Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @realchrisrufo
·
Somebody hang this in the Louvre. The New York Times claims that I "seize[d] on" Kamala Harris's serial plagiarism. Admits later in the story that it is, in fact, plagiarism. And then calls noticing that fact "racist."
4:10 PM · Oct 14, 2024 //

Trump War Room @TrumpWarRoom
·
The spin is already on from Kamala’s media lapdogs at the New York Times.

It was a fiery but mostly peaceful plagiarism!

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ @realchrisrufo
EXCLUSIVE: Kamala Harris plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal-justice book, Smart on Crime, according to a new investigation. The current vice president even lifted material from Wikipedia.

We have the receipts. 🧵
3:44 PM · Oct 14, 2024 //

WeeBrucie
an hour ago
Mostly peaceful plagiarism! Nice touch! //

BurbankBob
an hour ago
A “plagiarism expert” as in somebody really good at plagiarizing?

You had a case in Georgia not very long ago didn't you, they were mad about a young woman who'd been killed by an immigrant. Yeah, well, if they'd all been properly vetted that probably wouldn't have happened. But if they were all properly vetted, that doesn't happen, and America is not having enough babies to keep our population up, so we need immigrants who have been vetted to do work, there wouldn't be a problem. And he [Trump] couldn't keep people all torn up and upset.

Holy tossed under the bus Batman! Bubba didn't just yank the rug out from under Kamala Harris - he figuratively kicked her in the head after she hit the floor. //

Steprock
an hour ago
Wow, quiet part out loud???

Replacement theory, confirmed
Party of slavery, never changed
Open borders, confirmed again

This exchange proves key to understanding why Vance refuses to say, “Donald Trump lost the 2020 election,” and why the liberal press continues to demand an answer to that question.

The query includes an undefined term — “lost” — which holds a different meaning to Trump supporters and to the anti-Trump inquisitors.

If “lost” merely meant Biden is the president of the United States, then that’s an easy answer: Yes, of course, Trump lost, as Biden was inaugurated and has spent the last 3.5 years in the Oval Office.

But that’s not what those demanding Vance say Trump lost mean by “lost.” Every person posing this question injects within the concept of “lost” a concession that Trump’s 2020 challenges were frivolous, unfounded, or wrong. That’s why they pose the question and why Vance won’t provide a “yes” — because that is not what Vance and many other American’s believe.

If asked whether Trump “lost” the 2020 election, meaning that if all legal votes were counted and all illegal counts discarded — and the counting was done legally pursuant to controlling election law — the answer by Trump supporters would be a resounding “I don’t know.”

No one can possibly know the answer to that question because in 2020 there were too many election laws violated or ignored, and too many illegal votes counted. But the lawsuits challenging the elections outcomes were tossed as moot once the votes were certified, so there was never a determination on the validity of the tallies, leaving uncertain the accuracy of the election results.

But “lost” can also have a third meaning in this context: Did Trump lose a free and fair election to Joe Biden?

Yesterday Vance answered that question, telling Raddatz, “you want to say ‘rigged’” “you want to say, ‘he won,’ use whatever vocabulary term you want.” The vice-presidential candidate’s closer then cemented the point, stressing that the “censoring of fellow citizens” was such that it “violated our fundamental rights.” In other words, no, Trump didn’t lose a free and fair election to Joe Biden. //

The censorship of the laptop story, however, was but one aspect of the rigging that took place in 2020, as I previously detailed. A few examples: The 2020 election was also rigged by the “systemic violations of election law” which “disparately favor[ed] one candidate” and “allow[ed] for tens of thousands of illegal votes to be counted.” “And the election was rigged with every illegal drop box placed in Democrat-heavy precincts,” and by the unconstitutional authorization of no-excuse absentee voting and the illegal collection of ballots in nursing homes.

There’s still more: “The election was rigged with every dollar of Zuck Bucks designed to get out the Democrat vote, and with every leftist activist embedded in county clerks’ offices to push such efforts while accumulating untold voter data to the benefit of the Biden campaign.” The election was also “rigged when Georgia rendered the election code’s mandate of signature verifications inoperable and the state court delayed a hearing on Trump’s challenge to the Georgia outcome until after the vote certification, thereby ignoring evidence that more than 35,000 illegal votes were included in the state’s tally — more than enough to require a court to throw out the election.”

So, if by “lost” Raddatz and other members of the legacy press mean Trump lost a free and fair election to Joe Biden, then, the answer is no. //

Vance is right, but Trump’s running mate is also wise to not waste time in debating what “lost” means because the public doesn’t care: What Americans care about is the disaster they are living under the Biden-Harris Administration.

SSH tunneling can serve two purposes. One is a point-to-point secure tunnel between two machines (e.g., for Syncthing purposes), and another is to make use of a port you have available when you don’t control the firewall.

The appeals court ordered a new trial on damages because it said the $46.8 million award was too high, but affirmed the lower court's finding that Grande is liable for contributory copyright infringement. //

Back in 2020, we wrote about the voir dire questions that record labels intended to ask prospective jurors in their case against Grande. One of those questions was, "Have you ever read or visited Ars Technica or TorrentFreak?" //

The 5th Circuit remanded the case to the district court for a new trial on damages. Record labels can expect a lower payout because the appeals court said they can't obtain separate damages awards for multiple songs on the same album.

"The district court determined that each of Plaintiffs’ 1,403 sound recordings that was infringed entitled Plaintiffs to an individual statutory damages award," the 5th Circuit said. "Grande contends that the text of the Copyright Act requires a different result: Whenever more than one of those recordings appeared on the same album, Plaintiffs are entitled to only one statutory damages award for that album, regardless of how many individual recordings from the album were infringed. Grande has the better reading of the text of the statute."

The Copyright Act says that "all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work," the court said. In the Grande case, record labels sought damages for each song but conceded that "each album constitutes a compilation." //

Cox told the Supreme Court that ISPs "have no way of verifying whether a bot-generated notice is accurate. And no one can reliably identify the actual individual who used a particular Internet connection for an illegal download. The ISP could connect the IP address to a particular subscriber's account, but the subscriber in question might be a university or a conference center with thousands of individual users on its network, or a grandmother who unwittingly left her Internet connection open to the public. Thus, the subscriber is often not the infringer and may not even know about the infringement."

Cox asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the 4th Circuit "err[ed] in holding that a service provider can be held liable for 'materially contributing' to copyright infringement merely because it knew that people were using certain accounts to infringe and did not terminate access, without proof that the service provider affirmatively fostered infringement or otherwise intended to promote it." //

Team Tardigrade Ars Centurion
4y
360
This should be fun. How long before someone accuses, oh I don't know, a hospital, state legislature, or The 5th Circuit of piracy to have them shut down? I'm assuming that systems like that become automated and that any accusation will result in being disconnected. //

Waco Ars Tribunus Militum
7y
1,674
Subscriptor

hillspuck said:
I'm struggling to find another solution than "lol copyright owners just have to suck it up and let people pirate all they want." That solution never flies with the people who own the politicians.
If they want to prove piracy, let them prove piracy. It still doesn't mean you get to cut off a utility necessary for modern life.

If they can't (or won't spend the money to do so) then piracy clearly isn't as big of a deal as they make it. //

mangoslice Smack-Fu Master, in training
9y
64
Subscriptor++
You are assuming there’s never even an accusation of piracy for an IP address that is tied to you. One of the issues here is that if a corporation says and claims you are committing piracy against them then ISPs would be compelled disconnect you.

No due process. //

Socks Mingus Ars Scholae Palatinae
5y
631
"The evidence at trial demonstrated that Grande had a simple measure available to it to prevent further damages to copyrighted works (i.e., terminating repeat infringing subscribers), but that Grande never took it," the 5th Circuit ruling said.

Does this mean we get to cut off access to the legal system any time a company and their affiliated law firms file a false DMCA claim? //

cyberfunk Ars Scholae Palatinae
12y
938
I think the decision headline here is really

"5th Circuit rules ISP should have to be bound by Jury Verdict​"

It's misleading to say that the 5th circuit here actually found in favor of Rightscorp per se.. they found that there was no credible reason to invalidate the jury verdict. In my eyes those are very different matters.

Yea, it's not the outcome I want either, but we do ourselves a disservice painting this as a bunch of "bad conservative judges doing the thing we don't like". I just don't see this decision as particularly partisan nor wildly unreasonable, legally speaking. It is, in fact, BETTER to have a jury rather than a bunch of judges deciding on such matters as it's a more direct representation of the popular power rather than the judiciary.

Yes, yes, the juries arn't always experts on matters of law, but the system is setup to work with a judge there advising them on such matters.. but the power rests with the common man here, not some set of judges.

I should say that this means we need to change the laws around copyright / DMCA notice abuse and procedure here rather than yell into the wind that some judges didn't do what we wanted (regardless of political orientation). Yelling at the judges for enforcing the laws on the books is silly and counterproductive.

Imperator anon-x2cb
4 hours ago edited
Trump is a man with many flaws, but……..

He is intelligent, ran successful businesses, stepped up to the plate when needed, did not use politics to amass a fortune and did not use sex to advance any career he has. Speaking of which, he has had several successful careers. He was wildly successful as POTUS - within the means he had at his disposal and despite internal sabotage, until the “setup” a once-in-a-century pandemic, originating in America’s greatest geopolitical threat, just HAPPENED to occur at the most vulnerable time for his re-election. With all that’s happened since, doesn’t that seem to be a strange coincidence?

On the other hand, Kamala Harris has ZERO success on her own and really has no consequential successes to speak of. She got where she was by being an influential politician’s mistress after having an academic background that seems to be a secret. She became a United States Senator in a state that has funky nomination rules, funky election rules and a population who would elect Attila the Hun or Daffy Duck if they ran as Democrats. At least Attila had skills. She was the worst presidential candidate in the history of the Republic and her ONLY qualification for VP is that she is a “woman of color”. Seriously? She has shown herself to be vapid and vacuous. She cannot think extemporaneously. Her personality is such that staff quit in droves. If you research her background, you will see that her ideas and policy proposals at BEST are Socialist and at worst are thinly-veiled Communist. If the media and “influencers” in the USA are trying to hide all this stuff, people should ask the question, why?

People may HATE Trump’s personality and/or may be so intellectually incurious that they believe the hit jobs on Trump that are coming from everyone whose power (and money) sources are being threatened by him, but to choose someone who is so ridiculously unqualified for ANY executive position over him is just plain nuts.

But there are three things about the end of Windows 10 support that are slightly different from other recent end-of-life dates:

1. A historically short time window between when the operating system was replaced and when security updates stopped.

2. A historically large percentage of the user base still actively uses the fading operating system. //

3. Many Windows 10 PCs can't (officially) be updated to Windows 11 because they don't meet the system requirements. //

All of these factors taken together are setting us up for something we haven't really seen in the Windows ecosystem before: a majority or a large minority of active Internet-connected PCs that will suddenly stop getting security updates, leaving either paid support, a new PC, or a switch to an entirely different operating system as the easiest paths forward.

Now that we're a year out from the end of Windows 10, and because Windows 10 does not appear to be going anywhere, we're publishing a series of articles exploring alternatives to spending money, either on a new PC or on continued Windows 10 updates.

CBS’s headlines reads:

FEMA crews threatened amid hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina

Wow. Big if true. It further reports:

Federal Emergency Management Agency crews in North Carolina were forced to relocate due to a reported armed threat against workers, first reported by The Washington Post.
[....]

The move comes after an email sent by the U.S. Forest Service to federal responders in Rutherford County, alerted them of an apparent standdown after National Guard troops reportedly encountered armed militia saying they were "hunting FEMA."

Woof, again, big if true. But let’s read the next paragraph in the CBS article.

The North Carolina National Guard sent CBS News the following statement, saying, "The NCNG has no reports of our soldiers or airmen encountering any armed militia, any threats and any type of combatants. We are continuing to serve all those counties in need of our assistance."

Ok, so the National Guard told CBS that the story about armed gangs of men “Goin’ huntin’ fer some FEMA hides” is a lie. The National Guard confirms that it didn't happen, but sorry, AP, CBS writes a sensational headline for clicks anyway. The headline states a “fact” that isn’t remotely accurate – but reports it as a fact - knowing Harris voters will read the headline and tell their friends that armed gangs of KKK-hooded hoodlums have murdered puppies and FEMA people.

WELKER: We should note that FEMA funds were actually redirected on Donald Trump's watch to deal with the migrant issue. Let me ask you, you mentioned the medical records, should Trump...

I want to stop there because while Johnson fact-checks her, the bigger issue here is the framing. To these journalists, the illegal immigration issue is just a talking point. Context does not matter, which is why Welker thinks she has a gotcha moment. It's not, though. As Johnson points out, the fund in question is created and appropriated every fiscal year.

That means that what has been spent under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris is their responsibility. The amounts also matter. For example, under Trump, the EFSP-H was only given $30 million. In Biden's first year, the number was $150 million. //

In Johnson's segment with Kirsten Welker on "Meet the Press," Welker decided to insert the lie that the monies FEMA diverted from disaster preparedness and relief into "migrant resettlement" started under Donald Trump's administration. Johnson quickly divested this, and pointed out that the funding was not needed because Trump had secured the border. It was Biden-Harris who signed 92 executive orders to remove the proven border policies Trump had in place. The look on Welker's face alone is worth the watch.

Donald Trump has seen the deterioration of our military like everyone else has, and he's made a point to do something about it. The moment he's elected, he's going to make sure the DEI-obsessed, LGBT-heavy influence that has turned it into a joke around the world is cast out, and in its place, he's going to put real leaders who will whip it back into shape and return it to being respected, not laughed at.

In short, he's going to make it a military worth joining again.

Trump released an ad making this very point, and it holds nothing back. To get his point across, he uses clips from Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," to give people an idea of how his military will be run. An efficient, serious killing force that trains men to be warriors. The ad juxtaposes this by showing clips from the current state of our military, which is a lot of soldiers disrespecting the uniform by transforming into drag queens, as well as a clip of Rachel Levine calling it a "summer of Pride." //

Vivian Kubrick, the daughter of famed director Stanley Kubrick, dropped a bomb on the left, and stated that her father, a Reagan supporter, would have actually agreed with this ad on the basis that a very strong military is needed to achieve peace: //

Because I’m sure the irony of using FMJ footage is not lost on Trump or his team - Trump is always seeking to end wars and use peaceful methods. However, that’s primarily what FMJ is about, the shocking and complicated paradoxes of human nature.

And thus, on this tooth and claw planet, you need a very strong military - so I’m going to stick with the idea that FMJ footage was used primarily because of its powerful, realistic portrayal of boot camp, juxtaposed with the entirely demoralizing and inappropriate injection of WOKE ideology into the USA military. Which I agree with myself and which I’m certain my father would have agreed with.

Truthfully, I believe my father (who supported Reagan), would very much approve of saving America, indeed the world, from the highly destructive Globalist forces threatening to take over this planet. And if that footage from FMJ helps Trump make the point that the US military needs properly trained, super tough, focused, dedicated warriors, and not introduce the demoralizing effects of woke-ism, and attracting people to join up simply to have their sexual reassignments paid for, then Trump has my blessing. //

My father had a great respect for life - his movies being unimpeachable evidence of his love for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! So on that basis, I feel very confident he would be a Trump supporter and would forgive using FMJ incongruously, if it helps the cause of freedom!

Capisce? //

flguy
an hour ago
Weakness invites aggression, not strength. Geo. Washington said we must stay strong to avoid war, and JFK said the same in his inaugural - "We dare not tempt them [potential adversaries] with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed." The left doesn't understand this concept. //

Weminuche45
an hour ago

• The job of the military is to break things and kill people.
• The job of politicians is to support the military's ability to do that
• To limit the necessity of using the military to solve problems that could have been solved another way
• To get the hell out of the way and let the military do what it does, kill people and break things, when war becomes necessary as a last resort.

I think it is inarguable that the military created by Joe Biden and Kamala is only fractionally as effective as the military under Trump. And even in Trump's first term, the rot of DEI and "gender equality" had already taken root. The failure of Biden and Harris is made clear every day as the only way the services make their manpower goals is by cutting end strength. //

The official and institutional embrace of sexual fetishes as a normal part of the military has been shocking. The clips Trump shows are nowhere near as bad as the situation really is. //

Kamala HQ @KamalaHQ
·
Trump says he will “fire” America’s military generals and replace them with MAGA loyalists, echoing Project 2025

12:24 PM · Jun 2, 2024 //

FOX NEWS: Are you going to fire those generals? The woke generals at the top?

TRUMP: Yes, I would get rid of them. Yeah. But see, now I know them. I didn’t know them before. But, you know, I came in, what do I know? I was a New York real estate person. But no, I’d fire. I would fire them. You can’t have woke military. //

If Trump intends to politicize the military, filling the ranks with loyalists, it sets the stage for a dramatic and fundamental change in how the United States is supposed to operate.

I'd encourage this guy to review how Thomas Jefferson dealt with known Federalist Army officers or ponder the fact that the military is not the civil service. The military is not an independent power center that has "equities." The president is the commander-in-chief. Every commissioned officer is appointed at each step of his career by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. I have a copy of the Congressional Record when the Senate voted to make me a second lieutenant. No one is advocating a partisan military, but Trump and many of us would like to return to the days when active-duty general officers, or even retired general officers, stayed out of partisan politics and basic standards of civilized behavior adhered to; see General Mark Milley Reportedly Stocking Up on Brown Trousers in Case Trump Is Reelected – RedState. The president has the right, and I would argue the duty, to ensure that senior officers faithfully execute his will and not sandbag him behind his back.

The former president has lashed out at generals before, but this was new. Trump apparently envisions a system in which U.S. military leaders will be subjected to some kind of ideological review, in which members of a task force — whose members will presumably be appointed by Trump — will go about assessing the generals’ and admirals’ personal attitudes.

Those deemed “woke” will apparently see their military careers curtailed.

What could possibly go wrong?

There is nothing wrong with Trump doing just that, and the worst results of that process would not be as bad as what we've seen with the military being suborned on a wholesale level by the left. //

ColderWeather
2 days ago
Step 1: Politicize the military
Step 2: Complain about the politicization of the military when someone tries to depoliticize it //

polyjunkie
2 days ago
The (false) assumption by this leftist tool is that the CURRENT military leadership is somehow apolitical. Nothing could be further from the truth. Obama retired hundreds of officers who didn’t support his view of the military, enabling the remainder to be politicized to implement the leftist agenda. Trump needs to purge (yes, the correct term) any officer at any level who supports the “woke” agenda and has implemented DEI policies from the last administration. If the leftist don’t like it, tough doo doo.

Oh, and call Miley back to active duty so he can be reduced in rank and court martialed. //

anon-kvbw
a day ago edited
Obama was the one who purged the military of officers who believed in the rule of law and constitutional governance. All Trump proposes is righting the ship. //

DoctorB92 anon-kvbw
a day ago
I was Army during the Obama reign of terror and I don't recall the number but he purged hundreds of Army officers at the general down to the colonel level because of their lack of social conscienceness or something like that. He forced warriors out and put in politicos and now we are continuing to reap the fruits of that disaster.

anon-x7j0
3 hours ago edited
So let’s review….the license plate on his car was fake. The officer also found several passports with different names on them inside the car. How do you even obtain passports with different names? I have a passport and there is a fairly rigorous process to obtain one. He has an handgun with an additional clip with ammo? No mention of whether or not he had a license to carry a gun in California. And what name was the gun license in with all his fake passports? And with all this damning evidence, the FBI immediately comes out and states it wasn’t an assassination attempt and he is released on $5,000 bail? And it was the local sheriffs department that arrested him. Curious that there is absolutely no comment from the Secret Service. Was this guy on their bad guy list to watch for? This whole episode stinks to high heaven and fuels the deep state conspiracy theories. And confirms that the FBI will need a deep cleaning from top to bottom when Trump is sworn in. //

Tech in RL
3 hours ago
If this guy were supposedly from a right wing organization, the MSM would be shouting these stories from the rooftops. That means they don’t know what he is, but they don’t want to admit another assassination attemp was thwarted. The guy went through security at a Trump rally with a weapon. Why else would he be going there? Denying this was another assassination attempt is foolhardy and shouldn’t be ruled out that quickly. The guy is obviously going to deny it because he doesn’t want to be charged with it, so any statements he makes should be disregarded as to motive.

The actual recommendations might surprise you—along with the state of modern dentistry. //

Has your dentist ever told you that it's recommended to get routine dental X-rays every year? My (former) dentist's office did this year—in writing, even. And they claimed that the recommendation came from the American Dental Association.

It's a common refrain from dentists, but it's false. The American Dental Association does not recommend annual routine X-rays. And this is not new; it's been that way for well over a decade.

The association's guidelines from 2012 recommended that adults who don't have an increased risk of dental caries (myself included) need only bitewing X-rays of the back teeth every two to three years. Even people with a higher risk of caries can go as long as 18 months between bitewings. The guidelines also note that X-rays should not be preemptively used to look for problems: "Radiographic screening for the purpose of detecting disease before clinical examination should not be performed," the guidelines read. In other words, dentists are supposed to examine your teeth before they take any X-rays.

I'm over the left pretending like it cares about the human race when it consistently exhibits a disdain and sometimes hostile attitude toward it. All the venerated minds that the left holds in high regard, seem to think that humanity is killing the planet, chiding and lecturing us about our use of fossil fuels and claiming we've stolen the hopes and dreams of future generations. //

As Susie Moore reported on Sunday, Elon Musk and SpaceX are making huge advancements all the time, bringing humanity closer and closer to being a space-faring species. In an incredible display of technological advancement, SpaceX was able to catch a Super Heavy booster with "Mechazilla" arms. An engineering feat that will go down in history as one of the greatest achievements in space travel. //

Of course, there are people out there who are so shortsighted, they see these advancements as negatives. They see it as billionaires wasting money that could be used for other things like feeding the hungry, saying that if the world does end, then the only people who will be able to leave are the billionaires building these rockets.

Dr. Grouf @DGrouf
·
Government efficiency to billionaires it means taking from the poor and enriching the wealthy and their servants, which is what this sob is going to do, people keep getting poorer while these b@stards keep building their net worths and wasting societal wealth on flying rockets.

Elon Musk @elonmusk
I hope I am able to serve the people in this regard. It is sorely needed.
10:37 AM · Oct 14, 2024 //

Sci-fi author Devon Erikson put it beautifully in his post on X:

Devon Eriksen @DevonEriksen
·
This is what will matter 1000 years from now.

Not your politics. Not your stupid tantrums about who platformed who on some website. Not your incomprehensible desire to send NASA's entire budget to the third world.

This guy reignited the Space Age.

He spent his own money,… Show more

Instead of fighting over little patches of land, we will have an infinite 3d volume. Enclose it in steel, pump it full of air, spin it, and it's a habitat. Instead of scratching tiny scraps of metal out of the crust of one planet, we will break down entire asteroids and smelt them. Instead of drilling for hydrocarbons and turning water wheels, we will harness entire suns, split the atom, and eventually draw our fuel from the substance that makes up 99% of the entire universe. None of your local, temporal Earth politics matter compared to this. This is more important than pride parades and abortions, more important than tribal conflicts in eastern Europe and southwest Asia, more important than tensions with Russia and China. //

If the left truly cares about people like they say, or pretend they do, then with every successful advancement, every launched rocket, every person sent to space by a private company, they would whoop and cheer... but they aren't. It should make the left's ideological foundations morally suspect.

VANCE: Only, Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem, and not Kamala Harris's open border? Americans are so fed up with what's going on and they have every right to be and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.

I worry so much more about that problem than anything else here. We've got to get American communities in a safe space again. And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don't know who they really are, you're going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris’ 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump's successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen. //

RADDATZ: Okay. Let's -- let's just -- let's just end that with they did not invade or take over the city as Donald Trump said.

I want to move on to just --

VANCE: A few apartment complexes, no big deal. //

In [Speaker Mike] Johnson's segment with Kirsten Welker on "Meet the Press," Welker decided to insert the lie that the monies FEMA diverted from disaster preparedness and relief into "migrant resettlement" started under Donald Trump's administration. Johnson quickly divested this, and pointed out that the funding was not needed because Trump had secured the border. It was Biden-Harris who signed 92 executive orders to remove the proven border policies Trump had in place. The look on Welker's face alone is worth the watch.

Several types of astronomy would benefit. The most obvious is radio astronomy, which can be conducted from the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth—the far side.

The lunar far side is permanently shielded from the radio signals generated by humans on Earth. During the lunar night, it is also protected from the Sun. These characteristics make it probably the most “radio-quiet” location in the whole solar system, as no other planet or moon has a side that permanently faces away from the Earth. It is, therefore, ideally suited for radio astronomy. //

Radio waves with wavelengths longer than about 15 m are blocked by Earth’s ionosphere. But radio waves at these wavelengths reach the Moon’s surface unimpeded. For astronomy, this is the last unexplored region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and it is best studied from the lunar far side.

Observations of the cosmos at these wavelengths come under the umbrella of “low-frequency radio astronomy.” These wavelengths are uniquely able to probe the structure of the early Universe, especially the cosmic “dark ages”—an era before the first galaxies formed.

At that time, most of the matter in the Universe, excluding the mysterious dark matter, was in the form of neutral hydrogen atoms. These emit and absorb radiation with a characteristic wavelength of 21 cm. Radio astronomers have been using this property to study hydrogen clouds in our own galaxy—the Milky Way—since the 1950s.

Because the Universe is constantly expanding, the 21 cm signal generated by hydrogen in the early Universe has been shifted to much longer wavelengths. As a result, hydrogen from the cosmic “dark ages” will appear to us with wavelengths greater than 10 m. The lunar far side may be the only place where we can study this. //

The Moon also offers opportunities for other types of astronomy as well. Astronomers have lots of experience with optical and infrared telescopes operating in free space, such as the Hubble telescope and JWST. However, the stability of the lunar surface may confer advantages for these types of instruments.

Moreover, there are craters at the lunar poles that receive no sunlight. Telescopes that observe the Universe at infrared wavelengths are very sensitive to heat and therefore have to operate at low temperatures. JWST, for example, needs a huge sun shield to protect it from the sun’s rays. On the Moon, a natural crater rim could provide this shielding for free.

An annual event involving dirt, beer and cash once again drew dozens of eager competitors to a ski resort in Maine on Saturday.

More than 30 couples competed in the North American Wife Carrying Championship, a 278-yard (254-meter) race during which contestants splash through water, leap over logs and trudge through mud — all while carrying their partner like a sack of potatoes.

As an Israeli retaliation for Iran's massive ballistic missile strike looms, the Biden White House has decided to deploy a six-launcher battery of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles to shore up Israel's air defenses, and at least 96 US soldiers will man the missile battery. //

THAAD was developed as part of the ballistic missile defense program and has proven itself effective against Iranian-designed missiles. THAAD can counter short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats and is the only U.S. system designed to intercept targets outside and inside the atmosphere. //

In previous Iranian attacks on Israel, US aircraft and warships have engaged Iranian cruise missiles and drones but only in international airspace. This deployment not only places American soldiers in Israel as the region slides, inexorably, in my view, toward a regional war that has the possibility of going nuclear; see Israel Hammering Iran's Proxy Armies Sends a Clear Message to Tehran That the Rules Have Changed – RedState, it marks the beginning of positive rather than incidental participation in the brewing war.

Purrl
10 hours ago
To me what this signals is Biden ignoring his pro-Iran advisors. As much as I despise the man, until he became a vegetable he was a pretty strong supporter of Israel (IIRC), and now that he's in full "screw you" mode I suspect he's reverting to type. Also, still in awe of the level of love for the mullahs displayed by the State Department; there's no good reason whatsoever to protect Iran's nuclear facilities.

But whatever his reason for adding another layer of defense for Israel, I approve. //

streiff wildmlm
11 hours ago
we are all pretty sure that Iran has enough fissile material (they were 2-3 months from that point in 2015 according to the Obama administration. They probably have a nuke ready to test. We know they have the delivery system.

Black Magic streiff
9 hours ago
Yes, Streiff is probably totally correct, and if anything is possibly low in his estimate.

And the Iranians idea of a test, will likely be to launch the missile at Israel and see if it works.

May God bless and watch over the Israelis.

And I truly pray he is still willing to bless and watch over America after the evil of the last 4 years.

Purrl wildmlm
10 hours ago
For the most part, anything you can put a conventional warhead on you can put a nuke on.

streiff Purrl
10 hours ago
once you have the fissile material, the rest is an engineering problem that was first solved 70 years ago.

A third assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump was thwarted at the last minute Saturday when local cops stopped a man armed with guns and fake passes outside his rally at Coachella Valley, the local sheriff said.

The suspect was caught about a mile from the rally venue with a phony-entry pass, according to police. He was also carrying a loaded shotgun, handgun and high capacity magazine.

“We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said.

The suspect, identified as Vem Miller, was intercepted by police at a checkpoint about a half-mile from the rally entrance. He was carrying a fake phony [sic] press and VIP passes. //

UPDATED [5:52 p.m. EST]: The NY Post (linked above) has updated its report, adding additional details, including the circumstances of the car being searched:

The suspect — identified as 49-year-old Las Vegas resident Vem Miller — was caught at a checkpoint about a quarter-mile from the rally with fake VIP passes to the rally and fake press passes — as well as unregistered weapons, including a loaded shotgun, a handgun and a high-capacity magazine, according to the Riverside County sheriff’s office.

Miller did not have a valid ID when he was stopped at the rally checkpoint, and was detained after police searched his vehicle and found the weapons, law enforcement sources told The Post.