Honestly, I can accept some sort of elite ruling over us. It has ever been thus, and true democracy (which is impossible) almost anywhere in the world would yield terrible results. But the people ruling over us in USA and most of the West today, no matter how you look at, no matter from which angle, appear to be terrible people, and not just in the dithering and obstreperous ways they speak but even more so in their policies, their personal behaviors, their clubby corruption, arrogance, and what appears to be nothing more than greedy stupidity. To my eye, it’s clear we have been infiltrated and taken over by some of the shittiest people the world has ever seen. ABN
BREAKING: Ukraine Strikes Russia With Western Weapons.. -NY TIMES Here we go!
Just shortly following the Biden administration’s authorization for Ukraine to employ American weaponry against Russia, Kyiv swiftly acted on this newfound liberty by targeting a military installation across the border, utilizing a U.S.-manufactured artillery system, as indicated by a member of Ukraine’s Parliament.
Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s committee on national security, defense, and intelligence, disclosed on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had successfully neutralized Russian missile launchers with a strike in the Belgorod region, approximately 20 miles into Russian territory.
The operation employed a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), he affirmed.
This marks the inaugural instance of a Ukrainian official openly acknowledging the use of American weaponry to engage targets within Russia subsequent to President Biden’s rescindment of the prohibition on such actions.
NATO is drawing up plans to send American troops to the frontlines of Europe in the event of an all-out conflict with Russia, it has been revealed.
New ‘land corridors’ are being carved out to quickly funnel soldiers through central Europe without local bureaucratic impediments, allowing NATO forces to pounce in an instant should Putin‘s devastating war in Ukraine move further west.
The plans are said to include contingencies in case of Russian bombardment, letting troops sweep into the Balkans via corridors in Italy, Greece and Turkey, or towards Russia’s northern border via Scandinavia, officials told The Telegraph.
Tensions have ratcheted up in recent weeks, with Russian President Vladimir Putin openly acknowledging the ‘possibility’ of ‘a full-scale Third World War’ as he threatens ‘fatal consequences‘ for western allies allowing Ukraine use of their weapons on Russian soil.
As ascetics,31 the Śramaṇas (Buddhists) owned little more than a simple robe and a few other necessities. Thus did Gautama Śākamuni, ‘sage of the Scythians’, wander, meditating and searching for answers, before his “awakening”. He may well have met others doing the same thing, and studied with some of them, but we have no remotely credible evidence that he knew anything about Jains, Ājīvikas, or other non-Brahmanist sects. The traditional view, which actually accepts this problematic notion as dogma, has not been seriously questioned for a long time. Yet these sects are unattested in any dated or datable Pre-Normative Buddhist sources. It is because their teachings needed to be refuted and rejected by much later Buddhists that they eventually appeared in the written Buddhist tradition, but in works that are patently late doctrinally, full of magic and other forms of fantasy, and unreliable in every other way. Chronological incongruities reveal that the putatively “early” forms of what eventually became identifiably Jain, Ājīvika, and so on, did not yet exist as such anywhere near the time of the Buddha, but took on recognizable forms only much later due to heavy influence from Normative Buddhism, therefore no earlier than the Saka-Kushan period.
~Beckwith, Christopher I.. Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia (pp. 70-71). Princeton University Press
From evening drives to navigating a house or a park in the dark, there are so many situations where it’d be handy to slip on a simple pair of night-vision lenses and the world that’s beyond human optical perception could be illuminated like never before. This vision could be a reality, with a technology breakthrough that could deliver this elusive view to everyday consumers, with an ultra-thin film or lens the width of cling wrap.
Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) in Australia have been on a quest to make night vision accessible and wearable, doing away with bulky and expensive headsets and lens attachments.
Their new findings allow all the complex light processing to take place along a simpler, narrower pathway, which essentially means the tech can be packaged up as a night-vision film that weighs less than a gram and can be placed across existing lensed frames.
Having an everyday pair of night-vision spectacles, that look much the same as reading or driving glasses, could change the way we work and play after dark. There’s so much potential, from finding your off-leash dog in the park on a late-night walk, to enhanced safety behind the wheel and on foot.
The Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper, which is affiliated with the Hezbollah terror group, on Tuesday morning reported that in recent days, a number of diplomatic messages have arrived in Beirut, containing warnings regarding an impending war with Israel.
Hezbollah has been launching both missiles and UAVs at northern Israel since October 7, 2023, and Israel has responded by retaliated in a precise and controlled fashion, targeting Hezbollah military infrastructure and senior terrorists.
Sources told Al Akhbar that most representatives of international delegations have expressed concern at the severity of the Israeli threat, but the most significant messages come from the British, who estimate that Israel will attack mid-June. The British also advised preparing for a war of unknown scope or length.
Former Lebanese minister Walid Jumblatt said that during his most recent visit to Qatar he heard concerns regarding Israel’s intentions in Lebanon. Qatari officials expressed worry that Israel is not interested in a ceasefire in Gaza, despite the US efforts to achieve one.
Ritter was slated to participate in the annual St.Petersburg International Economic Forum as a guest speaker.
“As I was boarding my flight out of New York I was pulled aside by three CBP officers, who seized my passport. When asked why, they said orders of the State Department. No further information was provided. My bags were removed from the flight, and I was escorted out of the airport,” the former US Marine intelligence officer told Sputnik.
Scott Ritter added that his passport was not given back. He said he will appeal the decision.
Ritter believes US authorities are afraid of his participation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
Ukraine’s high causality rates combined with its struggle to conscript its own population means the EU will increasingly move to conscript European youth, mostly in the geographical proximity of Ukraine, to fight against Russia, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó following a meeting with EU foreign ministers.
“Ukrainian casualties are becoming more and more unbearable, Ukrainian men are not being allowed out of Ukraine, and now they want to conscript European youth into the war. And obviously, as the escalation hits this neighborhood first, one can almost clearly hear the argument that the soldiers should be sent from the geographical proximity first. All this means that they want to send Central European youth, including Hungarian youth, to the war with mandatory European conscription,” said Szijjártó during an interview with Hungarian media.
Szijjártó did not disclose which foreign ministers or member states are exploring the possibility of a European conscription effort, but recently, several countries have said they would consider sending their own troops to Ukraine if Russia had a breakthrough on the Ukrainian front, including France and more recently, the Baltic states.
However, a long-term goal of the left-liberal establishment in Brussels is the creation of an EU military force, including removing the decision-making process about defense from member states and centralizing it in Brussels. Under such a proposal, a potential conscription effort could arise that applies to all EU member states.
If this happens, the fate of Europe and probably Russia will follow that of Ukraine (and Gaza). It seems most likely that annihilation of Europe and Russia is the goal and USA possesses a superweapon. ABN
The United States Department of Justice is quietly prosecuting a novel Espionage Act case involving a drone, a Chinese national, and classified nuclear submarines.
The case is such a rarity that it appears to be the first known prosecution under a World War II–era law that bans photographing vital military installations using aircraft, showing how new technologies are leading to fresh national security and First Amendment issues.
“This is definitely not something that the law has addressed to any significant degree,” Emily Berman, a law professor at the University of Houston who specializes in national security, tells WIRED. “There’s definitely no reported cases.”
On January 5, 2024, Fengyun Shi flew to Virginia while on leave from his graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and rented a Tesla at the airport. His research focused on using AI to detect signs of crop disease in photos. Shi’s subject that week wasn’t plants, however, but allegedly the local shipyards—the only ones manufacturing the latest generation of Navy carrier ships in the country, and nuclear submarines as well.
According to an affidavit filed by FBI special agent Sara Shalowitz in February, a shipyard security officer alerted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to Shi’s actions. The affidavit alleges that on January 6, Shi was flying a drone in “inclement weather” before it got stuck in a neighbor’s tree. When Shi, who is a Chinese citizen, approached the neighbor for help, he was questioned about his nationality and purpose for being in the area. The unnamed resident took photos of Shi, his license plate, and his ID, and called the police. The affidavit alleges that Shi was “very nervous” when questioned by police and “did not have any real reasons” for flying a drone in bad weather. The police gave Shi the number for the fire department and said he would need to stay on the scene. Instead, he returned the rental car an hour later and left Hampton Roads, Virginia, abandoning the drone.
American Buddhist Net 