[Hot Air] Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was charged on Monday for the first time with sex-trafficking of a minor, as federal prosecutors accused her of grooming a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual acts with Mr. Epstein and later paying her...
The new charges against Ms. Maxwell go further than those contained in an earlier indictment that accused her of helping Mr. Epstein recruit, groom and ultimately sexually abuse girls, but did not include sex-trafficking allegations.
(CNN)The newly hired head of diversity and inclusion at US Special Operations Command has been reassigned as the military conducts an investigation of his controversial social media posts, military spokesmen said Monday, including one that appeared to compare former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
On June 20, Richard Torres-Estrada posted a picture of Trump holding a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church posted alongside a picture of Hitler in front of a crowd giving the Nazi salute. The photo of Hitler had been altered to show him holding a Bible. Torres-Estrada commented in Spanish, saying, "Let me leave this here for you and slowly back away (while I continue to work from home)." A senior defense official told CNN that the post comparing Trump to Hitler was among the social media posts under investigation.
The image of Trump in front of the church was from June 1, at the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations against overly aggressive policing following George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police. US Park Police and other federal authorities cleared Lafayette Square, a park across the street the White House traditionally used for peaceful protests and demonstrations. Authorities used tear gas, riot shields and batons to clear the area before Trump walked across the park for the photo in front of the church.
In February, Torres-Estrada also posted a meme to his Facebook page, which was public until Monday night, saying Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was "MISSING" after he left his home state for Cancun, Mexico, as Texas suffered from widespread power outages in the wake of a brutal winter storm. It's not clear if that post is part of the investigation.
#5
They will put him in a cubicle and tell him not to touch anything.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/30/2021 11:02 Comments ||
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#6
My guess is somebody with SOCOM connections called the Kalorama Kompound Supreme Soviet and told the First Secretary that his hands on whack-a-mole toolset would be badly damaged by the woke blob they were sending as the new IA Zampoliet and that got derailed. You need a few neanderthals for the wet work.
[SpaceNews] Congress raises concerns about FAA’s handling of Starship launch license violation
As SpaceX gears up for another test flight of a Starship prototype, the Federal Aviation Administration is facing new scrutiny from Congress for how it handled SpaceX’s violation of its launch license on an earlier test flight.
SpaceX had planned to launch its SN11 Starship vehicle March 29 from its Boca Chica, Texas, test site. That flight will be similar to those of previous Starship prototypes, going to an altitude of 10 kilometers before landing on a nearby pad.
However, SpaceX called off the March 29 launch attempt because an FAA inspector could not arrive to observe the flight during a five-hour window. “FAA inspector unable to reach Starbase in time for launch today,” tweeted Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, using the proposed new name for the Boca Chica site. “Postponed to no earlier than tomorrow.”
The requirement for an FAA presence on site at the test site is new for the SN11 launch. The latest version of SpaceX’s FAA launch license for the Starship suborbital test flight program, issued March 12, allows those test flights to take place “only when an FAA Safety Inspector is present at SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch and landing site.”
The FAA cleared SpaceX to proceed with launches, with SN9 and SN10 launching and landing — and both exploding upon or shortly after landing — on Feb. 2 and March 3, respectively. Neither caused any damage outside of the SpaceX test site.
The FAA’s response to SpaceX’s launch license violation, including the lack of any penalties beyond the investigation, prompted criticism from two key members of Congress. In a March 25 letter to FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) sought to “register our concerns” with the incident. DeFazio is chair of the House Transportation Committee and Larsen the chair of its aviation subcommittee.
“Given the high-risk nature of the industry, we are disappointed that the FAA declined to conduct an independent review of the event and, to the best of our knowledge, has not pursued any form of enforcement action,” they wrote after summarizing the incident and investigation.
In the letter, DeFazio and Larsen called on the FAA to “resist any potential undue influence on launch safety decision-making” by taking “all the time and actions necessary” to evaluate proposed launches. They also urged the FAA to implement “a strict policy to deal with violations of FAA launch and reentry licenses” that includes civil penalties, and to evaluate its current approach to safety oversight and enforcement for commercial space activities.
#3
Doubt this will happen, they would get better results attempting to stop a freight train doing 50 MPH. You guys are Decades late, and Billions short. Good luck.
#8
The "stuck" the unexpected explosive failure again this morning at the Boca Chica Fireworks Emporium.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/30/2021 9:55 Comments ||
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#9
Maybe I need another cup of coffee, but what was the actual violation by SpaceX? They scrubbed a flight because some Federal hack with a polyester tie wasn't there to watch; doesn't sound like a foul to me.
#10
Representatives from such well run states as Oregon and Washington are surely more competent than some "hacker" entrepreneur and his gaggle of "unwoke" mechanics.
#11
RWR: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it..."
Posted by: Matt ||
03/30/2021 13:09 Comments ||
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#12
Musk had to move from California to Texas because of Democrats. Will he have to move from the United States to, say, Australia because of Democrats?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/30/2021 13:52 Comments ||
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#13
Really. It reads like our FAA official wanted his hotel bill picked up or "can't make it in time."
#14
International waters are just a few miles away, Brownsville has a good port, and SpaceX will soon have mobile launching and recovery platforms as noted above. And Elon can always buy a convenient island someplace nearby, outside the territorial grasp of the Communist US government.
They are in a good position to tell the US Government to go piss up a rope.
Posted by: Ho Chi Snemp6051 ||
03/30/2021 16:55 Comments ||
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, congressman and one-time presidential candidate, is going to work for a lobbying firm.
Shumaker Advisors announced Tuesday that Sanford would be joining the firm as an executive vice president and principal. The government relations arm of a law firm founded in 1925, Shumaker Advisors operates seven offices in Ohio, Florida, Michigan and the Carolinas, according to its website.
"Mark’s knowledge of policymaking at both the state and federal level is unmatched. He has a command of the issues, the process, and the politics, and our clients will be well served by his leadership," said Shumaker Advisors Florida executive vice president David Jolly, a former congressman whose time in the House overlapped with Sanford’s second congressional career.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Sanford, technically an advisor at the firm, would register as a lobbyist.
"I have been honored to serve the citizens of South Carolina and of the United States and look forward to this new chapter," Sanford said. "I’ve always tried not only to make government smaller, but to well understand its details, and in this light I look forward to joining the team of outstanding professionals at Shumaker."
[Red State] The Biden Administration’s subservient attitude to China is becoming more and more noticeable. After four years of the press and Democrats insisting that Trump wouldn’t criticize Russia, even though he did so many times and held them accountable through policy, Biden and his cohorts are just fully bending the knee to the communists at this point.
A few weeks ago, Antony Blinken attempted to confront the Chinese delegation and got his butt handed to him in one of the more embarrassing scenes in recent foreign policy history (see China Absolutely Owns Antony Blinken and Our President Can’t Climb Stairs, and It’s Not Fine).
This morning, Blinken appeared on CNN to get his weekly tongue bath. In the process, he still couldn’t bring himself to just say that China did something wrong in regards to COVID (and a myriad of other issues, including genocide).
[BREITBART] We got a peek into the future of woke diversity on March 23, when Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced that she was so mad at the Biden administration for supposedly neglecting Asian-American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) that she wouldn’t vote to confirm any more of Biden’s non-minority appointees. "I will vote for racial minorities and I will vote for LGBTQ, but anybody else I’m not voting for," she said. "Until then, I am a ’no’ vote on the floor on all non-diversity nominees."
Explaining her stance, Duckworth recalled that she had been on a conference call with White House staffers and had complained about this alleged lack of diversity. The response that came back was not at all satisfactory to Duckworth: "The first words out of the staff mouth was ’We’re very proud of Vice President Harris,’ which is incredibly insulting."
One might wonder why it’s insulting to bring up the heritage of Harris, who is a woman and half-Indian and half-Black, and thus plenty diverse; she was after all the first person Biden chose last summer for his administration. And yet Duckworth said that to her the Biden staffer’s words were a "trigger."
We might step back and observe: Who knew that Illinois, typically thought of as a middle-of-the-road state, had in fact elected one of the woken? (Or could it be that Duckworth is mad that she was not selected as Biden’s running mate, perhaps in part because she was making radically woke comments?)
Interestingly, Duckworth’s boycott of Biden nominees was immediately endorsed by a second AAPI politician, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HA), who has long complained about supposed underrepresentation of AAPIs.
The honourable senator is the child of a Thai Chinese mother and an American father who continued his family’s military tradition going back to the Revolution. She lost both legs when the helicopter she was piloting in Iraq was shot down by jihadis, the first female double amputee of the second Iraq war. She then served in the Illinois National Guard as a Lieutenant Colonel while working for the state and federal governments until she ran for Congress in 2012, where she’s been ever since. Lots of other firsts, too.
#5
Fascism will always eat the political class that initially supports it. They thing, because of greed and lust for power, that the fascist movement will reward them. Once a leader is established that ruler will, as history proves, will eradicate all of the rubes that could pose a threat. Unfortunately we will have to revisit these event in our lifetime.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/30/2021 11:11 Comments ||
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#6
SO many groups to represent! The one thing they agree on, however, is no more whites. Then they can get the 'right' balance of victims.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/30/2021 12:08 Comments ||
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[EpochTimes] Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), if she chooses to run for office again in 2022, will have at least one GOP primary challenger after Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka announced Monday she will run for the state’s Senate seat in 2022. Retire the Alaskan Snow-Blower
In a statement, Tshibaka, a Republican, said she’s running "for the Alaskans who believe government is of the people, by the people, and for the people," adding that "the D.C. insiders need to be held accountable to us."
Murkowski has faced backlash from within the Republican Party in recent weeks, coming after she voted to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. The Alaska GOP voted to censure Murkowski over the vote in March, while accusing her of frequently voting against the interests of the party.
"We know what Washington, D.C. thinks about Alaska: We’re here for their benefit, and we won’t put up much of a fight. After nearly 20 years in D.C., Lisa Murkowski thinks the same way," Tshibaka also in a video from her campaign. "But you know what? Nothing scares the D.C. political insiders more than the thought of a strong, independent Alaskan leader in their ranks. One they can’t bully. One they can’t control. One they can’t silence."
It’s not clear yet if Murkowski, who was first appointed to the Senate by her father who was then-Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2002, will seek reelection. Trump announced during a speech in late February that he would move to primary her and other GOP lawmakers who either voted to impeach or convict him.
"She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be—in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad senator," the former president also said in a statement in February.
[MSN] Kelly Tshibaka, the state commissioner of administration, announced Monday that she would step down from her state job and challenge Murkowski, a vocal critic of Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... whom the former president has vowed to oppose in next year’s midterm elections.
Tshibaka has tapped National Public Affairs, a consulting firm made up of Trump’s top 2020 campaign advisers, to help oversee her effort. Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark and battleground states director Nick Trainer, who relaunched the firm after the presidential election, will serve as Tshibaka’s senior advisers.
The candidate has also signed on Tim Murtaugh, who was communications director on Trump’s reelection effort, to serve as a senior communications adviser. Mary Ann Pruitt, an Alaska-based political consultant who was a senior figure on Murkowski’s successful 2016 reelection campaign, has abandoned the senator and is working for Tshibaka.
The involvement underscores Trumpworld’s antipathy toward Murkowski, who was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict the former president for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Some $$ and hours blogging for her to be donated to Ms. Tshibaka.
Between Fred and he wife' Babylon gotchas and $$ to help replace 10 to 15 Blue leaning Rhinos....
I might just have to come out of retirement.
BTW: I see Ms. Tshibaka resigned her position yesterday. Unlike Ms. Harris that held on to her "worked for" elected seat until being sworn in as VP in Charge of Biden.
#2
Retire the Alaskan Snow-Blower Couldn't agree more - second the motion - motion carries-
Retire the Maine Snow-Blower: Susan Collins
Do I hear a second ?
Posted by: Helmuth, Speaking for the Full Bosomed2584 ||
03/30/2021 9:30 Comments ||
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#3
Murkowski can easily be replaced by a real conservative. Collins cannot. In Maine you have a choice: full-on Democrat, or part-time squishy moderate.
Collins stays, simply because of the reality of the electorate in Maine.
Posted by: These Forkbeard7574 ||
03/30/2021 23:40 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Hot Air] Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was charged on Monday for the first time with sex-trafficking of a minor, as federal prosecutors accused her of grooming a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual acts with Mr. Epstein and later paying her...
(CNN)The newly hired head of diversity and inclusion at US Special Operations Command has been reassigned as the military conducts an investigation of his controversial social media posts, military spokesmen said Monday, including one that appeared to compare former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, congressman and one-time presidential candidate, is going to work for a lobbying firm.
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
