Stevenson’s army, August 31

– I missed the strength of Trump’s support in 2016 because I didn’t follow social media. I still don’t, but I look fro journalists who do. So I flagged this NYT report about conservative dominance of Facebook.  And I know from Pew studies that 43% of Americans get their news from Facebook.  And Congress is using social media much more than in the past.

– I’ve regularly sent around the Military Times polls of service people on political questions.  Their methodology makes the results suggestive rather than certain, but it is surprising to see the drop in support for Trump compared with 4 years ago.

– NYT today notes Taiwan’s military exercises and fears of a Chinese attack. I also commend USNIP’s speculative story about a possible US-Chinese war over Taiwan. 

– Also see Politico’s column on how the Chinese view the US elections.

– I’ve never worked in the Pentagon building. [My two summers with the Navy Dept were in the old Main Navy on Constitution Ave.] So I was surprised to read about how technologically “retrograde” the building is.

– CNAS has good material on US sanctions policies globally.

– Breaking Defense reports on the new Unified Command Plan.

More later. I’m just beginning to catch up on the papers from last week.