Several members of the BART board of directors are suggesting the fare evader enforcement program be eliminated as it is catching too many blacks and not enough whites
by Bob Walsh
Yes, it is sad but true. There is a paucity of white criminals plying their trade within the jurisdiction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit police. It is a serious problem for them.
The trouble is fare evaders. The fare gates at BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) are a joke. A crippled octogenarian in a wheel chair can get over the gates. BART loses a shitpile of money every year to fare evaders and rebuilding the fare gates would cost also a shitload of money. So they put some money into catching fare evaders. That, however, may have to stop as their board of directors is bothered that they are not getting enough white fare evaders.
The BART ridership is about 12% black. However fare evades are about 47% black. Several members of the BART board of directors are suggesting the fare evader enforcement program be eliminated as it is catching too many blacks and not enough whites.
If you are white, go ahead and put in your application. They would love to hear from you.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
SOMEONE ABOVE MUST HAVE LOOKED AFTER THE PASSENFERS BECAUSE THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS PANICKED
Plane crashes into Chuuk lagoon in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Papua, New Guinea
By Jasmine Stole Weiss
Pacific Daily News
September 28, 2018
Four people were seriously injured after a flight from Pohnpei crashed into a lagoon while attempting to land at the airport in Weno, Chuuk, Friday morning, according to officials and witnesses.
The Federated States of Micronesia government issued a flyer Friday, reporting a missing man, but it is unclear if that person was a passenger on the flight.
Airport officials saw the Air Niugini plane ended up in the lagoon around 9:30 a.m., said Jimmy Emilio, Chuuk airport manager.
Passengers and crew were at the hospital undergoing checkups, Emilio said Friday morning. No deaths or serious injuries were immediately reported, Emilio said.
Eight people were hospitalized as of 4 p.m., according to Chuuk State Hospital Chief Nurse Irene Nero. Nero said all the patients are males and four of them will need to be evacuated because of head injuries, spinal cord injuries and hip fractures.
As of 4 p.m. Friday, there were no fatalities, Nero said.
Witness Matthew Colson, a missionary living in Chuuk who also runs a radio station, said people were being treated for injuries, some serious. There were reports of people with broken legs and at least one person with a broken arm Colson said after visiting the local hospital.
Plane sinks after all safe on shore
It was unclear what had caused the crash, Emilio said.
"Somebody has to look into that and let us know," Emilio said. "So far, we don't know why they went down."
Within an hour of the crash, the plane sank in the lagoon, but not before all aboard were safely on shore, Colson and other witnesses said.
Colson spoke to a passenger, Bill Jaynes, shortly after the crash.
Jaynes, managing editor of The Kaselehlie Press, a Pohnpei-based newspaper that covers the Federated States of Micronesia, was on the flight and told Colson he suffered minor injuries.
Some passengers suffered more severe injuries, he said on a video recorded by Colson.
'We came in low,' passenger says
Jaynes said he believed that the plane hit a retaining wall and bounced back, landing in the lagoon.
"It's just surreal. I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in, and I thought, well, this is not like the way it's supposed to happen," he said.
"We came in low, we came in very low. Unfortunately, the flight attendants panicked, and started yelling, and I was trying to be calm and help as best as I could," Jaynes said.
Jaynes said he was told the plane hit the end of the runway.
"That's the only scenario I can imagine. But we ended up back away from the end of the retaining wall," he said.
The plane was attempting to land on runway 4, the airport manager said. Instead, it crashed in the lagoon and ended up about 160 yards from the runway, Emilio said.
Colson said it was raining at the time of the crash.
“We’ll have to wait for the investigation to be completed, but they probably didn’t stop fast enough and landed over the edge and in the water,” Colson said.
Air Niugini released a statement on the crash and said the weather was poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of the incident. The incident happened at 10:10 a.m., according to the airline.
Victor Harold Wasson, a passenger on the flight, described the moments before the plane landed as chaos.
The flight attendants were panicking too, he said. “Instead of calmly telling passengers to (get into) a single file, their yelling made a lot of people panic, who started climbing over seats to get to the exit blocking some others in the process," Wasson said.
Wasson said he asked the flight attendants more than five times for a life jacket because he couldn’t find one under his seat or other seats in his aisle. “But they just ignored (me) as they were panicking themselves,” he said. “They screamed out, ‘Brace for impact,’ but we hit something before they could even complete their sentence properly.”
Wasson said he intends to file a claim with the airline for the items he lost on the sunken plane and give feedback to management about what he witnessed during the incident.
Wasson was heading to Fiji, transiting through Chuuk and Port Moresby, he said.
Wasson also said he plans on heading out on the flight that will be leaving Chuuk on Saturday.
Locals spring into action
The water was waist-deep inside the aircraft but passengers were able to get out, Jaynes said. Then, people in boats came to the rescue.
"I was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats. One would think that they might be afraid to approach a plane that's just crashed," Jaynes said. "I was really impressed with the whole response. It's obvious the FAA training really paid off here."
Colson said many locals were gathered at a market near the airport. As soon as the plane hit the water, people sprung into action to help.
“They’re people that come here to go to work or go to the store or bring fish to the market to sell, and they just jumped in their boats and started helping,” Colson said.
Locals rushed out on fishing boats to shuttle people from the plane to shore, he said.
U.S. Navy Seabees in Chuuk for a construction project also helped transport people to shore, Colson added.
The U.S. Navy said sailors helped shuttle passengers and crew using an inflatable boat.
Local authorities then closed off the road as passengers got transported to the hospital, Colson said.
Colson, a Chuuk resident since 1997, and he doesn't know of any other instances in which a plane went off the the Weno runway and sunk.
'Plenty of boats' helped
Melba Aisek, general manager of the Truk Stop Hotel and lifelong Chuuk resident, said she didn’t see the crash itself, but saw the plane in the lagoon.
“We can see the plane from our dock. So, from the dock, I could see there were plenty of boats heading that way," Aisek said in an email. "We ourselves, Truk Stop, sent out our dive boat to assist, but returned as there was already a good crowd of people already helping transport folks to the (runway),” Aisek said.
“Very lucky that this happened during the day and (they) got good help from passersby.”
The Boeing 737 aircraft had been expected to land at 9:26 a.m., according to Jeff Pamittan, accountant for the Air Niuguini office in Chuuk.
The airline's flight schedule online states a Boeing 737 flight from Pohnpei was scheduled to arrive in Chuuk at 8:55 a.m., and was scheduled to leave Chuuk at 9:45 a.m. for Papua New Guinea.
"Air Niugini is now positioning assistance to Chuuk for our passengers and crew. We are also in touch with the embassies, passenger representatives, stakeholders and families of the crew. We thank everyone in Chuuk for the assistance provided today," the airline said in their statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, crew and their families at this time."
The airline scheduled a special flight to take airline management to Chuuk Saturday morning, according to a statement. A company doctor will be on that flight to assist with treatment of injured passengers.
Air Niugini is also arranging for hotel accommodations for 27 passengers and crew members and take passengers who wish to complete their trip to Port Moresby.
Conflicting passenger counts
Officials provided conflicting information on the number of people aboard the plane. Emilio, the Chuuk airport manager, said 36 passengers and 11 crew members were aboard.
Pamittan said the plane was carrying 35 passengers and 12 crew members.
The airline also said there were 35 passengers and 12 crew members.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor, citing preliminary reports, said 46 people were onboard Air Nuigini Flight 37, including 11 crew members.
The airline started twice weekly air services between Port Moresby and the FSM in December 2016, according to its website.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Later reports say the missing man was a passenger.
By Jasmine Stole Weiss
Pacific Daily News
September 28, 2018
Four people were seriously injured after a flight from Pohnpei crashed into a lagoon while attempting to land at the airport in Weno, Chuuk, Friday morning, according to officials and witnesses.
The Federated States of Micronesia government issued a flyer Friday, reporting a missing man, but it is unclear if that person was a passenger on the flight.
Airport officials saw the Air Niugini plane ended up in the lagoon around 9:30 a.m., said Jimmy Emilio, Chuuk airport manager.
Passengers and crew were at the hospital undergoing checkups, Emilio said Friday morning. No deaths or serious injuries were immediately reported, Emilio said.
Eight people were hospitalized as of 4 p.m., according to Chuuk State Hospital Chief Nurse Irene Nero. Nero said all the patients are males and four of them will need to be evacuated because of head injuries, spinal cord injuries and hip fractures.
As of 4 p.m. Friday, there were no fatalities, Nero said.
Witness Matthew Colson, a missionary living in Chuuk who also runs a radio station, said people were being treated for injuries, some serious. There were reports of people with broken legs and at least one person with a broken arm Colson said after visiting the local hospital.
Plane sinks after all safe on shore
It was unclear what had caused the crash, Emilio said.
"Somebody has to look into that and let us know," Emilio said. "So far, we don't know why they went down."
Within an hour of the crash, the plane sank in the lagoon, but not before all aboard were safely on shore, Colson and other witnesses said.
Colson spoke to a passenger, Bill Jaynes, shortly after the crash.
Jaynes, managing editor of The Kaselehlie Press, a Pohnpei-based newspaper that covers the Federated States of Micronesia, was on the flight and told Colson he suffered minor injuries.
Some passengers suffered more severe injuries, he said on a video recorded by Colson.
'We came in low,' passenger says
Jaynes said he believed that the plane hit a retaining wall and bounced back, landing in the lagoon.
"It's just surreal. I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in, and I thought, well, this is not like the way it's supposed to happen," he said.
"We came in low, we came in very low. Unfortunately, the flight attendants panicked, and started yelling, and I was trying to be calm and help as best as I could," Jaynes said.
Jaynes said he was told the plane hit the end of the runway.
"That's the only scenario I can imagine. But we ended up back away from the end of the retaining wall," he said.
The plane was attempting to land on runway 4, the airport manager said. Instead, it crashed in the lagoon and ended up about 160 yards from the runway, Emilio said.
Colson said it was raining at the time of the crash.
“We’ll have to wait for the investigation to be completed, but they probably didn’t stop fast enough and landed over the edge and in the water,” Colson said.
Air Niugini released a statement on the crash and said the weather was poor with heavy rain and reduced visibility at the time of the incident. The incident happened at 10:10 a.m., according to the airline.
Victor Harold Wasson, a passenger on the flight, described the moments before the plane landed as chaos.
The flight attendants were panicking too, he said. “Instead of calmly telling passengers to (get into) a single file, their yelling made a lot of people panic, who started climbing over seats to get to the exit blocking some others in the process," Wasson said.
Wasson said he asked the flight attendants more than five times for a life jacket because he couldn’t find one under his seat or other seats in his aisle. “But they just ignored (me) as they were panicking themselves,” he said. “They screamed out, ‘Brace for impact,’ but we hit something before they could even complete their sentence properly.”
Wasson said he intends to file a claim with the airline for the items he lost on the sunken plane and give feedback to management about what he witnessed during the incident.
Wasson was heading to Fiji, transiting through Chuuk and Port Moresby, he said.
Wasson also said he plans on heading out on the flight that will be leaving Chuuk on Saturday.
Locals spring into action
The water was waist-deep inside the aircraft but passengers were able to get out, Jaynes said. Then, people in boats came to the rescue.
"I was really impressed with the locals who immediately started coming out in boats. One would think that they might be afraid to approach a plane that's just crashed," Jaynes said. "I was really impressed with the whole response. It's obvious the FAA training really paid off here."
Colson said many locals were gathered at a market near the airport. As soon as the plane hit the water, people sprung into action to help.
“They’re people that come here to go to work or go to the store or bring fish to the market to sell, and they just jumped in their boats and started helping,” Colson said.
Locals rushed out on fishing boats to shuttle people from the plane to shore, he said.
U.S. Navy Seabees in Chuuk for a construction project also helped transport people to shore, Colson added.
The U.S. Navy said sailors helped shuttle passengers and crew using an inflatable boat.
Local authorities then closed off the road as passengers got transported to the hospital, Colson said.
Colson, a Chuuk resident since 1997, and he doesn't know of any other instances in which a plane went off the the Weno runway and sunk.
'Plenty of boats' helped
Melba Aisek, general manager of the Truk Stop Hotel and lifelong Chuuk resident, said she didn’t see the crash itself, but saw the plane in the lagoon.
“We can see the plane from our dock. So, from the dock, I could see there were plenty of boats heading that way," Aisek said in an email. "We ourselves, Truk Stop, sent out our dive boat to assist, but returned as there was already a good crowd of people already helping transport folks to the (runway),” Aisek said.
“Very lucky that this happened during the day and (they) got good help from passersby.”
The Boeing 737 aircraft had been expected to land at 9:26 a.m., according to Jeff Pamittan, accountant for the Air Niuguini office in Chuuk.
The airline's flight schedule online states a Boeing 737 flight from Pohnpei was scheduled to arrive in Chuuk at 8:55 a.m., and was scheduled to leave Chuuk at 9:45 a.m. for Papua New Guinea.
"Air Niugini is now positioning assistance to Chuuk for our passengers and crew. We are also in touch with the embassies, passenger representatives, stakeholders and families of the crew. We thank everyone in Chuuk for the assistance provided today," the airline said in their statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, crew and their families at this time."
The airline scheduled a special flight to take airline management to Chuuk Saturday morning, according to a statement. A company doctor will be on that flight to assist with treatment of injured passengers.
Air Niugini is also arranging for hotel accommodations for 27 passengers and crew members and take passengers who wish to complete their trip to Port Moresby.
Conflicting passenger counts
Officials provided conflicting information on the number of people aboard the plane. Emilio, the Chuuk airport manager, said 36 passengers and 11 crew members were aboard.
Pamittan said the plane was carrying 35 passengers and 12 crew members.
The airline also said there were 35 passengers and 12 crew members.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor, citing preliminary reports, said 46 people were onboard Air Nuigini Flight 37, including 11 crew members.
The airline started twice weekly air services between Port Moresby and the FSM in December 2016, according to its website.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Later reports say the missing man was a passenger.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER A TRUE HERO
Hero of the quaking control tower: How air traffic controller died while staying to guide packed jet off cracking tarmac as earthquake demolished terminal
By Miranda Aldersley
Daily Mail
September 29, 2018
A young air traffic controller who remained behind during an earthquake to make sure a plane carrying hundreds of passengers took off safely has been hailed a hero.
Anthonius Gunawan Agung, 21, was working at Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport in Palu on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday night, when a 6.1 magnitude tremor hit, followed by a 7.5-magnitude quake.
His actions unquestionably saved the lives of dozens, but at least 384 people have been killed in a resulting tsunami and another 500 injured after waves up to 18ft tall swept over Indonesia - with fears the death toll could rise into the thousands.
The tremors left deep fissures in the runway just as Batik Air flight 6321 was preparing to take off with hundreds of people on-board.
His colleagues ran for their lives when the control tower began to sway as the ground underneath it split.
Agung alone remained behind in the crumbling tower until he was certain he had done enough guide the pilots of the plane safely into the air.
His bravery could potentially have saved the lives of all the passengers and crew on board the plane, as the city was later devastated later by a tsunami caused by the earthquake.
The building began to shake soon after the plane departed and, fearing he would be trapped beneath the debris if the tower collapsed around him, Agung jumped from a fourth floor window.
He was rushed to hospital having suffered internal injuries and a broken leg.
A helicopter was called to take him to a different hospital for specialist care, and he was due to be picked up again from the airport on Saturday morning.
However, he died before the helicopter arrived.
AirNav Indonesia spokesman Yohannes Sirait said Agung's decision cost him his life, but he may have saved hundreds of others.
He was given a hero's send-off amid hundreds of tributes on Saturday as soldiers carried his body to be transported to the burial. He was just one month away from his 22nd birthday.
AirNav bosses also increased his rank by two levels in recognition of the sacrifice he made.
By Miranda Aldersley
Daily Mail
September 29, 2018
A young air traffic controller who remained behind during an earthquake to make sure a plane carrying hundreds of passengers took off safely has been hailed a hero.
Anthonius Gunawan Agung, 21, was working at Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport in Palu on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday night, when a 6.1 magnitude tremor hit, followed by a 7.5-magnitude quake.
His actions unquestionably saved the lives of dozens, but at least 384 people have been killed in a resulting tsunami and another 500 injured after waves up to 18ft tall swept over Indonesia - with fears the death toll could rise into the thousands.
The tremors left deep fissures in the runway just as Batik Air flight 6321 was preparing to take off with hundreds of people on-board.
His colleagues ran for their lives when the control tower began to sway as the ground underneath it split.
Agung alone remained behind in the crumbling tower until he was certain he had done enough guide the pilots of the plane safely into the air.
His bravery could potentially have saved the lives of all the passengers and crew on board the plane, as the city was later devastated later by a tsunami caused by the earthquake.
The building began to shake soon after the plane departed and, fearing he would be trapped beneath the debris if the tower collapsed around him, Agung jumped from a fourth floor window.
He was rushed to hospital having suffered internal injuries and a broken leg.
A helicopter was called to take him to a different hospital for specialist care, and he was due to be picked up again from the airport on Saturday morning.
However, he died before the helicopter arrived.
AirNav Indonesia spokesman Yohannes Sirait said Agung's decision cost him his life, but he may have saved hundreds of others.
He was given a hero's send-off amid hundreds of tributes on Saturday as soldiers carried his body to be transported to the burial. He was just one month away from his 22nd birthday.
AirNav bosses also increased his rank by two levels in recognition of the sacrifice he made.
‘I’M NOT THE ONE WHO KILLED CHRISTINA … BUT, HEY, WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY’
Texas executes man in the torture, drowning of ex-roommate
By Juan A. Lozano and Michael Graczyk
Associated Press
September 27, 2018
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas inmate who taunted a jury to sentence him to death was executed Wednesday evening for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel.
Troy Clark was condemned for the May 1998 slaying of a former roommate, Christina Muse of Tyler. Authorities said that Clark, a drug dealer, had worried that Muse would snitch on him.
Clark chuckled as he addressed several friends watching through a window a few feet from him, telling them a number of times that he loved them and “it’s all good.”
“I’m not the one who killed Christina,” he said. “But, hey, whatever makes you happy.”
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered, Clark was laughing and remarked that the drug “burned going in.”
“I feel it,” he said. Then he grunted, gasped and began to snore. Seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later at 6:36 p.m.
Margaret Bouman, Muse’s aunt, said witnessing the execution was a tough experience but “kind of bittersweet.”
“I’m a Christian and the death penalty and accepting it was very, very difficult for me,” Bouman said. “But I also believe the law of the land is important.”
She also said that Clark’s attitude during the procedure was troubling.
The 51-year-old Clark became the 17th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the ninth given a lethal injection in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Clark is the first of two executions this week in Texas. Daniel Acker was scheduled to be executed Thursday for fatally running over his girlfriend.
At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend a commutation of Clark’s sentence.
After his conviction, Clark had argued his trial attorneys failed to present evidence of his childhood, marked by physical and emotional abuse, which might have convinced jurors to spare his life.
Appeals courts had previously ruled that because of the overwhelming case against Clark, it’s likely he still would have been sentenced to death even if the jury had heard evidence of his troubled childhood.
Prosecutors said Clark subdued Muse, 20, with a stun gun, bound her with duct tape and left her in a closet for several hours while he played video games and sold drugs to a customer.
Clark later moved Muse to a bathroom where he hit her with a board and threatened his girlfriend, Tory Bush, into helping him drown Muse in the tub. Muse’s body was then stuffed into a barrel with cement mix and lime before being dumped in a ravine.
Against the advice of his attorneys, Clark testified during his trial’s punishment phase, saying, “I really ain’t got no story to tell. It’s just I want the death penalty.”
Prosecutors also presented evidence Clark had committed two other murders, including one that occurred after Muse’s death but prior to his arrest. The Smith County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Clark, declined to comment.
Bobby Mims, one of Clark’s trial attorneys, said Clark denied killing Muse.
“But there was pretty strong evidence that he was guilty. Tory Bush was pretty damning,” Mims said. Bush, who testified against Clark, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mims said he and his co-counsel were ineffective during the punishment phase in presenting evidence of Clark’s troubled childhood, which included having a mother who was incarcerated for most of his life and who introduced him to drugs.
Mims said when Clark’s case was tried in 2000, most defense attorneys didn’t focus on presenting mitigating evidence of a defendant’s problematic life as part of their efforts to prevent a death sentence.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied Clark’s appeals on this issue, saying in 2012 that Clark refused to let his trial attorneys contact family as well as others to testify on his behalf.
“At the punishment hearing, the prosecutors actually had one or two of (Clark’s) own relatives show up and they had indicated they wanted him to get the death penalty. It was crazy,” Mims said.
Mims said he doesn’t know if evidence of Clark’s troubled life would have made a difference with the jury.
“I hope he’s made peace with his maker,” Mims said.
By Juan A. Lozano and Michael Graczyk
Associated Press
September 27, 2018
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas inmate who taunted a jury to sentence him to death was executed Wednesday evening for torturing and drowning an East Texas woman in his bathtub and then stuffing her body into a barrel.
Troy Clark was condemned for the May 1998 slaying of a former roommate, Christina Muse of Tyler. Authorities said that Clark, a drug dealer, had worried that Muse would snitch on him.
Clark chuckled as he addressed several friends watching through a window a few feet from him, telling them a number of times that he loved them and “it’s all good.”
“I’m not the one who killed Christina,” he said. “But, hey, whatever makes you happy.”
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital was administered, Clark was laughing and remarked that the drug “burned going in.”
“I feel it,” he said. Then he grunted, gasped and began to snore. Seconds later, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later at 6:36 p.m.
Margaret Bouman, Muse’s aunt, said witnessing the execution was a tough experience but “kind of bittersweet.”
“I’m a Christian and the death penalty and accepting it was very, very difficult for me,” Bouman said. “But I also believe the law of the land is important.”
She also said that Clark’s attitude during the procedure was troubling.
The 51-year-old Clark became the 17th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the ninth given a lethal injection in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Clark is the first of two executions this week in Texas. Daniel Acker was scheduled to be executed Thursday for fatally running over his girlfriend.
At least eight other Texas inmates have planned execution dates in the coming months.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend a commutation of Clark’s sentence.
After his conviction, Clark had argued his trial attorneys failed to present evidence of his childhood, marked by physical and emotional abuse, which might have convinced jurors to spare his life.
Appeals courts had previously ruled that because of the overwhelming case against Clark, it’s likely he still would have been sentenced to death even if the jury had heard evidence of his troubled childhood.
Prosecutors said Clark subdued Muse, 20, with a stun gun, bound her with duct tape and left her in a closet for several hours while he played video games and sold drugs to a customer.
Clark later moved Muse to a bathroom where he hit her with a board and threatened his girlfriend, Tory Bush, into helping him drown Muse in the tub. Muse’s body was then stuffed into a barrel with cement mix and lime before being dumped in a ravine.
Against the advice of his attorneys, Clark testified during his trial’s punishment phase, saying, “I really ain’t got no story to tell. It’s just I want the death penalty.”
Prosecutors also presented evidence Clark had committed two other murders, including one that occurred after Muse’s death but prior to his arrest. The Smith County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Clark, declined to comment.
Bobby Mims, one of Clark’s trial attorneys, said Clark denied killing Muse.
“But there was pretty strong evidence that he was guilty. Tory Bush was pretty damning,” Mims said. Bush, who testified against Clark, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mims said he and his co-counsel were ineffective during the punishment phase in presenting evidence of Clark’s troubled childhood, which included having a mother who was incarcerated for most of his life and who introduced him to drugs.
Mims said when Clark’s case was tried in 2000, most defense attorneys didn’t focus on presenting mitigating evidence of a defendant’s problematic life as part of their efforts to prevent a death sentence.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied Clark’s appeals on this issue, saying in 2012 that Clark refused to let his trial attorneys contact family as well as others to testify on his behalf.
“At the punishment hearing, the prosecutors actually had one or two of (Clark’s) own relatives show up and they had indicated they wanted him to get the death penalty. It was crazy,” Mims said.
Mims said he doesn’t know if evidence of Clark’s troubled life would have made a difference with the jury.
“I hope he’s made peace with his maker,” Mims said.
WHY ARE POLICE INCIDENT NEWS HEADLINES DECEIVING?
When a jaywalker attacked a police officer with a knife, instead of referring to the attack, the news headline read that the cop shot a jaywalker
By Trey Rusk
Running Code 3
September 28, 2018
Newspaper editors used to have a saying, "If it bleeds it leads." Eye catching headlines sell news. I can't deny that fact.
Do deceiving headlines harm people? Yes. Let's take a police shooting headline for example. POLICE SHOOT AND KILL JAYWALKER . My goodness! This headline proclaims that a police officer shot and killed a citizen for simply crossing against the light. While the headline is semi-legitimate, it does not describe the incident accurately.
As we continue to read the story it turns out that while detaining a person for jaywalking, the detainee pulled a knife on the police officer and refused the officers' commands to drop the weapon.
Often times police detain people for citation offenses and during the stop the person winds up being wanted, on drugs, drunk or mentally ill. So instead of accepting the ticket, the detainee becomes violent and attempts to harm the officer.
Instead of the headline stating that the officer used deadly force for a legitimate reason, such as attempted capital murder, only the original misdemeanor crime is stated.
This is wrong. The editor of the news outlet knows it's wrong. They would rather slander a police officer's name for the sake of selling news than accurately depict in the headline what actually happened.
This is unfair to the reader and certainly maligns the officer who was in reality protecting himself or others.
My advice to police officers after a critical incident. Don't talk to the press. Period. The media cannot be trusted.
Print news in dying. Sensationalized headlines is just one of the reasons.
That's the way I see it.
By Trey Rusk
Running Code 3
September 28, 2018
Newspaper editors used to have a saying, "If it bleeds it leads." Eye catching headlines sell news. I can't deny that fact.
Do deceiving headlines harm people? Yes. Let's take a police shooting headline for example. POLICE SHOOT AND KILL JAYWALKER . My goodness! This headline proclaims that a police officer shot and killed a citizen for simply crossing against the light. While the headline is semi-legitimate, it does not describe the incident accurately.
As we continue to read the story it turns out that while detaining a person for jaywalking, the detainee pulled a knife on the police officer and refused the officers' commands to drop the weapon.
Often times police detain people for citation offenses and during the stop the person winds up being wanted, on drugs, drunk or mentally ill. So instead of accepting the ticket, the detainee becomes violent and attempts to harm the officer.
Instead of the headline stating that the officer used deadly force for a legitimate reason, such as attempted capital murder, only the original misdemeanor crime is stated.
This is wrong. The editor of the news outlet knows it's wrong. They would rather slander a police officer's name for the sake of selling news than accurately depict in the headline what actually happened.
This is unfair to the reader and certainly maligns the officer who was in reality protecting himself or others.
My advice to police officers after a critical incident. Don't talk to the press. Period. The media cannot be trusted.
Print news in dying. Sensationalized headlines is just one of the reasons.
That's the way I see it.
Saturday, September 29, 2018
SENATOR FEINSTEIN IS A BLOODY LIAR
The release o Ford’s scarlet letter to the media had to have been done by Feinstein or one of her staff members
BarkGrowlBite
September 29, 2018
Dianne Feinstein vehemently denies that she or one of her staff members released Christine Ford’s scarlet letter to the media.
Feinstein kept Ford’s letter secret for two months before it popped up in the media just in time to fuck up Kavanaugh’s nomination process at the very last minute.
It has been suggested that one of Ford’s friends with whom she shared her story of being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, sent a copy of the letter to the media. At no time has Ford said she shared the letter with any of her friends or that she gave them a copy. She did say she gave the letter to California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo who passed it on to Feinstein.
Since the letter remained in Feinstein’s office for two months before it became public, it seems highly unlikely that it was released by Eshoo or one of her staff members.
So, it seems logical that the letter was released by either Feinstein herself or one of her staff members, with or without her permission. That makes Feinstein a bloody liar.
UPDATE: Ryan Grim of The Intercept was the reporter who broke the story of Ford’s letter. Grim said late Thursday that the letter was not leaked to him by Feinstein or anyone in her office.
OK, so Feinstein may not be a bloody liar, but she sure is a bloody saboteur. By keeping the scarlet letter secret until the last minute, she caused Kavanaugh to be barbequed by the Democrats at the circus of a hearing, thereby torpedoing his immediate confirmation.
There will now be an FBI investigation into the accusations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh. The FBI has only one week to complete its investigation. The bureau has set up a special task force for the investigation. It will be a Herculean task to interview all the accusers and witnesses, and where that may lead them to, in such a short time span. It is possible that the FBI investigation may yet result in Kavenaugh’s nomination going down the tubes.
BarkGrowlBite
September 29, 2018
Dianne Feinstein vehemently denies that she or one of her staff members released Christine Ford’s scarlet letter to the media.
Feinstein kept Ford’s letter secret for two months before it popped up in the media just in time to fuck up Kavanaugh’s nomination process at the very last minute.
It has been suggested that one of Ford’s friends with whom she shared her story of being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, sent a copy of the letter to the media. At no time has Ford said she shared the letter with any of her friends or that she gave them a copy. She did say she gave the letter to California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo who passed it on to Feinstein.
Since the letter remained in Feinstein’s office for two months before it became public, it seems highly unlikely that it was released by Eshoo or one of her staff members.
So, it seems logical that the letter was released by either Feinstein herself or one of her staff members, with or without her permission. That makes Feinstein a bloody liar.
UPDATE: Ryan Grim of The Intercept was the reporter who broke the story of Ford’s letter. Grim said late Thursday that the letter was not leaked to him by Feinstein or anyone in her office.
OK, so Feinstein may not be a bloody liar, but she sure is a bloody saboteur. By keeping the scarlet letter secret until the last minute, she caused Kavanaugh to be barbequed by the Democrats at the circus of a hearing, thereby torpedoing his immediate confirmation.
There will now be an FBI investigation into the accusations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh. The FBI has only one week to complete its investigation. The bureau has set up a special task force for the investigation. It will be a Herculean task to interview all the accusers and witnesses, and where that may lead them to, in such a short time span. It is possible that the FBI investigation may yet result in Kavenaugh’s nomination going down the tubes.
WHO THE FUCK CAN YOU BELIEVE?
Two men tell Senate that they, not Kavanaugh, assaulted Ford
BarkGrowlBite
September 29, 2018
By Joe Tacopino
New York Post
September 27, 2018
Two men have come forward to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to claim that they are the ones who actually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford during a house party in 1982 — and not Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Republicans on the committee released a timeline of events late Wednesday, which included details about their interactions with the two men who admitted to the attacks.
On Monday, the timeline recounts GOP staff members interviewing “a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982.”
The “encounter” refers to an episode in which Ford claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in a bedroom at a Maryland house party.
They had a follow-up interview with that man, and he provided more detail about the assault.
Then on Wednesday, the committee staff said they spoke with a second man who said he assaulted Ford in 1982.
The committee did not release any more details about the men, or why both were coming forward with the claims.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Are these guys for real or are they just the usual kooks who, from time to time, crawl out of the woodworks to confess to a sensational crime?
BarkGrowlBite
September 29, 2018
By Joe Tacopino
New York Post
September 27, 2018
Two men have come forward to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to claim that they are the ones who actually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford during a house party in 1982 — and not Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Republicans on the committee released a timeline of events late Wednesday, which included details about their interactions with the two men who admitted to the attacks.
On Monday, the timeline recounts GOP staff members interviewing “a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982.”
The “encounter” refers to an episode in which Ford claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in a bedroom at a Maryland house party.
They had a follow-up interview with that man, and he provided more detail about the assault.
Then on Wednesday, the committee staff said they spoke with a second man who said he assaulted Ford in 1982.
The committee did not release any more details about the men, or why both were coming forward with the claims.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Are these guys for real or are they just the usual kooks who, from time to time, crawl out of the woodworks to confess to a sensational crime?
‘WHAT WE’RE LEFT WITH IS A STINKING, HORRIBLE MESS’
The day DC should have died of shame as it watched two broken souls be publicly tortured over their pasts in a viciously partisan bear-pit
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
September 27, 2018
These are the words I originally wrote after Christine Blasey Ford finished testifying to the US Senate today:
‘I believe her. It’s as simple as that. For four hours, I watched Christine Blasey Ford testify to the US Senate and I found her to be an extraordinarily powerful, compelling and credible witness with regard to the sexual abuse she claims to have suffered at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
I was not alone. Twitter blew up with people from all sides of the political and social spectrum saying THEY believed her too. TV news anchors from CNN to Fox queued up to say they found Ford extremely convincing. And thus I imagine the vast majority of the tens of millions of Americans watching agog from their homes believed her as well.
Because the bottom line is that she was cool, calm, collected, and utterly believable. Her tears, when they came, felt real. Her testimony felt real.
SHE felt real.
I stopped writing when Brett Kavanaugh walked in to begin his testimony, but this, I felt certain, would be the theme of this column.
There was nothing Kavanaugh could surely say or do that could possibly alter this impression?
I was wrong.
Kavanaugh’s performance was one of the most stunning, raw, breath-taking displays of raw, raging fury that I have ever seen on live television.
He was surging with passion and indignant anger, and emotion; SO much emotion.
He cried, he sighed, he sniffed, he snorted.
And he ranted.
This was a man right on the edge, exploding before our very eyes at what he perceived to be the horrific injustice of what has befallen him.
Kavanaugh’s not just any man.
He’s one of America’s most experienced, respected judges; so a man who until two weeks ago, was considered to be someone of total integrity, someone beyond reproach.
And by the time he’d finished, I believed him too.
His tears, when they came, felt real. His testimony felt real. HE felt real.
But they can’t both be telling the truth, can they?
The bottom line is I don’t now know whom to believe, and I defy anyone else to either.
Ford and Kavanaugh were both equally convincing.
They both came over as decent, civilised, eloquent people.
They both were inherently believable.
The facts of this case remain unsubstantiated, disputed and debatable.
It comes down to whom you believe most, and I just don’t know the answer to that question.
Who can say, honestly and with any certainty, where the truth lies?
I can’t, can you?
What I can say though is that this was one of the most disgusting, disgraceful things I have ever witnessed.
For these two previously unknown people to be dragged through such a revolting public court of gladiatorial barbarism for the delectation of a mass TV audience was painful, so painful I could barely watch at times.
Yet it was an absolutely inevitable consequence of the way Washington has spiralled in recent years into a vile cesspit of extreme partisan bullsh*t – fuelled by rampant, vicious social media.
Today was a dark, tragic day for America.
It was a day when the whole country, and indeed much of the rest of the world, tuned in to see two people tortured and humiliated.
I get that Supreme Court nominees have to be vigorously vetted, and have to be held to a different standard of behaviour to the rest of us.
Brett Kavanaugh could be sitting on that court for 30-40 years, making the most important decisions in American law that could have far-reaching effects on the lives of 320 million people.
He HAS to be a man of unimpeachable character.
So yes, he has to be investigated.
And it’s perfectly right and proper that if a woman like Christine Blasey Ford believes she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when she was just 15 years old, then her allegations should be thoroughly examined.
As should any other serious allegations.
But what we watched today was nothing short of a circus - a long, disturbing, wretched circus; a circus watched by a baying global mob, most of whom decided long before the hearings began whom they believed.
Kavanaugh looked unhinged today – perhaps too unhinged to ever sit on the Supreme Court - but if I’d been falsely accused of the stuff he’s been accused of in the past fortnight, I’d probably be pretty damn unhinged too.
He was fighting not just for a place on the Supreme Court, but for his reputation, his dignity, his family.
To see his loyal wife silently weeping throughout his testimony was agonising.
She knows that everything her husband has worked for in his entire life is now imperilled. Every security she took for granted about their family life is now threatened.
If Kavanaugh is guilty, then he deserves to be duly punished.
But what if he’s innocent?
What if Ms Ford, who was just a young teenage kid at the time, has got the wrong guy?
I don’t think she’s a liar, but maybe she made an honest mistake.
How do we know for sure?
How will we EVER know?
Where are the cold hard FACTS?
There aren’t any, there can’t possibly be any after 35 years.
What we’re left with is a stinking, horrible mess.
Many feel America has never felt so bitterly divided, and this ugly farce today will just pour fuel onto that blazing partisan fire.
I saw people on Twitter gleefully tearing both Ford and Kavanaugh to pieces all day long, all doing so from a politically partisan perspective.
If the situation was reversed, and Kavanaugh was a Democrat nominee, then all those screaming blue murder against him would be screaming in support of him, and all those currently supporting Ford would turn on her like two-faced rattlesnakes.
It’s not about any attempt at fair justice. It’s about politics.
The Democrats, led by Senator Dianne Feinstein, timed this bombshell to cause maximum damage to the nomination process, and to exploit the inevitable scandalous headlines to influence the vital midterm elections in just 40 days time.
Feinstein knew about Ford’s allegation two months ago. The right thing to do would have been to publicly demand an immediate investigation – including, if necessary, by the FBI.
Instead, she held it back, waiting to strike when the potential political gain was at its most timely.
In doing so, she behaved in exactly the same reprehensibly partisan self-serving manner that Republicans have behaved over previous Democrat Supreme Court nominations.
But that makes her just as bad as them. Shame on Senator Feinstein, shame on the Democrats.
That such an important moment in American history should be reduced to this horrific bear-pit is as absurd as it’s unacceptable.
Every American who genuinely cares about their country should share my outrage about what they watched today.
At one stage, Kavanaugh was actually grilled about flatulence - in the United States Senate by a serving United States senator.
Think about that for a moment.
The whole thing was a complete and utter disgrace.
Or as Senator Lindsey Graham put it today: ‘The most despicable thing I have ever seen in politics.’
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
September 27, 2018
These are the words I originally wrote after Christine Blasey Ford finished testifying to the US Senate today:
‘I believe her. It’s as simple as that. For four hours, I watched Christine Blasey Ford testify to the US Senate and I found her to be an extraordinarily powerful, compelling and credible witness with regard to the sexual abuse she claims to have suffered at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
I was not alone. Twitter blew up with people from all sides of the political and social spectrum saying THEY believed her too. TV news anchors from CNN to Fox queued up to say they found Ford extremely convincing. And thus I imagine the vast majority of the tens of millions of Americans watching agog from their homes believed her as well.
Because the bottom line is that she was cool, calm, collected, and utterly believable. Her tears, when they came, felt real. Her testimony felt real.
SHE felt real.
I stopped writing when Brett Kavanaugh walked in to begin his testimony, but this, I felt certain, would be the theme of this column.
There was nothing Kavanaugh could surely say or do that could possibly alter this impression?
I was wrong.
Kavanaugh’s performance was one of the most stunning, raw, breath-taking displays of raw, raging fury that I have ever seen on live television.
He was surging with passion and indignant anger, and emotion; SO much emotion.
He cried, he sighed, he sniffed, he snorted.
And he ranted.
This was a man right on the edge, exploding before our very eyes at what he perceived to be the horrific injustice of what has befallen him.
Kavanaugh’s not just any man.
He’s one of America’s most experienced, respected judges; so a man who until two weeks ago, was considered to be someone of total integrity, someone beyond reproach.
And by the time he’d finished, I believed him too.
His tears, when they came, felt real. His testimony felt real. HE felt real.
But they can’t both be telling the truth, can they?
The bottom line is I don’t now know whom to believe, and I defy anyone else to either.
Ford and Kavanaugh were both equally convincing.
They both came over as decent, civilised, eloquent people.
They both were inherently believable.
The facts of this case remain unsubstantiated, disputed and debatable.
It comes down to whom you believe most, and I just don’t know the answer to that question.
Who can say, honestly and with any certainty, where the truth lies?
I can’t, can you?
What I can say though is that this was one of the most disgusting, disgraceful things I have ever witnessed.
For these two previously unknown people to be dragged through such a revolting public court of gladiatorial barbarism for the delectation of a mass TV audience was painful, so painful I could barely watch at times.
Yet it was an absolutely inevitable consequence of the way Washington has spiralled in recent years into a vile cesspit of extreme partisan bullsh*t – fuelled by rampant, vicious social media.
Today was a dark, tragic day for America.
It was a day when the whole country, and indeed much of the rest of the world, tuned in to see two people tortured and humiliated.
I get that Supreme Court nominees have to be vigorously vetted, and have to be held to a different standard of behaviour to the rest of us.
Brett Kavanaugh could be sitting on that court for 30-40 years, making the most important decisions in American law that could have far-reaching effects on the lives of 320 million people.
He HAS to be a man of unimpeachable character.
So yes, he has to be investigated.
And it’s perfectly right and proper that if a woman like Christine Blasey Ford believes she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when she was just 15 years old, then her allegations should be thoroughly examined.
As should any other serious allegations.
But what we watched today was nothing short of a circus - a long, disturbing, wretched circus; a circus watched by a baying global mob, most of whom decided long before the hearings began whom they believed.
Kavanaugh looked unhinged today – perhaps too unhinged to ever sit on the Supreme Court - but if I’d been falsely accused of the stuff he’s been accused of in the past fortnight, I’d probably be pretty damn unhinged too.
He was fighting not just for a place on the Supreme Court, but for his reputation, his dignity, his family.
To see his loyal wife silently weeping throughout his testimony was agonising.
She knows that everything her husband has worked for in his entire life is now imperilled. Every security she took for granted about their family life is now threatened.
If Kavanaugh is guilty, then he deserves to be duly punished.
But what if he’s innocent?
What if Ms Ford, who was just a young teenage kid at the time, has got the wrong guy?
I don’t think she’s a liar, but maybe she made an honest mistake.
How do we know for sure?
How will we EVER know?
Where are the cold hard FACTS?
There aren’t any, there can’t possibly be any after 35 years.
What we’re left with is a stinking, horrible mess.
Many feel America has never felt so bitterly divided, and this ugly farce today will just pour fuel onto that blazing partisan fire.
I saw people on Twitter gleefully tearing both Ford and Kavanaugh to pieces all day long, all doing so from a politically partisan perspective.
If the situation was reversed, and Kavanaugh was a Democrat nominee, then all those screaming blue murder against him would be screaming in support of him, and all those currently supporting Ford would turn on her like two-faced rattlesnakes.
It’s not about any attempt at fair justice. It’s about politics.
The Democrats, led by Senator Dianne Feinstein, timed this bombshell to cause maximum damage to the nomination process, and to exploit the inevitable scandalous headlines to influence the vital midterm elections in just 40 days time.
Feinstein knew about Ford’s allegation two months ago. The right thing to do would have been to publicly demand an immediate investigation – including, if necessary, by the FBI.
Instead, she held it back, waiting to strike when the potential political gain was at its most timely.
In doing so, she behaved in exactly the same reprehensibly partisan self-serving manner that Republicans have behaved over previous Democrat Supreme Court nominations.
But that makes her just as bad as them. Shame on Senator Feinstein, shame on the Democrats.
That such an important moment in American history should be reduced to this horrific bear-pit is as absurd as it’s unacceptable.
Every American who genuinely cares about their country should share my outrage about what they watched today.
At one stage, Kavanaugh was actually grilled about flatulence - in the United States Senate by a serving United States senator.
Think about that for a moment.
The whole thing was a complete and utter disgrace.
Or as Senator Lindsey Graham put it today: ‘The most despicable thing I have ever seen in politics.’
Friday, September 28, 2018
IT STILL COMES DOWN TO SHE SAID HE SAID
Both Kavanaugh and Ford sounded credible
BarkGrowlBite
September 28, 2018
After watching every minute of the Senate Judiciary Committee circus, I’ve come away with several observations.
To begin with, it was obvious to me that the Democrats were there to destroy Kavanaugh and the Republicans tried to defend him. Both Kavanaugh and Ford sounded credible in their opening statements. Ford said she was 100 percent certain that it was Kavanaugh who tried to rape her. Kavanaugh said he was not at the party Ford described and that he never assaulted her or anyone else. So it still comes down to she said he said … and who does each committee member want to believe.
Republican prosecutor Rachel Mitchell pitched softballs in her questioning of Ford. She elicited some minor contradictions, the most notable of which was Ford’s claim that she was reluctant to come to Washington because she feared flying. Ford admitted that in spite of her fear of flying, she had flown to many professional conferences, to visit her parents in Maryland once a year and to far-away vacation destinations.
Kavanaugh started off like a ball of fire, defiantly accusing the Democrats of waiting till the last minute to “destroy” his good name with “vicious and false additional accusations.” He said the Democrats have “replaced advice and consent with search and destroy.” He referred to the hearing as a “national disgrace” and a “circus.”
Kavenaugh’s opening statement was about 45 minutes long, a bit too long I thought. About two-thirds of the way through, he began to start hesitating between sentences, which in my opinion weakened his otherwise strong presentation.
Ford answered every question while Kavanaugh was often evasive in responding to the hostile questions thrown at him by the biased Democrats. Mitchell’s softball approach and Ford's defenders on the Democratic side made Ford look bright throughout. At times Kavanaugh looked like a deer staring at the headlights of a car.
Something that got my dander up was that twice Ford’s attorney Michael Bromwich interrupted Rachel Mitchell’s questioning of Ford by invoking the attorney-client privilege. Neither Mitchell nor committee chairman Senator Charles Grassley called him down on that. They and Bromwich must have slept though Law 101. The attorney-client privilege is incumbent only on the lawyer, not the client.
Asked about his drinking, Kavanaugh said “I liked beer. I still like beer. We drank beer.” You can bet that had he mentioned a brand, that would have been a TV commercial by the next day.
To me the highlight of the hearing came when Senator Lindsey Graham blasted the Democrats on the committee. Graham, who has often criticized President Trump and usually gets along well with the Democrats, called the hearing a sham. Here are some excerpts:
“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020. You said that. Not me. I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy, This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t do what you’ve done to this guy.”
“I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t do what you’ve done to this guy.”
Graham also warned Republican fence sitters that by voting against Kavanaugh, they would be “legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.”
If Senator Jeff Flake agrees with Graham, the committee vote will be 11-10 to confirm the nomination. Now all the the Republican leadership will have to do is to persuade Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins to join them in voting to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination when the full senate votes on it.
BarkGrowlBite
September 28, 2018
After watching every minute of the Senate Judiciary Committee circus, I’ve come away with several observations.
To begin with, it was obvious to me that the Democrats were there to destroy Kavanaugh and the Republicans tried to defend him. Both Kavanaugh and Ford sounded credible in their opening statements. Ford said she was 100 percent certain that it was Kavanaugh who tried to rape her. Kavanaugh said he was not at the party Ford described and that he never assaulted her or anyone else. So it still comes down to she said he said … and who does each committee member want to believe.
Republican prosecutor Rachel Mitchell pitched softballs in her questioning of Ford. She elicited some minor contradictions, the most notable of which was Ford’s claim that she was reluctant to come to Washington because she feared flying. Ford admitted that in spite of her fear of flying, she had flown to many professional conferences, to visit her parents in Maryland once a year and to far-away vacation destinations.
Kavanaugh started off like a ball of fire, defiantly accusing the Democrats of waiting till the last minute to “destroy” his good name with “vicious and false additional accusations.” He said the Democrats have “replaced advice and consent with search and destroy.” He referred to the hearing as a “national disgrace” and a “circus.”
Kavenaugh’s opening statement was about 45 minutes long, a bit too long I thought. About two-thirds of the way through, he began to start hesitating between sentences, which in my opinion weakened his otherwise strong presentation.
Ford answered every question while Kavanaugh was often evasive in responding to the hostile questions thrown at him by the biased Democrats. Mitchell’s softball approach and Ford's defenders on the Democratic side made Ford look bright throughout. At times Kavanaugh looked like a deer staring at the headlights of a car.
Something that got my dander up was that twice Ford’s attorney Michael Bromwich interrupted Rachel Mitchell’s questioning of Ford by invoking the attorney-client privilege. Neither Mitchell nor committee chairman Senator Charles Grassley called him down on that. They and Bromwich must have slept though Law 101. The attorney-client privilege is incumbent only on the lawyer, not the client.
Asked about his drinking, Kavanaugh said “I liked beer. I still like beer. We drank beer.” You can bet that had he mentioned a brand, that would have been a TV commercial by the next day.
To me the highlight of the hearing came when Senator Lindsey Graham blasted the Democrats on the committee. Graham, who has often criticized President Trump and usually gets along well with the Democrats, called the hearing a sham. Here are some excerpts:
“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020. You said that. Not me. I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy, This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t do what you’ve done to this guy.”
“I would never do to them what you’ve done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t do what you’ve done to this guy.”
Graham also warned Republican fence sitters that by voting against Kavanaugh, they would be “legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics.”
If Senator Jeff Flake agrees with Graham, the committee vote will be 11-10 to confirm the nomination. Now all the the Republican leadership will have to do is to persuade Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins to join them in voting to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination when the full senate votes on it.
KAVANAUGH HIT A COUPLE OF HOME RUNS
Will It Be Enough ?
by Bob Walsh
Judge Kavanaugh defended himself with vigor and with feelings. It was truly beautiful to behold, though in a way it was also disgusting, because it should not have been necessary. The real "audience" for this little kabuki theatre is a small number of weak sister Republican senators on the committee and in the senate in general.
Kavanaugh could survive a neutral or maybe even a negative vote from the committee as long as they do not lose more than one Republican senator when the floor vote takes place. We will see very soon just how many gutless puke bastards there are in the Republican party in the U.S. Senate.
EDITOR'S NOTE: And Lindsey Graham hit a ninth-inning, bases-loaded, grand slam home run!
by Bob Walsh
Judge Kavanaugh defended himself with vigor and with feelings. It was truly beautiful to behold, though in a way it was also disgusting, because it should not have been necessary. The real "audience" for this little kabuki theatre is a small number of weak sister Republican senators on the committee and in the senate in general.
Kavanaugh could survive a neutral or maybe even a negative vote from the committee as long as they do not lose more than one Republican senator when the floor vote takes place. We will see very soon just how many gutless puke bastards there are in the Republican party in the U.S. Senate.
EDITOR'S NOTE: And Lindsey Graham hit a ninth-inning, bases-loaded, grand slam home run!
‘IN SECONDS YOU CAN BE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE’
How routine calls can quickly turn dangerous for police
By Molly Sullivan
The Sacramento Bee
September 25, 2018
Deputy Mark Stasyuk, 27, died last week responding to a seemingly routine call at a Rancho Cordova auto parts store that quickly escalated to an “extensive firefight,” authorities said.
Officers in Rancho Cordova respond to an average of 115 calls for service per day, and they can turn dangerous in a moment’s notice – which means officers must remain vigilant, said Sgt. Shaun Hampton, spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
“It is a challenge to balance the friendly officer posture that you would like to give people with the fact that you have to pay attention all the time,” said Jim Bueerman, president of the Police Foundation, a national organization focused on police policies and research. “(Officers) have to pay attention all the time because you never know what’s going to happen, or if someone is going to attack you.”
Stasyuk and his partner, Julie Robertson, 28, were dispatched to a customer disturbance call at a Pep Boys store. It was the kind of call that former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness described as the “epitome of routine.”
However, within 10 seconds of walking in the door, the two deputies faced a gunfight with suspect Anton Lemon Moore, 38, that left Stasyuk fatally wounded and Robertson shot in the arm. Stasyuk barely had time to react as Moore rounded the checkout counter and opened fire. Hampton said the Sheriff’s Department had to review more video from the incident to know if Stasyuk had time to pull his weapon in response.
“There are times when we respond to those calls, a seemingly innocuous call, and … in seconds you can be fighting for your life,” Hampton said.
In a 2015 study of officer line-of-duty deaths, 18 percent of officers died responding to disturbance calls, which are typically deemed “non-violent, nuisance crimes,” the study said. Deaths while responding to disturbance calls are second only to domestic dispute calls, which account for 22 percent of officer deaths.
“You learn there is no such thing as a routine call,” said Tim Davis, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.
“You can train, and you can train, and you can train, and you can gain experience, but there’s nothing that is predictable in our line of work,” said Sgt. Vance Chandler, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department.
To mitigate safety risks to officers, they are trained to not respond to a call alone because that puts them at greater risk if something goes wrong. The 2015 study found that “the large percentage of officers who were on scene of a disturbance call were alone when killed.” They were either dispatched to the scene alone, or didn’t wait for backup to arrive.
Another risk to officers, the study and law enforcement experts say, is that the information reported by 911 callers frequently gives an incomplete picture, or can be flat-out wrong, leading officers to think they’re responding to a non-urgent call for service that is in fact a highly dangerous situation.
“Depending on nature of call, sometimes they’ll go with their holster unsnapped, or their hand on the gun,” Bueerman said. “This is all part of officer safety, and you try not to offend people by doing it.”
Following the death of Stasyuk, whose funeral is scheduled Saturday, Sheriff’s Department authorities tell deputies to be vigilant for their own safety, Hampton said.
“Just be safe. That’s all you can tell them. Be safe. Be alert. You’ve got to be aware of your surroundings at all times, not that either of those officers weren’t. Their guard wasn’t down. They were being vigilant in their approach. They approached that building like they were taught. They did everything by the book. You can do things by the book and things can go bad really fast because we never know what that other person is thinking.”
By Molly Sullivan
The Sacramento Bee
September 25, 2018
Deputy Mark Stasyuk, 27, died last week responding to a seemingly routine call at a Rancho Cordova auto parts store that quickly escalated to an “extensive firefight,” authorities said.
Officers in Rancho Cordova respond to an average of 115 calls for service per day, and they can turn dangerous in a moment’s notice – which means officers must remain vigilant, said Sgt. Shaun Hampton, spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
“It is a challenge to balance the friendly officer posture that you would like to give people with the fact that you have to pay attention all the time,” said Jim Bueerman, president of the Police Foundation, a national organization focused on police policies and research. “(Officers) have to pay attention all the time because you never know what’s going to happen, or if someone is going to attack you.”
Stasyuk and his partner, Julie Robertson, 28, were dispatched to a customer disturbance call at a Pep Boys store. It was the kind of call that former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness described as the “epitome of routine.”
However, within 10 seconds of walking in the door, the two deputies faced a gunfight with suspect Anton Lemon Moore, 38, that left Stasyuk fatally wounded and Robertson shot in the arm. Stasyuk barely had time to react as Moore rounded the checkout counter and opened fire. Hampton said the Sheriff’s Department had to review more video from the incident to know if Stasyuk had time to pull his weapon in response.
“There are times when we respond to those calls, a seemingly innocuous call, and … in seconds you can be fighting for your life,” Hampton said.
In a 2015 study of officer line-of-duty deaths, 18 percent of officers died responding to disturbance calls, which are typically deemed “non-violent, nuisance crimes,” the study said. Deaths while responding to disturbance calls are second only to domestic dispute calls, which account for 22 percent of officer deaths.
“You learn there is no such thing as a routine call,” said Tim Davis, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.
“You can train, and you can train, and you can train, and you can gain experience, but there’s nothing that is predictable in our line of work,” said Sgt. Vance Chandler, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department.
To mitigate safety risks to officers, they are trained to not respond to a call alone because that puts them at greater risk if something goes wrong. The 2015 study found that “the large percentage of officers who were on scene of a disturbance call were alone when killed.” They were either dispatched to the scene alone, or didn’t wait for backup to arrive.
Another risk to officers, the study and law enforcement experts say, is that the information reported by 911 callers frequently gives an incomplete picture, or can be flat-out wrong, leading officers to think they’re responding to a non-urgent call for service that is in fact a highly dangerous situation.
“Depending on nature of call, sometimes they’ll go with their holster unsnapped, or their hand on the gun,” Bueerman said. “This is all part of officer safety, and you try not to offend people by doing it.”
Following the death of Stasyuk, whose funeral is scheduled Saturday, Sheriff’s Department authorities tell deputies to be vigilant for their own safety, Hampton said.
“Just be safe. That’s all you can tell them. Be safe. Be alert. You’ve got to be aware of your surroundings at all times, not that either of those officers weren’t. Their guard wasn’t down. They were being vigilant in their approach. They approached that building like they were taught. They did everything by the book. You can do things by the book and things can go bad really fast because we never know what that other person is thinking.”
THE BUSHWICK CREW
How a Brooklyn Gang May Have Gotten Crazy Rich Dealing for El Chapo
by Francisco Alvarado
VICE News
September 25, 2018
On March 15, 2016, Maurice Brown, an alleged member of the Brooklyn-based Bushwick Crew, posted a photo of himself on his Instagram account holding stacks of cash inside a strip club. He added a hashtag that read, “CHAPODABOSS,” apparently referring to JoaquÃn "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, the longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel whose high-profile trial is set to begin this November in the very same borough Brown's crew was said (by police) to be based.
Brown's post was among 40 pages of exhibits federal prosecutors included in a superceding racketeering indictment against him and four other alleged members of Bushwick Crew earlier this month. The feds described the group as a violent street gang that flooded New York City with heroin and fentanyl and even executed rivals in cold blood during a roughly seven-year period ending in 2017.
While prosecutors and law enforcement have declined so far to identify Bushwick Crew's drug source, organized crime experts told VICE the gang appeared to have ties to Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel, which they said continued to operate a highly efficient drug network from Los Angeles to New York City despite their leader's incarceration. The case against the gang pointed to the power of internationally notorious drug cartels to ensnare relatively young people in brutality across the world even after key leaders were incarcerated.
“Based on US maps produced by the US Drug Enforcement Administration showing where Mexican cartels operate and the timeframe the Bushwick Crew was distributing heroin, it is most likely Sinaloa that supplied them,” Nathan Jones, a security studies and criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University in Texas, told me. “If you look at the maps, these guys were based in New York and moved heroin from Los Angeles and Chicago. That is primetime Sinaloa Cartel territory.”
Earlier this month, the five alleged Bushwick Crew members were arrested and held without bond. They "engaged in a large-scale heroin distribution conspiracy with international Mexican cartel connections that trafficked hundreds of kilograms of heroin into New York City,” according to a detention memo by US Attorney Richard Donoghue. They joined several other alleged gang members who were arrested and federally charged last summer as part of a two-year investigation.
The memo claimed the five recently-indicted alleged Bushwick Crew members—Brown, Jaquan Cooper, Lance Goodwin, Tyquan Griem and Norman Marrero—effectively served as enforcers who escorted drug traffickers, forcibly collected drug debts, and committed acts of violence against anyone who interfered with their operations or offended them. Among their gruesome alleged crimes: The 2013 torture and murder of Gary Lopez and Rudy Superville, two men cops said tried to rob one of the Bushwick Crew’s main heroin distributors. (Griem was not implicated in those murders, but was accused of murdering another man named Kelvin Johnson.)
According to court documents, Brown, Cooper, and Griem pleaded not guilty. Goodwin and Marrero were arrested in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, respectively, and ordered to be extradited back to Brooklyn. As of publication, they had not been arraigned nor entered formal pleas. Meanwhile, Steven Brounstein and Gary Cutler, attorneys for Brown and Cooper, declined comment. Griem's lawyer Samuel Gregory did not return a phone message and two emails seeking comment. Goodwin and Marrero were still waiting to have public defenders appointed to represent them in Brooklyn federal court.
Robert J. Bunker, an instructor with the University of Southern California’s Safe Communities Institute, specializes in transnational criminal organizations and global terrorist groups. He echoed Jones in his assessment of the Cartel most likely involved here. "The Los Angeles and Chicago distribution points are indeed linked to Sinaloa," he said in response to written questions. “Second, the crew distributed multi-kilo loads of heroin (and fentanyl) from January 2010—July 2017, which requires continuity of operations. Competing cartels to Sinaloa—such as the Beltran Leyva Organization and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel—have risen and fallen during that time span.”
Bunker argued Brown’s social media postings also offered anecdotal proof of the Bushwick-Sinaloa link. “Doing 'shout outs' to Chapo while working as a distributor for a competing cartel would both be ludicrous and a sign of disrespect that can easily get you killed in the drug-trafficking business,” he told me.
Sinaloa remained one of the most dominant drug-trafficking groups in the Western hemisphere in spite of infighting between factions and the arrest of other major leaders aside from El Chapo, according to a February Mexican cartel report by the global consulting firm Stratfor. “At the beginning of 2017, things did not look good for the Sinaloa cartel,” the report stated. “El Chapo's arrest and extradition left a vacuum in the Sinaloa cartel, which close associate Damaso Lopez Nunez (aka El Licenciado) tried to exploit to take control of the organization.”
However, the report went on to note that Lopez Nunez’s “insurrection (and organization) has been crushed and that it no longer poses a threat to the factions of the Sinaloa cartel headed by Ismael Zambada Garcia (aka El Mayo) and Guzman's sons, Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Salazar.”
Jones said the Bushwick Crew reminded him of the US drug distribution network run by Pedro and Margarito Flores, who became star witnesses against El Chapo and other Sinaloa Cartel leaders in a major drug-trafficking case out of Chicago. Their cooperation helped lead to the arrest of more than 50 people, of whom approximately 40 had been convicted by March 2015, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"This Bushwick Crew is in the mold of the Flores group," Jones said. "They had engrained connections to the cartel and to local gang members, whom they used as enforcers. The only difference is the Flores were more low profile. This group seems a lot more flashy.”
According to the detention memo, Bushwick Crew members Luis Lopez and Peter Vasquez—who were charged last July—had direct contacts with a Mexican cartel and would routinely receive shipments of dozens of kilograms of heroin worth millions of dollars from other states. “The Crew’s stash houses contained as much as 40 kilograms of heroin during the first wave of arrests in July 2017,” the memo states. “The significant quantities of heroin would frequently require the transportation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, which lower-level members of the drug conspiracy were charged with carrying.”
The feds went on to claim law enforcement had seized nearly a million dollars of the crew’s drug proceeds, over ten kilograms of heroin, multiple kilograms of fentanyl, and an impressive fleet of exotic cars, including a Lamborghini Hurácan, Rolls Royce Ghost and a Mercedes CLS63.
Bunker suggested the Bushwick Crew compromised their operations by posting their lavish lifestyle on social media, increasingly drawing attention to themselves. “They essentially started to go Scarface with the bling, opulence, and parties, and thought they were untouchable,” he told me. “This is the last thing the Sinaloa Cartel would want in a major US plaza heroin distributor, as it is ultimately bad for business.”
Not that Sinaloa is in any kind of trouble here. In fact, Bunker theorized the Cartel had already found a new group to replace the Bushwick Crew supply chain, leaving local misery in the wake of their deadly profit-seeking machine.
"New distribution agreements with a more discrete and smarter criminal organization would have quickly been made,” he argued. “Lots of local gangs exist in that part of New York that would immediately jump at the opportunity of becoming Sinaloa’s new heroin distributors.”
Joseph L. Giacalone, a retired NYPD detective sergeant who is an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said Mexican cartels, especially Sinaloa, have made inroads into the Big Apple for decades. "The cartels like to compartmentalize," he told me. "They make deals with these street gangs all over. In Texas and Arizona, the cartels have even gotten involved with white supremacist groups."
Giacalone pointed to the bust of Francisco Quiroz-Zamora, a 41-year-old alleged trafficker who cops said stored more than 20 kilos of fentanyl in two hotels in the Bronx and Manhattan; enough to kill millions. The DEA seized the deadly opiates during a pair of raids in June and August 2017.
In a press statement at the time, New York's DEA Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt said the investigation into Quiroz-Zamora "provides the American public with an inside view of a day in the life of a Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker."
"You don't have to go out on a limb to say the Sinaloa Cartel has its tentacles here in New York City," Giacalone told me.
by Francisco Alvarado
VICE News
September 25, 2018
On March 15, 2016, Maurice Brown, an alleged member of the Brooklyn-based Bushwick Crew, posted a photo of himself on his Instagram account holding stacks of cash inside a strip club. He added a hashtag that read, “CHAPODABOSS,” apparently referring to JoaquÃn "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, the longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel whose high-profile trial is set to begin this November in the very same borough Brown's crew was said (by police) to be based.
Brown's post was among 40 pages of exhibits federal prosecutors included in a superceding racketeering indictment against him and four other alleged members of Bushwick Crew earlier this month. The feds described the group as a violent street gang that flooded New York City with heroin and fentanyl and even executed rivals in cold blood during a roughly seven-year period ending in 2017.
While prosecutors and law enforcement have declined so far to identify Bushwick Crew's drug source, organized crime experts told VICE the gang appeared to have ties to Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel, which they said continued to operate a highly efficient drug network from Los Angeles to New York City despite their leader's incarceration. The case against the gang pointed to the power of internationally notorious drug cartels to ensnare relatively young people in brutality across the world even after key leaders were incarcerated.
“Based on US maps produced by the US Drug Enforcement Administration showing where Mexican cartels operate and the timeframe the Bushwick Crew was distributing heroin, it is most likely Sinaloa that supplied them,” Nathan Jones, a security studies and criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University in Texas, told me. “If you look at the maps, these guys were based in New York and moved heroin from Los Angeles and Chicago. That is primetime Sinaloa Cartel territory.”
Earlier this month, the five alleged Bushwick Crew members were arrested and held without bond. They "engaged in a large-scale heroin distribution conspiracy with international Mexican cartel connections that trafficked hundreds of kilograms of heroin into New York City,” according to a detention memo by US Attorney Richard Donoghue. They joined several other alleged gang members who were arrested and federally charged last summer as part of a two-year investigation.
The memo claimed the five recently-indicted alleged Bushwick Crew members—Brown, Jaquan Cooper, Lance Goodwin, Tyquan Griem and Norman Marrero—effectively served as enforcers who escorted drug traffickers, forcibly collected drug debts, and committed acts of violence against anyone who interfered with their operations or offended them. Among their gruesome alleged crimes: The 2013 torture and murder of Gary Lopez and Rudy Superville, two men cops said tried to rob one of the Bushwick Crew’s main heroin distributors. (Griem was not implicated in those murders, but was accused of murdering another man named Kelvin Johnson.)
According to court documents, Brown, Cooper, and Griem pleaded not guilty. Goodwin and Marrero were arrested in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, respectively, and ordered to be extradited back to Brooklyn. As of publication, they had not been arraigned nor entered formal pleas. Meanwhile, Steven Brounstein and Gary Cutler, attorneys for Brown and Cooper, declined comment. Griem's lawyer Samuel Gregory did not return a phone message and two emails seeking comment. Goodwin and Marrero were still waiting to have public defenders appointed to represent them in Brooklyn federal court.
Robert J. Bunker, an instructor with the University of Southern California’s Safe Communities Institute, specializes in transnational criminal organizations and global terrorist groups. He echoed Jones in his assessment of the Cartel most likely involved here. "The Los Angeles and Chicago distribution points are indeed linked to Sinaloa," he said in response to written questions. “Second, the crew distributed multi-kilo loads of heroin (and fentanyl) from January 2010—July 2017, which requires continuity of operations. Competing cartels to Sinaloa—such as the Beltran Leyva Organization and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel—have risen and fallen during that time span.”
Bunker argued Brown’s social media postings also offered anecdotal proof of the Bushwick-Sinaloa link. “Doing 'shout outs' to Chapo while working as a distributor for a competing cartel would both be ludicrous and a sign of disrespect that can easily get you killed in the drug-trafficking business,” he told me.
Sinaloa remained one of the most dominant drug-trafficking groups in the Western hemisphere in spite of infighting between factions and the arrest of other major leaders aside from El Chapo, according to a February Mexican cartel report by the global consulting firm Stratfor. “At the beginning of 2017, things did not look good for the Sinaloa cartel,” the report stated. “El Chapo's arrest and extradition left a vacuum in the Sinaloa cartel, which close associate Damaso Lopez Nunez (aka El Licenciado) tried to exploit to take control of the organization.”
However, the report went on to note that Lopez Nunez’s “insurrection (and organization) has been crushed and that it no longer poses a threat to the factions of the Sinaloa cartel headed by Ismael Zambada Garcia (aka El Mayo) and Guzman's sons, Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Salazar.”
Jones said the Bushwick Crew reminded him of the US drug distribution network run by Pedro and Margarito Flores, who became star witnesses against El Chapo and other Sinaloa Cartel leaders in a major drug-trafficking case out of Chicago. Their cooperation helped lead to the arrest of more than 50 people, of whom approximately 40 had been convicted by March 2015, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"This Bushwick Crew is in the mold of the Flores group," Jones said. "They had engrained connections to the cartel and to local gang members, whom they used as enforcers. The only difference is the Flores were more low profile. This group seems a lot more flashy.”
According to the detention memo, Bushwick Crew members Luis Lopez and Peter Vasquez—who were charged last July—had direct contacts with a Mexican cartel and would routinely receive shipments of dozens of kilograms of heroin worth millions of dollars from other states. “The Crew’s stash houses contained as much as 40 kilograms of heroin during the first wave of arrests in July 2017,” the memo states. “The significant quantities of heroin would frequently require the transportation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, which lower-level members of the drug conspiracy were charged with carrying.”
The feds went on to claim law enforcement had seized nearly a million dollars of the crew’s drug proceeds, over ten kilograms of heroin, multiple kilograms of fentanyl, and an impressive fleet of exotic cars, including a Lamborghini Hurácan, Rolls Royce Ghost and a Mercedes CLS63.
Bunker suggested the Bushwick Crew compromised their operations by posting their lavish lifestyle on social media, increasingly drawing attention to themselves. “They essentially started to go Scarface with the bling, opulence, and parties, and thought they were untouchable,” he told me. “This is the last thing the Sinaloa Cartel would want in a major US plaza heroin distributor, as it is ultimately bad for business.”
Not that Sinaloa is in any kind of trouble here. In fact, Bunker theorized the Cartel had already found a new group to replace the Bushwick Crew supply chain, leaving local misery in the wake of their deadly profit-seeking machine.
"New distribution agreements with a more discrete and smarter criminal organization would have quickly been made,” he argued. “Lots of local gangs exist in that part of New York that would immediately jump at the opportunity of becoming Sinaloa’s new heroin distributors.”
Joseph L. Giacalone, a retired NYPD detective sergeant who is an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said Mexican cartels, especially Sinaloa, have made inroads into the Big Apple for decades. "The cartels like to compartmentalize," he told me. "They make deals with these street gangs all over. In Texas and Arizona, the cartels have even gotten involved with white supremacist groups."
Giacalone pointed to the bust of Francisco Quiroz-Zamora, a 41-year-old alleged trafficker who cops said stored more than 20 kilos of fentanyl in two hotels in the Bronx and Manhattan; enough to kill millions. The DEA seized the deadly opiates during a pair of raids in June and August 2017.
In a press statement at the time, New York's DEA Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt said the investigation into Quiroz-Zamora "provides the American public with an inside view of a day in the life of a Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker."
"You don't have to go out on a limb to say the Sinaloa Cartel has its tentacles here in New York City," Giacalone told me.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
POPE IMPLIES IT USED TO BE OK FOR PRIESTS TO SEXUALLY ABUSE CHILDREN
Regarding the sexual abuse of children by priests, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church should not be judged by modern standards
BarkGrowlBite
September 27, 2018
Pope Francis, returning from a 4-day trip to the Baltics, told reporters on his plane that the Church should not be judged by modern standards because attitudes towards sexual abuse have changed dramatically over the years. That clearly implies it used to be OK for priests to sexually abuse children.
Francis also said:
“In olden times, these things were covered up, they were even covered up in homes, when an uncle raped a niece, when a father raped his children. It was covered up because it was an enormous shame. That was the mentality in the last century. In more recent times the number went down because the Church realized that it had to fight in a different way, Look at the proportions (in Pennsylvania) and you will see that when the Church started becoming aware of this, it spared no effort. Priests are supposed to take children to God, not to destroy them. If just one priest abuses a child, it's monstrous.”
Monstrous indeed, but only today, not yesteryear.
The Pope’s Baltic tour came in the wake of a new report released in Germany on Tuesday showing that almost 3,700 German children, mostly boys, were sexually assaulted by Catholic priests between 1946 and 2014.
It has become crystal clear that countless children have been sexually abused by priests in every country where the Catholic church is present.
It seems to me that a new church policy of letting priests marry is way overdue. That would significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the sexual abuse of children by the priests. And when the Church receives a sexual abuse complaint, it must report the offense immediately to the police. That’s by any standard, not just today’s.
And if the Pope wants the Catholic Church to be judged kindly, he should start off by firing and excommunicating all the bishops who helped cover up these atrocious crimes. The cover up is almost always worse than the crime … and in sexual abuse cases it is!
BarkGrowlBite
September 27, 2018
Pope Francis, returning from a 4-day trip to the Baltics, told reporters on his plane that the Church should not be judged by modern standards because attitudes towards sexual abuse have changed dramatically over the years. That clearly implies it used to be OK for priests to sexually abuse children.
Francis also said:
“In olden times, these things were covered up, they were even covered up in homes, when an uncle raped a niece, when a father raped his children. It was covered up because it was an enormous shame. That was the mentality in the last century. In more recent times the number went down because the Church realized that it had to fight in a different way, Look at the proportions (in Pennsylvania) and you will see that when the Church started becoming aware of this, it spared no effort. Priests are supposed to take children to God, not to destroy them. If just one priest abuses a child, it's monstrous.”
Monstrous indeed, but only today, not yesteryear.
The Pope’s Baltic tour came in the wake of a new report released in Germany on Tuesday showing that almost 3,700 German children, mostly boys, were sexually assaulted by Catholic priests between 1946 and 2014.
It has become crystal clear that countless children have been sexually abused by priests in every country where the Catholic church is present.
It seems to me that a new church policy of letting priests marry is way overdue. That would significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the sexual abuse of children by the priests. And when the Church receives a sexual abuse complaint, it must report the offense immediately to the police. That’s by any standard, not just today’s.
And if the Pope wants the Catholic Church to be judged kindly, he should start off by firing and excommunicating all the bishops who helped cover up these atrocious crimes. The cover up is almost always worse than the crime … and in sexual abuse cases it is!
JOHN BOLTON GIVES THEM HELL!
Top official warns Iran 'there will be hell to pay' for defying US
Israel Hayom
September 26, 2018
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton delivered a harsh warning to Iran Tuesday, saying that the defiant regime in Iran must change its ways as the United States is "watching and we will come after you," adding that there will be "hell to pay" if Iran's aggression continues.
Bolton's saber-rattling remarks before the United Against Nuclear Iran annual summit came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the U.N. General Assembly and urged "all nations to isolate Iran's regime as long as its aggression continues."
Taking aim at the belligerent rhetoric used by Irans leaders, Bolton said, "According to the mullahs in Tehran, we are the 'Great Satan,' lord of the underworld, master of the raging inferno, so, I might imagine they would take me seriously when I assure them today: If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive – yes, there will indeed be hell to pay.
"The United States is not naive. We will not be duped, cheated, or intimidated. The days of impunity for Tehran and its enablers are over. The murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behavior. Let my message today be clear: We are watching, and we will come after you," he stated.
Touching on the 2015 nuclear accord, from which Trump pulled out on May 8, Bolton said, "The Iran deal was the worst diplomatic debacle in American history. It did nothing to address the regime’s destabilizing activities or its ballistic missile development and proliferation. Worst of all, the deal failed in its fundamental objective: permanently denying Iran all paths to a nuclear bomb."
The statement echoed Trump's U.N. address, in which he stated that the U.S. "cannot allow the world's leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet's most dangerous weapons."
Bolton noted that "the ayatollahs have a choice to make. We have laid out a path toward a bright and prosperous future for all of Iran, one that is worthy of the Iranian people, who have long suffered under the regime’s tyrannical rule."
The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil industry and more severe U.S. sanctions against the Islamic republic's banking and energy sectors are slated to go into effect in the first week of November.
"We expect purchasers of Iranian oil to reduce to their imports to zero by Nov. 4, or face the risk of sanctions," Bolton said. "After Nov. 5, President Trump intends to pursue additional sanctions "beyond those that existed prior to the Iranian nuclear deal," Bolton added, as he vowed a "maximum pressure" campaign against those who defy these sanctions.
He further dismissed an EU plan for a special payments plan to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Iranian oil sales and pressed the SWIFT global payments messaging system to rethink dealing with Tehran.
"The European Union is strong on rhetoric and weak on the follow-through. We will be watching the development of this structure that doesn't exist yet and has no target date to be created. We do not intend to allow our sanctions to be evaded by Europe or anybody else."
The United States would be "aggressive and unwavering" in enforcing economic sanctions on Iran and it would not allow the European Union or anyone else to undermine them," Bolton said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also spoke at the UANI and criticized world nations for "enabling" Iranian-sponsored terrorism by working with Iran to bypass U.S. sanctions.
"Just a few months ago, authorities across Europe arrested several Iranian operatives … as part of a plot to plant a bomb at a political rally in France," Pompeo said, before praising France for taking retaliatory economic action against Iran.
"Unfortunately, just last night, I was disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed to hear remaining parties in the [nuclear] deal announce they are setting up a special payment system to bypass U.S. sanctions," Pompeo said, according to Fox News.
"This is one of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security."
Israel Hayom
September 26, 2018
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton delivered a harsh warning to Iran Tuesday, saying that the defiant regime in Iran must change its ways as the United States is "watching and we will come after you," adding that there will be "hell to pay" if Iran's aggression continues.
Bolton's saber-rattling remarks before the United Against Nuclear Iran annual summit came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the U.N. General Assembly and urged "all nations to isolate Iran's regime as long as its aggression continues."
Taking aim at the belligerent rhetoric used by Irans leaders, Bolton said, "According to the mullahs in Tehran, we are the 'Great Satan,' lord of the underworld, master of the raging inferno, so, I might imagine they would take me seriously when I assure them today: If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive – yes, there will indeed be hell to pay.
"The United States is not naive. We will not be duped, cheated, or intimidated. The days of impunity for Tehran and its enablers are over. The murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behavior. Let my message today be clear: We are watching, and we will come after you," he stated.
Touching on the 2015 nuclear accord, from which Trump pulled out on May 8, Bolton said, "The Iran deal was the worst diplomatic debacle in American history. It did nothing to address the regime’s destabilizing activities or its ballistic missile development and proliferation. Worst of all, the deal failed in its fundamental objective: permanently denying Iran all paths to a nuclear bomb."
The statement echoed Trump's U.N. address, in which he stated that the U.S. "cannot allow the world's leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet's most dangerous weapons."
Bolton noted that "the ayatollahs have a choice to make. We have laid out a path toward a bright and prosperous future for all of Iran, one that is worthy of the Iranian people, who have long suffered under the regime’s tyrannical rule."
The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil industry and more severe U.S. sanctions against the Islamic republic's banking and energy sectors are slated to go into effect in the first week of November.
"We expect purchasers of Iranian oil to reduce to their imports to zero by Nov. 4, or face the risk of sanctions," Bolton said. "After Nov. 5, President Trump intends to pursue additional sanctions "beyond those that existed prior to the Iranian nuclear deal," Bolton added, as he vowed a "maximum pressure" campaign against those who defy these sanctions.
He further dismissed an EU plan for a special payments plan to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Iranian oil sales and pressed the SWIFT global payments messaging system to rethink dealing with Tehran.
"The European Union is strong on rhetoric and weak on the follow-through. We will be watching the development of this structure that doesn't exist yet and has no target date to be created. We do not intend to allow our sanctions to be evaded by Europe or anybody else."
The United States would be "aggressive and unwavering" in enforcing economic sanctions on Iran and it would not allow the European Union or anyone else to undermine them," Bolton said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also spoke at the UANI and criticized world nations for "enabling" Iranian-sponsored terrorism by working with Iran to bypass U.S. sanctions.
"Just a few months ago, authorities across Europe arrested several Iranian operatives … as part of a plot to plant a bomb at a political rally in France," Pompeo said, before praising France for taking retaliatory economic action against Iran.
"Unfortunately, just last night, I was disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed to hear remaining parties in the [nuclear] deal announce they are setting up a special payment system to bypass U.S. sanctions," Pompeo said, according to Fox News.
"This is one of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security."
IT’S TRUMP’S VISION, NOT HIS PERSONALITY, THAT SO ANGERS HIS POLITICAL RIVALS
Israel, and Trump's Vision for a Better World
By Tsvi Sadan
Israel Today
September 26, 2018
"I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship."
Trump is not my president. This is an important observation considering the gazillion non-Americans who think they have an obligation to hate him. That Trump is not my president frees me from feelings that do nothing but distort things. From the narrow Israeli viewpoint, we should be thankful for Trump's pro-Israel policy, and many indeed are thankful. More encouraging, Trump's UN speech last night shows that his pro-Israel policy isn't the result of early morning convulsions. His vision for a better world is the vision of his administration, the vision of those who voted him in, and it is this vision, not Trump's personality, that so angers his political rivals.
To Israeli ears, The New Yorker's scornful reporting of "the audible ripple of gasps and giggles" supposedly heard in the UN General Assembly during Trump's speech sounds too vindictive and harsh. The terms "patriotism," "homeland," "people," "sovereign and independent nations" guided by "ancient wisdom" do not sound at all offensive to most Israelis who, I suppose, would not mind seeing Israel restored to the kind of Liberal Conservatism that Trump is talking about.
America under Trump wants to restore the sovereignty of nations and pride in national culture and heritage. Instead of the uni-cultural world coerced upon us in the name of multiculturalism, America now encourages countries like Israel to freely pursue our own destiny. "The whole world is richer, humanity is better," said Trump, "because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique, and each shining brightly in its part of the world."
Israel–harshly and unfairly criticized by the UN, EU and their innumerable NGO cohorts–should follow's Trump's lead, for it, too, must not surrender its "sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy." Freedom and democracy, the American leader correctly observes, should be allowed to be defended "against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination," which means, coercion of the masses into accepting ideologies that scorn and loath anything other than a multiculturalism run amok.
This vision, it is almost needless to say, suits Israel like a glove because, by definition, Israel must attribute its very existence to its uniqueness. It's no surprise, therefore, that of all nations, Israel is singled out as most problematic, which is why its very existence is continuously challenged, mostly by the same unelected powers exposed so effectively by President Trump.
Those who follow Israel closely know that its Jewish character and its sovereignty are being challenged on a daily basis. Internal and external forces do their utmost to frustrate the majority's desire to guard Israel's uniqueness. At times it seems as if our governments capitulate to these unelected, undemocratic forces seeking to turn Israel into just another "normal" country. Now, with America's backing, one could only hope that our leaders will know to seize the historical moment and further entrench both Israel's uniqueness and its sovereignty.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The UN General Assembly members who laughed at Trump are the one-worlders whose countries are suffering from the very problem our President was speaking against.
By Tsvi Sadan
Israel Today
September 26, 2018
"I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship."
Trump is not my president. This is an important observation considering the gazillion non-Americans who think they have an obligation to hate him. That Trump is not my president frees me from feelings that do nothing but distort things. From the narrow Israeli viewpoint, we should be thankful for Trump's pro-Israel policy, and many indeed are thankful. More encouraging, Trump's UN speech last night shows that his pro-Israel policy isn't the result of early morning convulsions. His vision for a better world is the vision of his administration, the vision of those who voted him in, and it is this vision, not Trump's personality, that so angers his political rivals.
To Israeli ears, The New Yorker's scornful reporting of "the audible ripple of gasps and giggles" supposedly heard in the UN General Assembly during Trump's speech sounds too vindictive and harsh. The terms "patriotism," "homeland," "people," "sovereign and independent nations" guided by "ancient wisdom" do not sound at all offensive to most Israelis who, I suppose, would not mind seeing Israel restored to the kind of Liberal Conservatism that Trump is talking about.
America under Trump wants to restore the sovereignty of nations and pride in national culture and heritage. Instead of the uni-cultural world coerced upon us in the name of multiculturalism, America now encourages countries like Israel to freely pursue our own destiny. "The whole world is richer, humanity is better," said Trump, "because of this beautiful constellation of nations, each very special, each very unique, and each shining brightly in its part of the world."
Israel–harshly and unfairly criticized by the UN, EU and their innumerable NGO cohorts–should follow's Trump's lead, for it, too, must not surrender its "sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy." Freedom and democracy, the American leader correctly observes, should be allowed to be defended "against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination," which means, coercion of the masses into accepting ideologies that scorn and loath anything other than a multiculturalism run amok.
This vision, it is almost needless to say, suits Israel like a glove because, by definition, Israel must attribute its very existence to its uniqueness. It's no surprise, therefore, that of all nations, Israel is singled out as most problematic, which is why its very existence is continuously challenged, mostly by the same unelected powers exposed so effectively by President Trump.
Those who follow Israel closely know that its Jewish character and its sovereignty are being challenged on a daily basis. Internal and external forces do their utmost to frustrate the majority's desire to guard Israel's uniqueness. At times it seems as if our governments capitulate to these unelected, undemocratic forces seeking to turn Israel into just another "normal" country. Now, with America's backing, one could only hope that our leaders will know to seize the historical moment and further entrench both Israel's uniqueness and its sovereignty.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The UN General Assembly members who laughed at Trump are the one-worlders whose countries are suffering from the very problem our President was speaking against.
PEACE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS NOT IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS
Trump says he'll reveal his Middle East peace plan 'two to three to four months' saying: 'It is a dream of mine to be able to get that done prior to the end of my first term'
By Francesca Chambers
Daily Mail
September 26, 2018
President Trump says he'll release a Middle East peace plan by early next year.
Trump said Wednesday that his administration would have a deal outlining a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ready in 'two to three to four months.'
'We’re working along on that,' he said sitting across from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'I really believe something will happen. It is a dream of mine to be able to get that done prior to the end of my first term.'
Trump's optimism that he'd be the one to end the decades-old conflict came days after the U.S. took a hardline approach to the Palestinian government, shutting down its mission in Washington until the PLO agrees to negotiate directly with the Israelis.
The State Department timed its announcement to Rosh Hashana, the official start of Jewish New Year. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the move that was designed to put pressure on the Palestinian Liberation Organization to reenter talks was 'consistent' with U.S. policy.
Palestinian officials indicated that the closure would only deter the peace process, however.
'This is yet another affirmation of the Trump administration’s policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people,' PLO official Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press.
Trump's relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv also inflamed tensions. The U.S. said it was necessary to follow through on the legally-mandated action that presidents have put off for years through the use of waviers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The best that Trump can hope for is a temporary two-state truce. Let’s not forget that Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have and continue to vow in Arabic that their real goal is to obliterate the Jewish state and to make the new one-state Judenrein.
By Francesca Chambers
Daily Mail
September 26, 2018
President Trump says he'll release a Middle East peace plan by early next year.
Trump said Wednesday that his administration would have a deal outlining a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ready in 'two to three to four months.'
'We’re working along on that,' he said sitting across from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 'I really believe something will happen. It is a dream of mine to be able to get that done prior to the end of my first term.'
Trump's optimism that he'd be the one to end the decades-old conflict came days after the U.S. took a hardline approach to the Palestinian government, shutting down its mission in Washington until the PLO agrees to negotiate directly with the Israelis.
The State Department timed its announcement to Rosh Hashana, the official start of Jewish New Year. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the move that was designed to put pressure on the Palestinian Liberation Organization to reenter talks was 'consistent' with U.S. policy.
Palestinian officials indicated that the closure would only deter the peace process, however.
'This is yet another affirmation of the Trump administration’s policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people,' PLO official Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press.
Trump's relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv also inflamed tensions. The U.S. said it was necessary to follow through on the legally-mandated action that presidents have put off for years through the use of waviers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The best that Trump can hope for is a temporary two-state truce. Let’s not forget that Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have and continue to vow in Arabic that their real goal is to obliterate the Jewish state and to make the new one-state Judenrein.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
AS THE ACCUSATIONS PILE ON, THE NOMINATION KEEPS CIRCLING THE DRAIN
New accuser says Brett Kavanaugh was there when she was drugged and gang-raped at a high school party, and claims she saw him 'lined up' to 'take his turn' with drunk girls
Daily Mail
September 26, 2018
Brett Kavanaugh was dramatically accused Wednesday of drugging a high school girl and taking part in a gang rape.
Julie Swetnick, his new accuser, released a sworn statement through her attorney Michael Avenatti saying that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were there as she was abused by a 'train' of teenage boys. She said she was drugged 'using Quaaludes or something similar' which had been put in her drink.
Swetnick, who says she has worked for the State Department and other government agencies, accused Kavanaugh of being part of the group of boys abusing her.
“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of those ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present,” she said in the statement. “During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me.”
The testimony is a fresh blow to Kavanaugh, already accused of two sexual assaults by named women.
Trump tore into Michael Avenatti. He mocked Avenatti as a 'total low-life!' and a 'third rate lawyer.’
‘Avenatti is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations, like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh,’ Trump said. ‘He is just looking for attention and doesn't want people to look at his past record and relationships - a total low-life!'
Kavanaugh denied the new bombshell charges. 'This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone,' he said in a statement released by the White House. 'I don't know who this is and this never happened,' he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: True or not, this latest accusation looks like a mortal blow to the Kavanaugh nomination. Michael Avenatti is an outspoken Trump-hater, but he has a sworn statement from a woman claiming to have been gang-raped by or in the presence of Kavenough. Even if she is lying, look for some Republican senators to now vote against the confirmation.
In the beginning I said that something that may or not happened 36 years ago when Kavanaugh was a 17-year-old high school teenager should not prevent him from being seated on the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, I can no longer say that.
If the accusations are true, there is a pattern of drunken behavior and sexual abuse by Kavanaugh. If the accusations are an untrue smear, they nevertheless leave a stain on Kavanaugh that brings into serious question his fitness to be a Justice of the Supreme Court.
I hope I’m wrong, but I believe the nomination will soon stop circling the drain … it will be down the drain.
UPDATE: From the Daily Mail.
Swetnick allegedly failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes and fees in Maryland and to the Internal Revenue Service since 2015.
Senate investigators questioned Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about two new claims of sexual misconduct, including one from an anonymous Colorado tipster who says Kavanaugh shoved an unnamed woman up against a wall 'aggressively and sexually' in 1998. They also asked him about a separate claim from another tipster that he and longtime friend Mark Judge sexually assaulted a woman on a boat near Newport, Rhode Island in 1985.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Both of these tips lack any sort of credibility. The first claim came in a letter anonymously written. The other claim came from an anonymous phone call.
Swetnick’s attorney Michael Avenatti has been demanding an FBI investigation. By all means let’s have one … an investigation of this bottom-feeding sleazeball of a lawyer!
It may be that the opponents of Kavanaugh have overplayed their hands and all this crap may yet play into Kavanaugh’s favor. I sure hope so.
Daily Mail
September 26, 2018
Brett Kavanaugh was dramatically accused Wednesday of drugging a high school girl and taking part in a gang rape.
Julie Swetnick, his new accuser, released a sworn statement through her attorney Michael Avenatti saying that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were there as she was abused by a 'train' of teenage boys. She said she was drugged 'using Quaaludes or something similar' which had been put in her drink.
Swetnick, who says she has worked for the State Department and other government agencies, accused Kavanaugh of being part of the group of boys abusing her.
“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of those ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present,” she said in the statement. “During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me.”
The testimony is a fresh blow to Kavanaugh, already accused of two sexual assaults by named women.
Trump tore into Michael Avenatti. He mocked Avenatti as a 'total low-life!' and a 'third rate lawyer.’
‘Avenatti is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations, like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh,’ Trump said. ‘He is just looking for attention and doesn't want people to look at his past record and relationships - a total low-life!'
Kavanaugh denied the new bombshell charges. 'This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone,' he said in a statement released by the White House. 'I don't know who this is and this never happened,' he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: True or not, this latest accusation looks like a mortal blow to the Kavanaugh nomination. Michael Avenatti is an outspoken Trump-hater, but he has a sworn statement from a woman claiming to have been gang-raped by or in the presence of Kavenough. Even if she is lying, look for some Republican senators to now vote against the confirmation.
In the beginning I said that something that may or not happened 36 years ago when Kavanaugh was a 17-year-old high school teenager should not prevent him from being seated on the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, I can no longer say that.
If the accusations are true, there is a pattern of drunken behavior and sexual abuse by Kavanaugh. If the accusations are an untrue smear, they nevertheless leave a stain on Kavanaugh that brings into serious question his fitness to be a Justice of the Supreme Court.
I hope I’m wrong, but I believe the nomination will soon stop circling the drain … it will be down the drain.
UPDATE: From the Daily Mail.
Swetnick allegedly failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes and fees in Maryland and to the Internal Revenue Service since 2015.
Senate investigators questioned Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about two new claims of sexual misconduct, including one from an anonymous Colorado tipster who says Kavanaugh shoved an unnamed woman up against a wall 'aggressively and sexually' in 1998. They also asked him about a separate claim from another tipster that he and longtime friend Mark Judge sexually assaulted a woman on a boat near Newport, Rhode Island in 1985.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Both of these tips lack any sort of credibility. The first claim came in a letter anonymously written. The other claim came from an anonymous phone call.
Swetnick’s attorney Michael Avenatti has been demanding an FBI investigation. By all means let’s have one … an investigation of this bottom-feeding sleazeball of a lawyer!
It may be that the opponents of Kavanaugh have overplayed their hands and all this crap may yet play into Kavanaugh’s favor. I sure hope so.
THE MOST ‘RACIST AND SEXIST’ TRIAL IN US HISTORY
Bill Cosby’s publicist says America’s Dad was the victim of “white women who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators.”
BarkGrowlBite
September 26, 2018
Holy shit, America’s Dad has been ordered to move out of his spacious mansion into the cramped Graybar Hotel. Bill Cosby has been sentenced to 3 to 10 years in a Pennsylvania prison. Cosby was found guilty in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for the 2004 drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand. He was also fined $25,000 plus the costs of prosecution.
Judge Steven O'Neill classified Cosby as a “sexually violent predator.” That requires lifetime registration, lifetime mandatory sex offender counseling with a treatment provider and notification to the community that a "sexually violent predator" lives in the area.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist was quick to play the race card. Wyatt told reporters outside the courthouse:
“I believe and think it is important to point out that this has been the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.”
Wyatt went on to say America’s Dad was the victim of “white women who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators.”
Wyatt didn’t stop there. He went on to say: They persecuted Jesus and look what happened. Not saying Mr. Cosby's Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.”
So now we know it. Bill Cosby is the victim of racism. The same racism that has filled our Graybar Hotels with black men. Almost five dozen women, 58 to be exact, have accused Cosby of rape. Since almost all of these women are white, they lied in order to make money by accusing a black man of being a sexual predator. If only America’s Dad had been white!
From now on, American History teachers will have to teach their students that Cosby’s trial was the most racist and sexist in U.S. history.
What they should be teaching their students is that Bill Cosby was the most prolific celebrity rapist in U.S. history.
__________
DR HUXTABLE HEADED UP THE RIVER
by Bob Walsh
Yesterday Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3-10 years as a guest of the people of Pennsylvania. He also must pay a $25k fine plus the state's costs for prosecution, which will be considerable. He was denied bail pending appeal and taken directly into custody. I doubt they will have a 81-year old blind man mopping floors or stamping out license plates, but it will still be remarkable unpleasant.
His PR guy is maintaining that the tape was altered and they have forensic evidence to prove it. He is also attacking the shrinks involved, asserting that they are all white women who make a living of accusing black men of sexual attacks on white women. He flat-out accused the judge of colluding with racists and sexists to sink Cosby.
Assuming the verdict sticks and Cosby makes it out of prison he will have to register as a sex offender and attend monthly counselling for the rest of his life.
BarkGrowlBite
September 26, 2018
Holy shit, America’s Dad has been ordered to move out of his spacious mansion into the cramped Graybar Hotel. Bill Cosby has been sentenced to 3 to 10 years in a Pennsylvania prison. Cosby was found guilty in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault for the 2004 drugging and sexual assault of Andrea Constand. He was also fined $25,000 plus the costs of prosecution.
Judge Steven O'Neill classified Cosby as a “sexually violent predator.” That requires lifetime registration, lifetime mandatory sex offender counseling with a treatment provider and notification to the community that a "sexually violent predator" lives in the area.
Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s publicist was quick to play the race card. Wyatt told reporters outside the courthouse:
“I believe and think it is important to point out that this has been the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.”
Wyatt went on to say America’s Dad was the victim of “white women who make money off of accusing black men of being sexual predators.”
Wyatt didn’t stop there. He went on to say: They persecuted Jesus and look what happened. Not saying Mr. Cosby's Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.”
So now we know it. Bill Cosby is the victim of racism. The same racism that has filled our Graybar Hotels with black men. Almost five dozen women, 58 to be exact, have accused Cosby of rape. Since almost all of these women are white, they lied in order to make money by accusing a black man of being a sexual predator. If only America’s Dad had been white!
From now on, American History teachers will have to teach their students that Cosby’s trial was the most racist and sexist in U.S. history.
What they should be teaching their students is that Bill Cosby was the most prolific celebrity rapist in U.S. history.
__________
DR HUXTABLE HEADED UP THE RIVER
by Bob Walsh
Yesterday Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3-10 years as a guest of the people of Pennsylvania. He also must pay a $25k fine plus the state's costs for prosecution, which will be considerable. He was denied bail pending appeal and taken directly into custody. I doubt they will have a 81-year old blind man mopping floors or stamping out license plates, but it will still be remarkable unpleasant.
His PR guy is maintaining that the tape was altered and they have forensic evidence to prove it. He is also attacking the shrinks involved, asserting that they are all white women who make a living of accusing black men of sexual attacks on white women. He flat-out accused the judge of colluding with racists and sexists to sink Cosby.
Assuming the verdict sticks and Cosby makes it out of prison he will have to register as a sex offender and attend monthly counselling for the rest of his life.
THE REPUBLICAN FENCE SITTERS
BarkGrowlBite
September 26, 2018
The Republican fence sitters in the Senate are Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Jeff Flake. Look for at least one of them to vote against confirming the Kavanaugh nomination.
Murkowski and Collins are concerned about women’s issues. Flake, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, just plain does not like President Trump.
If Flake votes against the nomination that will mean there will be an 11-10 Judiciary Committee vote against the confirmation because it is a sure bet that all 10 Democrats will oppose Kavanaugh.
If that happens, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised Kavanaugh will nevertheless get an up-or-down vote by the Senate. But with only a razor-thin Republican majority in the Senate, Kavanaugh cannot afford to lose a single Republican vote.
September 26, 2018
The Republican fence sitters in the Senate are Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Jeff Flake. Look for at least one of them to vote against confirming the Kavanaugh nomination.
Murkowski and Collins are concerned about women’s issues. Flake, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, just plain does not like President Trump.
If Flake votes against the nomination that will mean there will be an 11-10 Judiciary Committee vote against the confirmation because it is a sure bet that all 10 Democrats will oppose Kavanaugh.
If that happens, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised Kavanaugh will nevertheless get an up-or-down vote by the Senate. But with only a razor-thin Republican majority in the Senate, Kavanaugh cannot afford to lose a single Republican vote.
HOW DRUG CARTELS ATTEMPT TO OUTWIT LAW ENFORCEMENT
5 Creative Ways Drug Traffickers Evade Authorities
By Felipe Puerta
InSight Crime
September 18, 2018
Changing dynamics in the criminal world, new government control strategies and fast technological advances are forcing organized crime groups to update their drug trafficking techniques.
Below, InSight Crime details five of the most inventive strategies adopted by Latin American criminal groups in an attempt to outwit authorities.
1. Narco-Ambulances
Criminal groups in several countries in the region have used ambulances to transport cocaine and marijuana, taking advantage of the low probability that authorities will detain emergency vehicles, even in border areas.
In Argentina, for example, the Gendarmerie stopped an ambulance in April and found 400 kilograms of marijuana in a hidden compartment in the vehicle. The suspects went so far as to have a false patient with them as well.
Months later, authorities broke up an international operation that allegedly smuggled up to four shipments of marijuana per month into Argentina from Paraguay, one of the region’s most prolific producers of the drug.
But Argentina is not alone. In Colombia’s La Guajira department bordering Venezuela, authorities recently uncovered a smuggling ring that also used ambulances. It had allegedly been charging $500 per kilogram of cocaine for its members to transport the drug, which would then be shipped from the Caribbean coast.
2. The ‘Ant Plan’ in Buses
Often used to refer to smuggling methods involving breaking shipments up into very small batches, when the so-called “ant plan” is used to transport drugs, it traditionally depends on drug “mules” traveling by air. However, tighter security at airports has increasingly forced the practice into land transportation, where controls tend to be more relaxed.
In August, a fatal bus accident near Quito, Ecuador, left 24 people dead and 22 injured. But the tragic deaths were not the only reason the event grabbed headlines. Authorities investigating the crash found more than 637 kilograms of marijuana hidden in the bus.
A few months later, a joint effort by Colombian, Peruvian and Chilean security forces dismantled a group known as the “Beetles” (Los Escarabajos) that allegedly recruited cyclists to transport marijuana out of Colombia. The trip took over 20 days, and the group compensated each cyclist with approximately $1,200.
The cyclists who were apprehended traveled through more heavily monitored areas to avoid arousing the suspicion of security forces.
The group also transported the drugs by bus.
There are clear similarities between the cases involving the Beetles and the narco-bus, such as the routes they used and how the recruiters paid their respective drug mules’ lodging, food and travel expenses. But authorities are still working to determine whether those allegedly involved belong to the same criminal structure.
3. Camouflaging in Legal Shipments
From tropical flowers and fruits like pineapples, bananas and mangosteen to Virgin Mary sculptures and World Cup replicas, criminal groups still follow the age-old method of using international trade to disguise their illegal shipments. At ports scattered across Latin America, drug traffickers hide their products inside items set to be exported in shipping containers.
As InSight Crime has reported, informality, corruption and a lack of controls in many of these ports — maritime, air and land — are attracting drug trafficking groups to use them as platforms for selling their product in lucrative international markets.
Moreover, the inability of authorities to inspect shipments — especially at sea ports, which move a lot of international trade — means that they inspect a minuscule number of containers destined for Europe or the United States.
4. Chemical Masking
Using chemical processes to change the appearance of cocaine has been one of the cartels’ most commonly used techniques for trafficking the drug since the days of Pablo Escobar. And it remains both a go-to strategy for criminal organizations and a headache for authorities.
Nearly 40 years have passed since “acid” washed jeans were exported from Colombia to the United States with cocaine dissolved into the fabric to later be separated through a chemical process.
Now, criminal groups are using professional chemists to teach them new ways to temporarily mix cocaine and other drugs with oils, plastics, metals and — more recently — pet food, in order to transport them undetected.
5. Air Transport Alternatives
For at least the last decade, organized crime groups have sought alternatives to typical planes, helicopters and light aircraft because they have become more easily detectable for authorities and less profitable.
The increased use of drones combined with lagging legislation to regulate them in the region has been a boon to organized crime groups that traffic cocaine internationally. And authorities have been hitting roadblocks in curtailing their use.
A 2014 report from an interior source at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicated that over the past few years, it had registered hundreds of cocaine-laden Mexican drones crossing the US-Mexico border. The report warned that criminal groups had gone so far as to commission custom-made drones designed to carry more drugs.
Authorities seem unprepared to heed such warnings, however, and criminal structures still use the new strategy unhindered in order to move their product.
In 2016, Colombian police reported the country’s first case of a criminal group using a drone to transport drugs into Panama.
In 2017, US authorities arrested a man who attempted to move several kilograms of methamphetamine via drone from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego, California. The man testified that he had made at least five trips with the drone in recent months.
With an abundance of new and increasingly sophisticated strategies, criminal groups seem likely to go on undermining authorities’ attempts to halt their illegal activities.
Although US President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico is apparently intended to curb drug trafficking and illegal immigration, organized crime groups’ use of drones and other creative strategies to transport drugs will likely continue to call the effectiveness of such controversial proposals into question. Meanwhile, authorities remain caught up in a Sisyphean race against criminal groups in the so-called war on drugs.
By Felipe Puerta
InSight Crime
September 18, 2018
Changing dynamics in the criminal world, new government control strategies and fast technological advances are forcing organized crime groups to update their drug trafficking techniques.
Below, InSight Crime details five of the most inventive strategies adopted by Latin American criminal groups in an attempt to outwit authorities.
1. Narco-Ambulances
Criminal groups in several countries in the region have used ambulances to transport cocaine and marijuana, taking advantage of the low probability that authorities will detain emergency vehicles, even in border areas.
In Argentina, for example, the Gendarmerie stopped an ambulance in April and found 400 kilograms of marijuana in a hidden compartment in the vehicle. The suspects went so far as to have a false patient with them as well.
Months later, authorities broke up an international operation that allegedly smuggled up to four shipments of marijuana per month into Argentina from Paraguay, one of the region’s most prolific producers of the drug.
But Argentina is not alone. In Colombia’s La Guajira department bordering Venezuela, authorities recently uncovered a smuggling ring that also used ambulances. It had allegedly been charging $500 per kilogram of cocaine for its members to transport the drug, which would then be shipped from the Caribbean coast.
2. The ‘Ant Plan’ in Buses
Often used to refer to smuggling methods involving breaking shipments up into very small batches, when the so-called “ant plan” is used to transport drugs, it traditionally depends on drug “mules” traveling by air. However, tighter security at airports has increasingly forced the practice into land transportation, where controls tend to be more relaxed.
In August, a fatal bus accident near Quito, Ecuador, left 24 people dead and 22 injured. But the tragic deaths were not the only reason the event grabbed headlines. Authorities investigating the crash found more than 637 kilograms of marijuana hidden in the bus.
A few months later, a joint effort by Colombian, Peruvian and Chilean security forces dismantled a group known as the “Beetles” (Los Escarabajos) that allegedly recruited cyclists to transport marijuana out of Colombia. The trip took over 20 days, and the group compensated each cyclist with approximately $1,200.
The cyclists who were apprehended traveled through more heavily monitored areas to avoid arousing the suspicion of security forces.
The group also transported the drugs by bus.
There are clear similarities between the cases involving the Beetles and the narco-bus, such as the routes they used and how the recruiters paid their respective drug mules’ lodging, food and travel expenses. But authorities are still working to determine whether those allegedly involved belong to the same criminal structure.
3. Camouflaging in Legal Shipments
From tropical flowers and fruits like pineapples, bananas and mangosteen to Virgin Mary sculptures and World Cup replicas, criminal groups still follow the age-old method of using international trade to disguise their illegal shipments. At ports scattered across Latin America, drug traffickers hide their products inside items set to be exported in shipping containers.
As InSight Crime has reported, informality, corruption and a lack of controls in many of these ports — maritime, air and land — are attracting drug trafficking groups to use them as platforms for selling their product in lucrative international markets.
Moreover, the inability of authorities to inspect shipments — especially at sea ports, which move a lot of international trade — means that they inspect a minuscule number of containers destined for Europe or the United States.
4. Chemical Masking
Using chemical processes to change the appearance of cocaine has been one of the cartels’ most commonly used techniques for trafficking the drug since the days of Pablo Escobar. And it remains both a go-to strategy for criminal organizations and a headache for authorities.
Nearly 40 years have passed since “acid” washed jeans were exported from Colombia to the United States with cocaine dissolved into the fabric to later be separated through a chemical process.
Now, criminal groups are using professional chemists to teach them new ways to temporarily mix cocaine and other drugs with oils, plastics, metals and — more recently — pet food, in order to transport them undetected.
5. Air Transport Alternatives
For at least the last decade, organized crime groups have sought alternatives to typical planes, helicopters and light aircraft because they have become more easily detectable for authorities and less profitable.
The increased use of drones combined with lagging legislation to regulate them in the region has been a boon to organized crime groups that traffic cocaine internationally. And authorities have been hitting roadblocks in curtailing their use.
A 2014 report from an interior source at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicated that over the past few years, it had registered hundreds of cocaine-laden Mexican drones crossing the US-Mexico border. The report warned that criminal groups had gone so far as to commission custom-made drones designed to carry more drugs.
Authorities seem unprepared to heed such warnings, however, and criminal structures still use the new strategy unhindered in order to move their product.
In 2016, Colombian police reported the country’s first case of a criminal group using a drone to transport drugs into Panama.
In 2017, US authorities arrested a man who attempted to move several kilograms of methamphetamine via drone from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego, California. The man testified that he had made at least five trips with the drone in recent months.
With an abundance of new and increasingly sophisticated strategies, criminal groups seem likely to go on undermining authorities’ attempts to halt their illegal activities.
Although US President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico is apparently intended to curb drug trafficking and illegal immigration, organized crime groups’ use of drones and other creative strategies to transport drugs will likely continue to call the effectiveness of such controversial proposals into question. Meanwhile, authorities remain caught up in a Sisyphean race against criminal groups in the so-called war on drugs.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
EVEN IF ALL THE ACCUSATIONS ARE FALSE, KAVANAUGH LOOKS LIKE TOAST
Republican fence sitters will probably fold on Kavanaugh in the wake of new assaults on his character from the Democrats
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
September 24, 2018
Now, in addition to the scarlet letter Christine Ford wrote to Senator Feinstein, there are new allegations of sexual misconduct by Judge Kavanaugh.
In a New Yorker article Deborah Ramirez, 53, claims that in the early 1980s when she was a freshman at Yale University, Kavanaugh “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”
And the accusations keep piling on. Michael Avenatti, the Trump-hating attorney for Stormy Daniels, claims that during the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and other men would ply women with alcohol or drugs at house parties in Washington, D.C. and then allow men to 'gang rape' them.
With all these accusations, Kavanaugh’s nomination is left circling the drain. Even if all of the accusations made by Ford, Ramirez and Avenatti are completely false, Kavanaugh looks like toast.
Kavanaugh vehemently denies all the accusations and vows to keep fighting for the nomination in spite of the ‘smears’ made against him. Trump continues to back his Supreme Court nominee. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promises Kavanaugh will get an up-or-down vote by the Senate regardless of how the Judiciary Committee votes.
But the damage done by these accusations, even if false, will probably turn the Senate fence sitters against the nomination. The Democrats and his accusers have made Kavanaugh damaged goods. Despite his vow to stay the course, it would not surprise me one bit if Kavanaugh will withdraw his nomination.
If Kavanaugh is not confirmed by the Senate, Trump better pray that the Republicans retain control of the Senate in the midterm elections. If they don’t, Trump will be unable to seat a conservative Justice on the Supreme Court.
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Times
September 24, 2018
Now, in addition to the scarlet letter Christine Ford wrote to Senator Feinstein, there are new allegations of sexual misconduct by Judge Kavanaugh.
In a New Yorker article Deborah Ramirez, 53, claims that in the early 1980s when she was a freshman at Yale University, Kavanaugh “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”
And the accusations keep piling on. Michael Avenatti, the Trump-hating attorney for Stormy Daniels, claims that during the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and other men would ply women with alcohol or drugs at house parties in Washington, D.C. and then allow men to 'gang rape' them.
With all these accusations, Kavanaugh’s nomination is left circling the drain. Even if all of the accusations made by Ford, Ramirez and Avenatti are completely false, Kavanaugh looks like toast.
Kavanaugh vehemently denies all the accusations and vows to keep fighting for the nomination in spite of the ‘smears’ made against him. Trump continues to back his Supreme Court nominee. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promises Kavanaugh will get an up-or-down vote by the Senate regardless of how the Judiciary Committee votes.
But the damage done by these accusations, even if false, will probably turn the Senate fence sitters against the nomination. The Democrats and his accusers have made Kavanaugh damaged goods. Despite his vow to stay the course, it would not surprise me one bit if Kavanaugh will withdraw his nomination.
If Kavanaugh is not confirmed by the Senate, Trump better pray that the Republicans retain control of the Senate in the midterm elections. If they don’t, Trump will be unable to seat a conservative Justice on the Supreme Court.
THE TIGER ROARS AGAIN!
From porn star scandals, DUI shame and agonising sports oblivion - to champion again. Tiger Woods just showed the world’s self-pitying snowflakes what it takes to tackle life’s curveballs
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
September 24, 2018
Ten months ago, Tiger Woods was ranked No 1,199 in golf’s world rankings.
He was playing so badly, he was nearer basketball star Steph Curry - ranked No 1,928th after entering just one pro golf tournament (and missing the cut) - than to the world No1, Dustin Johnson.
Tiger’s battered body was reeling from endless surgeries to his back and knee, leaving him in permanent debilitating agony.
He admitted: ‘I was thinking, this is how the rest of my life’s going to be? Then it’s going to be a tough rest of my life. I was beyond playing. I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t lay down without feeling the pain in my back and leg.’
Tiger’s private life was as disastrous as his career.
His marriage had collapsed amid a slew of scandals involving affairs with porn stars and prostitutes.
And in May, 2017, he was arrested in Florida for driving whilst under the influence of five drugs including Vicodin, Xanax and THC (which is found in marijuana).
He pled guilty to reckless driving and was sentenced to a year of probation.
So by November last year, it would be fair to say Tiger Woods had reached absolute rock bottom.
Nobody, it seemed, gave him a chance of ever being a golf champion again.
He was over, done, kaput.
Only, Tiger didn’t get the memo, or rather, he chose to ignore it and refused to admit he was beaten.
Instead, he battled on, to the amused scorn of many.
It made no sense to anyone but him.
Yesterday, gloriously, he won again - five years after his last professional victory, 17 months after his last (successful) spine fusion surgery and 16 months after his mug shot was paraded across the world’s newspaper front pages following his DUI arrest.
It was a wondrous moment of sporting triumph against all the odds, and a deliciously satisfying two-fingered salute to all those who’d buried him.
There’s a viral video doing the rounds on social media today that mashes up a load of Tiger’s most vociferous critics writing him off before his comeback glory.
It’s particularly savage because the critics themselves are so savage – they’re not just saying he’s finished, they’re gleefully jumping all over his golfing grave as they say it.
Now they’ve all had their hideously unpleasant and heartless diatribes shoved down their ugly little throats by a truly great champion.
As Tiger holed that final simple 6in putt to win last night, the vast crowd went nuts, TV ratings exploded, and he shed a tear as he embraced his girlfriend, restaurant manager Erica Herman – the woman who first appeared at his side when he appeared in court at his darkest time a year ago.
It was a moment to swell even the most cynical of hearts, a moment that showed why there is nothing more exciting or inspiring than live sport at its most heroic and unlikely.
It was also a moment that offered an incredibly powerful life lesson.
One of my favourite movie scenes is from Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone’s 6th movie of the hugely successful boxing franchise.
In it, Rocky gives his whining, entitled, excuse-making son a lecture in the street that all of us could do with hearing:
‘You grew up good and wonderful,’ he says. ‘Then the time came for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you’re no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know: the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him , or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!’ I’m always gonna love you, no matter what. You’re my son, and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life.’
I’ve watched that scene a few times over the years after encountering my own occasional ‘bumps in the road’, to remind myself that life’s not supposed to be easy.
Sadly, modern society is increasingly riddled with young people like Rocky’s son, wallowing in their own self-pity.
They’re the much-ridiculed snowflake generation, with a depressing tendency to complain about everything, get offended by anything, and blame everyone but themselves when things go wrong in their life.
Those who succumb to this self-indulgent nonsense (let me be clear, many laudable young people do not) could all do with taking a long, hard look at the way Tiger Woods has rebuilt his life from what seemed to be an unstoppable descent into oblivion.
I’ve never met Tiger but from all accounts, he’s not the nicest guy you’ll ever come across, either on the course or off it.
Rival players, officials, commentators, fans and even some of his friends have often painted a picture of someone with an unedifying tendency towards being arrogant, inconsiderate, aloof and difficult.
His ex-wife would probably add a few rather more unflattering adjectives to describe the man who exposed her to such public humiliation.
But as with many great sportsmen, those same single-minded, ruthlessly selfish characteristics also propelled him to be the greatest ever player of a game once dominated exclusively by white men.
And they’ve now driven him to this astonishing comeback, when virtually everyone had stuck a fork in him.
Tiger, for all his faults, is a fighter like Rocky Balboa; a man with guts, determination, courage, resilience and a burning desire to succeed.
At 41 years old, wracked with pain from multiple injuries, his golf game in shambolic, humiliating tatters, and with his private life a scandalous fiasco, the easy thing for Tiger to do would have been to quit.
He didn’t need the money, or the physical pain, and he certainly didn’t need the endless mockery.
That he chose to fight on, and win again, is a stunning testimony to his strength of character.
It’s also a remarkably powerful message to every snowflake out there that moan life’s being so unfair to them.
As Rocky so rightly said, life IS unfair.
It’s tough, and can be nasty. Bad stuff will happen to all of us that can feel utterly suffocating.
You’ll feel like giving up.
Tiger certainly did at one stage.
But he didn’t.
He got up, dusted himself down, and powered on.
Tiger Woods is not everyone’s idea of a role model, for good reason; he’s self-evidently been flawed human being.
But last night, he showed the world what being a winner in life really entails: it means not blaming others for your own problems, and it means never giving up.
By Piers Morgan
Daily Mail
September 24, 2018
Ten months ago, Tiger Woods was ranked No 1,199 in golf’s world rankings.
He was playing so badly, he was nearer basketball star Steph Curry - ranked No 1,928th after entering just one pro golf tournament (and missing the cut) - than to the world No1, Dustin Johnson.
Tiger’s battered body was reeling from endless surgeries to his back and knee, leaving him in permanent debilitating agony.
He admitted: ‘I was thinking, this is how the rest of my life’s going to be? Then it’s going to be a tough rest of my life. I was beyond playing. I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t lay down without feeling the pain in my back and leg.’
Tiger’s private life was as disastrous as his career.
His marriage had collapsed amid a slew of scandals involving affairs with porn stars and prostitutes.
And in May, 2017, he was arrested in Florida for driving whilst under the influence of five drugs including Vicodin, Xanax and THC (which is found in marijuana).
He pled guilty to reckless driving and was sentenced to a year of probation.
So by November last year, it would be fair to say Tiger Woods had reached absolute rock bottom.
Nobody, it seemed, gave him a chance of ever being a golf champion again.
He was over, done, kaput.
Only, Tiger didn’t get the memo, or rather, he chose to ignore it and refused to admit he was beaten.
Instead, he battled on, to the amused scorn of many.
It made no sense to anyone but him.
Yesterday, gloriously, he won again - five years after his last professional victory, 17 months after his last (successful) spine fusion surgery and 16 months after his mug shot was paraded across the world’s newspaper front pages following his DUI arrest.
It was a wondrous moment of sporting triumph against all the odds, and a deliciously satisfying two-fingered salute to all those who’d buried him.
There’s a viral video doing the rounds on social media today that mashes up a load of Tiger’s most vociferous critics writing him off before his comeback glory.
It’s particularly savage because the critics themselves are so savage – they’re not just saying he’s finished, they’re gleefully jumping all over his golfing grave as they say it.
Now they’ve all had their hideously unpleasant and heartless diatribes shoved down their ugly little throats by a truly great champion.
As Tiger holed that final simple 6in putt to win last night, the vast crowd went nuts, TV ratings exploded, and he shed a tear as he embraced his girlfriend, restaurant manager Erica Herman – the woman who first appeared at his side when he appeared in court at his darkest time a year ago.
It was a moment to swell even the most cynical of hearts, a moment that showed why there is nothing more exciting or inspiring than live sport at its most heroic and unlikely.
It was also a moment that offered an incredibly powerful life lesson.
One of my favourite movie scenes is from Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone’s 6th movie of the hugely successful boxing franchise.
In it, Rocky gives his whining, entitled, excuse-making son a lecture in the street that all of us could do with hearing:
‘You grew up good and wonderful,’ he says. ‘Then the time came for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you’re no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know: the world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him , or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!’ I’m always gonna love you, no matter what. You’re my son, and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life.’
I’ve watched that scene a few times over the years after encountering my own occasional ‘bumps in the road’, to remind myself that life’s not supposed to be easy.
Sadly, modern society is increasingly riddled with young people like Rocky’s son, wallowing in their own self-pity.
They’re the much-ridiculed snowflake generation, with a depressing tendency to complain about everything, get offended by anything, and blame everyone but themselves when things go wrong in their life.
Those who succumb to this self-indulgent nonsense (let me be clear, many laudable young people do not) could all do with taking a long, hard look at the way Tiger Woods has rebuilt his life from what seemed to be an unstoppable descent into oblivion.
I’ve never met Tiger but from all accounts, he’s not the nicest guy you’ll ever come across, either on the course or off it.
Rival players, officials, commentators, fans and even some of his friends have often painted a picture of someone with an unedifying tendency towards being arrogant, inconsiderate, aloof and difficult.
His ex-wife would probably add a few rather more unflattering adjectives to describe the man who exposed her to such public humiliation.
But as with many great sportsmen, those same single-minded, ruthlessly selfish characteristics also propelled him to be the greatest ever player of a game once dominated exclusively by white men.
And they’ve now driven him to this astonishing comeback, when virtually everyone had stuck a fork in him.
Tiger, for all his faults, is a fighter like Rocky Balboa; a man with guts, determination, courage, resilience and a burning desire to succeed.
At 41 years old, wracked with pain from multiple injuries, his golf game in shambolic, humiliating tatters, and with his private life a scandalous fiasco, the easy thing for Tiger to do would have been to quit.
He didn’t need the money, or the physical pain, and he certainly didn’t need the endless mockery.
That he chose to fight on, and win again, is a stunning testimony to his strength of character.
It’s also a remarkably powerful message to every snowflake out there that moan life’s being so unfair to them.
As Rocky so rightly said, life IS unfair.
It’s tough, and can be nasty. Bad stuff will happen to all of us that can feel utterly suffocating.
You’ll feel like giving up.
Tiger certainly did at one stage.
But he didn’t.
He got up, dusted himself down, and powered on.
Tiger Woods is not everyone’s idea of a role model, for good reason; he’s self-evidently been flawed human being.
But last night, he showed the world what being a winner in life really entails: it means not blaming others for your own problems, and it means never giving up.
JUSTICE A LA ALASKA
Married Alaska air traffic controller, 34, who kidnapped a hitchhiker, choked her until she was unconscious and then masturbated on her is given 'a pass' by judge and will not even have to register as a sex offender
Daily Mail
September 24, 2018
Justin Schneider, 34, was arrested in Anchorage last August after attacking the woman. He had offered her a ride home, then attacked her, strangled her until she passed out, then masturbated over her to 'fulfill himself sexually'.
In 2017, he was granted bail after he was arrested and was allowed to await trial at home with his wife and young children while wearing an ankle monitor.
This week, he struck a highly criticized deal with prosecutors which saw him plead guilty only to one count of felony assault. Judge Michael Corey has been harshly criticized for accepting the deal.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And well the judge should be!
Daily Mail
September 24, 2018
Justin Schneider, 34, was arrested in Anchorage last August after attacking the woman. He had offered her a ride home, then attacked her, strangled her until she passed out, then masturbated over her to 'fulfill himself sexually'.
In 2017, he was granted bail after he was arrested and was allowed to await trial at home with his wife and young children while wearing an ankle monitor.
This week, he struck a highly criticized deal with prosecutors which saw him plead guilty only to one count of felony assault. Judge Michael Corey has been harshly criticized for accepting the deal.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And well the judge should be!
Monday, September 24, 2018
FEINSTEIN HAS LETTERS FROM TWO MORE KAVANAUGH ACCUSERS
Senator Feinstein produces two more letters from women who say they were molested by Judge Kavanaugh
By Pamela Putz
On Monday at the 11 th hour and 59 minutes, Sen. Dianne Feinstein threw another curve at the Kavanaugh nomination. She produced two more letters from women who say they were molested by Judge Kavanaugh. Both women say they suffered from flashbacks when they heard about Christine Ford’s accusation.
These latest accusations come on the heels of a New Yorker article in which Deborah Ramirez, 53, claims that when she was at Yale University in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”
Baltimore realtor Betsie Underwood, 53, says that when both were at the Rainbow Day Care Center 50 years ago, that meanie Kavanaugh crawled over and grabbed her pussy. She said that Mrs. Fairweather, the day care owner, quickly grabbed Kavanaugh and gave him a good spanking. She has been so traumatized by the flashback that she is now under the care of a psychiatrist.
Brooklyn housewife Rachael Goldberg, 53, says that when she and Kavenaugh were in kindergarten together, he yanked her hair so hard that she fell out of her seat. As she was falling, the brute’s hand brushed across her titties. The teacher gave Kavanaugh 10 demerits. Goldberg is now also under the care of a psychiatrist.
Senator Feinstein asks what more proof do you want that Kavanaugh is unfit to serve on the Supreme Court. Republican senators Jeff Flake and Susan Collins said these allegations are very serious and it is now unlikely they will approve Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Kavanaugh categorically denied the new accusations. “I have absolutely no recollection of being in a day care facility or in kindergarten,” the Supreme Court nominee said.
President Trump was at the Trump Tower in New York preparing for his meetings with world leaders at the UN this week. He was overheard saying: “Grabbed her by the pussy? I told you Judge Kavanaugh was my kinda guy.”
By Pamela Putz
On Monday at the 11 th hour and 59 minutes, Sen. Dianne Feinstein threw another curve at the Kavanaugh nomination. She produced two more letters from women who say they were molested by Judge Kavanaugh. Both women say they suffered from flashbacks when they heard about Christine Ford’s accusation.
These latest accusations come on the heels of a New Yorker article in which Deborah Ramirez, 53, claims that when she was at Yale University in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”
Baltimore realtor Betsie Underwood, 53, says that when both were at the Rainbow Day Care Center 50 years ago, that meanie Kavanaugh crawled over and grabbed her pussy. She said that Mrs. Fairweather, the day care owner, quickly grabbed Kavanaugh and gave him a good spanking. She has been so traumatized by the flashback that she is now under the care of a psychiatrist.
Brooklyn housewife Rachael Goldberg, 53, says that when she and Kavenaugh were in kindergarten together, he yanked her hair so hard that she fell out of her seat. As she was falling, the brute’s hand brushed across her titties. The teacher gave Kavanaugh 10 demerits. Goldberg is now also under the care of a psychiatrist.
Senator Feinstein asks what more proof do you want that Kavanaugh is unfit to serve on the Supreme Court. Republican senators Jeff Flake and Susan Collins said these allegations are very serious and it is now unlikely they will approve Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Kavanaugh categorically denied the new accusations. “I have absolutely no recollection of being in a day care facility or in kindergarten,” the Supreme Court nominee said.
President Trump was at the Trump Tower in New York preparing for his meetings with world leaders at the UN this week. He was overheard saying: “Grabbed her by the pussy? I told you Judge Kavanaugh was my kinda guy.”
MAYBE ITS JUST ME
by Bob Walsh
I like Americas Got Talent. I watch it with my lady friend, who likes it a whole bunch. She was very fond of Michael Ketterer. He does in fact have a modest amount of talent but has a very good sob story. He and his wife have adopted several children with serious medical or developmental issues. He is a "worship leader" and a pediatric mental health care nurse.
He was arrested Thursday for felony spousal abuse for thumping his wife in a hotel room. She wasn't that seriously thumped but she did have marks on her so the cops arrested him for felony spousal battery. It will almost certainly be plea-bargained down.
Some people just have a hard time not winning, especially when everybody around him tells him the sun rises out of his ass every morning.
First place this past season was taking by an outstanding close-up magician. Second spot went to a truly incredible acrobatic dance group. I think he was fourth or fifth. Life is hard.
Maybe it is a personality defect in me, but I really don't give a rat's ass about their sob stories. Most people in the world (except me I guess) had it hard. I don't care if you adopted five kids with serious mental health problems. I don't care if your parents kicked you out because you are gay. I don't care if you dog molested you when you were seven. A talent show should be for TALENT and not hard luck stories. I guess I am just mean.
I like Americas Got Talent. I watch it with my lady friend, who likes it a whole bunch. She was very fond of Michael Ketterer. He does in fact have a modest amount of talent but has a very good sob story. He and his wife have adopted several children with serious medical or developmental issues. He is a "worship leader" and a pediatric mental health care nurse.
He was arrested Thursday for felony spousal abuse for thumping his wife in a hotel room. She wasn't that seriously thumped but she did have marks on her so the cops arrested him for felony spousal battery. It will almost certainly be plea-bargained down.
Some people just have a hard time not winning, especially when everybody around him tells him the sun rises out of his ass every morning.
First place this past season was taking by an outstanding close-up magician. Second spot went to a truly incredible acrobatic dance group. I think he was fourth or fifth. Life is hard.
Maybe it is a personality defect in me, but I really don't give a rat's ass about their sob stories. Most people in the world (except me I guess) had it hard. I don't care if you adopted five kids with serious mental health problems. I don't care if your parents kicked you out because you are gay. I don't care if you dog molested you when you were seven. A talent show should be for TALENT and not hard luck stories. I guess I am just mean.
I WILL JUST DIE IF I DON'T GET THIS SELFIE
by Bob Walsh
Yes, it happened again. Thanh Nguyen, 32, of Sunnyvale, CA, was at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and decide she absolutely must have a selfie of herself at the edge of a 200 foot cliff overlooking Lake Superior.
Two kayakers saw her fall and took her body to a nearby beach for the local authorities. I hope she got the picture.
Yes, it happened again. Thanh Nguyen, 32, of Sunnyvale, CA, was at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and decide she absolutely must have a selfie of herself at the edge of a 200 foot cliff overlooking Lake Superior.
Two kayakers saw her fall and took her body to a nearby beach for the local authorities. I hope she got the picture.
SO SHE SHOWS UP
I look at it this way. Her assertion may or may not be true. It does not matter. This has been a political assassination attempt from the time DiFi got the letter. Professor Ford and the Democraps have NOTHING to gain by her actually appearing and testifying and much to lose. She will have to go ON THE RECORD (if not under oath) and actually SAY SOMETHING.
That is why they desperately want Kavanaugh to go first. That is how the Spanish Inquisition worked. The defendant had to appear first and defend himself against ANYHING he even THOUGHT they MIGHT accuse him of. Once he was done he was done, and could be accused of anything else and he had no opportunity to rebut.
She waited 36 years to make her claim. (OK, many victims do not report crimes but this was a groping and allegedly maybe an ATTEMPTED sexual assault. She wasn't actually raped, not even close, though many of Kavanaugh's accuser in the media are making that assertion. They have thrown the mudballs out there. As an added but important bonus they have clearly demonstrated that any FUTURE Trump appointment will get the same treatment, a full-on character assassination helped on by the manipulation by the Democraps in congress. This is a STALL. Everybody KNOWS it is a stall.
I just hope the Republicans grow some spine and call for the question.
That is why they desperately want Kavanaugh to go first. That is how the Spanish Inquisition worked. The defendant had to appear first and defend himself against ANYHING he even THOUGHT they MIGHT accuse him of. Once he was done he was done, and could be accused of anything else and he had no opportunity to rebut.
She waited 36 years to make her claim. (OK, many victims do not report crimes but this was a groping and allegedly maybe an ATTEMPTED sexual assault. She wasn't actually raped, not even close, though many of Kavanaugh's accuser in the media are making that assertion. They have thrown the mudballs out there. As an added but important bonus they have clearly demonstrated that any FUTURE Trump appointment will get the same treatment, a full-on character assassination helped on by the manipulation by the Democraps in congress. This is a STALL. Everybody KNOWS it is a stall.
I just hope the Republicans grow some spine and call for the question.
HANOI JANE ADMITS SHE SCREWED THE POOCH
by Bob Walsh
Jane Fond had an interview with Colbert a couple of days ago. She admitted that the photograph of her on the anti-aircraft gun in North Vietnam was a stupid thing and that it would haunt her until the end of her days. I suppose that is as close to an apology as she is ever likely to utter. I seem to recall that she also semi-apologized a few years ago for ratting out the POWs who gave her notes in the belief she was going to smuggle them out to the U.S. Instead she gave them to the Viet Cong and they beat the shit out of the note writers.
Goodie for Fonda. Now maybe the VFW will invite her to a convention Or not.
Personally I think she should have been prosecuted for treason.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Me too!
Jane Fond had an interview with Colbert a couple of days ago. She admitted that the photograph of her on the anti-aircraft gun in North Vietnam was a stupid thing and that it would haunt her until the end of her days. I suppose that is as close to an apology as she is ever likely to utter. I seem to recall that she also semi-apologized a few years ago for ratting out the POWs who gave her notes in the belief she was going to smuggle them out to the U.S. Instead she gave them to the Viet Cong and they beat the shit out of the note writers.
Goodie for Fonda. Now maybe the VFW will invite her to a convention Or not.
Personally I think she should have been prosecuted for treason.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Me too!
MORE 0N RUSSIAN WARPLANE SHOT DOWN BY RUSSIAN MISSILE FIRED BY RUSSIAN ALLY SYRIA
Russia blames Israel 'entirely' for plane shot down over Syria
Israel Hayom
September 23, 2018
"We believe that the blame for the Russian Il-20 aircraft tragedy lies entirely with the Israeli Air Force," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday, after days of blame shifting over the downing of a Russian military plane off the Syrian coast last week.
On Sept. 17, a Russian reconnaissance plane carrying 15 crew members was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire responding to an Israeli missile strike on a facility in Latakia. All 15 Russian crew members aboard the aircraft were killed, prompting a strong rebuke from Russia and appearing to cause friction between Israel and Russia.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow initially accused Israel of indirectly causing the incident, charging that an Israeli warning came less than a minute before the strike, leaving the Russian aircraft in the line of fire. But Russian President Vladimir Putin later called it "a chain of tragic, chance events."
Israel, meanwhile, placed the blame squarely on Syria.
In a detailed account of the events leading up to the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Israel on Sunday of using the Russian aircraft as cover for its attack on a Syrian facility.
In its report, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed previously undisclosed radar data and communications between Russian and Israeli figures, and concluded that "the military leadership of Israel either has no appreciation for the level of relations with Russia, or has no control over individual commands or commanding officers who understood that their actions would lead to tragedy," Russian news network RT reported.
According to Konashenkov, the Israeli Air Force left the Russian aircraft "virtually no time for any safety maneuvers, in a clear violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreements." His remarks rested on claims by Russian officials that Israel provided "less than a minute" of warning before launching its strike. Israeli officials have dismissed this claim, with one official telling Israel Hayom it was "much more than one minute."
In a briefing Sunday, Konashenkov said that the Israeli warning also failed to specify the exact target of the strike, citing only a planned strike on "industrial facilities" in northern Syria. The spokesman called this "misinformation," and said it prompted the Russian command to order its reconnaissance plane back to base, where it came under Syrian fire.
"Once the Syrian air defenses responded to the initial strike, the Israeli jets switched on radar jamming and pulled back, apparently preparing for another attack. One of the jets then approached the Syrian coast – and the Russian plane that was preparing to land," Konashenkov said, explaining that the Russian plane could easily appear to the Syrians as part of the Israeli attack and insisting that the Israeli pilots "must have been well aware" of this.
He went on to say that Israel's "reckless actions" could have also jeopardized "any passenger or transport aircraft that may have happened to be in the area" at the time of the strike.
"This is an extremely ungrateful response to all that has been done by the Russian Federation for Israel and the Israeli people recently," Konashenkov said.
In the coming weeks it will become clearer whether Israel's run-in with Russia will curtail its freedom to maneuver in Syria.
Israel says its jets targeted a Syrian facility that held weapons for the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, noting it alerted Russia ahead of time as per deconfliction agreements.
Earlier Sunday, an Israeli government official estimated that the "mini-crisis" with Russia would subside within a matter of weeks. According to the official, the countries' respective interests in Syria had not changed and therefore relations would return to normal over the long term.
"The Russians understand we don't want and didn't want to harm them and they also understand Israel's need to act in Syria," the official said, "which is why they have permitted the coordination mechanism until now."
In that vein, an IDF official said the army's deconfliction line of communication with Russia, designed to coordinate the two countries' respective air force activities in Syria, would be streamlined following the incident.
In accordance with protocol, the IDF official spoke anonymously Friday after an Israeli delegation returned from Moscow where they briefed officials.
The delegation, led by air force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, presented Moscow with its findings on the incident, "including recordings of the conversations between the Israeli Air Force and the Russian Air Force component in Syria," said the official.
"We proved how the reckless Syrian anti-aircraft fire was the direct cause of the hit on the Russian aircraft. They fired quite recklessly and irresponsibly and unprofessionally into the air long after our planes were no longer there," the official said.
More than 20 Syrian anti-aircraft missiles were fired during the incident, the official said.
"Our Russian counterparts had a few questions, those questions were answered," the official added. "Our impression is that the discussions were professional and that the information was well received.
"We acted in accordance with the standard operating procedures that are in place with the Russian military. But our freedom of movement is paramount. ... The IDF will continue to implement our strategic interests."
Israel Hayom
September 23, 2018
"We believe that the blame for the Russian Il-20 aircraft tragedy lies entirely with the Israeli Air Force," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday, after days of blame shifting over the downing of a Russian military plane off the Syrian coast last week.
On Sept. 17, a Russian reconnaissance plane carrying 15 crew members was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire responding to an Israeli missile strike on a facility in Latakia. All 15 Russian crew members aboard the aircraft were killed, prompting a strong rebuke from Russia and appearing to cause friction between Israel and Russia.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow initially accused Israel of indirectly causing the incident, charging that an Israeli warning came less than a minute before the strike, leaving the Russian aircraft in the line of fire. But Russian President Vladimir Putin later called it "a chain of tragic, chance events."
Israel, meanwhile, placed the blame squarely on Syria.
In a detailed account of the events leading up to the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Israel on Sunday of using the Russian aircraft as cover for its attack on a Syrian facility.
In its report, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed previously undisclosed radar data and communications between Russian and Israeli figures, and concluded that "the military leadership of Israel either has no appreciation for the level of relations with Russia, or has no control over individual commands or commanding officers who understood that their actions would lead to tragedy," Russian news network RT reported.
According to Konashenkov, the Israeli Air Force left the Russian aircraft "virtually no time for any safety maneuvers, in a clear violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreements." His remarks rested on claims by Russian officials that Israel provided "less than a minute" of warning before launching its strike. Israeli officials have dismissed this claim, with one official telling Israel Hayom it was "much more than one minute."
In a briefing Sunday, Konashenkov said that the Israeli warning also failed to specify the exact target of the strike, citing only a planned strike on "industrial facilities" in northern Syria. The spokesman called this "misinformation," and said it prompted the Russian command to order its reconnaissance plane back to base, where it came under Syrian fire.
"Once the Syrian air defenses responded to the initial strike, the Israeli jets switched on radar jamming and pulled back, apparently preparing for another attack. One of the jets then approached the Syrian coast – and the Russian plane that was preparing to land," Konashenkov said, explaining that the Russian plane could easily appear to the Syrians as part of the Israeli attack and insisting that the Israeli pilots "must have been well aware" of this.
He went on to say that Israel's "reckless actions" could have also jeopardized "any passenger or transport aircraft that may have happened to be in the area" at the time of the strike.
"This is an extremely ungrateful response to all that has been done by the Russian Federation for Israel and the Israeli people recently," Konashenkov said.
In the coming weeks it will become clearer whether Israel's run-in with Russia will curtail its freedom to maneuver in Syria.
Israel says its jets targeted a Syrian facility that held weapons for the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, noting it alerted Russia ahead of time as per deconfliction agreements.
Earlier Sunday, an Israeli government official estimated that the "mini-crisis" with Russia would subside within a matter of weeks. According to the official, the countries' respective interests in Syria had not changed and therefore relations would return to normal over the long term.
"The Russians understand we don't want and didn't want to harm them and they also understand Israel's need to act in Syria," the official said, "which is why they have permitted the coordination mechanism until now."
In that vein, an IDF official said the army's deconfliction line of communication with Russia, designed to coordinate the two countries' respective air force activities in Syria, would be streamlined following the incident.
In accordance with protocol, the IDF official spoke anonymously Friday after an Israeli delegation returned from Moscow where they briefed officials.
The delegation, led by air force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, presented Moscow with its findings on the incident, "including recordings of the conversations between the Israeli Air Force and the Russian Air Force component in Syria," said the official.
"We proved how the reckless Syrian anti-aircraft fire was the direct cause of the hit on the Russian aircraft. They fired quite recklessly and irresponsibly and unprofessionally into the air long after our planes were no longer there," the official said.
More than 20 Syrian anti-aircraft missiles were fired during the incident, the official said.
"Our Russian counterparts had a few questions, those questions were answered," the official added. "Our impression is that the discussions were professional and that the information was well received.
"We acted in accordance with the standard operating procedures that are in place with the Russian military. But our freedom of movement is paramount. ... The IDF will continue to implement our strategic interests."
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