[ChicagoSunTimes] Those killed included a 40-year-old woman slain in a mass shooting on the West Side, and a 32-year-old Wicker Park man who had just left the California Clipper tavern in Humboldt Park.
OH! that's right, they did way back in the 1960's
Heck, even my IL State Patrol Firearm permit issued back in 1994-96, while working Scott AFB and living on the edge of East St. Louis, prohibit me from having my firearm in Chicago?????
[Insider] Joe Walsh, the guitarist for rock group The Eagles, claimed that he's not worried about artificial intelligence's place in the music industry quite yet — and it's not because of AI's lackluster songwriting skills.
Walsh, who played guitar on the song "Hotel California," doesn't think AI will disrupt the music industry in a significant way because it can't yet embody the kind of spirit that would trash a hotel room — something Walsh has been known to do.
"It's computers, it has nothing to do with music," Walsh told the AP on Wednesday. "It can't destroy a hotel room, it can't throw a TV off the fifth floor into the pool and get it right in the middle."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/18/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
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#1
Life’s been good to him so far. Worry about AI when it can brandish a cricket bat.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/18/2023 8:32 Comments ||
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[MIL.com] Change is afoot in the Army: Divisions are returning to prominence.
From recent reporting to rumors and offhand comments made during briefings, an image is beginning to emerge of the Army of the future. Bursting with enablers and officers, full general staffs, additional brigade and battalion headquarters with more staff, and funding, the divisional headquarters may soon replace brigade headquarters as a unit's heart.
That would mark a big change from the past 20 years. During much of the Global War on Terror, or GWOT, the action downrange in combat and at home in garrison was at the brigade combat team, or BCT, level. For the overwhelming majority of veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan, "division" was a combat patch, a notional way of organizing brigades.
#1
“We trained hard—but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we were reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
― Petronius Arbiter
#2
Rubbish. Those same retired generals if they were still on active duty would be going right along with this like a bunch of Col Klinks. "Ahh, yes, sir/ma'am.". "Ahh, y-yes, sir/ma'am.". "My thoughts exactly, sir/ma'am."
#5
Just a note for those who haven't been paying attention. It's a bean counters. If you have BCT/RCTs you need full support personnel for each. If you have a division of three maneuver brigades, the support ratio will cut back to 2/3rds of what you need in support personnel. In other words, instead of having a mechanic for each of those brigades which would be a total of 3 for three independent brigades, the division will only get 2 instead to support their three brigades.
#6
New "leadership" structures must have new and innovative ideas. If not new and innovative, then simply different than.... the last guy.
The doctrine and OER bullets will never say "prudently returned to a former" tactic and method. It will say "General Tentpeg brought about innovation and change."
#7
I suggest we remain an army base after George McClellan as kind of the Maraschino cherry on this ice cream Sunday of stupid.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/18/2023 8:48 Comments ||
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#8
Big Army is kind of late to the reawakening that the Global War on Terror, which drove force structure changes for multiple theater units facing highly mobile, lethal but rarely static, less-than peer combatants has been replaced with the need to fight China. The dreaded land-war in Asia looms as a greater risk and, at the rate we are wrecking our Class V stores, USN and military ethos/culture, domestic military employment against foreign and invading land forces seem to now be more than mere hypotheticals. Beyond my wildest imaginings of even ten years ago....
[Epoch Times] More than two months after his wife was charged with four Jan. 6-related misdemeanors, Spencer Sidney Geller has been charged by federal prosecutors with five counts, including helping to push over the first police barricades on the U.S. Capitol’s west front. On May 9, his wife, Jennifer Inzunza Vargas Geller, was charged in a criminal complaint At least she got charged before Ray Epps. Ms. Vargas Geller has drawn widespread attention both for her alleged behavior on Jan. 6 and her distinctive outfit, topped by a stylish pink beret. For more than two years, she was not listed as wanted by the FBI. In February, Ms. Vargas Geller was mentioned in a motion by defense attorney Kira West as an alleged provocateur who lured her client, Darrell Neely, into the Capitol on Jan. 6. A real police force would have arrested the provocateurs before the shaman.
On April 27, the FBI listed the still-unidentified Pink Beret on its Jan. 6 most-wanted page as No. 537. According to independent journalist Steve Baker, the Gellers both left the United States and are living in Thailand with their 9-month-old daughter.
A few days after Ms. Vargas Geller’s photos were released by the FBI in April, a tipster who identified himself as a former boyfriend provided her name, age, telephone number, and home address, prosecutors said. Interesting that her photo was released two years after Ray Epps' photo.
Based on a review of open-source video, the FBI said Mr. Geller was among the protesters who pushed over the bicycle-rack barricades that served as the police line near the Peace Monument at around 12:50 p.m. on Jan. 6. Ms. Vargas Geller is seen on open source and CCTV video near the first breach point. After the barricades were breached, she sprinted in high heels across the west lawn to get to the Capitol. I guess nobody asked Director Wray about The Pink Beret.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/18/2023 09:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
There was an earlier story about the Pink Beret. I posted it April 28
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/18/2023 10:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If it's OK to turn the White House into a dope den (DoJ, FBI, lamestream media and the dem party all say it is) then it's difficult to see J6 as being worse than the Civil War, Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/18/2023 10:46 Comments ||
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#3
I was going to reference the Prince song, but it looks like I already did that. I am so predictable.
If I were investigating this case, I would probably take a look at bank account tied to the ticket purchase. Any more useful thought on that subject I reserve for after the 7th floor of the FBI gets a visit from a full Orkin crew.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/18/2023 11:38 Comments ||
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[BBC] A growing number of Capitol rioters have gone back on their guilty pleas and apologies - including one of the most recognisable faces from 6 January.
Standing in court, Jacob Angeli Chansley, known as Jake Angeli, seemed like a changed man. Shorn of the horned headdress, furs and face paint that helped earn him the nickname the QAnon Shaman, he was pleading guilty to obstructing an official proceeding. The charge stemmed from his part interrupting a joint session of Congress, and carried a maximum prison term of 20 years.
"I am truly, truly repentant for my actions, because repentance is not just saying you're sorry," he said. "Repentance is apologising and then moving in the exact opposite direction of the sin that you committed.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Would Chansley have plead guilty with remorseful statements if his lawyers had been given the video and other Brady material that the government was required by law to provide?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/18/2023 8:37 Comments ||
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#2
Blanket pardons for all J6 with no exceptions.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/18/2023 18:31 Comments ||
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[EpochTimes] In 2014, hundreds of residents filed more than two dozen lawsuits against the WH Group, arguing that the hog farms “made life unbearable.” Smithfield lost the five bellwether cases and settled the remaining cases out of court. Still, while sending a message of discontent, it doesn’t change how hogs are raised in North Carolina or anywhere else in the United States.
North Carolina is the home of more than 2,000 large-scale hog farms, primarily clustered in the rural eastern region of the state. As illustrated in the Vox video above, factory-scale hog farming takes a tremendous toll on the surrounding environment, as hog excrement ends up polluting waterways, land, and air.
More than 200 of these North Carolina hog farms are owned or operated by Smithfield Foods,1 the largest pork producer in the world, which in 2013 was acquired by the WH Group, a Chinese pork conglomerate that has been accused of feeding its hogs illegal chemicals.2
But as reported by Rolling Stone magazine in 2018, that wasn’t the only safety concern raised by the sale:3
“The Chinese government had a track record of using nominally private entities as proxies for state power … In 2011 … the government issued a plan directing Chinese companies to buy foreign food producers and farmland. In two years, Chinese nationals went from owning $81 million worth of American farmland to nearly $1.4 billion …
“The investigative news organization Reveal uncovered documents showing that WH Group receives guidance from the government, which a company executive explained was because ‘pork is considered a national-security issue in China’ …
“Part of what made the company such an attractive target is that it’s about 50 percent cheaper to raise hogs in North Carolina than in China. This is due to less-expensive pig-feed prices and larger farms, but it’s also because of loose business and environmental regulations … which have made the U.S. an increasingly attractive place for foreign companies to offshore costly and harmful business practices.”
CHINA DUMPS ITS AGRICULTURAL WASTE IN THE US
In years past, the United States outsourced dirty industry processes to poorer countries. Today, China is doing the same, and it’s treating the United States as a developing nation. Granted, U.S. environmental policies—which have gotten increasingly lax over time due to regulatory capture by industry—are what allow for this “hostile takeover” in the first place.
Believe it or not, China doesn’t allow hog waste to be sprayed on fields as a means of disposal, as is routinely done here in the United States. In China, hog farmers are forced to spend big bucks on wastewater treatment, digester systems to convert manure into natural gas, and odor control systems to shield nearby residents from the stench.4
All of that makes pork about twice as expensive to produce in China than in the United States. Usha Haley, a professor at West Virginia University who has studied the Chinese takeover of American agricultural assets for well over a decade, told Rolling Stone:5
“China will not care about the health of people living beside the hog farms. China will act in its own self-interest to leave the pollution here but take the valuable clean pork back to China.”
One year after Smithfield was gobbled up by the WH Group, 500 residents filed more than two dozen lawsuits against the company, arguing that the hog farms “made life unbearable.”6
By early 2020, five of the lawsuits had gone to trial, and Smithfield lost them all. In each case, the jury unanimously concluded there had been an “unreasonable and substantial interference with the reasonable enjoyment of the [plaintiff’s] property.”7
In all, Chinese-owned Smithfield was ordered to pay $550 million in damages, later reduced to $98 million due to a state cap on punitive damages.8 According to Corporate Crime Reporter, Smithfield settled the remaining cases out of court.9 Still, while sending a message of discontent, it doesn’t change how hogs are raised in NC or anywhere else in the United States.
HOG FARMS WREAK HAVOC
Thousands of pigs are kept permanently indoors in these industrial “farms,” known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Urine and feces are piped outside into a giant open lagoon, and when the lagoon gets full, the waste is sprayed onto nearby fields. As explained in the VOX video above:
“Spraying and lagoons have air quality risks. When bacteria breaks the waste down, it releases hundreds of compounds, like methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and dust into the air. These can cause asthma, respiratory diseases, headaches, and nausea.”
Indeed, several studies have concluded that living near CAFOs has a detrimental impact on health. For example, one 2018 study by Duke University found that people living in close proximity to hog CAFOs have:10
Higher all-cause mortality.
Higher infant mortality and low birth weight.
Higher mortality due to anemia, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and septicemia.
The massive amounts of hog waste produced by these industrial farms also pollute well water and surface water with nitrates, phosphorous, and fecal bacteria, which in turn contributes to algae blooms that kill fish and can cause life-threatening illness in humans.
The largest cluster of hog farms in NC also happens to be located in a coastal floodplain, which further heightens this water pollution risk, as storm flooding washes the hog waste into the surrounding ecosystem.
Residents living near hog farms also must deal with dead hog carcasses that attract flies and buzzards. As noted by Corporate Crime Reporter,11 “The cheapest way of disposing of hogs is to throw them out into the open hot air.” So that’s what most of the farms do.
Sometimes these temporary disposal areas are right beside a private residence. Every few days, a truck will come by to pick up the carcasses, which are then transported to processing plants that use them for dog food and other products.
BIOGAS PERMITS WILL FURTHER IMPACT UNDERPRIVILEGED RESIDENTS
You’d think this kind of pollution would be curbed by the federal Clean Water Act and other environmental regulations, but that’s not the case. As noted by Vox, the EPA primarily regulates only the largest concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
Besides, getting rid of hog waste by spraying it on fields is perfectly legal, even though nearby residents end up getting showered with fecal matter on a regular basis and can’t open their windows or even their mouths when the wind blows in their direction. And now, their situation may get even worse.
In 2021, North Carolina regulators authorized four Smithfield-owned CAFOs to convert their animal waste into biogas fuel by installing anaerobic digestion systems, all without conducting a comprehensive impact analysis or including air and water mitigation requirements.
This development is what led to the most recent Civil Rights Act complaint, filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) against the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).14,15 As reported by NC News Online:16
“SELC alleges that when DEQ granted the general permits to the Smithfield-owned farms, the agency failed to protect the surrounding communities from air and water pollution.
“A disproportionate share of the hundreds of families who live around the hog operations in Duplin and Sampson County are Black and Latino. Under a federal civil rights law, known as Title VI, entities that receive federal funds can’t from discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin—intentionally or unintentionally.”
BIOGAS WILL MAKE A BAD SITUATION WORSE
As if that’s not bad enough, the 2021 Farm Bill passed by the North Carolina General Assembly also calls for the creation of a general permit for biogas production from CAFO waste, which will make it easier for other farms to follow suit. And as you’d expect from captured legislators, the draft of this general permit contains the same deficiencies as the four individual permits initially issued. As noted by the SELC in a supplement to its original complaint:17
“While it is unknown exactly how many of these operations will apply for coverage under the Digester General Permit, the impacts and harms from these operations are likely to be felt disproportionately by the Black, Latino, and Native American communities that more commonly live near industrial hog operations.
“Like the individual permits, industrial hog operations permitted under the Digester General Permit will produce dangerous new waste streams that will harm people living nearby … These operations will be authorized to dig new hog waste lagoons or cap existing unlined ones, install digester systems, store digester waste in open-air potentially unlined lagoons, and spray the ammonia-rich digester waste on fields across eastern North Carolina.
“Since Complainants filed their complaint last September, the harms authorized by North Carolina’s issuance of the individual permits and the general permit have become even more evident. As stated in Complainants’ 2021 complaint to OECRC, digester systems exacerbate pollution and negatively impact human health.
“Several studies have shown that digester waste emits substantially more ammonia than hog waste from conventional lagoons.
“A study co-authored by North Carolina State University’s Dr. Viney Aneja found that digester waste stored in uncovered secondary lagoons emits more ammonia per-hog than conventional hog waste in a lagoon … emissions from the open lagoon portion of the hog operation specifically increased by 66% relative to conventional lagoons.
“The removal of carbon from a digester makes the remaining nitrogen and phosphorus in the digester waste more soluble and decreases dry matter in the waste, both of which can increase the ability of pollutants to infiltrate soil and contaminate groundwater.
“As a result, a leak or overflow from a lagoon storing digester waste can be even more devastating for the environment than a leak or overflow from a conventional lagoon. The heightened risk of water pollution persists when, after being stored in the secondary lagoons, the digester waste is sprayed on nearby fields.
“When the waste is sprayed from high pressure hoses … more ammonia volatilizes and enters the atmosphere, where it compromises local air quality, drives particulate matter formation, and ultimately deposits in nearby waterways as nitrogen or nitrate.”
[Jerusalem Post] A US national is likely to be in North Korean custody after crossing the inter-Korean border during a tour without approval, the United Nations Command said on Tuesday.
The person was taking part in a tour to the Joint Security Area, the border village in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas where soldiers from both sides stand guard.
South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo daily, citing South Korea's army, reported that the person was a US army soldier.
"A US National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the UN Command said on Twitter.
"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident," it added, referring to North Korea's People's Army.
The U.S. official told CBS News the troop in question was being escorted back to the United States for disciplinary reasons, but after going through airport security, they somehow returned and managed to join the border tour.
“A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” U.N. Command said in its statement earlier. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident.” …
A person who said they witnessed the event and was part of the same tour group told CBS News they had just visited one of the buildings at the site when “this man gives out a loud ‘ha ha ha,’ and just runs in between some buildings.”
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/18/2023 10:11 Comments ||
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#6
If that's the case Mike, then I agree with Mr. Hose.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/18/2023 11:23 Comments ||
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#7
Is Bill Clinton up for another trip to Pyongyang with his knee pads?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/18/2023 12:10 Comments ||
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#8
Moron, 15 minutes of scripted PR messages full of denouncing "running dog imperialism", "sea of fire" and attempts at modern, poorly worded drivel, far less amusing than classic Nork propagenda. After that, the sudden dietary changes and Warmbier treatment seem likely.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] For want of a nail, the shoe was lost... For ten years, which means it started on President Obama’s watch.
.MIL is the suffix to all US military email addresses, but people typed in .ML
Latter is country identifier for Mali, which resulted in flow of misdirected emails
One misdirected email included travel plans for General James McConville, the chief of staff of the army.
About ten years ago, a Dutch internet entrepreneur called Johannes Zuurbier first identified this problem.
Zuurbier, who has a contract to manage Mali's country domain, has reportedly also been collecting misdirected emails - nearly 117,00 of them - since January in order to show the government the seriousness of the issue.
He sent a letter to the government earlier this month, saying: 'This risk is real and could be exploited by adversaries of the US.'
Mali's government - which has close ties to Russia - gains control of the .ML domain and therefore the misdirected emails today after Zuurbier's ten-year management contract ran out.
Zuurbier said he approached several government officials like a defence attache in Mali, a senior adviser to the US national cyber security service as well as some White House officials.
He took over control of the Mali domain in 2013 and quickly noticed many requests for domains like army.ml and navy.ml coming in, which he suspected were for emails.
The system he set up to catch any correspondence like that was soon overwhelmed and stopped collecting messages.
Zuurbier said he got legal advice and repeatedly tried to alert the government - to no avail.
Of the nearly 120,000 emails Zuurbier has collected just in the last few months, none are marked as classified and much of them are just spam mail.
However, some of the misdirected emails contain highly sensitive data on military personnel like General McConville.
The sensitive information shared in these emails include X-rays and other medical data, information from identity documents, crew lists for military vessels as well as staff lists for military bases, tax and financial records, photos of bases, inspection reports, maps of installations, criminal complaints against personnel as well as internal investigations into bullying.
#1
Not as serious as you would think. Half of those emails will be about venereal disease, liquor or mishaps caused by liquor. A portion will involve venereal disease, liquor and injuries, but they are within the Venn diagram. We don’t want to double and triple count the same email.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/18/2023 8:30 Comments ||
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#2
After about 24 hours "highly sensitive" oftentimes takes on an entirely new meaning.
[FOX] Ford is lowering the price of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup due to increased plant capacity and the falling costs of raw materials for batteries.
The Detroit automaker is also internally scaling production to offer its customers a cheaper electric vehicle as the pricing war between Ford and rivals like Tesla and General Motors picks up steam.
Ford said Monday that the final upgrades at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan will lead to greater availability of a built-to-order truck as early as October at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price closer to initial Lightning pricing.
#5
These trucks are NOT for folks that really need and use trucks.
If you're a progressive suburbanite who thinks that you'll look cool driving a pickup truck (and save the planet at the same time!), then this truck is for you.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/18/2023 11:22 Comments ||
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#6
I have a friend who just got a new F250. When at the dealer looking, he noticed the Lightnings were by themself, in an area of the lot with a line painted around it.
When he asked the saleman, he said "There's a lot of people that don't want to get too close to them."
This don't sound good.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/18/2023 16:09 Comments ||
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#7
^ Only a problem when you charge them....daily
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2023 18:45 Comments ||
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#8
Lightning sounds like something that's gonna happen to these trucks, chemically induced or otherwise.
[Shafaq News] President Nechirvan Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Region, extended his felicitations to the Mandaeans in Iraq and around the world on the occasion of the Mandaean New Year.
Taking to his personal Twitter account on Sunday, Barzani wrote, "Warmest congratulations and heartfelt wishes to our Mandaean brothers and sisters, both within and beyond our homeland, on the occasion of the Mandaean New Year."
The President of the Region expressed his hope for this community to have "a joyful holiday that brings prosperity and blessings to all, serving as a catalyst for solidifying the principles of tolerance and coexistence among all components of our nation."
A reminder that the followers of John the Baptist are still around, never having accepted that he only showed the way for Jesus Christ.
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.
Ms. Vargas Geller has drawn widespread attention both for her alleged behavior on Jan. 6 and her distinctive outfit, topped by a stylish 
