[NYPost] A Florida man was attacked by a suspect with a machete at a McDonald’s on Sunday night, a report said.
Devin Quarterman, 28, allegedly assaulted the victim, who he knew, during a fight at one of the fast food joints in Pinellas Park around 11 p.m., according to WFTS, citing police.
Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Howard was convicted of indecent conduct Friday
He was sentenced to 30 days in a military prison, along with a $500 fine equal to three months pay and a reduction in rank to petty officer second class
Prosecutors alleged Howard impersonated two people in messages to three women in 2017
He was originally charged with receiving nude photos but those charges were dismissed
Howard's attorney argued that no nude photos were found on his client's devices
The attorney suggested that a number of other SEALs could have sent the texts
#3
I can't figure out what this guy's supposed to have done - 'indecent conduct' could be anything (like being found guilty of 'negligence'), some charges were dismissed (looks like lack of evidence) and whatever other evidence they seem to have looks shaky at best? Unless receiving nude photos is a crime...
Probably missing some part of the story - I'm sure our US newshounds will be right on it!
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/12/2020 11:06 Comments ||
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#8
So, not being Boy Scouts means not being unable to be a scumbag and pull this kind of shit?
Remember the days when being a Navy Seal was a badge of honor? The best that America can produce?
Why would anyone make excuses for pieces of trash like this? It's like leftists excusing Che Guevara.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/12/2020 11:13 Comments ||
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#9
"Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Howard was sentenced on Friday to spend 30 days in a military prison, forfeit $500 of his pay for three months and take a reduction in rank to petty officer second class, according to a statement from Navy Region Mid-Atlantic obtained by The Virginian-Pilot.
Howard was originally charged with receiving nude photographs, but those charges were dismissed, the newspaper reported.
Howard was accused of using a text messaging app to create a fake phone number and send messages to women, prosecutors alleged during a court-martial at Naval Station Norfolk. In at least once case, prosecutors added that Howard pretended to be a female dietitian hired by Naval Special Warfare Development Group in order to get women to send naked pictures.
Howard's attorney has said the only thing linking his client to the messages is that whoever sent them said they were stationed in San Diego and liked to work out with kettle bells. He said that could apply to any number of SEALs.
"Lt. Kirwinn Mike, a Navy prosecutor, accused Howard of pretending to be a female performance dietitian who worked for Naval Special Warfare Development Group. Mike said that while pretending to be the dietitian, Howard told a woman by text message that he could provide her a body-fat analysis if she texted a picture of herself naked from the neck down and provided other measurements.
"It's 100% safe," one text message said. "You don't have to worry."
"He was willing to be whoever he needed to be to get those photos," Mike said during opening statements.
Eventually, the woman who was asked for a nude photograph became suspicious and contacted the person the messages were purportedly sent from. The real-life dietitian then contacted authorities because she worried that other questions that were asked about SEAL identities could be a threat, perhaps from a foreign intelligence service."
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/12/2020 11:35 Comments ||
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#14
#6 Using a fake name online and asking for nude pics is a crime?
Yes it is. I guess you're not familiar with the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"This catch-all article governing the principles of Armed Forces conduct covers a wide range of punitive offenses which generally fall under three categories: disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline, discrediting the Armed Forces, and other non-capital offenses or assimilated federal crimes."
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/12/2020 11:56 Comments ||
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#15
Do you want to win the war or not?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/12/2020 14:04 Comments ||
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#16
Nothing in this makes any sense.
Perfect sense if the victim is some admiral's daughter.
#18
The sailor's attorney, Michael Waddington, had argued that no nude photographs were ever found on any of Howard's devices and that his client passed two polygraph tests.
PTSD, TBI, hearing loss related to service. Severe disabilities.
I know an Iraqi War trigger-puller (son of a friend) who was airborne whose injuries paralleled Howard's. He did not get the help he should have during the Obama admin.
I know a guy who has been deceased for sometime who had a large collection of nekkid pictures of women who allowed him to take their pictures. I always wondered why these women would allow their photos to be taken. Exhibitionism? Drunk? Other reasons. I don't know.
There is some uncertainty about whether he did the catfishing. He also has some serious service-related injuries. I would hope Howard gets the help he needs.
Update: The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China reaches 1,113 as of the end of Tuesday, up by 97 from the previous day, according to the country’s National Health Commission.https://t.co/Ikmz8JErtS
Posted by: Fred ||
02/12/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
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#1
USA numbers as of 10 Feb (persons under investigation)
Positive 12
Negative 318
Pending 68
Total 398
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/12/2020 8:58 Comments ||
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#2
at this point almost everybody thinks the Chinese numbers are under counts
this is partly because they are short on virus testing kits so even if they wanted to be accurate they wouldn't be able to do that
also the death/infection ratio has stayed suspiciously steady through the past 10 days of reports which could mean the Chinese are fudging one (or maybe both) of the numbers in the ratio
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/12/2020 10:44 Comments ||
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#3
but, but, they have such an earned reputation for honesty and transparency!
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2020 10:53 Comments ||
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#4
almost everybody thinks the Chinese numbers are under counts
#5
the death/infection ratio has stayed suspiciously steady through the past 10 days of reports which could mean the Chinese are fudging one (or maybe both) of the numbers in the ratio
A rare winter storm coated Baghdad in snow Tuesday morning for only the second time in the Iraqi capital in the past century.
Though snow is common in the mountainous northern region of Iraq, it's very rare in Baghdad.
The last time the city saw snow was in 2008, but that was a quick, slushy snow. Tuesday's snow was the first that stuck since 1914. Baghdad is at about 33 degrees latitude or about the same latitude as Dallas, TX. However, Baghdad is protected from cold weather by mountains to the north and west so that is why snow is so rare
Residents of Baghdad rushed to have snowball fights or take photographs as the Iraqi capital woke carpeted in white by only its second snowfall in a century.https://t.co/w4kQE0mFgc
[AlAhram] Almost 1,500 churches and service buildings have been made legal over the past three years
A cabinet committee tasked with legalising the status of unlicensed Christian places of worship on Tuesday approved the legalisation of 82 churches and service buildings that had been operating without a permit, the cabinet said in a statement.
This brings to 1,494 the total number of unlicensed Christian places of worship and service buildings that have been granted legal status so far, the cabinet said.
Christians make up around 10 percent of the 100 million population of Egypt,
... 100 million being the latest population count. Fortunately, the birth rate has been falling in recent years, encouraged by various government programs...
a predominantly Moslem country.
In 2016, Egypt’s parliament approved a long-awaited law regulating the building and renovation of churches.
The committee to legalise the status of unlicensed churches was established in 2017 by the prime minister.
The 10-member committee comprises one Christian representative, six government officials from several ministries, representatives from the national security apparatus, the intelligence apparatus, and the administrative control body.
During its meeting on Tuesday, the cabinet also reviewed the situation of security requirements for legalised churches.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) ‐ Data from Windy.com on Sunday (Feb. 9) showed heightened levels of sulfur dioxide around Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), causing some to speculate that it is a sign of mass cremations of victims of the deadly disease.
On Sunday, images of Windy.com maps started to appear on social media, showing an alarmingly high level of sulfur dioxide being released, with no other city in China showing similar concentrations with the exception of Chongqing. Over the past few weeks, the death toll from the Wuhan virus has continued to mount, and as the true numbers appear to be suppressed, there have been accounts and anecdotal evidence of disproportionate use of crematoria in Wuhan.
Boeing reports it has received no new plane orders in January and a drop in jet deliveries as the protracted grounding of the 737 MAX continues to weigh on the company.https://t.co/B5iUm2D66D
#5
Not really Darth. CEO responsible resigned with a $62 million parachute. Now if they suing the Board and Executives personally for negligence in class-action lawsuits, maybe we'll get some justice making them go broke.
Suckers bet though.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/12/2020 17:31 Comments ||
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The court also ruled that Amal's parents will be entitled to seek further compensation or remedy for negligence on part of the police in accordance with law.https://t.co/bnUX2k83UK
Indian supporters of the upstart Aam Aadmi Party are celebrating in the streets after inflicting a crushing defeat on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in a key election in New Delhi.https://t.co/InqCJFp8Vw
h/t Instapundit
[C Net] - The White House has unveiled its NASA budget proposal for fiscal 2021, aiming to fund the space agency with $25.2 billion for the year. About half of that amount, or nearly $13 billion, would go to programs leading toward crewed missions to the moon later this decade, seen as a precursor to eventual missions to Mars.
In addition, $6.3 billion would go to science, including Earth science and astrophysics; $3.5 billion would fund safety, security and mission services as well as construction and environmental remediation; $1.6 billion would go to exploration technology; and $819 million would be earmarked for aeronautics research.
#1
I love space and space programs but think we are on the cusp of civilian space expansion and NASA should be aimed into assisting that, not competing with it.
#1
He is reporting to VP Hans Koenigsmann, as the company prepares to launch its first astronauts in a couple months.
Hans is the Rocket God at SpaceX.
[Mil.com] Airmen will be allowed to wear up to 2-inch beards under a new Air Force guidance that outlines grooming standards for religious accommodations.
The updated grooming policy, published Friday, also allows members of the Sikh faith to wear turbans and Muslim women to wear hijabs.
Airmen must have religious or medical exemptions to grow beards, the policy says.
The guidance for beards grown under a shaving waiver remains unchanged: Such whiskers must not be trimmed to give a sculpted appearance and cannot exceed a quarter-inch in length, the updated policy states.
The Air Force is following the lead of the Army, which in 2017 became the first service to allow Muslim and Sikh soldiers to wear head coverings and beards in line with their religious beliefs. A similar accommodation was extended later to Norse pagan service members.
A Muslim airman first was allowed to wear a beard in 2018. The following year, a Sikh and at least two Norse heathen airmen were granted beard accommodations, according to a review of media reports.
#3
Look on the bright side, Besoeker. There must be at least a few berserkers among the "Norse pagans." I read once that Scyld Schefling was a real badass.
#6
When I was on active duty in the Navy in 1971, we were allowed to wear beards. I remember talking to one old salt who said "Just wait until you have to wear a gas mask. It won't seal if you have a beard."
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/12/2020 12:33 Comments ||
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#9
During the Navy Beards or OK timeframe, we had a detachment to Guam ( pre-turn over days) and went to the AF club that night. All the gurls came to our table and eventually the manager did too; told us we had to finish our beer and leave. Ascot boys didn't like that our bait was better and catching all the fish.....
#11
Is it best to be loved, or be feared?
To be thought a bit weird, or revered?
To appear a mite dreary...
Or really quite Leary?
A chap needn't choose... with a beard.
Nor a gal, neither, I suppose. All in good fun, eh, brooding bearded 'Burgers? By which I mean, "Please don't kill me!"
[Breitbart] The Indiana attorney general has scheduled a burial service Wednesday for the 2,411 aborted babies whose remains were discovered in September in the Illinois garage of abortionist Ulrich Klopfer after he died.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis T. Hill Jr. announced the remains of the aborted babies would be memorialized at a graveside service at Southlawn Cemetery and Palmer Funeral Home in South Bend where Klopfer performed abortions.
During the service, Hill will deliver remarks on behalf of the state and will then discuss the status of the investigation into the discovery of the remains.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, will be present at the funeral service and burial.
"I commend Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill for recognizing that these abortion victims are part of the human family and deserve the dignity of a proper burial," Pavone said in a statement sent to Breitbart News. "The discovery of the babies brought Americans face to face with the reality of what abortion is and the humanity of these children. They deserved to live but were denied that most basic right. The least we can do is to give them names and to bury them."
Klopfer, who died in September 2019, performed thousands of abortions in clinics in Indiana, including the Women’s Pavilion in South Bend, before his medical license was revoked in 2016. In 2015, his medical license was suspended after he allegedly failed to report an abortion performed on a 13-year-old girl.
After Klopfer’s death, the family’s attorney said he discovered the thousands of fetal remains while going through his property.
[Washington Examiner] House Democrats are backing legislation that would gut abortion restrictions just over one week after President Trump called on Congress to pass a 20-week abortion ban.
If the bill Democrats will review in a hearing Wednesday, the Women's Health Protection Act, were to become law, then no states would be able to pass bans based on gestational stage such as the one Trump is calling for. The bill isn't likely to get traction in the Republican-controlled Senate but is meant to draw attention to red-state laws regulating abortion.
"States and local governments have passed hundreds of bans and restrictions that make access to reproductive healthcare services, including abortion, increasingly difficult and, in some cases, impossible to obtain," Democratic Reps. Frank Pallone and Anna Eshoo said when they announced the hearings.
This March, the Supreme Court is set to review the constitutionality of one such restriction in Louisiana, which requires doctors to be able to check patients into hospitals should something go wrong during an abortion procedure ‐ even though reported instances of complications are rare. Other restrictions require women to wait between a first appointment and an abortion, mandate ultrasounds, or require doctors to read a script to patients about abortion risks even if they think the information they're providing is incorrect.
Democrats want to do away with all restrictions and to enshrine into federal law the Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which widely legalized abortion nationwide.
Wednesday's hearing is just the latest offshoot of the abortion debate in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail: Democrats have aligned with the abortion rights movement, which has pushed for abortion to be allowed at any time during a pregnancy without restrictions. Republicans and anti-abortion advocates who wish to see abortion become illegal in most or all cases have focused their legislative efforts on banning abortions late in pregnancy.
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing about a bill that would penalize doctors who do not transfer a baby to a hospital if the baby is born alive after an abortion is attempted late in pregnancy.
[WSJ] BRUSSELS‐The U.S. Army is establishing a new military headquarters to coordinate with European allies in countering potential threats from Russia, the head of the Army said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper is expected to meet with Eastern European counterparts in Brussels at a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers on Wednesday, in part to discuss where to base the new command post, defense officials said.
The headquarters will be known as the Fifth Corps, or "V Corps," reconstituting an Army operation first created in World War I and serving through nearly a century of conflicts until it was deactivated in 2013. The Fifth Corps at that time was based in Germany.
The new Fifth Corps headquarters will be based at Ft. Knox, Ky., and will include more than 600 troops, the Army said. About 200 soldiers will take turns rotating through Europe once a site for a European command post is selected, likely this fall, officials said.
The new Army headquarters is needed to better coordinate activities including exercises, training and potential operations with its European partners, Army officials said. As the largest force among its European partners, the U.S. Army has more resources and personnel to work with allies.
"It brings the ability to synchronize Army and allies’ tactical units together," said Gen. James McConville, chief of staff of the Army. "It gives us the ability to take advantage of the capabilities and capacities of our allies, and it really unites us."
The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy has called Russia and China the biggest potential threats to the U.S. Mr. Esper has sought to move troops and resources away from counterinsurgency in places like the Middle East and toward Europe and the Pacific.
Russian officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Mr. Esper told reporters that while at NATO, he also plans to ask allies to contribute more to training Iraqi security forces, a move that could allow the U.S. to reduce its force of approximately 5,000 troops now stationed there.
Reducing the U.S. footprint in the Middle East will enable the U.S. to better focus on potential threats from Russia and China, Mr. Esper said.
"I want to implement the [National Defense Strategy], and the NDS means right-sizing our forces in every theater," Mr. Esper said. "The NDS is about great power competition."
President Trump has pressed longtime allies to expand their military budgets and to help pay for U.S. troop deployments in places like Japan and South Korea. Army officials didn’t say whether the administration would have such a requirement for its new command post. Poland previously has offered to host a base, help pay for it and name it Ft. Trump.
The Fifth Corps will join three other functioning Army corps units, which focus on Army efforts in the Pacific, the Middle East and emerging threats worldwide.
#1
The new Army headquarters is needed to better coordinate activities including exercises, training and potential operations with its European partners, Army officials said.
...Assuming they will pay any attention to what we want is a big assumption. Still, it's a good way to keep some extra Generals, and their staffs, on the government payroll. As the largest force among its European partners, the U.S. Army has more resources and personnel to work with allies.
*Boggle* Let them defend themselves, and by "they" I mean the core of the EU: FR/BEL/GER.
#2
An 'off the shelf' computer exercise notional headquarters.....based at Fort Knox. Two hundred soldiers augmented by 3,000 SAIC/NG/GD contractors and IT gurus and systems people.
New V Corps motto: 'Nobis Peregrinatione ad Cibum.' Rough translation (We'll go anywhere for per diem)
But WAIT! An entire Army Corps? Perhaps some sort of collegial DoD trade could be worked out:
MAIL on Line: 'Air Force to retire more than 100 planes, cut combat flying hours and drone patrols to pay for Space Force.'
#3
Again, Europeans don't see any threat from Russia. It's only in the US that Russia is seen as poised to overrun Europe.
Europeans believe the best way to avoid conflict is economic entanglement. Why else would they implement the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline? If they're not concerned, then why are we?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/12/2020 4:18 Comments ||
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#5
He has the largest military behind the US presence in the area now. He is moving troops into N Africa as we speak, Libya. Just as Hitler did before rolling across Europe.
Let me get this straight. Which one of these was being advocated, because I can't quite parse that confused statement. (1) Erdoğan is going to roll across Europe? (2) He's the new Hitler? (3) Hitler put troops in Libya as a precursor to invading Europe? What!?
I must have misunderstood that. Who gives a flip if Turkey wants to get mired in the quagmire of Libya? It's nobody's business. The only winners are the ones who stay out.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/12/2020 11:13 Comments ||
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#10
Well said, 'Erb. Seriously.
Libya, Georgia... it's becoming absurd.
We have got to stop being so easily distracted from the main threat. CHINA.
[Page Six] Jussie Smollett on Tuesday was once again indicted for allegedly staging a hate-crime attack against himself ‐ nearly a year after charges in the case were abruptly dropped.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb announced the six-count indictment for disorderly conduct, accusing the former "Empire" star of lying to the Chicago Police Department about the alleged January 2019 attack.
Webb’s investigation revealed that Smollett "planned and participated in a staged crime attack," and then "made numerous false statements ... reporting a heinous hate crime that he, in fact, knew had not occurred," Webb said in news release.
The 37-year-old actor, who is black and gay, told cops that he was jumped by two men who shouted racist and homophobic slurs ‐ as well as, "This is MAGA country!" ‐ at him, in an attack that involved bleach and a noose.
Police ultimately determined that Smollett made the whole thing up to advance his career, and paid two brothers $3,500 to stage the attack, leading to a 16-count felony indictment against him for filing a false police report.
But in March 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx abruptly dropped all charges against Smollett, and he was let off the hook after forfeiting to the city the $10,000 he had coughed up for bail and performing community service.
Webb was appointed in August by Judge Michael Toomin to re-examine the case against Smollett and look into why the charges were dropped.
Webb said he found no new evidence in the case ‐ but determined that the charges should never have been dropped in the first place, so revived them "in the interest of justice."
"Several factors went into this determination, including the extensive nature of Mr. Smollett’s false police reports and the resources expended by [cops] to investigate these false reports," Webb said.
In dropping the charges, the State’s Attorney’s office had said Smollett’s case was subject to the same barometer that would be applied to any defendant under similar circumstances.
But Webb said prosecutors were unable to provide evidence that the dismissal relied on what had occured in similar, prior cases,.
Webb’s office has "reached no conclusions" about whether any officials involved in the case had engaged in wrongdoing and that part of the investigation is ongoing, he said.
Funding is necessarily more limited than desire. Did they consult with President Trump before making this decision, or are they trying to force his hand?
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 Florida man was attacked by a suspect with a machete at a McDonald’s on Sunday night, a report said.
[Washington Examiner] House Democrats are backing legislation that would gut abortion restrictions just over one week after President Trump called on Congress to pass a 20-week abortion ban.
[Page Six] Jussie Smollett on Tuesday was once again indicted for allegedly staging a hate-crime attack against himself ‐ nearly a year after charges in the case were abruptly dropped.
