Its a good thing that I never got into the world of scatterguns. Otherwise I would be one REALLY poor! Grumpy
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A Beretta 686 Onyx in 12GA
A new “disinformation office” has been quietly established by the Biden administration. This office will have the authority to arrest and prosecute citizens of the United States who publish content online that is deemed to be “false” by so-called fact checkers.
According to the announcement made by Director Avril Haines on Thursday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has established a new office to oversee the efforts being made by the intelligence community to combat “disinformation” in the United States.
Haines made the announcement during a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC) will be focused not only on “foreign malign influence” aimed at U.S. elections, but also on “public opinion within the United States.”
Haines declared, “Congress put into law that we should establish a foreign malign influence center in the intelligence community. We stood that up and it encompasses our election threat executive work essentially looking at foreign influence and interference in elections, and deals with disinformation more generally”.
Infowars.com reports: The center was created after approved funding by Congress in September 2022 but little was known about how it would operate.
From The Intercept:
From its perch atop the intelligence community, the FMIC has been designated the U.S. government’s primary authority for analyzing and integrating intelligence on foreign influence, according to a brief entry on ODNI’s website. The FMIC’s acting director, Jeffrey K. Wichman, is a former CIA executive who previously served as chief of analysis for the agency’s Counterintelligence Mission Center.
“Exposing deception in defense of liberty” is the center’s motto, ODNI’s website says. It enjoys access to “all intelligence possessed or created pertaining to FMI [foreign malign information], including election security.”
Haines said the FMIC would work with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to fulfill its mission, which the Twitter Files revealed works as a malicious censorship arm of the federal government.
“What we have been doing is effectively trying to support the Global Engagement Center and others throughout the U.S. government in helping them to understand what are the plans and intentions of the key actors in this space: China, Russia, Iran, etc.,” she said.
Specifically, the “GEC funded the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a foreign data-driven advocacy organization, which ‘created blacklists of U.S. domestic media voices to cripple U.S. citizen journalists’ advertising revenue,’ according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (TX), Foreign Affairs Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee Chair Brian Mast (FL), and GOP Reps. Chris Smith (FL), Darrell Issa (CA), Maria Salazar (FL), Keith Self (TX), Cory Mills (FL), and Ken Buck (CO),” Breitbart reported.
This comes ten months after the Department of Homeland Security scrapped its planned “Disinformation Governance Board” in the wake of massive public backlash.
This is just another attempt by the government to establish a Ministry of Truth that will be weaponized against, not “foreign adversaries,” but the American people.
Watch the Haines’ full testimony:
I guess Memphis, Tennessee city council members haven’t gotten any smarter since I left town. Not even smart enough to ask someone with a little knowledge firearms and law for some help.
The council is preparing a couple of gun control referendum questions. Since Tennessee is a firearms preemption state, that seems to be asking for trouble right off. But they acknowledge that, and said, What the hell; why not?
Memphis City Council to consider gun restrictions, but state law could preempt change
Memphis City Council members are poised to consider Tuesday approving two ballot referendums that would allow Memphians to vote on whether handguns should be banned in city limits without permits and whether the sale of assault rifles should be banned in the city.If approved by city council members and then the voters, those ordinances would directly contradict state law.
The proposed language of the referendum questions is interesting… in a morbidly amusing way.
“Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis be amended to read:
1. No person shall be allowed to carry a handgun in the City of Memphis without possessing a valid handgun carry permit.
2. No person shall be allowed to carry, store, or travel with a handgun in a vehicle in the City of Memphis without possessing a valid handgun permit.”
Aside from state preemption law, that runs afoul of federal law: 18 USC 926A. I suspect active enforcement of that one — what; checkpoints on I-40 and I-55? — would cost Memphis taxpayers quite a few million dollars in lawsuit settlements.
Next up, we have this gem.
“Shall the Charter of the City of Memphis be amended to read:
1. Hereafter, the Commercial Sale of Assault Rifles within the City of Memphis is unlawful and is hereby prohibited.
2. The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to the Commercial Sale of Assault Rifles to:
-insert the usual law enforcement and military exceptions-
Huh. “Assault rifles;” not some vague, undefined “assault weapon.” I am pleased to see that question 2 leaves AR-pattern firearms (like the actual AR-15) alone. But given the restrictions of the National Firearms Act of 1934, I really don’t see much point in it. Lawful transfers of machine guns already require background checks, taxes, and long delays; whether a commercial sale or private. Oh, and a lot of money for the gun itself.
No, not too bright at all. But then, they do still have a Ford on the council. I think Edmund, Sr. is the one who called for blacks to rise up, riot, and destroy the city that one time.
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Retired Staff Sgt. Nicholas Maimer. (Facebook)
A retired Special Forces soldier died in Ukraine after an apparent building collapse amid a Russian artillery barrage in the embattled city of Bakhmut, according to U.S. officials, claims from a Russian paramilitary leader, and media reports.
Nicholas Maimer, who retired from the National Guard as a staff sergeant, was working with a non-profit group seeking to aid civilians and train Ukrainian troops, CNN cited fellow Americans working in Ukraine as saying.
A spokesperson for the Idaho National Guard, from which Maimer retired on Dec. 24, 2018, with an honorable discharge, expressed condolences to the veteran’s family.
“Our hearts and prayers are with the family of Nicholas Maimer, along with his friends in the community,” said Lt. Col Christopher Borders in a phone interview.
Borders said that Maimer’s military career took him from the active duty Army to the Idaho Army National Guard, with intervening stints in the Utah and California Guard as well. Maimer, who earned his Special Forces tab while with a Utah unit in 2005, was qualified as a Special Forces engineer sergeant, an infantryman, a cavalry scout and a tank crewman.
The leader of the Wagner Group private military corporation, Yevgeny Prigozhin, appeared in a Tuesday video posted to Telegram that displayed a body and U.S. documents that appeared to belong to Maimer. The Russian oligarch claimed Maimer had been directly fighting against his troops, who have borne the brunt of Russia’s bloody drive to capture the city in eastern Ukraine, and deserved “respect because he did not die in his bed as a grandpa but he died at war,” according to a CNN translation.
Military Times could not independently verify the video’s authenticity, but Maimer’s uncle told the Idaho Statesman that the body in the video was that of his nephew.
A State Department spokesperson, speaking anonymously to discuss an American citizen’s reported death, told Military Times that officials are aware of the reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in Bakhmut and are seeking additional information. The spokesperson cautioned that their ability to verify death reports is “extremely limited” and reiterated that U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict.
It’s not clear whether Maimer had experienced combat before he went to Ukraine.
Borders, the Idaho Guard spokesperson, provided a list of Maimer’s awards and decorations that did not include any specific War on Terror expeditionary ribbons or combat badges. But Borders noted the difficulty of compiling Guard troops’ service records, particularly for soldiers like Maimer who transferred multiple times between states.
The spokesperson said Maimer deployed to the Philippines as a Utah National Guard Special Forces sergeant from September 2006 until May 2007, though it’s not clear what duties he or his unit held.
According to archived press releases, the Utah Guard-led 1st Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group completed a nine-month rotation with the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines during that time. Troops assigned to that task force, which operated under the Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines banner, were not authorized to participate in combat save for self-defense scenarios, according to a 2016 RAND report.
Troops who participated in that mission were authorized the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, but Maimer’s seemingly-incomplete records do not include one. Other service awards did not include devices to which Maimer should have been entitled.
Maimer received at least one Army Commendation Medal and five Army Achievement Medals during his 20-year career, Borders said.
Davis Winkie is a senior reporter covering the Army. He focuses on investigations, personnel concerns and military justice. Davis, also a Guard veteran, was a finalist in the 2023 Livingston Awards for his work with The Texas Tribune investigating the National Guard’s border missions. He studied history at Vanderbilt and UNC-Chapel Hill.
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Ah you were saying something sir? NSFW
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Somebody has ben trained well!
Royal Welsh Fusilier at Gallipoli.
And no that is not my lovely wife! Grumpy
