[Baltimore Sun via Zero Hedge] The evolution of the Baltimore City murder crisis is now pushing out into Baltimore County, according to a new report from The Baltimore Sun.
About 50 homicides were recorded in 2019, surpassing the previous high of 42, set during the crack epidemic of the early 1990s, according to FBI statistics. On a yearly change, homicides in the county are up 85%.
Baltimore County homicides usually fluctuate in the low 20s. It wasn't until the 2015 Baltimore City Riots when homicides in the county have jumped ever since.
The Sun also cited police data that recorded 54 nonfatal shootings in the county in 2019 and 56 in 2018.
There was even a mass stabbing in late September at a luxurious shopping center in Hunt Valley, where four people were randomly stabbed, and police eventually killed the attacker.
The primary reason for the explosion in homicides and violent crime in the county is due in part to the murder crisis in the city. Violent crime is being pushed out and is now spilling over in the communities five to ten miles from city limits.
Baltimore City ended 2019 with record homicides, recorded 348 deaths, and a per capita homicide rate of 57 per 100,000 ‐ one of the highest in the US.
"Any homicide is completely unacceptable to me and I'm devastated for every single family that lost a loved one to a murder in Baltimore County this past year," Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said Thursday, citing domestic violence and drug-related crimes contributed to the wave of deaths in 2019.
[Bloomberg] Shell companies have come under attack for obscuring illicit money flowing into real estate. But it turns out they’re also a problem for the Pentagon.
Some Defense Department suppliers have used such front companies to fraudulently win manufacturing bids, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office study of Defense Department contractors.
In some cases, the shell companies helped contractors obscure that they were making U.S. military equipment abroad, the GAO said, posing a risk to national security and quality control. More often, they were used to win contracts meant for companies owned by disabled veterans or minorities, it said.
The government watchdog reviewed 32 cases that made their way to criminal prosecutions or lawsuits between 2012 and 2018. Taken together, they illustrate how the Pentagon’s $350 billion in annual contracting can be gamed using companies that exist largely on paper.
The problem could be far bigger, since the GAO’s study wasn’t intended to gauge its scope. The watchdog said the Pentagon had made only spotty efforts to pierce the secrecy of shell companies.
"I don’t think anybody really knows the extent of the problem," said Robert Burton, a former top government procurement attorney now at Crowell & Moring. "I do know that some of these folks have become quite proficient at disguising ownership."
[Armstrong Economics] COMMENT: Marty, your sources were correct when you said John McCain had conspired against Trump and was trying to help Hillary. The Inspector General Report confirms what you said long before McCain died.
Truly amazing the contacts you have!
SJ
REPLY: The Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign also proved John McCain was feeding info to Comey to stop Trump. McCain provided the FBI the Christopher Steele dossier which was funded by Hillary. It was that report which McCain received from Hillary that was then used before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court by the FBI to obtain the wiretap on former Donald Trump campaign official Carter Page. This was even AFTER the Department of Justice found no probable cause for the wiretap.
The Inspector General’s report has confirmed indeed that Senator John McCain provided the cover for Hillary since it was a Republican who handed FBI Director James Comey the Steele report even after the FBI had terminated the former British intelligence officer as a source. Russian-born lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin worked closely with the research firm Fusion GPS which commissioned the infamous Steele Dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC to smear Trump and begin the entire Russia-Gate affair. Interestingly, Akhmetshin also attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting.
John McCain was also the sponsor of the Magnitsky Act, which was to punish Russians for claiming that Magnitsky was killed in a Russian prison. But it was the Clintons who gave the wink and nod for the bankers to try to take over Russia by blackmailing Yeltsin for the 2000 election. McCain led the charge among Republicans to support Schumer’s resolution to deny any investigation into the Magnitsky affair. The Senate vote was a resounding 98-0 to deny the questioning of ANY Americans by Russia.
It was McCain who was leading the attack on Russia for sanctions and trying to stop the pipeline into Europe. McCain was also setting up his own version of the Clinton Foundation.
Let us not forget that the hackers who broke into John McCain’s laptop were operating from Ukraine. The hacking that the Democrats have blamed Russia for was operating in Ukraine, not Russia. That was retaliation for the Democrats installing their people after the coup and told the people if they overthrew this government, then they would be on their own. The motive to hack the Democrats had nothing to do with Russia. It was all in Ukraine.
#1
Something will eventually have to be done about this traitor's interment in the US Naval Academy cemetery. It's desecration pure and simple that his remains are buried there.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 9:24 Comments ||
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#2
Ladies and gentlemen, our 2008 Republican nominee for president.
[Townhall] It’s odd how the political left cheers America’s shortcomings and mourns its victories.
The United States killed the top terrorist on the planet Thursday, and Democrats were...upset. Perhaps "upset" is too vague, they were a combination of angry and scared.
They were angry that President Trump ordered an air strike on Qassem Soleimani, a man responsible for the deaths of more than 600 American soldiers and thousands more wounded. They tried to pretend they were glad he was dead, that he deserved to die, but their quick condemnation of the action that took him out exposed what they were really thinking. Any statement on the death of a terrorist leader containing the word "but" is not a good statement.
Weirdly, the people who use the word "justice" most often saw no justice in the death of a man who’s been killing innocent people for their whole lives. Ilhan Omar reacted the way someone would when their childhood hero passes away, then tried to fundraise off of it because anti-Americanism translates into cash on the left.
Rashida Tlaib warned about a "lawless President recklessly moves us closer to yet another unnecessary war that puts innocent lives at risk." She expressed no concerns for the innocent lives Soleimani had taken over his career.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez whined that "the President engaged in what is widely being recognized as an act of war against Iran, one that now risks the lives of millions of innocent people." The girl who saw "concentration camps" on our southern border has her head so far up where last night’s dinner resides that she can’t see the death right in front of her.
#1
Power by any means necessary. Power is self rationalizing and self justifying. They have made themselves their own god and anyone who disagrees is apostate and deserves destruction.
#6
A fundamental trait of socialists is competitive radicalism, always can you top this. They have run about since the election of 1940 accusing any and now every opponent of being Nazis.
Well we just killed a damned Nazi. A blood drenched ideologue who would have cheerfully watched the world burn to advance his repugnant agenda, born in the rancid bowels of the Dark Ages. THIS is your f'ing Nazi, not some guy that looks like Robert Young who said Merry Christmas to you.
#8
The left pouting about Soliemani's death is collateral damage. They just don't know it yet.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 10:58 Comments ||
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#9
Of course. Most Democrats are best described as anti-nationals. The few that do not hate America or the word 'nationalist', are maybe ex-servicemen or have strong family roots. Some of them are guilt-ridden maniacs and their personal shame extends to envelop the entire nation and they become America Apologetics ! But they are all committed people who want America to conform to the global standard of 'progressive democracy', which has failed its citizens consistently across the world. What's most dangerous about Dems is that they are people who believe the majority of a nation can be coerced to fall in line with their vision of what America should be. Democrats are opposed to Democracy.
[Summit News] The President of the Council on Foreign Relations
...the century-old, left-leaning meeting place for connected senior members of the deep state...
Richard N. Haass says that "the world will be the battlefield" following a dramatic escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran.
No doubt. But it has been for four decades...
Fears of a wider war are rising after Iran’s Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani was killed during an airstrike near Baghdad’s airport.
Haass warned that those who thought any war with Iran would look similar to previous military campaigns were being incredibly naive.
"Make no mistake: any war with Iran will not look like the 1990 Gulf war or the 2003 Iraq wars. It will be fought throughout the region w a wide range of tools vs a wide range of civilian, economic, & military targets. The region (and possibly the world) will be the battlefield," tweeted Haass.
He went on to assert that developments would lead to Iraqi authorities exerting great pressure on the U.S. to leave their country.
If we’re forced out, we’ll take our donations with us. Or perhaps just move it all to Kurdistan — wouldn’t that be fun?
#6
I used to be a Lutheran until that went all to hell, but it was never the first thing in the morning I woke up thinking of myself as.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 11:29 Comments ||
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#7
Hey shithead! The world has been the battle space since the crusades.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/05/2020 11:30 Comments ||
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#8
So, muzz screeching about jihad or commies screeching about struggle are not at war with everyone who disagrees with them? And those who disagree with muzzizm or communism should just lie back and enjoy it. Suck it, Haass...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 11:44 Comments ||
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#9
Suleimani created the f---ing "battle space," you idjit. Across Lebanon, Golan, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, Syria.
And Buenos Aires.
F--- off and go back to your think tank bubble world.
Um hey Kap I don't know how to tell you but my replacement was already chosen.
Thank you for your interest in my job though.
Colin Kaepernick
Verified account @Kaepernick7
There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.
How droll — Mr. Kaepernick believes the literal Aryans to be Brown people.
-------------------
Qasem Soleimani @Qasam_Soleimani6h6 hours ago
Got turned down by Eva Braun. Didn't know my heart could be shattered twice in 72 hours, but here we are.
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Qasem Soleimani @Qasam_SoleimaniJan 3
I don't care how drunk I am or how long the walk is. If Ted Kennedy thinks I'm getting in his Oldsmobile he's out of his mind.
----------------------
Qasem Soleimani @Qasam_Soleimani Jan 3
Qasem Soleimani Retweeted Qais al-Khazali
It appears my friend has joined me in the land of warm beer and unlimited male virgins.
Stay away from the Epstein guy. He's pretty weird.
[Stamford Advocate] In the hours since the Trump administration announced that the high-ranking Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani had been killed in a U.S. airstrike, Americans wondered: Does this mean war?
And for young people, there was a follow-up: Would I have to go?
The impact of President Donald Trump's decision to order a strike against Soleimani has yet to be seen, it has turned up the heat on America's already tense relationship with Iran, a country the president has portrayed as one of America's most dangerous adversaries. Google searches for terms such as "conscription", "Selective Service" and "Iran" spiked, according to Trends data, as youthful social media users on platforms like TikTok and Instagram dealt with this collective political anxiety the best way they knew how: by spinning out endless memes about getting drafted in a hypothetical, but seemingly imminent, World War III.
On Friday, the website for the Selective Service, a federal agency tasked with maintaining a database of adult men who could be called upon should a crisis require a draft, experienced technical difficulties as people flooded the site.
#2
A lot of the left has cynically been asking for an active draft for some time now. Never mind that the DOD doesn't want it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 8:21 Comments ||
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#3
And for young people, there was a follow-up: Would I have to go?
Pathetic. If a young man thinks like that, he doesn't deserve the food he's eating or the piece of ground he's standing on. Hundreds of thousands volunteer twice a year to jump through hoops for selection boards in lesser developed countries, just for a chance at paying back their motherland.
#4
Ignorance created by a education system that has chucked 'civics'. Lot's of time for "Death to America", little time given to citizenship.
Per the Constitutional authority granted to Congress under Article I, Section 8, Congress shall have the power to...organize and regulate the Militia. At the first sitting of Congress, they passed two militia acts in 1792. That is carried forward to today under Title X USC, subparagraph Militia.
Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
The 'draft' is a colloquial word when the term is Selective Service. That is, the selective activation of the federal unorganized militia. Whether you like it or not, if you are an American male citizen between 17 and 45 you are already members of the federal militia. That's the way its been since the inception of the republic.
Now skip over there to the 2nd Amendment.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Yeah, that same militia. The one the legislature and governor of VA are trying to shut down, as in "Disperse ye rebels".
#7
Perhaps not wholly in tune with reality, but I don't believe it. For starters just how much traffic is it going to take to shut down the selective service site? If we have learned anything over the last 2 or 3 decades certainly one thing would be that the world is full of computer armed pixies for hire and DOS attacks.
I would look to the resurrected answer or their masters the wwp.
#8
Rather have a few hundred extra miniguns and generous ammo than a bunch of snowflakes that melt in the desert.
Posted by: Hupaitle Lover of the Platypi3869 ||
01/05/2020 11:22 Comments ||
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#9
...And apparently the authors overlooked one tiny detail:
There is no draft. The machinery to execute it doesn't even exist any more. It was eliminated by order of the DoD in the 70s after we went to an all-volunteer military. To get one back, Congress would have to approve it. No, Orange Man Bad cannot wave his pen and phone and bring it back.
And - bluntly - Congress is unlikely to approve it, even if the Iranians were marching down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/05/2020 11:24 Comments ||
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#10
Do I have yo go??? Should read, How can I serve??? A very large portion of the youth are cowards. Fortunately, our military strength is good and we don't want or need them. I hope they all suffer guilt for enjoying the freedoms the non cowards are paying for with their lives.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/05/2020 11:29 Comments ||
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#11
I hope they all suffer guilt for enjoying the freedoms the non cowards are paying for with their lives
Hope for something that might actually come to pass...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 11:34 Comments ||
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#12
Do I get to keep the rank I have in Call of Duty or Battlefield?
(No idea if they have ranks having not played them but you get the idea.)
#13
Puppet Iranian Iraqi parlaiment just voted to expel American troops. So there's probably not much pressure for a draft just now. Trump wanted troops out, now Max Boot can complain about the Iranianraqis making that happen.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 11:58 Comments ||
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#14
Iraqis voting us out - love it. "Don't throw me into that briar patch..."
OrangeMan is making heads explode on six continents
#21
If the Pentagon can demonstrate how much fun it is to drive remotely-operated killbots on land, sea, and air, they'll have no shortage of applicants. Behold the power of weaponized autism!
#24
The draft is the ultimate imposition of government control over people's lives so of course the Democrats want it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/05/2020 20:27 Comments ||
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#25
Serving the country is one thing. Giving a power mad Democrat president unlimited numbers troops is quite another.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/05/2020 20:43 Comments ||
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#26
Hair-bear McCoi, what says you?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/05/2020 21:03 Comments ||
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#27
All that panicking burns hellacious amounts of energy and wastes incredible amounts of time in certain circles, which keeps them from applying that time and energy to anything more productive... or disruptive.
[Breitbart] In an interview that breaks every rule of the Hollywood PR handbook, iconoclastic filmmaker Terry Gilliam said that white men are unfairly blamed for everything that is wrong in the world and that the #MeToo movement has become a witch hunt as well as an excuse for some women to avoid taking responsibility for poor decisions.
Gilliam, who is a Monty Python veteran and has directed such visionary movies as Brazil and 12 Monkeys, gave an incendiary interview to the British newspaper the Independent in which he refused to kneel at the altar of political correctness and woke identity politics.
At one point, he jokingly referred to himself as a "black lesbian in transition."
Gilliam was supposed to be promoting his latest move The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce. But the filmmaker barely spoke about the movie and instead held forth on the current cultural climate.
His pronouncements were clearly too much for the reporter to handle, who took to Twitter to express her displeasure with him.
#2
Gilliam said that white men are unfairly blamed for everything that is wrong in the world and that the #MeToo movement has become a witch hunt as well as an excuse for some women to avoid taking responsibility for poor decisions.
Correct - because disagreeing with lefty talking points is 'incendiary'. If Gilliam was trashing Trump, he'd be speaking 'truth to power' or some such bullshit.
#9
sad, as he's been trying to make this movie for 20 years or so if I remember correctly. there's test screenings with Johnny Depp playing the lead IIRC.
now it will be destroyed before it even gets out the gate
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
01/05/2020 9:47 Comments ||
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Gilliam speaks truth (and must be punished for it) -- some refreshingly honest remarks by him:
"‘One [of my two women film producers] was a really good producer, and the other was a neurotic b***h. It wasn’t about their sex. It was about the position of power and how people use it.’
Gilliam then says he spoke to a famous actor recently. The topic of conversation was #MeToo.
‘She has got her story of being in the room and talking her way out,’ he said. ‘She says, “I can tell you all the girls who didn’t, and I know who they are and I know the bumps in their careers.”
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.