As a warm up to tomorrows Black Sabbath tribute at Villa Park Priest have released their version of War Pigs , they're currently on tour and couldn't make tomorrows show so this is their tribute to Ozzy and the boys.
 

A little note about Rob Halford.

Back in the day a friend from another band had a recording studio in his garage at home , he was putting together an album and more in jest than anything else invited Rob to come down and do some vocals , if you don't ask you don't get.

As it happens Rob turned up , he was a bit taken aback at the setup but nevertheless did the recording , mate said Rob was good humoured and a really nice bloke and judging from the recordings I heard on top form.

Every time the Air Force says they want to retire the A-10 Warthog the Army says give it to us !! Never gonna happen unfortunately even though it would be great in supporting our ground troops... Better than a helicopter IMO.

Quote:The U.S. Air Force wants to send its remaining 162 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs to the boneyard in 2026, marking the end of this legendary air support jet’s nearly half-century spanning service life. Sending the Warthog out to pasture, the Air Force says, will free up funds for more modern and survivable aircraft that can fly the Close Air Support Mission as well as other high end operations, like the F-15EX and, to a lesser extent, the F-35.

Quote:Trump Sends Terrifying Message To CJNG After EL Mencho Killed Super Cop Who Jailed His Son Donald Trump has reportedly sent a chilling message to the CJNG cartel following the suspected killing of Mexico’s top "super cop" by El Mencho, the cartel’s ruthless leader. The cop had previously arrested El Mencho’s son, and his death has sparked major tension between the U.S. and cartel forces. Trump isn’t holding back, and his strong warning could mean serious consequences for the CJNG. This video breaks down what Trump said, why it matters, and what it could mean for future U.S.-Mexico cartel crackdowns. Watch now to get the full story and all the shocking details.

Quote:On today’s episode, Katarina breaks down a recently released Justice Department report detailing how the Sinaloa cartel hired a hacker in 2018 to track FBI personnel and informants in Mexico City. The hacker accessed phone data and surveillance cameras to monitor the movements of an FBI attaché and identify individuals meeting with U.S. officials. Some of those individuals were later targeted by the cartel. The episode explores how cartels are using digital tools to support their operations and what this means for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence efforts abroad.

Quote:DEA Agent Reveals CJNG Conducted Surveillance at US Court Hearings of Menchito & Murdered Witnesses, Even After Sentencing

By Socalj 6/29/2025 07:37:00 PM  75 comments
"Socalj" for Borderland Beat




The message that Mexican drug cartels want to send to the United States is clear: “We are here. We are among you.” This is how Special Agent Matthew W. Allen of the DEA, the U.S. anti-narcotics agency, explained it when he was asked about the risk posed by Mexican criminal organizations in the United States.

Allen, head of the agency’s Los Angeles division, said at a hearing before the U.S. Senate that members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) were monitoring DEA agents and witnesses during the trial of Rubén Oseguera González, "El Menchito," the son of cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera "El Mencho."

At the hearing, Allen recounted how the criminal group retaliated against family members of informants, an example of the violence this group routinely employs and the threat it poses to American citizens.



The DEA special agent asserted that they have evidence that cartel members are monitoring DEA agents in the United States and that some of these operations occurred in parallel with the Menchito trial. 

“In my 22 years-plus in the DEA in the Los Angeles area, and in other areas of the world, I’ve experienced several instances of cartels and criminal organizations surveilling our people, both in Mexico and the United States,” he explained. 

Allen asserts that these activities “are frequent,” and that his agents notice they are being spied on when they go out to execute a search or arrest warrant. When they realize they are being followed, they must notify local police so they can stop the suspect car and initiate an investigation. The agent used this activity as an example to demonstrate the danger that the men and women who work for the DEA face every day in their operations, even in their own country. “I’ve personally lost several friends on this job,” he lamented.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on Tuesday titled “The Thin Blue Line Protecting America from the Cartels” to assess the danger Mexican criminal organizations pose to its law enforcement.

Witnesses & Family Killed

To illustrate the violence they face, Allen stated that after the capture of "El Mencho’s" son and his prosecution in the United States, his father’s cartel retaliated in Mexico. “One of our major CJNG cases involved a key witness who was later executed in Mexico along with his wife. Separately, the daughter of a cooperating witness was murdered soon after the sentencing,” he added. “This horrific act of revenge underscores the threat these terrorists pose to U.S. security: adversaries who kill without hesitation and who reach across borders with impunity.”


Ivan Morales and his wife were slain in May 2025.

The witness and his wife executed was Ivan Morales. Morales was a highly decorated federal police officer who survived a fiery helicopter crash in 2015 during a raid where authorities tried to capture El Mencho. The downing of the helicopter was ordered by Menchito and part of the charges against him. Morales traveled to the US to testify about the attack.




Last month, he and his wife were executed 10 years to the day of the helicopter crash, while driving about 60 miles outside of Mexico City. Morales Corrales was gunned down in a neighborhood in the municipality of Temixco, in the state of Morelos. He had no security, not even an armored truck. The gunmen intercepted his black pickup truck and fired a dozen bullets at it. Both the former police officer and his companion, his wife, died instantly. The killers fled on a motorcycle toward Cuernavaca and have not yet been arrested.

The daughter of the cooperating witness who was killed in Mexico is still unnamed. 

According to the Los Angeles DEA agent’s statement, the woman was killed after the April 2025 sentencing of “Menchito” and was the daughter of one of the cooperating witnesses against Ruben.

Several prominent Mexican drug traffickers testified at his trial including his relative, Oscar “El Lobo” Nava Valencia of the Milenio Cartel, Elpidio "El Pilo" Mojarro Ramírez who worked with early iterations of CJNG, as well as Sinaloa/Juarez killer Jose Antonio “El Jaguar” Torres Marrufo and former Gulf Cartel leader Mario “X20/Pelon” Ramirez Trevino.

Shortly before the murders, Rubén Oseguera González had been sentenced to life in prison and ordered to forfeit over $6 billion in proceeds from the cartel’s drug trafficking by the District of Columbia Court in Washington.



Another witness in the trial recently passed, however it is believed he died naturally. Mario Ramírez Treviño, known as "El Pelón" or "X20," former leader of the Gulf Cartel, died on March 13, 2025, while in custody in a U.S. federal prison. He had also been a witness against Menchito in his trial. It was reported by the BOP that "El Pelón" died of natural causes at 63 years old.

In his statement, filed in September 2024, he recounted having met "El Menchito" at the Altiplano Prison in 2014. According to his testimony, Oseguera González asked him for help in obtaining weapons, including an M60 machine gun and a .50-caliber rifle, and arranging a cocaine purchase with his father.

Carlos Almada Castrillo was found hanged in his prison cell in Puente Grande in 2020. He was due to be extradited to the US and believed to have been set to testify against "Menchito" having essentially grown up in the cartel with him.





Later in 2020, Mexican Judge Uriel Villegas Ortiz and his wife were executed. The magistrate had overseen one of the Amparo cases involving "Menchito" including his prison transfer.

Several accusations against Menchito in court filings prior to the trial included accusations from a "jailhouse snitch." According to the defense, the witness, who was in custody with "Menchito" testified in court in February 2021 that he either was told or overheard the proffered evidence.

El Mencho’s Son-in-Law in California

At the hearing, the DEA agent detailed how some members of El Mencho’s family lived in a gated community in Riverside, California, “just down the street from the Chief of Police.” 

The home of Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez, "El Guacho," and his wife, who is the daughter of Nemesio Oseguera, was searched by the DEA, and they found garbage bags overflowing with Rolex luxury watches, exclusive designer handbags, and $1 million in cash. 

In total, the seized goods were valued at $2.25 million. 

“These cartel figures were living in luxury, embedded in our communities, hiding in plain sight. They not only live in our communities, but they also sneak their deadly products into our homes under false pretenses,” the agent emphasized.

El Guacho fled to the United States to live a life of luxury after faking his own death in Mexico, where he was involved in the kidnapping of two Mexican marines in November 2021. The crime was the CJNG’s response to the capture of Rosalinda González Valencia, "El Mencho’s" wife, in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. When he was finally arrested late last year, U.S. authorities accused him of being one of the cartel’s leaders and recounted how "El Mencho’s" son-in-law assumed a false identity to “evade justice and live a life of luxury in California.”

Last week, he struck a deal with US authorities to plead guilty to money laundering charges instead of the drug trafficking he was also accused of. It is not believed he is cooperating beyond the plea deal. The primary charge of money laundering involved the Riverside, California home that was purchased by a Mexican Pasión Azul Tequila firm allegedly tied to the CJNG. The tequila company's owner denied associations with the cartel via lawyer Victor Beltran Garcia who has been sanctioned by the US OFAC for representing CJNG figures, including "Menchito" during his detention in Mexico.

Laisha has not been arrested and is believed to still operate a small coffee shop in nearby Perris, California.

Quote:Home » FBI , hack , sinaloa cartel » Sinaloa Cartel Used Hacked FBI Phone Data & Mexico City Cameras to Find and Kill Informants
Sinaloa Cartel Used Hacked FBI Phone Data & Mexico City Cameras to Find and Kill Informants

By Socalj 6/29/2025 06:25:00 PM  22 comments
”Socalj” for Borderland Beat

From a Reuter’s Article

A hacker working for the Sinaloa drug cartel was able to obtain an FBI official's phone records and use Mexico City's surveillance cameras to help track and kill the agency's informants in 2018, the U.S. Justice Department said in a report issued on Thursday.

The incident was disclosed in a Justice Department Inspector General's audit of the FBI's efforts to mitigate the effects of "ubiquitous technical surveillance," a term used to describe the global proliferation of cameras and the thriving trade in vast stores of communications, travel, and location data.
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[url=https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/25-065_t.pdf], opens new tab
The report said that the hacker worked for a cartel run by "El Chapo," a reference to the Sinaloa drug cartel run by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who was extradited to the United States in 2017.

The report said the hacker identified an FBI assistant legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and was able to use the attaché's phone number "to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data." The report said the hacker also "used Mexico City's camera system to follow the (FBI official) through the city and identify people the (official) met with."

The report said "the cartel used that information to intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses."

The report did not identify the alleged hacker, attaché or victims.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico referred questions to the State and Justice departments, who did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The FBI and a lawyer for El Chapo did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The collection of granular location data from people's phones by a wide variety of commercial and official actors, combined with ever-growing coverage of surveillance cameras, has posed a thorny problem for intelligence and law enforcement officials, many of whom rely on confidential informants.

The report said that recent technological advances "have made it easier than ever for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to identify and exploit vulnerabilities" in the global surveillance economy. It said the FBI had a strategic plan in the works for mitigating those vulnerabilities and made several recommendations, including more training for bureau personnel.

Dr. David Martin is warning of intent to murder 280,000 Americans using bioweapons on July 4th, tomorrow!!

https://x.com/DrTrozzi/status/1939820151882346863


He's referring to this fictional but plausible bioterrorist attack occurring on July 4, 2025, designed as a narrative device to frame the report’s urgency and recommendations. It’s basically a dramatized worst-case scenario aimed at spurring policy action.

The setting is a fictional congressional joint inquiry convened in the aftermath of an unprecedented biological attack on U.S. soil.




THE STRATEGY OF THE ATTACKERS

- They conducted small-scale trial runs ahead of time in various U.S. cities these went undetected.
- They leveraged a lack of preparedness, not just technologically, but bureaucratically and strategically.
- They exploited institutional complacency and false assumptions about the capabilities of state or terrorist actors.

The scenario described is a deliberate simulation crafted to justify sweeping biodefense reforms, call for centralized White House leadership under the National Security Council, propose a massive expansion of surveillance, infrastructure, and budget.

The scenario systematically calls out a series of failures across U.S. government agencies and policy domains:


In many ways, it acts like a deep state "Policy 9/11" moment, using a catastrophic vision to argue for codification of biodefense leadership under the National Security Act, the replacement of BioWatch with functional bio-surveillance and construction of a new domestic and global public health security regime.

It echoes Project Bioshield (Bush), ARPA-H (Biden), and Operation Warp Speed (Trump), but wants these powers embedded in peacetime policy and not dependent on emergency funding cycles.

The Nipah virus is a favorite of the WHO & CDC going back to 1998.


Here's the 177 page PDF if interested: THE NATIONAL BLUEPRINT FOR BIODEFENSE

As crazy as it may sound I came across the BIODEFENSE doc via the hidden links next to "We are closed for Independence Day" on that Ingersoll Lockwood site.

We all know these simulations/exercises sometimes go LIVE. Remember when Event 201 happened and then the almost exact same scenario unfolded worldwide just 3 months later?


Regardless, tomorrow I plan to have a BBQ + beer, then fireworks, followed by more beer.

To mark Labours 1st anniversary in power Kier Starmer cut his own throat , not literally but by caving in to Labour back benchers and watering down the benefits Bill yesterday he showed he has no authority , the bill that eventually passed was worthless and leaves Reeves scrambling for cash , rather than reducing the benefits cost the lack of action will no doubt raise it.

Reeves looked like she was at a funeral today at Prime Ministers questions and at one point appeared to be crying , something has gone on , hopefully she's been told she's out of the door.


I believe we are seeing the fall of Starmer's government , the Labour party are said to be furious with the underperformance of the government and the rise of Reform because of it , plotters are plotting and word is he could have just months left.

Angela Rayner for PM ?

A visitor outside our solar system is coming , friend or foe ? we dont know .... 

However , with estimated size 12 miles (20 km) in diameter , it does fit the executor-class super star destroyer size 


BREAKING: New interstellar object candidate heading toward the sun

Quote:New interstellar object visiting our solar system

There’s a new object in the solar system headed toward the sun, and it may have come from interstellar space. We only know of two other interstellar objects that have entered into our solar system before, ‘Oumuamua and Comet 2I/Borisov. The nature of ‘Oumuamua is still a matter of debate, and the second was a comet from another solar system. And now we may have a third interstellar visitor. Currently named A11pl3Z, this object has a trajectory that suggests it didn’t originate inside our own solar system.

The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center added the object to their Near-Earth Object confirmation list on July 1, 2025. The object is also on NASA/JPL’s website for Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page under A11pl3Z. Despite being listed as a near-Earth object, there is no fear of it hitting Earth or even coming particularly close.
So what is the new visitor? Well, it’s likely either a comet or an asteroid, but it’s too soon (and too far away) at this point to say with any certainty.

Quote:Observations of the visitor

Astrafoxen, an astrophysics undergrad student in California on Bluesky, has shared an image of A11pl3Z from the Deep Random Survey in Chile. Additionally, Sam Deen, a prolific amateur astronomer, found earlier images of the object in ATLAS data from June 25 to 29. These data points help show the track of the object, indicating that it is almost certainly interstellar.
The dim space rock is currently at about magnitude 18.8. Our new visitor, A11pl3Z, will get its closest to the sun – at about 2 astronomical units (AU), or twice as far as Earth is from the sun – in October. As it reaches perihelion – its closest point to the sun – it should be moving at about 68 km/s relative to the sun, or at about 152,000 miles per hour.
Marshall Eubanks, a physicist and VLBI radio astronomer and co-founder of Space Initiatives, said on the Minor Planet Mailing List that the object could be as large as 12 miles (20 km) in diameter. It will also come within about 0.4 AU of Mars in October, which would make it just barely observable by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. With the current orbital data, Eubanks said:

Quote:This object appears to be coming from the thin galactic disk.

Growing up in Texas "Remember the Alamo" had a deep personal meaning for many Texans. 

Evidently there were 7 captured alive defenders of the Alamo and Davy was one of them.

Quote:We all know the legend: Davy Crockett - fists clenched, rifle blazing - dying in a storm of gunfire at the Alamo. A martyr's death for Texan freedom. But... what if it never happened? What if America's most iconic frontier hero met a fate so shocking, so politically explosive, that the truth was buried for 140 years? Imagine this instead: Crockett... surrendering.A bombshell document surfaces in Mexico. It claims Crockett didn't fall fighting. It claims he was captured alive. Dismissed as heresy. Until… An eyewitness report surfaces... days after the Alamo fell. Buried in plain sight. Then...Sam Houston's own words: 'Seven men surrendered.' Seven. But no names given. Why? Now... picture the scene: The smoke clears. Crockett stands, unarmed, before Santa Anna. A Mexican general pleads for mercy. Santa Anna flicks his glove... a silent death sentence.Not one. Not two. But FIVE Mexican officers - men who stormed the Alamo - swear they saw it. Crockett. Captured. Executed in cold blood. Their testimonies, hidden in diaries and archives for decades... now scream the truth. This isn't conspiracy. This is evidence. Military logs. Private letters. Sworn testimonies from BOTH sides of the war. Historians agree: The preponderance of proof is overwhelming. The myth... is dead.So what REALLY happened to Davy Crockett? The truth is more brutal than legend. And it rewrites history. Don't look away." This isn't conspiracy. So there is no doubt that he did fight with great honor and valor during those final hours, but there is another version of his death that seems to be corroborated to the point of being almost irrefutable as the true scenario of the events of March 6, 1836. This alternative account, long dismissed by traditionalists, has steadily gained traction among modern scholars. In 1955, a purported memoir from Mexico had the audacity to claim that Crockett surrendered rather than dying in battle. That version of the story was treated as only blasphemous hearsay for decades until it was translated into English in 1975, prompting renewed scrutiny. As historians started looking at corroborating evidence, including overlooked military logs and private letters, the story began to change fundamentally. One of the first official reports coming after the battle came from Sam Houston on March 11, 1836 and said as follows, quote, after the fort was carried seven men surrendered and called for Santa Ana and quarter, end quote. Houston did not specifically name Crockett, likely avoiding controversy early in the Texan campaign, however, newspaper articles soon after the battle reported that a group of defenders did indeed surrender against impossible odds.The Morning Courier and New York Enquirer reported on July 9, 1836, quote, six Americans were discovered near the wall yet unconquered. Undaunted, Davy Crockett stepped forward to face General Santa Ana and looked at him steadfastly in the face, a final act of defiance, end quote. The survivors’ captor Manuel Fernandez Castrillon asked Santa Ana how he wished to proceed, pleading for mercy. The Mexican commander replied coldly, have I not told you before how to dispose of them? Several junior officers pulled their swords and swiftly and cruelly plunged the blades into the chests of the defenseless prisoners. This brutal act, witnessed by multiple soldiers, became a stain on the campaign.

I have always been told a laser weapon might work out to a couple of miles if the atmospheric conditions were favorable; unfortunately that is not the case most days and nights. Israel has come up with a new approach that does not need a nuclear power station to make their Laser work effectively . 

Quote:
Jul 2, 2025
Something impossible is happening in Israeli airspace. The infrared monitor glows bright in the darkness. A small cross-shaped targeting reticle tracks steadily across the screen, following the silhouette of an enemy drone cutting through the night. No sound. No warning. Just the soft hum of cooling systems and the gentle whir of servos adjusting aim. But there’s no missile streak, no muzzle flash, just a brilliant white light exactly where the crosshair points on the drone's wing. The wing shivers and disintegrates. The drone tumbles, spinning wildly as it loses lift. As it plummets, the reticle shifts to the drone's main body, where the warhead waits. Another burst of white-hot light. The explosion fills the monitor with debris and smoke. Technology has caught up with science fiction. Israel destroyed a drone using nothing but invisible energy traveling at the speed of light.

As the world continues to wait for the next Elder Scrolls game a Polish Indie developer decided to build their own , Questline is a studio with fewer than 100 employees who have in my opinion shown their grandma how to suck eggs , Tainted Grail the Fall of Avalon has been dubbed a "Scrolls like" because its inspiration is clear from the get go although in a lot of ways they've improved on the formula , it released about a month ago after spending a couple of years in early access and for a relatively small development team it's nothing short of amazing.  

Tainted Grail the Fall of Avalon is an Arthurian Dark Fantasy adventure game set on the island of Avalon , I'm 6 hours into the story and have an Elder Scrolls smile on my face , there's a demo on Steam and it's currently on sale in Steam's Summer sale , anyone with an Elder Scrolls itch should check it out.

Trump is in the media this morning saying failure to pass this "Big Beautiful" bill will result in a "68% tax increase".  Now, I don't know what exactly that means, and if this would be across the board or just to certain sectors, so I'll save getting irate until I understand it better.  But I can say this...if Trump were to enact some broad 68% tax increase across the board for the American taxpayer, that would be the end of him politically, the end of MAGA, and everything else.  America won't sit down for something like that, not even for 5 minutes.

So, more to follow on this front, but definitely interesting times we live in at the moment!

Trump warns of 68% tax increase

(link above for reference and context)