🏭 🇺🇸 The South is fast becoming America’s industrial heartland

In popular perception America’s industrial heartland is its Midwest. Just look at where President Joe Biden has travelled for many of his big made-in-America speeches: Ohio thrice, Michigan twice and Wisconsin. (These, helpfully, are also political battleground states.) But take a look at where the money is flowing, and a different picture of manufacturing emerges. It is the South—a region running from Texas to Virginia—that is fast becoming America’s new industrial heartland.

The South has other selling points, too. It has cheap power, critical to battery factories that use vast amounts of energy. Of the ten regions monitored by the Energy Information Administration, a government agency, the “east south central”, including Kentucky and Tennessee, has the least expensive power in America at about six cents per kilowatt hour, nearly 20% cheaper than power in the Midwest. Awkwardly for companies aiming for greener growth, that cost advantage is predicated on the Southeast’s continued reliance on coal: Kentucky, for example, generates about 70% of its electricity from coal, the fourth-most of any state. It is adding more renewables to its mix, though progress is slow. “The fundamental reality is that today, coal-fired facilities are delivering reliable, efficient electricity,” says Mr Noel.

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/06/12/the-south-is-fast-becoming-americas-industrial-heartland

https://archive.ph/rXaFH

🇺🇸 ❌️ 🏳️‍🌈 Americans Are Becoming Less Accepting of Same-Sex Relationships, Poll Shows

The fall in the number of Americans who think that gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable—down seven percentage points—was the most significant in the entire list of issues on which Gallup questioned respondents.

The fall was driven by Republicans, according to Gallup. While 56 percent of Americans identifying as Republicans found same-sex relationships morally acceptable in 2022, only 41 percent do so this year. It is the lowest figure reported in Gallup's annual survey since 2014—when it was 39 percent—undoing almost a decade of increasing support on the issue.

The decline in Republican support comes at a time when conservative forces inside the party have been pushing to limit some LGBTQ+ rights across the country, such as transgender women competing in female sports events. Since the beginning of 2021, more than 20 GOP-led states have passed bills limiting trans kids' and teens' access to gender-affirming healthcare, as well as to binary spaces like women-only school toilets.

https://www.newsweek.com/americans-less-accepting-same-sex-relationships-poll-shows-1807422

🐣 Returning Soldier Effect:

When reminded of their mortality, participants manifested a stronger desire for children, were less intentioned to postpone parenting, and were also less ready to prioritize their professional career over having children.

https://iris.unisr.it/handle/20.500.11768/142756

✝️ 🇨🇦 ❌️ 🏳️‍🌈 Catholic Youth In Canada Protest LGBT Propaganda

🇺🇸 Osprey video over Californian suburb goes viral in preparation for a Presidential visit next week. This is characteristically used for transporting support staff, journalists and security detail.

Biden is visiting the Bay Area on Monday. He’s set to fundraise for his 2024 reelection campaign, meeting tech leaders in the region. 

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/mv-22-california-viral-video-freakout/

🇺🇸 Several helicopter operations and U.S. Army special operations drills were taking place this past week in Southern California, including in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

https://www.military.com/video/night-stalker-mh-6-drops-soldiers-long-beach

🇺🇸 Viral "tank video" is most likely from June 14, when a military convoy from the Idaho Army National Guard’s 1st of the 148th Field Artillery Regiment were scheduled to be on the streets.

The "tank" (artillery) featured in the video appears to be an M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer.

https://localnews8.com/news/idaho-falls/2023/06/13/military-convoy-to-travel-on-idaho-falls-roads-wednesday/

🇺🇸 The California National Guard’s 40th Infantry Division held a historical deployment ceremony before mobilizing to support Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Inherent Resolve, to increase regional security in the Middle East.

https://www.army.mil/article/267633/40th_infantry_division_soldiers_mobilize_to_middle_east

🇺🇸 Soldiers Are Away from Home Now More than Ever Despite No Major Ongoing Wars

⬛️ "We're as high or higher with the [operations tempo]," Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston told Military.com, referring to the frequency with which soldiers are away from home compared to the peak of the Global War on Terrorism.

⬛️ This month, the Army has some 120,000 soldiers deployed abroad, according to internal service data reviewed by Military.com.

⬛️ For comparison, the entire Department of Defense, encompassing all military branches, had an all-time high of 187,900 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq when those conflicts peaked in 2008, according to congressional data. But that number was short-lived and dipped fast after the conflict in Iraq died down and again after the passing of the surge in Afghanistan.

⬛️ The 2008 data also refers to a time when the Army was roughly 70,000 soldiers larger. Right now, a smaller Army is taking on a mission load loosely equivalent to the entire military in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

⬛️ There is a small contingent of soldiers in Syria and Iraq, mostly the Ohio National Guard's 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The New Jersey National Guard's 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team is in the midst of training to take over Ohio's mission. Additional troops are in reserve and providing logistical support in Kuwait. There are even some 300 Indiana National Guard soldiers in Kosovo, a peacekeeping mission that predates 9/11.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/04/14/no-major-ongoing-war-soldiers-are-away-home-now-more-ever.html

🇺🇸 Largest National Guard base in US to double in size for ‘all domain warfare’

Northern Michigan locals have seen this installation for ‘citizen soldiers’ become a training ground for Great Power conflict.

Since 9/11 more than one million Guardsmen were deployed overseas, many of them having been deployed multiple times. Nearly half of all U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 were from the National Guard and reserves, and Guardsmen made up 18.4 percent of the casualties in these wars. The MNG is no exception. In 2022 alone the Michigan Air National Guard was deployed on 88 missions worldwide, spanning 10 different countries, and the Michigan Army National Guard was deployed on two different missions in the Middle East.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/04/13/what-a-proposed-base-expansion-says-about-us-national-security-priorities/

🇺🇸 🇪🇺 DEFENDER 23 is a U.S. Army Europe and Africa led exercise focused on the strategic deployment of continental United States-based forces, employment of Army Prepositioned Stocks, and interoperability with Allies and partners.

📎 TRANSCOM