NNOMY News 1043: February 29 2020: NNOMY Essentials


 

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NNOMY News 1043: February 29 2020:
NNOMY Essentials

This issue of NNOMY News we re-introduce essential issues around counter military recruitment activism in updated versions. One of the primary functions of the NNOMY network is to provide reliable information and we are in the process of updating many of our core content issues. Check them out below:

 

 
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No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

By requiring schools and school districts to give out student’s information to recruiters by default, instead of giving the parents an option to “opt in” to this, the process is effectively obscured. Parents and legal guardians may ignore the fact that recruiters are in possession of their children’s address, phone number, and name. This gives recruiters the ability to use a sophisticated sales’ pitch in favor of enlistment without a parent’s or legal guardian’s supervision and knowledge. 

Read More

https://nnomy.org/en/what-is-militarization/school-militarization/by-policy/no-child-left-behind.html

 

 
 
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Joint Advertising Market Research Studies (JAMRS)

The Joint Advertising Market Research Studies (JAMRS) is a series of projects that seek to collect and buy information about the American public with the intent of formulating marketing and advertising strategies to aid in the military recruitment effort. It is in the service of the Department of Defense, as well as other government bodies, to a lesser extent.

The database created from this information contains data on about 30 million of young Americans 16-25 years old1. This includes “name, date of birth, gender, mailing address, e-mail address, race and ethnicity, telephone number, high school name, graduation date, Grade Point Average, college intent, military interest, field of study, and the ASVAB Test score.”2 Until 2006, it also collected Social Security Numbers. The New York Civil Liberties Union filed and subsequently won a lawsuit to prevent this from continuing to happen, and to reduce the time limit the data would remain in the system from five years to the current amount: three years.

Read More

https://nnomy.org/en/what-is-militarization/school-militarization/by-policy/jamrs.html

 

 
 
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Opt Out and Student lists

If a student has a letter or formed signed by their parents, the law states that the school does not have permission to this student’s contant information to recruiters.2 An additional opt-out form can be sent to the Joint Advertising and Marketing Research Studies headquarters (JAMRS), where information is constantly being collected and bought by the Department of Defense in order to build new marketing strategies for military recruitment. If a student is 18 or older, they can fill out the form. If they are younger than 18, it must be done by their parent or legal guardian.

Read More

https://nnomy.org/en/counter-recruitment/opt-out-student-lists

 

 
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America's Forever Wars and the Secrecy that Sustains Them: A Citizen's Guide

After 17 years, three presidents, $5.6 trillion, and hundreds of thousands of human lives lost,1 it’s time Americans started asking more questions about where, why, and for how long the country will remain at war. After all, the average taxpayer has spent more than $23,000 on the wars, without even a comprehensive understanding of all the places where our troops are deployed, much less a clearly articulated vision for what victory might look like, or when the wars might end.2

As the wars have stretched on and expanded, public knowledge of what is happening on the battlefield has also waned. A 2018 poll found that 42% of Americans don’t know the U.S. is still at war in Afghanistan,3 another poll found that most Americans vastly underestimate the military budget, and that only 15% could correctly state the year the Iraq War began.4 Perhaps most troubling, surveys show that Americans tend to significantly undercount the number of civilians killed in U.S. wars.5

While some of this unawareness can be attributed to factors like geographical distance from the battlefield and public fatigue after so many years of war, there are also mechanisms of secrecy, obfuscation, and a lack of oversight and accountability across the U.S. government deliberately keeping the public disengaged and in the dark.

In this guide, Open the Government and our partners will catch you up on some of what you need to know about the expansion of U.S. wars since 2001 and the systemic secrecy helping shield them from public view. We also provide you with ways that you can get involved in reviving the public debate and bringing transparency to issues vital to the public’s understanding of military and national security programs.

Read the Guide

https://www.openthegovernment.org/endlesswars-read/

 

 
     
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Before You Enlist: Military Base Contamination Can Be  Dangerous to Your Health

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) announces “Exposing The Pentagon: Hidden Polluter of Water,” a California-wide speaking tour featuring Pat Elder, investigative reporter with Civilian Exposure. The talk will raise awareness about the military’s use of toxic fire-fighting foams that are leaching carcinogenic PFAS into California’s drinking water supplies and exposing our men and women in uniform, their families living on base, and civilians in the surrounding communities.  Learn more about what is in your water and actions you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Read More

https://www.militarypoisons.org

 

 
 
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Highlights: Spatial Imaginaries and Social Justice

George Lipsitz, discusses "Spatial Imaginaries and Social Justice." He focuses on the role played by expressive culture in place based struggles for social justice in New Orleans, Houston, and East Los Angeles. Professor Lipstiz has inspired many with his writings, coining the concept “white spatial imaginary.”  He has recently formed with colleagues and artists, the Transformative Arts Network, and shares why arts and culture is central to liberation. Lipsitz serves as chairman of the board of directors of the African American Policy Forum and is a member of the board of directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance. He edits the Critical American Series for University of Minnesota Press, and co-edits the American Crossroads series for University of California Press.

Watch You Tube Video | 3:15 minutes

https://youtu.be/T5txmbzg3w0

 

 
 
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Facing falling enlistment numbers, the U.S. Army takes a new approach to recruitment: Mom and Dad

Nicole Goodkind / FortuneIn one ad, titled “Warfighter,” a mother approaches her son who is decked out in a ghillie suit and aiming a gun. The mother, who’s wearing a nightgown and housecoat, implores the young man to come back home. “Michael,” she begs. “You can do anything you want. Why this?” Michael stays strong. He tells his mom that he doesn’t want to be stuck behind a desk.

Still, she worries. Finally, the music swells, and Mom comes around. The pair are transported back home to their porch, where they engage in indistinguishable chatter.
“Their success tomorrow begins with your support today,” reads the screen as we hear Mom giggle.

Another ad, “Fire Team,” features a mother following her son as he raids a building in a far off country, gun pointed. “Do you really want to go through with this?” she asks her son before he kicks down the door to a room, ready to shoot. This new approach comes after the military missed its 2018 recruitment goals. The slipup was the first since 2005 (at the height of the Iraq war). The military subsequently scaled back its recruitment goals by 50% for the next few years, saying it was focusing on the bigger picture. But the underperformance came as the Pentagon was handed $700 billion by Congress, the largest military budget in U.S. history—indicating that this isn’t a problem that can be solved with money alone.

Read More

https://fortune.com/2020/02/20/army-military-enlistment-recruitment-ads/

 

 
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