The critical element in thinking about Elon Musk is that, like any American, he has a right to his own opinion, and he has a right to express his opinion.

However, that right is not unlimited. He is under some special limitations that would not apply to normal people because his company, specifically Starlink and SpaceX are government contractors and, as such, he has obligations to the government that would, for any normal person, and should for him, require him to moderate his speech in the interest of national security.

You have somebody who runs really strategic defense and aerospace projects for the federal government who's actively undermining the government that's paying him. And somewhere in that is a legal case that needs to be prosecuted. //

Jonathan Turley:

McNamee’s rationale for criminalizing speech is chillingly shallow and irrational. He declared that somehow Musk’s political views made him a danger as the head of companies of major importance to the United States. It does not bother him when CEOs adopt far left views, just Musk opposing some of those views.

McNamee is using the government contracts with SpaceX as a reason to censor his political and social views. So, according to McNamee, if your company makes something that the government wants (including rescuing the currently stranded astronauts in space), he must give up his right to express political views, including against censorship.

McNamee embraces the power of the government to dictate viewpoints or at least silencing certain views as a matter of national security. It is no accident that the overriding objective is to “get Musk.” Musk has proven the single greatest barrier to the global anti-free speech movement. //

For global elite like McNamee, free speech is not just dispensable but distracting. Only fools would listen to these voices in trading away our indispensable right.

JY
18 hours ago
The purpose of the first amendment is to undermine the government. //

anon-mfdk
19 hours ago
So under his logic, every person in Congress would need to limit their speech because they are paid by the federal government.

Re: Ahh a manager who is telling the truth
"Transparency in organisations is a rare thing."

But those times you come across it, it's a wonderful thing to behold! People know what's going on, know where the delays and problems are, they help out, and things usually get done more quickly and properly. It's sad that's so rare. Mainly because of empire builders worried more about their reputation than the project.

Published 1997
Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff

The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location. The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information infrastructure. Beginning with the early research in packet switching, the government, industry and academia have been partners in evolving and deploying this exciting new technology. //

In this paper,3 several of us involved in the development and evolution of the Internet share our views of its origins and history. This history revolves around four distinct aspects. There is the technological evolution that began with early research on packet switching and the ARPANET (and related technologies),

The framers knew full well that many rights would face perpetual jeopardy, and by enshrining them in the Constitution and creating a system that divided power both between branches and between state and federal governments, they had crafted the surest check possible against future infringement.

While the separation of powers in the national government is often touted in civics and by politicians of all stripes, the federal system, with its two sovereigns — federal and state — is increasingly ignored or forgotten. States absolutely have the power to protect the people if the federal government is violating their rights. This is precisely what Missouri did in enacting SAPA.

Missouri’s law was a clear shot across the bow in the brewing debate over gun control at the federal level and how states could respond. These lawmakers, and leaders such as former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and current Attorney General Andrew Bailey, foresaw the danger of a Harris presidency before it was even conceived.

These leaders made clear to current and would-be federal tyrants that Missouri would protect the “promise of liberty” and fight to preserve the critical “tension between federal and state power.” It is a much-needed check against tyranny and abuse, as the U.S. Supreme Court has previously affirmed. Groups such as Gun Owners of America have aggressively supported SAPA and encourage Missouri to stick to their guns by seeking full review of this terrible decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The new biopic of the 40th president of the United States is a paean to American liberty, idealism, and genuine goodness. //

Despite the many hurdles this project faced — financing troubles, pandemic-driven set shutdowns, and negative left-wing reviewers — “Reagan” turned out to be a success, presenting the life of one of America’s greatest modern leaders in all its glory. At a time when Reagan’s legacy is denigrated by partisans on both right and left, America faces its greatest geopolitical challenges since the Cold War, and the nation’s mood is decidedly sour, this film is a breath of fresh air. It reminds us of what is most important in life: faith, family, fidelity, and freedom.

At the start of WWII, the US armed forces used various means for enciphering their confidential traffic. At the lowest level were hand ciphers. Above that were the M-94 and M-138 strip ciphers and at the top level a small number of highly advanced SIGABA cipher machines.

The Americans used the strip ciphers extensively however these were not only vulnerable to cryptanalysis but also difficult to use. Obviously a more modern and efficient means of enciphering was needed.

At that time Swedish inventor Boris Hagelin was trying to sell his cipher machines to foreign governments. He had already sold versions of his C-36, C-38 and B-211 cipher machines to European countries. He had also visited the United States in 1937 and 1939 in order to promote his C-36 machine and the electric C-38 with a keyboard called BC-38 but he was not successful (1). The Hagelin C-36 had 5 pin-wheels and the lugs on the drum were fixed in place. Hagelin modified the device by adding another pin-wheel and making the lugs moveable. This new machine was called Hagelin C-38 and it was much more secure compared to its predecessor.

In 1940 he brought to the US two copies of the hand operated C-38 and the Americans ordered 50 machines for evaluation. Once the devices were delivered, they underwent testing by the cryptologists of the Army’s Signal Intelligence Service and after approval it was adopted by the US armed forces for their midlevel traffic. Overall, more than 140.000 M-209’s were built for the US forces by the L.C. Smith and Corona Typewriters Company. (2) //

‘Report of interview with S/Sgt, Communications Section 79 Inf Div, 7th Army’. (dated March 1945) (51):

"The US Army code machine #209 was found to be something that hampered operations. It would take at least half hour to get a message through from the message center by use of this code machine and as a result the codes of particular importance or speed, for instance mortar messages, were sent in the clear."

Also, from the ‘Immediate report No. 126 (Combat Observations)’ - dated 6 May 1945 (52): ‘Information on the tactical situation is radioed or telephoned from the regiments to corps at hourly or more frequent intervals. Each officer observer averages about 30 messages per day.………………The M-209 converter proved too slow, cumbersome and inaccurate for transmission of those reports and was replaced by a simple prearranged message code with excellent results’.

Sending notices to absentee voters and preparing signs for in-person voting should be a secondary plan, however. Election officials should make every effort to reprint new ballots that correctly list the candidates actually running for office. But there is an obvious solution that can be used to adequately inform voters even if that is not possible.

Any refusal by election officials to, at a minimum, prepare such notices will be a violation of their duty as public officials to fairly and honestly administer the upcoming election. Given the ease of this solution, it will be hard to imagine any refusal to implement it that is based on anything other than election officials engaging in partisan misbehavior that is intended to misinform voters and manipulate the results of the presidential election.

Election officials who engage in that type of misconduct are betraying the public trust and should not be in office.

Sanders let viewers in on an insider analysis/preview for the debate Tuesday, and why she thinks we aren't really hearing about Trump but pages and pages of stories on Harris' debate prep:

This Week @ThisWeekABC
·
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells @JonKarl that “every day is debate prep for Donald Trump.”

“He'll go in game time ready just as he does for every interview, every rally that he does. This is not something that is a heavy lift for him.” https://trib.al/oEgjREO
0:12 / 1:59
11:42 AM · Sep 8, 2024 //

This Week @ThisWeekABC
·
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on former Rep. Liz Cheney endorsing Kamala Harris: “I’m not trying to be rude, but you don't get to call yourself a conservative or a Republican when you support the most radical nominee that the Democrats have ever put up.” https://trib.al/eFffgiO

12:06 PM · Sep 8, 2024 //

That doesn’t make you a conservative, it certainly doesn’t make you a Republican. I think it makes you somebody who wants to protect the establishment.

So she's still in the Navy. We can hope that she will never be placed in a position of trust with classified information, but a reduction in grade? That's all? Really?

The military, as I'm constantly pointing out, is like no other institution in our society. A breach of faith, a breach of trust like this cannot be tolerated - and it cannot be forgiven. This is an act that, in the event of war, could have gotten everyone on that ship killed and a multi-billion dollar ship destroyed. Is checking your high-school friend's latest recipe for macaroni and cheese worth all that?

Given my brief and modest experience with operating in a secured environment with classified information, this punishment seems unbearably light. Chief Marrero has broken faith with her chain of command, has proven herself unfit to serve on a U.S. Navy warship, and should be handed a bad-conduct discharge and sent back to the block. //

PNC(SW) Mac
8 hours ago
As a retired USN Chief, I find this absolutely reprehensible. The most distressing factor is it wasn't just this POS E7, the whole Chief's Mess was complicit. What has happened to the United States Navy when it's senior enlisted leadership can't be trusted? They all should have been court-martialed and separated. //

Ace PNC(SW) Mac
8 hours ago
Chief, this is Obama’s Navy, not ours.

Just a small town boy PNC(SW) Mac
8 hours ago
All it takes is a few DEI hires in leadership positions for a lot of other people to DIE.

In one such case, the Justice Department recently announced that an alien has agreed to plead guilty to several charges of stealing a U.S. citizen's identity, and illegally voting in multiple elections, including primaries and general elections, in addition to illegally obtaining a passport. //

Another question came to mind as I wrote this article. Who, if anyone, helped Francisco? Who showed her the ropes? These two questions and answers will grow in compounding importance if Kamala Harris wins in November, a fact of which you're well aware. //

The question is, how many other "Angelica Maria Franciscos" have done the same? //

veritaseequitas
12 hours ago
Where did a supposedly poor, downtrodden, hopeless, illegal alien invader, get the money to travel to her home country of Guatemala four times?
And if its so bad there that she had to come to the US, why would she want to go back?
And how has she flown under the radar for 10 years?

Hurricane forecasters are bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. The Atlantic hurricane season was supposed to be epic. Instead, it's turned into a real dud.

Huge storms wreaking havoc on coastlines from Aruba to Long Island were supposed to line up in the Eastern Atlantic in June and hit us one at a time until late September. The damage was going to be historic and the TV coverage was going to give climate change fanatics plenty of air time to vent that "this is just a foretaste" of what's to come.

But something puzzling occurred on the way to hurricane Armageddon: not much has happened. The Atlantic Ocean has seen five named storms: two tropical storms, two hurricanes and one major hurricane this season. //

There's a lesson to be learned from the errors in hurricane forecasting. While we know a lot about the weather and how hurricanes form, what we don't know far exceeds our stored knowledge of how complex, chaotic systems behave to create deadly storms or a bright, sunny day.

It's a lesson that will go unlearned by many who could use that knowledge to realistically predict climate change.

SAN DIEGO — A U.S. Navy chief who wanted the internet so she and other enlisted leaders could scroll social media, check sports scores and watch movies while deployed had an unauthorized Starlink satellite dish installed on a warship and lied to her commanding officer to keep it secret, according to investigators.

Internet access is restricted while a ship is underway to maintain bandwidth for military operations and to protect against cybersecurity threats. //

She and more than a dozen other chief petty officers used it to send messages home and keep up with the news and bought signal amplifiers during a stop in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after they realized the wireless signal did not cover all areas of the ship, according to the investigation.

Those involved also used the Chief Petty Officer Association’s debit card to pay off the $1,000 monthly Starlink bill.

The network was not shared with rank-and-file sailors.

Marrero tried to hide the network, which she called “Stinky,” by renaming it as a printer, denying its existence and even intercepting a comment about the network left in the commanding officer's suggestion box, according to the investigation.

"It was a bullseye landing,” said Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s commercial crew program. “The entry in particular has been darn near flawless.”

Still, he acknowledged that certain new issues had come to light, including the failure of a new thruster and the temporary loss of the guidance system.

He added it was too early to talk about whether Starliner’s next flight, scheduled for August next year, would be crewed, instead stressing NASA needed time to analyze the data they had gathered and assess what changes were required to both the design of the ship and the way it is flown.

In mid-November 2023, a disastrous SpaceX launch, which saw the explosion of not one but two rockets, offered a rare opportunity to study the effects of such phenomena on the ionosphere.
A study by Russian scientists revealed how this explosion temporarily blew open a hole in the ionosphere stretching from the Yucatan to the southeastern U.S.
Although far from the first rocket-induced disturbance in the ionosphere, this is one of the first explosive events in the ionosphere to be extensively studied. //

November 18, 2023, wasn’t a great day for the commercial spaceflight company SpaceX. While testing its stainless steel-clad Starship, designed to be the company’s chariot to Mars, the spacecraft exploded four minutes after liftoff over the skies of Boca Chica, Texas. //

This new study confirms that the ionosphere experienced a “large-amplitude total electron content depletion,” likely reinforced by a fuel exhaust impact of the Super Heavy rocket engine, which also exploded a little more than a minute earlier at lower altitude once it separated from the Starship. The research team collected this data from 2,500 ground stations scattered across North America and the Caribbean and found that the hole extended largely from Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula and the southeastern U.S., though the exact size of the hole is unknown. //

scientists report that this Starship-induced ion hole caused by “catastrophic phenomena” closed up after 30 or 40 minutes. But these kinds of interactions are still poorly understood, and that’s concerning considering how central the ionosphere is to global technologies—not to mention human health.

More WIV News: Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz worked to secure millions for a Minnesota-based lab that worked with the Chinese research facility. //

Researchers at France’s Pasteur Institute have just released a report suggesting that researchers at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV, which may have been ground zero for COVID-19) may also be responsible for an outbreak of a “highly evolved polio strain.”

According to their findings, a young boy caught a case of polio ’99 percent’ identical to a polio variant that was stored 200 miles away at the Chinese research labs in Wuhan. //

The Pasteur researchers suspect that WIV14 polio, so named by the Wuhan scientists who first catalogued the strain, likely evolved from a well-preserved, 1950s strain of the virus used — almost exclusively — in vaccine production and laboratory settings.

German newspaper BILD: “The Israeli political and military apparatus is to be “exhausted” and international pressure on Israel is to be “increased”.’ //

A newly leaked top-secret Hamas document exposes the terrorist group’s negotiation strategy and its ongoing phycological warfare against Israel. The document, described as Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar’s “secret war paper,” was published by the German newspaper BILD on Friday. //

The aim of the ceasefire talks is to further Hamas terrorist aims — “ending the war is not a priority for Hamas,” the BILD added.

The secret strategy paper was found on a computer belonging to Hamas chief Sinwar and was personally approved by him, the newspaper noted. //

“Continue to exert psychological pressure on the families of the prisoners, both now and in the first phase [of the ceasefire], so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.”

But Iran? If Iran were to obtain a nuke, either by building their own or just buying one from North Korea or Pakistan, that might very well be the flashpoint. This is a line that has not been crossed since 1945, and was Iran to torch off a nuke in Haifa - or New York - that would almost certainly plunge the world into conflict.

Watch Iran. Watch the least stable players. Hopefully, reason will prevail, but as von Clausewitz famously said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

This statement caught many by surprise because of the commonly held belief that a guilty plea forecloses any appeal. But, while a plea forecloses most issues that might be raised on appeal, it does not foreclose all of them. Lowell, an experienced and able lawyer, understands this and clearly plans to pursue an appeal to overturn Biden’s tax convictions.

In federal court, the vast majority of guilty pleas are entered pursuant to plea agreements between the government and the defendant, in which the government makes certain concessions such as dropping some charges or agreeing to limits on the sentence. In return, the government usually demands that the defendant waive the right to all appeals, and to habeas corpus filings post-conviction. //

Thus, in most cases, a guilty plea in federal court does mean that there will be no appeal.

Further, because a waiver of appeal rights is standard in most plea agreements, the federal rule of criminal procedure governing pleas requires the court to address this issue and ensure that the defendant understands that he or she is waiving the right to appeal – but only if there is a plea agreement that addresses waiving appellate rights. //

The law provides that unqualified guilty pleas do constitute a waiver of the right to appeal the vast majority of claims that there were defects or errors in the case prior to the plea. Thus, defendants cannot appeal on any ground that challenges factual guilt, evidentiary errors, procedural errors, and even most constitutional errors.

Defendants can still appeal certain kinds of claims even with a guilty plea, however. These exceptions to the usual rule that the plea waives the right to appeal basically fall into three categories.

First, a defendant can almost always appeal on the grounds that the court itself lacked jurisdiction over the case. //

Secondly, the defendant can appeal based on claims that the government lacked the power to prosecute the person in the first place. These are usually constitutional claims, such as immunity, double jeopardy, selective prosecution, or an argument that the charged statute is unconstitutional in some way. These appeals are permitted because they question the legality of the prosecution itself, not whether the person engaged in the charged conduct.

Thirdly, the law provides that the right to appeal certain defects in a criminal case simply cannot be waived by a defendant, whether there is a plea agreement or not. These issues lie at the heart of the functioning of the criminal justice system. So, for example, a defendant cannot waive the right to appeal an illegal sentence (such as one that exceeds the statutory maximum), or the ineffective assistance of the defense lawyer, or misconduct by the prosecutor in the case or the plea bargaining process.

But there is yet another dose of hypocrisy at play, from the very news outlets bleating about Trump’s alleged offensive use of the cemetery images. Look back over the past weeks of this outrage coverage, and you notice something curious: Nearly every report mewling about the disrespect these photos deliver includes those very images. Somehow, it is offensive for him to use the pics, but not the outlets displaying them.

And it gets worse. Many of these photos sport attribution from the news syndicates, meaning the pictures have been licensed – not only are the outlets receiving paid traffic while wailing about the dishonor, but the syndicates, like Getty Images, are charging for the use of their photos from Arlington.

If Trump using these photos is disrespecting the memory of the fallen, what is to be said of news providers who turn a profit from those same types of pictures? //

cupera1
7 hours ago
There are three big problems with the NPR Arlington National Cemetery story.

First: It is a story that had no named witnesses or named people that were harmed. In every reported story about ANC there is an un-named person that is reporting it and another un-named person that was pushed out of the way by the Trump campaign people. It is basic journalism. When a news story has the: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, verified evidence, documentation or a named source to can be relied on to be a factual news story. When left wing news sources, like NPR is missing any of these important items it can be deduced that it is a fake story or a hoax.

Second: ALL seven gold-star families and all other people that were there the entire time stated that they had permission to take pictures and video. The Trump people did the same and were also given permission for both. Also, there was nobody from the cemetery that objected to them being there, so the story is a hoax.

Third: The Trump people stated that have video of the entire event. From the time that people got out of their cars to when they left the cemetery. When the people in charge of ANC heard this they abruptly dropped any and all charges, none were ever listed. It was a hoax story.

Steve Guest @SteveGuest
·
Kamala’s Harris’s campaign is completely detached from reality.

Here is Kamala on video bragging about being the last person in the room when the admin made the political and soon to be catastrophic decision to leave Afghanistan.

Alex Thompson @AlexThomp
In a new statement, Harris’ campaign argues that “Trump’s chaotic actions led to catastrophic consequences in Afghanistan.”

Some R’s agree that Trump cut a bad deal with the Taliban but the new Biden admin debated options on trying to change the deal and went w/ Biden’s plan
5:00 PM · Sep 7, 2024 //

Shelby Talcott @ShelbyTalcott
The Harris campaign is blaming the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal on Donald Trump, arguing that he “left the Biden-Harris Administration with zero plans for an orderly withdrawal.”

Comes as Trump has ramped up his criticism of the administration over the withdrawal & the deadly…
4:39 PM · Sep 7, 2024

Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze
·
That wasn't Trump who closed the airfields, bottlenecked everyone into Kabul Airport which resulted in bodies falling from the sky, the death of 13 US Service members by a suicide bomber , and drone strikes a van full of innocent kids in return.

And then only took 6 questions… Show more

Matt Whitlock @mattdizwhitlock
·
Kamala in 2021: I was the last person in the room to advise Biden before he made this momentous decision

Kamala in 2024: Trump made us do it.

Come on lol. //

This is astonishing.

First, the Biden-Harris administration extended the deadline for months anyway, so the point about the timing doesn't even make sense. They didn't comply with what had been worked out to begin with. As I said at the time, Biden's response was sociopathic. He said that he disagreed with people who said he should have started getting people out earlier. Because he didn't do that and pulled the military out before that, he then needed to surge more military in after everything blew up.

Second, are they really saying they failed and had such a disaster because they were too ignorant and had to depend on plans left over from the Trump administration? Was that what was necessary to get it done right? That's what they seemed to be admitting. How incompetent are they?

Plus, let's review what the Biden-Harris team previously claimed something about the withdrawal. Biden claimed it was an "extraordinary success." And Kamala Harris? She bragged that she was the last person in the room; she was "comfortable" with the decision: //

So, was Kamala lying then and/or is she lying now? Either way, she's lying and it's not a good look when, once again, they take no responsibility and try to blame someone else for their own actions. No one has been held accountable for any of the failures over Afghanistan, including the deaths of the 13 Americans, and the Biden-Harris team has refused to even speak with the families of the 13.

She is absolutely shameless.