This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • KSM offers testimony to Haspel confirmation hearing

    KSM offers testimony to Haspel confirmation hearing

    The New York Times reports that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 9/11 attack planner asked a judge to allow him to testify at Gina Haspel’s confirmation hearing in regards to her participation in water boarding activities;

    Mr. Mohammed, the principal architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was captured in March 2003 and tortured by the C.I.A. This week, he asked a military judge at Guantánamo Bay for permission to share six paragraphs of information about Ms. Haspel with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

    Ms. Haspel ran a black-site prison in Thailand where another high-level detainee was tortured in late 2002. But it is not known whether she was involved, directly or indirectly, in Mr. Mohammed’s torture. Mr. Mohammed was held in secret C.I.A. prisons in Afghanistan and Poland.

    In the weeks after his capture, an Intelligence Committee report said, Mr. Mohammed was subjected to the suffocation technique called waterboarding 183 times over 15 sessions, stripped naked, doused with water, slapped, slammed into a wall, given rectal rehydrations without medical need, shackled into painful stress positions and sleep-deprived for about a week by being forced to stand with his hands chained above his head.

    I’m only surprised that Democrats didn’t provide him with first-class airfare to Washington.

    Ms. Haspel ran a black-site prison in Thailand in late 2002 while a detainee being held there, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of orchestrating Al Qaeda’s attack on the American destroyer Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000, was subjected to torture techniques including waterboarding. She was also involved in destroying videotapes of interrogation sessions in 2005.

    I don’t consider waterboarding to be torture – I’ve watched stank-ass hippies waterboard each other in front of the White House. I doubt that they would do that if it was all that terrible. The worst part for them is having clean water touch their nasty skin.

  • North Korea to release the three Kims

    North Korea to release the three Kims

    CBS News reports that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be accompanied by the three US citizens held by North Korea when he leaves the country. Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim are all but free today.

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea on Wednesday to finalize plans for a historic summit between President Donald Trump and the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Pompeo is expected to return from North Korea with three Americans who have been detained in the country, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Tuesday…The trip came just days after North Korea expressed displeasure with Washington for comments suggesting that massive U.S. pressure had pushed Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table.

    I’m not tired of winning quite yet.

  • Trump withdraws from Iran agreement

    Trump withdraws from Iran agreement

    President Trump decided to withdraw from the 2015 agreement with Iran yesterday, meaning that US sanctions against Iran may be restored in 180 days. According to the Associated Press, members of the parliament burned a US flag in their chamber while declaring “Death to America”. I’m pretty sure that members of the Iranian parliament declared “Death to American” when the agreement was signed, too.

    In comments before school teachers, Khamenei told Trump: “You cannot do a damn thing!” The exhortation from Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, follows a pattern of Iranian leaders declaring their nation’s ability to resist foreign pressure or interference.

    Khamenei described Trump’s speech as having “over 10 lies,” without elaborating on them. He also said Trump’s remarks threatened both Iran’s people and its theocratic government.

    Yahoo News reports that former president Obama and losing presidential candidate John Kerry join the mullahs expressing disappointment with the Trump Administration;

    Stressing that policy “debates in our country should be informed by facts,” Obama detailed six “facts,” noting that the agreement was reached after building an international coalition that included the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, China, and Iran; it has succeeded in “rolling back Iran’s nuclear program”; the deal is “strictly monitored” by international watchdogs; Iran is in compliance with the agreement; the agreement never expires; and the deal “was never intended to solve all of our problems with Iran.”

    “We were clear-eyed that Iran engages in destabilizing behavior — including support for terrorism, and threats toward Israel and its neighbors,” Obama said. “But that’s precisely why it was so important that we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

    So, the deal with Iran wasn’t intended to solve all of our problems with them – including allowing Iran to keep our citizens locked up in their prisons while sending pallets of cash with which they can finance their proxy wars in Yemen and Lebanon.

    And, lest we forget;

  • Virginia AG files lawsuit against Charles Warren Jr. and Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers

    Virginia AG files lawsuit against Charles Warren Jr. and Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers

    13 News Now reports that Virginia’s Attorney General has filed a law suit against Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers and Charles Warren Jr. for selling poorly-trained puppies under the guise of ‘diabetic alert dogs.’ Attorney General Herring has found more than 50 victims who paid $18,000 to $27,000 for each of their pups.

    The lawsuit also shows the Attorney General’s investigation found the Warren claimed he trained dogs while serving in the Marine Corps, but he did not serve in any United States military branch.

    Hampton Roads resident, Don Shipley is a former Navy Seal.

    “This guy’s a classic example of lying about his military service to get benefits from something,” said Shipley. “It does a terrible disservice to us. You know that speaks volumes about who you are, and when it’s a lie that’s a big problem.”

    Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers denies any wrong-doing, but there’s evidence that the company claimed endorsements that didn’t exist;

    The report shows Attorney General Herring’s investigation found Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers also falsely claimed they have a partnership with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

    The JDRF Chief Mission Officer Aaron Kowalski emailed this statement: “JDRF has never endorsed the use of diabetes service dogs. To date, there has not been a sufficient amount of scientific studies performed to test their efficacy and safety.”

  • Wednesday morning feel good stories

    Wednesday morning feel good stories

    From Horry County, South Carolina;

    The woman told Horry County police that she, a man and her baby were in the bedroom of the home Sunday night when an intruder broke in through a locked door.

    She said when the man told the intruder to get out of the house, the intruder began to assault the man. The woman said she grabbed a samurai sword and stabbed the intruder in the arm.

    The woman said the intruder left the home, so she and the man closed the bedroom door and pushed a dresser in front of it. She said the intruder returned, armed with a knife, and pushed his way into the room, knocking the dresser over.

    The intruder then stabbed the man multiple times “all over his body and face” while the woman hid in a closet with her baby, the police report said.

    The man who had been stabbed by the intruder jumped out a bathroom window to get help, the report said.

    Officers located the intruder and held him at gunpoint until he could be taken into custody, police said.

    Both injured men were taken to transported to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, the police report said.

    From Gainesville, Florida;

    Officers say the victim was coming home from a movie theater with family members, and while they were parked Arkeem Bennett approached them with a handgun in an attempt to rob them.

    The victim who holds a concealed carry permit took out his gun and shot at Arkeem in self defense, one of the bullets struck Arkeem but he was able to get away in his car with another person driving.

    The victim informed 911 about the incident, and they later found Bennett dead.

    From Orlando, Florida;

    A man in his 60s was at the Wells Fargo location at 4549 Hoffner Avenue, near Conway Road, when a man in his 20s tried to rob him at gunpoint, spokeswoman Jane Watrel said. The older man had a gun, for which he has a concealed weapons permit, and exchanged shots with the suspect, Watrel said.

    He drove away and called 911, then returned to the scene, Watrel said.

    The suspect was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in serious condition and later was pronounced dead.

  • Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock pleaded guilty on Fitzgerald collision

    Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock pleaded guilty on Fitzgerald collision

    The Stars & Stripes reports that Lieutenant Junior Grade Sarah Coppock pleaded guilty to the charge of dereliction of duty in her role that caused the collision of the USS Fitzgerald with a civilian commercial vessel, ACX Crystal, on June 17, 2017 off the Japanese coast;

    The Fitzgerald’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, was not on deck at the time of the collision. Coppock was charged for failing to “communicate and coordinate with the Combat Information Center, report ship specified contacts to the commanding officer, operate safely in a high density traffic condition and alert crew of imminent collision,” according to the charge sheet.

    Coppock was charged along with two unnamed junior officers on board the Fitzgerald.

    The Fitzgerald was navigating out to sea near Yokosuka Port in Japan when it failed to recognize the dangers of three ships heading across its path.

    They were close enough to present risk of collision, according to a U.S. Navy report. Two of the ships maneuvered to avoid a collision — one coming particularly close. The report said Coppock was responsible to alert the commanding officer after that close call. The third, called the ACX Crystal, did not.

  • Democrats and the evil Russian Facebook Ads

    Democrats and the evil Russian Facebook Ads

    According to the Huffington Post, Democrats are still blubbering over Russian-financed ads that were on Facebook two years ago;

    Lawmakers released redacted copies of some of the advertisements last year that focused on immigration, same-sex marriage and gun control. Facebook later said more than 126 million people potentially saw the ads purchased by the Russians.

    Schiff’s efforts come just a weeks after Republicans on the Intelligence Committee released a 250-page report that said they had uncovered no evidence of collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s election campaign.

    I know Democrats are trying to convince themselves that it wasn’t their policies or their candidates that lost them the 2016 elections, but this is just more useless bullshit that wastes our time and our money.

    Popsugar has the graphics from some of the ads;

    California Senator Dianne Feinstein said during the hearings, “What we’re talking about is a cataclysmic change. What we’re talking about is the beginning of cyberwarfare. What we’re talking about is a major foreign power with sophistication and ability to involve themselves in a presidential election and sow conflict and discontent all over this country. We are not going to go away, gentlemen. And this is a very big deal.”

    From where we stand, with nearly 126 million Americans having seen these downright inflammatory posts and not having thought anything of it — well, we really couldn’t agree more. And perhaps being able to put some tangible imagery behind the amorphous idea of Russian meddling will make us all think twice before we scroll past an image such as the ones ahead on any of our social feeds ever again.

    So what? Seriously. There are Americans who never logged on to Facebook and still voted against Democrats. How do you dummies explain that?

    I’m going to guess that Russian-sponsored ads had no effect on the election, compared to effect that Hillary Clinton had on the loss. She was a terrible choice as a candidate and she had a terrible platform. Period.

    This is just so much mental masturbation.

  • Samuel Oliverio; phony Vietnam veteran

    Samuel Oliverio; phony Vietnam veteran

    Someone sent us their work on this fellow, Samuel Oliverio who claimed at a Putnam Valley, New York Town Board Meeting that he served in Vietnam for eight days, so he doesn’t consider himself to be a Vietnam veteran.

    “Those who served in peacetime, as I did from 1975 to 1978. I did make the Vietnam classification, but I consider myself a Vietnam era, not a Vietnam veteran, a Vietnam era veteran, because, you know, the little bit of time that I was in country was all of eight days.”

    Well, according to his records, in May, 1975, the month after US forces left Vietnam, Sam was on the Delayed Entry Program for the Air Force. He got a hardship discharge from DEP and then enlisted again a year later in the Army. So, if he was in Vietnam for eight days it was on his own dime.

    I don’t know what he thinks that lying about eight days in Vietnam will get him, but it was a stupid claim. He spent 25 months in the active duty Army and five months were spent in Korea after a year or so at Hunter Army Airfield as a Military Policeman.