And if that was not bad enough 27 shots by the age of 2 !

A very short video from Rumble ...  ask yourself are all those shots necessary ? 

https://rumble.com/v5g5djp-70-jabs-in-re...src_v1_upp

saw these two threads on ats,

Quote:You should be aware by now that we are short staffed and stretched thin. That coupled with the staff abilities being hamstrung by a previous administrator and a most contentious political environment have caused a reevaluation of moderating strategy. Post removals are having no effect. Warnings and in-thread admonishments are having no effect. Short term post bans are having minimal effect, and only while the post ban is in place.

Effective immediately, anyone failing to adhere to the requirements we have shared, to the point of absurdity, resulting in a Political Trolling post deletion will generate a lengthy post ban, length to be determined at staff discretion. You can reasonably assume it could last until after the US election. This is not negotiable or up for discussion.

As a reminder, new accounts are no longer being activated, so circumventing a post ban with a new account is no longer possible, and full account bans are permanent.

Please proceed accordingly.

Important if Actively Posting

Quote:From this moment forward, the following rules apply throughout all of ATS:

[1] Politically inspired name calling of an ideological group is not allowed: examples: "Libtards," "kamalalaa"," "Repuglicans," "Drumpf" etc.

[2] Alterations of a politicians name, or any other high-profile political figure, for disparaging political effect is not allowed, including within member avatars and signatures.

[2a] Avatars designed exclusively to denigrate a politician or political figure, using derogatory wording or photo-manipulation, is not allowed.

[3] Posts that attack other members.

[4] Posts that stray from the discussion of the issue/topic and focus on the political affiliation of members are not allowed.

[5] All other politically-charged trolling and sniping intended, in the opinion of our staff and topic participants, to derail discussion away form the issues are not allowed.

In the event we encounter the above infractions, you risk the removal of your entire post or thread without warning or recourse.
You also risk a temporary POSTING BAN. For starters.

YOU are responsible for your own posts
No one else. No one is forcing you to reply to others who may push your buttons.


Reaffirming Our Desire For Productive Political Debate (Redux)

Weekend is over and Monday has once again arrived.

I and many others were saying, thinking silently, postulating from 6 months ago that if you live in Beirut, especially southern Lebanon, GET OUT Now! Exhibit A: Gaza.

Israel at War - Day 353: War on Hezbollah: Today’s airstrikes in Lebanon are reportedly the most intense since the 2006 war.

Since this morning, the Israeli Air Force has struck more than 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the IDF says. Alongside the update, the army publishes an image of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi approving the wave of airstrikes from the military's underground command room at the IDF HQ in Tel Aviv.


The target of the Israeli airstrike in Beirut is senior Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki, sources tell Israeli media. Karaki is the head of Hezbollah's southern command, responsible for the terror group's military activity in south Lebanon. He is a member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah's top military body.



https://x.com/KyleJGlen/status/1838200561969025258


Israel issues new warning to residents of the villages of the Bekaa region. "If you are inside or near a house containing Hezbollah weapons - you must leave it and move away from it within two hours to a distance of no less than 1,000 meters outside the village, or go to the central school near you and do not return to it until further notice."




Source:
Times Of Israel military correspondent Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian who has been reporting on the Middle East powder keg since October 7th.



https://x.com/manniefabian/status/1838277274832871933




Fireworks show in Lebanon: https://x.com/Mr_Andrew_Fox/status/1838231894565024200

Message from Bibi: "Get out of harms way now!"
https://x.com/netanyahu/status/1838248513609646407



Geoconfirmed War maps



Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group leaves Norfolk



US sending more troops to Middle East

I thought the White House said we do not have any active troops overseas in war/conflict areas during cackling Kamalarkey's last debate. Wink-wink.

This photo being passed around the interwebs...


...which is in fact an official (non-AI) photo of U.S. Marines assisting in the evacuation of American citizens from Beirut, Lebanon...in July 2006.

As always the fog of war is rarely seen clearly and on the Internet sea it changes every nanosecond.

Post whatever articles, vids, pics, chatter you wish on this latest escalation in Lebanon.

Who could have seen this coming?

https://rairfoundation.com/imam-netherla...-you-dont/

Quote:“The Muslim is the boss in the Netherlands. And if you don’t like it, you can leave.” He also claims that the Netherlands used to be the largest Islamic country in the world, referring to its former colony, Indonesia.



In his TikTok tirade, Brother Rahide makes it clear that the Dutch need to adapt to Muslims. While his tone seems somewhat exaggerated, the Islamic influencer continues his rant for several minutes.


Rahide begins: “This is the Netherlands, the country where the Muslim is in charge, not the Dutch. If you don’t like it, you can leave. Go to Germany or somewhere else. Here, we Muslims are in charge. We built this country. We are responsible for everything here—houses, infrastructure, everything. Everything in the Netherlands is thanks to Muslims. The Netherlands was also once the largest Islamic country in the world. So if you don’t like it, take a plane, boat, or ferry to England or New Zealand and leave. Or just accept that we, Muslims, are in charge here.”

Rahide also criticizes PVV leader Geert Wilders: “Geertje is nothing here. He’s just a puppet of America, doing whatever America tells him to. Do you understand? The Netherlands belongs to Islam and always will. Yes, sorry people, the truth hurts.”



[b][b]‘The Dutch are just visiting here’[/b][/b]

According to Brother Rahide, the Netherlands was built entirely by Muslims: “Dutch people will discover this when they look up history. Your phone, your laptop, your iPad, your oven, your microwave, your television, your remote control, your bed, the house you live in, the roads you drive on—everything is thanks to Muslims. The truth may be hard to hear, but we have to face it.”

Gilbert Associates concept art for Three Mile Island plant:


Gilbert Associates was the Architect Engineer on Unit 1, announced for restart this morning...

Quote:Shares of Constellation Energy jumped as much as 16% to a record high on Friday.

Microsoft has agreed to purchase the energy for two decades and declined to disclose financial terms. This is the first time Microsoft has secured a dedicated, 100% nuclear facility for its use.

The decision is the latest sign of surging interest in the nuclear industry as power demand for AI soars. More than a dozen reactors went dark over roughly the past decade in the face of increasing competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But growing demand for electricity — from factories, cars and especially from data centers — has spurred interest in nuclear plants that can provide carbon-free power around the clock.

“Policymakers and the market have received a huge wake-up call,” Constellation Chief Executive Officer Joe Dominguez said in an interview. “There’s no version of the future of this country that doesn’t rely on these nuclear assets.”

Constellation — which has seen its shares jump this year thanks to mounting investor awareness of the value of power plants — plans to fund the project from its own coffers rather than seek state or federal support. That’s in contrast to Holtec International, which is pursuing the only other disclosed effort to restart a closed reactor, with about $1.8 billion in conditional funding from the US Energy Department and the state of Michigan. NextEra Energy Inc. has also said it’s considering reviving a closed Iowa reactor, in part to supply data-center customers. However, beyond these three, experts say there are few other mothballed reactors that may be suitable for restarting.

While Constellation isn’t averse to outside financial support, Dominguez said government approvals move slowly and he doesn’t want to wait. Work at Three Mile Island is expected to start immediately. The deal to supply Microsoft with electricity from the 837-megawatt reactor is Constellation’s biggest-ever power purchase deal.

The restart effort has been in the works since early 2023, when Constellation began evaluating whether it made sense to switch the reactor back on. By early this year, the company had concluded that it wanted to pursue the project, and began talking to potential customers. Microsoft was immediately interested, Dominguez said.

The nuclear power purchase will aid Microsoft’s plans to run all of its massive global network of data centers on clean energy by 2025, Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s vice president for energy, said in an interview. This nuclear energy will be used to fuel data-center expansion in areas like Chicago, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The software giant is overhauling its entire product line around AI and the resulting increase in demand for cloud-computing is imperiling Microsoft’s plans to be carbon negative by 2030, the company said earlier this year. It spent more than $50 billion on capital expenditures in the fiscal year that ended June 30, largely on data-center expansion. It plans to top that figure in the current fiscal year.

While the additional nuclear power will help Microsoft’s climate goals, it does not address the most intractable issue – emissions from concrete, steel and chips used in the data centers, Hollis said.
“This is not a simple piece, but it’s easier than figuring out how to decarbonize the entire supply chain,” he said.

Still, data centers make a useful customer for nuclear power. Wind and solar power outputs can vary, while a nuclear plant generally runs constantly and requires a customer that can take all of that electricity, Hollis said. That makes tech companies selling cloud computing an ideal option.
“We run around the clock. They run around the clock,” he said.

Microsoft isn't the only tech company looking to nuclear power to fuel its AI ambitions. Earlier this year, Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud computing division agreed to spend $650 million to acquire a data center campus connected to Talen Energy Corp.’s 40-year-old nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.

While the Three Mile Island reactor was mothballed in 2019, Dominguez said the equipment is still in good shape. Still, restarting it will require significant investments in the main transformer, turbine and cooling systems. The company will have to restaff the facility and must seek approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Constellation will also seek to extend its operating license through 2054, and is planning to rename the facility the Crane Clean Energy Center, after the late Chris Crane, former CEO of Exelon Corp., which spun out its generation unit to become Constellation in 2022.

One of the biggest hurdles will be connecting the plant to the power grid operated by PJM Interconnection LLC, which has a lengthy queue. If PJM can move fast enough, Dominguez said the facility could potentially be ready to supply power as early as 2027.

“I’m so glad we’re reversing a terrible mistake that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “It will be a lot more difficult to achieve the energy transition if we only want to use wind and solar and storage.”

Back in 1973 we could hear taxi cab drivers in New York from Ramason Station Thailand. That was was 1973 so you can emagine what "Signals" is capable of today.

Quote:The Chinese Communist Party is operating a network of spy bases in Cuba just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. In July 2024 the Center for Strategic and International Studies published a a report outlining how they are growing a network of signals intelligence bases here. Similar to how the United States military runs intelligence gathering operations in Taiwan right near China - it appears like China is trying to turn the turntables back around.
Written by: Chris Cappy & Patrick Griffin Edited by: Michael Michaelides These radars could jam and use electronic warfare capabilities against US assets; they could monitor several key military bases nearby. So When did these radar networks first appear? What is their purpose? Are Cuban Communists responsible for jamming my car radio? Are they whispering sweet marxists ideology through my Alexa while I sleep? I’m your average infantryman Chris Cappy lets find out. Ever since Cuba’s communist revolution led by Fidel Castro in January of 1959, the country has remained a partner for fellow communist nations for several reasons. Of one which is its close proximity to the United States which makes Cuba the perfect location to peek over at the United States to see what they are up to. I know I sound paranoid when I say they are listening to us but just take a look at (beh-hoo-KAHL) Bejucal Cuba. In 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, this military satellite and radar station here was crucial for monitoring the airspace around the island as they looked for U.S. spy planes and other threats. And ever since then Rumors of these spy stations have been around for decades. Just look at this 1964 declassified document from the CIA, you can see of US intelligence has long been analyzing photographs of their communication stations capabilities. But Some of the earliest public statements I could dig up on the matter come from 2005 when Albert Santoli first testified on this to the US congress’s china economic security review commission. His testimony laid out all the reasons But Today this base has recently undergone some major renovations. Take a look at these satellite images from Google Earth that show the construction of a new SIGINT facility identified by CSIS. Large scale construction began in 2017. The white ball on top of the finished structure appears to be a radome, what is a radome you ask? It’s a structural weatherproof enclosure that protects an internal radar system. It basically keeps it safe and sound from the nasty elements. When I measure it , we can see that the radome appears to be approximately 20 feet in diameter. Based on the size, we know it could cover a number of different radars from satellite communications to military-grade radar for tracking and surveillance.

Quote:Our incredible guest today is Nick Cook. In the 1990s, Cook was the aviation editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, the UK based international defense journal. He was also an aerospace consultant and contributor to the journal from 2002 to 2008. He's won awards from the Royal Aeronautical Society in the Defense, Business, Technology, and Propulsion categories and is the last thing from a UFO nut. But in the early 90's he stumbled across an article about Antigravity that would change his life forever. This interview covers his decade long exploration into the most secretive compartments of aviation history -- the quest for antigravity. It takes him from Nazi Germany, to a forgotten American inventor named Thomas Townsend Brown until more contemporary gravity researchers today. Please enjoy this long form conversation with him!

Quote:A senior Chinese military official has issued a stern warning regarding any foreign interference in the South China Sea. Speaking to journalists at the Xiangshan forum, General He Lei said: "We hope that the South China Sea will remain a sea of peace." However, he also warned that if the US were to involve itself directly or indirectly in the region, China would respond. The South China Sea has been a flashpoint in recent years, with China asserting territorial claims that overlap with those of several other nations. Despite an international court ruling denying the legitimacy of China’s claims, Beijing continues to enforce its claims aggressively which has led to frequent confrontations with vessels from countries like the Philippines. In recent months, the South China Sea has seen a series of high-profile incidents involving Chinese and Philippine vessels. Chinese ships have been involved in direct confrontations with Philippine vessels, leading to heightened tensions.

Quote:China has made a major breakthrough in chipmaking technology, unveiling a 65nm lithography machine that stunned the global semiconductor industry. This advancement puts the U.S. on edge, as China moves closer to self-reliance despite U.S. sanctions aimed at slowing its progress. Learn how this leap in semiconductor tech impacts the global market and what it means for the future of U.S.-China relations in the tech world.

Quote:“Tragic. Avoidable,” Gaetz said when asked for his thoughts on the second assassination attempt against the former president.
“I am starting to get the impression that we do not have enough force protection of supporting President Trump that we ought to have, given the threat environment,” he said, noting that he recently met with a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who said that there are at least five known assassination teams in the United States, “at least three of which are foreign that are out to kill Trump.”
“And, with that type of activity, I don’t think we should be allowing people to set up for an extended period of time and wait to take their shot outside of his golf properties or his other properties,” Gaetz said, expressing concern that the second suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was previously known to officials, encountered at the border upon his return to the country from Ukraine.

“And the Customs and Border Patrol [CBP] thought his story was so suspicious that he was recruiting freedom fighters all over the world to go fight in Ukraine, and when they asked him how he was financing this, he said, ‘Oh, well, my wife is paying for it.’ And that seemed odd, and, so, the CBP officials referred Ryan Routh to the Department of Homeland Security’s investigations unit to determine what was going on, and they declined to even proceed with an investigation,” Gaetz said. “They just stopped and let the guy in the country. And we’ve got a lot of questions about that.”
Host Mike Slater pressed Gaetz on the claim of five assassination teams existing in the country, and Gaetz reiterated that they are “aware of at least five teams in-country that are geared toward killing Trump. ”
“And I think, you know, three of them that we know are foreign in nature. Two of them we know are domestic in nature, and that calls for a force protection that we do not have around the former president right now,” the Florida congressman said, reemphasizing that a senior DHS official met with him and relayed that information, explaining that “they were aware of this and were concerned that the Secret Service was not providing sufficient support.”

When asked how it would even be possible to have assassination teams walking around, Gaetz said there is simply “insufficient scrutiny to stop them from doing so.”
“Three of these teams are foreign-inspired, from my understanding — Iranians, Ukraine, Pakistan — and, you know, the work is obviously challenging to protect — protective detail, like a presidential campaign that is vigorous and out campaigning,” he said.
Given this threat, Gaetz said they are investigating to see if they have the right protective detail, such as the correct sniper teams and the right tactical teams.
“And we’ve seen a few times where resources have been pulled off of the Trump detail for the Jill Biden detail or for the John Bolton detail. And we’re going to question whether or not that was sound, given what we knew about the efforts to kill Trump,” he added.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/...ms-in-u-s/

Quote:Some lawmakers are suspicious of a potential mole in the U.S. Secret Service following the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.
Host Mike Slater pointed to the fact that now, after the second assassination attempt on Trump, the “aura of invincibility of the Secret Service” is disappearing, which could lead to more individuals with ill-intent attempting to go after the former president.
“It’s a great point. The barrier to entry to assassination chaos seems to be lowered,” Gaetz said, noting that he has colleagues who are suspicious that there is something more nefarious at play within the Secret Service.
“I have Republican colleagues who have not ruled out a mole inside the Secret Service of providing information about points of vulnerability,” he said. “I’ve not seen evidence of that, but I’ve got colleagues that are very, very smart at this who say they can’t rule that out, given some of the anomalies and the fact pattern here.”
More likely, Gaetz said, there is “such a sense of disdain for Trump, and there’s such a desire to diminish him within some of these agencies that giving him less protection, not having him surrounded by a bunch of strong men that appear authoritative in nature, that that type of a virtue signal to drain protective resources away is tolerated because, frankly, in their heart of hearts, they don’t think much of Trump.”
Gaetz added that they “don’t think much of … safety and security, and it’s that disregard that I think has created that dynamic” Slater described.

Quote:This post is about a Malta-flagged commercial ship called The Ruby. She's apparently a sadly derelict creature. The Norwegians who crawled over her when she anchored after radioing for shelter permission in their waters...

Quote:...According to the tracking data on MarineTraffic, the Maltese flagged Ruby sailed out of Kandalaksha on August 22 with Las Palmas in the Atlantic as destination.

Outside the coast of northern Norway, Ruby got problems. On Monday August 26 and called for permission to sail into sheltered waters. At the time, a storm with wind up to 25-30 meters per second hit the coast and waves were high.

Spokesperson Hanne Olafsen with the Norwegian Joint Headquarters says to the Barents Observer that port of refuge was granted for the vessel.

“The military approved place of shelter based on the application.”

According to newspaper Nordlys, the vessel stayed inside Vannøya north of Tromsø for several days before she on Sunday was escorted by two Norwegian tugs to port in Tromsø.

The Ruby sailed into Tromsø with own engines and it is It is not immediately clear what emergency the ship claims.

... took note of such deficiencies as multiple cracks in the hull along with a damaged rudder and propeller. These naturally gave rise to some concern about The Ruby's seaworthiness. It became even more concerning to the Norwegians when they discovered what cargo The Ruby - now safely berthed alongside the university and hospital in the city that rings the Tromsø harbor - had onboard.

Authorities wanted the piece of crap vessel on its way, stat.

When I first started reading a truly fascinating thread on this last night, twisted as I am, the thing that popped into my head was the tragic Harry Chapin song, Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas.



Weird connection, right? Not exactly.

To their utter horror, The Ruby, Norwegians found out, is carrying 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate.

TWENTY THOUSAND TONS OF AMMONIUM NITRATE

In case anyone has a vague idea of the significance but isn't quite sure, lemme paint a quick picture:



For comparison sake, this was the Port of Beirut blast four years ago ~ 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate.

This vessel is carrying more than seven times that amount.

Norway booted The Ruby from the harbor to a strategic anchorage, but not before people started taking note of some other unsettling features.

Ammonium nitrate is one of the shadow commercial enterprises the Russians are conducting to keep money flowing into war-depleted coffers. Most of the country's production comes out of the far north and transits through the Baltic. That route also helps keep Russian eyes - however they're painted as innocent commercial shipping - on strategic NATO bases and ports in the area.

Quote:...Russia counts for two-third of the global production of ammonium nitrate, and although many countries have banned the sale of it as fertiliser, others are buying big loads exported out of the northern harbour of Kandalaksha.

The Ruby slowly got underway at last but shortly thereafter lost propulsion to begin drifting. The ship requested that they be able to pull in and make repairs in a Lithuanian port and were politely rebuffed until the ship could find another port to off-load their explosive cargo to first.

She's now without any power, her crew is reported to have no papers (?!), and the ship whose cargo's explosive potential has been compared to Hiroshima is being towed toward the Danish Strait of the Great Belt, a tricky passage in the best times with a fully functioning vessel.

Quote:...Despite these issues, the vessel, registered in Malta, has continued its journey with tug assistance. It is expected to pass through the Danish Strait of the Great Belt, a challenging and narrow waterway, before the weekend.

According to reports, the ship’s captain has not requested pilot services for navigating the strait.

Analysts, including Jacob Kaarsbo of Danish think tank Think Tank Europe, have expressed concerns that Ruby may be part of Russia’s broader strategy of hybrid warfare, citing its connections to Syria and Russia.

After departing from Kandalaksha, a Russian port in the Murmansk region, the ship anchored near NATO’s strategically important Andøya airbase for several days, raising further suspicions.

Denmark, already dealing with a “shadow fleet” of Russian tankers circumventing sanctions, now faces added pressure to handle this precarious situation. Experts stress the need for NATO allies to coordinate a strategy to address the risks posed by Ruby and other similarly vulnerable vessels.

I'll excerpt just a bit here:

Quote:...Ammonium nitrate, the Ruby's cargo, is widely used in agriculture as a fertilizer and in industry as an ingredient for explosives. Under stable conditions, the chemical is relatively safe. However, when subjected to extreme heat, shock, or contamination, it becomes highly volatile. The scale of the risk cannot be understated: 20,000 tons is more than seven times the quantity of ammonium nitrate that detonated in the tragic Beirut explosion of 2020, an event that left large portions of the Lebanese capital in ruins. Experts have noted that a similar explosion from the Ruby could cause devastation comparable to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, capable of flattening vast areas and causing widespread loss of life. This makes the ship a ticking time bomb as it drifts perilously close to sensitive infrastructure. In particular, the Norwegian government and NATO are increasingly alarmed by the ship’s position, as the Norwegian coastline hosts key military assets that form part of the broader Western defense architecture.
 
Proximity to Norway’s Strategic Military Infrastructure

The Ruby’s location near Bergen places it alarmingly close to critical installations. Bergen is home to the Naval Base Haakonsvern, Norway’s largest military port and a key site for its maritime defense operations. The base is not only Norway’s premier naval installation, but also a cornerstone of NATO’s regional security framework. Any explosion from the Ruby could cripple Norway's naval capabilities and disrupt NATO’s strategic readiness in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions.

His somber conclusion:

Quote:...The world is watching as Norwegian authorities, backed by their NATO allies, attempt to neutralize this floating time bomb. If successful, the incident will serve as a critical case study in crisis management and international cooperation. If not, the consequences could be catastrophic—not just for Norway, but for Europe and beyond.

In the meantime, the Ruby continues to drift, an ominous reminder of the thin line between safety and disaster in a world increasingly shaped by geopolitical strife and environmental risk. As the ship remains a high-risk floating bomb, the urgency to act decisively has never been more critical.

It is a stark reminder that Putin doesn't need conventional warfare - he only needs "fishing boats" to take out undersea cables and commercial cargo vessels to threaten vital facilities.

In the meantime, The Ruby meanders along down the Norwegian coastline towards Denmark. God willing, there will be an offload and repairs in her future.

I sincerely hope the heroic figures in the tug have employed a tow cable that is miles long.

This is surreal.