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

Author: AW1Ed

  • Mattis congratulates new ‘secretary of defense’

    mattis
    Relax, not another White House shake-up.
    Navy Times reports the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey team goaltender Maddie Rooney’s Wiki page had humorously advanced her to ‘United States Secretary of Defense.’ I happened to be awake and watched the Gold Medal game against the Canadian woman’s team, and my heart was in my throat the entire time. I’m not really an ice hockey fan, but this game between the two world’s best teams was riveting. The game was tied after overtime, and victory was decided by a shoot-out, where the teams swap attempts to score, goalie against a single shooter.

    The 20 year old Rooney successfully defended her goal against Canada’s best, allowing the US team to win the gold for the first time in the last four Winter Olympics.

    The Wiki edit was changed after a day, but not before SecDef Jim Mattis saw it. He sent Rooney a personal note, congratulating her, from one Secretary of Defense to another, on her “magnificent performance.” She of course was thrilled, tweeting, “Wow, how cool is this! It is a great honor to jokingly hold the same title as someone as revered as Secretary Mattis.”

    secdef note

    America’s foes were unavailable for comment, as they too were up all night, because, Mattis.

    (thought something a bit lighter was in order after a very active week)

  • Andrew McCabe FIRED!

    fbi logo

    Fox News and American Thinker are reporting President Trump called Andrew McCabe a ‘choirboy’ as he lauded the former acting FBI Director’s firing, suggesting multiple federal reports show “corruption at the highest level.”

    “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!”

    McCabe was fired days before he would have been eligible for a pension estimated to be worth $1.8M, after it was determined that he lied to investigators reviewing the bureau’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

    McCabe also faces the very real possibility of Federal charges being levied against him. Attorney General Sessions specifically noted that he “lacked candor under oath,” the FBI’s euphemism for lying. There is a US attorney in Little Rock on the case, according to a Session’s comment, a possible precursor to a Grand Jury investigation.

    Sessions stated,

    After an extensive and fair investigation and according to Department of Justice procedure, the Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) provided its report on allegations of misconduct by Andrew McCabe to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).

    The FBI’s OPR then reviewed the report and underlying documents and issued a disciplinary proposal recommending the dismissal of Mr. McCabe. Both the OIG and FBI OPR reports concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor ? including under oath ? on multiple occasions.

    The FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability. As the OPR proposal stated, ‘all FBI employees know that lacking candor under oath results in dismissal and that our integrity is our brand.’

    Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”

    Surprising no one, McCabe fired back, blaming the Trump administration in general and Trump’s tweets specifically.

    “The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us. No more.”

    McCabe will certainly appeal his dismissal, but given the nature of the offenses he’ll have a difficult time prevailing in court; lower level agents have been fired for much less. Had he been subject to the UCMJ, the list of charges could have looked something like this:

    Article 81- Conspiracy
    Article 92- Failure to obey order or regulation
    Article 107- False official statements
    Article 131- Perjury
    Article 135-34- Obstruction of justice

    Hmmm, that laundry list looks worthy of reduction in rate to E-1, loss of all pay and allowances, brig time, and a Big Chicken Dinner to me. The Left is of course shocked and appalled at this so called vicious, politically motivated firing, and are howling again for Trump’s impeachment. Good luck with that.

  • Students on gun control II

    In the same theme as Exploding Deer Boy from yesterday, here are a couple examples of the enlightened, critical young thinkers participating in the anti-gun school walk out.

    gun free zone

    Apparently they think the White House is a “Gun Free Zone” and therefore is a safe place to be. I think the Secret Service would disagree.

    molon labe

    This is just sad. While decrying the NRA’s supposed bloodthirstiness, she is wearing a school jersey with a Spartan mascot, and “MOLON AABE” (sic) printed below. I don’t think I have to remind anyone here of the significance of either the image or the motto.

    I really shouldn’t blame the kids, at least entirely. They didn’t come up with all this crap on their own.

    Tip ‘o the hat to Thomas Lifson over at American Thinker

  • Update: Lower Michigan may be crash site for falling Chinese space station

    tiangong 1

    Metro UK reports the Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, is expected to crash into the Earth early April, and it looks like lower Michigan is a likely impact site. Northern China, central Italy, northern Spain, the Middle East, New Zealand, Tasmania, South America, southern Africa, and northern states in the US have also been identified as the regions with a high chance of impact.

    ‘There is a chance that a small amount of Tiangong-1 debris may survive reentry and impact the ground. Should this happen, any surviving debris would fall within a region that is a few hundred kilometres in size and centered along a point on the Earth that the station passes over.’

    ‘Potentially, there may be a highly toxic and corrosive substance called hydrazine on board the spacecraft that could survive re-entry. ‘For your safety, do not touch any debris you may find on the ground nor inhale vapors it may emit.’

    So our rocket scientists have narrowed down the time window a bit, but are still vague on the “where” part. Also mentioned, hydrazine is pretty nasty stuff and even short exposures can result in irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat as well as dizziness, headache, nausea, pulmonary edema, seizures and even coma, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. If I happen to run across anything that looks like a smoking Chinese spacecraft, I’m leaving that sucker alone.

  • Maverick Flies Again!

    top gun

    Tom Cruise has signed on to reprise his role as Maverick in a sequel to the iconic 1980s movie Top Gun, due to start filming this year. Looks like he’s flying an F-35 this time, so no NFO to back him up. The big question is, can this possibly be as bad a flick as the original? Here’s the trailer, so decide for yourself.

    You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling’, Mick.
    *grin*

  • China’s Tiangong-1 space station will crash to Earth within weeks

    Tiangong 1

    Live in northern China, the Middle East, central Italy, northern Spain or the northern states of the US, New Zealand, Tasmania, parts of South America and southern Africa? Then I have some bad news for you.

    The Guardian reports China’s first space station is expected to come crashing down to Earth within weeks, but scientists have not been able to predict where the 8.5-tonne module will hit.

    Estimates differ, but the US-funded Aerospace Corporation thinks the Tiangong-1 will re-enter the atmosphere during the first week of April, give or take a week, while the European Space Agency says the module will come down between 24 March and 19 April. They’re just a bit vague on the “where” part.

    “If this should happen, any surviving debris would fall within a region that is a few hundred kilometres in size,” said Aerospace, a research organization that advises government and private enterprise on space flight.

    “When considering the worst-case location … the probability that a specific person (ie, you) will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about one million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot.

    “In the history of spaceflight no known person has ever been harmed by reentering space debris. Only one person has ever been recorded as being hit by a piece of space debris and, fortunately, she was not injured.”

    “I would guess that a few pieces will survive re-entry. But we will only know where they are going to land after the fact.”

    Aerospace Corperation warned that the space station might be carrying a highly toxic and corrosive fuel called hydrazine on board, so there’s that. I certainly feel better, now. Thank you Chinese rocket scientists!

  • Justice Department processing pardon case for sailor

    us ssn
    The Washington Examiner reports the US Justice Department is processing a pardon for former US Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, after denying an opportunity to apply last year. Saucier was sentenced for one year in prison and awarded an “Other Than Honorable” discharge for taking photos inside a nuclear submarine. The photos were classified “Confidential,” the lowest classification level.

    People convicted of federal crimes generally have to wait five years after being sentenced before they can apply for a pardon, and a waiver request from Saucier was denied in May, even though Trump told Fox News days after taking office in January 2017 that he was considering a pardon.

    In its waiver-denial letter to Saucier’s then-attorney Jeffrey Addicott, the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney wrote on May 30: “Upon careful review of the information you submitted, we have concluded that it would not be appropriate to grant a waiver of the waiting period in Mr. Saucier’s case to permit him to apply for a pardon at this time.”

    “I can confirm there is a pending case open. We have no further comment,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman.

    In late February, the Justice Department sent another letter, saying Saucier’s pardon application is now being processed. “We will now be processing the application for presidential pardon of your client, Kristian Saucier,” the Office of the Pardon Attorney wrote to Addicott, who forwarded the letter to Saucier’s current attorney, Ronald Daigle.

    Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

    President Trump repeatedly mentioned Saucier during the 2016 campaign, after he was sentenced. He argued Saucier was punished for doing very little compared to Hillary Clinton. Clinton was judged to be “Grossly Negligent” in mishandling classified information when she and her aides transmitted 110 emails containing classified information through her non-secure server, among other violations.

    Reduction in rate to E-1, loss of all pay and allowances, a year in prison and an OTH seem a bit steep to me for a Confidential act of stupidity; an example was made here. This pardon is rather obviously being fast tracked for political reasons- Trump will use it to bludgeon Clinton for her egregious, unpunished security violations.

    And I’m OK with that.

  • Trump hints at allowing more troops to carry personal weapons on military bases

    Defender

    Navy Times reports President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would re-examine federal policies restricting troops from carrying private firearms on military bases, calling it an important safety issue.

    Defense Department leaders have in the past resisted changes to those firearms policies due to concerns that it could lead to more accidental shootings and successful suicides.

    Comments from the Commander in Chief came during a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, while he was talking about possible solutions to gun violence in America.

    “We’re going to look at that whole military base gun-free zone,” he said. “If we can’t have our military holding guns, it’s pretty bad.

    “We had a number of instances on military bases, you know that. So we want to protect our military. We want to make our military stronger and better than it’s ever been before.”

    Trump specifically referenced the July 2015 shooting spree at a pair of military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which a gunman killed four Marines and a sailor in a series of ambushes. The attacker was later killed in a firefight with police.

    “They were on a military base in a gun-free zone,” Trump said. “They were asked to check their guns quite far away, and a maniac walked in, guns blazing, killed all five of them. He wouldn’t have had a chance if these world-class marksmen had, on a military base, access to their guns.”

    Reports following the deaths of the service members found that at least two military personnel on scene were carrying personal firearms when they were attacked — possibly in violation of base rules — and unsuccessfully returned fire in an effort to stop the gunman.

    The incident prompted a review of military policies regarding privately owned firearms, after lawmakers argued that the attack could have been stopped sooner if more servicemembers had the ability to fire back.

    More than a year later, the Defense Department issued new regulations regarding those weapons, allowing commanders to grant permission to certain troops.

    But top Pentagon officials and base commanders also expressed concerns about a new influx of private weapons on base, saying it could lead to confusion over official duties, accidental shootings and an increase in suicides among struggling service members.

    I’m not sure what sort of official duty confusion there may be- you’re either on duty or not. If by accidental shootings they mean negligent discharge, that’s a training issue and I’d expect a screening process for those who wish to carry on base. Suicides will find a way with or without a firearm; sounds cold but its true. My daily commute is through a sketchy part of town; OK during the day but not safe after dark, and I would like to practice my rights under the Constitution while on base.