The absence of fighting is much more important than a show of patriotism
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
November 28, 2017
If you’re a sports fan, you know that a brawl of sorts broke out between players of the Oakland Raiders and Denvwe broncos when the Rider’s Michael Crabtree and Aqib Talib of the Broncos got into a fight.
Well, Roger Goodell acted swiftly and decisively by suspending both players for two games. Yes folks, that’s the same Roger Goodell who did not and still does not act against NFL players who disrespect our flag and country.
Getting back to the suspension of Michael Crabtree, here’s what Dieter Kurtenbach of The Mercury News wrote:
“…the NFL just suspended one of their [Oakland] best players for two games for… what exactly?
Fighting?
That’s what the NFL said Monday, saying that Crabtree’s actions Sunday have “no place in this game” in a letter to the Raiders’ wide receiver.
Spare me the moral indignation, NFL, your full-contact sport is a few weapons shy of sanctioned murder.”
Why couldn’t Goodell suspend Colin Kaepernick who started the whole show of disrespect? Why couldn’t Goodell suspend the players who followed Kaepernick’s example? And why couldn’t Goodell suspend Olivier Vernon of the NY Giants who was the only player in the league to take the knee during a Thanksgiving Day game? Even Vernon’s lone disrespect on Thanksgiving couldn’t get any reaction from Goodell. But a fight sure did.
So now we know that the absence of fighting is much more important to the NFL than a show of patriotism.
The National Hockey League on the other hand allows its players to fight. Officials stop fights only after one player has downed the other one to the ice. Then both players will serve a 5-minute penalty. But when it comes to the National Anthem, the NHL puts the NFL to shame. There are only a handful of American players in the NHL. Most hockey players are from Canada and Europe. Yet when the Star Spangled Banner is played, all of the players stand, including the Russians. A native of Canada, coach John Tortorella of the Columbus Blue Jackets made it crystal clear when he said, “If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game.”
The NFL players kick the crap out of each other in every game but heaven forbid if two players engage in a little bit of fisticuffs. While fighting is strictly verboten, the same cannot be said for an outrageous display of disrespect to our flag and country.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
VACATION REPORT
Universal Studio and Harry Potter theme parks costly but well worth it
by Bob Walsh
I have just returned from a few days of well-earned vacation with my lady Vicki. We went down to Universal City for a couple of days to go thru the Universal Studio and Harry Potter theme parks there.
We stayed at the Hilton right next to the park. Not real cheap but the service was OUTSTANDING. I don't mind paying if I know up front it will not be cheap and if I get the service to go with it. We did.
There is a free shuttle that runs pretty much constantly from the Hilton and the Sheraton, both are next door to the park. They are set up for wheel chairs (Vicki is in a chair) and were very friendly and very competent on dealing with the chair. (It is odd, but if the person stays IN the wheel chair during the shuttle ride they have to anchor the chair according to OSHA specs. If, however, the person gets out of the chair and sits in a shuttle bus seat the chair can just sit there and nobody has to wear seat belts.) The same thing at the parks. In fact for the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride we had to go thru three elevators to get to a special loading area where the car does NOT move for however long you need to get in and out of the ride. There is staff to guide you all along the way. The ride carrier is then directed into the stream and away you go. By the way, If you have a sensitive stomach or just ate lunch that ride may not be the one for you. The visual effects are VERY realistic and the sensation of flying is very real. It is completely indoors but you would not know it from the visual effects.
A couple of the rides on the lower lot are VERY PHYSICAL. The MUMMY ride smashes you around pretty good. They tell you up front that the ride of very physical and have a ton of warnings before you board. It isn't wildly scary but you do get bounced around a lot and pretty violently.
The Universal Studio tram ride was a hoot too, though Vicki got blasted pretty well with dinosaur snot in Jurassic Park. Life is hard. (Velociraptors like donuts. Who would have figured that?)
IF you are in to Harry Potter or have an interest in the movie business it is a hoot. The park is about $129 per day per body, plus more if you want a head-of-the-line pass. There is a LOT of walking and you can rent a wheel chair or power scooter from them. If you have a bum leg or something I recommend it. (I didn't and damn near couldn't walk the second day.)
No weapons in the park. I was smart enough to ask up front and we left the artillery and my toad sticker in the safe in the room. The security is actually pretty good. The scanner even picked up my leg brace, which is mostly aluminum and elastic rather than steel. They even have bomb dogs and a Sheriff's substation at the park.
All the park staff seemed polite, helpful and competent. Without exception. I was very impressed indeed.
by Bob Walsh
I have just returned from a few days of well-earned vacation with my lady Vicki. We went down to Universal City for a couple of days to go thru the Universal Studio and Harry Potter theme parks there.
We stayed at the Hilton right next to the park. Not real cheap but the service was OUTSTANDING. I don't mind paying if I know up front it will not be cheap and if I get the service to go with it. We did.
There is a free shuttle that runs pretty much constantly from the Hilton and the Sheraton, both are next door to the park. They are set up for wheel chairs (Vicki is in a chair) and were very friendly and very competent on dealing with the chair. (It is odd, but if the person stays IN the wheel chair during the shuttle ride they have to anchor the chair according to OSHA specs. If, however, the person gets out of the chair and sits in a shuttle bus seat the chair can just sit there and nobody has to wear seat belts.) The same thing at the parks. In fact for the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride we had to go thru three elevators to get to a special loading area where the car does NOT move for however long you need to get in and out of the ride. There is staff to guide you all along the way. The ride carrier is then directed into the stream and away you go. By the way, If you have a sensitive stomach or just ate lunch that ride may not be the one for you. The visual effects are VERY realistic and the sensation of flying is very real. It is completely indoors but you would not know it from the visual effects.
A couple of the rides on the lower lot are VERY PHYSICAL. The MUMMY ride smashes you around pretty good. They tell you up front that the ride of very physical and have a ton of warnings before you board. It isn't wildly scary but you do get bounced around a lot and pretty violently.
The Universal Studio tram ride was a hoot too, though Vicki got blasted pretty well with dinosaur snot in Jurassic Park. Life is hard. (Velociraptors like donuts. Who would have figured that?)
IF you are in to Harry Potter or have an interest in the movie business it is a hoot. The park is about $129 per day per body, plus more if you want a head-of-the-line pass. There is a LOT of walking and you can rent a wheel chair or power scooter from them. If you have a bum leg or something I recommend it. (I didn't and damn near couldn't walk the second day.)
No weapons in the park. I was smart enough to ask up front and we left the artillery and my toad sticker in the safe in the room. The security is actually pretty good. The scanner even picked up my leg brace, which is mostly aluminum and elastic rather than steel. They even have bomb dogs and a Sheriff's substation at the park.
All the park staff seemed polite, helpful and competent. Without exception. I was very impressed indeed.
DAMN DAM IS ALREADY HAVING TROUBLE
by Bob Walsh
It seems that just maybe the repaired spillway at the Oroville Dam is not as repaired as you would think for $500 million (about 100% over budget). It just depends on who you ask.
There are apparently a shitload of hairline cracks in the new improved and wonderful spillway. That is the standard spillway the releases water and considerable force and volume every year. U. C;. Professor Robert Bea, who studies crisis management, says that hairline cracks in high strength reinforced concrete are NEVER to be expected. He is an engineer and studies structural failure.
Various California water officials say that the cracks are cool and completely expected.
Maybe its just me but I would want something as strong and smooth as possible if I was going to run a lot of high velocity water over it on a regular basis. I mean isn't that kinda-sorta why the first one failed.
The Dept of Water Resources has released a statement saying everything is copasetic, but has refused to release any evidence or reasoning that would support their position.
The federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also asking questions that so far DWR is unable or unwilling to answer.
I don't know about you, but my bullshitometer is going off.
It seems that just maybe the repaired spillway at the Oroville Dam is not as repaired as you would think for $500 million (about 100% over budget). It just depends on who you ask.
There are apparently a shitload of hairline cracks in the new improved and wonderful spillway. That is the standard spillway the releases water and considerable force and volume every year. U. C;. Professor Robert Bea, who studies crisis management, says that hairline cracks in high strength reinforced concrete are NEVER to be expected. He is an engineer and studies structural failure.
Various California water officials say that the cracks are cool and completely expected.
Maybe its just me but I would want something as strong and smooth as possible if I was going to run a lot of high velocity water over it on a regular basis. I mean isn't that kinda-sorta why the first one failed.
The Dept of Water Resources has released a statement saying everything is copasetic, but has refused to release any evidence or reasoning that would support their position.
The federal Energy Regulatory Commission is also asking questions that so far DWR is unable or unwilling to answer.
I don't know about you, but my bullshitometer is going off.
TAXPAYER DOLLARS USED TO HUSH UP VICTIMS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
The Secretive, Taxpayer-Financed Settlement Fund Used by Lawmakers Accused of Sexual Harassment
By Kevin Mooney
The Daily Signal
November 28, 2017
Staffers who are the targets of unwanted sexual advances on Capitol Hill should not have to endure a lengthy mediation process and pay the legal bills as lawmakers secretly draw on a mysterious slush fund to settle the accusations against them, an advocate for taxpayers argues.
In the event of a monetary settlement of sexual harassment complaints, members of Congress can draw on a taxpayer-funded account set up within the Treasury Department to cover their legal expenses and settle cases.
The account has paid out $17 million in the past 10 years, public records show, although it is not clear how much of that was for cases of sexual harassment.
“Right now, it’s very unclear to the taxpayer where this money is going,” Grace Morgan, director of external affairs for the Washington-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.
“We don’t know who is getting paid the settlements and why they are getting paid the settlements,” Morgan said Monday. “The $17 million figure does not distinguish between sexual harassment claims and other general workplace claims. There is no information and no transparency.”
The spotlight fell on the question of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill after the scandal that brought down Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted dozens of women, and men, to blow the whistle on the sexually predatory practices of major business, entertainment, and media figures ranging from actor Kevin Spacey to news anchor Charlie Rose.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the longest-serving member of Congress, has been accused of sexual harassment by two former staffers. Several women, although none of them staffers, also accuse Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., of groping them.
When a congressional staffer decides to press ahead with allegations of sexual harassment, he or she must navigate a four-step process administered through an agency called the Office of Compliance. The steps: counseling, mediation, administrative hearing or civil action, and appeals.
“This turns out to be a 180-day process, and it’s not very fair or just to the victims,” Morgan said.
Nor is the amount paid out as the result of sexual harassment accusations against lawmakers currently public information, she said.
“We also need a full investigation into the $17 million and what has been paid to victims, how much involves sexual harassment claims and how this impacts taxpayers,” Morgan said.
BuzzFeed first reported that Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, reached a settlement in 2015 with a former staffer in a wrongful dismissal complaint. She alleged that she was the victim of unwanted sexual advances from Conyers, now 88.
Conyers “repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sex acts, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public,” BuzzFeed reported.
Tuesday morning, news broke that another former staff member had leveled accusations against the congressman.
The accuser, Deanna Maher, said Conyers made unwanted sexual advances toward her on three different occasions while she ran his district office in Michigan between 1997 and 2005, according to the Detroit News and other media reports.
By Kevin Mooney
The Daily Signal
November 28, 2017
Staffers who are the targets of unwanted sexual advances on Capitol Hill should not have to endure a lengthy mediation process and pay the legal bills as lawmakers secretly draw on a mysterious slush fund to settle the accusations against them, an advocate for taxpayers argues.
In the event of a monetary settlement of sexual harassment complaints, members of Congress can draw on a taxpayer-funded account set up within the Treasury Department to cover their legal expenses and settle cases.
The account has paid out $17 million in the past 10 years, public records show, although it is not clear how much of that was for cases of sexual harassment.
“Right now, it’s very unclear to the taxpayer where this money is going,” Grace Morgan, director of external affairs for the Washington-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.
“We don’t know who is getting paid the settlements and why they are getting paid the settlements,” Morgan said Monday. “The $17 million figure does not distinguish between sexual harassment claims and other general workplace claims. There is no information and no transparency.”
The spotlight fell on the question of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill after the scandal that brought down Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted dozens of women, and men, to blow the whistle on the sexually predatory practices of major business, entertainment, and media figures ranging from actor Kevin Spacey to news anchor Charlie Rose.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the longest-serving member of Congress, has been accused of sexual harassment by two former staffers. Several women, although none of them staffers, also accuse Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., of groping them.
When a congressional staffer decides to press ahead with allegations of sexual harassment, he or she must navigate a four-step process administered through an agency called the Office of Compliance. The steps: counseling, mediation, administrative hearing or civil action, and appeals.
“This turns out to be a 180-day process, and it’s not very fair or just to the victims,” Morgan said.
Nor is the amount paid out as the result of sexual harassment accusations against lawmakers currently public information, she said.
“We also need a full investigation into the $17 million and what has been paid to victims, how much involves sexual harassment claims and how this impacts taxpayers,” Morgan said.
BuzzFeed first reported that Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, reached a settlement in 2015 with a former staffer in a wrongful dismissal complaint. She alleged that she was the victim of unwanted sexual advances from Conyers, now 88.
Conyers “repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sex acts, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public,” BuzzFeed reported.
Tuesday morning, news broke that another former staff member had leveled accusations against the congressman.
The accuser, Deanna Maher, said Conyers made unwanted sexual advances toward her on three different occasions while she ran his district office in Michigan between 1997 and 2005, according to the Detroit News and other media reports.
TWO SEVERED HEADS LEFT AT MEXICAN TV STATION ….. NO, THEY WERE NOT THE HEADS OF CHARLIE ROSE AND MATT LAUER
2 heads found in foam ice cooler outside offices of Mexican TV network
CBS News
November 29, 2017
MEXICO CITY — Two heads have been left in a foam cooler outside the Guadalajara offices of television network Televisa in western Mexico.
The Jalisco state attorney’s office says that the incident is under investigation and the victims have not been identified. The cooler was recovered by forensic investigators.
Reuters, citing a security official, reports that the cooler contained a threatening note bearing the signature “CJNG”, the Spanish initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Organized crime groups have been known to use such tactics for intimidation.
CBS News
November 29, 2017
MEXICO CITY — Two heads have been left in a foam cooler outside the Guadalajara offices of television network Televisa in western Mexico.
The Jalisco state attorney’s office says that the incident is under investigation and the victims have not been identified. The cooler was recovered by forensic investigators.
Reuters, citing a security official, reports that the cooler contained a threatening note bearing the signature “CJNG”, the Spanish initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Organized crime groups have been known to use such tactics for intimidation.
NOT HOLDING MY BREATH ON PROMISED EMBASSY MOVE
Trump considering when to move US Embassy to Jerusalem
Reuters and Israel Hayom staff
Israel Hayom
November 29, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump is actively considering "when and how" to relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday.
Pence made the comment at Israel's Mission to the United Nations at an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.N. vote for the partition of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state.
Trump vowed in his election campaign and since to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, but in June signed a waiver to keep it in Tel Aviv. He is facing a new deadline in early December on whether to extend the waiver again, a practice that his predecessors used to avoid inflaming tensions in the Middle East.
Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin said Tuesday that "in recent years, we have all witnessed attacks in international circles on the status of Jerusalem and its ties to the State of Israel."
Elkin, who spoke at an international conference in the capital devoted to the issue of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, said, "We have nothing to be ashamed of or to fear."
"Precisely now, as we mark 70 years since the November decision, the world must recognize that united Jerusalem is the legal capital of Israel," Elkin said.
Also on Tuesday, the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee approved an amendment to the Basic Law: Jerusalem that requires a special majority of 80 MKs in a Knesset vote to pass any measure that concedes Arab areas adjacent to the city to the control of any foreign entity.
The amendment, proposed by Habayit Hayehudi MK Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli, passed by a vote of nine to seven.
Reuters and Israel Hayom staff
Israel Hayom
November 29, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump is actively considering "when and how" to relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday.
Pence made the comment at Israel's Mission to the United Nations at an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the U.N. vote for the partition of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state.
Trump vowed in his election campaign and since to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, but in June signed a waiver to keep it in Tel Aviv. He is facing a new deadline in early December on whether to extend the waiver again, a practice that his predecessors used to avoid inflaming tensions in the Middle East.
Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin said Tuesday that "in recent years, we have all witnessed attacks in international circles on the status of Jerusalem and its ties to the State of Israel."
Elkin, who spoke at an international conference in the capital devoted to the issue of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, said, "We have nothing to be ashamed of or to fear."
"Precisely now, as we mark 70 years since the November decision, the world must recognize that united Jerusalem is the legal capital of Israel," Elkin said.
Also on Tuesday, the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee approved an amendment to the Basic Law: Jerusalem that requires a special majority of 80 MKs in a Knesset vote to pass any measure that concedes Arab areas adjacent to the city to the control of any foreign entity.
The amendment, proposed by Habayit Hayehudi MK Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli, passed by a vote of nine to seven.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
SEXUAL HARASSERS TUMBLING LIKE BOWLING PINS
Longtime Today show co-host Matt Lauer gets axed by NBC
Charlie Rose, who co-hosted the daily CBS Morning Show and a daily talk show for PBS and Bloomberg News, got fired by every show a couple of days ago for sexual misconduct.
And this morning we learn that NBC has axed longtime Today show co-host Matt Lauer for the same thing.
Hmmm, I wonder if George Stephanopoulos, co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America, will be next.
Except for those in Congress, sexual harassers are tumbling like bowling pins.
Charlie Rose, who co-hosted the daily CBS Morning Show and a daily talk show for PBS and Bloomberg News, got fired by every show a couple of days ago for sexual misconduct.
And this morning we learn that NBC has axed longtime Today show co-host Matt Lauer for the same thing.
Hmmm, I wonder if George Stephanopoulos, co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America, will be next.
Except for those in Congress, sexual harassers are tumbling like bowling pins.
DID YOU KNOW...
...That There Are Still Three Iron Lungs In Use In The USA?
by Bob Walsh
I had assumed these things were all scrapped ages ago but there are still three in everyday use in the U.S. It is a challenge to keep the 50+ year old machines running as parts are no longer available, including things like gaskets and seals. Two of the three people using them can function for periods of time outside of the machine, one can not.
Little-known and useless factoid, Mia Farrow needed one for a few months when she was a small child.
Once upon a time, before the polio vaccine made them unnecessary, hospitals would often have rows of the damn things, like a modern kidney dialysis facility.
by Bob Walsh
I had assumed these things were all scrapped ages ago but there are still three in everyday use in the U.S. It is a challenge to keep the 50+ year old machines running as parts are no longer available, including things like gaskets and seals. Two of the three people using them can function for periods of time outside of the machine, one can not.
Little-known and useless factoid, Mia Farrow needed one for a few months when she was a small child.
Once upon a time, before the polio vaccine made them unnecessary, hospitals would often have rows of the damn things, like a modern kidney dialysis facility.
INTERESTING FIREARMS CASE
by Bob Walsh
SCOTUS declined to hear two appeals of firearms cases yesterday, at least one of those was rather interesting IMHO.
Earlier this year the Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's ban on open carry. Florida is a "shall issue" state and is required to issue a concealed carry permit to practically any warm body who wants one and who is also not a prohibited person. The case comes out of a situation in Fort Pierce, where a many who had a carry permit was arrested and eventually fined $300 for carrying a handgun openly in public. That state's position is that open carry has inherent dangerous due to the fact that criminals KNOW who is carrying and who is not. This would allow bad guys or nutters to target people who were obviously armed. The man was dressed in shorts and a tank top at the time.
SCOTUS declined to hear two appeals of firearms cases yesterday, at least one of those was rather interesting IMHO.
Earlier this year the Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's ban on open carry. Florida is a "shall issue" state and is required to issue a concealed carry permit to practically any warm body who wants one and who is also not a prohibited person. The case comes out of a situation in Fort Pierce, where a many who had a carry permit was arrested and eventually fined $300 for carrying a handgun openly in public. That state's position is that open carry has inherent dangerous due to the fact that criminals KNOW who is carrying and who is not. This would allow bad guys or nutters to target people who were obviously armed. The man was dressed in shorts and a tank top at the time.
IT LOOKS LIKE A GOOD POLICE RECRUITMENT PROGRAM
LAPD launches paid training program for high school grads who want to be cops
By Brenda Gazzar
Los Angeles Daily News
November 27, 2017
Eric Estrada is eagerly awaiting the day that he’ll be old enough to apply to become a Los Angeles police officer.
In the meantime, the 20-year-old Pacoima resident is one of more than two dozen high school graduates who will be working part-time for the Los Angeles Police Department and getting paid as part of a new program that aims to recruit and train the next generation of police officers.
“I’ve already experienced a lot with the (LAPD) cadet program” — which aims to provide the building blocks to becoming a better student and adult — “but this will open many more doors,” Estrada said during a program orientation at LAPD headquarters.
Through the Pledge to Patrol program – also known as the Associate Community Officer Program or A-COP – participants spend up to 20 hours a week working in civilian roles such as at the front desk – where they will take crime reports and assist the watch commander – performing minor evidence collection, and observing and assisting with patrol functions. They also assist detectives with investigations and enter and retrieve data.
The program, in which participants earn between $15 and $20 an hour depending on education level, allows them to continue their college studies at the same time.
“This is a tough moment for policing nationwide, where a lot of young people don’t think about becoming a police officer because of what they see in the news or the divisions that are sometimes showing in other cities,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in an interview.
It’s also a chance to further diversify the police force by recruiting participants from every city zip code, he said, while retaining talent that might be otherwise drift away from the department.
Garcetti first announced the initiative for young adults who have participated in LAPD youth programs at the Mayor’s 2017 State of the City address in April. The Mayor’s Innovation Team designed the program with LAPD and the city’s personnel department. It is expected to cost the city about $1 million in its first year.
The inaugural class of 28 participants is more than half female, according to the mayor’s office.
Nationwide in 2013, about 88 percent of full-time law enforcement officers were male, according to the FBI.
“There’s no reason we can’t get those numbers up as well,” Garcetti told the inaugural class on Monday.
Women make great detectives and Senior Lead Officers and have tackled roles in LAPD’s elite Metro Division as well as in the department’s mounted units, the mayor said.
“They are naturally better listeners, naturally better communicators sometimes than even men,” he said.
Adriana Cervantes, 20, of Arleta is among the young women who is part of the inaugural class. She is a former LAPD cadet and is also taking part in the Police Orientation and Preparation (Popp) program, a two-year Associate’s Degree program for students who aspire to join LAPD ranks.
“I just want to be able to serve my community properly and take the proper training – make sure I serve them right,” said Cervantes, who owns three Toy Poodles and aspires to work for LAPD’s K-9 unit one day.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said the new program will serve to fill the gap for young adults who graduate from high school but are too young to enter the Police Academy.
But it’s also “an opportunity for each of you to become wise beyond your years in this profession,” he told them.
The public will benefit greatly from having officers who underwent this program as civilians, said LAPD Officer Johnny Gil, who is helping to launch the program. That’s because it will help them become even better trained and polished when they do enter and make it through the Academy, he said.
And because many of these participants will go on to get college degrees through Cal State Los Angeles, “once they graduate from the full-time Academy, they will be super cops,” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Eric Estrada? I thought he retired from the CHP. ….. Just being a smartass.
By Brenda Gazzar
Los Angeles Daily News
November 27, 2017
Eric Estrada is eagerly awaiting the day that he’ll be old enough to apply to become a Los Angeles police officer.
In the meantime, the 20-year-old Pacoima resident is one of more than two dozen high school graduates who will be working part-time for the Los Angeles Police Department and getting paid as part of a new program that aims to recruit and train the next generation of police officers.
“I’ve already experienced a lot with the (LAPD) cadet program” — which aims to provide the building blocks to becoming a better student and adult — “but this will open many more doors,” Estrada said during a program orientation at LAPD headquarters.
Through the Pledge to Patrol program – also known as the Associate Community Officer Program or A-COP – participants spend up to 20 hours a week working in civilian roles such as at the front desk – where they will take crime reports and assist the watch commander – performing minor evidence collection, and observing and assisting with patrol functions. They also assist detectives with investigations and enter and retrieve data.
The program, in which participants earn between $15 and $20 an hour depending on education level, allows them to continue their college studies at the same time.
“This is a tough moment for policing nationwide, where a lot of young people don’t think about becoming a police officer because of what they see in the news or the divisions that are sometimes showing in other cities,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in an interview.
It’s also a chance to further diversify the police force by recruiting participants from every city zip code, he said, while retaining talent that might be otherwise drift away from the department.
Garcetti first announced the initiative for young adults who have participated in LAPD youth programs at the Mayor’s 2017 State of the City address in April. The Mayor’s Innovation Team designed the program with LAPD and the city’s personnel department. It is expected to cost the city about $1 million in its first year.
The inaugural class of 28 participants is more than half female, according to the mayor’s office.
Nationwide in 2013, about 88 percent of full-time law enforcement officers were male, according to the FBI.
“There’s no reason we can’t get those numbers up as well,” Garcetti told the inaugural class on Monday.
Women make great detectives and Senior Lead Officers and have tackled roles in LAPD’s elite Metro Division as well as in the department’s mounted units, the mayor said.
“They are naturally better listeners, naturally better communicators sometimes than even men,” he said.
Adriana Cervantes, 20, of Arleta is among the young women who is part of the inaugural class. She is a former LAPD cadet and is also taking part in the Police Orientation and Preparation (Popp) program, a two-year Associate’s Degree program for students who aspire to join LAPD ranks.
“I just want to be able to serve my community properly and take the proper training – make sure I serve them right,” said Cervantes, who owns three Toy Poodles and aspires to work for LAPD’s K-9 unit one day.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said the new program will serve to fill the gap for young adults who graduate from high school but are too young to enter the Police Academy.
But it’s also “an opportunity for each of you to become wise beyond your years in this profession,” he told them.
The public will benefit greatly from having officers who underwent this program as civilians, said LAPD Officer Johnny Gil, who is helping to launch the program. That’s because it will help them become even better trained and polished when they do enter and make it through the Academy, he said.
And because many of these participants will go on to get college degrees through Cal State Los Angeles, “once they graduate from the full-time Academy, they will be super cops,” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Eric Estrada? I thought he retired from the CHP. ….. Just being a smartass.
DIG THESE BORDER PATROL GUYS
Tunnel rats stay busy stalking border drug smugglers
By John Wilkens
The San Diego Union-Tribune
November 26, 2017
It’s a name only a bureaucrat could love: Confined Spaces Entry Team.
Squad members call themselves something else: Tunnel Rats.
For the past seven years, they’ve been going underground to locate, map and seal off the tunnels used by cartels to smuggle drugs from Mexico to San Diego and beyond.
Theirs is a little-known part of the high-stakes hide-and-seek game that plays out daily along the border. While much of the attention, especially lately, has been focused on walls and what happens above ground, more than 80 tunnels have been found in California and Arizona since 2011.
Some have been almost 3,000 feet long and contain tracks for motorized carts, as well as lights, elevators and ventilation. One ended underneath a house in Calexico built just to provide cover for the tunnelers.
San Diego is a hotbed for a lot of this. Warehouses constructed close to the border in Otay Mesa and Tijuana provide camouflage: an out-of-view place for a tunnel to start and another for it to end.
It’s also where the clay soil is especially good for this kind of thing — not as soft and collapse-likely as it is to the west, and not as rocky and hard as it is to the east.
“This,” said Lance LeNoir, gesturing at the warehouses and the ground between them, “is what makes San Diego grand central for the long, sophisticated tunnels.”
LeNoir is an operations officer for the Border Patrol. He heads the five-member Tunnel Rats, and he was standing one recent weekday morning near what’s known in law-enforcement circles as the Galvez Tunnel.
Discovered in December 2009, it stretches 762 feet from a warehouse in Tijuana toward a warehouse on the U.S. side, just west of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
The tunnel is 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, large by tunneling standards, and 100 feet below the surface in some spots, sloped to allow groundwater to flow out of the way.
The traffickers had been working on it for about 18 months and had not yet finished when it was discovered after a tip from an informant. A dozen people were arrested inside.
Now what’s left of the tunnel, about 30 feet, is used for training by the Tunnel Rats. They practice rescues and test their equipment there.
It’s where they take government officials and the media when they want to show the kind of subterranean activity they are up against.
During a recent visit, LeNoir was asked whether he believed, at that moment, someone somewhere was digging a tunnel.
“Of course they are,” he said. “Of course.”
A Nod to Vietnam
The Tunnel Rats borrow their name from the Vietnam War forces who went underground in search of enemy fighters, sometimes engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
“They had it a lot tougher than we do,” LeNoir said. “We use the name in homage to them.”
They wear T-shirts with “Tunnel Rat” on the back, above a drawing of a fierce-looking rodent carrying a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Below the drawing is a Latin phrase, also from Vietnam, that translates into “Not worth a rat’s a--.”
Several of the team members are military veterans, although none is old enough to have served in Vietnam, and their uniforms resemble those worn by soldiers: camouflage pants, helmets, vests, guns.
Team members volunteer for the assignment, and to join they first have to crawl through a two-foot wide pipe for about 20 yards. That helps weed out agents who are claustrophobic and maybe don’t know it, and it also gets them ready for what they’ll face in the field.
Increasingly, the tunnels are getting narrower and shorter — quicker to build that way, and cheaper. One found last year was only 14 inches wide.
Getting inside the Galvez Tunnel is simple by comparison. Visitors climb down 70 feet of metal ladders, installed in a concrete shaft built after the underground smuggling route was discovered. It intersects the tunnel in a spot located between the primary and secondary border fences.
The air feels heavy at the bottom, and warm. Overhead lights illuminate the sides of the tunnel, which still bear the tool marks of those who built it.
Galvez gets its name from a street in Tijuana that runs next to the warehouse where the tunnel originated. It’s considered “sophisticated” because of its length and some of the things found inside it.
But “sophisticated” is a relative term.
“These tunnels wouldn’t meet any mining or construction standards that we are familiar with,” LeNoir said. If wood is found inside shoring up the walls and roof, it’s not because of a devotion to structural integrity, he said, but because a collapse happened while they were working and they had to fix it
“When you see 2-by-4s attached to plywood with drywall screws, you know you’re not looking at something that’s been carefully engineered,” he said.
Here’s what team members sometimes call the tunnels: “Holes in the ground at significant depth.”
What does impress them, though, is the persistence of the tunnelers, who aren’t always there by choice, conscripted at gunpoint by the cartels. Impressed by the workload. (Multiple eight-hour shifts, sometimes all day, using power drills, picks and shovels. They eat and sleep on site.) Impressed by the dirt removal. (It’s put it in sandbags and stored in the warehouses, or if there’s an empty room, just piled there.)
“They’re willing to dig and dig and dig without really knowing where they’re going to end up,” LeNoir said. “You have to respect their imagination and their audacity.”
Deja Vu
In our high-tech age, people sometimes think finding tunnels should be easy. Just stick motion-detectors in the ground, they say. Just use ground-penetrating radar.
It’s not that simple. Many such devices are susceptible to interference from passing cars and trucks and from underground power lines. They’re set off inadvertently by animals or the wind.
Still, the hunt for a silver bullet continues. The eight border wall prototypes recently built in Otay Mesa are being tested now for their ability to, among other things, deter tunneling. Each is supposed to include sensors that will detect someone approaching the wall or trying to breach it.
Until that kind of solution arrives, investigators usually find tunnels the old-fashioned way. They patrol the border. They talk to warehouse owners and occupants and ask them to report anything unusual or suspicious.
The Tunnel Rats are part of the Drug Tunnel Task Force, which also includes representatives from Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was formed in 2003 as officials noticed that even though most drugs are driven across the border at ports of entry, hidden inside cargo trucks and other vehicles, tunnels were becoming a major player.
At the Calexico one — the first time traffickers are known to have purchased land and built a house on it to conceal a tunnel — agents found more than a ton of marijuana. That was a small find: Other tunnels have led them to caches of more than 20 tons.
Originally, the underground team was focused on smugglers who used existing storm drains and sewer systems to move people across the border illegally. As more and more cross-border tunnels were discovered — 13 in the San Diego sector alone in 2006 — the team began focusing on that. They developed skills in geology, air monitoring and emergency extractions.
After a tunnel is found and cleared of smugglers, the Tunnel Rats are called in to check it for evidence and map it. They make sure the air is safe and the ground stable, and then crawl in with tape measures, compasses and lasers.
Then concrete is poured into the tunnels at various places on the U.S. side — “remediation” that has cost the federal government about $10 million since 2007.
Team members said what they like most about the work is the variety. “Every tunnel is different,” several of them said.
Their work ebbs and flows from year to year. Through the end of August, seven tunnels — three operational and four not yet finished — had been discovered in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, 2016, according to the Border Patrol. In the eights weeks so far this year: zero.
Over the past 10 years, the number of tunnels discovered has fluctuated between one and nine.
Sometimes the work has a feeling of deja vu. Officials on the Mexican side of the border don’t always have the resources to seal tunnels there.
At least eight times in recent years, the Border Patrol says, newly discovered tunnels turned out to be old ones. The smugglers started in Mexico using what was already there and when they came to the concrete on the U.S. side, they dug around it.
Until they were found again, another round of hide-and-seek that shows no signs of ending.
By John Wilkens
The San Diego Union-Tribune
November 26, 2017
It’s a name only a bureaucrat could love: Confined Spaces Entry Team.
Squad members call themselves something else: Tunnel Rats.
For the past seven years, they’ve been going underground to locate, map and seal off the tunnels used by cartels to smuggle drugs from Mexico to San Diego and beyond.
Theirs is a little-known part of the high-stakes hide-and-seek game that plays out daily along the border. While much of the attention, especially lately, has been focused on walls and what happens above ground, more than 80 tunnels have been found in California and Arizona since 2011.
Some have been almost 3,000 feet long and contain tracks for motorized carts, as well as lights, elevators and ventilation. One ended underneath a house in Calexico built just to provide cover for the tunnelers.
San Diego is a hotbed for a lot of this. Warehouses constructed close to the border in Otay Mesa and Tijuana provide camouflage: an out-of-view place for a tunnel to start and another for it to end.
It’s also where the clay soil is especially good for this kind of thing — not as soft and collapse-likely as it is to the west, and not as rocky and hard as it is to the east.
“This,” said Lance LeNoir, gesturing at the warehouses and the ground between them, “is what makes San Diego grand central for the long, sophisticated tunnels.”
LeNoir is an operations officer for the Border Patrol. He heads the five-member Tunnel Rats, and he was standing one recent weekday morning near what’s known in law-enforcement circles as the Galvez Tunnel.
Discovered in December 2009, it stretches 762 feet from a warehouse in Tijuana toward a warehouse on the U.S. side, just west of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
The tunnel is 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, large by tunneling standards, and 100 feet below the surface in some spots, sloped to allow groundwater to flow out of the way.
The traffickers had been working on it for about 18 months and had not yet finished when it was discovered after a tip from an informant. A dozen people were arrested inside.
Now what’s left of the tunnel, about 30 feet, is used for training by the Tunnel Rats. They practice rescues and test their equipment there.
It’s where they take government officials and the media when they want to show the kind of subterranean activity they are up against.
During a recent visit, LeNoir was asked whether he believed, at that moment, someone somewhere was digging a tunnel.
“Of course they are,” he said. “Of course.”
A Nod to Vietnam
The Tunnel Rats borrow their name from the Vietnam War forces who went underground in search of enemy fighters, sometimes engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
“They had it a lot tougher than we do,” LeNoir said. “We use the name in homage to them.”
They wear T-shirts with “Tunnel Rat” on the back, above a drawing of a fierce-looking rodent carrying a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Below the drawing is a Latin phrase, also from Vietnam, that translates into “Not worth a rat’s a--.”
Several of the team members are military veterans, although none is old enough to have served in Vietnam, and their uniforms resemble those worn by soldiers: camouflage pants, helmets, vests, guns.
Team members volunteer for the assignment, and to join they first have to crawl through a two-foot wide pipe for about 20 yards. That helps weed out agents who are claustrophobic and maybe don’t know it, and it also gets them ready for what they’ll face in the field.
Increasingly, the tunnels are getting narrower and shorter — quicker to build that way, and cheaper. One found last year was only 14 inches wide.
Getting inside the Galvez Tunnel is simple by comparison. Visitors climb down 70 feet of metal ladders, installed in a concrete shaft built after the underground smuggling route was discovered. It intersects the tunnel in a spot located between the primary and secondary border fences.
The air feels heavy at the bottom, and warm. Overhead lights illuminate the sides of the tunnel, which still bear the tool marks of those who built it.
Galvez gets its name from a street in Tijuana that runs next to the warehouse where the tunnel originated. It’s considered “sophisticated” because of its length and some of the things found inside it.
But “sophisticated” is a relative term.
“These tunnels wouldn’t meet any mining or construction standards that we are familiar with,” LeNoir said. If wood is found inside shoring up the walls and roof, it’s not because of a devotion to structural integrity, he said, but because a collapse happened while they were working and they had to fix it
“When you see 2-by-4s attached to plywood with drywall screws, you know you’re not looking at something that’s been carefully engineered,” he said.
Here’s what team members sometimes call the tunnels: “Holes in the ground at significant depth.”
What does impress them, though, is the persistence of the tunnelers, who aren’t always there by choice, conscripted at gunpoint by the cartels. Impressed by the workload. (Multiple eight-hour shifts, sometimes all day, using power drills, picks and shovels. They eat and sleep on site.) Impressed by the dirt removal. (It’s put it in sandbags and stored in the warehouses, or if there’s an empty room, just piled there.)
“They’re willing to dig and dig and dig without really knowing where they’re going to end up,” LeNoir said. “You have to respect their imagination and their audacity.”
Deja Vu
In our high-tech age, people sometimes think finding tunnels should be easy. Just stick motion-detectors in the ground, they say. Just use ground-penetrating radar.
It’s not that simple. Many such devices are susceptible to interference from passing cars and trucks and from underground power lines. They’re set off inadvertently by animals or the wind.
Still, the hunt for a silver bullet continues. The eight border wall prototypes recently built in Otay Mesa are being tested now for their ability to, among other things, deter tunneling. Each is supposed to include sensors that will detect someone approaching the wall or trying to breach it.
Until that kind of solution arrives, investigators usually find tunnels the old-fashioned way. They patrol the border. They talk to warehouse owners and occupants and ask them to report anything unusual or suspicious.
The Tunnel Rats are part of the Drug Tunnel Task Force, which also includes representatives from Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was formed in 2003 as officials noticed that even though most drugs are driven across the border at ports of entry, hidden inside cargo trucks and other vehicles, tunnels were becoming a major player.
At the Calexico one — the first time traffickers are known to have purchased land and built a house on it to conceal a tunnel — agents found more than a ton of marijuana. That was a small find: Other tunnels have led them to caches of more than 20 tons.
Originally, the underground team was focused on smugglers who used existing storm drains and sewer systems to move people across the border illegally. As more and more cross-border tunnels were discovered — 13 in the San Diego sector alone in 2006 — the team began focusing on that. They developed skills in geology, air monitoring and emergency extractions.
After a tunnel is found and cleared of smugglers, the Tunnel Rats are called in to check it for evidence and map it. They make sure the air is safe and the ground stable, and then crawl in with tape measures, compasses and lasers.
Then concrete is poured into the tunnels at various places on the U.S. side — “remediation” that has cost the federal government about $10 million since 2007.
Team members said what they like most about the work is the variety. “Every tunnel is different,” several of them said.
Their work ebbs and flows from year to year. Through the end of August, seven tunnels — three operational and four not yet finished — had been discovered in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, 2016, according to the Border Patrol. In the eights weeks so far this year: zero.
Over the past 10 years, the number of tunnels discovered has fluctuated between one and nine.
Sometimes the work has a feeling of deja vu. Officials on the Mexican side of the border don’t always have the resources to seal tunnels there.
At least eight times in recent years, the Border Patrol says, newly discovered tunnels turned out to be old ones. The smugglers started in Mexico using what was already there and when they came to the concrete on the U.S. side, they dug around it.
Until they were found again, another round of hide-and-seek that shows no signs of ending.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
RECIDIVISM NOT DUE TO GAP IN SERVICES
Probation and parole are a joke because the POs do not conduct surprise nighttime and weekend home visits
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
November 27, 2017
Scott Henson, Policy Director at Just Liberty, blogs as GRITS FOR BREAKFAST. In a recent blog Henson wrote:
“The Texas House Corrections Committee received several ‘Interim Charges’ recently, including one directing them to study:
current Texas criminal justice system policies and practices regarding 17- to 25-year-olds, specific to probation, parole, state jail confinement, and discharge from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or county jail. Review any gaps in services that may be causing this population to recidivate. Make recommendations to improve the state's response to the needs of this population in order to lower revocation, re-arrest, and reincarceration rates.”
This is another one of those costly studies that are a waste of taxpayer money.
Recidivism, whether among 'kids' or adults, has always been a problem and will continue to be a problem because there is a culture of criminality in places where they grew up.
The low recidivism rate Texas parole authorities tout cannot be believed. Nationwide the recidivism rate is between 50 and 60 percent. Someone here is manipulating parole outcomes.
Texas prisons are supposed to "promote positive change in offender behavior, to reintegrate offenders into society." So is every other prison in this country.
There is no way any prison can accomplish that. Prisons are not open college campuses. Promote positive change in behavior ... just how can you do that in a prison? And how do you reintegrate inmates into society when for years they've been told when to shit, shower and shave, when to shut up, get up, go here and there, do this and that, and all their basic needs are provided for them.
If we’re really honest about it, the purpose of prisons is to punish offenders and keep them locked up to protect the public.
When I was on the faculty of Sam Houston State University, I volunteered to conduct group therapy sessions for trouble-making inmates at the Ferguson Unit. I also conducted pre-parole classes at Ferguson. But there was little I could really do to prepare them for what they would experience in the free society after having been in the strictly controlled prison society.
The primary purpose of probation and parole is to protect the public. Having been a parole officer, I have studied Texas probation and parole supervision, and I can say without hesitation that probation and parole in Texas are a joke. Probation and parole officers cannot successfully operate on a Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm schedule. Office visits and scheduled home visits allow the offender to cover up any illegal activities he or she may be engaged in.
Of course good probation and parole supervision will not reduce recidivism but surprise nighttime and weekend home visits can detect criminal activities by offenders. And that serves the interest of the public.
To be sure, playing cops and robbers is not the only role of POs. They are supposed to help find the offender employment and provide counseling when he or she express to having problems.
Actually, offenders who stay out of trouble have self-rehabilitated with the help of family and a good job. A good job, and I don’t mean working in a car wash, is the most significant factor for a probationer or parolee to remain crime free. That and avoiding his former criminal buddies.
The legislature can conduct its study, but in the end recidivism will continue to go its merry way.
ADDENDUM: I found the Board of Pardons and Parole statistical report for FY 2014. According to the report, only 10.67 percent of all parolees were returned to prison for either new convictions or technical parole revocations. Only 10.67 percent? When almost every other state reports a recidivism rate of 50-60 percent, the only way the Texas rate of 10.67 percent can be believed is if 80 percent of the parolees died while on parole.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
November 27, 2017
Scott Henson, Policy Director at Just Liberty, blogs as GRITS FOR BREAKFAST. In a recent blog Henson wrote:
“The Texas House Corrections Committee received several ‘Interim Charges’ recently, including one directing them to study:
current Texas criminal justice system policies and practices regarding 17- to 25-year-olds, specific to probation, parole, state jail confinement, and discharge from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or county jail. Review any gaps in services that may be causing this population to recidivate. Make recommendations to improve the state's response to the needs of this population in order to lower revocation, re-arrest, and reincarceration rates.”
This is another one of those costly studies that are a waste of taxpayer money.
Recidivism, whether among 'kids' or adults, has always been a problem and will continue to be a problem because there is a culture of criminality in places where they grew up.
The low recidivism rate Texas parole authorities tout cannot be believed. Nationwide the recidivism rate is between 50 and 60 percent. Someone here is manipulating parole outcomes.
Texas prisons are supposed to "promote positive change in offender behavior, to reintegrate offenders into society." So is every other prison in this country.
There is no way any prison can accomplish that. Prisons are not open college campuses. Promote positive change in behavior ... just how can you do that in a prison? And how do you reintegrate inmates into society when for years they've been told when to shit, shower and shave, when to shut up, get up, go here and there, do this and that, and all their basic needs are provided for them.
If we’re really honest about it, the purpose of prisons is to punish offenders and keep them locked up to protect the public.
When I was on the faculty of Sam Houston State University, I volunteered to conduct group therapy sessions for trouble-making inmates at the Ferguson Unit. I also conducted pre-parole classes at Ferguson. But there was little I could really do to prepare them for what they would experience in the free society after having been in the strictly controlled prison society.
The primary purpose of probation and parole is to protect the public. Having been a parole officer, I have studied Texas probation and parole supervision, and I can say without hesitation that probation and parole in Texas are a joke. Probation and parole officers cannot successfully operate on a Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm schedule. Office visits and scheduled home visits allow the offender to cover up any illegal activities he or she may be engaged in.
Of course good probation and parole supervision will not reduce recidivism but surprise nighttime and weekend home visits can detect criminal activities by offenders. And that serves the interest of the public.
To be sure, playing cops and robbers is not the only role of POs. They are supposed to help find the offender employment and provide counseling when he or she express to having problems.
Actually, offenders who stay out of trouble have self-rehabilitated with the help of family and a good job. A good job, and I don’t mean working in a car wash, is the most significant factor for a probationer or parolee to remain crime free. That and avoiding his former criminal buddies.
The legislature can conduct its study, but in the end recidivism will continue to go its merry way.
ADDENDUM: I found the Board of Pardons and Parole statistical report for FY 2014. According to the report, only 10.67 percent of all parolees were returned to prison for either new convictions or technical parole revocations. Only 10.67 percent? When almost every other state reports a recidivism rate of 50-60 percent, the only way the Texas rate of 10.67 percent can be believed is if 80 percent of the parolees died while on parole.
STUPID BASTARD LUCKY TO BE ALIVE
by Bob Walsh
A seriously stupid man attempted to cut into the Trump motorcade down in Florida a couple of days ago, while SCREAMING obscenities and flipping the bird. That sort of thing can get you killed in the wrong circumstances.
The man was pulled over and stopped by the local constabulary. It is not obvious from the media reports I have seen what, if anything, happened to him after that.
A seriously stupid man attempted to cut into the Trump motorcade down in Florida a couple of days ago, while SCREAMING obscenities and flipping the bird. That sort of thing can get you killed in the wrong circumstances.
The man was pulled over and stopped by the local constabulary. It is not obvious from the media reports I have seen what, if anything, happened to him after that.
PERV POL BITES THE DUST
by Bob Walsh
Raul Bocanegra is/was a Democrat state assemblyman from the L. A. area in the formerly great state of California. He has been named by a number of women as being a predatory asshole. He announced a few days ago his intent to not run for re-election next year. He announced on Monday that he was in fact pulling the pin immediately.
He continues to maintain his innocence, but states that the current political climate would be problematic.
In the great scheme of things one less Democrap politician in the state is a good thing, though it is only a very small drop in a very big bucket in the one-party state that is the formerly great state of California.
Raul Bocanegra is/was a Democrat state assemblyman from the L. A. area in the formerly great state of California. He has been named by a number of women as being a predatory asshole. He announced a few days ago his intent to not run for re-election next year. He announced on Monday that he was in fact pulling the pin immediately.
He continues to maintain his innocence, but states that the current political climate would be problematic.
In the great scheme of things one less Democrap politician in the state is a good thing, though it is only a very small drop in a very big bucket in the one-party state that is the formerly great state of California.
KOCH BROTHERS STEPPING UP THE MESSAGE
by bob walsh
The Meredith Group, which is essentially a conglomeration of various Koch brothers interests, has just bought Time Inc. for about $2.8 billion, which is about 46% above the stock rate as of Friday evening.
It is sort-of thought that that the Koch brothers may be making a move to stop being the targets of every left-wing asswipe and being the shooters instead.
I used to like TIME magazine a million years ago before it turned into a complete left-wing rag. Allegedly the Koch brothers will take NO part in editorial decisions made by the operating executives. I am hoping that the notion of being a legitimate, centrist news organization may filter down. We could use one of those in the national print market.
The Meredith Group, which is essentially a conglomeration of various Koch brothers interests, has just bought Time Inc. for about $2.8 billion, which is about 46% above the stock rate as of Friday evening.
It is sort-of thought that that the Koch brothers may be making a move to stop being the targets of every left-wing asswipe and being the shooters instead.
I used to like TIME magazine a million years ago before it turned into a complete left-wing rag. Allegedly the Koch brothers will take NO part in editorial decisions made by the operating executives. I am hoping that the notion of being a legitimate, centrist news organization may filter down. We could use one of those in the national print market.
POCAHONTAS CANNOT TAKE A JOKE
Sen. Elizabeth Warren accuses President Trump of making a racial slur
In the 1990s, Harvard Law School listed Elizabeth Warren as a Native American because she had described herself as such i in an Association of American Law Schools directory. Ever since, her opponents have questioned her claimed ancestry.
To answer her doubters, Warren has said: “I am very proud of my heritage. These are my family stories. This is what my brothers and I were told by my mom and my dad, my mammaw and my pappaw. This is our lives. And I'm very proud of it.”
Uber-liberal Warren has been one of Trump’s most outspoken opponents, starting with his campaign for the presidency and continuing to date. Trump has responded by calling her Pocahontas from time. He did so again Monday at a White House reception honoring WW2 ‘Code Talkers.’
During WW2, in order to prevent the Japanese from understanding our combat communications, the U.S. Marines used Navajo Indians to relay radio messages with codes from their native tongue.. The Code Talkers were in the thick of combat on Pacific islands, and a number of them were killed and wounded.
Warren shot back at Trump, saying: “It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. Donald Trump does this over and over thinking somehow he's going to shut me up with it, it hadn't worked in the past it is not going to work in the future.”
In fairness to Warren, she did not use the minority designation to advance her career.
Native American groups object to referring to any Indian as Pocahontas.
In these politically correct times, we cannot use any term that might possibly construed as insensitive to minorities. It’s too bad that Pocahontas Warren cannot take a joke
This sort of reminds me of the song Jesus loves me ’cause my momma told me so. With Warren it’s I’m an Indian ’cause my mammaw told me so.
ADDENDUM: John McCain says that Trump saying ‘Pocahontas’ in front of Navajo code-talkers is an “insult to genuine American heroes.”
Pocahontas Warren says that calling her Pocahontas is “a disgusting low.”
In the 1990s, Harvard Law School listed Elizabeth Warren as a Native American because she had described herself as such i in an Association of American Law Schools directory. Ever since, her opponents have questioned her claimed ancestry.
To answer her doubters, Warren has said: “I am very proud of my heritage. These are my family stories. This is what my brothers and I were told by my mom and my dad, my mammaw and my pappaw. This is our lives. And I'm very proud of it.”
Uber-liberal Warren has been one of Trump’s most outspoken opponents, starting with his campaign for the presidency and continuing to date. Trump has responded by calling her Pocahontas from time. He did so again Monday at a White House reception honoring WW2 ‘Code Talkers.’
During WW2, in order to prevent the Japanese from understanding our combat communications, the U.S. Marines used Navajo Indians to relay radio messages with codes from their native tongue.. The Code Talkers were in the thick of combat on Pacific islands, and a number of them were killed and wounded.
Warren shot back at Trump, saying: “It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. Donald Trump does this over and over thinking somehow he's going to shut me up with it, it hadn't worked in the past it is not going to work in the future.”
In fairness to Warren, she did not use the minority designation to advance her career.
Native American groups object to referring to any Indian as Pocahontas.
In these politically correct times, we cannot use any term that might possibly construed as insensitive to minorities. It’s too bad that Pocahontas Warren cannot take a joke
This sort of reminds me of the song Jesus loves me ’cause my momma told me so. With Warren it’s I’m an Indian ’cause my mammaw told me so.
ADDENDUM: John McCain says that Trump saying ‘Pocahontas’ in front of Navajo code-talkers is an “insult to genuine American heroes.”
Pocahontas Warren says that calling her Pocahontas is “a disgusting low.”
10-YEAR OLD MURDERESS WANNABE
'I wanted to kill people': Ten-year old girl 'slammed truck into a car before purposely crashing into her neighbor'S living room narrowly missing their five children'
By Hannah Parry
Daily Mail
November 27, 2017
A ten-year old girl crashed into her neighbors' living room, telling cops she 'wanted to kill people.'
The Louisiana girl, who has not been named, was driving a truck when she slammed into Kristina Bryan's car so hard it spun several times and even cut the pavement.
Bryan's car was totaled but she escaped with minor scrapes and bruises. She is just glad her young twins weren't in the car at the time, WDRB reports.
Moments later, the girl rammed her truck through the living room of a home on New Cut Road near West Indian Trail, at around 2.30pm on Friday.
'It sounded like a bomb went off,' said Joshua Pate, who lives in the home with his family. 'Everybody was in shock. Everybody's still in shock.'
Pate's five children were sitting in the living room at the time and he believes their lives were saved by their sofa.
'The loveseat slid around and made kind of like a barrier ... the back of it is kind of high and I think the kids just slid with the loveseat,' Pate said.
But the most shocking moment was yet to come.
Pate says he heard the ten-year-old, who was not injured, telling police the crash was deliberate.
'(The officer) couldn't believe what she said,' he said.
'He was like "excuse me?" and she said, "I wanted to kill people," and he said 'I'm sorry, what did you say?' and she said, 'I wanted to kill people,' Pate said.
He added that he is still waiting for an apology from the girl and her family.
'All we want is an apology from the family, pretty much. We haven't heard from them and haven't heard from anybody,' he said.
Pate says the Red Cross have offered to help but the family will still be displaced for a month.
Bryan said that when she first heard she's been hit by a ten-year-old was concern and she wants to know how a girl e'ven get access to the keys?'
Both Pate and Bryan are planning legal action against the girl's family.
It does not appear that anyone has been charged in the incident.
By Hannah Parry
Daily Mail
November 27, 2017
A ten-year old girl crashed into her neighbors' living room, telling cops she 'wanted to kill people.'
The Louisiana girl, who has not been named, was driving a truck when she slammed into Kristina Bryan's car so hard it spun several times and even cut the pavement.
Bryan's car was totaled but she escaped with minor scrapes and bruises. She is just glad her young twins weren't in the car at the time, WDRB reports.
Moments later, the girl rammed her truck through the living room of a home on New Cut Road near West Indian Trail, at around 2.30pm on Friday.
'It sounded like a bomb went off,' said Joshua Pate, who lives in the home with his family. 'Everybody was in shock. Everybody's still in shock.'
Pate's five children were sitting in the living room at the time and he believes their lives were saved by their sofa.
'The loveseat slid around and made kind of like a barrier ... the back of it is kind of high and I think the kids just slid with the loveseat,' Pate said.
But the most shocking moment was yet to come.
Pate says he heard the ten-year-old, who was not injured, telling police the crash was deliberate.
'(The officer) couldn't believe what she said,' he said.
'He was like "excuse me?" and she said, "I wanted to kill people," and he said 'I'm sorry, what did you say?' and she said, 'I wanted to kill people,' Pate said.
He added that he is still waiting for an apology from the girl and her family.
'All we want is an apology from the family, pretty much. We haven't heard from them and haven't heard from anybody,' he said.
Pate says the Red Cross have offered to help but the family will still be displaced for a month.
Bryan said that when she first heard she's been hit by a ten-year-old was concern and she wants to know how a girl e'ven get access to the keys?'
Both Pate and Bryan are planning legal action against the girl's family.
It does not appear that anyone has been charged in the incident.
Monday, November 27, 2017
DID THE U.S. GOVERNMENT COVER UP AMELIA EARHARTS JAPANESE EXECUTION ON SAIPAN?
Amelia Earhart Mystery: Lost Pilot Spent Days In Prison Before Being Killed In Saipan, Says New Evidence
By Summer Meza
Newsweek
November 25, 2017
A man’s newly-shared story provides new information backing the theory that Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner and executed on Saipan after disappearing from her flight around the world 80 years ago.
The idea that Earhart and her companion Fred Noonan were captured by the Japanese when they vanished in 1937 is one of several theories - over half a century later, no one is exactly sure of their fate. But a family tale from William Sablan, a man who lives on the Mariana Islands, says that Earhart was brought to Saipan and spent several days in prison after being brought to the South Pacific island by ship.
The story fits with the theory brought to light by the History Channel’s documentary titled Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence. In the TV special, historians purport that the U.S. government knew that Earhart was captured and killed by the Japanese, and that the government even found and exhumed her body before lying about her fate for decades.
Sablan’s story comes from his uncle, Tun Akin Tuho, as reported by USA Today on Saturday. Tuho worked at the prison where Earhart and Noonan were apparently taken prisoner, and told Sablan that their arrival caused quite a commotion. Saipan was a hub for the Japanese, but it was rare to see white people on the island.
“They had no reason to be there,” Sablan said.
He said that Earhart’s plane dropped into the ocean before she and Noonan were captured and arrested. Sablan’s story is one of dozens of alleged witnesses, who have told of their possible run-ins with Earhart in several different places, under multiple circumstances.
Representatives from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, told the New York Times that Earhart possibly landed on the island of Nikumaroro, transmitting distress signals in hopes of a rescue, but ultimately ending up stranded.
A famous photo fits with the theory that Earhart was captured in the South Pacific, showing the profile of a white woman with cropped hair sitting on a dock in the Marshall Islands. Some believe that her plane can be seen in the background of the photo, but not all agree that it’s strong evidence. A Japanese blogger said that Earhart couldn’t possibly be the one in the photo, since he says it was published two years before her disappearance.
The mystery continues as historians and researchers continue to unveil evidence surrounding whether or not Earhart and Noonan were still alive in July 1937.
By Summer Meza
Newsweek
November 25, 2017
A man’s newly-shared story provides new information backing the theory that Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner and executed on Saipan after disappearing from her flight around the world 80 years ago.
The idea that Earhart and her companion Fred Noonan were captured by the Japanese when they vanished in 1937 is one of several theories - over half a century later, no one is exactly sure of their fate. But a family tale from William Sablan, a man who lives on the Mariana Islands, says that Earhart was brought to Saipan and spent several days in prison after being brought to the South Pacific island by ship.
The story fits with the theory brought to light by the History Channel’s documentary titled Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence. In the TV special, historians purport that the U.S. government knew that Earhart was captured and killed by the Japanese, and that the government even found and exhumed her body before lying about her fate for decades.
Sablan’s story comes from his uncle, Tun Akin Tuho, as reported by USA Today on Saturday. Tuho worked at the prison where Earhart and Noonan were apparently taken prisoner, and told Sablan that their arrival caused quite a commotion. Saipan was a hub for the Japanese, but it was rare to see white people on the island.
“They had no reason to be there,” Sablan said.
He said that Earhart’s plane dropped into the ocean before she and Noonan were captured and arrested. Sablan’s story is one of dozens of alleged witnesses, who have told of their possible run-ins with Earhart in several different places, under multiple circumstances.
Representatives from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, told the New York Times that Earhart possibly landed on the island of Nikumaroro, transmitting distress signals in hopes of a rescue, but ultimately ending up stranded.
A famous photo fits with the theory that Earhart was captured in the South Pacific, showing the profile of a white woman with cropped hair sitting on a dock in the Marshall Islands. Some believe that her plane can be seen in the background of the photo, but not all agree that it’s strong evidence. A Japanese blogger said that Earhart couldn’t possibly be the one in the photo, since he says it was published two years before her disappearance.
The mystery continues as historians and researchers continue to unveil evidence surrounding whether or not Earhart and Noonan were still alive in July 1937.
GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES LOSE BIG TIME ON BLACK FRIDAY
Black Friday posts new single day record for gun checks at more than 200,000
By Kevin Johnson,
USA Today
November 26, 2017
WASHINGTON — The FBI was flooded Friday with more than 200,000 background check requests for gun purchases, setting a new single day record, the bureau reported Saturday.
In all, the FBI fielded 203,086 requests on Black Friday, up from the previous single-day highs of 185,713 last year and 185,345 in 2015. The two previous records also were recorded on Black Friday.
Gun checks, required for purchases at federally licensed firearm dealers, are not a measure of actual gun sales. The number of firearms sold Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in one transaction by a single buyer.
The surging numbers received by the bureau's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), comes just days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a sweeping review of the system, which allowed a court-martialed Air Force veteran to purchase the rifle used earlier this month to kill 25 people inside a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church.
The victims included a pregnant woman whose unborn child also died in the Nov. 5 massacre.
Following the shooting, the Air Force acknowledged it had not provided the FBI with details of the court martial, which likely would have blocked the 2016 sale of the murder weapon to Devin Kelley.
In a memo issued Wednesday, Sessions ordered the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to review the NICS system.
The breakdown in the Kelley case highlighted longstanding problems within the system, which for more than 20 years has served as the centerpiece of the government's effort to block criminals from obtaining firearms. Yet it has largely struggled to keep pace with the volume of firearm transactions and still properly maintain the databases of criminal and mental health records necessary to determine whether buyers are eligible to purchase guns.
Last year, the FBI official overseeing NICS was forced to transfer personnel from construction projects and units that oversee the gathering of crime statistics to keep up with the surge of requests for background checks. The office processed a record 27.5 million background checks in 2016.
Stephen Morris, a former assistant FBI director, told USA TODAY after the shooting that the NICS system has long been plagued by incomplete or outdated information.
In many cases, a background check may show a record of arrest, but there is no additional information to indicate whether the case was dismissed or resulted in a felony conviction which would prohibit a gun purchase.
The mere record of arrest is not enough to prohibit a gun sale, so FBI analysts must race to fill such information gaps within the three-day time period allotted for each check. The search sometimes requires inquiries to police departments, courthouses and prisons across the country to match final dispositions to the incomplete records.
In Kelley's case, the Air Force not only failed to provide the record of his conviction — it also missed other potential opportunities to alert the FBI to Kelley's legal troubles. Among them: his initial arrest on domestic abuse charges and his 2012 escape from a New Mexico behavioral health facility, where he was being treated for "mental disorders" in advance of a court martial proceeding.
Kelley, who was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., was regarded as "a danger to himself and others." He had been caught sneaking firearms onto the base and had lodged death threats against his military superiors.
The Air Force has said it is investigating the breakdown. The Pentagon also is reviewing the case to determine, in part, whether the military should supply arrest records or other types of information to the FBI.
Another mass shooter, who killed four people in California earlier this month, also was barred from gun ownership but was able to evade detection by assembling his own rifles by purchasing components from online sources.
“People should not be able to make their own assault weapons and other guns when those individuals are dangerous and legally barred from buying guns,” said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The center, named for former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt, has called for tighter restrictions on such gun part suppliers.
“Companies that are more worried about making money than the safety of the public or law enforcement officials sworn to protect them shouldn’t be given a platform to sell their products," Thomas said. "It’s time to turn off the lights on these sites so these companies won’t be able to enable illegal gun trafficking or the next mass shooting.”
Federal authorities, meanwhile, have for years openly complained that incomplete databases and staff shortages make it difficult to keep pace with the constant stream of background checks required of most new gun purchasers and efficiently trace firearms used in crimes.
In a statement earlier this week, Sessions said NICS “is critical for us to be able to keep guns out of the hands of those that are prohibited from owning them.” He said the Texas shooting “revealed that relevant information may not be getting reported to the NICS — this is alarming and it is unacceptable.”
While gun sales have been surging in recent years — largely driven by fears of more restrictive gun laws proposed during the Obama administration — gun check numbers had leveled off in the first months of the pro-gun Trump administration.
By Kevin Johnson,
USA Today
November 26, 2017
WASHINGTON — The FBI was flooded Friday with more than 200,000 background check requests for gun purchases, setting a new single day record, the bureau reported Saturday.
In all, the FBI fielded 203,086 requests on Black Friday, up from the previous single-day highs of 185,713 last year and 185,345 in 2015. The two previous records also were recorded on Black Friday.
Gun checks, required for purchases at federally licensed firearm dealers, are not a measure of actual gun sales. The number of firearms sold Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in one transaction by a single buyer.
The surging numbers received by the bureau's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), comes just days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a sweeping review of the system, which allowed a court-martialed Air Force veteran to purchase the rifle used earlier this month to kill 25 people inside a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church.
The victims included a pregnant woman whose unborn child also died in the Nov. 5 massacre.
Following the shooting, the Air Force acknowledged it had not provided the FBI with details of the court martial, which likely would have blocked the 2016 sale of the murder weapon to Devin Kelley.
In a memo issued Wednesday, Sessions ordered the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to review the NICS system.
The breakdown in the Kelley case highlighted longstanding problems within the system, which for more than 20 years has served as the centerpiece of the government's effort to block criminals from obtaining firearms. Yet it has largely struggled to keep pace with the volume of firearm transactions and still properly maintain the databases of criminal and mental health records necessary to determine whether buyers are eligible to purchase guns.
Last year, the FBI official overseeing NICS was forced to transfer personnel from construction projects and units that oversee the gathering of crime statistics to keep up with the surge of requests for background checks. The office processed a record 27.5 million background checks in 2016.
Stephen Morris, a former assistant FBI director, told USA TODAY after the shooting that the NICS system has long been plagued by incomplete or outdated information.
In many cases, a background check may show a record of arrest, but there is no additional information to indicate whether the case was dismissed or resulted in a felony conviction which would prohibit a gun purchase.
The mere record of arrest is not enough to prohibit a gun sale, so FBI analysts must race to fill such information gaps within the three-day time period allotted for each check. The search sometimes requires inquiries to police departments, courthouses and prisons across the country to match final dispositions to the incomplete records.
In Kelley's case, the Air Force not only failed to provide the record of his conviction — it also missed other potential opportunities to alert the FBI to Kelley's legal troubles. Among them: his initial arrest on domestic abuse charges and his 2012 escape from a New Mexico behavioral health facility, where he was being treated for "mental disorders" in advance of a court martial proceeding.
Kelley, who was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., was regarded as "a danger to himself and others." He had been caught sneaking firearms onto the base and had lodged death threats against his military superiors.
The Air Force has said it is investigating the breakdown. The Pentagon also is reviewing the case to determine, in part, whether the military should supply arrest records or other types of information to the FBI.
Another mass shooter, who killed four people in California earlier this month, also was barred from gun ownership but was able to evade detection by assembling his own rifles by purchasing components from online sources.
“People should not be able to make their own assault weapons and other guns when those individuals are dangerous and legally barred from buying guns,” said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The center, named for former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt, has called for tighter restrictions on such gun part suppliers.
“Companies that are more worried about making money than the safety of the public or law enforcement officials sworn to protect them shouldn’t be given a platform to sell their products," Thomas said. "It’s time to turn off the lights on these sites so these companies won’t be able to enable illegal gun trafficking or the next mass shooting.”
Federal authorities, meanwhile, have for years openly complained that incomplete databases and staff shortages make it difficult to keep pace with the constant stream of background checks required of most new gun purchasers and efficiently trace firearms used in crimes.
In a statement earlier this week, Sessions said NICS “is critical for us to be able to keep guns out of the hands of those that are prohibited from owning them.” He said the Texas shooting “revealed that relevant information may not be getting reported to the NICS — this is alarming and it is unacceptable.”
While gun sales have been surging in recent years — largely driven by fears of more restrictive gun laws proposed during the Obama administration — gun check numbers had leveled off in the first months of the pro-gun Trump administration.
NOT ONLY CROOKED HILLARY BUT ALSO DANGEROUS HILLARY
Susan Sarandon says she is glad 'dangerous' Hillary didn't win because 'we would be at war'
By Hannah Parry
Daily Mail
November 26, 2017
Susan Sarandon has announced that she's glad Hillary Clinton lost the election because she's 'very dangerous' and America would be 'at war.'
The outspoken actress faced a furious backlash from the left who accused her of allowing Donald Trump to win because she'd refused to vote for Clinton in the US election.
She had instead chosen to back independent Jill Stein, after Bernie Sanders lost in the Democratic primary.
But the 71-year-old says she has no regrets.
'I did think she was very, very dangerous,' Sarandon told the Guardian of Clinton. 'We would still be fracking, we would be at war [if she was president]. It wouldn't be much smoother. Look what happened under Obama that we didn't notice.'
She said that while former president Barack Obama had 'really hard about healthcare' and 'it was very important to have a black family in the White House', she says he deported even more people than Trump - he just did it 'sneakily.'
Sarandon hasn't always been such a staunch Clinton opponent. In 2001, she even backed her for the Senate and posed with the former First Lady during her run.
But that all changed when Clinton voted for the war in Iraq.
Since then Sarandon has refused to support the former Secretary of State - even if that meant alienating herself from her fellow liberals.
She'd been attacked by Clinton supporters online, including Will and Grace star Debra Messing who tweeted: 'Susan Sarandon muses tht Trump prezcy wud b better 4 the country thn Hillary.Wonder if she'd say that if she were poor,gay,Muslim or immgrnt to [sic].'
The pair got into a mudslinging match on Twitter, with Sarandon accusing her rival of 'RT-ing personal attacks' against her before finally finishing the exchange by tweeting: 'Alright @DebraMessing report me to the homeroom teacher and let's STOP.'
Their feud was revisited this year when Andy Cohen asked socialist Sarandon about the incident during an appearance on his talk show in May.
'You know, I think she's not very well informed, so sometimes she gets in areas that she really hasn't thought through,' she said. 'She's Trumpian a little bit like that, so I don't have anything against her personally. I just sometimes I have to say, 'But you don't have the information.''
The Thelma and Louise star said she's even had to change her phone number since the election after receiving a slew of violent, threatening messages.
'I got from Hillary people 'I hope your crotch is grabbed', 'I hope you're raped'. Misogynistic attacks.'
She said that when she recently took a stand on Dreamers, a program to allow children who entered the US illegally to gain citizenship, after Trump threatened to revoke it. But when she showed her support, she had another wave of abuse from the left blaming her for not voting for Clinton.
'How dare you! You who are responsible for this!' she said the messages read.
However, Sarandon appears to take it all in her stride.
She says it's 'flattering' that some assume her voice held so much sway over the population but she didn't find the attacks upsetting. And her friends have stood by her through it all.
'It's upsetting to me more from the point of view of thinking they haven't learned. I don't need to be vindicated.'
The actress insists her vote for Stein wasn't a 'protest vote' but she'd told people at the time, 'Get your information, I'm going to vote for change, because I was hoping that Stein was going to get whatever percentage she needed – but I knew she wasn't going to make the difference in the election.'
The Rocky Horror Show has said previously she voted 'by issues: I don't vote with my vagina.'
By Hannah Parry
Daily Mail
November 26, 2017
Susan Sarandon has announced that she's glad Hillary Clinton lost the election because she's 'very dangerous' and America would be 'at war.'
The outspoken actress faced a furious backlash from the left who accused her of allowing Donald Trump to win because she'd refused to vote for Clinton in the US election.
She had instead chosen to back independent Jill Stein, after Bernie Sanders lost in the Democratic primary.
But the 71-year-old says she has no regrets.
'I did think she was very, very dangerous,' Sarandon told the Guardian of Clinton. 'We would still be fracking, we would be at war [if she was president]. It wouldn't be much smoother. Look what happened under Obama that we didn't notice.'
She said that while former president Barack Obama had 'really hard about healthcare' and 'it was very important to have a black family in the White House', she says he deported even more people than Trump - he just did it 'sneakily.'
Sarandon hasn't always been such a staunch Clinton opponent. In 2001, she even backed her for the Senate and posed with the former First Lady during her run.
But that all changed when Clinton voted for the war in Iraq.
Since then Sarandon has refused to support the former Secretary of State - even if that meant alienating herself from her fellow liberals.
She'd been attacked by Clinton supporters online, including Will and Grace star Debra Messing who tweeted: 'Susan Sarandon muses tht Trump prezcy wud b better 4 the country thn Hillary.Wonder if she'd say that if she were poor,gay,Muslim or immgrnt to [sic].'
The pair got into a mudslinging match on Twitter, with Sarandon accusing her rival of 'RT-ing personal attacks' against her before finally finishing the exchange by tweeting: 'Alright @DebraMessing report me to the homeroom teacher and let's STOP.'
Their feud was revisited this year when Andy Cohen asked socialist Sarandon about the incident during an appearance on his talk show in May.
'You know, I think she's not very well informed, so sometimes she gets in areas that she really hasn't thought through,' she said. 'She's Trumpian a little bit like that, so I don't have anything against her personally. I just sometimes I have to say, 'But you don't have the information.''
The Thelma and Louise star said she's even had to change her phone number since the election after receiving a slew of violent, threatening messages.
'I got from Hillary people 'I hope your crotch is grabbed', 'I hope you're raped'. Misogynistic attacks.'
She said that when she recently took a stand on Dreamers, a program to allow children who entered the US illegally to gain citizenship, after Trump threatened to revoke it. But when she showed her support, she had another wave of abuse from the left blaming her for not voting for Clinton.
'How dare you! You who are responsible for this!' she said the messages read.
However, Sarandon appears to take it all in her stride.
She says it's 'flattering' that some assume her voice held so much sway over the population but she didn't find the attacks upsetting. And her friends have stood by her through it all.
'It's upsetting to me more from the point of view of thinking they haven't learned. I don't need to be vindicated.'
The actress insists her vote for Stein wasn't a 'protest vote' but she'd told people at the time, 'Get your information, I'm going to vote for change, because I was hoping that Stein was going to get whatever percentage she needed – but I knew she wasn't going to make the difference in the election.'
The Rocky Horror Show has said previously she voted 'by issues: I don't vote with my vagina.'
DEA EXPECTS MEXICAN CARTELS WILL CONTINUE TO GROW IN THE U.S. THROUGH EXPANSION OF THEIR DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS AND INTERACTION WITH LOCAL CRIMINAL GROUPS
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) controls the distribution of drugs through Tijuana while the Sinaloa Cartel is dominant along the rest of the border
By Inés García Ramos
Borderland Beat (translated from Zeta)
November 25, 2017
According to the DEA's most recent annual report, from 2015 to date, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel made Tijuana the main point of entry for their drugs into the United States. Although the Sinaloa Cartel dominates most of the border, the agency stresses the rapid expansion of this cartel and the levels of violence it has generated in Mexico.
In two years, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) went from having an incipient presence on the border of Tijuana to controlling half of the drug traffic through this border, with the Sinaloa Cartel as the only rival.
This is indicated by the annual report of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), published in October of this year, which reveals how the CJNG, the fastest growing during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, converted Tijuana to its main entry point to the United States for the sale of drugs.
Although the California-Arizona corridor continues to be under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, as explained in the report entitled National Evaluation of the Drug Threat 2017, the CJNG has presence in the first area through the cities of San Ysidro and San Diego, the closest to Tijuana, as well as Riverside, Orange County, the Los Angeles area and San Francisco in northern California.
From there, the CJNG jumps to the West Coast until Seattle, Washington, where it fights for a quarter of the drug sales market. In Tucson, Arizona they have a minimal presence, same with El Paso, Texas, border with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
In Texas, there is control of almost half of the drug trafficking in San Antonio and Laredo, on the border with Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
Both in the border cities of El Paso and Laredo, in the annual report of the DEA for 2015, the CJNG did not even have a presence, while in Tijuana it reached 25 percent.
Even in the 2016 annual report, the areas of influence of the CJNG on the border were reduced to Imperial Valley County, adjacent to Mexicali.
The growth of a cartel
The DEA outlines six major Mexican cartels: Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Juárez Cartel, Gulf Cartel, The Zetas, and Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, "each of these organizations maintains drug distribution cells in designated cities throughout the United States that report directly to the leaders of the cartels in Mexico or through intermediaries."
As for the Knights Templar, whose leader, Servando Gómez Martínez "La Tuta" was arrested in Mexico in 2015, the DEA believes that "they do not have a significant impact on the drug trafficking scene within the United States."
The CJNG appeared in the sights of the US authorities for the first time in 2014, a year before its existence was accepted by the Mexican government. "The CJNG is the most recent organization of the six, but it is one of the most powerful and fastest growing in Mexico and the United States."
In 2016, the DEA opened 26 investigations -which are still active- linked to the main leaders of the CJNG, while the number increased to 46 so far in 2017.
The US agency insists on this report of the rapid expansion of this cartel that was separated from that of Sinaloa in July 2010, thanks to "its willingness to engage in violent confrontations with both security forces and rivals."
"Like the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG is an organization that traffics multiple drugs with large amounts of methamphetamine, mainly, but also cocaine, heroin and marijuana."
The main points of this organization for the distribution of drugs are Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; and Atlanta, Georgia.
"Members of the CJNG export large quantities of methamphetamine to California from Guadalajara, Jalisco, through crossing points in Tijuana to distribution centers in Los Angeles and San Jose, California," the report said.
The DEA identifies three leaders of this organization: Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", Abigael González Valencia "El Cuini", the only one who has been arrested, as well as Jorge Luis Mendoza Cárdenas "La Garra".
Since 2015, the US government has designated dozens of people and businesses as part of the money laundering network for the CJNG, among the most recent to appear are the Mexican singer Julión Álvarez and the soccer player Rafael Márquez, as part of their attempts to dismantle their financial networks.
The overwhelming violence in Tijuana
At the local level, Juan José Pérez Vargas "El JP" or "El Piolín" has been identified as the main leader of the CJNG in Baja California. After false versions of his death circulated on the internet, he was arrested on September 19 in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Along with two other men from Tijuana, he was apprehended for carrying a firearm, as well as doses of drugs and cash.
Despite being one of the main targets identified by the public security corporations, "El Piolín" does not have an arrest warrant in Baja California.
The arrival of the CJNG to Tijuana brought with it the highest figures of homicides in the history of the city, surpassing even the murders committed when the Sinaloa Cartel and the Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) disputed control of the area before 2010.
Its presence was detected for the first time in 2014, when some of its members came to traffic weapons and drugs with a low profile. A year later, through narcomantas with corpses, its presence began to grow and in 2016 it was recognized by the government of Baja California.
Authorities attribute to the dispute of this cartel, allied with what remained of the CAF against the Sinaloa Cartel, more than 3 thousand 800 intentional homicides committed since 2015.
With everything and "El Chapo" extradited, Sinaloa strengthens in the East Coast
The DEA indicates that "Mexican cartels control the majority of drug trafficking in the United States with continuous signs of growth and expansion."
Through this report, it is indicated that in recent years these criminal organizations expanded their sphere of influence to new regions on the East Coast, the point furthest from the border of Mexico, like New England, mainly with the sale of heroin and methamphetamines.
According to information from the DEA, this area is under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, specifically, most of the State of New York, as well as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis, Indiana; and New Haven, Connecticut.
These are the hot spots in the opiate epidemic that have expanded in the United States and that up to 2016, have caused 60 thousand overdose deaths.
The same happens in Chicago, Illinois, where drug lords of the Sinaloa Cartel have been prosecuted for drug trafficking. It is in this city, where the Mexican cartels control most of the sale of methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana and heroin, without "any viable competitor".
The expansion of the Sinaloa Cartel continues despite the fact that its most notorious leader, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, is being held in New York and that this year, Damaso López Núñez "El Licenciado" was arrested in Mexico, who was looking for the control of the cartel.
The DEA identifies both as leaders of this criminal organization, as well as Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada García and for the first time Rafael Caro Quintero, who was released from prison in 2013.
One of the distinctions of the Sinaloa Cartel is that it "maintains the most expansive international footprint in comparison with other Mexican cartels," says the DEA document.
Its area of control are the Coast of the Pacific Ocean, both in Mexico and the United States, and distribution cells located in Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles California; Denver, Colorado; and still Chicago, Illinois.
Most of the border between Mexico and the United States for the transfer of drugs is under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, mainly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and part of Texas.
United States with the cartel's drugs, but without their violence
The DEA reports that unlike drug lords operating in Mexico, their counterparts in the United States work to maintain a low profile and low visibility, so they generally avoid violent confrontations with their cartel rivals.
"Although the homicides related to drug trafficking have reached epidemic proportions in Mexico in recent years, this phenomenon has not translated into violence overflowing in the United States," the document said.
He adds that although there have been some homicides related to Mexican cartels in North America, "they are less frequent and mainly related to traffickers, so they do not represent a pattern of concern at this time."
In general, the DEA believes that the Mexican cartels will continue to dominate the trafficking and distribution of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin in the US markets.
"No other criminal organization has the infrastructure or logistics to face them. It is expected that Mexican cartels will continue to grow in the United States through the expansion of their distribution networks and interaction with local criminal groups and gangs,“ the report said.
522 million dollars to fight the narco
According to a budget request submitted by the Department of Justice before the United States Congress, $522 million dollars were requested to fight the cartels in 2017.
This is a Special Forces program to Combat Organized Crime, one of the main sources of information of the DEA for its annual report, National Evaluation of the Drug Threat; since from here emerge the leaders, identified as priority targets, who are pursued within the cartels.
However, this program does not focus solely on drug trafficking and money laundering, but also on any other activity to which transnational criminal organizations engage.
The document states that one of the main missions of this program, made up of multiple federal, state and local agencies, is "to dismantle the networks of transnational organizations dedicated to drug trafficking, including the Sinaloa Cartel."
As part of its annual report, attached with the budget request, the Department of Justice maintains that among the activities of this program are "hundreds of active investigations linked to the Sinaloa Cartel".
Of the 40 priority objectives of these agencies in 2015, 28 percent corresponded to the organization led by "El Chapo" Guzmán, which makes it the cartel with the most members targeted by the US government.
By Inés García Ramos
Borderland Beat (translated from Zeta)
November 25, 2017
According to the DEA's most recent annual report, from 2015 to date, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel made Tijuana the main point of entry for their drugs into the United States. Although the Sinaloa Cartel dominates most of the border, the agency stresses the rapid expansion of this cartel and the levels of violence it has generated in Mexico.
In two years, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) went from having an incipient presence on the border of Tijuana to controlling half of the drug traffic through this border, with the Sinaloa Cartel as the only rival.
This is indicated by the annual report of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), published in October of this year, which reveals how the CJNG, the fastest growing during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, converted Tijuana to its main entry point to the United States for the sale of drugs.
Although the California-Arizona corridor continues to be under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, as explained in the report entitled National Evaluation of the Drug Threat 2017, the CJNG has presence in the first area through the cities of San Ysidro and San Diego, the closest to Tijuana, as well as Riverside, Orange County, the Los Angeles area and San Francisco in northern California.
From there, the CJNG jumps to the West Coast until Seattle, Washington, where it fights for a quarter of the drug sales market. In Tucson, Arizona they have a minimal presence, same with El Paso, Texas, border with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
In Texas, there is control of almost half of the drug trafficking in San Antonio and Laredo, on the border with Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
Both in the border cities of El Paso and Laredo, in the annual report of the DEA for 2015, the CJNG did not even have a presence, while in Tijuana it reached 25 percent.
Even in the 2016 annual report, the areas of influence of the CJNG on the border were reduced to Imperial Valley County, adjacent to Mexicali.
The growth of a cartel
The DEA outlines six major Mexican cartels: Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Juárez Cartel, Gulf Cartel, The Zetas, and Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, "each of these organizations maintains drug distribution cells in designated cities throughout the United States that report directly to the leaders of the cartels in Mexico or through intermediaries."
As for the Knights Templar, whose leader, Servando Gómez Martínez "La Tuta" was arrested in Mexico in 2015, the DEA believes that "they do not have a significant impact on the drug trafficking scene within the United States."
The CJNG appeared in the sights of the US authorities for the first time in 2014, a year before its existence was accepted by the Mexican government. "The CJNG is the most recent organization of the six, but it is one of the most powerful and fastest growing in Mexico and the United States."
In 2016, the DEA opened 26 investigations -which are still active- linked to the main leaders of the CJNG, while the number increased to 46 so far in 2017.
The US agency insists on this report of the rapid expansion of this cartel that was separated from that of Sinaloa in July 2010, thanks to "its willingness to engage in violent confrontations with both security forces and rivals."
"Like the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG is an organization that traffics multiple drugs with large amounts of methamphetamine, mainly, but also cocaine, heroin and marijuana."
The main points of this organization for the distribution of drugs are Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; and Atlanta, Georgia.
"Members of the CJNG export large quantities of methamphetamine to California from Guadalajara, Jalisco, through crossing points in Tijuana to distribution centers in Los Angeles and San Jose, California," the report said.
The DEA identifies three leaders of this organization: Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", Abigael González Valencia "El Cuini", the only one who has been arrested, as well as Jorge Luis Mendoza Cárdenas "La Garra".
Since 2015, the US government has designated dozens of people and businesses as part of the money laundering network for the CJNG, among the most recent to appear are the Mexican singer Julión Álvarez and the soccer player Rafael Márquez, as part of their attempts to dismantle their financial networks.
The overwhelming violence in Tijuana
At the local level, Juan José Pérez Vargas "El JP" or "El Piolín" has been identified as the main leader of the CJNG in Baja California. After false versions of his death circulated on the internet, he was arrested on September 19 in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Along with two other men from Tijuana, he was apprehended for carrying a firearm, as well as doses of drugs and cash.
Despite being one of the main targets identified by the public security corporations, "El Piolín" does not have an arrest warrant in Baja California.
The arrival of the CJNG to Tijuana brought with it the highest figures of homicides in the history of the city, surpassing even the murders committed when the Sinaloa Cartel and the Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) disputed control of the area before 2010.
Its presence was detected for the first time in 2014, when some of its members came to traffic weapons and drugs with a low profile. A year later, through narcomantas with corpses, its presence began to grow and in 2016 it was recognized by the government of Baja California.
Authorities attribute to the dispute of this cartel, allied with what remained of the CAF against the Sinaloa Cartel, more than 3 thousand 800 intentional homicides committed since 2015.
With everything and "El Chapo" extradited, Sinaloa strengthens in the East Coast
The DEA indicates that "Mexican cartels control the majority of drug trafficking in the United States with continuous signs of growth and expansion."
Through this report, it is indicated that in recent years these criminal organizations expanded their sphere of influence to new regions on the East Coast, the point furthest from the border of Mexico, like New England, mainly with the sale of heroin and methamphetamines.
According to information from the DEA, this area is under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, specifically, most of the State of New York, as well as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis, Indiana; and New Haven, Connecticut.
These are the hot spots in the opiate epidemic that have expanded in the United States and that up to 2016, have caused 60 thousand overdose deaths.
The same happens in Chicago, Illinois, where drug lords of the Sinaloa Cartel have been prosecuted for drug trafficking. It is in this city, where the Mexican cartels control most of the sale of methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana and heroin, without "any viable competitor".
The expansion of the Sinaloa Cartel continues despite the fact that its most notorious leader, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, is being held in New York and that this year, Damaso López Núñez "El Licenciado" was arrested in Mexico, who was looking for the control of the cartel.
The DEA identifies both as leaders of this criminal organization, as well as Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada García and for the first time Rafael Caro Quintero, who was released from prison in 2013.
One of the distinctions of the Sinaloa Cartel is that it "maintains the most expansive international footprint in comparison with other Mexican cartels," says the DEA document.
Its area of control are the Coast of the Pacific Ocean, both in Mexico and the United States, and distribution cells located in Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles California; Denver, Colorado; and still Chicago, Illinois.
Most of the border between Mexico and the United States for the transfer of drugs is under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel, mainly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and part of Texas.
United States with the cartel's drugs, but without their violence
The DEA reports that unlike drug lords operating in Mexico, their counterparts in the United States work to maintain a low profile and low visibility, so they generally avoid violent confrontations with their cartel rivals.
"Although the homicides related to drug trafficking have reached epidemic proportions in Mexico in recent years, this phenomenon has not translated into violence overflowing in the United States," the document said.
He adds that although there have been some homicides related to Mexican cartels in North America, "they are less frequent and mainly related to traffickers, so they do not represent a pattern of concern at this time."
In general, the DEA believes that the Mexican cartels will continue to dominate the trafficking and distribution of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin in the US markets.
"No other criminal organization has the infrastructure or logistics to face them. It is expected that Mexican cartels will continue to grow in the United States through the expansion of their distribution networks and interaction with local criminal groups and gangs,“ the report said.
522 million dollars to fight the narco
According to a budget request submitted by the Department of Justice before the United States Congress, $522 million dollars were requested to fight the cartels in 2017.
This is a Special Forces program to Combat Organized Crime, one of the main sources of information of the DEA for its annual report, National Evaluation of the Drug Threat; since from here emerge the leaders, identified as priority targets, who are pursued within the cartels.
However, this program does not focus solely on drug trafficking and money laundering, but also on any other activity to which transnational criminal organizations engage.
The document states that one of the main missions of this program, made up of multiple federal, state and local agencies, is "to dismantle the networks of transnational organizations dedicated to drug trafficking, including the Sinaloa Cartel."
As part of its annual report, attached with the budget request, the Department of Justice maintains that among the activities of this program are "hundreds of active investigations linked to the Sinaloa Cartel".
Of the 40 priority objectives of these agencies in 2015, 28 percent corresponded to the organization led by "El Chapo" Guzmán, which makes it the cartel with the most members targeted by the US government.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
FIRST HE RULES KUWAIT AIRLINES CAN BAN ISRAELI CITIZENS AND NOW HE RULES ISRAEL IS A STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM
German judge compares Israel to state sponsors of terror Iran, North Korea
By Benjamin Weinthal
The Jerusalem Post
November 25, 2017
The German judge Wolfram Sauer, who ruled last week in Frankfurt that Kuwait Airways can bar an Israeli passenger from flying on the Gulf country’s airline because of his nationality, juxtaposed the Jewish state with the US classified state-sponsors of terrorism, Iran and North Korea, to justify his legal decision.
The Jerusalem Post obtained the 13-page legal ruling by Sauer on Saturday, in which he lays out his reasoning in favor of Kuwait’s state-owned airline boycotting Israeli passengers.
Nathan Gelbart, the German lawyer who represented the Israeli passenger Adar M., told the Post that it was “unconscionable that the judge” would reference “Israel, the only Middle East democracy” in the same breath as the terrorist-sponsoring states Iran and North Korea. Gelbart, who is acting on behalf of the US-based human rights organization The Lawfare Project, said the comparison was “quite insulting,” and will appeal the Frankfurt court’s decision against Adar in the next few days.
1Sauer wrote in his legal defense of the Kuwaiti boycott law of Israel that “such rules, in different expressions, are not foreign to Germany’s legal system,” linking his decision to sanctions regulations against the Islamic Republic of Iran and North Korea.
Gelbart, one of Germany’s most prominent attorneys, said “the German justice system is helping Kuwait to implement its own racist boycott against Israel.” Kuwait passed a law in 1964 barring commerce with Israelis.
Writing in the mass-circulation BILD on Friday, the journalist Antje Schippmann said that “The antisemitic [Kuwait] boycott law is merely being rated as an embargo ‘imposed on one state by another state.’”
She added: “So, the German judge is putting sanctions against terrorist states on the same level as discrimination against people from Israel... It obviously did not occur to the judge that such discrimination against Jews living in Germany is quite unbearable.”
Gelbart said Germany is not obligated to implement foreign economic laws like Kuwait’s boycott law against the Jewish state. Sauer “made the case fur Kuwait Airways,” including introducing arguments in favor of the Arab state that Kuwaiti Airways did not initiate. The Frankfurt-based judge argued that Germany’s anti-discrimination law did not cover Adar’s Israeli nationality.
Germany has a relatively weak anti-bias law, in contrast to many Western European and American anti-discrimination laws.
Kuwait Airlines banned Adar in 2016, from one of its flights from Frankfurt to Bangkok that had a stopover in Kuwait. The Israeli man was stripped of the ticket he purchased when the airline saw his Israeli nationality.
Germany’s Minister of Transport Christian Schmidt said he plans to review the Kuwait case and expressed dismay about the discrimination. Germany’s Foreign Ministry held a conversation with Kuwait’s Ambassador to Germany but it was not an official summoning that would spell a form of rebuke.
The Parliament of the German state of Hesse, where the Frankfurt court is located, passed a cross-party resolution on Friday slamming Kuwait’s boycott law against the Jewish state.
According to the resolution, Kuwait’s boycott law against Israel “stands in contradiction to the principles of an open society, and is not only an anti-Israel policy, but clearly antisemitic.” The Hesse legislature called on Kuwait’s government to change its 1964 law. The lawmakers also urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration to use economic levers of pressure against Kuwaiti services to change the Gulf state’s anti-Israel conduct.
Germany’s Social Democrat Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Chancellor Merkel have not weighed in on the dispute.
Volker Beck, a former Green Party MP and head of the German-Israel parliamentary group, tweeted to his 85,000-plus followers on Friday about the Kuwait Airways ban of Israelis: “What does Ms. Merkel have to say? And where is our raison d’état? Months of silence?” Germany considers the Jewish state to be part of its raison d’état – usually translated as “reason for being” or “national interests.”
In a similar case in New York City, Kuwait Airways pulled the plug on its route between New York City and London because the US Department of Transportation determined the Gulf airline engaged in discrimination by barring Israelis citizens from service.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Judge Wolfram Sauer would have made Hitler proud.
By Benjamin Weinthal
The Jerusalem Post
November 25, 2017
The German judge Wolfram Sauer, who ruled last week in Frankfurt that Kuwait Airways can bar an Israeli passenger from flying on the Gulf country’s airline because of his nationality, juxtaposed the Jewish state with the US classified state-sponsors of terrorism, Iran and North Korea, to justify his legal decision.
The Jerusalem Post obtained the 13-page legal ruling by Sauer on Saturday, in which he lays out his reasoning in favor of Kuwait’s state-owned airline boycotting Israeli passengers.
Nathan Gelbart, the German lawyer who represented the Israeli passenger Adar M., told the Post that it was “unconscionable that the judge” would reference “Israel, the only Middle East democracy” in the same breath as the terrorist-sponsoring states Iran and North Korea. Gelbart, who is acting on behalf of the US-based human rights organization The Lawfare Project, said the comparison was “quite insulting,” and will appeal the Frankfurt court’s decision against Adar in the next few days.
1Sauer wrote in his legal defense of the Kuwaiti boycott law of Israel that “such rules, in different expressions, are not foreign to Germany’s legal system,” linking his decision to sanctions regulations against the Islamic Republic of Iran and North Korea.
Gelbart, one of Germany’s most prominent attorneys, said “the German justice system is helping Kuwait to implement its own racist boycott against Israel.” Kuwait passed a law in 1964 barring commerce with Israelis.
Writing in the mass-circulation BILD on Friday, the journalist Antje Schippmann said that “The antisemitic [Kuwait] boycott law is merely being rated as an embargo ‘imposed on one state by another state.’”
She added: “So, the German judge is putting sanctions against terrorist states on the same level as discrimination against people from Israel... It obviously did not occur to the judge that such discrimination against Jews living in Germany is quite unbearable.”
Gelbart said Germany is not obligated to implement foreign economic laws like Kuwait’s boycott law against the Jewish state. Sauer “made the case fur Kuwait Airways,” including introducing arguments in favor of the Arab state that Kuwaiti Airways did not initiate. The Frankfurt-based judge argued that Germany’s anti-discrimination law did not cover Adar’s Israeli nationality.
Germany has a relatively weak anti-bias law, in contrast to many Western European and American anti-discrimination laws.
Kuwait Airlines banned Adar in 2016, from one of its flights from Frankfurt to Bangkok that had a stopover in Kuwait. The Israeli man was stripped of the ticket he purchased when the airline saw his Israeli nationality.
Germany’s Minister of Transport Christian Schmidt said he plans to review the Kuwait case and expressed dismay about the discrimination. Germany’s Foreign Ministry held a conversation with Kuwait’s Ambassador to Germany but it was not an official summoning that would spell a form of rebuke.
The Parliament of the German state of Hesse, where the Frankfurt court is located, passed a cross-party resolution on Friday slamming Kuwait’s boycott law against the Jewish state.
According to the resolution, Kuwait’s boycott law against Israel “stands in contradiction to the principles of an open society, and is not only an anti-Israel policy, but clearly antisemitic.” The Hesse legislature called on Kuwait’s government to change its 1964 law. The lawmakers also urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration to use economic levers of pressure against Kuwaiti services to change the Gulf state’s anti-Israel conduct.
Germany’s Social Democrat Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Chancellor Merkel have not weighed in on the dispute.
Volker Beck, a former Green Party MP and head of the German-Israel parliamentary group, tweeted to his 85,000-plus followers on Friday about the Kuwait Airways ban of Israelis: “What does Ms. Merkel have to say? And where is our raison d’état? Months of silence?” Germany considers the Jewish state to be part of its raison d’état – usually translated as “reason for being” or “national interests.”
In a similar case in New York City, Kuwait Airways pulled the plug on its route between New York City and London because the US Department of Transportation determined the Gulf airline engaged in discrimination by barring Israelis citizens from service.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Judge Wolfram Sauer would have made Hitler proud.
CHARLIE’S WILL SURFACES
Charles Manson pen pal gets everything
TMZ
November 24, 2017
The pen pal -- he asked us not to use his name -- began writing Manson in the '90s and the 2 exchanged letters and phone calls for 2 decades. The man even visited Manson in prison from time to time.
We obtained a copy of a crudely written will which we're told was drafted by Manson. It's typed but there's handwriting on the document. We checked the handwriting in the will against Manson's known handwriting, and they appear very similar.
The will -- dated February 14, 2002 -- leaves all of Manson's personal belongings, including cash, image rights and clothing to Manson's pen pal. More significantly, Manson leaves his "exclusive music catalog" to the guy. Manson fancied himself as a songwriter and even wrote a Beach Boys song the group recorded.
The will says Manson's body should be turned over to his pen pal. He says he will claim the body, but as we reported, if he doesn't do it within 10 days of Manson's death, the prison will cremate him.
Manson specifically disinherited his known children, ex-wives, in-laws, lawyers, friends, prisoners, inmates, cops, guards, and the State of California.
The man tells us he began writing Manson in the '90s out of curiosity, and after more than 50 letters with no reply ... Manson finally wrote back in 1997. He claims the 2 struck up a friendship through letters and eventually phone calls, and he met Manson in person for the first time in 2002 ... the same year Manson drafted the will.
He claims he visited with Manson several times after that and got his last phone call from him on October 21 ... just weeks before his death.
The 2002 will includes a handwritten note from Manson, saying ... "I'm not in the best spot to rest in peace" along with his signature. We're told the witness signature is that of a fellow inmate.
TMZ
November 24, 2017
The pen pal -- he asked us not to use his name -- began writing Manson in the '90s and the 2 exchanged letters and phone calls for 2 decades. The man even visited Manson in prison from time to time.
We obtained a copy of a crudely written will which we're told was drafted by Manson. It's typed but there's handwriting on the document. We checked the handwriting in the will against Manson's known handwriting, and they appear very similar.
The will -- dated February 14, 2002 -- leaves all of Manson's personal belongings, including cash, image rights and clothing to Manson's pen pal. More significantly, Manson leaves his "exclusive music catalog" to the guy. Manson fancied himself as a songwriter and even wrote a Beach Boys song the group recorded.
The will says Manson's body should be turned over to his pen pal. He says he will claim the body, but as we reported, if he doesn't do it within 10 days of Manson's death, the prison will cremate him.
Manson specifically disinherited his known children, ex-wives, in-laws, lawyers, friends, prisoners, inmates, cops, guards, and the State of California.
The man tells us he began writing Manson in the '90s out of curiosity, and after more than 50 letters with no reply ... Manson finally wrote back in 1997. He claims the 2 struck up a friendship through letters and eventually phone calls, and he met Manson in person for the first time in 2002 ... the same year Manson drafted the will.
He claims he visited with Manson several times after that and got his last phone call from him on October 21 ... just weeks before his death.
The 2002 will includes a handwritten note from Manson, saying ... "I'm not in the best spot to rest in peace" along with his signature. We're told the witness signature is that of a fellow inmate.
HUNTER BAGGED A DEER ….. A NEIGHBOR’S DEAR WIFE THAT IS
Husband of hunting accident victim: 'Her life was cut way too short'
By Maki Becker
The Buffalo News
November 24, 2017
Jamie Billquist was watching TV at his home on Armenian Road in Sherman Wednesday night when he heard his dogs barking.
His wife, Rosemary, had just taken their Labs, Sugar and Stella, out for a walk in the field behind their house after getting home from work.
He went outside to see why the dogs were barking and saw an ambulance pull into his driveway.
"Jamie, we've got a gunshot wound," an EMT who happened to be a friend of Billquist's said to him as he rushed into the field.
The victim was Rosemary. He rode with her in the ambulance to UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., where she was pronounced dead.
A neighbor, Thomas B. Jadlowski, 34, of Cornish Street, thought he saw a deer in the field and fired his pistol, according to the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office. Then he heard a scream, sheriff's officials said.
Jadlowski told investigators he found Rosemary Billquist about 200 yards away. He called 911 and applied pressure to her wound.
Jamie Billquist said his 43-year-old wife had been shot in the hip roughly 100 yards from their house.
"They tried saving her," her husband said Friday morning. "It was just too bad. ... It's horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life."
Sheriff's officials said Jadlowski has been cooperating with investigators but so far no charges have been filed. The investigation showed that Jadlowski reported the shooting at 5:24 p.m., which was 40 minutes after sunset. It is a violation of state hunting laws to hunt deer after sunset, sheriff's officials said.
The pistol was a high-powered, single shot handgun often used for deer hunting, said Sheriff Joe Gerace.
Jamie Billquist said that his wife was on the property of their next-door neighbor when she was shot. He said that Jadlowski didn't have permission to be hunting on the neighbor's property.
The sheriff's office is working with state Department of Environmental Conservation investigators on the case and are conferring with the Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office which would decide whether charges will be filed. Jadlowski could not be reached for comment Friday.
"This is a horrific incident," Gerace said. "....This destroyed two lives."
He recalled a similar incident five years in the Town of Stockton when a 33-year-old man was killed while field-dressing a deer he had shot shortly after sunset on Dec. 3, 2012. The man's father fired the shot from about 100 yards away.
Jamie Billquist remembered his wife as a loving and selfless woman.
"She was always out to help somebody. She never wanted credit and was always quiet about it," Jamie Billquist said. "She's just an angel. An angel for sure."
"I think he needs to learn a lesson," he said of Thomas Jadlowski. "There's rules. You should abide by them.... It's disturbing. It's a two-second decision that he'll regret for the rest of his life."
And now his wife is gone.
"Her life was cut way too short," he said.
By Maki Becker
The Buffalo News
November 24, 2017
Jamie Billquist was watching TV at his home on Armenian Road in Sherman Wednesday night when he heard his dogs barking.
His wife, Rosemary, had just taken their Labs, Sugar and Stella, out for a walk in the field behind their house after getting home from work.
He went outside to see why the dogs were barking and saw an ambulance pull into his driveway.
"Jamie, we've got a gunshot wound," an EMT who happened to be a friend of Billquist's said to him as he rushed into the field.
The victim was Rosemary. He rode with her in the ambulance to UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa., where she was pronounced dead.
A neighbor, Thomas B. Jadlowski, 34, of Cornish Street, thought he saw a deer in the field and fired his pistol, according to the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office. Then he heard a scream, sheriff's officials said.
Jadlowski told investigators he found Rosemary Billquist about 200 yards away. He called 911 and applied pressure to her wound.
Jamie Billquist said his 43-year-old wife had been shot in the hip roughly 100 yards from their house.
"They tried saving her," her husband said Friday morning. "It was just too bad. ... It's horrific. It will be with me the rest of my life."
Sheriff's officials said Jadlowski has been cooperating with investigators but so far no charges have been filed. The investigation showed that Jadlowski reported the shooting at 5:24 p.m., which was 40 minutes after sunset. It is a violation of state hunting laws to hunt deer after sunset, sheriff's officials said.
The pistol was a high-powered, single shot handgun often used for deer hunting, said Sheriff Joe Gerace.
Jamie Billquist said that his wife was on the property of their next-door neighbor when she was shot. He said that Jadlowski didn't have permission to be hunting on the neighbor's property.
The sheriff's office is working with state Department of Environmental Conservation investigators on the case and are conferring with the Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office which would decide whether charges will be filed. Jadlowski could not be reached for comment Friday.
"This is a horrific incident," Gerace said. "....This destroyed two lives."
He recalled a similar incident five years in the Town of Stockton when a 33-year-old man was killed while field-dressing a deer he had shot shortly after sunset on Dec. 3, 2012. The man's father fired the shot from about 100 yards away.
Jamie Billquist remembered his wife as a loving and selfless woman.
"She was always out to help somebody. She never wanted credit and was always quiet about it," Jamie Billquist said. "She's just an angel. An angel for sure."
"I think he needs to learn a lesson," he said of Thomas Jadlowski. "There's rules. You should abide by them.... It's disturbing. It's a two-second decision that he'll regret for the rest of his life."
And now his wife is gone.
"Her life was cut way too short," he said.
NO FREEDOM OF RELIGION FOR EL CHAPO
El Chapo Denied Bible in Jail Because Feds Fear It Could Hold Secret Codes
By Katie Zavadski
Daily Beast
November 8, 2017
Prison authorities are so afraid El Chapo could receive secret codes behind bars that they won’t even let him have a Bible.
The infamous drug lord, whose real name is Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, is locked up in a highest-security isolation cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, awaiting trial for for a litany of charges related to drug trafficking.
“It’s a bible that came from Amazon,” Balarezo said in Spanish during a press conference Wednesday. “Same as the dictionary” El Chapo also hasn’t received, Balarezo added.
Conditions in the so-called “10 South” isolation wing of the Manhattan federal jail have been described as “worse than Guantanamo” by inmates who’ve been in both. And the defense team’s latest grievances about El Chapo’s inability to get a Bible and English-Spanish dictionary to understand legal paperwork underscore the security measures placed on the man who escaped from maximum-security Mexican prisons twice. The books are being screened for codes, Balarezo said.
Correspondence from his family is also out of the question.
“His family has mailed him letters regularly. He has received not one,” Balarezo said. “It’s just another way to affect Mr. Guzman.”
El Chapo still hasn’t been able to see his wife, and his sister’s visa was revoked after she visited him several months ago, said Balarezo, who was retained by Chapo after a lengthy discussion of whether the kingpin could use his ill-gotten millions to pay lawyers’ fees. Chapo has seen his two young daughters, who wore gold dresses to court on Wednesday and spent the morning playing peekaboo with former paralegals, just twice.
Earlier Wednesday morning, Balarezo reaffirmed in court the defense team’s intention to have a psychologist evaluate El Chapo, who lawyers say has been negatively affected by a year in near-constant solitude.
The kingpin’s memory and other faculties are failing, Balarezo claimed, which may render him unable to assist in his own defense.
In filings to the court, prosecutors said they’d also complied with all the requirements ordered by the court to El Chapo’s lawyer meeting place. Chapo’s lawyers had previously complained that the hyper-secure conditions created for him made it virtually impossible for them to get any work done with him.
At the hearing Wednesday, Judge Brian M. Cogan had El Chapo waive a potential conflict of interest with Balarezo because he had previously represented a co-defendant in the initial charging of the case. (That man was not named in court but is presumed to be Alfredo Beltran Leyva, another drug kingpin who was sentenced to life in prison in a separate case this April.) Balarezo took over El Chapo’s case from federal public defenders in September.
But now, Balarezo says he worries prosecutors’ stonewalling on certain types of evidence will inhibit his ability to prepare for trial, scheduled to begin mid-April 2018.
On Wednesday, prosecutors laid out a tentative schedule for presenting evidence to the defense team, which included some potential testimony that would be withheld until a month or two before trial, and other testimony, from cooperating witnesses, that would Balarezo would only be notified about two weeks before they take the stand. (The schedule is not atypical, but the trial in this voluminous case is projected to take months.)
The evidence presented so far is of little use, Balarezo told the court, as he doesn’t plan to dispute the fact that seizures of drug shipments and the like occurred.
“The issue is, what does Mr. Guzman have to do with those seizures? And that’s going to be [in the final materials produced],” he said.
By Katie Zavadski
Daily Beast
November 8, 2017
Prison authorities are so afraid El Chapo could receive secret codes behind bars that they won’t even let him have a Bible.
The infamous drug lord, whose real name is Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, is locked up in a highest-security isolation cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, awaiting trial for for a litany of charges related to drug trafficking.
“It’s a bible that came from Amazon,” Balarezo said in Spanish during a press conference Wednesday. “Same as the dictionary” El Chapo also hasn’t received, Balarezo added.
Conditions in the so-called “10 South” isolation wing of the Manhattan federal jail have been described as “worse than Guantanamo” by inmates who’ve been in both. And the defense team’s latest grievances about El Chapo’s inability to get a Bible and English-Spanish dictionary to understand legal paperwork underscore the security measures placed on the man who escaped from maximum-security Mexican prisons twice. The books are being screened for codes, Balarezo said.
Correspondence from his family is also out of the question.
“His family has mailed him letters regularly. He has received not one,” Balarezo said. “It’s just another way to affect Mr. Guzman.”
El Chapo still hasn’t been able to see his wife, and his sister’s visa was revoked after she visited him several months ago, said Balarezo, who was retained by Chapo after a lengthy discussion of whether the kingpin could use his ill-gotten millions to pay lawyers’ fees. Chapo has seen his two young daughters, who wore gold dresses to court on Wednesday and spent the morning playing peekaboo with former paralegals, just twice.
Earlier Wednesday morning, Balarezo reaffirmed in court the defense team’s intention to have a psychologist evaluate El Chapo, who lawyers say has been negatively affected by a year in near-constant solitude.
The kingpin’s memory and other faculties are failing, Balarezo claimed, which may render him unable to assist in his own defense.
In filings to the court, prosecutors said they’d also complied with all the requirements ordered by the court to El Chapo’s lawyer meeting place. Chapo’s lawyers had previously complained that the hyper-secure conditions created for him made it virtually impossible for them to get any work done with him.
At the hearing Wednesday, Judge Brian M. Cogan had El Chapo waive a potential conflict of interest with Balarezo because he had previously represented a co-defendant in the initial charging of the case. (That man was not named in court but is presumed to be Alfredo Beltran Leyva, another drug kingpin who was sentenced to life in prison in a separate case this April.) Balarezo took over El Chapo’s case from federal public defenders in September.
But now, Balarezo says he worries prosecutors’ stonewalling on certain types of evidence will inhibit his ability to prepare for trial, scheduled to begin mid-April 2018.
On Wednesday, prosecutors laid out a tentative schedule for presenting evidence to the defense team, which included some potential testimony that would be withheld until a month or two before trial, and other testimony, from cooperating witnesses, that would Balarezo would only be notified about two weeks before they take the stand. (The schedule is not atypical, but the trial in this voluminous case is projected to take months.)
The evidence presented so far is of little use, Balarezo told the court, as he doesn’t plan to dispute the fact that seizures of drug shipments and the like occurred.
“The issue is, what does Mr. Guzman have to do with those seizures? And that’s going to be [in the final materials produced],” he said.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
WE MIGHT ALL DIE ON DECEMBER 17...
But Probably Not
by Bob Walsh
Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is about half the size of the one that they think destroyed the dinosaurs a 65 million years ago or so. It is going to come very, very close to earth on December 17.
The three mile rock will come to within about 2 million miles of our orbital path, which is practically microscopic in interplanetary terms.
Astronomers speculate that it was at one time a comet nucleus that has shed much of its mass over eons. Its orbit takes it within the orbit of Mercury and beyond the orbit of Mars. It is the only rock of anywhere near it's size that does that. It is linked with the Geminid meteor shower and astronomers believe that the meteor shower is caused by material that broke off of 3200 Phaethon at some point in it's history.
Don't worry. We are almost certainly safe. This time.
by Bob Walsh
Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is about half the size of the one that they think destroyed the dinosaurs a 65 million years ago or so. It is going to come very, very close to earth on December 17.
The three mile rock will come to within about 2 million miles of our orbital path, which is practically microscopic in interplanetary terms.
Astronomers speculate that it was at one time a comet nucleus that has shed much of its mass over eons. Its orbit takes it within the orbit of Mercury and beyond the orbit of Mars. It is the only rock of anywhere near it's size that does that. It is linked with the Geminid meteor shower and astronomers believe that the meteor shower is caused by material that broke off of 3200 Phaethon at some point in it's history.
Don't worry. We are almost certainly safe. This time.
INTERESTING SEASONAL MARKETING
by Bob Walsh
I happened into one of my favorite local gun emporiums on Friday to pick up some ammo they had on sale. I noticed they had some CHRISTMAS SPECIAL .22lr ammo from CCI. It was polymer plated ammo with red and green colored bullets. I though that was just so neat so I bought two bricks for $20 each (330 rounds per brick).
Now I can't wait to spot some reindeer, or stray cats shitting in my flower beds, whatever works.
Actually I would not shoot a reindeer, I think they are cute. Cats, not so much.
I happened into one of my favorite local gun emporiums on Friday to pick up some ammo they had on sale. I noticed they had some CHRISTMAS SPECIAL .22lr ammo from CCI. It was polymer plated ammo with red and green colored bullets. I though that was just so neat so I bought two bricks for $20 each (330 rounds per brick).
Now I can't wait to spot some reindeer, or stray cats shitting in my flower beds, whatever works.
Actually I would not shoot a reindeer, I think they are cute. Cats, not so much.
I'LL BET OSCAR IS PISSED
by Bob Walsh
Most of you probably remember Oscar Pistorius. He is an Olympic running and amputee who shot his girlfriend to death a few years back in what he claims was a mistaken target identification incident. (He thought she was a burglar.)
He has just been resentenced to a much longer stay in prison. A lot of people thought he got off lightly with the original six year sentence back in 2013. A judge has just bit him on the ass for 13 years and 5 months. He could have been eligible for parole consideration in 2019. Now he must go until at least 2023 before that can happen.
Most of you probably remember Oscar Pistorius. He is an Olympic running and amputee who shot his girlfriend to death a few years back in what he claims was a mistaken target identification incident. (He thought she was a burglar.)
He has just been resentenced to a much longer stay in prison. A lot of people thought he got off lightly with the original six year sentence back in 2013. A judge has just bit him on the ass for 13 years and 5 months. He could have been eligible for parole consideration in 2019. Now he must go until at least 2023 before that can happen.
TRUMP CONTINUES TO TRASH THE NFL
'Players are the Boss!': Trump taunts NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell AGAIN in Twitter rant after Giants player Olivier Vernon takes the knee for the National Anthem on Thanksgiving
By Charlie Moore
Daily Mail
November 24, 2017
Donald Trump has again taunted the NFL Commissioner for 'losing control' of the players after New York Giants star Olivier Vernon took a knee for the National Anthem on Thanksgiving.
He wrote in a 6am Twitter rant: 'Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players.
'The Commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. Players are the boss!'
Trump was replying to a tweet by his assistant Dan Scavino which linked to a Breitbart article criticizing Vernon for taking a knee before playing the San Francisco 49ers.
Defensive end Vernon, 27, came under heavy fire from fans for his protest.
One wrote: 'On #Thanksgiving dude? While the Anthem is sung by a Master Sergeant of the United States Army to honor the United States of America ? Disgusting and despicable. Turning off the game #NFL'
Trump has previously demanded that NFL players who kneel during the anthem to protest the treatment of African-Americans should be fired or suspended.
His latest attack on commissioner Roger Goodell comes after a similar Twitter rant on Wednesday.
Trump wrote: 'The NFL is now thinking about a new idea – keeping teams in the Locker Room during the National Anthem next season. That’s almost as bad as kneeling!' the president wrote.
'When will the highly paid Commissioner finally get tough and smart? This issue is killing your league!'
Trump was referring to a Washington Post report on Tuesday that outlined a possible new league policy being privately debated by NFL team owners.
Various players and teams have stayed in their locker rooms before games this year, emerging only after the National Anthem is played in order to avoid the decision of whether or not to stand.
Most recently, Trump slammed Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch for continuing to sit for The Star Spangled Banner, despite standing for the Mexican anthem before a game on Sunday.
Lynch's latest protest took place on Sunday before the Raiders played the New England Patriots at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
During Week 11 in the league's season, only a handful of players continued the protests – which Trump and other critics say has led to diminished game attendance and television audiences.
In an early morning tweet on Monday, Trump said the NFL should suspend him for the 'remainder of season.'
'Marshawn Lynch of the NFL's Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our National Anthem,' Trump wrote. 'Great disrespect!'
'Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.'
In addition to Lynch, the only players who took a knee were New York Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon; and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills, safety Michael Thomas and tight end Julius Thomas.
Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters remained in the tunnel leading from the field to the locker rooms until the National Anthem concluded, and then joined his team on the field.
Peters had chosen to kneel during the anthem in previous games this season.
In addition to pointing out that the anthem was being sung by a master sergeant, Scavino 's tweet referred to the NFL’s highly-publicized ratings decline, which both he and the President attribute to the controversial protests.
‘While @NFL ratings continue to plummet,’ Scavino wrote. ‘Not So Thankful: @Giants @OlivierVernon54 Kneels During the National Anthem on Thanksgiving Day (while a Master Sergeant of the United States Army sings) at FedEx Field...’
Whether or not NFL ratings are actually down because of the players’ peaceful demonstrations is a matter of debate.
Viewership was down about 5 percent over the first seven weeks of the NFL season, according to CNN. However, that decline is part of an overall downtick in ratings.
Fox's primetime viewership was down 20 percent through the first month of the new television season, according to Nielsen data, while ABC (11 percent), CBS (6 percent), and NBC (four percent) have all seen a decline as well.
The NFL's ratings have even recovered somewhat in recent weeks, as Seattle and Atlanta's recent 'Monday Night Football' game drew a 7.2 in metered markets for ESPN, according to Deadline.com. That was a 16 percent rise over the Miami-Carolina MNF game a week earlier.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Go Trump go!
As for Olivier Vernon, ship his ungrateful and unpatriotic black ass off to any sub-Sahara African country where he can experience how he’ll be treated if he doesn’t belong to the predominant tribe.
By Charlie Moore
Daily Mail
November 24, 2017
Donald Trump has again taunted the NFL Commissioner for 'losing control' of the players after New York Giants star Olivier Vernon took a knee for the National Anthem on Thanksgiving.
He wrote in a 6am Twitter rant: 'Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players.
'The Commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. Players are the boss!'
Trump was replying to a tweet by his assistant Dan Scavino which linked to a Breitbart article criticizing Vernon for taking a knee before playing the San Francisco 49ers.
Defensive end Vernon, 27, came under heavy fire from fans for his protest.
One wrote: 'On #Thanksgiving dude? While the Anthem is sung by a Master Sergeant of the United States Army to honor the United States of America ? Disgusting and despicable. Turning off the game #NFL'
Trump has previously demanded that NFL players who kneel during the anthem to protest the treatment of African-Americans should be fired or suspended.
His latest attack on commissioner Roger Goodell comes after a similar Twitter rant on Wednesday.
Trump wrote: 'The NFL is now thinking about a new idea – keeping teams in the Locker Room during the National Anthem next season. That’s almost as bad as kneeling!' the president wrote.
'When will the highly paid Commissioner finally get tough and smart? This issue is killing your league!'
Trump was referring to a Washington Post report on Tuesday that outlined a possible new league policy being privately debated by NFL team owners.
Various players and teams have stayed in their locker rooms before games this year, emerging only after the National Anthem is played in order to avoid the decision of whether or not to stand.
Most recently, Trump slammed Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch for continuing to sit for The Star Spangled Banner, despite standing for the Mexican anthem before a game on Sunday.
Lynch's latest protest took place on Sunday before the Raiders played the New England Patriots at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
During Week 11 in the league's season, only a handful of players continued the protests – which Trump and other critics say has led to diminished game attendance and television audiences.
In an early morning tweet on Monday, Trump said the NFL should suspend him for the 'remainder of season.'
'Marshawn Lynch of the NFL's Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our National Anthem,' Trump wrote. 'Great disrespect!'
'Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.'
In addition to Lynch, the only players who took a knee were New York Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon; and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills, safety Michael Thomas and tight end Julius Thomas.
Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters remained in the tunnel leading from the field to the locker rooms until the National Anthem concluded, and then joined his team on the field.
Peters had chosen to kneel during the anthem in previous games this season.
In addition to pointing out that the anthem was being sung by a master sergeant, Scavino 's tweet referred to the NFL’s highly-publicized ratings decline, which both he and the President attribute to the controversial protests.
‘While @NFL ratings continue to plummet,’ Scavino wrote. ‘Not So Thankful: @Giants @OlivierVernon54 Kneels During the National Anthem on Thanksgiving Day (while a Master Sergeant of the United States Army sings) at FedEx Field...’
Whether or not NFL ratings are actually down because of the players’ peaceful demonstrations is a matter of debate.
Viewership was down about 5 percent over the first seven weeks of the NFL season, according to CNN. However, that decline is part of an overall downtick in ratings.
Fox's primetime viewership was down 20 percent through the first month of the new television season, according to Nielsen data, while ABC (11 percent), CBS (6 percent), and NBC (four percent) have all seen a decline as well.
The NFL's ratings have even recovered somewhat in recent weeks, as Seattle and Atlanta's recent 'Monday Night Football' game drew a 7.2 in metered markets for ESPN, according to Deadline.com. That was a 16 percent rise over the Miami-Carolina MNF game a week earlier.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Go Trump go!
As for Olivier Vernon, ship his ungrateful and unpatriotic black ass off to any sub-Sahara African country where he can experience how he’ll be treated if he doesn’t belong to the predominant tribe.
BAND OF BROTHERS IN BLUE
Nine NYPD cops tried to intimidate rape accuser out of pressing charges against two narcotics detectives: lawyer
By Shawn Cohen
New York Post
November 23, 2017
A group of NYPD cops showed up at the hospital where an 18-year-old woman was seeking treatment after allegedly being raped by two Brooklyn detectives, in a bid to bully her out of bringing sex assault charges, her lawyer claims.
“They came with nine cops to intimidate her and her mom, to discourage them from coming forward and reporting the rape and sex assault,” Michael David, who represents the accuser, Anna Chambers, told The Post.
One officer in particular questioned Chambers’ story at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where she had gone with her mom for a rape kit on Sept. 15 around 10:45 p.m., hours after the alleged rape and sexual assault, the lawyer said.
“He kept saying to Anna and her mom, ‘How do you know they were real cops?’ ” David said.
“Didn’t you make complaints about cops before?” the cop allegedly asked.
David said his client had never reported cops before and that the officer was trying to scare her. At one point, the cop allegedly turned to Chambers and insisted, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The cop was among about nine officers from the 60th Precinct to show up at the hospital, which had reported the allegation to police, David said.
The young woman said she was raped by Brooklyn South narcotics Detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins in the back seat of their police van while she was handcuffed — and accused both men of forcing her to perform oral sex after she was arrested for possessing drugs.
Hall, 33, and Martins, 37, admitted having sex with her while on the job but claimed it was consensual. They pleaded not guilty last month to a 50-count indictment.
Facing ouster from the NYPD, the two detectives resigned from the department in November. They are currently free on bail.
Chambers told her lawyer that a particularly browbeating cop spoke to her and her mother in their family’s native Russian at the hospital, all the while trying to cover the name tag on his uniform, the attorney said.
“Anna said [the officer] was trying to manipulate a rubber band over his name tag, so she couldn’t see who it was,” David said.
He then became adamant that Chambers and her mom got their story wrong, and at one point nearly chased the mom into the women’s bathroom, the lawyer claims.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Your daughter doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” the officer allegedly said.
“I know what cops look like,” Chambers shouted back. “They had guns, there were handcuffs, and the police radio was on.”
A nurse told the mom, “Don’t be intimidated. Be strong. Be strong for your daughter,” David said.
“The mom stood firm against the cop,” the lawyer said.
Chambers went ahead with the medical exam and rape kit.
DNA from Martins and Hall matched genetic material recovered from Chambers in the rape kit, sources have said.
David said he intends to add the aggressive officer from the hospital to the $50 million notice of claim Chambers has filed against the city, and report the incident to the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
“She’s upset,” David said.
“I’m outraged,” he added. “To me, it’s almost as outrageous as the crime that you have cops trying to intimidate her not to report the crime, trying to protect fellow cops.”
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association declined to comment.
EDITOR’S ADDENDUM: Here is what Anna Chambers herself told the New York Post.
At least nine officers showed up to the hospital trying to intimidate me and my mom.
I was sitting in the room by myself . . . They were pressing me, saying things like, “Oh, this isn’t the first time you’re having an encounter with the police. ….. These [Hall and Martins] are not police.”
I was bawling my eyes out. The way they were speaking with me was so rude and aggressive.
Chambers said the officers doing the talking spoke to her in her native tongue, Russian.
By Shawn Cohen
New York Post
November 23, 2017
A group of NYPD cops showed up at the hospital where an 18-year-old woman was seeking treatment after allegedly being raped by two Brooklyn detectives, in a bid to bully her out of bringing sex assault charges, her lawyer claims.
“They came with nine cops to intimidate her and her mom, to discourage them from coming forward and reporting the rape and sex assault,” Michael David, who represents the accuser, Anna Chambers, told The Post.
One officer in particular questioned Chambers’ story at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where she had gone with her mom for a rape kit on Sept. 15 around 10:45 p.m., hours after the alleged rape and sexual assault, the lawyer said.
“He kept saying to Anna and her mom, ‘How do you know they were real cops?’ ” David said.
“Didn’t you make complaints about cops before?” the cop allegedly asked.
David said his client had never reported cops before and that the officer was trying to scare her. At one point, the cop allegedly turned to Chambers and insisted, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The cop was among about nine officers from the 60th Precinct to show up at the hospital, which had reported the allegation to police, David said.
The young woman said she was raped by Brooklyn South narcotics Detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins in the back seat of their police van while she was handcuffed — and accused both men of forcing her to perform oral sex after she was arrested for possessing drugs.
Hall, 33, and Martins, 37, admitted having sex with her while on the job but claimed it was consensual. They pleaded not guilty last month to a 50-count indictment.
Facing ouster from the NYPD, the two detectives resigned from the department in November. They are currently free on bail.
Chambers told her lawyer that a particularly browbeating cop spoke to her and her mother in their family’s native Russian at the hospital, all the while trying to cover the name tag on his uniform, the attorney said.
“Anna said [the officer] was trying to manipulate a rubber band over his name tag, so she couldn’t see who it was,” David said.
He then became adamant that Chambers and her mom got their story wrong, and at one point nearly chased the mom into the women’s bathroom, the lawyer claims.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Your daughter doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” the officer allegedly said.
“I know what cops look like,” Chambers shouted back. “They had guns, there were handcuffs, and the police radio was on.”
A nurse told the mom, “Don’t be intimidated. Be strong. Be strong for your daughter,” David said.
“The mom stood firm against the cop,” the lawyer said.
Chambers went ahead with the medical exam and rape kit.
DNA from Martins and Hall matched genetic material recovered from Chambers in the rape kit, sources have said.
David said he intends to add the aggressive officer from the hospital to the $50 million notice of claim Chambers has filed against the city, and report the incident to the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
“She’s upset,” David said.
“I’m outraged,” he added. “To me, it’s almost as outrageous as the crime that you have cops trying to intimidate her not to report the crime, trying to protect fellow cops.”
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association declined to comment.
EDITOR’S ADDENDUM: Here is what Anna Chambers herself told the New York Post.
At least nine officers showed up to the hospital trying to intimidate me and my mom.
I was sitting in the room by myself . . . They were pressing me, saying things like, “Oh, this isn’t the first time you’re having an encounter with the police. ….. These [Hall and Martins] are not police.”
I was bawling my eyes out. The way they were speaking with me was so rude and aggressive.
Chambers said the officers doing the talking spoke to her in her native tongue, Russian.
MAYBE THIS WILL FINALLY BURY THE FREDDIE GRAY HORSESHIT
Last of 6 Baltimore cops in Freddie Gray case won't face disciplinary hearing
By Kasey Jones
Associated Press
November 24, 2017
BALTIMORE — The last of six Baltimore police officers involved in the 2015 arrest of a young black man who died from a spinal cord injury he sustained in a police van won't face a disciplinary hearing after the police commissioner decided not to proceed.
Sgt. Alicia White was scheduled to face a trial board and possible termination on Dec. 5 related to Freddie Gray's arrest and van transport.
But Wednesday night, Commissioner Kevin Davis dismissed the scheduled administrative hearing. White will face no further administrative actions, police spokesman T.J. Smith said in an email.
White's attorney told The Baltimore Sun that White was "grateful" for the decision.
"She has always maintained her innocence from the very beginning," Tony Garcia said.
Davis' decision came less than a week after a police disciplinary board cleared Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking officer involved in the Gray arrest. The same three-member panel, made up of law enforcers, recently found the police van's driver not guilty.
The evidence and allegations against White are the same as the previous two hearings, and Davis did not feel another hearing would be in good faith, Smith said.
"We look forward to continuing the many reform efforts underway that will ensure the BPD is serving our city in a manner consistent with the expectations of our residents," Smith said.
The death of the 25-year-old Gray set off Baltimore's worst riots in decades and led to a federal investigation into allegations of police abuse. Baltimore and the Justice Department entered into a reform agreement after a scathing report by the federal agency outlined widespread misconduct and abuse within the city's police department.
Rice and other officers also were acquitted of criminal charges in Gray's arrest and death.
By Kasey Jones
Associated Press
November 24, 2017
BALTIMORE — The last of six Baltimore police officers involved in the 2015 arrest of a young black man who died from a spinal cord injury he sustained in a police van won't face a disciplinary hearing after the police commissioner decided not to proceed.
Sgt. Alicia White was scheduled to face a trial board and possible termination on Dec. 5 related to Freddie Gray's arrest and van transport.
But Wednesday night, Commissioner Kevin Davis dismissed the scheduled administrative hearing. White will face no further administrative actions, police spokesman T.J. Smith said in an email.
White's attorney told The Baltimore Sun that White was "grateful" for the decision.
"She has always maintained her innocence from the very beginning," Tony Garcia said.
Davis' decision came less than a week after a police disciplinary board cleared Lt. Brian Rice, the highest-ranking officer involved in the Gray arrest. The same three-member panel, made up of law enforcers, recently found the police van's driver not guilty.
The evidence and allegations against White are the same as the previous two hearings, and Davis did not feel another hearing would be in good faith, Smith said.
"We look forward to continuing the many reform efforts underway that will ensure the BPD is serving our city in a manner consistent with the expectations of our residents," Smith said.
The death of the 25-year-old Gray set off Baltimore's worst riots in decades and led to a federal investigation into allegations of police abuse. Baltimore and the Justice Department entered into a reform agreement after a scathing report by the federal agency outlined widespread misconduct and abuse within the city's police department.
Rice and other officers also were acquitted of criminal charges in Gray's arrest and death.
TRUMP’S MIDEAST PEACE PROPOSAL AS DOOMED AS THOSE BEFORE IT
Trump's About to Repeat the Mistake of Bush and Obama in the Israeli-Arab Conflict
Israel Today
November 20, 2017
Most Israelis remain convinced that US President Donald Trump is cut from a different cloth than former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
In most regards, that's true.
But recent reports suggest Trump's about to repeat some of the fundamental mistakes of his predecessors when it comes to the Middle East peace process.
Together with his son-in-law Jared Kushner and other key officials, Trump has been putting together a proposal for kickstarting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The plan is said to put far more emphasis on normalization of ties between Israel and the broader Arab world, but apparently continues the failure of taking seriously Palestinian obstructionism.
Senior Palestinian official stressed in a series of interview with Breitbart that their deal-breaking red-line demands remain firmly in place. Namely, the Palestinians will accept no deal that doesn't include Israel's surrender of eastern Jerusalem and the removal of every single Jew from the entirety of Judea and Samaria, the so-called "West Bank."
"Despite the fact that many people in many countries are working to sell the plan, the Palestinian organizations oppose any deal that doesn’t ensure Palestinians the creation of an independent state and sovereignty over the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as their capital," said Waleed Awad, a member of the Palestinian People’s Party (the former communist party).
Even more forthcoming was Ramzi Rabah, a member of the politburo of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine: "The fate of all the talk of a peace deal and agreements – their fate will be failure as long as they don’t meet the demands and the expectations of the Palestinians. ...Any other option is unacceptable."
These are conditions Israel can never accept, and that the Palestinians will never relinquish, meaning Trump's proposal is as doomed as those before it, even before it's been presented.
Israel Today
November 20, 2017
Most Israelis remain convinced that US President Donald Trump is cut from a different cloth than former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
In most regards, that's true.
But recent reports suggest Trump's about to repeat some of the fundamental mistakes of his predecessors when it comes to the Middle East peace process.
Together with his son-in-law Jared Kushner and other key officials, Trump has been putting together a proposal for kickstarting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The plan is said to put far more emphasis on normalization of ties between Israel and the broader Arab world, but apparently continues the failure of taking seriously Palestinian obstructionism.
Senior Palestinian official stressed in a series of interview with Breitbart that their deal-breaking red-line demands remain firmly in place. Namely, the Palestinians will accept no deal that doesn't include Israel's surrender of eastern Jerusalem and the removal of every single Jew from the entirety of Judea and Samaria, the so-called "West Bank."
"Despite the fact that many people in many countries are working to sell the plan, the Palestinian organizations oppose any deal that doesn’t ensure Palestinians the creation of an independent state and sovereignty over the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as their capital," said Waleed Awad, a member of the Palestinian People’s Party (the former communist party).
Even more forthcoming was Ramzi Rabah, a member of the politburo of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine: "The fate of all the talk of a peace deal and agreements – their fate will be failure as long as they don’t meet the demands and the expectations of the Palestinians. ...Any other option is unacceptable."
These are conditions Israel can never accept, and that the Palestinians will never relinquish, meaning Trump's proposal is as doomed as those before it, even before it's been presented.
HOME INVADER STEALS GUNS, NOW ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Beware: Brown bear armed with two guns on the loose in Siberian region
The Siberian Times
November 24, 2017
Wild beast steals weapons from frightened hunter before vanishing into the remote taiga.
The brown bear brazenly walked into a remote forest cabin, and helped itself to the man's bag plus two guns, say police.
The animal turned the tables on the 57 year old hunter when he went to a nearby river to get water deep in Irkutsk region.
'On November 16 he was hunting miles away from the nearest village and decided to stay at a forest cabin,' said a statement from the local interior ministry.
'He left his belongings in the cabin and went to get some water. On his return, he heard some suspicious sounds and spotted a bear.
'To avoid an encounter with the animal, the hunter scurried off into the woods where he hid for several hours.'
When he returned to the remote cabin, his bag and two guns were missing.
The hunter went to look for his weapons in the taiga for several days but returned empty-handed.
This then prompted him to contact the police.
The beast is in possession of a Vepr carbine and IZH shotgun, pictured here, according to police.
Crime scene pictures show the bear left its tooth marks on a bucket and scratched some logs.
It is unclear if the man was hunting bears but the season is still open until 30 November.
By now, many bears are hibernating for the winter.
Other animals that can be hunted in Irkutsk region are moose, deer, boar, ducks, hare, fox, wolf, sable, and mink.
The Siberian Times
November 24, 2017
Wild beast steals weapons from frightened hunter before vanishing into the remote taiga.
The brown bear brazenly walked into a remote forest cabin, and helped itself to the man's bag plus two guns, say police.
The animal turned the tables on the 57 year old hunter when he went to a nearby river to get water deep in Irkutsk region.
'On November 16 he was hunting miles away from the nearest village and decided to stay at a forest cabin,' said a statement from the local interior ministry.
'He left his belongings in the cabin and went to get some water. On his return, he heard some suspicious sounds and spotted a bear.
'To avoid an encounter with the animal, the hunter scurried off into the woods where he hid for several hours.'
When he returned to the remote cabin, his bag and two guns were missing.
The hunter went to look for his weapons in the taiga for several days but returned empty-handed.
This then prompted him to contact the police.
The beast is in possession of a Vepr carbine and IZH shotgun, pictured here, according to police.
Crime scene pictures show the bear left its tooth marks on a bucket and scratched some logs.
It is unclear if the man was hunting bears but the season is still open until 30 November.
By now, many bears are hibernating for the winter.
Other animals that can be hunted in Irkutsk region are moose, deer, boar, ducks, hare, fox, wolf, sable, and mink.
Friday, November 24, 2017
ISRAELIS FEEL TRUMP COMPROMISED AND ENDANGERED THEIR UNDERCOVER MAN INSIDE ISIS BY DISCLOSING SECRET ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE OPERATION TO RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
The secret Israeli commando operation that discovered ISIS could turn laptops into bombs and led to US airline ban
BY Charlie Moore
Daily Mail
November 23, 2017
Details of the classified Israeli intelligence operation that led to the banning of laptops on flights have been revealed.
The dangerous operation by Israeli special forces in Syria found out that ISIS terrorists were working on transforming laptops into bombs.
Donald Trump controversially spilled the intelligence to Russian envoys in a secret meeting in the Oval Office in May, infuriating Israel.
Now two Israeli intelligence sources have told Vanity Fair about how the information was obtained in a highly dangerous night-time mission by Israeli crack troops.
Last winter two helicopters took a team of Sayeret Matkal commandos, Israel's elite counterterrorism force described as 'a shadow unit of ghosts', deep into hostile Syria, flying low to avoid radar detection.
They landed a few miles from an ISIS base where terrorists were developing a laptop bomb.
They were told about the base by an inside man - either an undercover Israeli who managed to infiltrate the group or an ISIS traitor who was passing information.
The elite troops then boarded two jeeps cleverly disguised as patrol vehicles with Syrian Army markings and headed to the base.
The details then become hazy as one source claims the troops spiked an ISIS meeting room with a tiny microphone while another says they manipulated a nearby phone line so it could ingeniously overhear the terrorists' conversations.
The commandos then got back to their choppers and headed home with their bug ready.
Listeners from Unit 8200 - Israeli's spy team - then had to wait weeks to gather any intelligence as they listened from a base in the Golan Heights on the Syria-Israel border, not knowing if their inside man was right or wrong.
But eventually they heard an ISIS soldier explaining how to make a laptop into a bomb that could pass through airport security.
Israel then told American officials and this led to US and British authorities announcing restrictions on large electronics in carry-on baggage for direct flights from certain Middle Eastern and North African nations in March.
Then in May, Trump caused a furor by telling Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak about the intelligence in a secret meeting in May in which the only media allowed to attend was a Russian state photographer.
He allegedly bragged at the meeting: 'I get great intel, I have people brief me on great intel every day,' before detailing the operation.
Israel felt Trump had compromised and endangered their inside man and feared Russia would share intelligence with its ally Iran, Israel's most feared enemy.
A former Israeli commando told Vanity Fair that he feared the inside man may have been killed by ISIS and suggested Trump may be to blame.
He said: 'Whatever happened to him, it's a hell of price to pay for a president’s mistake.'
Trump, true to form, defended his decision to share the information with Russia in a series of tweets saying he thought it would save lives.
“As President I wanted to share with Russia(at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” tweeted Trump. “Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
BY Charlie Moore
Daily Mail
November 23, 2017
Details of the classified Israeli intelligence operation that led to the banning of laptops on flights have been revealed.
The dangerous operation by Israeli special forces in Syria found out that ISIS terrorists were working on transforming laptops into bombs.
Donald Trump controversially spilled the intelligence to Russian envoys in a secret meeting in the Oval Office in May, infuriating Israel.
Now two Israeli intelligence sources have told Vanity Fair about how the information was obtained in a highly dangerous night-time mission by Israeli crack troops.
Last winter two helicopters took a team of Sayeret Matkal commandos, Israel's elite counterterrorism force described as 'a shadow unit of ghosts', deep into hostile Syria, flying low to avoid radar detection.
They landed a few miles from an ISIS base where terrorists were developing a laptop bomb.
They were told about the base by an inside man - either an undercover Israeli who managed to infiltrate the group or an ISIS traitor who was passing information.
The elite troops then boarded two jeeps cleverly disguised as patrol vehicles with Syrian Army markings and headed to the base.
The details then become hazy as one source claims the troops spiked an ISIS meeting room with a tiny microphone while another says they manipulated a nearby phone line so it could ingeniously overhear the terrorists' conversations.
The commandos then got back to their choppers and headed home with their bug ready.
Listeners from Unit 8200 - Israeli's spy team - then had to wait weeks to gather any intelligence as they listened from a base in the Golan Heights on the Syria-Israel border, not knowing if their inside man was right or wrong.
But eventually they heard an ISIS soldier explaining how to make a laptop into a bomb that could pass through airport security.
Israel then told American officials and this led to US and British authorities announcing restrictions on large electronics in carry-on baggage for direct flights from certain Middle Eastern and North African nations in March.
Then in May, Trump caused a furor by telling Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak about the intelligence in a secret meeting in May in which the only media allowed to attend was a Russian state photographer.
He allegedly bragged at the meeting: 'I get great intel, I have people brief me on great intel every day,' before detailing the operation.
Israel felt Trump had compromised and endangered their inside man and feared Russia would share intelligence with its ally Iran, Israel's most feared enemy.
A former Israeli commando told Vanity Fair that he feared the inside man may have been killed by ISIS and suggested Trump may be to blame.
He said: 'Whatever happened to him, it's a hell of price to pay for a president’s mistake.'
Trump, true to form, defended his decision to share the information with Russia in a series of tweets saying he thought it would save lives.
“As President I wanted to share with Russia(at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” tweeted Trump. “Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
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