RAPID CITY, S.D. -- In what's become an annual winter tradition, hundreds of people carrying torches set fire to a giant wooden beetle effigy in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness of the destructive impact of the mountain pine beetle on forest land in the Black Hills.
Custer firefighters prepared and lighted the torches for residents to carry in a march to the pyre Saturday night in the 11th Burning Beetle fest, the Rapid City Journal reported.
People set the tall beetle effigy on fire amid drum beats and chants of “Burn, beetle, burn." Firefighters kept watch, warning participants not to throw the torches, even as some people launched the burning sticks into pine trees piled at the base of the beetle.


https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/burn...-106551807

let's raise our awareness people.  beetles kill thousands of trees out west.  recent dry climate makes it harder on the trees.

Ok, which one of you has been playin games...Brotherman territory?

Quote:Neatly folded notes crammed with just about every conspiracy theory and internet buzzword imaginable keep popping up in rural Pennsylvania, some illegally tucked inside cereal boxes and others pinned to pine trees in state and local parks.

Unfolded, the notes are mostly indecipherable, containing a coded run-on sentence of secret societies, sci-fi movie mentions, and name drops like “Musk”, “Bill Gates,” and “Oprah.”

“It’s tied to Saturn, Lord o/t Rings/time,” one line reads.

The FBI, Food & Drug Administration, and elected officials in Pennsylvania are all aware of the notes, but no one’s been caught in the act of actually planting them.

Philly had its own strange “note” phenomenon with its Toynbee Tiles, which were found embedded into city streets and, eventually in other states, with messages about Stanley Kubrick and Jupiter, mostly in the 1990s and 2000s.

While the Toynbee Tiles had an art house vibe, the Schuylkill Notes feel a bit  darker. Some notes mention international conflicts and hate groups, and are often riddled with intentional misspellings and out-of-place apostrophes, making them all the more confusing.

“Secret society (SS) ties to terror’m, shoot’gs, staged confront’ns & other crises aren’t report’d but JFK/Lincoln warn’d of SS,” another reads.

Amateur web sleuths have taken up the case, mostly on Reddit, and they’ve dubbed the bizarre messages the “Schuylkill Notes” because so many, initially, were found in Schuylkill and surrounding counties.

“The content of the notes themselves, it’s clear they’re warnings, not threats,” one early member of the Reddit group r/schuylkillnotes said.

The notes, which often differ slightly in content, have also been found in Huntingdon and Lycoming Counties. One Reddit user mapped out dozens of specific locations where notes have been found, including Walmarts, Goodwills, and various locations on the Appalachian and other trails. The bulk of the discoveries appears to be situated between Allentown and State College.

Zachary Zimmerman, 23, was hiking in Lebanon County’s Swatara State Park while squirrel hunting last month when he discovered a handful of the notes attached to trees and wrapped around stones.

“I picked it up and read it and it really doesn’t make any sense to me,” Zimmerman, a Lebanon County native who lives in the Adirondacks, said.

Zimmerman said he thought about calling the Pennsylvania Game Commission or Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, but didn’t. He kept a few notes and left others in the woods.
“It’s just a bunch of crazy stuff,” he said.

It’s unclear exactly when the notes began appearing in Pennsylvania. Some posts say 2015 and at least one recalled something similar happening in the 1980s, in the Poconos. In December, a Luzerne County man named Joe Miller found a note in a sealed box of Lucky Charms.

“It’s the note that really bothers me,” Miller told WBRE/WYOU out of Scranton. “These notes are found inside food like kids’ food.”

While elected officials have notified the FBI, Carrie Adamowski, a spokesperson with the agency in Philadelphia, said she could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

Wendy Wilson, a spokesperson for Rep. Matt Cartwright in northeastern Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, said an officer received an anonymous call reporting that 20 notes had been found on state game lands in Mainville, Columbia County.

“So far, there have been no reports of people getting sick from these notes, but we don’t want to take any chances and we want to find out who is doing this,” Wilson said.



The FDA, according to a spokesperson, is aware of the situation, and said the agency “evaluates product defects and other complaints that it receives.” Tampering with food products, the spokesperson said, is a federal crime.

On Reddit, at least one discussion asked whether the note’s original creator or copycats could be in the group. Zimmerman said it seemed like a lot of work for one person and he wondered whether people were copying them and putting them out for attention.

Anyone who finds a note, particularly in a food item, is asked to call Pennsylvania’s FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator at (877) 689-8073. Notes found in state parks can be reported to DCNR here.

Conspiracy-laden notes keep popping up in cereal boxes and Pennsylvania parks

So how can we do bad shit to them and their families if they are armed?

We need to preserve Democracy by suspending the rights of our citizens and implementing Tyranny? That is "Saving Democracy"?

Johns Hopkins: More Gun Control Needed to Prevent Second Civil War

https://www.ammoland.com/2024/01/johns-h...civil-war/

Quote:A recent report by the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, which is part of Johns Hopkins (Michael) Bloomberg School of Public Health, conflates private gun ownership with armed insurrection in order to advocate for expanded gun control.



The 32-page study, which is titled “Defending Democracy: Addressing the Danger of Armed Insurrection,” not only revisits and revises the Jan. 6th protest – even though no protesters were armed and the only casualty was 35-year-old Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by Capitol Police – it resurrects actual armed insurrections from American history, such as Shays’ Rebellion of 1786, the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 and the American Civil War.


The three authors, who are all attorneys with a history of paid anti-gun activism, clumsily raise the insurrection boogeyman to push for additional regulations for carrying firearms, tactical training prohibitions, additional gun-free zones, expanded Red Flag laws, and the repeal of state preemption statutes, which has long been a major goal of the gun ban industry. Preemption laws prevent local jurisdictions from enacting their own gun-control regulations, which would result in a patchwork of gun-free zones.


Their authors’ warped message is to be expected, especially when you consider the biased nature of their backgrounds, their sponsors, their sources, and Michael Bloomberg’s school itself. (If you type “gun violence” into the school’s internal search engine, it will yield more than 1,000 results.)


The Center for Gun Violence Solutions admits it uses a “public health approach” to identify gun-control solutions, even though a gun is an inanimate object, not a disease, ailment or disorder. The school further claims it uses “rigorous scientific research to identify a range of innovative solutions to gun violence.” However, the authors’ [i]rigorous scientific research[/i] turned out to be nothing more than false claims gleaned from biased stories from the legacy media and other anti-gun organizations that masquerade as actual news websites.


The authors used stories from CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, PBS, NPR, VOX, [i]The Los Angeles Times[/i], [i]The Atlantic[/i], [i]The Guardian[/i], [i]The Washington Post,[/i] [i]USA Today[/i], the Associated Press, PolitiFact, Politico, Slate and the Southern Poverty Law Center. They even used stories from two dedicated anti-gun groups, Giffords and The Trace – the propaganda arm of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control empire.


[b]Biased authors[/b]
The report was written by Tim Carey, Kelly Roskam, and Joshua Horwitz. Carey is the law and policy advisor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. According to his bio, he is responsible for “Drafting legislation, regulations, legal reports, legislative testimony, fact sheets, and other advocacy materials.” Before moving to Johns Hopkins, Carey was the law and policy staff attorney for the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.


Roskam is the director of law and policy at Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she was the general counsel and legal director for the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Roskam’s bio also states she interned at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.


Horwitz is the co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Before joining Johns Hopkins, he too worked at the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, serving as executive director.


[b]Biased report[/b]
The authors claim their report is both an examination and a warning about the threat that “armed insurrectionism poses to democracy in the United States.”


“The growing presence of firearms in political spaces in the United States endangers public health, safety, and the functioning of democracy,” the report states. “Far from being an outlier, the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol was part of a long line of events in which individuals have sought to use political losses to justify violence or threats of violence to disrupt our government and limit civic engagement.”


As stated, the policy recommendations presented by the authors are merely longstanding goals of the gun-ban industry, which would help propel them toward their ultimate goal of total civilian disarmament. The only difference is that now their policy recommendations are presented as necessary to “address the dangers of armed insurrectionism.”


[b]Biased sponsors[/b]
“We would like to thank the Joyce Foundation and the Morningstar Foundation for supplying core support for this report,” the authors wrote.
The Joyce Foundation is firmly committed to gun control. According to their website, the Joyce Foundation seeks to:

• Advance and implement federal, state, and local policies and practices that reduce easy accessibility of guns to those at risk of violence
  
• Support policies to reduce easy accessibility of guns to those at risk of violence
  
• Reduce the next generation’s exposure to gun violence through education on the risks of gun ownership
  
• Litigate to defend evidence-based gun policies and challenge extreme gun rights policies and practices
  

The Morningstar Foundation is a 501©(3) nonprofit founded in 1982. In fiscal year 2017, the Morningstar Foundation reported $16,533,591 in revenue and $14,476,618 in expenditures, which included grants to many left-of-center organizations.
Some of the recipients include:

• Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
  
• The Southern Poverty Law Center
  
• States United to Prevent Gun Violence
  
• Violence Policy Center
  

In 2001, Johns Hopkins University renamed its School of Hygiene and Public Health to the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The change came after Michael Bloomberg donated more than $100 million to the university – the largest cash gift in the school’s 125-year history.


“I’m grateful and proud to have my name linked with the world’s greatest public health school,” Bloomberg said in 2001. “I’ve always supported Johns Hopkins just because it gives me great personal pleasure to be associated with faculty, researchers. and students who do such tremendous work on issues that really matter. This honor is really icing on that cake for me.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/...hool-utah/

Quote:PHOTO – ‘They Memed Themselves’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks at ‘Hunter High’ School in Utah
[/url] [url=https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/20/photo-they-memed-themselves-first-lady-jill-biden-speaks-hunter-high-school-utah/#] @AngelaLMorabito X
Amy Furr
20 Jan 2024153
2:24
Advisers for First Lady Jill Biden have gotten tons of flak for scheduling her to give a speech at a school campus with an awkward name.
The event happened Tuesday at Hunter High School in West Valley City, Utah, where the First Lady spoke to students and educators about celebrating teachers’ roles and the importance of their well-being, the Daily Mail reported Friday.
But the name of the school, Hunter High, stole the show.
“Jill Biden trying to distract from her comments about Hunter’s drug abuse, and ending up under a giant banner reading ‘Hunter High,’ is straight out of a VEEP episode,” Defense of Freedom Institute Policy spokeswoman Angela Morabito wrote in a social media post along with a photo of the First Lady at the event.
The image Morabito posted shows Jill Biden standing behind a podium with a sign on the front of it that reads “Hunter High.” Above her and the students gathered on the stage is a banner with the same name:

“Hunter High, Home of the Wolves. You cannot make this up. They memed themselves….” one social media user wrote of the display.
“The only time I’ve seen honesty from this administration is through a sign above Jill’s head,” another person replied, while someone else said, “That’s funny. With all the HSs here in Utah, how did Hunter High get approved?”

Officials found cocaine residue on a gun pouch belonging to Hunter Biden, who is Jill Biden’s stepson and the son of President Joe Biden (D), in 2018, Breitbart News reported Wednesday. The information was revealed in a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) filing and hindered his legal defense against several gun charges.
“Hunter previously acknowledged he used crack cocaine and smoked parmesan cheese. His legal defense claims the president’s son did not break the law,” Breitbart noted. “Lawyers also contend the president’s son was ‘selectively charged’ for political reasons.”
It is also interesting to note that the Secret Service reportedly found DNA on a cocaine baggie found at the White House over the summer after the agency claimed it could not identify who smuggled the substance into the building, according to Breitbart News.
Breitbart’s Wendell Husebø highlighted the fact that the White House is “one of the most secure buildings in the world.”

A great talk with some interesting points on Man's and Earth's future.

Prologue of cover art and the short story follows below...

Here's a tasteful scene of a family enjoying ice cream cones with their bug-alien pals. It's Michael Whelan's cover art to "With Friends Like These..." by Alan Dean Foster, published Dec 1977.


"With Friends Like These...

The aliens had returned to Earth after centuries because they needed allies. But after hundreds of years, they had no idea what they would be getting the universe into...and they soon found out!"

Cover art also used for...


GURPS Aliens (1990)


So, has the ice cream man Joe Biden been trying to tell us something about interdimensional aliens?

Quote:It all began when the Henderson farm was suddenly and without warning sucked through a wormhole into another universe or basically a lost third dimension.

Nothing was destroyed; it was like the farm itself with everybody, animal, and crop was magically removed and transported to another world altogether. And it wasn't the only farm either. Hundreds went, leaving giant-like pot-holes or sinkholes all over the planet of Earth.

Yet those are other stories, this one is about the Henderson family who had to settle on the planet Greaseball.

Yes, such a pleasant name, and it was less nicer than Earth itself. You see it was named after an old smuggler by the name of Gilbert Greaseball. Long story short he settled on the planet with an assortment of alien races.

Greaseball pretty much turned into a 1930's Great Depression era of the United States of America that seriously had an immigration problem, but that's in the past.

Anyhoo, this is about the Henderson family. Pete and Shirley Henderson had no choice but to make it work on Greaseball, so Pete rolled up his sleeves and did what every farmer did… worked his farm.

Soon after Shirley gave birth to their son, Timmy, who eventually grew to be 10 years old, and was such a scamp on the farm.

Thankfully nothing changed much and humans worked with aliens in the nearby settlements and towns.

When cows and pigs and horses became hard to come by at times they had milk bugs, space pigs, and two-headed sabertooth horses.

Strange, but when faced with a new weird world you gotta do what ya gotta do. Make it work or become sludge in the swamp water of Agapanthia.

So one beautiful sunny day after going to Church to praise their version of Jesus, who was an asteroid lovebug named Herbert, the Henderson family settled in their kitchen with some of their new found friends with the years that they've been there.

George, who went by George, because he liked the name better than Grrthakawak, was a huge green brain bug. He was also Pete's foreman handyman that helped him a lot on the farm. They had become great buddies.

Nedrick, was a purple hairy horned beast that was also the local town Deputy. He was a huge law and order type of purple beast, and if he saw you jaywalk he'd give you such a lecture you'd wish that the two moons above would come crashing down.

Last but not least was Dr. Slezak, a weird looking orange cockroach. He was the local town physician and he was good at what he did. Shirley was a little freaked out when a cockroach helped her give birth though, but he turned out to be very good at his profession.

Anyway it was Sunday after church and Shirley was serving ice cream cones to everybody in the kitchen.

"Who wants another ice cream cone?" smiled Shirley as she looked sweet and nice that warm sunny day.

"Ooh-ooh, me, me," said George as he held out his big green bug hands, "I like chocolate. It makes me break out in bug pimples, but it's worth it."

Nedrick took one, "Thanks, I prefer vanilla myself, but I ain't picky."

Dr. Slezak nodded, "Just one, I have to venture over to the Wilson farm soon. I helped Mrs. Wilson give birth to twin girls yesterday."

Shirley smiled, "Why isn't that nice. I'll have to put together a baby basket for Wendy."

Pete replied as he took a cone, "Yeah, Jim Wilson has his hands full now. Ain't that right, George."

George smiled as he savored his ice cream cone, "Mmm, wait until they have 130 babies. I tell you it's not easy changing baby diapers. The little old wife is looking a little haggard lately I gotta tell you."

Timmy asked, "Can I have two ice cream cones, Mom?"

"Sure, sweetheart."

Pete looked at his boy, "Did you clean out the barn yesterday like I told you?"

"Yes, Pa," said Timmy, "Sweeped and shoveled out all the animal dung. So gross, can I have my allowance now?"

"Sure thing, sport," said Pete as he handed his son a whole space dollar.

"Wow," said Timmy as he looked at the picture of Gilbert Greaseball drunk with space rum on it, "So cool."

"Don't spend it all on junk food and outerspace baseball cards now," chuckled Pete.

George replied, "I remember my Pa when he made me work in the barn for my allowance. Timmy, be glad your Pa doesn't use a spacebull whip on you like my Pa used on me."

"Oh how horrible," said Shirley as she made sure everybody got an ice cream cone, "Parental abuse is not nice."

"Abuse?" said George, "No, it was my education in learning to use the whip on moving rocks."

Nedrick grunted, "You're as dense as your old man, George. There's no such thing as moving rocks unless you're on the volcanic planet of Nespar by the third sun."

Dr. Slezak nodded, "This is excellent ice cream, my dear. You make it yourself?"

Shirley nodded as she chuckled, "We women have our secrets now and then."

Pete replied, "George, you going to help me on that western fence today?"

"Of course," said George, "Is the corn field trying to escape again?"

"Yeah," said Pete, "Many are content, but I've heard a few call me nasty names and sprout profanity."

"Popcorn them," said Dr. Slezak.

Timmy said, "Can Lassie, my six-legged Collie come to town with me today?"

Pete said, "No, he's gotta watch the eight-legged sheep."

Shirley replied, "Timmy, me and you are going to get some new clothes from Flaggasnooples today. They are having a sale."

"Aw, Mom."

"Mind your mother," said Pete.

George gobbled up his 10th ice cream cone and said, "I'd love to have 40 more of these, but work calls."

Shirley nodded, "Well, the carton is empty anyway."

George said, "I'll eat that too."

"Um, okay."

Nedrick stood himself, "Well, the long arm of the law can't reach out here, so I'll just mosey on myself "

Dr. Slezak nodded, "Hold up, you can give me a lift."

And everybody walked out of the kitchen and out onto the old wooden porch.

Shirley smiled as she rubbed her boy's head, "Make sure you milk those milk bugs, Pete and George, because I've got a lot more ice cream to make."

Ice cream, such a wondrous thing that crossed galaxies and universes. From planet to planet. Through human and alien races to monsters and creatures far and wide. Ice cream, a sweet cold delicious treat that brought forth friends and family… and we all must praise not just Jesus, but Herbert too.

The End.

There's a movement in Congress to outlaw militias in the US, claiming that it will make Americans safer and help maintain public order. But the flip side of that is that if and when the government becomes tyrannical, the citizens wouldn't have the ability to defend themselves. In this episode of America Uncovered, we look at different interpretations of the Second Amendment, the difference between banning their existence and banning their actions, and why, when people think of militias, they think of conservatives. Can Militia Groups Detain Immigrants at the Border? | America Uncovered

I wonder why?


White men no longer want to fight for a nation that scorns them

https://news.yahoo.com/white-men-no-long...57841.html

Quote:Let me begin by making this point as clearly as possible. There is absolutely nothing worse for the combat effectiveness of a military, than attempting to use recruiting as a social engineering program.



It was reported in this newspaper recently how the US Army has seen a dramatic fall in the number of white recruits, as the Military.com website found that the army fell 10,000 short of its 65,000 enlistment target.
Underpinning this drop was a dramatic decrease in white recruits from 44,042 in 2018, to just 25,070 in 2023, leading to the proportion of white recruits falling from 56.4 per cent of all recruits in 2018, to just 44 per cent. According to the US Census from 2022, around 59 per cent of all US citizens were from white backgrounds. The US military is 17 per cent women, so the recruiting crisis is primarily one among white men.


Clearly, something inside the US Army’s recruitment system is failing, both in terms of targets being drastically missed, and a failure to recruit effectively among the nation’s largest ethnic group.


The UK Armed Forces are in a similar depressing situation. Recruiting targets are consistently not met, but the main priority is not to get more people to join up – it is to get more non-white people and women to join up.


Failure to meet recruiting targets is one thing. Peddling politically motivated and deeply flawed ideologically driven quotas is quite another. In another ill-thought out and controversial move to attempt to fix the UK military’s recruiting crisis, last week Defence Secretary Grant Shapps declared that ‘women are the solution to the Armed Forces recruitment crisis’.



This is merely the latest apparent policy to attempt to force equality of outcome in the British military. Best illustrating this woke agenda is the Royal Air Force’s shameful recruitment fiasco from 2022 – when it was discovered that female and ethnic minority candidates were prioritised over white male recruits, regardless of suitability.


There is a strong case to be made that this breached employment law, and was thus illegal. The head of the RAF at the time, Sir Mike Wigston, conveniently managed to avoid any real public scrutiny, though his reputation rightly lies in ruins after trying to defend the shambolic and disgraceful policy. His successor, Sir Richard Knighton, has since apologised over the affair.


I hate to break it to anybody reading this, but forcing equality of outcome on something as important as the nation’s defence is not the solution to our recruiting crisis. Military housing and accommodation needs urgently improving. MoD contracts for poor service providers need to be cut and offered to better managed contractors.
Pay needs to rise at least in average with other public sector bodies, if not far higher given the skill sets required and the risks to life which we routinely ask our men and women in uniform to run on our behalf. The government needs to improve the offer, and create working conditions more in-line with expectations of the society of today, whilst balancing the need to retain combat lethality.


There’s a wider problem in society, too. For a long time now, the disciples of affirmative action and critical race theory have been at work. All groups have been prioritised except one, to the point where it is often a serious disadvantage to be a white male, particularly when it comes to getting a promotion or a job – as in the case of the RAF in recent times.

Another British example was the recent case of the TV station Channel 4, in which protests were made over the appointment of five new directors, four of whom were white. This was deemed to be too many, despite the fact that slightly more than 80 per cent of British people are white. A US example is the recent case of accounting firm PWC, which has belatedly been forced to allow white people apply for its internship scheme.
It’s not really a surprise, then, that young white men have apparently become less willing to defend at risk of their lives a society which discriminates against them and blames them for all the evils of history – evils which they themselves had nothing to do with.
Recently, the US Supreme Court has moved to end affirmative action in higher education. It should be eliminated in other areas, too.

How many of you voted for this guy to be the planner of humanity?

Thought not.



https://www.theblaze.com/news/schwab-ele...dictive-ai

Quote:World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab envisioned a future without elections, predicting that voting will no longer be needed as artificial intelligence will be able to predict who voters would want in power.



Schwab spoke to Google co-founder Sergey Brin on stage at the WEF gathering and discussed the predicting powers of AI technology.


"Digital technologies mainly have an analytical power; now we go into a predictive power, and we have seen the first examples, and your company very much evolved into it," he told the Google founder. "The next step could be to go into a prescriptive mode, which means you do not even have to have elections any more because you can already predict."


Next, with the audience eerily silent, Schwab then asked if elections would even be necessary given that the outcomes would already be predicted.

"Afterwards you can say 'why do we need elections?' because we know what the result will be."

Brin then pontificated about eliminating world leaders — replaced by an AI decision-making apparatus — and praised Schwab for his "profound" thoughts.

Schwab later explained that a "crucial issue" that needs to be tackled would be how humanity is viewed.


"We need new concepts to define what humanity is and what's the purpose of our lives is," 

Quote:RED SKY by Chris Goff. When People's Republic Flight 91 plummets into the heart of northeastern Ukraine, a tangled web of international intrigue unravels. Aboard this ill-fated journey was a U.S. diplomatic agent, accompanied by a prisoner from Guangzhou, China, and a trove of sensitive documents. As the smoldering ashes of the crash raise questions, it becomes chillingly clear: this was no accident. Enter U.S. Diplomatic Security Service Agent Raisa Jordan, a protagonist as tenacious as she is savvy. Tasked with unraveling this deadly puzzle, Jordan finds herself at the epicenter of a covert conflict, where every discovery edges her closer to a staggering truth. The stakes? Nothing less than the prevention of a new Cold War. As Jordan delves deeper, she treads a razor's edge between diplomacy and danger. With Russia's shadow looming over Ukraine and China's cryptic involvement, every lead could be a red herring, and every alliance, a trap. But one question burns brighter than the rest: Why would someone orchestrate such a devastating act to silence two Americans?