BLM's millions unaccounted for after leaders quietly jumped ship

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/blms-millions-go-unaccounted-for-after-leaders-quietly-jump-ship

Amazon marijuana push

 

More from Amazon on legalization of weed. My full rant and update from 6/21 and 9/21.

We know they will become the biggest distributor, as well as have a way of opiating their employees through harsh work conditions. Meanwhile, their stoned employees can piss in bottles and race to meet their deadlines, and hopefully not kill anyone along the way.

The article sub headline makes marijuana laws sound like they unfairly target blacks, and Amazon will go on a heroic crusade on their behalf:

"Amazon is pushing for legislation to remove hiring impediments, which Amazon has found disproportionately impact individuals of color."

...which amounts to "Black people would be perfect for our shitty job because they're already sedated, so we'll push to kill two birds with one stone(d)."

https://www.inquirer.com/business/weed/marijuana-weed-amazon-lobbying-hiring-legal-20220126.html

Ozric drummer, Balázs Szende

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAS6YtQT50s&t=2s

When I ran across this video, I didn't realize Balázs Szende is the actual drummer with Ozric Tentacles.

As noted in my comments below the video, I understand in an interview with Ed Wynne that the drums are deliberate low in the mix so the complexity isn't necessarily apparent without the visual, and would be easy to assume they may be programmed given the extraordinary and odd time signatures. I honestly never paid much attention to this song until seeing this performance. I attended the Technicians of the Sacred tour in Atlanta in 2015.

LGBT Catholic officials stage mass coming out in Germany

 

Mass layoffs in Hell this week as working demons get pink slipped...

What? Wait a minute! Boogedy-boogedy! Right? Boogedy, anyone?

Sorry, fellas, they're just not buying it anymore. Try the Baptists. 

https://www.thelocal.de/20220124/lgbt-catholic-officials-stage-mass-coming-out-in-germany/

“We are part of the church,” added Raphaela Soden, who works in pastoral care for young adults and identifies as queer and non-binary. “We always have been. It’s time to finally make it clear that we exist and how wonderfully queer the body of Christ is.”

--

Oh, you're gay? Thanks for saying so, you can't be a priest. 

But that's why I became a priest in the first place.

-or-

We're not letting the Episcopals show us up. Sin is IN!

Introducing the Catholic Church's diversity and inclusion program...this should be a hit in South America. 

Hey, LGBTQ folk...they still believe it's a sin. Do you really need their blessings?

Hey, everyone else...do you really need their blessings? Hotline to God is right at your fingertips.

Dem's DOJ forms anti-terror unit

 

Don't oppose this administration or they'll be sending in the Brownshirts.

https://apnews.com/article/united-states-national-security-terrorism-899caf47624dd8741d04f73e65659e68

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is establishing a specialized unit focused on domestic terrorism, the department’s top national security official told lawmakers Tuesday as he described an “elevated” threat from violent extremists in the United States.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, testifying just days after the nation observed the one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, said the number of FBI investigations into suspected domestic violent extremists has more than doubled since the spring of 2020.

“We have seen a growing threat from those who are motivated by racial animus, as well as those who ascribe to extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies,” Olsen said.

The formulation of a new unit underscores the extent to which domestic violent extremism, which for years after the Sept. 11 attacks was overshadowed by the threat of international terrorism, has attracted urgent attention inside the federal government and at the White House.

But the issue remains politically freighted and divisive, in part because the absence of a federal domestic terrorism statute has created ambiguities as to precisely what sort of violence meets that definition. The U.S. criminal code defines domestic terrorism as violence intended to coerce or intimidate a civilian population and to influence government policy, but there is no standalone domestic terrorism charge, meaning prosecutors have to rely on other statutes.

Olsen’s assessment about growing domestic threats tracked with a warning last March from FBI Director Christopher Wray, who testified that the threat was “metastasizing.” Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director in charge of the FBI’s national security branch who testified alongside Olsen, said Tuesday the greatest threat comes from lone extremists or small cells who radicalize online and look to carry out violence at so-called “soft targets.”

“This includes both homegrown violent extremists inspired primarily by foreign terrorist organizations as well as domestic violent extremism,” Sanborn said.

The department’s National Security Division, which Olsen leads, has a counterterrorism section. But Olsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he has decided to create a specialized domestic terrorism unit “to augment our existing approach” and to “ensure that these cases are properly handled and effectively coordinated” across the country.

The partisan divisions around the domestic terrorism terminology were evident during Tuesday’s hearing.

Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic chairman of the committee, played video of the Jan. 6 riot at the outset of the hearing and urged everyone on the committee to “use this hearing to explicitly condemn the use or threat of violence to advance political goals.”

“It’s a simple request, but sadly a necessary one,” Durbin added. “This committee should speak with a unified voice in saying violence is unacceptable.”

Several Republican senators sought to shift focus away from Jan. 6 and asserted that the insurrection had taken away attention from the 2020 rioting that erupted in American cities and grew out of racial justice protests. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, castigated the law enforcement witnesses for what he said were “wildly disparate standards” in the department’s pursuit of suspects in the 2020 rioting and in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the panel’s top Republican, showed video of the 2020 violence as a counter to the Jan. 6 footage that Durbin showed.

“Those anti-police riots rocked our nation for seven full months,” Grassley said.

The FBI and Justice Department say they treat domestic extremist violence the same regardless of ideology. Sanborn said the FBI has opened more than 800 investigations tied to the 2020 rioting and arrested more than 250 people. Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week that the Justice Department had arrested and charged more than 725 people for their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 attack.

____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

AI music maker

 

boomy.ai

Meet Boomy, the AI Software That Could Turn You In To a Music Star (bbc.com)37

Posted by BeauHD on Monday January 10, 2022 @07:50PM from the your-next-side-hustle dept.

Boomy is a new AI startup that helps users create their own songs using artificial intelligence software that does most of the heavy lifting. The BBC reports:You choose from a number of genres, click on "create song", and the AI will compose one for you in less than 30 seconds. It swiftly picks the track's key, chords and melody. And from there you can then finesse your song. You can do things such as add or strip-out instruments, change the tempo, adjust the volumes, add echoes, make everything sound brighter or softer, and lay down some vocals.

California-based, Boomy, was launched at the end of 2018, and claims its users around the world have now created almost five million songs. The Boomy website and app even allows people to submit their tracks to be listed on Spotify and other music streaming sites, and to earn money every time they get played. While Boomy owns the copyright to each recording, and receives the funds in the first instance, the company says it passes on 80% of the streaming royalties to the person who created the song. [CEO Alex Mitchell] adds that more than 10,000 of its users have published over 100,000 songs in total on various streaming services.

Cyber Command Task Force - First Offensive Operation

 

Cyber Command Task Force Conducted Its First Offensive Operation (thedrive.com)26

Posted by BeauHD on Friday January 07, 2022 @10:30PM from the first-of-many dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive:AU.S. Cyber Command task force executed what is being described as its "first offensive cyber effect operation" against real-world cyber threats. While the exact nature of the operation and its target remains unknown, the event was significant enough for the U.S. Secretary of Defense to personally attend to watch the operation in action. The operation was conducted between February and August 2021 by a task force consisting of personnel from the Maryland Air National Guard's 175th Cyber Operations Group, the Delaware Air National Guard's 166th Cyber Operations Squadron, U.S. Navy's Cyber Strike Activity Sixty-Three, the U.S. Air Force's 341st Cyber Operations Squadron, and the Air Force Reserve. The task force executed the operation from February to August last year, although the Air National Guard (ANG) just announced it this week. While there have been other offensive cyber operations conducted by U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), this is the first conducted and acknowledged by this particular task force.

Details about the specific threat countered by the task force's cyber offensive are scarce, but USAF Maj. Corley Bradford, director of operations for 175th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, said the offensive cyber operation involved the security of Department of Defense information networks. "[Our] NMT was a direct contributor to [our task force] conducting a successful offensive cyber effects operation," Bradford stated in an ANG press release. "It was a lot of excitement to finally see the fruits of our labor when [our task force] delivered its first offensive cyber effects operations during this mobilization," said Bradford. Interestingly, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III was on hand to personally witness the operation. "It was a massive milestone," Maj. Bradford said, "so he wanted front row seats to see the action firsthand."