US Military Apologizes For Joking about Bombing 'Millennials' Who Might Storm Area 51 (yahoo.com) 95
"The US military has been forced to apologise for tweeting that it would use stealth-bombers on 'millenials' who try to storm Area 51," reports Yahoo News UK:
More than two million people signed up to a Facebook event recently which encouraged atendees to visit the top secret base in Nevada. But only a few thousand UFO enthusiasts turned up on Friday to the facility, which is rumoured to contain secrets about aliens. As hordes of enthusiasts turned up the PR arm of the US military, called the Defence Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), tweeted: "The last thing #Millennials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today" with a picture of military officers in front of a stealth bomber.
Shortly afterwards the tweet was deleted and the unit apologised saying it "in no way" reflects their stance... "It was inappropriate and we apologize for this mistake."
Around 1,000 people visited the facility's gates on Friday and at least six were arrested by police.
The Storm Area 51 invitation spawned festivals in the tiny nearby towns of Rachel and Hiko, more than two hours' drive from Las Vegas. Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee estimated late on Thursday that about 1,500 people had gathered at the festival sites, and more than 150 made the trip several additional miles on bone-rattling dirt roads to get within selfie distance of the gates.... "It's public land," the sheriff said. "They're allowed to go to the gate as long as they don't cross the boundary."
Most of the arrests were for "misdemeanor trespassing on base property," which carries a $1,000 fine, according to the article. "In the end, no one actually 'stormed' Area 51, although deputies in rural Nye County resorted to 'heated warnings' to disperse as many as 200 people," reports the Associated Press.
In another article the news service also quotes Lincoln County emergency services chief Eric Holt as saying resources had been mustered to handle up to 30,000 people and calling the low turnout a "best-case" scenario... Although there were two car crashes involving cows. "The cows died, but motorists weren't hurt."
The main festival apparently drew 3,000 attendees, while the rival "Area 51 Basecamp" festival sold just 500 tickets for their Friday concert, prompting them to cancel their Saturday concert altogether. Its promoter told the Associated Press, "It was a gamble financially. We lost."
Shortly afterwards the tweet was deleted and the unit apologised saying it "in no way" reflects their stance... "It was inappropriate and we apologize for this mistake."
Around 1,000 people visited the facility's gates on Friday and at least six were arrested by police.
The Storm Area 51 invitation spawned festivals in the tiny nearby towns of Rachel and Hiko, more than two hours' drive from Las Vegas. Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee estimated late on Thursday that about 1,500 people had gathered at the festival sites, and more than 150 made the trip several additional miles on bone-rattling dirt roads to get within selfie distance of the gates.... "It's public land," the sheriff said. "They're allowed to go to the gate as long as they don't cross the boundary."
Most of the arrests were for "misdemeanor trespassing on base property," which carries a $1,000 fine, according to the article. "In the end, no one actually 'stormed' Area 51, although deputies in rural Nye County resorted to 'heated warnings' to disperse as many as 200 people," reports the Associated Press.
In another article the news service also quotes Lincoln County emergency services chief Eric Holt as saying resources had been mustered to handle up to 30,000 people and calling the low turnout a "best-case" scenario... Although there were two car crashes involving cows. "The cows died, but motorists weren't hurt."
The main festival apparently drew 3,000 attendees, while the rival "Area 51 Basecamp" festival sold just 500 tickets for their Friday concert, prompting them to cancel their Saturday concert altogether. Its promoter told the Associated Press, "It was a gamble financially. We lost."
Can't stop them all (Score:3)
Capitalism? Huh? (Score:1, Insightful)
"It was a gamble financially. We lost," the promoter told the Associated Pess.[sic]
That isn't how Capitalism works here in the US. Just ask Exxon/Mobil or coal miners in West Virginia. Or our farmers in the midwest who grow soy, corn, and wheat. Or the GEO Group and CoreCivic, the companies that run the immigrant detention centers where children are separated from their parents and the American taxpayer gets a bill for $700 per day to feed and house the detainees?
If they can get government handouts and subsidies, so should you. And for $700 per day I'd think we could be putting the det
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For the first time ever, the military made a funny joke.
No, you've just never dived much into military history. WW2 alone is rich with humorous quotes and official statements, never mind the Vietnam conflict. I'm sure there are numerous other humorous examples from farther back, but more have been preserved from the 20th century.
As every great military leader and commander of armies since the beginning of mass armed conflict will tell you, humor is a valued military weapon sometimes far more effective than a whole division of veteran troops. You've already won t
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No, you've just never dived much into military history. WW2 alone is rich with humorous quotes and official statements, never mind the Vietnam conflict.
"Nuts."
. . . The reply that was sent from the American commander of Bastogne to the Germans when they asked him to surrender.
Apparently the German commander was confused as to what that meant.
no apology needed (Score:5, Insightful)
I do not see a need to apology. It works both ways, it was a joke about invading area 51 because the military cannot stop them all, and there was a joke about bombing them to stop the invasion.
Re:no apology needed (Score:5, Insightful)
The joke would have worked better as an immediate reply to the event on Facebook. Only replying with it after it's obvious a non-trivial number of people are taking it seriously is ... not in very good taste.
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Or if, you know, they didn't just bomb 30 Afghan farmers by mistake.
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The joke would have worked better as an immediate reply to the event on Facebook. Only replying with it after it's obvious a non-trivial number of people are taking it seriously is ... not in very good taste.
That they'd use a stealth bomber is a joke but it seems some people believe that as long as it's obviously a joke they'd get to Naruto run all the way to and through top secret military facilities and look for little green men. If they actually did let them do that the next time half the runners would be spies taking pictures and planting bugs, like just no. If you somehow avoided all the lesser attempts to seize you eventually someone would put a bullet in you, it's right there on the warning sign "Use of
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That they'd use a stealth bomber is a joke but it seems some people believe that as long as it's obviously a joke they'd get to Naruto run all the way to and through top secret military facilities and look for little green men.
They should have used a Stargate instead.
THAT would have scared the living bejesus out those alien freaks.
"The last thing you will see is this Stargate before we shove you through. And we give you any FN P-80s and no MacGyver either!"
Re:no apology needed (Score:5, Insightful)
I also think that if they indeed did know about it, they may of resisted replying for fear of shining light on it and creating that very phenomenon.
Storming a military base would be a bloodbath, I don't see why the military should apologize basically for saying they would defend the base with deadly force. A few people would be handled exactly as happened, with arrest. However if even twenty or more actually stormed the gates, I think only a very few would of gotten further than a few yards.
On guard duty we were issued specific instructions on dealing with unknowns. First a challenge, if they failed to respond correctly, we put them in the front lean and rest position with our weapon at their neck while radioing the shack. If they failed to comply then a second challenge warning they would be shot. If they ignored that, well, we were ordered to fucking remove them from their corporeal state.
If we were actively rushed, then it became a free fire zone. Nobody moves fast at a checkpoint without becoming a potential target.
The military owes no apology.
And this comes from a liberal.
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Gunning down unarmed civilians for any reason (including trespassing a "nonexistent" military base) is NEVER going to fare well for whoever is in charge.
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We're going to kill a bunch of an-armed civilians. ....
ha-ha, ha-ha
There's no context in which it's appropriate for a official military account to make a joke like that.
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At least without twirling a mustache or holding the pinky to the corner of his mouth.
Re:no apology needed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Good lord. Hyperbole much?
If you think that was bad, maybe try looking at the post I was replying to.
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Bullshit... It is perfectly acceptable to joke about it as everyone knows it would never happen. They would arrested by armed men or shot in the process long before anyone needed to be bombed.
I thought is was a great joke.
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Using a stealth bomber on social media idiots is the joke. Did anyone honestly think this was going to be serious? They arrested a few dipshits you'll have that anywhere.
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There's no context in which it's appropriate for a official military account to make a joke like that.
Especially not if you consider how much money those bombs cost the tax payer!
#waste_of_ammo
Exactly! It's the same reason they don't use the Death Raze(tm). The cost/benefit just isn't there.
Re:no apology needed (Score:4, Insightful)
Hmm. The most powerful military in the world and some Internet rando... some people might think that they ought to be held to different standards.
This is probably gilding the lily. Jumping out of airplanes and blowing shit up should be enough to make you look cool, trying to be hip and ironical looks a bit thirsty.
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Apology doesn't sound right but there should be some consequences for somebody for making an official pronouncement about a stealth bomber with a thinly-veiled death threat.
Unless they actually had plans to disperse tear gas with a stealth bomber.
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There's no thinly veiled threat. You rush the gate, you die. And a large enough crowd rushing an airbase might just be met with ordnance from above.
It was a bad joke. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: no apology needed (Score:1)
It's fine. (Score:4, Funny)
Look, they were good sports about the whole thing and even let a few of us clap those alien cheeks, [knowyourmeme.com] so it's all good. ;)
Still better than (Score:2)
land mines and 50 Cal machine gun emplacements. and maybe some Apache strafing.
Dear gun holding Americans (Score:1, Insightful)
Do you think your gun can bring the stealth bomber down? You know, in case that doomsday for which you're all holding to your guns will actually come.
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Actually a shotgun has a pretty good chance of bringing down aircraft and in the case of stealth aircraft will render them very radar visible
https://answers.yahoo.com/ques... [yahoo.com]
Seeing as you need to brush up on the idea of the Golden BB
Link does not support claim. Even if it did, answers.yahoo.com would not be a very credible source.
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Actually they can. If you know anything about making your own munitions. You can take hallow points and put a drop or two of nitro in it then put a small layer of solder over it. Lots of damage. Done it with both home made nitro AND liquid mercury. You do the imagination of what THAT does! You make your own 12 gauge hallow points and then "load them" and you have some nasty rounds.
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Lmafo a shotgun taking down a bomber using smart bombs probably cursing at 30,000 feet?
I'd be cursing too if I got taken down by a shotgun at 30,00ft.
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Well one it does but
Here you go
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=airc... [duckduckgo.com]
I would have thought anyone so knowledgeable about the reliability of internet sources would have been able to do that themselves.
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Well one it does but
Here you go
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=airc... [duckduckgo.com]
I would have thought anyone so knowledgeable about the reliability of internet sources would have been able to do that themselves.
'Shotgun' was the claim you made. Try a DDG search replacing 'small arms' with 'shotgun'.
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Only if those stealth bombers are flying under a few hundred meters. That's the maximum range of a shotgun (depending on load, of course). Small arms fire, let alone shotguns, simply can't reach typical strategic bombing heights. Rifle fire is more of a danger, and only to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters.
Re:Dear gun holding Americans (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Dear gun holding Americans (Score:5, Insightful)
You invoke the "stealth bomber" to be impressive. No one clueful is impressed.
Bombers don't stay aloft forever. They require protection, maintenance, spare parts and a rather large support tail ALL of which are vulnerable. They are very soft targets and easily damaged on the ground. They are vulnerable to attack by cheap UAS. They burn JP-8 which has to get to their base then into their fuel tanks. Light infantry are a threat throughout those processes. Light up the fuel train (most bases have rail spurs) and/or kill tanker trucks then the finest bomber in the world is but a static display.
The Red Army could not defeat Afghan light infantry. The US have not won their war either. The British could not destroy the Irish Republican Army. Asymmetric war is not about offering yourself as a conventional target.
In any civil war the military itself is divided giving both sides access to systems and skilled operators. Civil war also facilitates infiltration. In A-stan (a civil war) Coalition advisors are always vulnerable to Green on Blue attacks. In civil war it would be Blue on Blue and all it takes is one (1) person able to close with a delicate target to destroy it. They may work on that target for a living.
Dear elitist foreigner, study history and war. You'll learn something better than teentarded trolling.
Re: Dear gun holding Americans (Score:2)
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Uh, seriously? You think an American Air Force pilot is going to do bombing runs on an American neighborhood where her parents and friends live?
I think that the validity of this claim is independent of whether said parents and friends have guns or not, therefore not relevant to the problem I originally pose, which is, that American's insistence on carrying guns, is useless.
Re: Dear gun holding Americans (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4)
Re:Worst case scenario would have been really bad (Score:5, Insightful)
If a few tens of thousands had shown up, the military would've been on a humanitarian mission trying to provide water and sanitary & medical facilities to all the morons who showed up thinking they could make a quick dash through the desert only to find that they were in a desert marathon.
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Finally, a reasonable answer. We can't have that. Why, I can't even tell who you hate.
They got triggered (Score:2)
Even though no one pulled the trigger.
Iâ(TM)d say letâ(TM)s nuke them from orbit. Itâ(TM)s the only way to be sure.
2 million signed up (Score:2)
Only a few thousand made it there. The other 1,998,000 were abducted by aliens.
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Yes. The Facebook couch warriors strikes again.
Lesson to be learned here (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there's a lesson to be learned here. Threat of violence aren't cool.
Gun rights activists take note, when you utter phrases like "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands" you only make any rational human being want to take your gun away from you because you sound like a psychotic.
Likewise for the US military in their comments about US civilians, no mater how retarded they are acting.
Re:Lesson to be learned here (Score:5, Insightful)
I think there's a lesson to be learned here. Threat of violence aren't cool.
Neither is the threat of knowingly creating a crisis with the military.
Gun rights activists take note, when you utter phrases like "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands" you only make any rational human being want to take your gun away from you because you sound like a psychotic.
People trying to make claims on behalf of 'any rational human being' take note: You have no standing to do that.
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A rational person does not make threats of violence because of the government possibly finding that a simple material possession is too dangerous for widespread private ownerships as it has done with hundreds of other things.
"People trying to make claims on behalf of 'any rational human being' take note: You have no standing to do that."
Oh such profound wisdom. How about you actually challenge what I'm saying rather than discredit as a means of undermining what I'm saying
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Re: Lesson to be learned here (Score:2)
Re: Lesson to be learned here (Score:2)
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No, gun rights activists will think you have a chip on your shoulder and blather irrelevant things, and will not do a goddamn thing you say.
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So I'm a little unclear here. Are you telling me that me having a problem with some one making death threats over the government finding that a simple material object is too dangerous for mass ownership as they have with hundreds of others things, is me having a "chip on my shoulder"? If vaping pens were to be made illegal tomorrow would violence be justified?
I don't know what to say to that other than I guess you're right. Any asshole who would make threats of violence under such conditions would likely be
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You're very confused and don't know what rights are.
Threatening violence if fundamental right is removed by oppressor is fine. It is mentally ill NOT to be that way.
Or do you think it's fine to be kidnapped, incarcerated without cause, tortured, to be unable to have self-defense, etc.
Our country was founded with violence because a government did not respect those things.
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You seem to be committed to the idea that gun ownership is a "fundamental right". I couldn't disagree more and the rest of the Western world is pretty much on the same page and are doing fine (radically lower homicide and gun violence rates in fact). Now, it is a constitutional right but those have been changed before to correct for problems with our constitution (slavery).
It's great you think you owning a gun will protect you from horrible government oppression from our democratically elected government bu
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You can rape my daughter only if you kill me first.
I presume you consider yourself rational. Does that statement then make you want to rape my daughter? Same logic.
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So if vaping is made illegal should people threaten deadly force over their vaping pen being taken away?
"I presume you consider yourself rational. Does that statement then make you want to rape my daughter? Same logic."
Jesus, no it isn't at all. A gun is a simple materiel position, your daughter is not. Raping anyone is a completely different ball park then a government deciding something is too dangerous for personal ownership. You're either an idiot and just said something really fucking stupid or you don
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simple materiel position = simple material possession
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vaping is not a fundamental right, the right to bear arms is. big difference.
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So because you say the right to bear arms is a fundamental right it just is. I wasn't aware anyone had that ability...
You live in a Democracy my friend, you win with ideas, not threats of violence. In the context of guns, all threats of violence do is reinforce the ideals of those in favor of banning them.
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Seems you don't know the Founding Fathers considered the right to bear arms a fundamental right, and the Bill of Rights affirms it. Maybe you also don't know the "militia" was every able bodied citizen.
It's not what I say, it's the supreme law of the land that says it.
As for violence, the Founders wanted the government to be in fear of the citizens, that should the government become evil the citizens would have the means to destroy it.
Armed citizens protecting against "despots at home, and tyranny from abr
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"Seems you don't know the Founding Fathers considered the right to bear arms a fundamental right, and the Bill of Rights affirms it. Maybe you also don't know the "militia" was every able bodied citizen."
Seems like the founding fathers were wrong at least once before (slavery) and maybe I do. That covers a few of your other points as well.
The founding fathers were certainly great people but to put them into the god like category of "unquestionable" is ridiculous and I think many or even most of them would c
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I think there's a lesson to be learned here. Threat of violence aren't cool.
And yet you ignore the planned rape of alien prisoners. You can't "clap those alien cheeks" of unwilling prisoners. That's just barbaric. Sexual violence is just as bad as physical violence.
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Shit, well you got me there...
Fuck'em (Score:2)
If they can't take a joke.
Millennials? Desert air ruins their nail polish (Score:2)
The Area 51 invasion demographic is more like superannuated listeners to Coast To Coast AM. It had to be conducted early enough in the day that they could make it back to Vegas in time for dinner buffet.
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51 is, coincidentally, the average slashdot belt size.
that one time (Score:2)
that one time the military makes a joke...
they have to apologize for it.
Don't apologize. (Score:4, Insightful)
"forced" to apologize? (Score:2)
"Forced" to apologize? By who, or what?
Or maybe they just plain apologized?
Anyway, what is it with this particular age we are in, and all this apology theater and drama?
Anybody think that people in general are really more contrite in 2019 then they were in, say, 1919? 1819? 1519?
They should have just did some practice bombings (Score:2)
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Couple A-10s would do the trick, nothing fancy or overly modern. Let the tin foil hat wearers know that old tech is all that is needed to take care of their warped mind craziness.
I'd rather not pay the gas bill, especially when all it took was a handful of sheriff's deputies with loud voices.
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I didn't think they wanted people to come. (Score:2)
potentially viable "storming" option in few years (Score:2)
With drone tech getting better and better and cheaper by the day, it may be within a few years for civilians to purchase drone for a few hundred $$ that can have a range where they can be launched and perform a coordinated swarm on Area 51 that will be nearly impossible to contain.
We have seen how some idiotic gofundme campaigns have raised millions for products that never materialize. Imagine someone coordinating a 1000 drone swarm launched from 50 miles away from a dozen locations. For $1M, someone could
In actual fact... (Score:2)
... I bet the military had that "Microwave pain ray" thing available to dissuade the very persistent idiots, if they'd showed up in number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]