Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Randy Ali

Moro Islamic Liberation Front

Southeast Asia

20020205

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Texas Sheriff: Human Smugglers Stuffed 12 Migrants in Hay Bales on Trailer

2025-05-21

[Breitbart] A Texas sheriff’s deputy intercepted a pickup truck hauling a trailer packed with large round bales. Stuffed inside the hollowed-out bales were about a dozen illegal aliens being smuggled into the U.S. interior.

Fayette County, Texas, Sheriff Keith Korenek reported on Tuesday that drug interdiction Sgt. Randy Thumann stopped a white Ford F-250 pickup truck hauling a gooseneck hay trailer shortly after noon on Tuesday. Inside the round bales of hay, Thumann found about 12 migrants who were being smuggled into the interior of the country.

The traffic stop took place on Interstate 10 near the 658 mile marker between San Antonio and Houston. This location is nearly 250 miles from the Texas-Mexico border.

Sheriff Korenek said Thumann discovered the hay bales had been carved out and modified to hide illegal aliens inside the bales. The human smugglers used metal frameworks and layers of hay to evade detection.

“This method of concealment is not only deceptive but incredibly dangerous to human life,” the sheriff explained. “Smugglers continue to use increasingly creative and hazardous techniques to transport individuals across Texas highways.”

Officials identified the alleged human smuggler as 44-year-old Delbert Flanders, a Kansas resident. Medical crews transported Flanders to a local hospital for undisclosed medical treatment. Two Houstonians, 22-year-old Adanaylo Lambert and 25-year-old Lency Delgado Fernandez, were identified as the “coordinators” and were taken into custody. The Houstonians face state and federal charges related to human smuggling.

Sheriff’s office officials turned the 12 migrants over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for processing and removal.

Breitbart Texas has written about the exploits of Sgt. Thumann since July 2016. Over the years, he and his K-9 partners, along with other deputies within the department, have been responsible for the seizure of massive loads of drugs, millions of dollars in currency, and the occasional human smuggling interdiction.

Assisting Sgt. Thumann in this interdiction were Texas DPS troopers, the Flatonia Police Department, Fayette County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and Fayette County EMS.

The incident remains under state and federal investigation, Sheriff Korenek stated.

Link

Home Front: Politix

New York City mayor opens new task force aimed at combating antisemitism

2025-05-15

[IsraelTimes] Eric Adams cites need for ‘decisive action’ as he announces Office to Combat Antisemitism, 1st of its kind in a major US city, amid upsurge in anti-Jewish hate crimes

New York City Mayor Eric Adams
...Hizonner da Mare of Noo Yawk. As a Manchurian candidate, Hizonner was all in favor of law and order and that kind of stuff. Once in office, a bunch of his friends found cushy jobs with the city, the windows kept getting broken, and Soros-funded DA Alvin Bragg remained right where he was. Most people comfort themselves with the thought that he's not Bill di Blasio but that's pretty small comfort with kids who actually go to school getting bumped off while standing in front of them. But he's a Dem, so the rubes will vote for him next election too, so he's what they deserve...
on Monday announced a new office aimed at combating antisemitism, amid a sustained surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes following the October 2023 invasion of Israel.

Talk about a turnaround! Compare the man now to what he was like during the Biden-Harris/BLM era.He had a serious Come-to-Jesus moment when the Progressives turned on him as soon as he spoke up because the illegal aliens Florida and Texas were bussing to him had become a serious, serious problem for his little city.

The Office to Combat Antisemitism, a citywide bureau under the mayor’s purview, is the first of its kind in a major US city.

The office will establish an inter-agency task force for fighting antisemitism, the mayor’s office told The Times of Israel. Its activities will include monitoring court cases related to anti-Jewish crimes, giving advice on executive orders and legislation, and liaising with the New York City Law Department, the department that handles most of the city’s legal affairs.

The antisemitism bureau will also have the authority to enforce a ban on antisemitism at city-funded agencies. Recent incidents at city agencies include a New York City Department of Education office sending out a toolkit with antisemitic language, and a city parks office booking Kehlani, an anti-Israel singer who has called for an intifada and the destruction of Israel. Kehlani’s Central Park concert was canceled amid pressure from the mayor’s office.

Adams appointed Moshe Davis, his Jewish liaison since 2022, to head the new office. Davis will start by forming a commission of New York City Jewish leaders to advise the new bureau. Davis will report to Randy Mastro, the city’s first deputy mayor.

"This office will be a sledgehammer: deliberate, coordinated and unapologetic," Davis said at a Tuesday press briefing. "We’re all in the same boat. This isn’t a Jewish issue, this is a New York issue."
Like most street crime
The mayor’s office cited the high rate of antisemitism as a reason for establishing the office. Last year, 54% of all hate crimes in New York City targeted Jews, and during the first quarter of this year, that figure climbed to 62%, according to NYPD data. Jews represent around 10% of the city population.

"This moment calls for decisive action," Adams said in a statement. "Antisemitism is an attack not only on Jewish New Yorkers, but on the very idea of New York City as a place where people from all backgrounds can live together."

It’s such a downer when the police keep having to going over to the neighbours’ and then question me again, just because those other idiots think they’re entitled to come here and cause trouble.

Adams announced the task force at a Monday briefing in City Hall, flanked by Hasidic, Orthodox, and secular community leaders, including representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and the UJA-Federation of New York.

Adams, a former NYPD officer and Brooklyn borough president, has strong ties to New York Jewish communities, particularly in Brooklyn, and is a vocal supporter of Israel and the Jewish community. He announced the task force while standing next to Devorah Halberstam, whose son, Ari, was murdered in an antisemitic attack in 1994. Adams and Halberstam have been close since then.

In 2023, Adams formed the city’s first Jewish Advisory Council, a group charged with improving Jewish life in the city. Another program, called Breaking Bread, Building Bonds, is aimed at combating hatred more generally.

The Trump administration established a federal antisemitism task force in February.

Adams’s predecessor Comrade Bill de Blasio

...cryptocommie former mayor of New York and for some reason a Dem candidate for president in 2020. Corrupt and incompetent, his qualifications for office seem to consist of being married to a black woman, with whom he honeymooned in Cuba. He has a preppy-looking son named Dante, whose Divine Comedy involved getting his back hair up when a police car drove past him slowly. New Yorkers voted for him, so they deserved him...
opened the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes in 2019, largely in response to antisemitism. Adams said the new task force will complement the hate crimes unit.

The new office’s scope extends beyond hate crimes with its oversight of city agencies.

"There are many rivers that feed the sea of antisemitism," Adams said, citing rhetoric at schools and colleges. "We have to proactively monitor what is leaving our agencies. We cannot be the feeder of hate."

The broader focus could cause conflicts as the office navigates the line between anti-Israel speech and antisemitism. Jewish New Yorkers have been unnerved by hundreds of anti-Israel protests on city streets since October 7, including in Jewish neighborhoods. Adams has defended the right to protest and criticize Israel, including on Tuesday.

"You have a right to free speech and you have a right to have your opinion," he said. "We want to make sure that free speech does not cross the line into hate."

The details of the task force’s oversight of city agencies remain unclear. Davis declined to confirm whether the new office will adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which covers some forms of Israel criticism. There will be further details available about the task force’s protocols in the coming weeks, he said.

Adams said that advocating for Paleostinians does not constitute antisemitism, but indicated he personally views anti-Zionism as antisemitic.

"If you’re saying, ’Eradicate Israel, destroy Israel,’ I mean, who lives in Israel?" Adams said. "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, call it a duck."

Adams has been battered over corruption allegations and his ties to the Trump administration in the past year.

He is up for reelection in November. The city’s Democratic Party primary, which typically decides who will win the general election in the mostly Democratic city, will take place next month. Adams announced last month that he will run as an independent.

Former New York governor Andrew Sonny Cuomo

has a commanding lead in polls for the primary, and has also been pitching to Jewish voters and prioritizing the fight against antisemitism, making several stops at synagogues in recent weeks.

Adams has reportedly petitioned to run in the mayoral race on an "EndAntiSemitism" ballot line.

Jews have been disproportionately targeted in hate crimes in New York for years, including before the October 2023 Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
attack. When de Blasio announced the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, Jews were also targeted in 60% of hate crimes. Adams said the task force was starting this week, despite that history, as part of a long "evolution" in his approach to combating hate.

Link

Science & Technology

Army ditches helicopters for new radical air assault planes

2025-05-12

In defense of 'the island chains’
[FoxNews] Tiltrotor planes are replacing Black Hawk helicopters and the Army wants them now

It’s a plane. It’s a helicopter. It’s both. Meet "FLRAA," the Army’s new tiltrotor for Future Long-Range Air Assault. This is how the Army will island hop in the Pacific to fend off China. And by the way, Chinese President Xi Jinping has nothing like it.

With a stunning announcement, the Army did more than ax 40 generals and open the door to AI. The Army bet its future on this radical aircraft, whose engines swivel to take off and land like a helicopter, or fly high and fast like an airplane.

This aircraft was on pace to enter the Army inventory in the early 2030s.

Then came the Army shake-up. On May 1, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the Army to focus more on the Indo-Pacific. In that region, sheer distance and Chinese missile threat rings are locking out current helicopters. For the mission of air assault – when troops move into hostile and contested areas by rotary-wing aircraft – the hard truth is that the Army has a looming capability gap.

"We can't actually do the large-scale, long-range air assault today" with the speed and distance required in modern warfare, Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said last year.

That’s unacceptable, given Xi’s growing appetite for military confrontation.

So now the Army wants its revolutionary plane ASAP. On Wednesday, May 7, Army Chief of Staff General Randy George told Congress he wants to move it up several years, "into the 2028 timeframe." Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll said he met with prime contractor Bell Textron to talk about a rush order.

It’s easy to see why. The acronym-happy Army says "FLRAA" will fly 1,700 nautical miles without refueling and carry 12 passengers at a speed near 300 mph. Compare that to the 183 mph for the Black Hawk helicopter it is replacing. For pilots, the extra range, speed and survivability of a tiltrotor is a huge improvement on a helicopter. With a tiltrotor, they can zoom all over the battlespace with impunity and land any time, any place, in any conditions.

Army recruitment surges to 15-year high under Trump administration Video
You may be familiar with the V-22 Osprey, which first flew in 1989 and is now flown by the Marine Corps, Navy and U.S. Air Force special operations forces. As the first operational tiltrotor, the V-22 has had ups and downs, but beyond question, the V-22 proved itself in combat in Afghanistan. In another vivid example, in 2013, three battle-damaged Air Force MV-22s flew 500 miles from South Sudan to Entebbe, Uganda, spewing fuel, to save the lives of wounded Navy SEALs aboard.

No wonder the Army pounced on the tiltrotor concept.

However, the Army FLRAA is an all-new design based on the prototype V-280 Valor, which first flew in 2017. It is slightly smaller than the V-22, with a 47-foot fuselage consisting of an aluminum structure and carbon fiber composite skin.

The big advance for "FLRAA" is in the tilt mechanism. On the older V-22, the whole engine nacelle housing pivoted. For the Army’s aircraft, that headache is gone. The two engine nacelles stay put on the wing. Only the propellors rotate, to switch between helicopter and airplane mode. This is much safer, and the improved rotor design also increases agility and maneuverability in low-speed flight while in helicopter mode.

The other major difference is that the Army’s tiltrotor is designed as a multi-mission aircraft. Door guns on each side mark it as a dedicated air assault platform. Contrast that with the V-22 which only has a tail gun. The new Army tiltrotor also carries so-called "launched effects," which is military lingo for a variety of drones, such as self-protection decoys released to divert enemy fire, sensor drones to hunt targets, drones that do electronic warfare jamming and of course weapons drones for the kill.

With its range capability, the Army tiltrotor can drive these drones deep into the battlespace. With drone operations in mind, software matters, so the plane has an open systems digital backbone ready to plug in new systems anytime.

Even more intriguing, the FLRAA has the potential to fly by itself. At 240 knots it can deploy from Hawaii to the Philippines in 20 hours. In the future, "FLRAA" may also be able to self-deploy, moving to the theater by flying autonomously as an unmanned aircraft and rejoining with crews at a forward location.

It’s easy to see why. The acronym-happy Army says "FLRAA" will fly 1,700 nautical miles without refueling and carry 12 passengers at a speed near 300 mph. Compare that to the 183 mph for the Black Hawk helicopter it is replacing.

The Army sees the Pacific islands like a chessboard. If China threatens, the tiltrotor "FLRAA" can move soldiers rapidly to land in contested areas and block Chinese forces from taking over.

Link

Home Front: WoT

DNI GABBARD: Biden Admin Admitted 600 Illegal Aliens with Ties to Terrorists

2025-05-01

[Breitbart] Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard reported that nearly 600 individuals with ties to terrorism were allowed to enter the United States under the Biden administration. The individuals were “paroled” into the U.S. by the Biden administration after they illegally entered the U.S.

DNI Gabbard told President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that her office identified 700 “alien terrorists” who have ties to MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the Sinaloa cartel. President Trump designated these cartels and transnational criminal gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Gabbard said the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) “identified almost 600 individuals with ties to other terrorists who came through our borders illegally, claimed asylum, and, under the Biden administration, paroled here within our borders.”

The director said her agency is working with the Attorney General and the NCTC to prioritize its focus on finding these potential terrorists and gang members. She pledged to find those “who are already here in our country because of the Biden administration’s four years of open borders.”

Her agency is working with the Drug Enforcement Administration to identify the cartels that were designated as foreign terrorists by the president and stop them at the border. She said the agency is turning over names to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI “to be able to find those who are already in our country.”

Breitbart Texas reported extensively on illegal aliens who were on the Terrorist Watch List and other aliens with known or suspected ties to terrorists who the Biden administration released into the U.S.

In December 2024, the Biden administration released a suspected terrorist into the United States after being warned by Texas law enforcement officials of the terrorist connection, Breitbart Texas reported.

Breitbart’s Randy Clark wrote:

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the number of migrants arrested attempting to enter the United States illegally at the southwest border who appeared in the Terror Screening Database skyrocketed. During the four fiscal years of the Trump administration (FY 17 through FY 20), agents apprehended only 14 migrants appearing in the national security database, compared to the more than 385 terror watch list migrants encountered since fiscal year 2021

In September 2024, Breitbart’s John Binder wrote:

From Fiscal Year 2021 through July 2024, Biden and Harris have watched as record levels of illegal immigrants have poured across the southern border — including a record number of illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watch List.

During this less-than-four-year period, almost 400 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watch List have attempted to cross the border between Ports of Entry. For comparison, from 2012 to 2017, about 100 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watch List were caught crossing the border.

At the same time, a bombshell interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement reveals that since the start of 2021, the Biden-Harris administration has released at least 99 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watch List into the U.S. interior.

The report states:

So far during fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol has encountered tens of thousands of illegal aliens nationwide from countries that could present national security risks, including 2,134 Afghan nationals, 33,347 Chinese nationals, 541 Iranian nationals, 520 Syrian nationals, and 3,104 Uzbek nationals.

More information on known or potential foreign terrorists released into the U.S. can be found here.

Link

Government Corruption

FEC Opens Probe of Rep. Jasmine Crockett Donations

2025-04-11

[Daily Signal] The Federal Election Commission opened an investigation into firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, regarding donations to her 2024 campaign made through ActBlue, a Democrat fundraising powerhouse organization.

The Coolidge-Reagan Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, made the FEC complaint on March 26, as first reported by The Daily Signal.

On April 2, the FEC notified the Coolidge-Reagan Foundation it would review the matter and notify Crockett.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

"The respondents will be notified of this complaint within five business days," Wanda D. Brown, the FEC assistant general counsel for complaints examination and legal administration, said in the letter.

"You will be notified as soon as the Federal Election Commission (FEC) takes final action on your client’s complaint. Should you receive any additional information in this matter, please forward it to the Office of the General Counsel."

Brown wrote the letter to Dan Backer, a Washington lawyer representing the Coolidge-Reagan Foundation.

"The FEC opened an investigation. There is a process, but they are investigating," Backer told The Daily Signal.

The complaints reference a specific suspect donor reported to have given 53 separate donations totaling $595 to Crockett’s campaign through the ActBlue portal.

The suspect donor was a 73-year-old Texas resident named Randy Best, according to the FEC complaint.

However, Best’s wife—in a video promoted by one of Crockett’s opponents for 2026, Sholdon Daniels—denied knowing anything about the donations. The complaint contends this possibly means Best—and potentially other donors through ActBlue—did not make the donations listed under their names.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Ban on taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners sparks Dem walkout in Georgia House vote

2025-04-04

[FoxNews] GOP leader says the 'disappointing stunt' shows a 'troubling disconnect' with voters, while Democrats blast Republicans for 'manufactured culture wars'

Georgia state House Democrats staged a walkout to protest a vote on a bill headed to the governor's desk for his signature prohibiting taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries for inmates.

The bill passed on a 100-2 vote, and both recorded no votes were from Democrats.

The legislation, SB 185, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Randy Robertson, bars the Georgia Department of Corrections from providing taxpayer-funded transgender medical treatments, including surgeries and hormonal treatments, to prison inmates. Robertson contends there are about five inmates incarcerated in the DOC that receive treatments.

The bill now heads to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's desk for his signature.

"This disappointing stunt underscores a troubling disconnect between Democrats and the values of the people they serve," Republican House Majority Whip James Burchett told Fox News Digital. "They knew they had no response to the substance of the bill. So, rather than debate its merits, they chose to abandon their duties by leaving the chamber."

However, Democratic House Whip Sam Park contended it was Republicans playing politics, not Democrats.

"Republicans continue to waste time on their manufactured culture wars while Georgians struggle with increasing costs of housing, food, healthcare and an increasingly uncertain economy due to Republican leadership in D.C.," Park said. "We walked out to make it clear: Georgia Democrats are here to fight for working families, not political distractions."

Georgia Republicans have taken an aggressive approach toward transgender issues this legislative session with the introduction of several bills that seek to align with President Donald Trump's executive orders.

Some of those bills, in addition to SB 185, include blocking taxpayer-funded medical treatments for state employees, prohibitions on prescribing puberty blockers to minors and a ban on biological males competing in girls high school sports.

It's unclear how much cosmetic or surgical transgender treatments cost each taxpayer in Georgia, but the Gender Confirmation Center estimates alterations can be anywhere from $8,000 to $50,000, depending on the type of procedure.

Other states this year have moved to introduce similar bills banning taxpayer-funded transgender treatments for inmates, including Utah and Kentucky. California was among the first states to provide transgender procedures for prison inmates in 2017 after a legal battle launched by an inmate two years earlier.

Link

Home Front: Politix

(Weather Report from Hades-Snow Flurries)-NYT opinion piece concedes 'Trump might have a case on birthright citizenship'

2025-02-16

And the New York Times published it. Truly we live in an age of miracles!

[FoxNews] Two law professors wrote of the Supreme Court: 'When they finally consider this question, the justices will find that the case for Mr. Trump’s order is stronger than his critics realize'

A Georgetown Law School professor and a University of Minnesota law professor may have surprised the liberal readers of The New York Times. The pair argued in a guest opinion essay that President Donald Trump may hold a powerful legal case on the issue of birthright citizenship.

"When they finally consider this question, the justices will find that the case for Mr. Trump’s order is stronger than his critics realize," Georgetown Law professor Randy E. Barnett and University of Minnesota law professor Ilan Wurman wrote of the Supreme Court in a guest essay published on Saturday.

The headline firmly stated, "Trump might have a case on birthright citizenship."

Trump's decision to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants has faced significant opposition in the federal court system, with U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante in New Hampshire temporarily blocking the order on Monday.

After explaining the historical and legal history behind birthright citizenship, including the text of the 14th Amendment which states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside," Barnett and Wurman tackled the issue of children of parents who are "present in the United States illegally."

"Has a citizen of another country who violated the laws of this country to gain entry and unlawfully remain here pledged obedience to the laws in exchange for the protection and benefit of those laws?" the professors asked.

"Clearly, the parents are not enemies in the sense of an invading army, but they did not come in amity," Barnett and Wurman wrote, referencing legal definitions of citizenship. "They gave no obedience or allegiance to the country when they entered — one cannot give allegiance and promise to be bound by the laws through an act of defiance of those laws."

"Such persons can even be summarily removed from the country without judicial procedures of the sort that would protect citizens," the professors continued. "If the allegiance-for-protection view informed the original meaning of the text, then they and their children are therefore not under the protection or 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the nation in the relevant sense."

Barnett and Wurman also addressed the executive order's "exclusion of children born to mothers who are 'lawful but temporary' residents is a more complicated question not addressed here."

"And whether Congress ought to grant naturalized citizenship to children born to those illegally present in the United States is a policy issue distinct from whether the 14th Amendment has already done so," the professors wrote. "The Supreme Court has, in a footnote, presumed that the 14th Amendment’s jurisdictional phrase applied equally to people who are here illegally, but the issue was neither briefed nor argued in that case; nor was it material to its outcome."

Link

Home Front: Politix

LA 'Recovery Chief' Steve Soboroff Drops $500K Salary, Agrees to Work for Free After Grenell's Exposé

2025-02-10

[Townhall] Steve Soboroff, Los Angeles' "Recovery Chief," agreed to work without pay after Special Envoy Ric Grenell, Trump’s White House representative in California, exposed his $500,000 salary. The revelation sparked public outrage, prompting Soboroff to forgo his compensation in a bid to quell the backlash. The controversy comes as Soboroff oversees the city's recovery efforts, with many questioning the large salary in light of residents' ongoing challenges.

Facing criticism over his hefty $500,000 salary for just 90 days of work—money he would have earned from the misfortune of L.A. residents—Soboroff has backed down and agreed to work for free. Democrat L.A. Mayor Karen Bass confirmed he would receive no compensation, which would have been funded entirely by charitable organizations.

“Steve is always there for LA. I spoke to him today and asked him to modify his agreement and work for free. He said yes. We agree that we don’t need anything distracting from the recovery work we’re doing,” Bass said in a statement.

Soboroff, appointed last month as Bass's wildfire recovery czar, was brought in to boost Bass’s political career after her initial response to the emergency drew nationwide criticism. Although the mayor’s office declined to disclose which organizations would fund Soboroff’s salary, critics found it “infuriating” that Bass had even considered that option.

L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez deemed it "obscene" that philanthropic organizations would allocate $750,000 for only two individuals—$500,000 for Soboroff and $250,000 for real estate executive Randy Johnson, who will oversee rebuilding efforts under Soboroff's leadership.

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Compton Cowboys step up during Los Angeles wildfires to rescue endangered horses

2025-01-25

[FoxNews] When many were fleeing the California wildfires, Randy Savvy jumped into action and drove into the fires to save endangered horses.

Savvy, founder of the youth advocacy nonprofit group, the Compton Cowboys, has been pivotal in rescuing horses as the California wildfires continue to ravage the state. The organization, whose motto is "Streets raised us. Horses saved us," has been part of a growing coalition to rescue forgotten livestock amid the devastation.

"My first instinct was ‘how do I help?’" he told Fox News Digital. "It's how I am and how I was raised."

He shared that, shortly after offering to help, his phone began to "blow up like crazy." People needed help, and Savvy was there to offer it.

"I rescued six horses the first night," he shared. "The horse community got active so fast to protect those horses."

Savvy drove into a restricted area in Calabasas after a woman called for a helping hand to retrieve her horse.

"All you could see was orange," Savvy said. "I came from Compton to Calabasas, and it took about an hour and a half to get there, and she was ready. And we got those horses loaded up.

"She was so emotional. And I will never forget this."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Man charged for threatening NY hotel owners over videos soldier son posted from Gaza

2024-12-25

What a vile sample of humanity.

[IsraelTimes] Arizona suspect made hundreds of calls, including death threats, to Settenbrino family amid online campaign sparked by clips from war.

US federal prosecutors have indicted a suspect for sending death threats to a Jewish family in New York after their son, an IDF soldier, posted videos from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
that sparked anti-Israel protests against the family’s hotel.

The owner of the Historic Blue Moon Hotel, Randy Settenbrino, said the family had received hundreds of threats and been targeted by street protests and online harassment.

"They’ve done untold damage with bad reviews and with tying up our front desk, frightening our staff," Settenbrino told The Times of Israel in a Tuesday interview.

The hotel is a family-owned business in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood with a long Jewish history, and has 22 rooms. The family has been operating the hotel since 2006 and painstakingly restored the building, which was constructed in 1879. The hotel leans into the area’s Jewish heritage, and has a kosher Italian cafe on the ground floor called the Sweet Dreams Cafe that features art by Settenbrino, including a colorful mural that depicts historical Jewish tragedies.

Donovan Hall, 34, sent hundreds of threats to the family and hotel, including antisemitic statements and threats of violence, according to the indictment filed in the federal Southern District of New York last week.

Hall, from Arizona, was charged with two counts of threatening interstate communications, and one count of cyberstalking, both felonies. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

"Donovan Hall allegedly unleashed a campaign of terror against several Jewish New Yorkers, allegedly sending scores of hateful, ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful and antisemitic death threats," Acting US Attorney Edward Y. Kim said in a statement. "No individual deserves to be at the receiving end of these types of threats or to be targeted because of their religion."

Hall was arrested after an investigation by the FBI and NYPD.

Hall began making dozens of threatening, antisemitic phone calls to the family over the summer, when videos posted by Settenbrino’s son, Bram, drew attention from anti-Israel activists online and in international media. One of the clips showed a first-person view of a soldier firing a light machine gun at a group of distant buildings, and the second showed a building exploding. An account called Stop Arab Hate posted the videos, accusing the soldier of "indiscriminately shooting a gun," and shared contact information for the hotel in a post that was viewed millions of times.

Settenbrino said his son served as a lone soldier in the Combat Engineering corps and had been in a firefight in the footage.

The criminal complaint references the videos and does not name the family, but Settenbrino confirmed his family and the hotel employees were the targets.

On August 8-9, Hall made 54 calls to the victims, the complaint said. In one of the calls, he told a hotel employee that he was going to travel to the hotel on his cycle of violence and shoot the victim in the head. In another, he stated the victim’s home address and said he was going to shoot him and his family, calling the victim a "fucking Jew bag," a "child-murdering Jew" and making other explicit and ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful threats.

Between early August and late November, Hall called the victims at least 971 times, the complaint said.

In October, Hall allegedly started sending photographs of deadly weapons and threats to the victims. In one message, he sent a photo of a gun with the text, "I’ve got something for you and your inbred children." In another, he sent an image of a knife and wrote, "This knife is for child molesters such as your son." Another showed a hand on a pistol overlaid with the text, "For the Zionist cowards."

Law enforcement recovered the two firearms from the photos during a search of Hall’s residence at the time of his arrest. Neither weapon was registered in his name; one was loaded.

The threats were part of a larger campaign of death threats Hall sent to people around the US, often targeting Jews, prosecutors said. Hall also allegedly sent two voicemails to an organization that supports IDF troops, threatening the groups and telling them to leave the US.

Settenbrino said the calls were part of a harassment campaign aimed at the family and its hotel after their son posted the videos on social media. In addition to harassing the front desk with calls and posting negative reviews online, street protests prompted some guests to cancel their stays at the hotel and activists repeatedly attempted to hack into the hotel’s email system, Settenbrino said.

An anti-Israel group called Unity of Fields that encourages vandalizing targets it deems supportive of Israel posted photos in September of graffiti on the hotel. The graffiti said "Baby killer" and included inverted red triangles, a symbol the Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
terror group uses to mark its targets in propaganda videos that has been adopted by anti-Israel activists in the US. Settenbrino said police had been unable to locate the vandals.

Hall was arrested last month but the case was initially sealed. Prosecutors announced the arrest last week.

The hotel has received plaudits from media including National Geographic and New York Magazine, but was struggling before the activist campaign. It was forced to close during the pandemic, leading to debts and a bankruptcy filing. Settenbrino said the business had started to recover before taking another hit from the anti-Israel activists.

The street protests have dwindled but the online harassment continues, he said.

Settenbrino said the family feels abandoned by local Jewish leaders, despite his longstanding community activism.

"We’ve had not one New York City Jewish politician otherwise come down and visit," despite the family’s appeals for support, he said.

Link

-Land of the Free

Culling the Flag Officer Ranks-Remember the 1940 "Plucking Board"?

2024-12-24

[DailyCaller] With less than a month to go before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the top brass are already running for cover. This week the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, pledged to cut approximately a dozen general officers from the U.S. Army.

It is a start.

But given the Army is authorized 219 general officers, cutting just 12 is using a scalpel when a machete is in order. At present, the ratio of officers to enlisted personnel stands at an all-time high. During World War II, we had one general for every 6,000 troops. Today, we have one for every 1,600.

Right now, the United States has 1.3 million active-duty service members according to the Defense Manpower Data Center. Of those, 885 are flag officers (fun fact: you get your own flag when you make general or admiral, hence the term “flag officer” and “flagship”). In the reserve world, the ratio is even worse. There are 925 general and flag officers and a total reserve force of just 760,499 personnel. That is a flag for every 674 enlisted troops.

The hallways at the Pentagon are filled with a constellation of stars and the legions of staffers who support them. I’ve worked in both the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Starting around 2011, the Joint Staff began to surge in scope and power. Though the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is not in the chain of command and simply serves as an advisor to the president, there are a staggering 4,409 people working for the Joint Staff, including 1,400 civilians with an average salary of $196,800 (yes, you read that correctly). The Joint Staff budget for 2025 is estimated by the Department of Defense’s comptroller to be $1.3 billion.

In contrast, the Secretary of Defense — the civilian in charge of running our nation’s military — has a staff of 2,646 civilians and uniformed personnel. The disparity between the two staffs threatens the longstanding American principle of civilian control of the military.

Just look at what happens when civilians in the White House or the Senate dare question the ranks of America’s general class. “Politicizing the military!” critics cry, as if the Commander-in-Chief has no right to question the judgement of generals who botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan, bought into the woke ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or oversaw over-budget and behind-schedule weapons systems. Introducing accountability to the general class is not politicizing our nation’s military — it is called leadership.

What most Americans don’t understand is that our top brass is already very political. On any given day in our nation’s Capitol, a casual visitor is likely to run into multiple generals and admirals visiting our elected representatives and their staff. Ostensibly, these “briefs” are about various strategic threats and weapons systems — but everyone on the Hill knows our military leaders are also jockeying for their next assignment or promotion. It’s classic politics.

The country witnessed this firsthand with now-retired Gen. Mark Milley. Most Americans were put off by what they saw. Milley brazenly played the Washington spin game, bragging in a Senate Armed Services hearing that he had interviewed with Bob Woodward and a host of other Washington, D.C. reporters.

Woodward later admitted in an interview with CNN that he was flabbergasted by Milley, recalling the chairman hadn’t just said “[Trump] is a problem or we can’t trust him,” but took it to the point of saying, “he is a danger to the country. He is the most dangerous person I know.” Woodward said that Milley’s attitude felt like an assignment editor ordering him, “Do something about this.”

Think on that a moment — an active-duty four star general spoke on the record, disparaging the Commander-in-Chief. Not only did it show rank insubordination and a breach of Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 88, but Milley’s actions represented a grave threat against the Constitution and civilian oversight of the military.

How will it play out now that Trump has returned? Old political hands know that what goes around comes around. Milley’s ham-handed political meddling may very well pave the way for a massive reorganization of flag officers similar to Gen. George C. Marshall’s “plucking board” of 1940. Marshall forced 500 colonels into retirement saying, “You give a good leader very little and he will succeed; you give mediocrity a great deal and they will fail.”

Marshall’s efforts to reorient the War Department to a meritocracy proved prescient when the United States entered World War II less than two years later.

Perhaps it’s time for another plucking board to remind the military brass that it is their civilian bosses who sit at the top of the U.S. chain of command.

Link

-Land of the Free

Pigeon vs Randy Johnson fastball

2024-12-20

video courtesy of swksvolFF:

Trailing Wife, to answer your question from yesterday, a pigeon just happen to fly by at the exact moment and got hit by the ball, a 100 plus MPH ball. Needless to say the pigeon did not fare well.

Link

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