This is just an opinion piece but.... The FBI was doing shady things under even Hoover and the CIA seems to do one thing good and many things bad IMO.. Maybe a change of leadership for both is all I can expect... if we get someone with balls and good body guards to attempt change in these organizations. Big bad body guards who are loyal and adept with security...
https://lists.youmaker.com/links/FsYNiK8...MhCAHj68NY

Quote:May 24, 2023Updated: May 24, 2023

Commentary
The FBI was a bad idea from its start in the days of J. Edgar Hoover. The agency began in an atmosphere of blackmail.
Now resembling police forces in totalitarian countries, the FBI has become an instrument of oppression of the people it was allegedly meant to protect and serve.
Reports that the bureau has been infiltrating almost all right-of-center organizations are myriad. In our elections, it hasn’t just put its finger on the scale; It has placed its full arm, elbow first.
Just as it’s said that Xi Jinping’s China is “Communism with Chinese characteristics,” it can be said that the FBI is the “STASI or KGB with American characteristics” (the pretense that the Bill of Rights is being followed).
Since centralized power tends to corrupt, in many ways, this was inevitable.
On May 24, we got yet another view—as if we needed one—into the culture of the agency when, as reported here, a deputy assistant FBI director of counterintelligence, Jill Murphy, admitted in congressional testimony that she hadn’t read the years-in-the-making Durham Report on her organization’s activities regarding supposed Trump–Russia collusion.
She was “too busy,” she said, in a response that sounded as if she were auditioning for Saturday Night Live. All she needed was a wink at the audience.
For good reason, the FBI (also the CIA—more in a moment) has come up as an important issue in the Republican presidential primary and also, via Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the Democratic one.
Outsider (is he still that?) candidate entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy shares my assessment and has said he would immediately “shut down” the FBI, as well as the Department of Education and other agencies.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, another GOP candidate, takes the reformist view, stating that “Heads need to roll” at the FBI after Durham. This same stance has been taken ad infinitum by Sean Hannity on all his Fox shows. Just punish the bad guys at the top and all will be well.
But would it? The FBI has more than 37,000 employees yet the whistleblowers–brave that they are—are but a handful. The overwhelming majority, afraid for their jobs, brainwashed, or just hunkered down, are in the end, much like Ms. Murphy, loyal followers of a corrupt and finally anti-democratic culture.
Besides, the reformist path was already tried by one Donald J. Trump, and look what it got him—Christopher Wray, the very image of the worst stonewalling bureaucrat.
Trump blames his nomination of Wray as FBI director on Chris Christie. One can assume that won’t happen again and the 45th president will choose considerably better should he become president again. But would that too be enough?
It would be interesting to hear more details of what Trump plans to do in his executive capacity with both agencies, the FBI and CIA; perhaps, for strategic reasons, that should be left as a pleasant surprise.
That shouldn’t stop us, however, from envisioning what replacement organizations might be like.
I am as interested here in what readers may think as much, or more, than I think, but I will throw out a few suggestions.
The FBI—with a new name—should be a seriously curtailed, domestic-only enterprise with a highly restricted budget and vastly fewer employees.
Most, virtually all, crime-stopping should be in the hands of local state and city constabulary with this new “FBI” stepping in only in obvious interstate situations—a serial killer on the run and so forth.
As an example, they shouldn’t, as they do, have their nose in the Covenant School murders here in Nashville, Tennessee. The further investigations of this nature go from ground zero, the more likely they are to be misused for biased political purposes.
They shouldn’t have anything to do with investigation of terrorism, spying and so forth, domestic or foreign. Their recent bungling, or apparent ignorance, of the Chinese communists having their own police forces in our cities is but one illustration of extreme incompetence in this area. They were evidently too busy spying on us.
The major job of this organization should be aiding states in coordination, not in solving crimes. Above all, it shouldn’t be located anywhere near the Beltway.
What to do about foreign and domestic spying is more complicated. The CIA that grew out of World War II’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS) exists for a reason that need not be explained here.
The problem is its authority and reach has metastasized far beyond that logical explanation.
Kennedy—with obvious personal motivation—has had the courage to point that out. That’s made his presidential campaign among the most noteworthy of recent times.
Mere reformation of the CIA, including the vaunted Church Commission of 1970, seems a prime example of that quote attributed to everybody and everything from Albert Einstein to a Chinese proverb: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Like the FBI, the CIA mustn’t be reformed but canned.
But how, with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and others in the present or future out to get us?
I would submit one word: smaller. Maybe two words: much smaller.
Intelligence agencies by their nature become less efficient as they expand, as do most bureaucracies. We apparently have 17, and computers do most of the work now anyway.
But who keeps tabs on some lean version? Congress? I hate internet acronyms, but somehow SMH comes to mind.
Perhaps we need a new, second, Supreme Court of sorts (with or without lawyers) specifically tasked with keeping tabs on the new FBI and CIA to ensure they are spying on our adversaries and not us.

Anyone listen to it?

I just finished listening to it a bit ago. Total Jeb energy.

Big mistake not to wait another cycle, imo.

Like the title says Canada is dying yet if you think about your own country you will recognize some of the headlines from where you live.

Good morning, fellow doers!

Earlier this spring, I was thinking about an idea I had. It came from a YouTube video (now so deep in my history as to be irrecoverable) and I started checking on the possibility. I have two goals for this project: honey (haven't been able to afford that golden elixir in a couple of decades) and pollination for my garden. So far the pollination hasn't been terrible as we do have an occasional wild honeybee and plenty of bumblebees, but more is better when it comes to pollination.

Now, surely, someone else on here raises bees... so I decided to post this to let that someone educate me. I want to learn all about this before I jump in with both feet. Here's what I am thinking:

Out near my barn there is plenty of room for several hives. That's maybe 50 feet from my garden as well (assuming bees don't get deterred by wire fences, lol). It's also a respectable distance from my house. I am about the only one usually out there, and bee stings don't hurt me all that bad. They sting, yes, but compared to a red wasp (those buggers have stung me plenty throughout my life) they're an annoyance.

I'm thinking of starting with a single hive and letting them swarm until I have maybe three at the most. I'm not interested in selling honey; I am interested in having honey. I could get all the equipment to make the honey, which as I understand it is a few 5-gallon buckets, straining material, and a small (2-frame?) centrifuge. I have plenty of room to set that up.

Yes, that includes a bee suit. I'm tough, not stupid.

I plan on making my own hives, too, and that includes the frames. I am decent at woodworking after all. I have one issue with the standard stackable hives, though, and that is the amount of work to lift them off one at a time. They need to be inspected regularly and of course taken out to get the honeycomb. But in my present health, any physical exertion is severely limited... I still have some strength, but stamina have I none. I have 5 minutes to exert on a good day, then it's a folding chair for an hour while I try to wheeze myself into a coma. I am therefore looking for the easiest hive to inspect and remove frames from; difficulty in assembly is a secondary consideration. So any advice on that front is appreciated. I even had the bright idea of making an outer frame with hives that could slide in and out, but I have been told that's just not feasible because of how the bees tend to seal their hive.

I'm also trying to decide what kind of wood to use. I am et up with cedar and red oak, and of course pine is cheap to buy. I do have the capacity to turn rough-cut boards into finished lumber, so I could find other indigenous species at local sawmills (and maybe barter some standing logs for lumber; I'm not able to run a sawmill anyway so I deal with them time to time).

The only competition around that area would be the bumblebees and the occasional wasp (very few wasps out there). We do have yellow jackets, but they are on the opposite end of the place, 500 yards or so away.

I missed getting everything running this spring; I was unprepared and things take me longer than they do normal people. But come next spring, I would like to be ready to get some bees. That means I need to start preparing now. So come on, all you rogues and roguesses out there in virtual conspiracy land! What advice you got for an aging, decrepit redneck who so far has refused to fall down?

TheRedneck

A "Closer" look at a hyped UFO /  UAP recent story that hit the alien boards recently. Appears 2 years of investigation may not conclude what they thought it would conclude.

Yeah, I post Alien stories as well.... sometimes. It is not like there are many good ones.


https://www.theblackvault.com/documentar...oser-look/

Complete Statement from Pentagon

Quote:On May 23, 2023, investigative journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp released exclusive footage of a UFO, dubbed the “Mojave Triangle UAP”, hovering over the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms – Camp Wilson. The event, which took place on April 20, 2021, between 8:20pm to 9:30pm PST, is labeled by Corbell as a “mass UFO sighting” and said to have over fifty eyewitnesses. The object, captured on iPhones and infrared, is described as a silent triangular-shaped craft, estimated to be between half the size of a football field and a three-bedroom, two-story house.

Following the sighting, Corbell stated there was a “significant air and ground response,” which he further claimed was a search and reconnaissance effort related to the UAP event, lasting approximately three hours. Given the location of this sighting within the restricted airspace of an active United States military installation, it is believed by Corbell that a significant amount of data, including radar, thermal, electro-optical, and signature intelligence, were accumulated.

Oh Oh, China is attempting to compromise US cyber and critical infrastructure. Not good as this is a "state sponsored" attack and not some random hacker group. 

Couple this along with the sudden issue of sat phones to Senators and the DHS terror alert earlier today and it does not look minor.


https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security...echniques/

Quote:Microsoft reported Wednesday that alleged China-backed hackers have conducted a cyberattack on "critical infrastructure," raising concerns about potential disruptions to communications infrastructure.

"Microsoft has uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States," it said in a statement.

The company said the attack was carried out by Volt Typhoon, which it said was a state-sponsored actor based in China that focuses on espionage and information gathering.

"Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises," it said.

Volt Typhoon has been active since mid-2021 and has targeted critical infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the US, it said.

"In this campaign, the affected organizations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors.

"Observed behavior suggests that the threat actor intends to perform espionage and maintain access without being detected for as long as possible," said the statement.

Quote:Microsoft officials on Wednesday issued an advisory saying a Chinese hacking group compromised “critical” U.S. cyber infrastructure focused on gathering intelligence – and urged customers to close or change credentials for exposed accounts.

An enlightening article about engineered destruction and the scourge of organized theft. Did you know that some are carrying calculators with them to ring up the value of items so they can stay under the "Felony" dollar limits?

I had no idea it had gotten THIS bad. They refuse to prosecute, some of these professional thieves have been arrested over 30 times and they let them out to do it again and again. This is a manmade disaster and engineered to cause chaos in my opinion.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/23/shoplifter...destroyed/

Quote:Target, Home Depot and other retailers announced last week they are taking big hits to their profits because of “double-digit” increases in theft nationwide.

That’s after hiking prices on consumers. When the guy next to you loads a bag with whatever merchandise isn’t locked up and walks out without paying, keep in mind you’re paying for his stolen stuff.

Stores are fleeing New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, cities that soft-on-crime mayors and district attorneys have made shoplifters’ paradises.

NPR reporter Sandhya Dirks says taking necessities without paying shouldn’t be considered a crime.

Ridiculous. Most poor people don’t steal. It’s an insult to claim they do.

But organized thievery is increasingly the problem.

Thieves go into drugstores carrying calculators to be sure the value of the items they’re loading into their bags doesn’t exceed what the law defines as a misdemeanor — $1,000 or less in New York and most states.

A felony risks jail time, and shoplifters will put items back on the shelf to avoid that.
They can return the next day for another haul.

They’re gaming the law and stealing goods to resell them, not because they’re hungry or need diapers for a baby.
In New York City, nearly one third of shoplifting incidents that led to arrests last year were committed by the same 327 people — professional thieves — who were taken into custody a total of 6,000 times.

But they’re still on the streets. “We have individuals that have been arrested over 30 times just this year,” reports NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri.

How much does this vampire pay his PR firm to constantly bombard us with this satanic drivel. Being so afraid of your own mortality that you siphon the youth off your actual legacy instead of protecting and investing in them is deeply sick in the head and a perversion of nature. Bryan Johnson, 45-year-old founder of Braintree Payment Solutions which also owned Venmo sold his companies to PayPal in 2013 for $800 Million.

Quote:Bryan Johnson enlisted his 17-year-old son, Talmage, as his personal 'blood boy' for a controversial practice called 'plasma-swapping'

Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old multi-millionaire is attempting to slow down his ageing process. The software developer follows a rigorous routine to achieve this. He also spends a whopping $2 million every year to forever look young.

He feels that regular blood transfusions will keep his internal organs young. And now he's enlisted his 17-year-old son, Talmage, as his personal 'blood boy' in plasma-swapping, which is known to be a controversial practice.

The US-based entrepreneur along with his 70-year-old father Richard went to a clinic near Dallas in Texas for a unique tri-generational blood-swapping treatment. Johnson often receives plasma from anonymous donors who have been carefully chosen to ensure they have an appropriate BMI, a healthy lifestyle, and are disease-free, reported Bloomberg.

However, this time something different happened as son Talmage offered a litre of his own blood, which was then converted into separate batches of liquid plasma, red and white blood cells, and platelets. Talmage's plasma was put into Johnson's veins after his blood was extracted, increasing the contentious process. Johnson's father, Richard, arrived at the end and underwent the same operation.

For the unversed, the whole idea of using plasma as an anti-ageing technique gained prominence when scientists performed experiments on mice, the human-based data remains limited. To shed light on the task, young and old mice were brought together to share a circulatory system and the older rodents improved in cognitive function, metabolism, and bone structure, whilst the younger ones benefited from regular blood donation. However, the efficacy of plasma-swapping as a human longevity treatment remains uncertain, prompting many academics to be dubious.

While expressing his opinion on plasma-swapping, Charles Brenner, a biochemist at City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles said, "We have not learned enough to suggest this is a viable human treatment for anything. To me, it's gross, evidence-free, and relatively dangerous." The old use of blood plasma includes offering it to patients experiencing trauma, burns, shock, severe liver disease, and clotting deficiencies.

Johnson,  who is popularly known for his stupendous achievement in selling his payment processing company Braintree Payment Solutions to eBay for $800 million in cash at a young age of 30, has been vocal about his fight against time.

Project Blueprint, his anti-ageing initiative, aspires to change the quantified biological age of each of his 70 organs. To achieve this, Johnson goes through an ultra-strict routine that includes a multitude of supplements, rigorous exercise, a low-calorie vegan diet, and even a carefully calculated teeth-brushing regimen. Besides that, he also keeps a track of his sleep patterns by using a machine that also keeps count of his erections through the night.

Inspite of the sceptics, Johnson maintains that his costly procedures have resulted in a heart that performs like a 37-year-old and skin that looks like a 28-year-old. His passion for longevity has also prompted him to establish Kernel, a company that manufactures $50,000 brain-measuring helmets. These helmets monitor brain signals and assess the effectiveness of meditation and medication therapies for chronic pain.

The whole idea of doing this is to ensure that his internal organs work in a way it used to happen in his teens.
Johnson wrote in his Blueprint that the project was born “after feeling helpless to stop myself from overeating to soothe the pains of life. Despite my successes: raising three kids and selling my business Braintree Venmo for $800 million; when 7pm rolled around, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from engaging in this self-destructive behaviour.”

Sick Business

According to a few of the articles, Senators are being issued these phones in the event of a "Large communications outage". Why now? Usually when they "suddenly prepare" for strange events, those events materialize in short order.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senators-is...-measures/

Quote:Members of the U.S. Senate were recently offered satellite phones that will allow them to communicate in the case of a “man-made” or natural disaster, according to a report.

“A Department of Homeland Security advisory said satellite phones are a tool for responding to and coordinating government services in the case of a ‘man-made’ or natural disaster that wipes out communication.”

Old John Pebbles gently shook the clay flagon and hearing the reassuring sloshing of his homemade cider, wondered
if he should delay his usual ritual of getting to his bed before the sun went down and continue his blather with the little
woman sitting across from him. She too had partaken of the fermented juice and even though the Gnome was probably
twice her age, the occasional flash of his visitor's bare thigh still aroused feelings in him he'd believed had left long ago.

A large circle of fairies were coming to the last verse of their special Midsummer ballad and the bonfire they'd been
dancing around since late-afternoon was waning in its effulgence. The old Gnome and the small bare-footed female
watching the gaiety sighed as one at the simple exultation of life from beings who were and always will be one with
nature.

But even the sweet liquid wasn't powerful enough to shroud John's reminder that the tipsy lady in the poncho was
also a Witch and a half-Fae one to boot. The discreet festival hadn't been her sole reason for their meeting. Being
one of the rare exorcisers of those beyond the veil, his guest had recently expelled the spine-chilling creature known
as the Mowing Devil from a homestead over near Nine Banks. Seeing the tiredness around the eyes of the woman
under a wide-brimmed hat, he wondered what lay ahead for this cleanser of demons and monsters.

"After the Litha celebration is over, where do yer' think yer'll be heading to?" John asked in his best casual voice and
with all his will to keep the slurring out of his question. His sociable guest for the last two days pushed back her large
headwear and peered up at the blue-orange sky of early evening. "These old dogs are whisperin' that Ah' should head
towards the coast..." she answered amiably and wiggled her toes to emphasise what she meant. "...But me-heart has
been beckonin' me te' teke' a trip to somewhere Ah' have nay prevailed since Ah' was a young'un" the wool-gathering
wanderer added with a whimsical smile.

The full explanation wouldn't be revealed until the next day when the Gnome's guest finished her breakfast of unsalted
porridge and stood up from the small homemade table in his burrow. Hoisting a well-worn satchel onto her shoulder,
the famous necromancer of a hundred villages smiled as John Pebble also got to his feet and approached the woman
who'd been kind enough to spend a Midsummer's festival with someone many knew as a grouchy old bastard.

"Ah'll be on me-way now Mister Pebbles..." she said meekly and accepted the old Fae's rushed embrace, the ancient
Gnome's sparse hair smelled oddly of cinnamon with a faint wisp of last night's cider. "...Yon road is callin' again and
Ah'm itchin' te' go back te' see what home looks like" she added and gently patted her host on the shoulder.

As the little Witch skirted a ring of toadstools, stepped over the remains of a rotting log and disappeared behind a large
flowering rhododendron bush, one the fairies from the previous evening's merriment stepped out from the tall grasses
that hid John's little underground home from predators and followed the old Gnome's gaze.

"Where is she going" the almost-transparent spirit known as Bubbles asked as glitter-dust floated above the fairy's wake
through the undergrowth. The Gnome had seen almost a hundred Midsummer nights and had heard most of the tales
regarding the small sorceress who shunned footwear, most of them he was certain couldn't be true. Allowing a sigh to
leave his ponderings, John Pebbles scratched the raspy stubble on his chin and replied "Where would the Last Witch
of Underhill go when she says she's goin' home?".
.................................................................

With the dew still cooling her heels, Peggy Powler left the lush greenery of the forest and clambered unceremoniously
over the drystone that segregated the thick woodland and her favourite road of travel. The diminutive Witch knew that
Calder's Way passed close to the secluded area where Gnomes and other Fae lived and her need to be those of a more
magical predisposition than most humans had been too enticing to resist.

The farming community of Nine Banks lay a good day's walk behind her and ahead was the village of Beggar's Well,
a place she'd once killed a Barguest with an axe and felt great guilt about the act for several days. Peggy shivered as
she recalled those cold winter days across the moors, keeping away from farmhouses and the like. But with a quick
whip of her head and a glance towards the bright morning sky, the memories fell away and the little augurer's gait
improved along the cemented sea-cobbles of the fabled highway.

Underhill awaited and the woman who'd once been an auntie to the young girl left by her mother and the Carnival
would certainly be there. Peggy Powler smiled once more as she recalled the woman who was twice as old as
John Pebbles and could drink more in a night than the Gnome would manage in a week. Wicked Hetty, the Hag
of the Well.