XCR1250

Israel has carried out a strike inside Iran, US official tells CNN, as region braces for further escalation Alex Marquardt, Helen Regan, Hamdi Alkhshali, Artemis Moshtaghian and Adam Pourahmadi, CNN Fri, April 19, 2024 at 6:31 AM CDT·6 min read 5.7k Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN Friday, a potentially dangerous escalation in a fast widening Middle East conflict that Iranian government officials have so far sought to play down. The United States was given advance notification Thursday of an intended Israeli strike in the coming days, but did not endorse the response, a second senior US official said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later confirmed the US “has not been involved in any offensive operations,” but was focusing on Israel’s defense and de-escalation. Iran’s air defense systems were activated in the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz after three explosions were heard close to a major military airbase near Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning. Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s army, said the explosions in the sky above Isfahan were related to anti-aircraft systems shooting at what he called a suspicious object, which did not cause any damage, Iranian state news IRNA reported. Other Iranian officials said air defenses intercepted three drones and there were no reports of a missile attack. Iran has not identified the source of the strike. Multiple state-aligned news agencies reported that sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program were secure and the attack appeared to be limited in scope. Iranian media appeared to further minimize the scale of the attack on Friday, broadcasting calm scenes from Isfahan showing residents walking through parks and visiting landmarks. Traffic was reported as normal and the airport was also reported to have reopened after flights were briefly canceled or suspended early Friday. Reports of Friday’s strike came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN that if Israel takes any further military action against Iran, its response would be “immediate and at a maximum level.” “If the Israeli regime commits the grave error once again our response will be decisive, definitive and regretful for them,” he added, noting that this warning had been communicated to the White House via the Swiss Embassy in Tehran. Tensions across the Middle East remain on a knife edge, following Iran’s unprecedented direct strike against Israel late Saturday. The attack, during which Iran launched more than 300 drones and cruise missiles toward Israel, came in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 1 April, which killed a top commander, and several others. Separately, “material losses” were reported in southern Syria after an Israeli strike, targeted “our air defense sites in the southern region,” Syrian state media SANA reported Friday citing a military source. The Israeli military said that it does not comment on reports in foreign media. The Israeli military said it was unable to provide a comment on Friday, when asked by CNN about reports of explosions in Iran. At the end of a three-day meeting in Capri, Italy, the Group of Seven (G7) nations urged all parties in the region to “prevent further escalation.” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also warned the strikes risk “dragging the region into further conflict,” adding that the “Israeli-Iranian retaliations must end.” Iran warned of ‘maximum’ response hours earlier Israel’s action in Iran is the latest escalatory move in a region that has been rocked by Israel’s devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack. That attack killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw more than 200 others taken hostage. Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, caused widespread destruction of the enclave and sparked a humanitarian crisis where more than 1 million people face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger. Prior to Friday’s Israeli strike, the US expectation was the country would not target Iran’s civilian or nuclear facilities, the senior US official told CNN. CNN has previously reported that Israel told the US its response to the weekend attacks would be limited in scope. US intelligence had suggested Israel was weighing a narrow and limited strike inside Iran because they feel like they have to respond with a kinetic action of some kind given the unprecedented scale of the Iranian attack The range of targets was “never specified in precise terms but nuclear and civilian locations were clearly not in that category,” the senior official added. Calls for restraint Israel’s Western allies have both rallied to its defense in the wake of Iran’s attack Saturday, while also urging restraint. US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he should consider Iran’s strikes a win, since they had been largely unsuccessful and demonstrated Israel’s ability to defend itself. Biden had already made clear to Netanyahu that the US would not participate in any offensive operations against Iran in response, a senior administration previously told CNN. Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet, had pushed for a swift response to the attack, two Israeli officials told CNN, arguing that the longer Israeli delayed its response, the harder it would be to garner international support for it. Some hardline officials have gone further. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Israel should “go crazy” in response. Ben Gvir appeared to criticize Israel’s reported strike, publishing a one-word response on X early Friday morning – a slang word meaning “lame” or “weak.” Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid called Ben Gvir’s comment “unforgivable.” “Never before has a minister in the security cabinet done such heavy damage to the country’s security, its image and its international status,” Lapid said. Jasmine El-Gamal, a former Middle East adviser to the US Defense Department, told CNN that Israel and Iran’s tit-for-tat strikes were about “posturing and messaging.” “Neither side, obviously, is willing or ready to escalate into an all-out war. The Israelis in particular cannot get into an all-out war without the full support, both military and political, of the Americans, which President Biden made it clear he was not willing to give,” she said. El-Gamal said Israel’s reported strike was meant to tell Iran, “We can get to your nuclear sites if we want to. We know where they are, and even though we didn’t hit them this time – we can do it.”

NW Wisconsin, 100's of miles of interconnecting trails.

https://www.unilad.com/technology/nasa/nasa-asteroid-16-psyche-earth-billionaire-028883-20240418

Few more:

Pics from the trails here.

Biden's the worst Potus in US history.

Crap, I only have S&W's & Rugers now.

SETI chief says US has no evidence for alien technology. 'And we never have' By Leonard David published 10 hours ago "The idea that the government is keeping something like this secret is just totally absurd. There's no motivation to do so." The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array is a radio astronomy observatory located in the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico. (Image credit: Getty Images/Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo) If all the reports of mysterious objects buzzing our skies are taken as true encounters, the Earth appears to be under assault. But spoiler alert: For the chief leader of the SETI Institute, established to search for and understand life beyond Earth, there's a need to step back and cuddle up to a cup of cosmic reality. "We don't have any evidence of any credible source that would indicate the presence of alien technology in our skies. And we never have," said Bill Diamond, president and chief executive officer of the SETI Institute, headquartered in Mountain View, California. "The idea that the government is keeping something like this secret is just totally absurd. There's no motivation to do so." SETI is a key research contractor to NASA and the National Science Foundation, and collaborates with industry partners throughout Silicon Valley. Space.com caught up with Diamond for a close-encounter with his own thoughts and counterpoints to claims of alien visitation and to ask whether there's any signal in all the UFO noise. Bill Diamond, president and chief executive officer of the SETI Institute. (Image credit: Bill Diamond) Thought experiment Diamond said that, while we should not outright rule out the possibility that we might someday discover evidence of alien technology in our skies, "we should equally not jump to the conclusion that UFOs are alien technology in the absence of any compelling evidence to that effect. And there is no compelling evidence," he contends. To help visualize why, Diamond urges people to try a thought experiment. The fastest spacecraft that humans have ever built and continues to head outward from Earth is NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. It was hurled outward back in January 2006, cruising by Pluto and is still adding mileage to its odometer. "If you sent that spacecraft to our closest neighbor star, Alpha Centauri, it would take 80,000 years to get there," said Diamond. "Any civilization that has mastered the ability to traverse the incomprehensibly vast distances of interstellar space would have technology so far advanced from our own as to be beyond our comprehension." The closest star system to the Earth is the Alpha Centauri group at a distance of 4.3 light-years. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope snagged this view of Alpha Centauri A (on the left) and Alpha Centauri B (on the right), appearing as cosmic headlamps in the dark. (Image credit: ESA/NASA) It would be much like a smartphone to a Neanderthal, Diamond suggested. "If such beings exist, they would likely send hardware here first and not biology, and they certainly wouldn't crash-land in our deserts," he said, like the alleged and highly acclaimed 1947 nose-dive of a UFO and its accident-prone occupants near Roswell, New Mexico. In short haul language, that's a long way to travel and run out of braking fluid. Where's the mothership? "Long before they sent any craft into our sky they would have some understanding of what they were dealing with," Diamond observed, "as they would already know everything about our atmosphere, our airspace, our technology and more." It just wouldn't happen, Diamond emphasized. "And if it did they wouldn't leave them behind. And by the way, if you have a small craft zipping around in our airspace, where is the mothership? And if they didn't want to be observed, they wouldn't be!" For many, the SETI logo signals a universal question of 'are we alone?'. (Image credit: SETI Institute/Trevor Beattie) Connective tissue All the same, in the public mind, is there some kind of connective tissue between SETI and UFOs? "There is definitely connective tissue," Diamond responded. "Why do people have these beliefs? It is because they want to believe. Nobody really wants to think that this Earth is the only place in the vastness of space where life has emerged. Even that idea is also kind of absurd." For example, Diamond points to the revelations cranked out by the NASA Kepler mission, lofted in March 2009. That hunter/data-gatherer spacecraft discovered more than 2,700 planets beyond our solar system. Compiling deep space data for nine years, the message from Kepler: there are billions of unseen planets, indeed, more planets than stars. Statistical probability "Statistically speaking, every single star in the sky has one or more planets around it," Diamond pointed out. Furthermore, 50 percent or more of these are Earth-like (rocky surface and similar size) and in the habitable zone of their host star, he said. "That implies the existence of tens of billions of potentially habitable worlds in our galaxy alone," Diamond said. "So indeed, the statistical probability that we are alone in the Universe is zero. Surely there is life beyond Earth!" But the presence, both in space and time, as well as proximity, of advanced alien civilizations is another matter completely, Diamond continued. "There are innumerable variables, all of which in the sciences of astrobiology, planetary science, astronomy and astrophysics, we are trying to figure out." Accidental observations The SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array is the first radio telescope to be designed from the ground up to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. (Image credit: Seth Shostak, SETI Institute) Diamond questions why any alien civilization would send biology when they could isntead send hardware. "The farthest things we have sent into space are hardware. And that's logical," said Diamond. "But if you did send beings and the most interesting thing you can do is draw circles in crops … come on!" One other scoop of skepticism Diamond added is that every single UFO — now tied to the term Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — are all "accidental observations." RELATED STORIES: "Therefore, they are highly unreliable. They don't have instrumentation, technology, or methodology to discern what they are looking at," said Diamond. Lastly, the SETI Institute leader said if the government actually believed in ET buzzing our planet, where's the study money? "The lack of government funding to study UAP/UFO is evidence of either the government being quite certain that there's nothing to these accidental observations — or — the government preferring that we not use available technology to closely watch our skies because of our own human technologies that are being developed — in secret," said Diamond. "I think that's the most compelling bit of evidence against the idea that we've got visitors in our skies," Diamond concluded. For more information on the SETI Institute and its programs, go to https://www.seti.org/

You got hemorrhoids?

Must be LexGuard.

Haven't for years now, but I used to make and sell solar panels, still have lots of new glass here. They were for heat, not electricity. Insurance was very expensive so I never insured them.

The hail damage we saw on some solar panels south of here must cost many $ thousands to replace.

I can't stand Trump.

Yup, he would.

So you agree about MC, he does what ever the Dem underground tells him to do, he has no brain.

Nope.

The truth is if Trump were a Democrat and Biden a Republican, MC would be routing for Trump and bashing Biden.

Yeah stupid MC starts a few Trump threads every day and he actually believes them too..

Link to 6,000 EV threads.

MC has been wrong so often I'm surprised he is still here after looking so foolish almost every day for years, he should be incredibly embarrassed.

Stop the exports too..

Drill baby Drill.

85-year-old Idaho woman hailed as 'hero' in fatal shooting of home invasion suspect BILL HUTCHINSON April 11, 2024 at 10:29 AM An 85-year-old Idaho woman is being hailed as a "hero" for gunning down a home-invasion suspect with a handgun she kept under her pillow after he allegedly handcuffed her to a chair, pistol whipped her and threatened numerous time to kill her, authorities said. Christine Jenneiahn survived the harrowing incident at her home near Blackfoot, Idaho, after being shot multiple times by alleged assailant 39-year-old Derek Condon, who died in her kitchen when the octogenarian turned the tables on him and shot him twice with her .357 Magnum, authorities said. She told investigators she decided to use deadly force to protect her and her disabled son, saying it was "now or never" as she feared the suspect was otherwise going to kill her. "This case presents an easy analysis of self-defense and justifiable homicide," Bingham County, Idaho, Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Jolley said in a statement released this week, clearing Jenneiahn of any wrongdoing. "It also presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have heard of." Jenneiahn, who lives in a rural area with a disabled son, told police she was awakened around 2 a.m. on March 13 by a stranger wearing a military jacket and a black ski mask and standing over her bed pointing a gun and a flashlight at her, according to investigators. Investigators suspect Condon entered the home by breaking a window and hit Jenneiahn in the head with a pistol while she was in her bed, according to Jolley. PHOTO: The Bingham County Sherriff's Office has released this undated photo of Derek Condon. (Bingham County Sheriff's Office/Facebook) Jenneiahn told investigators Condon allegedly took her into her living room, handcuffed her to a wooden chair and "asked her where the valuables were kept in her home, and placed a pistol against her head," according to an incident report. The woman told Condon there were two safes downstairs but that she didn't have much, according to the report. When the assailant went downstairs, leaving her alone in the living room, Jenneiahn told investigators she dragged the chair she was handcuffed to back to her bedroom to retrieve the gun she kept under her pillow. She told investigators she went back into the living room and hid the revolver between the armrest and cushion of a couch she was seated next to and waited to see what Condon did next, according to the report. When Condon returned, he allegedly became angry with Jenneiahn for not telling him her son was in the house and again allegedly threatened to kill her, according to the report. That's when she lunged for her gun hidden in the couch and opened fire on Condon, hitting him twice. Condon allegedly returned fire, emptying his 9mm pistol, leaving Jenneiahn with gunshot wounds to her abdomen, leg, arm and chest, according to the report. Condon apparently collapsed in the kitchen and died while Jenneiahn remained on the floor of her living room bleeding and handcuffed to the chair for 10 hours until her son came upstairs and handed her the phone to call 911, according to the report. Citing Idaho's "stand your ground law," Jolley said Jenneiahn was justified in using any means necessary to defend herself. "Any reasonable person would believe it necessary to defend themselves or their disabled child under such circumstances," Jolley said in his decision released Tuesday. "That Christine survived this encounter is truly incredible. Her grit, determination, and will to live appear to be what saved her that night." He said that if Condon had survived the incident, he would have been charged with felony attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated battery and grand theft. 85-year-old Idaho woman hailed as 'hero' in fatal shooting of home invasion suspect originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

So voting for Biden again?

Joe Biden in new gaffe as he struggles to get his own name right in speech By Jack Walters The 46th President made his latest blunder during a speech at the White House to mark Greek Independence Day Joe Biden has been involved in yet another gaffe as he struggles to get his own name right. Biden, 81, prompted laughter after stumbling over his own words while discussing Barack Obama’s stint in the White House. Obama, who selected Biden as his running-mate, was referred to by the 46th President as “O’Biden”. Concerns about Biden’s age continue to threaten his re-election campaign. US President Joe Biden during a reception celebrating Greek Independence Day A recent opinion poll found that only 38 percent of likely 2024 voters believe Biden will be alive at the end of another four-year term. Questions about Biden’s age and competency also appear to have boosted Donald Trump’s chances of returning to the White House. RealClearPolitics has given Trump an average lead of around 2.5 per cent. JL Partners co-founder James Johnson has argued half a dozen states will decide who comes out on top on November 5. Johnson, who worked as a pollster for Theresa May before relocating to New York, told GB News: “The US electorate is so polarised that no one is going to win big. Joe Biden is currently trailing in the polls. “As much as Trump might like New York to be in play or Biden might like Florida to be in play, we’re talking about those six key swing states. “Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, that’s where it’s going to come down to and at the moment, it’s really tight.” He added: “If you had to put a number on it, there’s a 60 per cent probability Trump will win. “I think Trump has the advantage, but it’s 60 per cent, not 70 or 80. A lot can happen between now and November. “A really key question we’re tracking is, 'what are people’s main memories of the Trump administration?' It’s basically two incumbents running. One former president and one current president. “The top answer right now is a better economy. If that shifts away from Trump and it becomes more negative memories, then we may see the numbers shift. But at the moment, it’s Trump’s to lose.” A recent Wall Street Journal poll found Trump leads Biden by between two and eight points in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. However, the pair were neck-and-neck in the swing state of Wisconsin.