Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787, was carrying at least 244 people on board. Preliminary reports indicate the plane crashed in a residential neighborhood about five minutes after taking off around 1:38 p.m. The flight was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport.

"FACT FOCUS: A Craigslist Ad Is Not Proof of Paid Protesters in LA. It Was Posted as a Prank"

Quote:    CLAIM: A Craigslist ad seeking “the toughest badasses in the city” is proof that Los Angeles demonstrations over immigration raids are made up of paid protesters.
    THE FACTS: This is false. The ad, which appeared in Craigslist's Los Angeles section for general labor jobs, was bait for a prank show and had nothing to do with the protests in Los Angeles, the ad's creator told The Associated Press. It was posted on Thursday, the day before the protests began. In a livestreamed episode on Friday, the show's hosts called and spoke with people who responded to the ad.
   
    “I literally had no idea it was ever going to be connected to the riots. It was a really weird coincidence,” said Joey LaFleur, who posted the ad on Craigslist.
    The ad was developed as part of a new prank show called “Goofcon1,” said LaFleur, who hosts the podcast with Logan Quiroz. On their show Friday, the day protests began, they spoke live on the phone with people who responded during Goofcon1’s third episode.

A sex attack happened in Ballymena Northern Ireland a couple of days ago and two 14-year-old boys were charged with attempted rape of a teenage girl, they were remanded in custody when they appeared at Coleraine Magistrates' Court on Monday , a Romanian interpreter also attended the court hearing giving an indication of the nationality of the alleged offenders. Last night angry locals took to the streets to vent their anger as I have read this isn't the first sex attack to happen in the locality.

Obviously I have to be careful what I say but I can give some advice to migrants in the area ... Don't piss off the Irish , especially the Northern Irish !

The house the migrants were supposedly living in has been torched along the house next door.
 

If they keep pushing this multicultural disaster on us more of this stuff will happen , politicians only have themselves to blame and will reap their reward at the ballot box next election.

The other day I read some article which was talking about a Navy frigate.  I wondered...what is the difference between a frigate and a destroyer?  Then I got to wondering about naval ship sizes in general.  The gist of the one article I was reading was how a Navy frigate outgrew its utility.  Now, I've talked about this theme related to the military (in general) here before.  The theme is, the military just can't do anything small; everything they do has to be huge.  Never was this theme more true when talking about US Navy ships.  I'll cut to the chase here and describe what I'm talking about, then circle back to this part.

As part of my research, I looked at modern day ships as well has ship sizes throughout naval history.  Almost without exception, the following progression happens every single time.  ...

The Navy will build a small(er), highly efficient, and very effective ship, and then they will "improve" them.  The "new and improved" ship will be bigger, less efficient and less effective.  Over time, the same type of ship will grow so large and become so inefficient that it can no longer even be called that class of ship any longer and has to be re-classified as the next larger class above it.  So, frigates grow, and grow, and get heavier and slower, until they can no longer be called "frigates" anymore and have be called "destroyers".  Destroyers will grow, and grow, until they can no longer be called destroyers and have to be called "cruisers".  And so on, and so on.  If you look at the history of the Navy, this happens every time.  The problem becomes when a frigate (for example) becomes too large to be called a frigate, and now has to be called a destroyer, it is not effective as a frigate and it is not effective as a destroyer.  They're just not effective at anything.  Same for destroyers, and cruisers.  

Where I got off on this tangent was thinking about how the US Navy doesn't really have any good brown/green water ships; they're all so big they have to be blue water boats.  So, what happens when a brown/green water threat shows up?  (the most likely threat, btw).  The Littoral Combat Ship (designed to address this issue) has been a catastrophic failure.  They will be retired before they ever see service (they're THAT bad)!  There is a huge gap right now between a 'coastal patrol boat' and a frigate (the next larger ship).  Yet, every other navy on the planet is bristling with patrol boats.  Yes, this is the US Coast Guard's area of responsibility but the USCG is not set up to fight a war, unlike the Navy.

Destroyers too are the same way.  The primary function of a destroyer is to protect the fleet.  But destroyers today have become so big they're now called missile cruisers, and while they might be capable of defending the fleet against other ships (sort of), they're very little deterrent to aircraft, particularly swarmed aircraft like say drones.  

Yes, if you look, you will still see names like 'frigate' and 'destroyer', but if you look at the evolution of these ships over time, they have all gotten progressively bigger to the point they no longer serve their intended role.  A missile cruiser, for example, is most effective against land based targets which doesn't have anything to do with protecting the fleet.  And then I suppose we have to ask, what is a "fleet" today?  Well, predominantly aircraft carriers now.  So, now aircraft carriers are pretty much left to defend themselves.

I really wonder what would happen if we were to get into a full blown war with another large naval power?  I fear we wouldn't fare as well as our military brass is telling Congress (when requesting funding).  If the mix of ships in the Navy is wrong, then naval power of the nation is at risk.  All great big, expensive, floating targets.  

Lastly, remember it wasn't some awesome superpower with a great big, expensive, technically advanced military which toppled the twin WTC towers on 9-11.  No, it was a handful of guys with box cutters and (4) unarmed airliners.  The point here being, it's not the great big, expensive, enemy who does the most damage; it's the little guy you don't see coming.  Just ask Putin, the guy who just lost 1/3 of his entire nuclear capable air force to less than a half dozen well timed strikes with weapons which you can buy at Best-Buy for a few hundred bucks.  Oh, and it wasn't some super massive force which just about sank the entire US Navy on Dec. 7th 1941 either.

But hey, we have drones right??  Heh, yeah, great big, expensive, ones which are too big to be called drones, so they're called UAV's.  (I've been saying this for years, but it doesn't appear anyone is listening).

We're fighting a war against an adversary who doesn't exist anymore. A ghost.

This is worth a listen IMO

Trump not f**king around with this Los Angeles BS 

He's sending 700 Active Duty Marines in !!!! 

He also commented that Newsom being arrested would be great! ROFLOLz 

(Article from ABC -- Bias warning)
700 Marines deployed to Los Angeles amid ongoing ICE protests

Quote:Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is much more interested in winning the social media wars than bringing peace and prosperity to his failed state.


On Monday afternoon, President Trump was asked his thoughts about White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, aka “border czar,” Tom Homan saying he would arrest Newsom and failed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass if they broke federal law… even though Homan never said he would arrest Bass or Newsom. All he said is that if they cross a specific legal line, they are not above the law.

Here’s what Homan actually said.

“You cross that line,” he told MSNBC over the weekend, “it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement from doing their job.”

So Homan’s comments are nothing like the fake media are portraying them.

Sorry but I really do think this story deserves it's own stand alone thread.

Gentleman prepare for war ! 
 https://apple.news/Ard8VJyXgRrO-si9lkfl1SA

Quote:Iran expands dog-walking ban
6 hours ago


Jessica Rawnsley
BBC News
Parham Ghobadi
BBC Persian
EPA
Transporting dogs in vehicles has also been outlawed
Iranian officials have expanded a ban on dog walking to a swathe of cities across the country, citing public order and health and safety concerns.
The ban - which mirrors a 2019 police order that barred dog walking in the capital, Tehran - has been extended to at least 18 other cities in the past week. Transporting dogs in vehicles has also been outlawed.
Dog ownership has been frowned upon in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with dogs viewed as "unclean" by authorities and a legacy of Western cultural influence.
But despite efforts to discourage it, dog ownership is rising, particularly among young people, and it is viewed as a form of rebellion against the restrictive Iranian regime.
Cities including Isfahan and Kerman have introduced bans in recent days, according to news agency AFP.
An official from the western city of Ilam, where a ban was implemented on Sunday, said "legal action" would be taken against people who violated the new rules, according to local media.
However, enforcing restrictions in the past has been patchy, while many dog owners continue to walk their dogs in public in Tehran and other parts of Iran.
There is no national law that outright bans dog ownership, but prosecutors often issue local restrictions that are enforced by police.
"Dog walking is a threat to public health, peace and comfort," Abbas Najafi, prosecutor of the western city of Hamedan, told state newspaper Iran.
Owners have sometimes been arrested and dogs confiscated for being walked in public.
Many have taken to walking their dogs in secluded areas at night or driving them around to evade detection.
Politicians in the Islamic regime regard pet ownership as un-Islamic. Many religious scholars view petting dogs or coming into contact with their saliva as "najis" or ritually impure.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has previously described dog ownership - other than for the purposes of herding, hunting and security - as "reprehensible".
In 2021, 75 lawmakers condemned dog ownership as a "destructive social problem" that could "gradually change the Iranian and Islamic way of life".
Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance banned advertisements for pets or pet-related products in 2010 - and in 2014 there was a drive in parliament to fine and even flog dog-walkers, though the bill did not pass.
Following the recent crackdown, critics argue the police should focus on public safety at a time of growing concern over violent crime, rather than targeting dog owners and restricting personal freedoms.
Dog ownership, defying Iran's mandatory hijab laws, attending underground parties and drinking alcohol have long been forms of quiet rebellion against Iran's theocratic regime.

In this third episode of our "First Strike" series, we dive into the aerial dimension of the Rhodesian Bush War—a brutal and complex conflict from 1965 to 1980, where a small, isolated nation faced overwhelming odds. From daring cross-border raids to innovative Fireforce tactics, we explore how the Rhodesian Air Force, flying aging but effective aircraft like the Lynx, Hunter, and Canberra, played a pivotal role in counterinsurgency operations against Soviet- and Chinese-backed guerrillas. Witness the tactics, operations, and outcomes of a war fought with ingenuity in the skies above Africa.



00:00 Introduction
00:50 Background
04:48 Rhodesian Air Forces
05:24 War in Two Phases
06:19 War Begins - 1965
08:18 Phase Two - 1971
10:02 Major Ops 1976
12:31 November 1977
14:23 Operation Gatling 1978
19:20 Operation Vanity 1979
21:11 Operation Uric 1979 - detailed
36:54 Uric aftermath
38:16 End of conflict
41:48 Conclusion

Correction:
02:13 should read "...23,000 from other countries and ethnicities."