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Maryland man accused of stealing U-Haul truck in 'ISIS-inspired attack'
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Ukrainian Officials Having Trouble Getting the DOJ's Attention on Ukrainian-Democrat 2016 Collusion Efforts
BLUF:
[PJ] Ukrainian officials reportedly don’t want to hand their evidence to FBI agents working in Ukraine because they don't trust them. "It is no secret in Ukrainian political circles that the NABU was created with American help and tried to exert influence during the U.S. presidential election," Kulyk said.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko told Solomon that he has enough evidence -- particularly regarding the Biden family's payouts -- to warrant a meeting with U.S. Attorney General William Barr. "I’m looking forward to meeting with the attorney general of the United States in order to start and facilitate our joint investigation regarding the appropriation of another $7 billion in U.S. dollars with Ukrainian legal origin," Lutsenko said.

As Solomon reported last week, Biden "pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin" in 2016 when he was investigating Burisma.
Operation Choking the Shokin
Ukraine is already investigating that alleged incident, Kulyk confirmed: "We have evidence and witnesses stating that Joe Biden applied pressure on Ukrainian law enforcement to stop the investigation."

Related: bne INTELLINEWS - Western-backed NABU anti-graft agency caught up in Ukraine defence corruption scandal

Gun running? Who knew ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/09/2019 05:35 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Joe's son a Clinton Foundation bundler? Possible Foggy Bottom foreign weapons acquisition facilitator? Please someone, say it isn't so.

Bueller, Mueller, please someone ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/09/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Gun running? Who knew ?

You mean, after Benghazi?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2019 6:52 Comments || Top||


Warm Temps Bring Long Awaited Chicago Spring Offensive - Media Silent
CHICAGO ‐ More than two dozen people were shot in Chicago during the warmest weekend so far this year.

According to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, from 6 p.m. on Friday until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, there were 24 shootings across the city and five murders. In the same timeframe last year, there were 18 shootings and four murders.

Four children, under the age of 16, were among those injured.

The latest shooting happened shortly after midnight Monday at 72nd Street and Stony Island. A man was walking to his vehicle when someone opened fired. He was shot in the chest and transported to University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.

Two children and four adults were shot during a baby shower at 63rd and Seeley in West Englewood on Saturday.

Witnesses said the shooters fired into a crowd, sending three people to hospital in critical condition; including an 8-year old boy shot in the chest and back, a 10-year old girl shot in the shin, and a 29-year old woman shot in the chest.

Police believe the shooting was gang-related, in retaliation for another in Englewood.

Guglielmi said they will be having an Operation Wake Up Monday evening with the community at the site of the shooting to try and spur additional leads

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot tweeted that she was heartbroken, and "we must stop the epidemic of violence in our city."
"But 'stop and frisk' and profiling are not acceptable"
Related: Right Wing Tribune: 29 Shot And 5 Murdered In ‘Gun Free’ Chicago Over The Weekend- Media Silent
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  15 shot — 3 fatally — Monday in Chicago
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 4:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Global 'warming' / 'climate change' blamed in 3... 2... 1...
Posted by: Raj || 04/09/2019 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  9 shootings in 24 hours in St. Louis this weekend

Isn't only in Chicago. But still a Regressive left held city.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2019 8:58 Comments || Top||

#4  They will kill more people in Chicago this year than we lost in Iraq in 2004.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/09/2019 14:16 Comments || Top||

#5  They will kill more people in Chicago this year than we lost in Iraq in 2004.

And there you have a good synopsis of COIN.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 14:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Murder stats are down so far this year (with the usual celebration by 'local officials' about how their no-gun ordinances are working), but they fail to note the delightful outdoor temperatures and weather for almost fifty percent of that timeline.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/09/2019 14:31 Comments || Top||

#7  why do we care?
Posted by: 746 || 04/09/2019 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Should be a full court press on shoplifters and pickpockets. The Chicago Spring Offensive is just Public Service Homicide (PSH).
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/09/2019 14:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Baltimo you bein dissed.
Posted by: Black Bart Unung4683 || 04/09/2019 22:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Wow spod good equivalence.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/09/2019 22:39 Comments || Top||


Bail reform poster boy busted for slashing man in robbery
[NYPOST] A Bronx teen who’s been lionized by bail-reform advocates was busted in an armed robbery that left one of two victims with a gash on his face that needed 15 stitches.

Pedro Hernandez, 19, and three unidentified accomplices approached the male victims around 7 a.m. Sunday in an industrial area of the Bronx, just south of the Cross Bronx Expressway, according to court papers.

Hernandez allegedly said, "Oh, you want problems," before swinging a knife at one victim and slashing the other on the left side of his face.

One of Hernandez’s cronies repeatedly bashed the first victim with a silver-colored baseball bat, while the other two stripped him of a black Gucci watch and gold chain, court papers say.

Hernandez was charged with multiple counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and related crimes, and was ordered held on $15,000 bail at his arraignment, officials said.

In 2017, the arrest-prone teen became a cause celebre for critics of the criminal justice system when he chose to remain locked up on Rikers Island rather than accept a no-jail plea bargain in a Bronx shooting because he claimed he was innocent.

He spent more than a year behind bars until the RFK Human Rights group posted his $100,000 bail.

Bronx DA Darcel Clark later dropped his case, saying that a witness had stopped cooperating and that initial information turned out to be "inconsistent and contradictory."

In December, Hernandez had been slated to meet former President Barack Obama
How much damage could he do in four years?... Eight, then...
at the RFK foundation’s annual gala, but missed the event because he got busted while allegedly driving a BMW with stolen license plates while his license was suspended.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  At least he didn't break NY's gun control laws.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/09/2019 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  I know guys that could kill you with an ice cream scoop.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 04/09/2019 14:14 Comments || Top||


Felicity Huffman, 12 others to plead guilty in college admissions scandal
[PAGESIX] Actress Felicity Huffman has agreed to plead guilty over her role in the nationwide college admissions scandal ‐ along with a dozen other parents, federal prosecutors said Monday.

"I am pleading guilty to the charge brought against me by the United States Attorney’s Office. I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions," Huffman said in a statement.

"I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community. I want to apologize to them and, especially, I want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly," she continued.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "And the that student who was relying on that athletic scholarship to attend college, I say to you, yes I would like fries with that."
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/09/2019 19:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Felicity who? Like Jussie who is this how people get their names in the news these days by getting themselves arrested?
Posted by: jpal || 04/09/2019 20:16 Comments || Top||


Man removed from gene pool.
[KnoxNews] Authorities are working to identify a man who was shot and killed in a gun battle that left two Greeneville, Tennessee police officers wounded Sunday night.
Thank the Lord they are OK.
The shooting occurred inside an apartment where the gunman opened fire on the two officers during the search for another man who allegedly fled from a traffic stop moments earlier, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The episode began shortly before 11 p.m. when a driver sped away from Greeneville Police Department officers as they attempted to stop him for speeding along Tusculum Boulevard, a TBI news release states.

Police chased the vehicle to the 100 block of Mason Street, where the driver abandoned the car and ran into a nearby apartment complex.

A woman in the car identified the driver as Joshua Howard and said he lived with her in an apartment there. She gave officers consent to search her apartment.

"Upon entering the residence, officers identified themselves and encountered a second male subject who did not reside at the apartment," according to the release.

"For reasons still under investigation, the man became combative, pulled a gun on the officers, and fired shots. Two of the officers were struck. The two officers returned fire, hitting the man."
"You'll never take me alive, Coppers!"
"Hokay."
Blamm, blamm, blammitty blamm.

The gunman was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim.
Efforts to identify him are ongoing, according to TBI.

The two officers were treated at the hospital for what were described as non-life-threatening injuries.

Howard was located later and taken into custody. It was not immediately clear whether he is facing criminal charges.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Obits-
RIP last surviving member of Doolittle Raiders


Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2019 14:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Doolittle Raid was a ballsy bit of business. Words fail when it comes to expressing my respect for those guys.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/09/2019 16:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Doolittle was a distant relation.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/09/2019 18:16 Comments || Top||

#3  We will miss him at Grimes Field
Posted by: Ebbolutch Hatrack1579 || 04/09/2019 20:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks guys. Big brass ones.

That cat, not in a hat, looks like my cat. Always annoyed.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/09/2019 21:03 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Israel: Man nabbed with 180 kilos of stolen avocados
[IsraelTimes] Off-duty cop spots driver with fruits pilfered from Jordan Valley orchard.

An alert off-duty policeman spotted a suspicious car in the Jordan Valley, and a closer inspection revealed 180 kilograms (400 pounds) of avocados suspected to have been pilfered from a nearby orchard, police said Sunday.

Despite being on vacation, the eagle-eyed cop, who was driving home with his wife, spotted the suspect parked on the side of the road. After he submitted a report to a nearby police station, officers stopped the vehicle for inspection and discovered the hot fruit.

The suspect, a 50-year-old resident of the nearby town of Tuba, was detained and police located the owner of the grove to report the theft and returned the fruit to him.

The unidentified man was released after interrogation while the evidence was being processed ahead of a possible criminal indictment.

According to produce exporter Carmel Agrexco, Israel markets seven strains of avocado, which are in season from roughly October to May. The stolen fruit had a retail value of about NIS 1,800 ($500).

The World’s Top Exports website ranked Israel tenth in the world’s $4 billion avocado export market with almost $65 million of the fruit shipped abroad in 2017.

Mexico is the world’s top exporter and the United States is its number one customer, but that market is under a cloud due to a recent threat by US President Donald Trump to close America’s border over immigration issues.

Although Trump backed down on the border closer, avocado prices have soared in the US as a result of the ongoing spat with its southern neighbor.

Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is with you and avocados?
Posted by: newc || 04/09/2019 1:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Holy Guacamole Batman!!
Posted by: AlanC || 04/09/2019 7:21 Comments || Top||

#3  What do you get when you cross swiss cheese with guacamole? Holy Molie.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/09/2019 7:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Frontrunning the upcoming closure of the U.S.-Messican border?
Posted by: Oscar Slaising2824 || 04/09/2019 16:02 Comments || Top||


#6  The U.S. Would Run Out of Avocados in Three Weeks If the Mexico Border Completely Closes
California's crop just wouldn't cut it.


My goodness think of all the unadorned grade school window sills.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/09/2019 16:51 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Glaciers Melting Faster Than Ever Before!
[FoxNews] WASHINGTON (Ay Pee) ‐ Earth's glaciers are melting much faster than scientists thought. A new study shows they are losing 369 billion tons of snow and ice each year, more than half of that in North America.
Scientists? Which scientists? What about the rest of the planet?
The most comprehensive measurement of glaciers worldwide found that thousands of inland masses of snow compressed into ice are shrinking 18 percent faster than an international panel of scientists calculated in 2013.
Question: Is that 'statistically significant"? Or just more careful measurement? Or 'adjustments'?
The world's glaciers are shrinking five times faster now than they were in the 1960s. Their melt is accelerating due to global warming, and adding more water to already rising seas, the study found.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, but it is the man-made part of global warming? How much is the solar cycle part of global climate change warming?
"Over 30 years suddenly almost all regions started losing mass at the same time," said lead author Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich. "That's clearly climate change if you look at the global picture."
30 years. Climate change. Got it, Mr. Scientist.
The glaciers shrinking fastest are in central Europe, the Caucasus region, western Canada, the U.S. Lower 48 states, New Zealand and near the tropics. Glaciers in these places on average are losing more than 1 percent of their mass each year, according to a study in Monday's journal Nature.
But not Greenland? South America? Antarctica?
"In these regions, at the current glacier loss rate, the glaciers will not survive the century," Zemp said.
That's what the 'scientists' said last century.
Zemp's team used ground and satellite measurements to look at 19,000 glaciers, far more than previous studies. They determined that southwestern Asia is the only region of 19 where glaciers are not shrinking, which Zemp said is due to local climate conditions.
Far more data than previous studies? So you're comparing this year's apples to last year's persimmons.
Scientists have known for a long time that global warming caused by human activities like burning coal, gasoline and diesel for electricity and transportation is making Earth lose its ice. They have been especially concerned with the large ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica.
See above. Those areas seem to be omitted from the scary 'trends'. How convenient!
This study, "is telling us there's much more to the story," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn't part of the study. "The influence of glaciers on sea level is bigger than we thought."
And so on. So the 'settled science' wasn't so settled, after all.
It never is. I read this morning that the solar scientists are now concerned that the current minimum may last twice as long as usual.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/09/2019 08:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "In these regions, at the current glacier loss rate, the glaciers will not survive the century," Zemp said.

Now where have I heard something like that before? Snowfalls a thing of the past maybe?

Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2019 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  This is easily refuted bullshit.
Posted by: Raj || 04/09/2019 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Scientists have known for a long time that global warming caused by human activities like burning coal, gasoline and diesel for electricity and transportation running sketchy climate models on power-hungry super-computers is making Earth lose its ice.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/09/2019 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  That's right my friends, gather round. I have the answer right here in my wagon to what ails you, Hell-fire ALL that ails you. Afflicted with the Veet-nam? Nuk-yalar Arms race? Maybe you got some of that overpopulation what's going around. Maybe it's the inflation or Ronald Ray-guns. Yep-per, there's a lot that could be wrong not even including this 'ere climate business.

The answer is simple my friends, you just need to pony up more of all that money your holding, gosh knows it ain't yours. Let those moths out that wallet, surprise yourself and act like a man and pay your fair share. Get that thermostat down to the mid 50's in winter and off altogether the rest of the year and have those lights out by dark, I tells ya.

Yes sir, I am here to tell ya that every last one of the problems of the last 50 years is completely solve able, if only YOU would live in abject poverty and remember to take your all your orders from the original yegg central, DC.
Posted by: Cesare || 04/09/2019 9:47 Comments || Top||

#5  The glaciers shrinking fastest are in central Europe... Exposing ancient tree stumps and even traces of ancient human dwellings, but it is unprecedented!!!!111!!!
Posted by: magpie || 04/09/2019 10:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Trump should seriously push for Nuclear power and use global warming as the reason. Force the democrats to come out against the only serious energy that produces no carbon emissions and expose their fearmonger for the nonsense it is.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/09/2019 15:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Those cow farts will be the death of us all.
Posted by: Regular joe || 04/09/2019 15:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Good!
Nasty cold hunks of ice just grind away good land.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2019 15:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Wife was watching Commie TV - Animals the other day. Everything was CC this, CC that. Mountain animals had to move further up the slopes because heat, blah blah blah. Some mountain goats were working their way over to a salt deposit and I was like, "Watch, has to do with CC." Sure enough, the plants where they live don't have the nutritional value.

The glaciers shrinking fastest are in central Europe... Exposing ancient tree stumps and even traces of ancient human dwellings, but it is unprecedented!!!!111!!!

I read a deal about that forest they found in Switzerland; they are theorizing that 2000 years ago there were no glaciers in the Alps, or at least nothing significant.

Their melt is accelerating due to global warming, and adding more water to already rising seas.Sure are big on this, "World is going to flood because of your human sins."
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/09/2019 18:05 Comments || Top||


Pollution linked to developmental delays
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 05:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Stanford kicks out first student connected to admissions scandal
[NYPOST] A Stanford University student who lied about her sailing credentials has been kicked out amid fallout from the college admission scandal, the school announced.

The unnamed student, who is a female according to the school’s student-run paper The Stanford Daily and was mentioned in federal court transcripts, lost all of the class credits she’d earned and was recently expelled,
...as if she’d never been...
the school said on their website.

"We determined that some of the material in the student’s application is false and, in accordance with our policies, have rescinded admission. Any credits earned have also been vacated. The student is no longer on Stanford’s campus," the school wrote on its website on April 2.
All we need now is an RAB encounter, the Spot, and Dr. Quincy to rule on her condition. That she be wanted on twelve planets is perhaps excessive under the circumstances...
The student was one of three linked to hefty contributions made to the school through the Key Worldwide Foundation‐the sham nonprofit used by William "Rick" Singer to pay off coaches and other university staff as part of his elaborate scam.

The foundation made a $500,000 contribution to the school’s sailing program on the student’s behalf on top of the fake sailing credentials Singer had added to her application.

Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do they give the money back?
Have Avenetti sue them!
Posted by: ed in texas || 04/09/2019 7:16 Comments || Top||

#2  How do you lose class credits if you actually earned them, regardless of your admission status?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The foundation made a $500,000 contribution to the school’s sailing program on the student’s behalf on top of the fake sailing credentials Singer had added to her application.

Like Ed in Texas says, what do you think the odds are of the foundation getting that 500 large back?
Posted by: Raj || 04/09/2019 8:58 Comments || Top||

#4  How do you lose class credits if you actually earned them, regardless of your admission status?

Delete file. Delete file. Delete file...
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2019 10:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Admission is the hard part. Once in, passing is pretty easy (well, maybe not in STEM.) They can't let that cat out of the bag.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/09/2019 11:58 Comments || Top||

#6  This scheme did not start last week. How many of these purchased seats resulted in a degree? Where are those people working now? At your bank or investment advisors office? In government? Will there be any sort of reliable audit going back some reasonable span of time? A doubt the guy who has been caught was the only one who ever ran this sort of scam.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/09/2019 13:33 Comments || Top||

#7  I agree with Frank G. She should sue for the credits.
Posted by: Spot || 04/09/2019 16:22 Comments || Top||

#8  I am annoyed at the overt actions of the parents bribing the colleges to admit their children. I am also certain that were I to ‘donate’ a new science center to Harvard my children would be viewed in a different light.
This crap has been going on forever. Reality sucks. Penny Pritzker graduated in 1981. From Harvard. Check her background. Oh. Rich Reliable Democrat. What a shock. Not picking on Penny, but it is an example.
However, I don’t like the idea of punishing the students; don’t like it at all. Will the institution return the bribes? Hardly. Maybe I am wrong. Let us watch, closely.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/09/2019 20:59 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Freed Comoros opposition leader retracts accusation against president
[PULSE.NG] A Comoran opposition leader arrested after challenging the outcome of presidential elections last month was freed Monday and immediately retracted claims of electoral fraud.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Bolsonaro sacks Brazil's controversial education minister
[PULSE.NG] Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday sacked his education minister, an ultraconservativewho had drawn public ire over a range of controversial proposals including a revision of school textbooks to deny the 1964 military coup.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Government says ready to continue Nicaragua talks
[PULSE.NG] The government of President Daniel Ortega said Monday it was ready to continue talks with the opposition on resolving Nicaragua's deadly political crisis.

The Central American country has been gripped by a year of political crisis since months of street protests erupted last April leaving more than 325 people dead, most of them opposition demonstrators.

Month-long talks between the government and the opposition Civic Alliance coalition broke up last week without agreement on political reform in the crisis-torn country.

But Ortega's leftist government said in a statement its "will and commitment to continue working towards national understanding" was unchanged.

It said it was not responsible for any "deadlock or delay" in the talks, which broke up last Wednesday.

More than 600 opposition supporters have been locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
and thousands of Nicaraguans fled into exile.

Ortega, a 73-year-old former guerrilla leader, has refused to step down
...Hell no! The money's too good!...
to facilitate early elections in 2019 -- a key opposition demand.

Threatened by United States and European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
sanctions, the government on March 20 pledged to release all political prisoners within 90 days in an operation to be overseen by the International Committee of the Red Thingy.

So far only about 200 prisoners have been released. The opposition says more than 800 people were locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
during a crackdown on protests, but the government has put the number at less than 300.

Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


China-Japan-Koreas
Japanese F-35 fighter jet disappears from radar over Pacific
[KYODO NEWS] - Tokyo - The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force said Tuesday an F-35A fighter jet deployed at Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan disappeared from radar over the Pacific during a training exercise.
Crash or Transponder turned off?
The stealth fighter was flying with three other aircraft off the coast of Aomori Prefecture some 135 kilometers east of the base when radar contact was lost around 7:27 p.m., it said.

Radio communication cannot be established with the missing single-crew fighter, and search operations are under way.
Pilot may be in NK or the Middle Kingdom, based on some recent conversations around here, with a hefty 'finders fee' for the pilot....hoping that's not the case and the pilot is found at sea
The fighter is one of 13 F-35As deployed at Misawa.
They've only been there for a month or so
Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters the ASDF will ground the 12 remaining F-35As for the time being.

Japan began deploying U.S.-developed F-35As, each of which costs over 10 billion yen ($90 million), in January 2018 to replace the aging F-4 fighter jet. Japan plans to eventually deploy a total of 105 F-35As in addition to 42 F-35B short takeoff aircraft that it will purchase at a later date.
Did they take the domestic 7% parts manufacture option, too?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/09/2019 10:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Isn't that the point of stealth?

All snark aside I hope the pilot is ok.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/09/2019 12:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Why make an uber weapon and then sell it to countries all over the world? I don't get it.
Posted by: jpal || 04/09/2019 12:36 Comments || Top||

#3  F-22 is the uber weapon?
Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2019 13:17 Comments || Top||

#4  some 135 kilometers east of the base (Misawa) when radar contact was lost

Likely lost in ocean. Far as I know, the radar enhancing Luneberg lenses can not be jettisoned. To defect, pilot would have to fly east over Japan through lots of radar coverage.

Also never heard of a Japanese pilot defecting. Chinese are ancient enemies. Russians are new enemies.
Posted by: Cretle Big Foot4791 || 04/09/2019 13:22 Comments || Top||

#5  F-22 is the uber weapon?

Totally, dude. When the aliens attack. all the F-35s on the planet merge into one gigantic flying robot to defend Earth from the invaders. Assuming you can believe those cartoonish marketing videos.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/09/2019 13:37 Comments || Top||


#7  fly east west over Japan
Posted by: Cretle Big Foot4791 || 04/09/2019 13:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Also never heard of a Japanese pilot defecting.

Japanese military and government is about as secure to the Chinese as the old West German government was to the East Germans.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/09/2019 14:12 Comments || Top||

#9  May simply be a specially instrumented airframe off to collect. The search, a ruse to it's recovery.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 14:25 Comments || Top||

#10  I hope this isn't another Aegis CD-ROM.
Posted by: The peanut gallery || 04/09/2019 16:17 Comments || Top||

#11  Debris associated with the lost #JASDF #F35 from this morning has been found
Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2019 22:57 Comments || Top||


Kim Jong-un may unveil new nuclear strategy on Thursday
[KOREATIMES.CO.KR] All eyes are on North Korea to see if it makes a major announcement on its nuclear plans, Thursday, when the regime plans to hold a major parliamentary meeting.

Last month, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui hinted that the regime's leadership would soon make public its "crucial decision" on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Officials from the United States and South Korea view the upcoming session of the regime's top legislative body ― the Supreme People's Assembly ― as a critical moment for the North to announce its upcoming nuclear strategies.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday the U.S. would pay close attention to any possible remarks from North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
during the first session of the 14th Assembly in Pyongyang.

"It is a big day," Pompeo said. "It's something that's an annual event where the leader of North Korea speaks to his people. We'll watch very closely what he says."

The upcoming session will come amid stalled talks between Washington and Pyongyang after the failure of the Hanoi summit between U.S. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
and Kim in February.
Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Watch the hands and not the mouth. Analysis of a thug.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/09/2019 1:03 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 14:56 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL, Skid
Posted by: Frank G || 04/09/2019 15:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
Dream Trip to German Soccer Stadium for Israeli Kids Ends in Antisemitic ‘Humiliation' on Bus Going Home
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 04/09/2019 03:58 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Note the non-apology of Flixbus:

„Die für uns eingesetzten Fahrer kommen aus vielen verschiedenen Ländern und haben unterschiedliche kulturelle Hintergründe."

("The drivers we employ come from many different countries and have different cultural backgrounds.")

Let me guess: No Bavarians.
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/09/2019 20:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Things have changed a great deal from when I lived in that part of the world, clearly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2019 20:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Antisemitism in Germany and "people who have different cultural backgrounds" are unfortunately closely related.
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/09/2019 20:43 Comments || Top||

#4  unfortunately closely related.

I agree, European Conservative. Much of this was a predictable side effect of the importation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/09/2019 21:26 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Russian Group Offered Paramilitary Training to U.S. Neo-Nazis
[Free Beacon] The FBI has obtained intelligence information indicating a Russian ultra-nationalist group linked to bombings in Sweden and subversion in Ukraine offered paramilitary training to U.S. alt-right, neo-Nazi activists.

The Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a St. Petersburg-based group, contacted organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and suggested members of American white nationalist groups travel to Russia for a paramilitary training course called Partisan, according to U.S. officials.

Officials familiar with intelligence reports provided no other details of the intelligence and both the Russian group and some American white supremacists involved with Charlottesville denied accepting the training offer.

Partisan provides military-style training for what the group believes is a period of forthcoming "global chaos." The course was blamed for radicalizing three Swedish right-wing activists convicted in 2017 of several bombings in Sweden.

RIM would not say if paramilitary training was offered to U.S. alt-right activists but did say none had taken the course.

"The course Partisan is open to all," the group said in a statement. "But none of the American alt-right or other activists participated in it."

The FBI information is an indication of Russian efforts to back right-wing extremists in the United States, and could trigger further FBI counterintelligence or counterterrorism investigations into the activities of American white supremacists.

FBI spokesman Brian Hale declined to comment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/09/2019 05:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The course Partisan is open to all," the group said in a statement. "But none of the American alt-right or other activists participated in it."

Course quotas are closely managed. Contact the St. Petersburg Special Agent in Charge (SAC) for start dates and further details.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/09/2019 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  School of the Balkans?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 14:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Slavery from Space: Citizen Science in the Antislavery Movement
[Discover]
Quality High Resolution Photos at link
Slavery from Space is a citizen science project that allows users to further the antislavery movement by mapping the locations of activities in which people are frequently found to be enslaved.

How many slaves do you think there are in the world? You might be surprised. In 2016, the International Labour Organization estimated that 40.3 million people were enslaved globally, of which 28.7 million are women and girls and 24.9 million are in forced labor. To put those numbers into perspective, those sums are roughly equivalent to the populations of California, Texas, and Australia, respectively. These numbers are as important as they are difficult to estimate: the success of antislavery efforts depends on knowing how many slaves there are and where they are. Despite these challenges, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, adopted in 2015, demands an end to modern slavery by 2030.

I work at the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, which brings together a diverse group of researchers to tackle this global challenge. A key focus of the Rights Lab is the development of robust measurement and analysis of the prevalence and location of slavery, the goal of which is to underpin the credibility, confidence, and effective action of the antislavery movement. Prevalence and location data will allow governments to design and resource appropriate policy responses, such as the Indian government’s 2016 commitment to free 18 million bonded workers by 2030, as well as allow NGOs to plan more effective interventions on the ground.

The Rights Lab’s “Slavery from Space” initiative is the world’s first use of data captured by satellites to map and measure slavery, using both new machine learning techniques and citizen science methods (Boyd et al, 2018; Foody et al, 2019). The team has uncovered sites and industries with high levels of slavery thanks to satellites continually capturing data in all corners of the Earth.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/09/2019 06:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let me guess who the enslavers are
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 04/09/2019 16:44 Comments || Top||


Father kills daughter, man over 'honour' in Mandi Bahauddin
[DAWN] A father allegedly killed his daughter, 17, and a man, 19, at his house in a village in Mandi Bahauddin, local police said on Monday.

Sub Inspector Azhar Abbas said, "The dual murder took place in the Aahdi village within the limits of the Civil Lines Police Station. A man, Almas, and a girl, Shiba, were killed at the house of the girl."

Citing initial investigations, Abbas said that it seems that the double murder was an 'honour killing'.

Police officials said that the dual murder took place last night. The entire family of the dear departed girl is on the run.

Bodies have been shifted to District Headquarters Hospital, Mandi Bahauddin for an appointment with Dr. Quincy. Police said that a case will be lodged after a post-mortem examination of the victims.

As many as 12 people have been killed in the district during the last two weeks, more than half in cases believed to be 'honour killings'.

Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bail for Asma Aziz's husband, employee rejected by court
[DAWN] A judicial magistrate at Lahore's Model Town Courts on Monday rejected the bail plea of Asma Aziz's husband and his employee in a case pertaining to their alleged beating and torture of the woman over not dancing for her husband's friends.

Police tossed in the slammer
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
the suspects three days after the incident occurred when a video of Asma Aziz sharing her ordeal went viral on social media.

Aziz had alleged that her husband Mian Faisal would invite his friends home and force her to dance to amuse them. On the day of the incident, she said, Faisal had as usual forced her to dance when his friends were over. She, however, refused, after which he began beating her with a pipe and then shaved off her hair with his employee's help.

Asma had married Faisal four years ago. She said her husband had turned hostile and begun misbehaving and torturing her over petty issues after six months of marriage.

The investigation officer told the court today that Faisal had beaten his wife and shaved her head because she refused to dance for his friends.

According to Aziz, her husband was drunk when he came home with two friends on the night of March 24. "He asked me to drink too, but I refused," she added.

"After his friends left, my husband tied my feet with a water pipe and tortured me. Three of my servants witnessed this," Aziz told the court.

Faisal's lawyer argued that the charges against him in the first information report are bailable offences. Therefore, he should be granted bail.

The court, however, rejected the plea for bail in light of Asma Aziz's medical report, her statement, and the arguments presented in court.

Posted by: Fred || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Can robots build a Moon base for astronauts? Japan hopes to find out.
NASA did an R&D project with Caterpillar a few decades ago. They proved that internal combustion heavy equipment could work on the Moon. In the main they used diesels with natural gas and oxygen supplies.

The big problems were radiators and hydraulics.
Hydraulics need electric heat tape everywhere to keep the lines from freezing and insulation to keep them from boiling in the sun.
Radiators on earth bound machines are not really radiators rather cooling boxes with fluid. On the moon one needs real radiators or some effective way to shed the heat. On Mars the cooling boxes should be fine with fans having a larger airflow.

As to getting big equipment airborne. Well Musk's StarShip could be able to do so. It and it's first stage will mass 10,000 tons. That's about a Ticonderoga cruiser. Everything but the big rock crushers and some of the giant mining equipment should fit on it. (Worst dimension is the diameter - 9 meters)

All that said - electric is simpler to maintain.
Doing maintenance in a spacesuit has got to be a royal pain in the butt.
Tesla semi chassis could be modified into heavy equipment.
The Tesla SUVs and Cars into backhoes, small graders, cherry pickers, small cranes and the lot.
The Boston Dynamics robots would be fine for moving stuff around and portage.
Various AI packages could aid. Think OpenAI now owned by Musk?
The various life like Japanese and Korean robots would be great as upper body installs in existing equipment (so you don't need to modify everything) . Think of one of them installed at a factory workstation or behind the controls of a CAT.
Time lag to earth is about 4 seconds round trip so teleoperation is not beyond range.
For digging tunnels - Musk's little boring machine might fit for small diameter ones. I am sure he is looking at ways around the big grinding wheels. He has even tweeted about experiments with flame, sonic and lasers before the cutting heads. That's important as cutting heads are very heavy, huge and have a short lifetime. All something not good if they need to be launched out of Earth's gravity well.

Bigelow Aerospace has working models of inflatable space-stations and habitats. They have 2 inflatable stations in orbit for years and an inflatable module on the spacestation. The problem with the inflatables and other surface dwelling on the moon is protection from cosmic rays, solar flares and such. One really wants some rock and soil overhead most of the time for radiation reasons. But when in bootstrap mode Bigelow would be a GodSend! Also, as garages where one could work on equipment without a cumbersome spacesuit.

Cement also gets strange on the moon. A water based cement needs lots of water and water is precious. It't not that precious on earth so we still use Portland. There are other cement type reactions that make a strong rock composite. Many stronger than Portland without using water. The issue is that on earth Portland is cheap. In space? We should consider the other "cement" reactions and design space based equipment to mine and create it. It's not even clear what a cement mixer would look like for those formulations.

Posted by: Skidmark || 04/09/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2019-04-09
  Maryland man accused of stealing U-Haul truck in 'ISIS-inspired attack'
Mon 2019-04-08
  Major showdown brewing in Tripoli as rival Libyan forces clash near capital city
Sun 2019-04-07
  Libya U.S. forces supporting U.S. Africa Command temporarily relocated
Sat 2019-04-06
  Egypt kills hundreds of suspected militants in disputed gun battles
Fri 2019-04-05
  German police arrest teen who says he planned shooting
Thu 2019-04-04
  Libya’s General Haftar marches on Tripoli
Wed 2019-04-03
  Bouteflika resigns
Tue 2019-04-02
  US suspends F-35 deliveries to Turkey over Russian S-400 deal
Mon 2019-04-01
  Sudan police fire tear gas as protesters rally
Sun 2019-03-31
  Misfired Patriot missile hits farm in Qatar
Sat 2019-03-30
  Hamas May Declare War Saturday
Fri 2019-03-29
  Turkey: air defense purchase from Russia 'a done deal'
Thu 2019-03-28
  Boko Haram attacks in eastern Niger leave 10 dead: Mayor
Wed 2019-03-27
  Israel just hit near Aleppo Syria
Tue 2019-03-26
  IAF Hits Enemy Targets After 30 Rockets Pound Israel, Egypt threatens to quit mediating

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