Alpharetta, a prosperous suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, is home to about 67,000 people, served by about 120 local police officers. It also hosts several dozen cameras sold by Flock Safety, the increasingly controversial surveillance company that collects license plate data and other information and makes it searchable by police. Data captured by those Flock cameras, WIRED has learned via public records requests, is accessible to more than 2,000 police departments, colleges, airports, and government agencies across the United States.
Pakistan says six to seven more Muslim-majority countries are interested in joining the Mecca Defence Pact signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Trkiye. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar disclosed the information on Monday ahead of a meeting of the top diplomats of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Trkiye in Istanbul. According to Bloomberg, Dar previously said in a speech in the United Kingdom that work was underway to establish a framework to facilitate the accession of other countries to the pact. He did not disclose the names of the interested countries.
Let me apologize in advance for what I'm about to do: treat the ICE arrests in Connecticut as a political and public opinion question. What they are, at a more visceral level, are manifestations of the Trump administration's gift for transforming a normal day into a tragedy. There's a special strain of internal ugliness that one needs to arrest a parent in front of his children at a school bus stop.
The Pentagon has reportedly hired conservative military veterans with large social media followings to unspecified government positions. The Washington Post reported late Sunday that the Pentagon hired two conservative commentators -- Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel with more than 135,000 X followers, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel with 620,000 X followers -- to work in Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
A federal judge in California on Wednesday invalidated a Trump administration rule that could potentially lower wages to foreign guest workers by as much as a projected $2.46 billion annually. read more
... removing trees from a golf course in Washington, D.C., without getting approval from officials ...
My guess is that the unauthorized Trump Demolitions are going to get more frequent because of this afternoon's SCOTUS decision ...
Supreme Court continues to allow construction of Trump's White House ballroom
www.cbsnews.com
... In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court halted lower court rulings that would have temporarily blocked the construction of a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the East Wing once stood.
The high court said in an unsigned opinion that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed a lawsuit to block the project, did not have the legal right to sue. It did not address the legality of Mr. Trump's East Wing project. ...
Venezuela's Delcy Rodrguez defends endless' benefits of her oil deal with Trump
www.theguardian.com
... Deal that will reportedly see US take control of 65bn barrels of Venezuelan oil has provoked outrage in her country. ...
On Sunday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: "One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves ...
But the deal has provoked outrage, both among members of Venezuela's opposition and within the Chavismo political movement of which Rodrguez is part.
Speaking on Friday, one prominent opposition figure, who asked not to be named, called the agreement "a massive land grab" by a "rapacious, mafioso United States".
Writing on X, Rafael Ramrez, the former head of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, accused Rodrguez's administration of "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the homeland" with the "neocolonial" transaction. "They are handing over 65bn barrels of our reserves to the United States. That has never happened in Venezuela, and I think nowhere else in the world," Ramrez added in an interview with the newspaper El Nacional.
On Saturday, dozens of leftwing protesters marched through Caracas with banners reading: "We are neither a colony, nor a back yard" and "Yankees go home!" ...
... is fill up the Strategic National Reserves ...
Is the high-sulfur, sour Venezuelan crude oil suitable for the storage in the salt caverns of the SPR?
@#3
related?
US Treasury faces media backlash as NYT, Bloomberg journalists denied G20 access
www.firstpost.com
... The US Treasury Department has come under fire after denying press credentials to journalists from several major news organisations, including The New York Times (NYT), The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, reported AFP.
The decision has led to a wave of criticism from news organisations and press freedom advocates, particularly as the two-day G20 meeting brings together senior economic policymakers to discuss issues with far-reaching implications for the global economy. ...
@#30
Similar article, no paywall ...
Trump Faces Scrutiny Over $13B in Venezuelan Oil Cash as Only $300M Is Publicly Traced to Caracas
www.ibtimes.co.uk
Trump's foreign beef deal draws skepticism from farmers and cattle ranchers nationwide
www.scrippsnews.com
... Jason Leavitt grew up on the farm in Calvert County, Maryland he now runs with his family. He ushers over 100 cows around their 160 acres of arable land, letting his grass-fed, grass-finished cattle graze on more than a dozen different pastures.
He understands what Pres. Trump is trying to do with the foreign beef deal, importing 300,000 metric tons of ground beef and selling it 25% below market value, but Leavitt believes that move is just a band aid on a bigger problem.
"Is it the worst thing in the world? No. Is it going to solve the intrinsic problems in the food production systems, specifically as it is related to beef production, I highly doubt it," Leavitt said. ...
@#6 ... CENTCOM declares it de-mined. ...
IRGC says ship struck 2 sea mines after U.S. declared Hormuz cleared
www.upi.com
... A supertanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz struck two sea mines, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, days after the Trump administration said it had cleared the vital transit route of the explosive devices.
According to a statement from the IRGC Navy carried by semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the unidentified tanker struck the mines, caught fire and came to a stop.
The IRGC Navy said the vessel had attempted to pass through an "illegal route south of the Strait of Hormuz" when it came into contact with the mines. ...
OK, found this ...
Flaming Lips - Hangout Fest 2012 - Dark Side of the Moon (Full Show Pro Shot)
www.youtube.com
Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? (2002)
www.youtube.com
They also did an amazing cover of Pink Floyd back in the day.
Lemme see if I can find it ...
@#11 ... This is the 'fine print' that I'm sure Trump is hoping that the people will never read: ...
Then there is also this ...
Exxon and Chevron decline new spending in Venezuela while taking a wait-and-see approach for the years ahead (January 2026)
fortune.com
... U.S. Big Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron said Jan. 30 they have no plans to increase their capital spending in Venezuela this year while they wait and see how legal and political reforms unfold to make the country more inviting to foreign oil investments.
Since forcibly removing leader Nicolas Maduro from power, President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted U.S. oil companies will spend more than $100 billion in Venezuela to dramatically rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure.
But Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods infamously drew Trump's ire earlier this month when he told the president that Venezuela is currently "uninvestable" until major reforms are enacted and the country sees real stability. After all, Exxon had its oil assets expropriated in Venezuela less than 20 years ago.
Trump later said Woods' remarks were "too cute" and that he may be inclined to keep the world's largest Big Oil player out of Venezuela.
Woods said Jan. 30 on his fourth-quarter earnings call that he does believe the Trump administration is committed to making the necessary changes to eventually turn Venezuela into a viable investment option. How soon remains to be seen. Venezuela's National Assembly began approving reforms to its oil and gas laws on Jan. 29. ...
Yeah, my guess of Ms Parton's opinion of Pres Trump may be more along the lines of ...
Soup Dragons - Divine Thing (1992)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
... [Verse 1]
You are the one supreme being
Just dressed to kill and fulfill just any dream
And you are the one heart's desire
All hips and lips made to trick just any fool
[Chorus]
I could have sworn that you were an angel
'cause you're a sweet, sweet, sweet, divine thing
But I should have known that you were the devil
Dressed like a sweet, sweet, sweet, divine thing
[Verse 2]
And you lack the one thing that is devotion
Not always there, in your hair in a daze
Just too mixed up in your own emotions
Your vanity will always be your greatest thing
...
Wow, written in 1992 ...
Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Television The Drug Of The Nation (1992)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
One nation
Under God
Has turned into
One nation under the influence
Of one drug
[Hook:]
Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
...
T.V. is the reason why less than 10 percent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central America
Means Kansas
Socialism means un-American
And Apartheid is a new headache remedy
Absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us
It shapes our mind the most
...
It's the perpetuation of the two party system
Where image takes precedence over wisdom
Where sound bite politics are served to
The fast food culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth
Are more important than the words
That come out of it
Race baiting is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on...
...
T.V., is it the reflector or the director?
Does it imitate us
Or do we imitate it
Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's
Twelve years old and we wonder why we've created
A Jason generation that learns to laugh
Rather than to abhor the horror
...
Back again, "New and improved"
We return to our irregularly programmed schedule
Hidden cleverly between heavy breasted
Beer and car commercials
CNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S
Where oxymoronic language like
"virtually spotless", "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
Have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined
Like "recession" to "necessary downturn"
"Crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
And being killed by your own Army
Is now called "friendly fire"
...
@#7 ... Just ask any of the Republicans here. They will confirm that's what they voted for. ...
It may be what they voted for, but the support of it seems to be diminishing of late.
Let me state it a different way, by asking a question ...
How many Republicans running for election in November are showing political ads saying that they want ICE to come into their districts and kill American citizens, violently arrest people who do not have criminal records (at times separating parents from children), etc?