too.  

#2 meditation.  

1. Used as a sleep aid 
2. Used as brain booster 

#3 Mindfulness –  

1. sky, nature 
2. walking teleconferences 

#4 Emotional intelligence – make it a point to consciously think about, even document your mental/emotional state 

1. Note your own emotional state 2 or 3 times per day. Write it down 
2. Share your emotional state with people around you to get their feedback. 
3. Note the emotional state of people around you 
4. Share the emotional state of people around you with them to get their feedback.  
5. Note group emotional states 
6. Share group emotional states 
7.  NOTE: Be aware of explosions – if, in your own estimation, you overreacted to something, it’s time for a mental health day off. Same as waking up with sour throat, congestion, headache indicates you need to stay in bed for a day. An unexpected emotional burst indicates you need a day at the spa, a hike in a national park, or whatever heals you. 

#5 Open mind –  

1. Thank you for being late Thomas Freedman 
2. random connections 
3. 5-minute breaks every hour  
4. “Sitting is the new smoking” 

#6 the power of breathing 

Conclusion: The inner world is a real world – James Baldwin 

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9837911-though-we-do-not-wholly-believe-it-yet-the-interior

This is a book review about Love Both, Keep Both by Ken Reiman.

Ken’s book resonates deeply with me because I bought home a foreign spouse and while Asian spouses are common for men, dating back to the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts, a woman bringing an Asian husband to the US is a relatively new social phenomenon. My Beijing-born beau and I are raising an Amerasian daughter, a German-Chinese-American daughter. We have worried about racism and bullying since before she was born. My husband worries incessantly about whether she will be face higher than standard barriers for entry into the nation’s best universities based on recent articles about Ivy League universities putting higher standards on Asian students.

Like all parents, we worry about just about everything.

Ken’s story gives me hope. I’m amazed and inspired by the way his mom was able to give him access to his Japanese heritage. And I assume his parents did the same thing we did with our daughter. We gave our daughter a name that would fit easily with the Anglican world, Ann, and a name that would fit easily in China, Japan and Korea: The Chinese word an – 安 – ān. (peace in Chinese). For readers who are not aware, the famous Japanese Hollywood Actor made famous for movies like Memoirs of a Geisha and Flags of our Fathers and to me, most intensely Memories of Tomorrow (明日の記憶, Ashita no Kioku, Ken Watanabe, did not select an anglophile name, Ken. He was born WatanabeKen – in a corner of the world where family names come first. Ken is a syllable in the Sino ideograms that characterize the written elements of most of far east Asia. So, I assume that Ken’s parents also selected a Chinese character for Ken Reiman’s personal name that wouldn’t make him stand out in either the western world or the Asian world.

Like Ken’s parents, I hope to gift my daughter as many skills and as much access as I possibly can. I have been sitting with her in Chinese language classes for 2 hours every Saturday since she was 2 years old. And it has paid off. Now, at 5, she’s quite conversational, although, like Ken, she had the advantage of her grandmother, who lives with us and speaks only Mandarin.

I’ve taken parenting inspiration from Ken’s writing and from the extraordinary success of my Pentagon pal, a Black man from the rural south of the US, who, like me, joined the middle class by joining the military. He also brought home the ultimate souvenir in a foreign spouse from South Korea and his wife ensured their son spoke fluent Korean language. Additionally, thanks to a military tour in Germany while the young man was in his middle school years, he is currently on a study abroad program in Germany. He is studying abroad from the Air Force Academy because he was accepted into all three service academies. Yes, you read that correctly. He was accepted into West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy.

Of course, once I learned about my colleague’s son’s amazing acceptance letters, I wanted to know how they did it. One, their son was raised multilingual, like Ken. Two, their son was raised internationally, like Ken. They also ensured he participated in some of the most valued experiences for the military academies such as the Civil Air Patrol. Obviously, I added an Eagle Scout in Scouting and civil air patrol to my daughter’s to-do list in addition to language and foreign experiences.

What is most painful about Ken’s book is that it seems logical that the culmination of his career would have naturally been a tour as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan. And as he points out, this isn’t something that would only benefit his mom’s braggadocio but would be most beneficial to the United States.  Leveraging kids/people with these kinds of inclusive and comprehensive minds would logically improve our ability to clearly understand the pain points and priorities of our partners and gives the optimal advantage to achieve the maximum potential from our international relationships.

While I feel disappointed at the irrational regulations barring Ken’s best contributions to our country, I’m excited about what I see in our country today. Another one of my colleagues at the Pentagon, a Latino, was so excited that his children, already fluent in Spanish, were accepted into a Japanese immersion program at a public school in Great Falls, Virginia. And my daughter started kindergarten in Paint Branch Elementary School in College Park, MD, where a partnership with the University of Maryland provides a partial immersion program for Mandarin Chinese. What’s more, we met children from Berwyn Heights Elementary School while participating in a Prince George’s County Parks archery program and we were stunned to hear them speaking Mandarin Chinese. Berwyn Heights Elementary School apparently also has a Mandarin program.

We considered whether to apply for the lottery for a Blue Ribbon elementary and middle school in Beltsville that provides a French immersion. And our daughter attended a Spanish immersion summer camp in Springfield, VA where she came home with all manner of stories telling us about the history and details of Ecuador, the Galapagos islands, Chile, and other South American countries. It wasn’t just language, she was learning, she was learning culture and history.

Lastly, it isn’t necessary to be genetically unique like Ken or my daughter, anyone can and should participate in the global world. I was raised on welfare, but still managed to encounter the world by joining the Marines. My first and final assignments in the Marine Corps were in Okinawa and Tokyo and I studied Japanese at both locations. After the Corps, I returned to Japan and worked for the University of Maryland, Asian Division where I completed my bachelor’s degree. Since it took me 13 years and I was the first in my family to get a degree, I was happy. But Dr. Ted Franck suggested I consider India for a master’s degree. I didn’t speak Hindu, I argued. It’s Hindi, he corrected, and you don’t have to. There are hundreds of English-speaking universities all around the world. I searched and considered the American Universities in Paris, Bulgaria, and Beirut before settling on the American University in Cairo. After 3 years in Egypt, I studied Spanish in Santiago, Chile before I was hired by the State Department and served in Panama, South Korea, and again in Japan before serving my final overseas tour in Guyana. Along the way, I tested 3/3 in Spanish, 2/2 in Japanese, and 1+ in Arabic and Korean.

The world is out there for all of us to participate in, and I hope we all take a call to action from Ken’s work.

We think today of White Supremists as fringe weirdos or at least I do. But in fact, 100 years ago, this idea was mainstream. This from the book Sapiens, “According to the Nazis, Homo sapiens had already divided into several distinct races (read species, like Neanderthal as opposed to homo sapiens), each with its own unique qualities. One of these races (species), the Aryan race, had the finest qualities – rationalism, beauty, integrity, diligence. Other races, such as Jews and Blacks, were today’s Neanderthals, possessing inferior qualities. If allowed to breed and in particular to intermarry with Aryans, they would adulterate all human populations and doom the Homo sapiens species to extinction. Biologists debunked Nazi racial theory. In particular, genetic research conducted after 1945 has demonstrated that the differences between various human lineages are far smaller than Nazis postulated. But these conclusions are relatively new. Given the state of scientific knowledge in 1933, Nazi beliefs were credible. The existence of different human races, the superiority of the white race, and the need to protect and cultivate this superior race were widely held beliefs among most Western elite. Scholars in the most prestigious Western universities, using the orthodox scientific methods of the day, published studies that allegedly proved that members of the white race were more intelligent, more ethical, more skilled than Africans or Indians. Politicians in Washington, London and Canberra took it for granted that it was their job to prevent the adulteration and degeneration of the white race, by, for example, RESTRICTING IMMIGRATION FROM CHINA or even Italy to ‘Aryan’ countries such as the USA and Australia. Hitler not only dug his own grave, but that of racism in general. When he launched WWII, precisely because Nazi ideology was so extremely racist, racism became discredited in the West. The change took time. White Supremacy remained a mainstream ideology in American politics until at least the 1960s.” Then the civil rights and the sexual revolutions in the US helped us begin moving past the Nazi era.

Hitler did us a favor and started the long downward spiral of racism. Who knew?

The new DOD Public Web Guide is live. https://www.publicweb.dma.mil/Guide/

TITLE VII—STRENGTHENING THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
Sec. 701. Digital access to completed responses to the Freedom of Information Act.
Sec. 702. Explanation required for creation of exemption in the Freedom of Information Act.
Sec. 703. FOIAonline for agencies.
Sec. 704. Agency defined.

SEC. 701. DIGITAL ACCESS TO COMPLETED RESPONSES TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.

(a) Requirement.—

(1) DATABASE OF COMPLETED FOIA REQUESTS.—Each agency shall make available all materials contained in the agency’s completed response to a request under section 552 of title 5, United States Code (in this section referred to as a “FOIA request”) in a structured database or in a searchable, sortable, downloadable, machine-readable database within 2 months after the date the FOIA request was completed.

(2) ELECTRONIC FORMAT.—All information is presumed to be available in an electronic format as described in paragraph (1) unless the agency demonstrates that excessive cost would place an undue burden on the agency.

(b) Public Availability.—All information included in the agency’s completed response to a FOIA request shall be made available to the public electronically and without cost through each agency’s website.SEC. 702. EXPLANATION REQUIRED FOR CREATION OF EXEMPTION IN THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.

Section 552(b)(3)(B) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting “with an explanation for the exemption” after “specifically cites to this paragraph”.SEC. 703. FOIAONLINE FOR AGENCIES.

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the head of each agency shall use FOIAonline to log, track, and publish all requests received under section 552 of title 5, United States Code.SEC. 704. AGENCY DEFINED.

In this title, the term “agency” has the meaning given that term under section 551 of title 5, United States Code.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1381/text#toc-H40E3C340C01544CF98BB68442BEE1D60

Words of Fire brings together a broad range of disparate questions in my mind. Among the longest standing is the Isaac Asimov theory that mathematics could be used to predict the future. Another puzzle that I thought was unrelated was the inexplicable rise in gun violence. When I was a child in the northwest, there were several guns in every house and a gun in most vehicles, often hanging in the back window of trucks. Another anomaly I have thought about often is the relationship between language and violence, including why Charles Manson was imprisoned for life even though he never actually killed anyone. Additionally, I have wondered often about disinformation and misinformation and their impact on democratic institutions worldwide as well as the possibilities of a link between misinformation and a violent kinetic response. Helio Fred Garcia just put all of these seemingly random ponderings into one coherent whole.

For those who know little about Isaac Asimov, they might think it’s not reasonable to expect a science fiction author to know much about reality, but avid science fiction fans know that he was a scientist and that’s what made his writing so compelling. What’s more, he wrote the script that shaped much of the modern scientific development from talking robots and AI to the voice user interface revolution we are now experiencing. However, the theory that most fascinated me in the early 1980s was in his series called Trilogy, in which a scientist uses mathematics to predict the future, not of one individual, but in broad brush strokes. I majored in sociology and I’ve often pondered how we might make Asimov’s theory a reality. Reading Words on Fire, I realized it already happened. I just spent one of the most fascinating years of my professional life with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which makes extensive use of mathematic models to predict hurricane movements. They applied their science to the coronavirus, working to determine where the hot spots would likely be, when and how many medical patients would likely need care. They compared those numbers to the capacity of hospitals in those areas and worked with the state governments to build alternative care sites to help with surge capacity. Even though I have been sitting in those briefings for six months, I never realized they are the realization of Asimov’s theories I read as a child.

Fred Helio Garcia introduced me to a new term. Sto·chas·tic, defined by Oxford Languages as “randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or a pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.” And the phrase stochastic terrorism, apparently something the FBI has long considered since the lone wolf scenario is remarkably difficult to detect and prevent. The stochastic terrorism model is a stochastic process, a random, model of those terror attacks intended by the random nature of their timing and targets to excite a generalized fear per Wikipedia. Fred isn’t the only author to connect language and the recent rise in terrorism. Wired Magazine and Quartz business magazine also observed this phenomenon in 2018 and 2019. Once I knew the term, it seems the internet is full of references. Fred says, “The name stochastic terrorism is drawn from a principle in statistics about seemingly random things still being predictable. Despite the unfamiliarity many people have with the word stochastic, the name caught on in the aftermath of the 2009 killing of Dr. Tiller, an abortion doctor. While the specific actors might not have been predictable, some kind of violent action could be mathematically determined to have a high probability based on a rise in violent rhetoric related to abortion services.

While the seemingly endless stream of horrifically violent acts seems to logically lead to stricter gun laws, that logic fails for me. Born in 1967, my youth was full of guns and I was unaware of any gun violence. I certainly never practiced drills at school to prepare for an active shooter. So what has changed? We have these standard mantras like guns don’t kill people, people kill people, but what has amazed me is how many people are not only using guns, but also cars to intentionally drive into crowds of people. Yes, people are killing random strangers recently, but why? Historically in the US, violence has been related to interpersonal relationships that went sour, gangs and/or mafia, as well as domestic violence. But random killing of strangers seems like an odd behavior to me. And even if we restrict guns, which I favor when regarding what I call weapons of mass destruction such as the Gatling gun or the .50 cal, I don’t see that as a solution that will reduce the number of people who want to kill random strangers. It would only reduce their total kill capability. So why are we seeing an increase in mass shootings?

I had come to the conclusion that we need mental illness control, not gun control. However, Fred illustrates that mental illness, while a contributing factor, is only a small slice of the story, which he calls the Lone Wolf Whistle. Fred lists 12 forms of language that contribute to violent acts – dehumanize, demonize or delegitimize, scapegoat, public health threat, safety threat, violent motive, exaggerated risk, sinister identity, conspiracy, discredit information, conflation, menacing image. For me, several of these overlap. It’s a well-known sociological theory that the worst forms of violence happen between groups of people. Sociological limitations require proper conduct when dealing with people we feel are part of our group. Norbert Elias, a German Jew with a front row seat to one of the world’s worst examples of human horror observed that the worst forms of violence happen between groups. As such, it is a critical first step to alienate, dehumanize, or delegitimize a person or group of people to make violence possible. This has unfortunately been a part of military operations in the US for as long as we have been a nation. The range of vulgar terms applied to foreign combatants is necessary for soldiers to be able to shoot.

It’s not enough to say, “They” are not like us. The second critical step is, they must be a threat. They must be the cause of current or potential ills, including physical or physiological safety. And particularly when targeting a group, conspiracy contributes to this treat issue, making the entire group part of the threat. If a group poses a threat, taking action not only doesn’t seem barbaric, it seems logical.

The mental health connection is that people who already have a tenuous grasp on reality and/or limited ability to curb impulses are the ones most likely to take the logical action presented by the alienating language that develops a threat from a given group of people, such as abortion doctors who are “committing murder” in the case of the previously discussed Dr. Tiller. As a result, I realize it’s not the guns that have changed, it’s the language illustrating a pressing need for violent action and illustrates the link between language and action.

Manson was imprisoned because he ordered murders. However, no one that Fred examines was ordered to murder anyone.  Fred examines one case in detail that stands out strongly in my mind regarding a young man with a decidedly disturbed childhood who drove halfway across Texas to “kill Mexicans” in El Paso. I remember the case well because Latino friends were appalled, but I wanted more information: He had a rape list and a kill list in high school. I don’t think that’s normal. Fred details the links between news about El Paso holding border crossers, Trump’s recent visit to El Paso and according to the shooter’s manifesto, the triggering event was the “invasion” of Texas by a “caravan” of illegal immigrants.

But there’s more than just words. Fred explains that Hamm and Spaajj harvested patterns that detail the 5 stages of radicalization. They include personal and political grievance, an affinity with extremist groups (in this case White Supremacists), identification with an enabler (in this case President Trump), broadcasting terrorist intent and a triggering event.

Fred observes as many technology thought leaders have observed that one of the unintended consequences of the Internet is that fringe members of society can now find a place with others who think like them. This sense of belonging to a higher purpose can be a contributing factor in the violent kinetic response to misinformation.

The last and most critical element in this explosive cocktail is its potential long-term impact on geopolitical realities. According to one of my many colleagues who have studied public relations and audience segmentation, the Russian government has taken the “soccer mom” persona creation to a whole new level by micro segmenting U.S. society in ways that make the direction of disinformation more lethal. My reading of the Mueller report was that it had nothing to do with the election or politicians. The overriding goal was a change in the standard “US as the Great Satan” narrative. In order to effectively convince their own population that an authoritarian government is better than a democratic one, Russia needed to create the impression that democracy is anarchy waiting to happen. Among the ways they have done this is with fake social media personalities on both side of the alt left and right. These accounts are used to encourage people to protest and then this state sponsored disinformation campaign stirs up the opposition to have a counter protest. They are specifically trying to set up the conditions for random violence.

Fred focuses on the language of U.S. political leadership in the last few years, but his analysis doesn’t go far enough. Because the real enemy isn’t here inside our borders. The real enemies are cherry picking the comments that Fred is worried about and amplifying them to specific targeting audiences who will be most likely to respond to the lone wolf whistle. In addition to dangerous language, we have dangerous algorithms specifically working to provide fuel for violent acts. Our adversaries present a world in which U.S. leadership is neither desirable nor viable. Russia wants to undermine the concept of democracy as a desirable form of government. That government hopes to present an image of democratic nations as inherently unstably and physically unsafe. Thereby making authoritarian governments appear to be a better option.

The EU commission has repeatedly written about the destructive potential in disinformation. “Disinformation is ‘verifiably false or misleading information created, presented and disseminated for economic gain or to intentionally deceive the public’. It may have far-reaching consequences, cause public harm, be a threat to democratic political and policy-making processes, and may even put the protection of EU citizens’ health, security and their environment at risk. Disinformation erodes trust in institutions and in digital and traditional media and harms our democracies by hampering the ability of citizens to take informed decisions. It can polarize debates, create or deepen tensions in society and undermine electoral systems, and have a wider impact on European security. It impairs freedom of opinion and expression.”

One challenge with the language that Fred accurately identifies as dangerous is that it can be used both for the conscious purpose of division and for genuine opposition. Immediately after reading Words on Fire, I read Fauci. In it, gay men accused Dr. Fauci of murder because he religiously followed an antiquated, but widely accepted prolonged process for drug approval. Being accused of murder, an allegation that I thing the emotional people subjected to a deadly disease genuinely believed, cause Fauci’s attention. He reached out, befriended and learned from the community that called him a murderer. He subsequently rebelled against the established medical community and helped thousands of gay men get expedited access to critical medications, albeit, not proven.

In the Fauci case, I think the language was used genuinely. In the cases described by Words on Fire, the language was used for effect. So, in the end, what we have is a ruling that language shouldn’t be used to deceive and incite people, but it would be remarkably difficult to shape a law that follows this. Much like I know it when I see it. The phrase was used in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio. So while we have no legal law, we can certainly develop a social repulsion at barbaric language which incites and encourages violence.