[NYPOST] A Fox Business news hound was busted last week trying to sneak a glass crack pipe into the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, sources and law enforcement told The Post.
Lawrence Crook III was on his way into the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse at 500 Pearl St. to cover the Sprint/T-Mobile merger trial on Dec. 9 when an eagle-eyed court security officer noticed a strange bulge in his sock, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident.
Crook immediately fessed up when confronted with the contraband, and began whining about how he’d recently lost his job at CNN and was in "big trouble," sources said.
A front man with Federal Protective Services offered a different version of events, claiming the glass pipe fell out of Crook’s pocket.
The 36-year-old was escorted from the premises without incident, and issued a violation for possessing drug paraphernalia on federal property, the front man said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2019 12:28 Comments ||
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#13
We do drug and alcohol so it's all simply drug testing to me. Knew someone who got fired for not blowing 0.0 at the heliport going to the rig. Too much celebrating his promotion the night before.
[NYPOST] A rape accuser of former Soros Fund portfolio manager Howard Rubin has backed off of her allegations amid a new settlement agreement between the pair, according to court papers and a sworn statement.
The woman sued the financier in 2018 for $7 million claiming that he brutalized her in his sex dungeon while repeatedly ignoring their agreed-upon safe word "pineapples" in 2015. Rubin denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! The accuser "voluntarily discontinues all of her claims against defendant Howard Rubin" the pair’s lawyers said in Manhattan Supreme Court papers filed Monday. "Our safe word was 'Flower', but she kept saying 'Flour'"
And in a sworn statement from Dec. 4 the woman said that she "knowingly and voluntarily chose to engage in consensual sexual activity with Mr. Rubin, including Sadomasochistic activity."
She also said in the statement that she voluntarily signed a confidentiality agreement with him Nov. 5, 2015.
The woman had claimed at the time that she had been plied with alcohol before she was made to sign the nondisclosure agreement.
"I now realize that my decision to file legal claims against Mr. Rubin was a mistake, and I have no claim for damages," she went on to say in the statement.
In October, the woman accused Rubin of tricking her into agreeing to a settlement offer, only for Rubin to later demand she "sign a statement exonerating" him after they already hashed out the deal.
The woman’s lawyer, Kevin Landau, told The Post that the terms of the settlement are "highly confidential."
"I can’t elaborate about the terms. All I can say is that the case needed to be resolved," Landau said. "The case is now done."
In September, another woman alleged in a lawsuit she was sexually abused by Rubin and another woman at his apartment ‐ and that Rubin later threatened to discredit her as a hooker if she brought claims against him. Rubin denied those accusations as well.
Three other women brought similar claims of sexual abuse and rape against Rubin in a Brooklyn federal lawsuit in 2017. That case is still pending.
Rubin’s lawyer also said, "The terms of the settlement agreement are confidential."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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[ToloNews] Gen. Khoshal Sadat, the deputy interior minister, ordered the arrest of former local forces commander Nizamuddin Qaisari in the northern province of Balkh and deployed 60 members of the police special unit from Kabul, Balkh Police Chief Gen. Ajmal Fayez said.
The police chief said they are not regretting conducting the operation ‐ which according to locals turned the city of Mazar into a war zone for almost two days.
At least eight of Qaisari’s aids were killed in this operation that continued for at least 20 hours, according to local security officials.
Continued on Page 49
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir said he and the country’s main former rebel leader reached a deal on Tuesday to form a long-delayed unity government.
Kiir and Riek Machar, who is now opposition leader, met over the past three days in the capital Juba to resolve outstanding disputes that prevented the formation of a coalition government in time for a Nov. 12 deadline.
There were international concerns that war could resume over the disputes.
Last month, the two leaders bought time by delaying the government’s formation for 100 days beyond that deadline.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Countdown to dissolution in 5, 4, 3....
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/18/2019 15:25 Comments ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Ramu police detained Ansar Ullah, 24, and Abdul Gafur, 20 from the spot while another suspect Belal Uddin, 25, is still on the run, police say
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
[The Guardian] Downing Street is threatening the future of the BBC by insisting it is seriously considering decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, while boycotting Radio 4’s Today programme over the broadcaster’s supposed anti-Tory bias.
No 10 pulled ministers from Saturday’s edition of the Today programme and sources said it intended to "withdraw engagement" from the show in future.
The row is seen as an ominous sign of Boris Johnson’s willingness to bypass independent scrutiny and follows criticism of the BBC’s election coverage from both left and right.
No 10 pointed to Andrew Neil’s on-air monologue in which he lambasted Johnson for his refusal to be interviewed, and the BBC’s "extensive coverage" of a four-year-old boy with suspected pneumonia forced to sleep on a hospital floor ‐ as supposed evidence of anti-Tory, pro-remain bias at the corporation.
Meanwhile, Labour backers have raised concerns about the BBC’s coverage, from the editing out of laughter aimed at Johnson in a news bulletin to leading reporters uncritically repeating Conservative sources, and the prime minister escaping scrutiny after dodging the one-on-one interview with Neil.
The BBC has firmly rejected such criticism. In an email on Friday, the director general, Tony Hall, wrote: "In a frenetic campaign where we’ve produced hundreds of hours of output, of course we’ve made the odd mistake and we’ve held up our hands to them. Editors are making tough calls every minute of the day. But I don’t accept the view of those critics who jump on a handful of examples to suggest we’re somehow biased one way or the other."
Following similar step by authorities in Donetsk region. Also grave violation/voiding of Minsk agreements and subsequently the Normandy Format https://t.co/WlMMIYsyJI
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Demilitarize Ukraine entirely and make it a neutral zone. Finlandization worked well during the Cold War.
We have zero, absolutely zero, national security interest in Ukraine. Settle this and move on to more important matters. Like, you know, containing China.
Get back to the situation that Bush promised Gorbachev-- no NATO expansion beyond the already provocative expansion in to Poland, the Balts and Romania.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/18/2019 15:26 Comments ||
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#3
Ok ok so in parallel we make multi-million $$$ contributions to the following 501(c)3 charitable orgs:
- the Clinton Graft Initiative
- the Hunter Biden "For The [=my many illegitimate] Children" Fund
- the John and Teresa Heinz Kerry Long-Short Global Arbitrage Fund
- the Joseph R. Biden Jr. "A Mind is a Terribke Thing to Waste" Fund
- the Mike and Barry Soetoro Grift 'n' Payback Fund
#2
In my more paranoid moments I think the trend of offshoring electronic devices happened so that the average person here would have less ability to buy a non-privacy-invading phone or computer.
In other news...
Hey, Condorguy, do you post on twitter these days? I want to send you a follow.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A preliminary trade deal reached between the United States and China has offset much of the damage done to global trade activity prospects, but tensions remain high and renewed escalation still poses risks, Fitch Ratings said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fitch noted that neither side of the agreement have provided details on the deal, "which makes it difficult to determine how viable it will be to implement."
On Friday, China and the US agreed a phase one deal, in which both countries will cut tariffs and China will purchase more American agricultural products. The nine-chapter text, which covers technology transfer, financial services, and dispute settlement, will undergo legal and translation review before it can be ratified, Chinese officials said.
"The trade war nonetheless appears far from over, even with a Phase One deal," the ratings agency said in a statement. "Fitch believes that underlying strategic tensions will remain between the US and China, particularly in fields such as technology, which will pose a major obstacle to full resolution of the trade war."
Fitch said that parts of the plan that have been publicly reported, such as the US Trade Representative’s statement that China will increase its imports of US goods and services by at least $200 billion in total over 2020-2021, seem unrealistic.
"Official statements indicate that the effective US tariff rate on imports from China will fall to around 16 percent under the plan, compared with earlier plans that would have seen it rise to around 25 percent," Fitch said in its statement about the deal.
"This represents a significant shift compared with our earlier assumption that the full set of tariff increases announced by the US in late August would be implemented."
The ratings agency now expects China’s economy to grow by close to 6 percent in 2020, compared with an earlier forecast of 5.7 percent.
"This will, in turn, support the outlook for the global economy, helping world GDP growth to stabilize in 2020 after falling to 2.6 percent this year from 3.2 percent in 2018," Fitch said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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[FoxNews] Almost $1.5 trillion of the world's cash, with U.S. $100 bills making up a great deal of it, is reportedly unaccounted for. So what happened to the money?
"Literally, a lot of these $100 bills are sitting in bank vaults all over the world," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told FOX Business' Lou Dobbs during an interview on Tuesday.
Mnuchin pointed to the negative interest rates causing people to turn to American dollars as a solid investment.
"The dollar is the reserve currency of the world, and everybody wants to hold dollars," Mnuchin said on "Lou Dobbs Tonight." "And the reason why they want to hold dollars is because the U.S. is a safe place to have your money, to invest and to hold your assets."
#7
Prob'y sitting in safes of gov't officials and other wealthy individuals countries that have experienced severe currency devaluations recently.
A local currency devaluation makes these individuals' primary investment - real estate - much less valuable. So they shift their investments out of real estate and into hard currency i.e. $$ (or else US real estate - thus more than any factor is driving the California & Vancouver BC / Manhattan / Miami / London real estate booms of recent decades).
Some likely suspects i.e. countries with very weak currencies and/or that experienced major currency devaluations in 2018-19:
- China due to the trade war
- Iran due to the sanctions
- Venezuela due to the leaders' banditry/idiocy
- Argentina due to the leaders' banditry/idiocy
- Indonesia due to the leaders' banditry/idiocy
- Uganda due to the leaders' banditry/idiocy
[Rudaw] Police Major Sardar Fadhel Yahya’s phone buzzed with a new WhatsApp message. It was a plea for help from a woman who said she was locked in a room with little food and no clean water. She didn’t know where she was, but, at Yahya’s urging, sent her digital location via the messaging application. With that information, Yahya was able to narrow down where she was and get a court order authorizing him and his team to enter the premises.
Yahya is head of the Erbil office of the Ministry of the Interior’s Directorate of Combating Human Trafficking. The directorate opened on June 1, 2019 as mandated by the trafficking law passed a year earlier and has branches across the Kurdistan Region. The Erbil branch is located in the capital’s Dream City neighbourhood, a gated complex of grandiose houses built on what was barren land prior to 2003 and is now home to wealthy residents, most of whom have nannies or maids. The directorate opened half empty, with a minimal staff of just under 20 people to provide the most crucial services, but plans to expand once the government lifts its austerity hiring freeze and they can get more funding.
The office is reachable through a Facebook page and a phone number, 07509879911. They receive a lot of tips and appeals for help via WhatsApp and Viber, Yahya explained in an interview at his office on November 5.
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/18/2019 00:00 ||
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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.
[NYPOST] A rape accuser of former Soros Fund portfolio manager Howard Rubin has backed off of her allegations amid a new settlement agreement between the pair, according to court papers and a sworn statement.
[Dhaka Tribune] Ramu police detained Ansar Ullah, 24, and Abdul Gafur, 20 from the spot while another suspect Belal Uddin, 25, is still on the run, police say
