Extreme Commanders

‘Big Balls’ No Longer Works for the US Government

Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, one of the first technologists hired as part of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is no longer working for the federal government, according to multiple sources.

“Edward Coristine resigned yesterday,” a White House official tells WIRED.

Coristine received full-time employment status at the GSA late last month, as reported by WIRED. As of Tuesday afternoon, his Google Workspace account with the General Services Administration (GSA) was no longer active, according to a source with direct knowledge. His name also no longer appears on a White House contact list of current DOGE employees on the federal payroll maintained by a senior administration official, the official says.

https://www.wired.com/story/big-balls-c ... overnment/

Looks like another step towards Big Brother and a money making scheme all in one:

RFK Jr. Wants Every American to Be Sporting a Wearable Within Four Years

The road to “make America healthy again” will apparently be paved with Apple Watches. Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has just unveiled a campaign that will try to encourage the widespread use of wearables.

RFK Jr. announced the initiative Tuesday afternoon during a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee meeting to discuss the HHS’ budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. In response to a question from representative Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) about wearables, Kennedy revealed that HHS will soon conduct one of the agency’s largest ever advertising campaigns to promote their use. He added that in his ideal future, every American will be donning a wearable within the next four years.

“It’s a key part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again,” RFK Jr. stated in an X post following the question.

Some medical experts are excited about the potential for wearables to become an early warning system, alerting users to their personalized risk of many health conditions (even viral infections) well before showing signs of illness. Wearables are also regularly used by people with chronic health conditions for various indications, such as people with diabetes who have continuous glucose monitors (CGM) that measure their blood sugar in real time.

But much of this potential has yet to be validated by large-scale research. While CGM devices can be helpful for people with diabetes, for instance, no published studies seem to have shown any health benefits in those without the condition. Other studies have shown that some wearables aren’t quite as accurate as hoped, coming up short to gold-standard tests like the electrocardiograph or even your own self-perception.

It’s worth noting that the current nominee for the U.S. Surgeon General, Casey Means, is the co-founder of a company that provides continuous glucose monitors and other health trackers to clients. Means has argued that CGM is the “most powerful technology for generating the data and awareness to rectify our Bad Energy crisis in the Western world.”

Overhyping aside, people are also worried about the possible loss of privacy that could come from the mass adoption of wearables. While wearable tech might be able to detect early signs of overheating among outside workers, for instance, privacy advocates and labor rights groups have warned that there are few guardrails in place today that could prevent employers from leveraging the health-related data collected from these devices against workers. Breaches and hacks could also put our personal data in the hands of not-so-scrupulous people.

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Guardsmen sent to LA are 130 miles east of the city doing drug busts

California National Guard soldiers operating under federal orders helped the Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal personnel carry out a raid on a large marijuana growth operation in the eastern Coachella Valley last week, 130 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

It’s unclear how many National Guard troops participated in the operation, but the force totalled roughly 500 people. According to the DEA, other agencies included Customs and Border Patrol, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Immigration and Custom Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The search warrant targeted the area around Thermal, a small town in the eastern Coachella Valley. CBS first reported on the raid.

In a statement, the DEA Los Angeles Field Division said that it was the lead agency looking into three large marijuana growth operations in the area. Executing a federal search warrant from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California, they searched 787 acres of land and arrested 70 to 75 people, the DEA said, most being described as undocumented immigrants and at least one being an American citizen. It also appears to be the farthest east that federalized National Guard troops have operated since being deployed.

The National Guardsmen involved in the operation were soldiers with the 143rd Military Police Battalion and the 670th Military Police Company, part of the California National Guard’s 49th Military Police Brigade. They’re serving under Task Force 51, the organization created by U.S. Northern Command for troops operating under Title 10 status. Images posted by the military to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (or DVIDS), show the soldiers carrying riot shields creating security perimeters next to their Humvees in Thermal and the nearby unincorporated community of Mecca, close to the Salton Sea.

Coachella city Mayor Steven Hernandez, who spoke with Task & Purpose on Monday, said that the troops and agents passed through or were active in several towns and unincorporated communities in the eastern Coachella Valley, including Coachella. He said that the city government started hearing from activists and immigrant rights groups that federal personnel were “knocking on doors” in the area.

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