We are ruled by buffoons who embellish their incompetence with a disdain for Americans and Constitutional freedoms. They are protected by a deeply corrupt and highly partisan civil service that will deceive the American people to protect a Democrat and engage in the ruthless character assassination of any Republican. Top cover for both is flown by the fearless firefighters in our media who will never do anything beyond acting as stenographers for any Democrat administration. We are at the point where virtually any foreign government should be considered more reliable than our own. //

Genna
an hour ago
Every member of the Biden administration who spoke to us this week about the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan withdrawal lied to us, contradicted one another and dodged uncomfortable questions. While telling us the evacuation is going well, people on the ground in Kabul and videos shot in real time tell a very different story. Why should we believe the infrastructure bill is an important piece of legislation that will benefit the American people, the COVID vaccines are safe and effective and the southern border is secure

As the pressure to evacuate people from Kabul airport grows, the US military has released updated figures for one of its flights. It reports that a C-17 Globemaster aircraft evacuated 823 Afghan citizens on August 15th. This is a new record for the type – by a long way – and gives some idea of the scale of the operation underway.

In a Twitter post on August 20th, US Air Mobility Command released confirmed and updated figures for one of its many evacuation flights from Kabul. We recently reported that a new record was set for a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft when it carried 640 Afghan citizens out of Hamid Karzai International Airport. This has now been increased to a massive 823.

Air Mobility Command
@AirMobilityCmd
CORRECTION: A @usairforce C-17 Globemaster III safely transported 823 Afghan citizens from Hamid Karzai International Airport Aug. 15, 2021. This is a record for this aircraft.

The initial count of 640 inadvertently included only adults. 183 children were also aboard. //

It is also not the first time this has happened. While it is a record for the C-17, it is not a record overall. In 1991, over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were evacuated from Ethiopia to Israel as part of Operation Solomon. This involved Boeing 707, Boeing 747, and Hercules C-130 aircraft. One El Al Boeing 747 aircraft is recorded as transporting 1,080 people (estimates vary, but even lower estimates are a record).

(2)Activities described in paragraph (1) include—
(A)the evacuation when their lives are endangered by war, civil unrest, or natural disaster of—
(i)United States Government employees and their dependents; and
(ii)private United States citizens or third-country nationals, on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable, with such reimbursements to be credited to the applicable Department of State appropriation and to remain available until expended, except that no reimbursement under this clause shall be paid that is greater than the amount the person evacuated would have been charged for a reasonable commercial air fare immediately prior to the events giving rise to the evacuation;

Generally, individuals evacuated on a U.S. government-coordinated transport, including charter and military flights or ships, even if those transports are provided by another country’s government, must sign an Evacuee Manifest and Promissory Note (Form DS-5528) note prior to departure. The Department of State uses the Form DS-5528 to document who got on which transport, and it lets us know how to contact evacuees for billing purposes.

U.S. law requires that departure assistance to private U.S. citizens or third country nationals be provided “on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable.” By taking a U.S. government coordinated transport, evacuees are obligated to repay the cost of their transportation. The amount billed to evacuees is based on the cost of a full fare economy flight, or comparable alternate transportation, to the designated destination(s) that would have been charged immediately prior to the events giving rise to the evacuation.

https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2017-title22/USCODE-2017-title22-chap38-sec2671

Memory test software, often called RAM test software, are programs that perform detailed tests of your computer's memory system.

The memory installed in your computer is very sensitive. It's always a good idea to perform a memory test on newly purchased RAM to test for errors. Of course, a memory test is always in order if you suspect that you may have a problem with your existing RAM. //

Memtest86 is a completely free, stand-alone, and extremely easy to use memory test software program. If you only have time to try one memory test tool on this page, try MemTest86.

Simply download the program from MemTest86's site and put it on a flash drive. After that, just boot from the USB drive and you're off.

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm //

Windows Memory Diagnostic is a free memory tester provided by Microsoft. Very similar to other RAM test programs, Windows Memory Diagnostic performs a series of extensive tests to determine what, if anything, is wrong with your computer memory.

Just download the installer program and then follow the instructions to create a bootable floppy disk or ISO image for burning to a disc or flash drive.

After booting from whatever it is you made, Windows Memory Diagnostic will automatically begin testing the memory and will repeat the tests until you stop them.

https://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Memory-Tweak/Microsoft-Windows-Memory-Diagnostic.shtml //

Memtest86+ is a modified, and presumably more up-to-date, version of the original Memtest86 memory test program, profiled in the #1 position above. Memtest86+ is also completely free.

We'd recommend performing a memory test with Memtest86+ if you have any problems running the Memtest86 RAM test or if Memtest86 reports errors with your memory and you'd like a really good second opinion.

Memtest86+ is available in ISO format for burning to disc or USB.

http://www.memtest.org/

Sebastian Smith
@SebastianAFP
The 1 pm remarks by President Biden on Afghanistan are not happening at 1... No new time announced by White House.
1:05 PM · Aug 20, 2021

Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck
Biden dismisses the State Department dissent cable, brushing it off as no big deal: "I have all kinds of cables. All kinds of advice."

Then there was this excellent question which asked Biden why we should trust his assessment of Afghanistan now after he was so wrong about the Taliban’s advance.

Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck
This question from Bloomberg's Justin Sink is better than Zeke's about how can Biden say a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan going forward won't pose a serious terrorism threat.

Peter J. Hasson
@peterjhasson
Fox's @JenGriffinFNC responding to Biden's Afghanistan speech: "I couldn't fact check it fast enough because there are so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground."
2:21 PM · Aug 20, 2021

Gravity is the weird, mysterious glue that binds the Universe together, but that's not the limit of its charms. We can also leverage the way it warps space-time to see distant objects that would be otherwise much more difficult to make out.

This is called gravitational lensing, an effect predicted by Einstein, and it's beautifully illustrated in a new release from the Hubble Space Telescope.

In the center in the image (below) is a shiny, near-perfect ring with what appear to be four bright spots threaded along it, looping around two more points with a golden glow.

This is called an Einstein ring, and those bright dots are not six galaxies, but three: the two in the middle of the ring, and one quasar behind it, its light distorted and magnified as it passes through the gravitational field of the two foreground galaxies.

Because the mass of the two foreground galaxies is so high, this causes a gravitational curvature of space-time around the pair. Any light that then travels through this space-time follows this curvature and enters our telescopes smeared and distorted – but also magnified.

As MemTest86 V9 supports only the newer UEFI platform, older PCs without UEFI support would be unable to boot MemTest86. In order to run MemTest86, PCs with legacy BIOS platform must use the older V4 release of MemTest86. The download links for the V4 downloads are still provided for those that prefer to work with the V4 bootable images.

“I just wish I could take all this fear on myself and go do this day for her!” she wailed.

I laughed. I knew how she felt. I knew what she meant. But in my head I wondered- if a magic genie suddenly offered me the chance to take on this nerve-wracking day in place of my daughter, would I actually do it?

I think it’s important to let our children face their fears. Overcoming fear, learning from fear, is a vital life lesson. It is better to let them discover those lessons in the relative safety of your own home and your own arms than to shelter them from discomfort and force them to learn those lessons under harsher, more adult circumstances in the future.

The biggest change that the update introduces is how the Kindle software is actually displayed, with the top-mounted toolbar removed and a large search bar included in its place.

At the bottom of the UI, too, are now just two buttons, which include one for 'Home' and one for the user's digital reading 'Library'. There's also now a central icon that allows the reader to jump to their most recently read book and, in what will be music to many Kindle owner's ears, the quick-settings menu is now easily accessed as a new arrow has been placed on the UI that points to it – the days of randomly tapping around the top of the screen trying to find it are gone! All these changes have been made to make it easier and more streamlined to navigate on Kindles. //

The latest Amazon Kindle update is version 5.13.7,

Skeptical Techie
3 hours ago edited
Is there anybody who can not understand that handing over multiple easily destroyed caches of some of our best and most technically advanced weapons to the CCP and Putin (our most dangerous enemies) should suffice as at least "Crimes and misdemeanors"?

There are two suspects Harris/Biden in the same class (and both in the direct chain of command), subject to the same laws and procedures. Impeach and prosecute them together. As for Harris's culpability, it should be argued that due to, at least, intermittent incapacity and/or absence of the President, she was in command or should have taken command and thus, just as culpable.

Indict and prosecute each civilian in the direct line of command from SecDef through to SecArmy, SecNav & SecAir.

Following UCMJ, do the equivalent to CJCS but add in dereliction of duty for not being even reasonably informed. Use his own recent statements as exhibit A through...

At the same time, make motions in the house to remove the Speaker and Senate to remove the Minority Leader. Consider motions to remove the Ranking Member of both Armed Forces Committees.

Maybe also set precedent in both chambers calling for a nonbinding vote of no confidence in all the above noted leadership, by title and name. //

Skeptical Techie DeeInFL
2 hours ago edited
The last 20 years are irrelevant!

The only relevant facts are how the President acted with the situation at hand. The same could be said for the Vice President whenever, over the last few days, the President was absent and/or incapacitated as she was in command or should have taken command.

The current situation is 98% the results of the actions taken in the last days back to a week or two at the most. At any point up to when those impetuous and derelict commands and actions were taken, this current situation could have been averted and then mitigated as much as reasonable.

All the latter impetuosity and dereliction were in the direct control of the President, Vice President, SecDef, SecNav/SecArmy/SecAir and CJCS and only to a moderate degree less further down the chain of command. Everyone below the President had opportunities to resist those precipitous actions, at the very least by protesting and resigning. By virtue of all the USA hardware, technology and sensitive information left behind for the Taliban to later be turned over to the CCP and Putin was, at the least, dereliction of duty. Then there are the enormous human costs, which are nowhere near their zenith.