Between Greece’s tragic, Berlin-mandated descent into the Third World and the epic meltdown in China’s equity markets, it would be easy to forget that the US government is (re)annexing Texas next week.
For those unaware (or for anyone who might have lost track of the US Spec Ops schedule), the military is set to kick off Jade Helm 15 next Wednesday, which means the Lonestar lockdown is less than one week away. If you’re unfamiliar with the operation, here are the barebones basics:
Jade Helm is an eight-week joint military and Interagency Unconventional Warfare exercise conducted throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Essentially, from July 15 to September 15 some military personnel are going to take a trip out west and pretend like they are conducting covert operations overseas.
On the surface, that doesn’t sound too exciting, but thanks to some very unfortunate wording in an official US military slide deck and an even more unfortunate map which designates Texas as “hostile” territory (of course the same map also identifies San Diego as harboring a militant insurgency, so the US Spec Ops Command probably assumed it wouldn’t be taken literally) quite a few Texans came to believe that the federal government was up to no good with Jade Helm.
The situation quickly spiraled out of control and became a veritable media circus after Texas governor Greg Abbott called up the state guard and “Texas Ranger” Chuck Norris pledged to defend the state from a Navy SEAL incursion. Topping it off was former Texas lawmaker Todd Smith — a 16-year veteran of the Texas House of Representatives and self-proclaimed Last of the Fact-Based Republican Mohicans — who, in a letter to Abbott, suggested that anyone who was suspicious of the federal government’s intentions in the state was a “hysterical idiot.”
With just six days to go until the government begins the exercise, expect the rumor mill to come alive because as The Washington Post reports, the media will be given no access to the drills. Here’s more:
