[NGOlocals] A live stream video posted on YouTube on Feb. 16 by "Predator Catchers Indianapolis" purports to show Meta/Facebook Manager of Community Development Jeren Andrew Miles, of Palm Springs, Calif., being caught in a child sex sting in Columbus, Ohio.
Miles, 35, allegedly communicated sexually explicit texts with a person who said they were a 13-year-old boy. He allegedly made plans for the boy to meet him at Le Meridien Columbus hotel, which is how and where the "Predator Catchers" group interviewed him.
Miles serves on the board of directors for LGBTQ+ group, Equality California. He has since completely deleted his social media accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Miles previously worked as the Director of Community Affairs for Lyft, according to an archive on LinkedIn.
Eric Schmutte, the man recording the live stream and one-half of "Predator Catchers Indianapolis," tells me ...
#2
"In addition to community activism [for Lyft and then Facebook, as well as a stint as "Youth/MOVE Exec Director at Indiana I. Hospital], Jeren Miles visited the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg when he worked for Lyft.
"According to his now deleted Twitter account, Miles said he was looking forward to partnering with the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg, providing them with rideshare opportunities."
#3
guess he will have to wash dishes at the CIA star bucks for 6 months be taken out of field service and have to buy pastries for the the people who caught him !
[Daily Beast] Jean-Luc Brunel, the French modeling agent accused of procuring underage women for Jeffrey Epstein, was found hanged in his Paris jail cell—in a shocking replay of how Epstein himself died.
The 76-year-old was found during a night-time check by guards at La Santé early Saturday, officials told Le Monde.
His attorneys told the paper that the apparent suicide "was not driven by guilt, but by a deep sense of injustice."
Brad Edwards, who represents Epstein and Brunel accuser Virginia Robert Giuffre, said he believes the Frenchman took his life because he knew his fate was sealed.
"He and Epstein made it only as long as there was hope of getting out," Edwards told The Daily Beast.
[DW] Gail Halvorsen, a US air force pilot known as the "candy bomber" or "uncle wiggle wing" in Germany for dropping candy during the Berlin airlift, has died at the age of 101.
Halvorsen was much loved in postwar Berlin for his role in the US response to the Soviet blockade of the Western half of the city in the aftermath of the Second World War.
He last visited Berlin in 2019 as celebrations including a big party at the former Tempelhof airport, since converted to a park, for the 70th anniversary of the end to the Soviet blockade took place.
In a statement, Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey said, "Halvorsen's deeply human act has never been forgotten."
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT HALVORSEN'S LIFE AND DEATH?
Halvorsen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He grew up poor on farms outside of the city during the Great Depression.
He trained as a fighter pilot after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the Second World War. During the war, he flew in the south Atlantic prior to his stint flying food and other supplies during the Berlin Airlift.
On the website of his foundation, Halvorsen recalled having mixed feelings about the airlift so soon after the war as he lost friends and the US and Germany had been on opposing sides of the conflict.
After meeting a group of children on the other side of the Tempelhof fence, his views on the mission changed.
He broke up a piece of gum that he had to give it to the children. They then divvied it up further among themselves and even smelled the wrapper.
He vowed to return with enough candy for all the children and the next day his candy drops began, wiggling the wings of his aircraft as he did so.
The effort soon expanded to other pilots and the mission spawned "Operation Little Vittles."
Among the awards he had received, Halverson was honored with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
When he passed away Wednesday of pneumonia, he was at home in his home state of Utah surrounded by most of his children, James Stewart, the director of the Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation, said Thursday.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said after receiving news of Halvorsen's death, "I know he's up there, handing out candy behind the pearly gates somewhere."
The director of the Allied Museum in Berlin, Jurgen Lillteicher, called Halverson an "immensely charismatic and lovable person."
WHAT IS THE BERLIN AIRLIFT?
On June 26, 1948, the US, UK and La Belle France began an airlift to bring food and supplies to West Berlin. Berlin was divided after the war between the US, Britannia, La Belle France and the Soviet Union. The Soviets had blockaded West Berlin to try and squeeze the other powers out.
In total, 278,000 flights into Berlin brought 2.3 million tons of food, coal, medicine and supplies.
After nearly a year, in May of the following year, the Soviets ceased their blockade. The airlift continued for a bit longer in the event Moscow altered its calculus.
For the older, baby boomer generation of Germans born just after the war, memories of American soldiers handing out candy and fruit remain.
#2
Replacing those SIGs and Tasers with Valium dart guns.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 8:20 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The return of mental hospitals. How long do you think the ACLU will allow that?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 8:28 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Not long, MM.
Besides, there are too many 'non-profits' that indeed profit greatly from the 'plight exploitation' of the homeless population.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/19/2022 8:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Of course, mental hospitals may acquire new cachet now that "freedom" is a mental health problem.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 9:09 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Np. Just create another $250 million per year, ThriveNYC-style "mental health" program run by the mayor's family -- aka "a smoke-and-mirrors slush fund."
Hey, Gretta!
[FoxNews] Sophie Enderton is donating care packages to chemotherapy patients in Buffalo, New York
A thoughtful 10-year-old girl is dedicating her time to crafting "chemo comfort bags" for hospital patients after seeing her grandfather battle pancreatic cancer.
Sophie Enderton of Niagara County told Fox News Digital that she decided she wanted to brighten the days of chemotherapy patients shortly after her grandfather – Terry – explained what the treatment is and why it’s challenging for people.
Sophie learned of Terry’s diagnosis in October 2021 and set out to make comfort bags for chemo patients over the holiday season.
With help from her family, Sophie put together crocheted bags and fill each with items that are meant to enhance comfort, including blankets, small pillows, games, word searches, cozy socks and mitts.
"My husband and I are so proud that Sophie wanted to give back," Sophie’s mother, Jillian Enderton, told Fox News Digital, in a phone interview. "She saw others struggling, and she wanted to be a change and help them."
In December, Sophie and her family donated 10 comfort bags to chemo patients at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is the same hospital grandpa Terry received treatment in Buffalo, New York.
My father and Mr. Wife both worked there, overlapping by several years. Founded in 1898 by Dr. Roswell Park as the nation’s first dedicated cancer research lab, it’s the biggest cancer research/hospital complex that nobody’s ever heard of.
The Endertons are currently putting together comfort bags with a new goal of delivering 20 bags to pediatric and adult cancer patients by the end of March – in honor of Terry’s birthday.
"Sophie and her grandpa were super close, and I think this helps her to stay close to him now that he's passed away," Jillian said, noting that he died on Dec. 15, 2021.
Community members have donated money and items to Sophie’s comfort bag project and this time the fifth-grader hopes to add cards and other personalized touches to the care packages.
[ScienceAlert] The Sun Has Erupted Non-Stop All Month, And There Are More Giant Flares Coming
The past few weeks or so have been a very busy time for the Sun. Our star has undergone a series of giant eruptions that have sent plasma hurtling through space.
Perhaps the most dramatic was a powerful coronal mass ejection and solar flare that erupted from the far side of the Sun on February 15 just before midnight. Based on the size, it's possible that the eruption was in the most powerful category of which our Sun is capable: an X-class flare.
Because the flare and CME were directed away from Earth, we're unlikely to see any of the effects associated with a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when material from the eruption slams into Earth's atmosphere.
These include interruptions to communications, power grid fluctuations, and auroras. But the escalating activity suggests that we may anticipate such storms in the imminent future.
#4
But, but... I thought the solar minimum was going to start the next mini-ice age. There is another ice storm headed my way, after all.
Now it seems the upcoming solar max is going to fry our fragile grid. Fire or ice?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/19/2022 8:02 Comments ||
Top||
#5
A physicist would wearily nod, "Well, yes, electromagnetism is a form of radiation, heat if you must call it that. But there's a bit more to it than that..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 8:06 Comments ||
Top||
[CBSNews] High-ranking Homeland Security officials in the Trump administration say they were overcome with feelings of vertigo, confusion and memory loss while on White House grounds and in their Washington, D.C.-area homes. The incidents and symptoms they describe are similar to the "Havana Syndrome" that has been reported by American diplomats in foreign countries since 2016.
The officials spoke to 60 Minutes for a new report airing Sunday. Other stories of officials being stricken were corroborated by former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who fears there is a threat to the highest levels of the U.S. government.
"If we were at war and an adversary could disable the president and his top advisers, or commanders in the field, it could render us extraordinarily vulnerable," Bolton told correspondent Scott Pelley. "We don't know that that's the threat we're facing. But I would much rather focus on finding out the answer now, rather than finding out later when it may be too late."
I strongly suspect the ultimate cause is a US based undercover op gone wrong. It's already common knowledge the CIA and the FBI went rogue a long time ago.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
02/19/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/19/2022 8:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
There's something I'm just not feeling as I read these reports.
Sympathy. That's it...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 8:11 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Seems to me I read about a new 'secret' high-power wireless area security system that the Feds began fielding within the last 4-5 years might also be a suspect.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/19/2022 8:52 Comments ||
Top||
#6
US Government acknowledgement of the long-term effects of Agent Orange only took a half-century.
They've only just started investigating the Havana Syndrome.
[FoxNews] Two controversial bills introduced this month in Tennessee would expand where enhanced handgun carry permit holders could carry by technically designating them as "law enforcement" in certain situations, according to reports.
It would allow permit holders to carry their weapons where only off-duty law enforcement officers can, such as restaurants or stores that don't normally allow them, WTVF-TV in Nashville reported. It wouldn't include courthouses or schools.
"This is trying to open it up so that people who go to the extreme to get this extra permit can have the right to defend themselves in more places," Republican state Sen. Joey Hensley told ABC News on Thursday. He introduced the state version of the bill.
Hensley said the bills would not make permit holders police officers and wouldn't allow them to arrest people.
The legislation is facing pushback, not only from gun control advocates, but also the state’s largest police union, which said it is "adamantly opposed to this bill in its current form," according to ABC.
#4
An Illinois gun manufacturer has unveiled an AR-15 style rifle for children it has called the JR-15 and marketed it with the tag line 'It operates just like mom and dad's gun.'
Smells like shite. $5 says everyone working there wears kakis and ray-bans.
#7
Ever completed the paperwork and legal process to become a gun manufacturer? I didn't think so...
How much money for a basic manufacturing process using used equipment to manufacture a moderate, passable quality item like this? Suppose there was some "good coaching" in the front office aspect if you will.
It stinks, right on down to the advertising graphic style, of a product market more concerned with newspaper articles.
#9
Have a Colt SP-01 from 1982. Built a tactical / hog gun in 6.8 SPC with a 24" barrel on a DPMS lower. Built a Gen-1 BRN-180 on and Anderson lower. They are all great fun / very useful.
If you aren't on the MSR train, you are part of the problem...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 10:39 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Someone is awful upset over this. You got a kid who wants one and you don't want them to have it? You think it's an anti-gun play disguised as a legit product? Roll out some evidence, if you have any...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 10:44 Comments ||
Top||
#11
^ If it's a bad deal for the 2A, I'd like to be the first to know...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 10:45 Comments ||
Top||
#12
This niche sales point has been filled since forever in both function and style; everything about this item is provocation.
#14
Sorry. Those cute little collectible Winchester and Marlin squirrel guns are not this. The current excellent .22s from Savage, Henry and Mossberg are not this. Somebody is totally immersed in the "eeeevil black rifle" propaganda, seems to me.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 10:56 Comments ||
Top||
#15
If I had a son or daughter who was getting into shooting, I'd love to buy them a POF or LMT high-end MSR that they could learn on and then treasure and pass on or trade up as they grew. The idea that one maker is all the market needs is absurd. It's definitely not capitalist thinking.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#16
I should probably be rubbed out because I build some rifles myself that I could buy off the rack. (Sorta, kinda, mebbe) After all, "that niche is filled..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 11:04 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 11:17 Comments ||
Top||
#18
Heaven forbid we should ever have such granular control over the makeup of our elected officials.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 11:19 Comments ||
Top||
#19
I teach 4-H kids to shoot rifles, and my wife and I have AR-15s for our own use, so I've got some relevant experience. There may be a role for this, depending. The biggest problem I have is finding rifles that are small enough and light enough for youngsters, but still accurate (I teach target shooting). Right now I use a mix of '60s to '80s vintage Anschutz imports and heavily modified Ruger 10/22s.
This may be worth a look, with the following caveats:
- Unknown manufacturer with no track record for quality or company longevity, and probably no distribution or support network
- The actual barrel is only 7.5" long, with an extension tube to avoid NFA limits. Which does not speak well for accuracy.
- The trigger is 'mil-spec' which also doesn't speak well for accuracy in youth hands. Since it's all scaled down, you're not going to get drop-in trigger upgrades or parts
- No specs for minimum length-of-pull or 'length of reach' from pistol grip to trigger face. These are crucial dimensions for young shooters.
Regardless, if one shows up at a LGS, I'll arrange for one of my kids to try it out.
I'll enjoy the leftist heads exploding regardless. Is there more clear evidence that it's a religion, than yet another .22LR plinker being a sign of the end of world?
#21
Grew up shooting Winchester Model 52s and Anschutz in 50 yd. matches. Big heavy rifles. Not a problem for a kid doing prone or maybe kneeling. Offhand, not so much.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:26 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Oh, we need to kowtow to Daily Beast and DM. That will buy us some good will. Did you vote for Bidet too?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:28 Comments ||
Top||
#23
Some people just come out and say "I'm going to hit myself in the head with this hammer until you agree with me."
I'd feel sorry for you. But I won't.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:31 Comments ||
Top||
#24
M, I teach three position to kids as young as eight. I have some old model 52s, we're selling them to buy air rifles, at least when I can get said air rifles (out of stock, like everything...)
#25
Now that I'm a big boy, the Model 52 is fun. It's actually almost as heavy as my Class F rifle. It made quite an impression when I was 12 years old.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#26
Remember the 52s and similar like Remington 513T and H&R 12 were intended as trainers for the M1 and M14, which are no lightweights. I shoot an M1A and like the weight, little kids not so much.
#27
I have an M1A scout, I like it a lot. Handled a Nero Omen when it first came out and said "Man, that's a chunk of hardware!" I will always remember shooting a very clapped out M1 Garand on a friend's back yard 100 yd range. We just passed it hand to hand and everyone was shooting through the same ragged hole in the middle of the target. It made me feel good about basic shooting skills.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:52 Comments ||
Top||
#28
Got a DSA SA-58 pistol too. It's all of 18 inches long and still a heavy chunk of steel. Recoil isn't bad. It's no target gun. It's a .308 pistol.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:53 Comments ||
Top||
#29
^ Now. That's a niche gun...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:55 Comments ||
Top||
#30
Someone grinding his teeth right now thinking about how all this talk is bad for gun rights...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 13:00 Comments ||
Top||
#31
"Liberal newspapers are hating on us! Boo Hoo..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 13:04 Comments ||
Top||
#32
Oh, we need to kowtow to Daily Beast and DM. That will buy us some good will. Did you vote for Bidet too?
Oh, I think it has been established this is a daring advertising campaign. And with modern voting technology, for all I know...
There are also a number of indications of a big gun control push planned for the SOTU. SHOT was what a month ago, this is dated 18th, and goes out of its way to mention Sandy Hook, which ties in nicely with the Remington case. Advertising to Children is how cigarettes got hammered, how additional taxes on soda because obesity happened.
And for what I know, DM picked out the most controversial ad, maybe not even official. I also know from the last two years especially the baddies are looking for reasons and optics are important.
#33
Spoken by a guy who gets the willies when somebody in khakis and sunglasses walks by.
Please.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 14:08 Comments ||
Top||
#34
Wait. I assumed "guy." What are your pronouns?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 14:20 Comments ||
Top||
#35
And yeah, Kid's First Rifle is a singular purchase which marketing targeted children too small of stature to properly carry a regular AR around and if it gets dropped its their furniture not personal finely tuned optics and beside switching back and forth between .22 and personal caliber is time which could be better spent at the range for a rifle which will likely be outgrown in a few years and a Ruger 10/22 compact just isn't cool enough, is a very specific market.
"Hey kid, you too can be tacti-cool, just like your dad!"
#36
The fact that it is giving your mangina a cramp is a plus to my mind.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#37
BT F'n W, Bubbi. Lots of little kids smoke. Advertising has nothing to do with it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 14:31 Comments ||
Top||
#38
Go be retromingent somewhere else...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 14:47 Comments ||
Top||
#39
The DM story is pretty much a rewrite of this Fast Company piece. FC is yet another knee jerk leftist rag for wannabe entrepreneurs.
The gun's logo is likely troll bait trying for exactly this response as an alternative to a real marketing budget. The firearm itself looks like a legit attempt to supply a market need, how successfully remains to be seen.
#40
So, they write it for an anti-gun audience. And weak-kneed sister here sucks it up.
We deserve better company.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 15:05 Comments ||
Top||
#41
I'm going to buy one and find a youth shooting club to donate it to.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 15:06 Comments ||
Top||
#42
Ohhh. Khakis. He wet himself...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 15:08 Comments ||
Top||
#43
The gun's logo is likely troll bait trying for exactly this response as an alternative to a real marketing budget. The firearm itself looks like a legit attempt to supply a market need, how successfully remains to be seen.
Exactly. Except the marketing costs were passed onto the Firearm Community Reputation. When I was of age, I remember my father and I visiting a car lot, obviously shopping for me. The salesman made it a point to approach my father and establish that relationship before addressing me. This ad goes straight to the kid, bypassing that courtesy.
22LR semi is a go to platform out here, especially for that stinky striped critter walking around the house at high noon like it has been on a 3-day bender; what we call our Skunk Gun, for appropriate size critter of that size. Might be a good snake gun for those on horseback, loaded with shot. It is appropriate for both the beginner, youth, and elderly. Mags are easier and faster to change out than barrel fed. Places for furniture, like a flashlight. I'm curious the price.
The baddies are out, actively looking for these things since before Zimmerman.
#46
If I bow and scrape enough, they will let me pretend I still have rights.
You aren't the least bit embarrassed arguing that way, are you?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 16:38 Comments ||
Top||
#47
The subject here is the appropriateness of an advertisement as proportional to the seriousness of the product. There is a line which narrows as this seriousness increases.
I, too, thought it a Bee type headline. Then I read into it and would have not given 3 seconds in real life to the ad. But nothing draws the eye of the critic like a competitor. In this case, a culture competitor. Stepping on that line, which I think the JR-15 ad did, and crossing that line, I don't think they did. DM, whose customers are nominally not Firearm Culture but Karens and Professional Opinionators, saw that step on the line and is more than happy to place an opinion piece under their name.
To be fair, I am not the target of such an advertisement. It is a pander to those who can afford to purchase a new firearm for a youth not yet physically able to haul a full size version. It targets the Dad who, having his shirt tugged and kid say, "I want one so I can be like you!", sticks his hands in his kakis, and beams with pride.
And nothing provokes the ire of a competitor than pandering, is it auto unlocks all the built biases and a field of pre-built straw men without much effort. It doesn't require the work and thought of a convincing op-ed, it is meant to rally those already on board, especially the passive followers.
The original State Farm Jake commercial had a touch of seriousness in it, even if a bit tongue in cheek, because it showed you can make a claim 24 hours a day. The new ones suck because they pander to a group of people who are nobody but think they will be treated in the same class of professional athletes.
Small business, and especially small manufacturers, are the innovators and niche market providers - an AR style dedicated .22LR at half the weight and a fraction of the size begin there. A 22 TCM pistol carbine will come from there. If a person wants a chainsaw bayonet to mock the media, they make them. Customization, flare, moral patches, that's them. We need more of it.
There is, contrary to belief, such a thing as bad advertising. Imagine if you will a beer company advertising their 0% ABV drink to teenagers so they too can hang out with the adults. Then something happens, intoxication related injuries or worse, the lawyers only need to point at the ads and blame them.
Is it right? No. But guess what, Booze Inc. gets hammered because their brand advocates such behavior.
Being a serious product, firearms should only be advertised to such responsible people. Find me the advertisement which has a twelve year old on a riding lawnmower.
The Professional Tattoo people would have self-policed such an ad; in fact it makes me wonder if a fellow booth renter or quality control was like, "Dude?!" and JR-15 was like, "Wutever Bruh. Selling stuff here."
And if that is the case, as ambassador to the biggest stage in the USA, knowing the industry is constantly infiltrated by Gotchya Agents up to and including members of the US Congress, they fucked up and should expect nothing less than a doxx. I can respect the fuck it let them come, but then there it is too, but that is right there in the same grocery aisle of Meal Team 6 doing open rifle carry into The Norms' Safe Spaces, coffee shops and shopping boxes, and I don't see how that positively changes ideas towards, "Yeah, teach the young how to respect and operated tools and perform in sports which are inherently dangerous so that the activity is respected and thus less dangerous." circle.
#48
It isn't bowing or scraping or wetting pants, natch, which is the motivation. It is the proper appraisal and action, reaction to the current market.
To the uninitiated, check out Appleseed Project as how to properly guide and teach our young how to properly approach Tools of Significance. Also, FFA, 4-H, so forth on how to use tools properly.
But disagreeing with the gummint might get you bad press at DM or other liberal rags. At least one commenter here gets a tummy ache from that.
Because our rant fillith' over, I guess, here is the full discussion. If you find inconsistencies or other flags please, I am here. Do your research, you will find me most defiantly against The Message for the last two years, and, at your appraisal, fairly neutral.
[DW] Senegal's President Macky Sall was voted in as the new chairperson of the African Union on February 5, 2022. He assumes the AU chair at a time when democracy in parts of the continent appears under threat. In February, Guinea-Bissau became the latest African nation to reportedly see a coup attempt. This followed closely on the heels of a successful coup in Burkina Faso in January. The year before, military juntas seized power in Guinea and Mali while in Chad, the army appointed the son of long-term ruler Idriss Deby as president in what has been called a 'dynastic coup.'
At the same time, the civil war in Ethiopia's Tigray region has been dragging on for more than a year while armed conflict and terrorist attacks are escalating in the Sahel, the vast semi-arid region that stretches from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east.
Sall talked to DW ahead of the 2022 AU-EU Summit which started on Thursday in Brussels.
Putin calls military reserve forces to undergo training with a decree tonight according to this document released by the Ukranian media pic.twitter.com/os9xemy9IE
#3
BLUF: "Whether or not he chooses to launch an all-out war, the existence of a pro-Western democracy in Ukraine is insufferable to Putin and he will keep trying to snuff it out."
#4
"the existence of a pro-Western democracy in Ukraine is insufferable to Putin..."
Is the puffing up of the possibility pro-Western democracy in Ukraine is insufferable to Putin essential to us?
Why?
Do we even have the facsimile of "a Western democracy" here on our soil-- we, the heroes of lockdowns and beat downs, of concentration camps and tech-oligarch censorship, of joke ekectiobs and shit-for-brains littke dictators ruling through "emergency decrees" that have no basis and no end?
Luganskgaz claims sabotage caused two explosions of a gas pipeline in Malaya Vergunka and in Luhansk. via @konrad_muzyka ➡️ Here is a map on Ukraine‘s pipelines to avoid any speculations on Social Media. via @JavierBlas#geopoliticspic.twitter.com/WRbLF9DWOZ
No, the mighty Druzhba oil pipeline isn’t anywhere near Luhansk, the city in eastern Ukraine where social media is reporting an explosion. Nowhere near (the blue dot is Luhansk). If a pipeline has explode there, isn’t Druzbha (so European supplies are no affected) #OOTT#Ukrarinepic.twitter.com/Cjp9xHQxOn
Newsflash: Senile man who cheated his way into the White House continues to deny reality.
[IsraelTimes] US president warns of false flag operations to justify an attack, citing US intelligence; says diplomacy still ‘a possibility’; car bombing and shelling reported near conflict line.
If I were Vladimir Putin, I would sit there doing nothing while the American ruler made an ever bigger fool of himself in front of the entire world.
#2
Putin can indeed do nothing at this point. Cat, [deranged] mouse. He's just toying with Brandon now.
Disagree? How so? You mean, Putin's under great pressure now to carry out his "invasion" ... before what, exactly?
Before his window of opportunity closes? Like, before the dread Russian winter comes? Oh wait...
Oh, you mean, make the first strike before Russia's attacked by PolishGermanSwedishMongol invaders? Nope.
Ah, before he loses face and is thrown out of office by Russian voters desperate for glory on the world stage? Nah. No elections coming up, and no Russian wants war with Ukraine.
This is all theater now. There is zero pressure on Putin. He's simply going to ratchet up his mind games until Winken-Blinken-and-NoddingOff finally capitulate and agree to sign a concordat that ensures no NATO membership for Ukraine.
Which, oddly enough, is what the Ukrainian leadership is now happy and willing to accept.
[Breitbart] China has doubled down on refusing to stick to its climate pledges by announcing Monday it will be expanding operations of coal-fired power plants across the country.
In a Chinese State Council meeting chaired by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, China reaffirmed its position to increase its use of coal powered energy to “safeguard power usage in both production and daily life”, the official Chinese state press agency Xinhua reports.
China is the world’s largest polluter emitting an estimated 27 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases in 2019, with the next largest emitter America only releasing 11 per cent of the world’s pollution – less than 50 per cent of China’s total emissions.
Despite initially signing up to the U.N.’s Paris Climate Agreement in 2016 which aims to keep global temperature rises under 2 °C and reaffirming this commitment to reduce its emissions at eco-conference COP 26 in a joint declaration with the United States in 2021, over the course of the pandemic, China has increased coal output – hitting a ten-year-high of using over four billion metric tons of coal in 2021.
[NY POST] After leading Team USA to a silver medal in the team figure skating competition and winning his first Olympic gold in the men’s individual event, Nathan Chen has been slammed on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
The 22-year-old Chinese American was labeled a “traitor” on the social media platform for choosing to represent the United States, and was even told to “get out of China.” After his victory Thursday, some on Weibo complained that Chen was “too white” and Americanized, citing a long list of examples where they thought Chen was “insulting China” with his actions.
Chen has previously refused to speak Chinese in interviews, claiming that his Mandarin “isn’t very good.”
The Yale student put his support behind American ice dancer Evan Bates’ condemnation of China’s human rights abuses in an October interview. At the time, Bates came down hard on China’s “awful” treatment of the Uyghur people. The US did not send any diplomats to the Winter Olympics in Beijing because of the host country’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities.”
[Breitbart] Government officials ordered the demolition on Tuesday of a 20-foot tall Jesus statue in Gokunte — a Christian village in southern India’s majority Hindu Karnataka state — resulting in the giant sculpture allegedly "smashed to pieces" by the laborers tasked with the teardown, the British Asian Christian Association (BACA) reported on Friday.
The incident took place on the morning of February 15 after a local district administration official arrived in Gokunte along with a demolition team and roughly 40 police officers to pull down the Christian statue. Eyewitness video footage of the teardown published by BACA on Friday shows a laborer operating a backhoe to slowly pick away at the statue’s large concrete and metal base. Other videos show ropes tied to the Jesus figure before machines off-camera pull the structure to the ground.
"Locals object to the government’s decision to demolish [the] Jesus statue in Gokunte village on Tuesday," Karnataka’s News9 digital platform reported.
A local government official told News9 on February 15 "she acted as per the orders of the Karnataka High Court" when approving the Jesus statue’s teardown.
"We demolished the statue based on the High Court order. After seven to eight hearings, the High Court had ordered the demolition of the statue as it was constructed on government land," the official said.
"We had issued a notice to the church regarding the demolition. We had to submit the compliance report to the High Court on Wednesday [February 16] and hence it was demolished," she continued.
The official further told News9 the Karnataka High Court "had issued the order for demolition in March last year."
The Archbishop of Bangalore Peter Machado issued a press release this week denying local government officials had the proper authority to destroy Gokunte’s Jesus statue.
"He alleges the district administration had no right to demolish the statue, because the 2 acre land on which it was erected is belonged to a local church [sic]," BACA relayed on Friday. "He has also stated that paperwork confirming ownership is with the church."
"The Catholic Church in India is incensed that the demolition took place despite a court stay order in place, from a trial court, denying authority for the action taken," BACA reported. "The next hearing for the case was too be 16th February and it seems intentional that the District authorities smashed the statue before the court could give its verdict [sic]."
Gokunte is a small village of about 600 residents. The community "is mainly comprised of Christians who observe the Roman-Catholic faith. It is believed only 4 families adhere to the Hindu faith in the locality," according to BACA.
Gokunte is located in Karnataka state which, along with the rest of India, is majority Hindu. India’s latest available census data from 2011 found 84 percent of Karnataka’s population at the time (61.1 million) identified as Hindu, while just 1.87 percent of the state’s populace identified as Christian. Approximately 80 percent of India’s population in 2011 (1.2 billion) identified as Hindu, while 2.3 percent said they were Christian.
[FoxNews] Startup led by military veterans creating new ways for fighter pilots to train.
A veteran group of fighter aces and tech innovators developed a technology they believe will help win the artificial intelligence race against China.
"We must do something about the investment China is making in cyber and AI, as well, because in certain spheres, I believe they are much ahead of us," said Daniel Robinson, CEO and founder of Red 6.
Robinson and his team developed what they call a "revolutionary approach" to augmented reality – a technology that enables fighter pilots to go up in real airplanes and train against virtual enemies.
"The whole reason I started this company is pilots must fly," Robinson, a former F-22 pilot, told Fox News. "We can't do this in simulators."
"The beautiful thing with this technology is it's reset, reset, reset," Robinson continued.
He said a traditional flight hour may give a pilot three looks at a problem set. But using this technology, "you may get 8, 9, 10 looks at the problem set using this," Robinson told Fox News.
The U.S. Air Force gave Red 6 a $70 million contract last year. The company expects to see its tech in a fighter jet within 18 months.
*A fighter Ace has five kills of enemy aircraft. He doesn't. There have been a handful of Aces since the Korean War, and only three have been American: Steve Ritchie, Randy Cunningham, and Jeff Feinstein. None of them have been UK or Commonwealth, and the reason I mention that is because...
*Mr. Robinson is wearing a name patch that appears to show RAF or some other Commonwealth air force wings. Fair enough, but the aircraft next to those wings appears to be an F-22. Now, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the RAF, RCAF, or RAAF has had one or two pilots checked out on the F-22. He is referred to as a former F-22 pilot, but with those wings, I think he has at the very least some clarifying to do.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/19/2022 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The future is UCAFs that can maneuver in ways no human pilot could survive. The weight savings of not having a cockpit for a human can be translated into an aircraft with a better power to weight ratio or a better ordnance load-out. Either way, only the fighter mafia loses.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 11:57 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The U.S. Air Force gave Red 6 a $70 million contract last year.
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- The first British pilot to complete F-22 Raptor training graduated July 17 at Tyndall Air Force Base.
Flight Lt. Dan Robinson, from the Royal Air Force, is assigned to Langley AFB, Va. He has completed two months of training with the 43rd Fighter Squadron as part of an exchange program. In return, a U.S. fighter pilot will be trained and fly the new EF-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon side-by-side with the RAF.
For the coalition, the benefit of the exchange program is the implementation of the aircraft capabilities into the multi-national planning process. Both the Raptor's and Typhoon's potential and capabilities will be better understood by both U.S. and United Kingdom aviators in battle, providing better results and minimizing collateral damage and loss of coalition life.
Lieutenant Robinson is a combat veteran who has served in the RAF since 1996.
"I have been fascinated with aircraft since I was a child; I was that kid who always wanted to talk to the pilot. My father was a businessman, and we traveled a lot on planes while I was growing up," he said.
He comes from a family of warriors. Both of his grandfathers served in the military during World War II.
Lieutenant Robinson was flying F-3 Tornados with the RAF 25th Fighter Squadron in England prior to the exchange program. The 29-year-old pilot arrived in the United States in March.
[Dallas News/AP] The omicron wave that assaulted the United States this winter also bolstered its defenses, leaving enough protection against the coronavirus that future spikes will likely require much less — if any — dramatic disruption to society. That used to be the definition of "natural immunity, before it was cancelled. About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported. One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March. Which seems really slow gain for a super-contagious variant. Perhaps the virus has burned itself out? However --
The coronavirus — the current variant or future ones that are sure to pop up — remains a dangerous germ. It is still infecting more than 130,000 Americans and killing more than 2,000 every day. Tens of millions of people remain vulnerable. Germ? I thought it was a virus. The new 'germ variant'?
"I am optimistic even if we have a surge in summer, cases will go up, but hospitalizations and deaths will not," said Mokdad, who works on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model, which calculated the 73% figure for The Associated Press. And it seems the AP liked the implications of that 'estimate'. Somebody tell the Canadians.
With varying degrees of relief and caution, many Americans are starting to return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles. Ironic, isn't it. The vaccine didn't stop Omicron, nature did. How long will folks get fired for refusing the vaccine?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/19/2022 07:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
The medical insider "Boriquagato's" substack has a field day with this latest Peak Stupidity delusion ("An epidemic of self-delusion" -- the comments and discussion btw are excellent, esp the discussion of ADE vs OAS):
this stage of the pandemic is really one of the more mystifying parts. if you listen closely, you can hear the popping of burning wires:
i got vaccinated.
i got covid.
i got really sick.
thank goodness i got vaccinated!
you should get vaccinated too!
... it’s like the last vestiges of observational capability have finally been beaten out of a meaningful portion of the population.
truly, we have entered the post rational world of the unfalsifiable claim: “it would have been worse if i had not!”
it’s such a wonderful meme. so pervasive. so persuasive. and so totally, utterly impervious to contradiction. it’s the perfect brainworm to justify what you did.
you can show them all the societal data you like about higher rates of hospitalization this year than last in groups that were 95%+ vaccinated.
it does not matter. no aggregate data can refute any individual belief about one specific datapoint among many.
“i’m sure it helped.” < this belief lets anyone feel good about vaccination and boosting even as they fall ill.
it literally turns the contraction of covid by vaccinated people into the belief that covid vaccines worked for them.
this may be the most successful piece of product positioning in human history. Cognitive bias becomes cognitive dissonance becomes an iron bar certainty that your virtuous behavior saved you.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 9:18 Comments ||
Top||
#3
And now that the 'vaccinated' are the ones falling sick, being hospitalized and dying, certain public health agencies are simply shutting this data off from public view. Boriquagato, again:
we’ve reached the point where agencies will no longer publish objective data because it does not support their conclusions.
“we cannot provide data because people might analyze it!” is not much of a mantra, is it?
NEW - Public Health Scotland will stop publishing data on Covid deaths and hospitalizations by vaccination status because there are "significant concerns about the data being misused deliberately by anti-vaccination campaigners."
#6
I don't place wagers, but I'll bet predict neither Fauxi nor Gates will get as close to a Nobel Prize as Algore did. And you know it's still driving him wild that Bath House got one and he didn't.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Do they give a Nobel in the Blood Clot category?
Funeral directors and embalmers around the country and in the U.K. are beginning to report an extraordinary increase in the incidence of bizarre blood clots in the bodies of the vaxxed. Description, links, and photos here.
... the materials look like fibrin, a major component of a blood clot. Fibrin is defined as “a strong insoluble protein produced by the body in response to bleeding.”
#8
At the point where my corpse is being processed, I'm beyond caring. Of course, I can make choices (whether the gummint likes it or not) to hasten or delay the day I become a corpse. Fauxi, Gates et al can go F themselves.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 11:10 Comments ||
Top||
If Starship, Ship, whatever they're calling it this month flies in production, in one year SpaceX could put as much mass into space as humanity has since the beginning of time.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/19/2022 11:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
ISS is a scam. It hasn't done any worthwhile science to speak of. It's hasn't improved cooperation between the US and Russia. It's coming down in 2031, unless it becomes another base closure white elephant. Which is all too likely.
Go somewhere. Or don't go. Don't sell "space stations" as stepping stone to the great beyond. They are not.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/19/2022 12:01 Comments ||
Top||
Proof of concept trial. It remains to be seen whether it will be work, and if so whether it will be affordable by the nearly bankrupt state of California.
#5
If they built a nuke plant and a de-salinator, they would have both power and water while they dick around with useless but lucrative green schemes.
#9
Won't be any condensation on the underside of the panels, and in any wiring that's not perfectly sealed. Naw.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/19/2022 18:59 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Miles and miles of solar cell panels that have to be kept clean with biodegradeable, non-toxic and absolutely non-carcinogenic cleaning goop so they function. Right! Now pull the other one.
Debris from a Russian ASAT demonstration in November are in orbits that periodically align with satellites in sun synchronous orbits, creating “squalls” of close approaches than can reach tens of thousands per day. https://t.co/ilQcUY2gHf
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NGOlocals] A live stream video posted on YouTube on Feb. 16 by "Predator Catchers Indianapolis" purports to show Meta/Facebook Manager of Community Development Jeren Andrew Miles, of Palm Springs, Calif., being caught in a child sex sting in Columbus, Ohio.
China has doubled down on refusing to stick to its climate pledges by announcing Monday it will be expanding operations of 
About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported. One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March.
