[WETM] America's most notorious, double-dealing spy, Jim Nicholson, was officially released from prison on Friday, according to the Federal Burea of Prisons.
The highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage is now just walking around, living his life at 73 years old. Some say he may actually try to do right by his family and stick around, others suspect he'll flee to Russia. But before we spend any more time speculating about what he'll be doing with his newfound freedom, let's dive into how truly awful he was/is.
Harold James "Jim" Nicholson was born in Woodburn, Oregon, a small town approximately 30 miles south of Portland, on November 17, 1950. The young Nicholson found himself drawn to military life and enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he specialized in signals intelligence. Stationed at various Army posts like Fort Huachuca in Arizona and Fort Meade in Maryland, he honed his skills in cryptology and communications. After acquiring a valuable skill set and a passion for intelligence, he decided to aim higher: the Central Intelligence Agency.
#3
Or, history starts running in reverse and some of these benighted blue states are devolved back into territories that have to start the climb to statehood status all over again.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2023 7:04 Comments ||
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#4
in Chicago 2023 homicides are actually down from 2022 and 2021
carjacking, robbery are up, way up
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/28/2023 8:39 Comments ||
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#5
#4 People learned not to resist when their car is hijacked?
#6
There's a lot of plain old denial going on in the City. We have family/friends who continue to travel downtown for one reason or another. To my knowledge, none of them go "shopping the Mag Mile" any longer, so they've figured that much out. But when we say something blunt like, "We don't go into the City any more" friends/family often get that blank stare that translates into something like "I don't know what you mean." They know about the problem, they have to, but don't want to acknowledge to it openly.
[ENGADGET] An unsealed complaint in a lawsuit filed against Meta by 33 states alleges the company is not only aware that children under the age of 13 use its platforms, but has also "coveted and pursued" this demographic for years on Instagram. The document, which was first spotted by The New York Times, claims that Meta has long been dishonest about how it handles underage users’ accounts when they’re discovered, often failing to disable them when reported and continuing to harvest their data.
...Meta "routinely violates" the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) by targeting children and collecting their information without parental consent, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also argues that Meta’s platforms manipulate young users into spending unhealthy amounts of time on the apps, promote body dysmorphia and expose them to potentially harmful content. When the lawsuit was first filed in October, a Meta spokesperson said the company was "disappointed" over the chosen course of action, stating, "We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online."
Ron DeSantis signed a bill barring transgender females on girls teams in 2021
Officials at Monarch High School were reassigned over possible breaking of law
A family friend of the student claims they hadn't 'come out' as transgender yet
A Florida high school principal and three other officials have been reassigned after letting a trans girl play on a girls' volleyball team - despite it being against state law.
Principal James Cecil, assistant principal Kenneth May, athletic director Dione Hester and volleyball coach Jessica Norton were all shuffled away from teaching roles.
Bosses at Monarch High School in Pompano Beach had raised 'allegations of improper student participation in sports.'
It comes after Ron DeSantis signed a bill barring transgender females from playing on public school teams intended for student athletes born as girls in 2021.
The student, according to sources, transitioned several years ago. The school district superintendent and the regional superintendent of schools chose to reassign the Monarch High officials.
As of 2023, 20 states have passed legislation protecting the rights of female athletes from facing what supporters say is an unfair competitive advantage from biologically male athletes.
But the Biden administration is attempting to amend Title IX, the law that protects women's sports, to allow athletes to compete on either men's or women's teams consistent with their gender identity.
[WATM] The Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, Legion of Honor, is the highest French order of merit for both military personnel and civilians. Established in 1802 by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the French government presents the award to foreigners who have supported or defended France. For his participation in the liberation of France during WWII, a 100-year-old retired Army infantry officer received the Legion of Honor.
In September 1940, prior to America's entry into WWII, Joe Jones enrolled at Clemson A&M College (now Clemson University). Most Clemson students were also part of the Enlisted Reserve, and Jones reported to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on June 14, 1943. He attended Basic Training at at Camp Croft near Spartanburg, South Carolina.
On June 14, 1944, Jones commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry branch and was assigned to the 71st Infantry Division at Camp Carson, Colorado. Six months later, the division was sent to Le Havre, France. After a few weeks of combat training, the 71st departed for Nancy, France, to join the 7th Army. Leading a weapons platoon, Jones and his 36 soldiers first saw combat in Bitche, France.
[YouTube] The True Christian History of America is a powerful documentary, showing the Bible-based Christian origins of the early American view of freedom, tracing the principles of liberty back to England and the great Reformation.
China spends billions on the united front system each year and has a deep operation within the US
'The United States has no direct analogue, and the U.S. Government has struggled to counter united front work with traditional counterintelligence'
The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) presence on American soil has already revealed itself in the network of secret police stations in major cities and the 'Little Red Classrooms' in kindergartens.
Now, members of the bipartisan House China Select Committee have released a memo detailing how the U.S. has failed to combat Beijing's infiltration - and it could get worse.
The threat comes from the united front, a political strategy Xi Jinping has called his 'magic weapon'.
It's the plan the CCP uses to influence beyond its circle without the information appearing to come directly from the Chinese government.
China spends billions on the united front system each year. United front is affiliated with some 600 groups in the U.S., according to a 2020 Newsweek report, that are all in regular touch with the CCP.
'United front work damages U.S. interests through legal and illegal technology transfer, surveillance of Chinese diaspora communities, promotion of favorable narratives about the PRC through ostensibly independent voices, and the neutralization or harassment of critics of the CCP,' the new report found.
'The United States has no direct analogue, and the U.S. Government has struggled to counter united front work with traditional counterintelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic tools,' it warned.
The background memo is meant to guide Americans to remain vigilant if they are targeted by China's influence operations.
'Through its united front work strategy, which Xi Jinping has called a 'magic weapon,' the Chinese Communist Party uses every tool at its disposal, whether legal or illicit, to influence the American people and interfere in democratic societies,' Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said in a statement.
'An important, but little understood, aspect of the Chinese Communist Party's misinformation, propaganda, and influence efforts both in the PRC and abroad is the CCP's united front system. This background memo provides information about united front activities, and can be a potentially helpful guide in addressing and countering them,' added ranking member Rep. Raja Khrishnamoorthi, D-Calif.
President Joe Biden met with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping two weeks ago as concerns soar over issues including Taiwan, Beijing's actions in the South China Sea sanctions, heightened espionage, trade and human rights.
The goal of united front work is to help China take over Taiwan and establish a new global order that revolves around CCP values and interests.
The United Front Work Department (UFWD), which reports to the CCP, controls ostensibly non-governmental groups like academic institutions, non-profits and media. It also oversees groups that operate within the U.S.: National Association for China's Peaceful Reunification, which operates in the Washington, DC, area and Alliance for China's Peaceful Reunification, USA.
The UFWD also 'played a central role in formulating, implementing, and defending policies to 'Sinicize' China's ethnic minorities, including the ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang,' according to the memo.
The CCP uses united front affiliated groups to monitor and track Uyghurs and mobilize propaganda to counter criticism of its treatment of the Muslim minority group.
The memo went on: 'In addition to promoting narratives favorable to the CCP abroad, the UFWD collects intelligence, exerts control over overseas Chinese-language media outlets, seeks to influence Chinese diaspora groups, facilitates illicit technology transfer, and interferes in politics in other countries, including by co-opting and influencing foreign academic, political, and business elites.
'The networks built by the UFWD are often viewed as prime operating grounds by the PRC's intelligence agencies, which seek to draw on members of united front organizations to support espionage and influence operations,' the report went on.
The memo warned united front work focuses on targeting key groups to win over liasons to spew its messages: members of China's eight minor parties, those without political affiliation, non-CCP intellectuals, ethnic minorities, religious leaders, business leaders and ethnic Chinese living abroad.
It called to mind earlier this year when the FBI arrested two Chinese operatives on suspicion of running an illegal police station in downtown Manhattan to spy on and harass dissidents on US soil.
In addition, 44 Chinese nationals were charged by federal prosecutors with waging a campaign of surveillance and harassment against dissidents living in the US.
As many as six illegal Chinese police stations were operating within the U.S. as of earlier this year, according to a report from advocacy group Safeguard Defenders.
After the Chinese police stations were uncovered, a DailyMail.com report revealed Chinese 'community centers' in San Francisco, Nebraska and Houston were suspected to be working in coordination with the CCP.
In recent months the FBI's counterintelligence task forces have intensified their hunt for Chinese efforts to recruit spies within the U.S. The CIA, meanwhile, is believed to be focusing on Xi and finding out what his ambitions are with Taiwan.
Over the summer a report by advocacy group Parents Defending Education revealed the CCP has pumped some $17 million into K-12 schools throughout the U.S.
The close coordination between the CCP and U.S. schools to establish Confucius Classrooms has historically included 143 school districts in 34 states and Washington, D.C. At least seven contracts are still active in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.
It also states that the CCP has 'ties to school districts near 20 U.S. military bases' and three of the nation's top science and technology high schools have been infiltrated.
#6
You don't see many Chinese on mowers, tree-trimming or with weed-eaters. Those are the guys in your yards, looking in your windows, noticing/reporting new/different or work schedule absences and parked in the street monitoring neighborhood ingress/egress routes and traffic flow.
[PJ] As Disney's two-time CEO Bob Iger prepares to host the company's annual town hall on Tuesday to provide "hints or guidance for what the next phase of 'building' will bring after the problem-solving phase," it's time to ask if Iger is able "to 'quiet things down' after years of culture wars."
The first quote comes from a Hollywood Reporter item on Monday detailing the company's Wall Street woes. Traders and managers will be watching Iger on Tuesday for "possible color, body language or even outright updates on various topics," ranging from the company's ongoing series of box office flops to troubles at their fabled theme parks.
The second quote is courtesy of Jonathan Turley. His Monday column — almost in time for Adam Smith's 300th birthday — shows how Smith's "invisible hand" has undone the company's woke agenda. Disney is now "negatively associated with activism by a significant number of consumers," Turley writes, and is "even reporting a decline in licensing revenue from products associated with Star Wars, Frozen, Toy Story and Mickey and Friends — iconic and once-unassailable corporate images."
#1
Of course. The films are shit. The franchises have been... shatted over. Marvel stories don't have the same 'punch' to them. Every new character introduced has some woke angle, I wonder who is consuming all this? There can be only a very slim minority of people who can consume this.
#2
The Board at Disney needs to face the fact in adopting their New Immoral Far Left, WOKE social position as a business model imagine, it has cost them dearly.
The attendance and bottom line numbers speak for themselves.
#3
it's time to ask if Iger is able "to 'quiet things down' after years of culture wars."
Well.
Bob may have begrudgingly figured it out - especially after this weekend's box office numbers - but I have a feeling it's going to be a case of the inmates running the asylum now. He's first going to have to find/bring in minions willing to toss the nutcases out; and good luck with that in the current Hollywood atmosphere.
But then he has to get rid of the people who are keeping the attitude alive, and I'll bet the house payment that the overwhelming majority of them are of one Protected Class(TM) or another. They'll burn it to the ground before they go quietly.
#4
There can be only a very slim minority of people who can consume this.
Yes, there are people whose attention spans are so short that the "message" goes right over their heads. They only see the pretty costumes and CGI effects and forget it all as soon as they have left the theater.
Not the sort of cohort that buys follow-on merch.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2023 7:01 Comments ||
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#5
In official filing, required by law and subjecting the operating officers to possible liability for misrepresentation, Disney stipulated -
Further, consumers’ perceptions of our position on matters of public interest, including our efforts to achieve certain of our environmental and social goals, often differ widely and present risks to our reputation and brands. per Powerline.
#6
It's not that the shows don't make a return, they do.
It's that the company as a whole is dragging too much overhead to get away with it.
Look for a bloodbath in the marketing and concept development divisions. Won't fix the problems, but they can sit around in the meeting room and say they're doing something about it.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/28/2023 9:00 Comments ||
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#8
It's not that the shows don't make a return, they do.
No, they don't. Read Nolte's columns at Breitbart. Dizney says movie costs $200 million. Tack on another $100-150 million for "marketing." Movie generates less than the combined $300-350 million worldwide.
That's called "losing money." Bigly.
Before you say "yeah, it was Breitbart," Nolte takes all those numbers from Hollyweird trade press that is totally in the bag for corporations like Dizney. And they can't even hide the mess.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2023 9:41 Comments ||
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#10
You will know how it's going when Dizney takes a page from Crapple's book and stops reporting revenue broken down in such a way it can be analyzed objectively.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/28/2023 9:57 Comments ||
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#13
It's no longer about making money. Rather, it's about forcing America to watch as the corpse of a loved one is violated over and over. Some are even forced to participate - all towards shreading our ability to resist what is coming.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/28/2023 11:27 Comments ||
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#16
Disney is doing so well the Woke Mafia went after Youtube all media observers who dared say anything bad wrong - badrong - about The Marvels in a deplatforming attack.
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.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
[ENGADGET] An unsealed complaint in a lawsuit filed against 
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
