It's fish doorbell seaso when internet viewers can watch a webcam and alert workers wehn fish need through a dam in Netherdlands: "Every spring, thousands of fish swim through the Oudegracht in Utrecht, searching for a place upstream to lay their eggs. But the Weerdsluis is often closed. You can help the fish continue their journey! If you see a fish, press the doorbell. This alerts the lock operator to open the lock." read more
Top Democrats tell us their party is in its deepest hole in nearly 50 years -- and they fear things could actually get worse ... read more
Data about 30,000 abducted children may be gone for good. Cut came as Trump administration slashes programs. Lawmakers also want sanctions on those responsible. Russia says children are moved as protection from war. read more
OK, I listen to my playlists here. The playlists are mostly tunes that I have in my 35,000+ song music accumulation from CDs and vinyl and (gasp) 78's. But, as I listen, I also set aside a song here and there that may seem apropos. This thread reflects that.
Beijing now has the power to disrupt global communications after scientists revealed a device that can sever undersea cables A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world's most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China -- and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics. The revelation marks the first time any country has officially disclosed that it has such an asset, capable of disrupting critical undersea networks.
Houthi group chat: What top Trump officials claimed vs. what the texts show
www.axios.com
... "No classified info"
Gabbard under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee: "I can attest to the fact that there were not classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time."
- - - Ratcliffe concurred, though both officials later deferred to Hegseth as the ultimate authority for classifying and declassifying Defense Department materials.
The texts include highly detailed information about the sequencing of an attack that had yet to take place.
- - - Under intelligence community guidelines, information "providing indication or advance warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing an attack" should be treated as "Top Secret."
State of play: The president and senior officials like the secretary of defense have considerable discretion over what information is classified, and whether to declassify it after the fact.
- - - But Gabbard and Ratcliffe declined to offer any explanation in the hearing as to why this information would not have been considered classified at the time it was inadvertently shared with Goldberg. ...
Testimony raises questions about Pete Hegseth's handling of secrets and sensitive communications
www.nbcnews.com
...Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired Air Force general, scoffed at Hegseth's assertion that no war plans had been shared on the text chain.
"That's baloney,' Bacon told reporters. "Just be honest and own up to it." ...
Nine years ago, Hegseth, speaking on Fox News on Election Day in 2016, harshly criticized Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
"Any security professional, military, government, or otherwise, would be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information," he said. ...
@#64 ... We're done dealing with you idiots ...
Who are the "we" of which your current alias speaks?
And for the record (once again this evening), I will say that if you are in this Country illegally, you should not be here.
Yeah, that i my view.
However, and this is a huge however, companies have built their success upon the use of illegal immigrants.
So, maybe, the goal should not to be the illegal immigrants, but the reason why they are drawn into our awesome Country.... jobs.
At the risk of being redundant ...
An excerpt from the Border Patrol Union webpage that was deleted during fmr Pres Trump's term:
web.archive.org
Walls and fences are temporary solutions that focus on the symptom (illegal immigration) rather than the problem (employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens).
Walls and fences are only a speed bump. People who want to come to the United States to obtain employment will continue to go over, under, and around the walls and fences that are constructed.
Walls and fences will undoubtedly result in an increase in fraudulent documents and smuggling through the Ports of Entry.
Walls and fences do not solve the issue of people entering the country legally and staying beyond the date they are required to leave the country, a problem which will undoubtedly increase as more walls and fences are constructed.
@#67
Listening to the an Appeals Court hearing this afternoon, one of the Judges asked, ~so, if what Pres Trump is doing, then I could be sent off to a prison in El Salvador, with no Due process?~ I paraphrase. Here's an article ...
Y'all could've picked me up': Judge rips Trump admin over deportations without due process, says government could have thrown me on a plane'
lawandcrime.com
... "The question is whether the implementation of this proclamation without any process to determine whether people qualify under it -- I mean if the government says we don't have to give a process for that," she said.
"I mean y'all could've picked me up Saturday and thrown me on a plane thinking I'm a member of Tren de Aragua and given me no chance to protest it, and somehow it's a violation of presidential war powers for me to say, No I'm not. I'd like a hearing.'" ...
@#64 ... When you come in the country illegally you have no "due process" rights. ...
Does the US Constitution Protect Undocumented Immigrants?
clearwaterlawgrouptricities.com
... The Constitution protects all people living in the United States, regardless of immigration status. Most constitutional provisions apply based on personhood, not citizenship.
In other words, if an individual is physically present in the US, they are entitled to the protections granted by the Constitution. This includes the right to due process and equal protection under the law. ...
What else yer got?
@#12 ...Putin will one day award Trumpf with the Order of Lenin or Friendship Medal for being the Kremlin's greatest sabotage agent in the US: ...
Likely, imo.
OpEd: Putin plans to make the West destroy itself (2020)
www.spectator.co.uk
... Chaos and division is the real goal for Russia
There's only one person who'll be genuinely pleased with the Intelligence and Security Committee's Russia report, finally revealed on Tuesday, and that's Vladimir Putin.
Russia emerges as an amorphous and formidable enemy -- all the more so because the inconclusive and much-redacted report contains next to no substantiated allegations. Instead Russia appears as a phantom, unknowable menace, and this will spawn a thousand conspiracy theories far more corrosive and confusing to our politics than any Moscow-generated Twitter-storm or document leak. ...
@#38
Along those lines, why wasn't the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff included in this conversation?