Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

License Plate Scanners plus AI Tracking Software equals an all powerful police state plus travel restrictions

Posted: August 3, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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License plate scanners have been used by police departments across the United States for more than a decade.  I know the police department in the town I live in uses them constantly.   I here them using them on my police scanner.  They routinely stop a vehicle because the registered owner’s license is suspended, or something similar. 

License plate scanners, on their own, are a grave threat to the right to privacy of each and every American.  They are a gross violation of our most cherished constitutional rights.  Every single American has a God-given Natural Right to move as we wish, completely free of any government snooping or surveillance.  .

Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, this gross violation of privacy has become much worse, as you can see from this Breitbart article: Breitbart – Police Use AI-Powered License Plate Recognition to Track ‘Suspicious’ Travel Patterns

American law enforcement are now using AI-powered license plate recognition systems to identify “suspicious” patterns of movement by analyzing billions of license plate records. However, this new technology raises significant concerns about privacy and potential misuse.

Forbes reports that by examining billions of license plate records, AI is now assisting American law enforcement in locating “suspicious” movement patterns. This new technology raises serious concerns about privacy and potential abuse. 

When you combine the gross violation of license plate scanners and AI with this article, Breitbart – Climate of Fear: U.N. Chief Guterres Warns ‘Era of Global Boiling’ Is Here, all of the recent hysteria over the supposed hottest temperatures ever becomes more ominous.

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday night rolled out some of his most apocalyptic climate rhetoric to date declaring “the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived.”

He went on to lament how “terrifying” it is seeing children “swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames, workers collapsing in scorching heat.”  He said “short of a mini ice age” over coming days, some scientists estimate July 2023 would shatter records across the board.

Could it be possible that license plate scanners and AI could be used to curtail the movement of Americans to fight a made up dire climate change emergency?  Absolutely.  The hysteria over climate change is already beig used to curtail air travel in a very back handed manner: In the Name of Climate Change: Travel Restrictions and the Great Reset – American Thinker

In 2022, the 193-member nation International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO), a U.N.  agency, agreed to a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.  Ironically, the call to reduce the use of aviation fuel is accompanied by a boom in private air travel, as airline travel becomes more difficult.  Private jets constitute 25% of U.S.  flights and increased by 17% in the first half of 2022.  Clearly, despite purported concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the Great Reset does not restrict travel for the elite.  The agenda obviously has more to do with politics and control than science.

This year, summer air travel was subjected to massive delays.  More than 11,000 flights were delayed or cancelled on June 25; some 8,000 on June 26; and there were 35,000 flight delays and 7,000 cancellations on July 4.  Candid airline employees confessed this had nothing to do with the weather, and that pilot and ATC understaffing was responsible for the chaos.  In late June, I found myself stuck in New York for three days with no available flight options to the West Coast.  I was also trapped in Reykjavik for four nights because of the cancellation of flights to Ilulissat, Greenland.  An Icelandair captain revealed the reason: a tower at an adjacent airport, required for potential flight diversions, was unmanned because of an ATC shortage.

Disney has another flop on its hands

Posted: July 30, 2023 by John Ruberry in business, entertainment, media, News/opinion
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By John Ruberry

“There it is, dear,” I whispered to Mrs. Marathon Pundit last Sunday during the seemingly endless parade of movie trailers as we awaited Oppenheimer (great film, by the way), at AMC Village Crossing in Skokie, Illinois last Sunday, “that is Disney’s next flop.” 

“That” was Haunted Mansion, which is yet another movie based on a Disney theme park attraction. Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland all have Haunted Mansions. The last time I was visited Disney World, Little Marathon Pundit and I went on the Haunted Mansion ride, way back in 2001, neither of us were impressed. 

And do you know what? Barring an unexpected flocking to the Haunted Mansion movie turnstiles, I have already been proven right about the film, which stars LaKeith Stanfield Tiffany Haddish, and Owen Wilson, and it includes appearances by Jamie Lee Curtis and Danny DeVito.

Disclosure: Other than the below trailer, I haven’t seen Haunted Mansion, nor the 2003 Disney film, The Haunted Mansion, which starred Eddie Murphy. Nor do I ever intend to see either. However, I might take a look at Muppets Haunted Mansion, a Disney Halloween television special which first aired in 2021.

You know when a movie is in trouble when a two-minute-long trailer can’t make it look appealing.

The Murphy vehicle made money, but it was critically panned. The new Haunted Mansion is currently receiving a 41 percent Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes. 

Here is the opening sentence of Manohla Dargis’ New York Times review: “There is a mansion, it is haunted, boo, blah, the end.”

Disney’s woke remake of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, which featured an African American Ariel, at best will make a modest profit for the studio. Other recent House of Mouse family-oriented flops include Elemental, Strange World, and Lightyear. The latter includes a same-sex kissing scene.

Back to the new Haunted Mansion: Its director, Justin Simien, who is African American makes note of the setting of the movie, New Orleans. “I felt it was really important for the lead to be Black, because this is set in New Orleans and it’s an 85% Black town,” Simien told Yahoo Entertainment. Adding, “I wanted to make [the movie] as Black as I can because that’s New Orleans.” Oh, while New Orleans has been a majority African American town for decades, it is currently has roughly a sixty-percent Black population. 

Okay, Simien and Disney can make any kind of movie it wants. But instead of focusing on a movie that is “as Black as I can,” why not, instead produce a movie with a compelling storyline and great performances from actors, regardless of their race? While it’s impossible for any entertainment endeavor to please everyone, even with family-oriented projects, why not try to attract as many people as possible?

In defense of New Orleans, it is widely considered to be the most haunted city in America–again, regardless of race, so it is a good choice for the setting of Haunted Mansion.

Does Disney want to keep making bombs? It appears that it does.

Next year, in yet another remake, a live action version of Snow White will hit theaters. In the Grimm Brothers tale, the authors make it clear that Snow White had “skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony.” A Hispanic woman will play the lead in the 2024 film. As for her seven dwarves, they’ve been recast with a multi-racial group of six men of average height–with just one dwarf to aid her in her struggles, which presumably will include battling the patriarchy, represented by the Huntsman, and maybe every once in a while, the Evil Queen. And in the new Snow White, will we learn why the Queen turned evil? I’m predicting the patriarchy will be at fault. Oh, don’t forget that Huntsman.

Walt Disney had many gifts, and a crucial one that made his studio a success is that he knew time-tested stories were also solid material for movies, which is why Walt made animated versions of classic fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and of course, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. And Walt didn’t rehash the same movies.

Contemporary Disney movies are diverse in casting, but not diverse in regard to imagination.

What’s next, besides a new Snow White, for Disney’s movie wing?

Back to Dargis’ New York Times review:

She looked back to NY Times critic Elvis Mitchell’s rundown of the Murphy Haunted Mansion, where he wrote that it was “only a matter of time before Parking Lot: The Movie and People-Mover: The Motion Picture” would hit the local cineplex. Well, that hasn’t happened. Yet.

On the other hand, there are over 150 Grimm Brothers tales, most of which haven’t been made into feature films.

Oh, one more idiotic thing about the new Haunted Mansion. Why was it released in July, instead of October? You know, when Halloween is? I know what stupid looks like–it has big mouse ears.

Meanwhile, the Sound of Freedom, made with a modest budget, is a financial success.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Navy looks to drain reserves to fill gaps

Posted: July 29, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in war
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Your lawn requires maintenance. If you don’t put time and effort into filling your lawn with nice grass, it will eventually fill up with undesirable weeds. Nature abhors a vacuum, so its going to fill the lawn if you don’t. Similarly, the Navy is going to fill its manpower requirements one way or another. Between draining its DEP rolls, slow-rolling retirements, suspending body fat and physical fitness failures, and even suspending high year tenure, you’d think for just a minute that it all might work, that this nibbling around the edges of the problem (instead of addressing it directly) would bring in enough recruits.

Nope.

The Navy, still circling the drain, has now decided to start draining the reserves. Reservists are folks who typically served an initial enlistment and then decided to leave the military but retain a connection to the service. They muster one weekend a month and typically serve a two-week period during the year on active duty. In return they remain eligible for health care and get a cut-down retirement. It’s not a bad gig, but in the past most reservists were barely meeting standards and were thought of as a “break glass in case of emergency” manpower solution. The terrorist attacks on 9-11 changed that and resulted in a bit of a change so that reservists were more available for extended deployments.

Not surprisingly, the Navy is making it easier to tap into reserves and making it harder for people to fail out of the reserves. Let’s look at the following NAVADMINs:

NAVADMIN 158/23: POLICY FOR ACTIVATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF RESERVE COMPONENT FORCES IN FY24 AND BEYOND

NAVADMIN 160/23: SELECTED RESERVE ADVANCEMENT TO WARFIGHTING POSITIONS PROGRAM PHASE I

NAVADMIN 167/23: SEPTEMBER 2023 (CYCLE 260) ACTIVE-DUTY AND TRAINING AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE RESERVE (TAR) E-4 THROUGH E-6 ADVANCEMENT AND MODIFICATION TO SELECTED RESERVE E-4 ADVANCEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT (CYCLE 113)

NAVADMIN 158 references the a memo that basically says Navy Individual Augmentees (IAs) are eating the force alive, and lays out a plan to have Navy Reservists fill more of these billets, even if they are involuntarily activated…meaning they get told “Drop your civilian job and take this crappy military job.”

I am NOT a fan of IAs. These were initially brought out during the invasion of Afghanistan because the Army was short people, and the Navy said “We can send some people to Afghanistan to fill slots!” Seems like a good idea, until 20 years later we were STILL filling IAs. Meanwhile, Navy manpower went missing at key places like shipyards, support facilities and the like, so our Navy platforms suffered, our shore facilities rotted, and Sailor morale went into the toilet. Somehow in 20 years the Army couldn’t staff its own war? Color me skeptical…

So even after we lost Afghanistan, we’re STILL using IAs…and why this is true still boggles my mind. Naturally, it kills morale to go to one job then get yanked to go to another, especially one shore duty when you were promised some time with your family. So instead of killing active duty Sailors morale, we’ll kill Reservist Sailor morale.

NAVADMIN 160 tells us that if you’re an E-4 or E-5, you can take a Selected Reserve (SELRES) job one paygrade above, and after completion you get a permanent paygrade bump. Not bad, you might think. But lets be honest…why would a Sailor not make the next rank? Perhaps he just had bad timing. But more often, he or she was probably not all that great of a Sailor. So now, performance be damned, you get promoted if you take the right job.

NAVADMIN 167 basically makes it even easier to promote. If you’re an E-3 wanting to make E-4, all requirements have been removed, so long as your Commanding Officer says OK, you’ll make rank. High year tenure (where you get booted from the military if you haven’t made a certain rank by a certain number of years in the military) is suspended through 2024…and my guess is they’ll suspend it again. This NAVADMIN is basically making it easier than ever to stay in the Navy no matter how dumb or bad at your job you are.

The sad part is…this won’t work. The Navy continues to not address the morale issues brought on by a restrictive COVID-19 “vaccine” requirement, white supremacist training and the inability to do basic things like fix ships, have decent berthing and fight naval wars. Even Navy veterans like myself are telling our kids not to join. Until the Navy addresses the fundamental issues at hand, these short-sighted efforts will fail.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

The Biden Regime’s ban on portable gas generators is going to have a very negative impact on emergency communications

Posted: July 27, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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I have been an Amateur Radio Operator for over 35 years.  Emergency communication is the most important aspect of the hobby.  When all else fails there is Ham Radio.  That is because most of our equipment is portable and can operate without any infrastructure at all. All we need to establish reliable worldwide communications is wire antennas supported by trees, our radio equipment, and a way to power the equipment that does no rely on commercial power.  Portable gas powered generators are absolutely perfect for that.  

When I saw this headline, Proposed New Biden Rule Essentially Bans All Portable Gas Powered Generators Currently On The Market (thefederalistpapers.org), I was absolutely outraged because I knew that ban would be very detrimental to all emergency communications, not just ham radio.  This will cost a lot of lives.

The Biden administration is working on a new rule through the Consumer Product Safety Commission that limits the carbon monoxide emissions of products. The rule is so stringent that 95% of the current portable gas generators on the market wouldn’t meet the standard. Industry insiders have warned that this could result in a massive shortage of generators since it would take manufacturers years, not the given six months, to design compliant generators.

The only other practical alternative to portable generators are solar panels and car batteries.  I know from a lot of experience that they are no where near as reliable.

There is no valid reason for the ban.  The vast majority of individuals know generators produce carbon monoxide, which can kill you.

Ham Radio Operators will not be the only ones negatively impacted.

Portable gas generators play a crucial role in helping approximately five million households keep their lights on during power outages. If the proposed rule comes into effect, these generators could become exceedingly hard to obtain as manufacturers will be prohibited from stockpiling non-compliant generators before the rule is enacted.

This proposed rule follows closely behind a similar one by Biden-backed commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. which is aimed at banning gas stoves, a move he terms as mitigating a “hidden hazard.” This comes at a time when many parts of America are facing increased risks of power outages due to an over-reliance on green energy. The inability to meet electricity demand, especially during peak times, has already led to power blackouts in states like California.

This ban is not necessary at all.

The Portable Generator Manufacturers’ Association has already implemented voluntary standards to ensure safety from carbon monoxide emissions, requiring generators to automatically shut off when carbon monoxide concentrations reach certain levels, among other safety measures. The Biden administration, however, argues that more stringent emission caps are needed

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