The Fourth vs. Flock?

 Yesterday's SCOTUS ruling on "geofencing" being a 4th Amendment violation (in the case of criminal suspicion) brings up another possibility:  that "Flock" is also subject to 4th Amendment restrictions.

As the Ticker opines:

 ...[Another decision] that is likely to have wide-ranging impact in the world of ever-increasing surveillance, particularly the "Flock" nonsense as it both exists now and is expanding rapidly with scanners that profile on Bluetooth and WiFi MAC (and similar) addresses tying people to locations beyond that of license plates.

This decision in fact goes to exactly that "beyond" question in that it applies to "geofence" requests made to providers that are not governments, in this case Google.

The government did not seek a warrant and doesn't on a routine basis when it uses FLOCK and similar data today.  This decision ends that when the inquiry is one of criminal culpability beyond something like a license plate that is otherwise subject to direct casual, personal observation....

It is not likely that Flock's observations of license plates is per se a violation.  However, when the cops are seeking a criminal suspect and utilize Flock's videos to determine criminal culpability --that is, whether Suspect A was "at the scene" or not--it may, indeed, be a violation of the Fourth. 

Trump "Family Business" Reeks

 It didn't have to happen, but it did.  Two rich kids use their daddies' connections to get even richer.

Not unusual in private industry, or in Fortune 50 circles--but sadly, it's the way business is done in the current White House, just like in the last one.

The [NYT] reports that Eric and Donald Trump Jr., sons of President Donald Trump, and Kyle and Brandon Lutnick, sons of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, are tied to a billion-dollar tungsten-mining deal that the US government is financing in Kazakhstan....

The combox will soon have a post asking why Dad29 supports Trump.

Easy!!  To avoid Biden-style corruption from Kammy. 

Mouse Roars, ICE Says "Screw Off"

 This is a funny story in its own way.

 Cell phone video appearing to show masked ICE agents making arrests in Milwaukee over the weekend has reignited debate over a city ordinance banning law enforcement from wearing face masks in most circumstances while on duty.

The Milwaukee Police Department confirmed ICE agents are in the city for what ICE describes as targeted enforcement against criminal activity. The operation is expected to last a week...

....unless they decide to evict all the Syrian and Haitian illegals, too.... 

Moving on.

...Milwaukee prohibits federal law enforcement officers from wearing face masks to hide their identities under most circumstances while interacting with people in the city.

Alderwoman Zamarripa believes that ban should be enforced, with agents potentially facing fines of $5,000 to $10,000 as outlined in the ordinance if they continue to wear masks in the city.

"I think it breeds fear in the community to see these masked agents coming into our neighborhoods with vehicles unmarked, no license plates," Zamarripa said....

Actually, that's the point.  Better that they have the fear of God (and US law) instilled and self-deport than that the Feds have to muscle them outta here.  But YMMV.

Some random bystander babe refused to go on camera, but wailed and snorted nonetheless.

...A Milwaukee woman, who asked that her name and face not be shared out of fears for her family, described the emotional toll of the enforcement operation.

"It's very heartbreaking because I could definitely relate. I have family members that, as I said, they're just scared to go out and do what they even have to go to a grocery store," she said....

Then she went to the Heights of Irony script!

... When asked what it means to see agents wearing face masks, the woman said: "It just feels like they're doing whatever they want and we just have to take it in the chin, and it's just not right....

Kinda like the illegals, sweet cheeks?  Just barging in, ripping off taxpayers for welfare, Medicaid, food stamps........and raising the cost of housing for US citizens along the way?  And that's before we get to the drunk-driver-homicides, un-insured, un-licensed..........we could go on.

ICE had something to say to the Roaring Mouse Zamarippa:

... "State and local sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from wearing masks is despicable and a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers. To be crystal clear: we will not abide by unconstitutional bans. The Supremacy Clause makes it clear that state and local sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement," the DHS spokesperson said....

That was the very long version of "FU and the horse you rode in on." 

Not satisfied with merely ranting for the suckers camera, Zamarippa has DEMANDS!!

... "If they continue to work here in a secret capacity with full masks on like I've seen, then we are asking MPD and the city attorney to act as the enforcement entity and write citations to ICE," Zamarripa said....

Dead silence from the Milwaukee Police Department, which cannot find one single solitary cop to volunteer for that task.  And they never will, either.

Good. 

How To Build a DataCenter? Secretly!!

To clear the air:  we are not opposed to "datacenters" per se.  Each one should be examined on its own merits and demerits.  That said, the slime-scuzzy practices outlined here should prevent any such proposal from going forward.

...They arrive a year early, force your mayor to sign a secret NDA, and quietly rig the local zoning laws. By the time you find out about the hyperscale data center, it's already too late. ...

 ...These agreements frequently prohibit disclosing the existence of the project, the company’s identity, scale (e.g., power demand in MW, number of buildings, water usage), or even the NDA itself in some cases. Officials sometimes sign to “stay in the room” for negotiations or incentives, or under pressure that transparency could scare away investment....

 ...Announcement or formal approvals often come only after land is secured, and preliminary steps are advanced, making organized opposition harder. Public input, if any, is compressed into rushed hearings.

... Impacts on communities: Data centers are massive (hundreds of acres, enormous electricity and water demands for cooling, noise from fans, traffic during construction and operation). Critics argue that secrecy prevents informed debate on grid strain, water resources, land conversion (often farmland), tax breaks, and limited long-term local jobs versus temporary construction work...

You don't have to be preternaturally intelligent to suspect that the Port Washington datacenter included all of those elements, and perhaps more.  The guilty look on the Mayor's face, whenever he allowed Nooz Peeps to ask questions, tells you everything.

Think we're Conspiracy Theorists?

The article here shows a LOT of positives for Wisconsin businesses, such as Regal/Rexnord, Generac, and Trane.  But then there's the slime:

  ...At least four communities signed NDAs for major projects. In Beaver Dam, the economic development corp signed with “Balloonist LLC” (later tied to Meta) in December 2023; public awareness came approximately 14 months later, after land deals and TIF work. In Menomonie, NDA in Feb. 2024 with the same shell; two months later, the council quietly changed a land-use ordinance to explicitly include data centers under “warehousing.” The $1.6B project faced backlash, went on hold, and zoning was later reversed after community input. Similar patterns occurred in Kenosha and Janesville....

 Noteworthy:  WE (the company that increased electricity charges by THREE HUNDRED PERCENT since 2000) has asked the PSC to relieve datacenter operators of the "burden" of providing credit guarantees.  So if the damn thing goes out of business--which can happen--ratepayers are left to pay for a helluvalotta excess high-voltage wires, towers, transformers, and switchgear.

For "good deals" as advertised, there is a lot of stink here. 

"Chavez-Crete"=Styrofoam Walls, the Socialist Solution

 How the Socialists' Communists' buildings are built.

First thing, get a committed Socialist Communist into office.

Next, have the Communist promise "Housing for the Poor."

Third:  have the Communist let the contracts to his BFF's.

Fourth:  shave cost-of-building by using STYROFOAM between thin layers of concrete instead of 100% formed concrete walls.

Then move to a countryside palace which is built of real materials so you're out of the area when everything collapses. 

HT:  PowerLine 

The Quakers Go All Nutbag (!!)

 For all those years, you thought the Quakers were a harmless bunch of anti-war types.  And since "anti-war" is an acceptable, but somewhat smarmy, viewpoint, you thought they were basically harmless.

No longer so.

 

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D.), appearing alongside a convicted murderer and a registered sex offender in a webinar with a prison abolition group, endorsed "any and all efforts to get people out of jails and prisons" and said locking up criminals was akin to "robbing" them of their freedom.

El-Sayed was the featured guest on a webinar hosted by the Carceral State Project and the American Friends Service Committee in August 2020 regarding their report "I Don't Want to Die in Prison." The American Friends Service Committee advertised the show—using the hashtags #FreeThemAll and #AbolishPrison—as a platform to "discuss the report findings and the road to decarceration and abolition with Abdul El-Sayed."...

"American Friends Service Committee" is the formal name for the Quakers.

Pretty much ruins that oatmeal breakfast you had in mind, eh? 

 

"No License". Same As "Illegal"??

Another car crash with fatality.

 

A Milwaukee man has been criminally charged, accused of driving drunk and crashing into another vehicle and killing the driver.

Alan Ontiveros, 23, is charged with several felonies for the crash that happened at 11th and Greenfield on Sunday, June 21...A records check with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation showed he did not have a valid driver's license.

'Ontiveros does not have a valid driver's license'.  That looks like a signal about his status.

Good.  Very good! 

Brennan the Communist and His Effects

 It would be an understatement to suggest that Sam Faddis intensely dislikes John Brennan--Obama's CIA Director.  From the writing here, the better phrase would be 'intensely hates' Brennan.

For good reason.  

Remember that Brennan said he voted for the Communist candidate back in the day, and that he worked for GWBush (the Dumber) as Director, Counter-Terrorism Center.  As we all know, Bush and his Daddy are Globalist Scum extraordinaire.

 ...Today’s CIA is a creation of John Brennan. He was not a case officer. He was not an operator. He spent almost no time abroad. His focus was on climbing the ladder politically and acquiring personal power. He did that by attaching himself to Bill Clinton and aligning himself with the liberal Democratic Party agenda.

As Director of the CIA, Brennan worked overtime to weaken the Directorate of Operations (DO) and to sideline career case officers. He didn’t just do that on an ad hoc basis by virtue of who he promoted. He retooled the entire structure of the CIA to guarantee that his people, largely analysts, support personnel, and political appointees, were in control....

 ...Brennan’s stated goals were to break down long-standing “stovepipes” between spies and analysts, improve integration and accountability, speed up decision-making, and better address modern threats like cyber warfare and digital. His real goal was to destroy the CIA as an apolitical intelligence agency dominated by operational personnel and turn it into an overtly political organization. He did not care one whit about producing intelligence and protecting America. He was laser-focused on making sure CIA at the senior levels would align itself with the political agenda of ‘Permanent Washington’ and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

CIA was already in desperate need of reform. Brennan came close to killing it operationally....

Ask yourself this:  why does the US have to rely on Israeli "on-the-ground" humint?

The answer appears to be the Communist/Globalist/Bush-Obama Boy, Brennan. 

Why It Takes So DAMN Long....

 ....to get rid of the viruses, jackwads, and barnacles in the FedGov.

 ...President Trump is in the White House. His appointees sit at the top of most federal agencies. Below that top level, where the work is done and power resides, the bureaucracy remains firmly under the control of the Deep State and those hostile to the America First agenda. They are working hard every day to ensure no real change is made and to pave the way for the recapture of the White House.

This is what we call a stay behind program in the world of special operations and intelligence. A “stay-behind” program is a strategy in which a country pre-positions secret operatives, special units, or clandestine organizations within its own territory. These assets are designed to remain active (or “stay behind”) if the territory is overrun or occupied by an enemy force.

In this case, Trump and his supporters are that “enemy force.”

The stay behind operatives gather intelligence and report to their superiors. They sabotage and disrupt the efforts of the occupying force. They form the nucleus of an underground movement and prepare for the day they will return to power....

It is a bit early to call for kinetic action. 

Next Crime Coming to Milwaukee Soon

 Theft-of-airbags from your car.

It's a hot item in Chicago, so you can expect to see it in MKE within a year or so.  

If you didn't know this, airbags are horribly expensive.  Generally, if you had an accident that caused your airbags to deploy, your car is totaled.

"Gee-Whiz" NOT Good in Cars

 ZeroHedge has the story.  Briefly:  buy cars made before 2010.

In another story, Ford RE-HIRED over 300 senior engineers after finding out that AI + Junior engineers were creating (and not solving) problems.  We are not shocked.

 

Core Services, Big Inflation

This is not good.

 

The “core services” PCE price index jumped by 0.46% in May from April (+5.6% annualized, blue in the chart below). The six-month core services PCE price index jumped by 4.2% annualized, the worst since June 2024 (red).

Core services dominate consumer spending, and that’s where inflation has been accelerating for a year, after coming down from the surge in 2021 through early 2023. Core services are where inflation is tough to battle. A lot of these core services lack adequate competition that consumers can leverage, and once companies that sell these services are confident they have pricing power, they raise their prices, and consumers wail and gnash their teeth and pay them....

OK, so what are "core services"?

 Core services in cost-of-living typically include housing, food, healthcare, transportation, and taxes. These services represent essential expenses that individuals need to maintain a basic standard of living in a specific area...

Hmmmmm. 

Are Pocan and Moore Next To Fall??

 Won't happen this election, but if you pay attention to "social media," you'll notice that Pocan (D-Madistan) is mentioned often as the next victim of the Democrat Socialist Communist revolution.

 You could include Gwen Moore with Pocan, if Childers is a solid prophet:

 ...‘Moderate’ Democrats aren’t rallying around their sudden, rediscovered patriotism. They are organizing against a movement that is stealing safe Democrat seats. It’s self-defense. They know abolishing prisons is not a winning issue.

The lid is off the blue crock pot, and the fondue is boiling over. The Democrats’ messy internal divisions are finally spilling onto the open battlefield: the civil war between ‘moderate’ Democrats and radical socialists....

Both Pocan and Moore occupy very safe (D) seats.  Both have a reputation for doing very little in Congress--aside from collecting paychecks and putting out inane positions on X.

Tick-Tock..... 

By the way, Childers inserted a still from "Red Dawn" in that column. 

History Is Fun

Grim recounts history from his temporary place at a motorcycle rally in North Carolina.

...Locally you see a lot of Confederate flags. This is because the Confederacy won the war here. At the end of the war, Thomas' Legion of Indians and Highlanders compelled the surrender of the last Union forces in the region. The Cherokee Nation declared war on the Union and allied with the Confederacy, for the obvious reason that the Union had been waging war on them since at least President Andrew Jackson, and for the less-obvious reason that they also were a slave-owning power. They joined with Scottish and Scots-Irish Highlanders to form a combined arms force that fought through the entire war. Together, they defeated the Union forces and obtained an agreement to surrender in the local town of Waynesville, North Carolina. As it happened, news of Lee's surrender to Grant arrived at about that same time, so they still held the surrender but reversed the polarity about which side was surrendering. However, the mountain folk were not only never defeated, they won. They remember that they won. The Cherokee often fly the Confederate flag too for the same historical reasons as the Highlanders.  ...

Who knew? 

The Problem With Little Benny Shapiro

Well, yes, there are LOTS of problems with Benny.

But this one stands out:

 ...In sum: Shapiro supports the forcible displacement of non-Jews from Greater Israel, even as he welcomes the dilution of America’s European stock via mass migration. Set aside your own views on those matters: Does this not seem a rather bewildering instance of moral incoherence?...

Documentation can be found at the link. 

Does he still have an audience? 

Sending Your Kids to Camp Minikani? Ask Questions!!!

 A lot of children from western MKE suburbs and the North Shore go to summer camp at Camp Minikani, which is run by the YMCA.

YMCA.  Vanilla, non-controversial, safe place, good programs for the kids, right?

Not so fast.

The American Parents Coalition released a “Lookout” notification to parents over the YMCA’s transgender-inclusive camp and programming policies that include allowing males into female cabins and restrooms.

Executive director of parents group the American Parents Coalition Alleigh Marré told The Center Square that “by not complying with Title IX, the YMCA’s policies treat biological sex as irrelevant in the spaces where it matters most for privacy and safety like bathrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, and sleeping accommodations.”...

Before you send your girls to Minikani, ASK QUESTIONS and INSIST ON ANSWERS.

 ...The Lookout highlighted the transgender-inclusive policies of many individual YMCA camps.

For instance, in Michigan, Sherman Lake YMCA camp’s policy for cabin placement states that “campers are assigned to cabins based on their identified gender.”

Sherman Lake is not alone, with camps in Colorado, Wisconsin and California in having similar policies....

The Wisconsin camp which displays the transgender-friendly wording is located in St Croix:

 YMCA Camp St. Croix (WI) policy: welcomes “campers of all backgrounds, walks of life, and genders,” adding that, “campers are assigned to their cabin based on age and gender-identity.”...

 No surprise that the St Croix camp is run by the Twin Cities Y.  

Pay attention, parents! 

ICE Clean-Up in MKE Underway

 Are you in MKE due to your lying?  Fraud?  Overstay of your visa?

Not to worry!!  ICE will give you a nice ride home soon.

Arrange your affairs accordingly.  

Vaya con Dios! 

Where Do We.....

 ....get such men?

During the Camp Mystic flood-disaster....

... For three hours, with no radio and no cell service, he was the only trained responder on site, setting up triage, organizing safe zones, carrying children barefoot in the dark, and comforting each one before moving to the next. His coordination enabled 165 rescues on a day where twenty-seven people died. What set him apart was that he was the only person who stayed behind—voluntarily grounded—so others could be lifted out to safety....

He will get the Tillman Award. 

Your Future Under Socialist-Democrats? Be Prepared.

 American Thinker quotes portions of an essay from a left-leaning newspaper guy in Venezuela.

You won't like what you read, especially if you live in NYC or Los Angeles.

First, from the Thinker essayist:

 Look at the despair and the sorrow of the people unable to rescue their injured loved ones from beneath the tons and tons of rubble, some of them calling out, dying, in homes transforming by the hour into tombs. . . There's no search and rescue, there's no ambulances, there's no hospitals, there's no fire trucks, and yes, fires are breaking out nightmarishly enough -- Venezuela's health care lies in ruins - nor is there an organized effort to dig out.

Socialism has well and truly taken over in that country, and as this leftish but still good essayist in the Caracas Chronicles notes, one of the effects is that the state has abandoned its basic functions of government. . .

Los Angeles already has experience with that--more specifically, Pacific Palisades, which found out what it REALLY costs to be governed by a Progressive Communist.  No water, horrific mistakes by Fire Department command, no clear path to rebuilding...........and Pacific Palisades is no more.

Not as bad as Venezuela.  Yet.

The state of roads in the City of Milwaukee is a signal.  Faint & distant, yes, but.......So rather than commit more State dollars to road maintenance for municipalities, our Governor's Radical Left Communist aides are petitioning for a choo-choo train.

(Quoting the Venezuelan author:)  

Since at least 2022, the Venezuelan state has increasingly adopted a hands-off approach to governance. This shift, shaped by a post-socialist form of laissez-faire economic policy, reduced state control over large parts of the economy and contributed to a modest but visible revival in business activity. In many ways, the state appeared to retreat from major areas of public administration while preserving absolute control over others, particularly the security apparatus and the machinery of censorship and political repression ...

Oh.  Sorta like how the Biden Regime controlled social sites?  Hmmmmm??  Sorta like the Biden Regime's persecution of J6 grannies?  Trump loyalists?  Catholics?  And on the flip side, its promotion of chaos in sexual perversions, "trannies", and abortion?

Some think that the trend toward Totalitarianism-by-Socialist-Democrat Communists will reverse because that form of governance simply does not work, and the lessons of Pacific Palisades and the rest of California, (not to mention what will soon happen in NYC) will be recognized and then the voters will reverse course.

Maybe.

But buying more ammo, and a couple of spare rifles, is never a bad idea. 

 

Is the Iran War Justified? Nope.

 There is a lot of rhetoric about whether the War on Iran is "justified."  Much of that rhetoric came from a small country in the Middle East, but a noticeable portion came from the White House and other US official sources.

In this essay, written by a US Army LTC (Retired), there is an examination of Thomas Aquinas' criteria for just war.  Sadly--but not surprisingly--not one of TA's criteria was met in this war.

Excerpts:

[1]  ... Our bombing of Iran, which began on Saturday, February 28, was not a last resort.  In fact, we were in the middle of a round of negotiations. ...

[2]   ...A nation has a right to defend itself from an immediate threat.  The leaders who make the call to go to war must be doing so to protect the innocent and vulnerable, and they have the obligation to conduct war with the ultimate aim of ensuring a lasting peace.  What was the immediate threat here?   If Iran has been chanting “death to America” for the past 40 years, then how can we suddenly claim that the threat is imminent, urgent, and immediate? ...

 ...there was no nuclear weapons program, so this recent attack against Iran did not save us from one.  It is also important to point out that in October 2003, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued an oral Fatwa forbidding the production and use of WMD in any form. A Fatwa is somewhat similar in scope and application to what we call an encyclical. [3]

For those who will argue that we cannot trust the Iranians, Fatwa or not, then, by the President’s own words, the facilities were buried under rubble in 2025 and our satellites have been watching it since then.  The Director of National Intelligence at the time, Tulsi Gabbard, confirmed this...

(That brings up the question about Gabbard's departure, doesn't it?)

[3]  ... The military force that is applied must be proportional to the offence that is being addressed. Our war efforts in Iran fail on this point as well.  There was nothing in the situation that existed in Iran prior to February 28 that would justify the assassination of a foreign leader; in fact, doing so was a barbaric act unbecoming of our nation.  Within the West, the assassination of foreign leaders has been prohibited since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648....

[4]  ... In order for a war to be a just war, it must be declared by competent authority.  The use of military force must fall under the laws governing the nation, which in our case requires that the War Powers Act are invoked. ...

Yes, well, that part is messy due to both the President and to Congress.

[5]... Injury or death of noncombatants must be avoided at all costs if engagement in armed conflict is to be justified, and on this point we failed miserably. ...

The girls' school "accident."

Throwing out #4 due to the legal mess over the War Powers Act, and generously throwing out #5 because errors actually do happen, it is still likely that under Thomas Aquinas' criteria, this is not a "Just War."

So........why was it started???