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

Author: Dave Hardin

  • Officer once fired for lying resigns after military service questioned.

    Officer once fired for lying resigns after military service questioned.

    Skidmark sends us the story about a San Antonio police officer who won his job back last year after being indefinitely suspended that has now resigned from the department amid new allegations and is now facing criminal charges.

     

    Questions arise about Martin’s service in U.S. Marine Corps

    In the arbitration ruling it was stated Martin “spent approximately 4 years honorably serving in the United States Marine Corps,” which he followed up with a stint in the US Secret Service “as a highly trained member on the presidential protective detail.”

    In March of this year, the Defenders received an anonymous letter which raised questions about Martin’s military service.
    The letter stated: “This is not true. I find it interesting and quite upsetting that someone would lie about serving in the Marine Corps, but apparently this is just what officer Martin did because I can assure you he was not a Marine.”

    A search of Martin’s official Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records revealed more troubling information.

    Records show Martin began working for the Wilson County Sheriff’s office in January 2017, during his suspension from SAPD, and that he has continued to be employed there for a year and 8 months, which overlapped his service at SAPD when he was returned to duty.

    SAPD said it did not approve Martin to work for an outside agency.

    The Defenders have asked the Marines and the U.S. Secret Service for Martin’s service records which have not yet been provided. A person who works in the records department, however, confirmed Martin joined the Marines in July 1997, but said it appeared he never graduated from boot camp.

    The Defenders have tried to contact Martin through his attorney for a comment, but he has not responded.

    LINK HERE

    Stolen Valor is only the tip of the iceberg.  Some guy used to say that around here a lot.  Thanks to Skidmark for the story.

  • Wednesday morning feel good stories.

    Wednesday morning feel good stories.

    From Chicago, IL

    A man allegedly trying to break into a Chicago apartment has died after two men inside the apartment took his gun and fatally shot him.

    From Ona, West Virginia

    The Cabell County Sheriff says a man’s hand was nearly severed by a homeowner using a machete after a break-in

     

  • Che Guevara – the only kind of good Commie

    Che Guevara – the only kind of good Commie

    From his first meeting with Fidel Castro in Mexico in 1955 to his death in the Bolivian Andes in 1967, Ché Guevara’s revolutionary career spanned little more than a decade. Yet the handsome young face, gaze set firmly on the future, has lived on through generations. In today’s imagination Ché remains a mythical, romantic hero — an uncompromising revolutionary, selfless, dedicated, incorruptible, ready to die for his beliefs.

    Anti-American, Pro-Communist
    At age 26, Guevara arrived in Mexico. He had spent five weeks in Bolivia and nine months in Guatemala, where he witnessed the overthrow of reformist president Jacobo Arbenz by a CIA-backed military coup. The event forever fixed his hatred of the United States. By then he was a convinced Marxist, and ardent admirer of the Soviet Union. Married to a Guatemalan woman, Hilda Galea, he intended to name his first son Vladimir. He had decided to join the ranks of the Communist Party, “somewhere in the world.” But despite his lofty ideals, Ché was little more than a drifter, a wandering photographer, an underpaid medical researcher — a rebel in search of a cause.

    Death of a Revolutionary
    The Bolivian Rangers captured Ché Guevara on October 8, 1967, at a ravine called El Yuro. The next day he was executed. His body was photographed on a stone slab in a small hut for the whole world to see. On October 12, an American State Department analysis of Ché’s death predicted, “Guevara will be eulogized as the model revolutionary who met a heroic death.”

    LINK

    The only good Commie is a Dead Commie.

  • Army veteran Patrick Shields stops shooter at high school football game

    The quick thinking of Patrick Shields kept a bad situation from potentially becoming much worse.

    A homecoming celebration quickly transitioned to dangerous chaos Friday night after a football game in Tennessee, but the quick thinking of a civilian kept a bad situation from potentially becoming much worse.

    Two victims – Demetrius Harper and Cameshia Murphy – were shot, according to a report from the Brownsville Police Department. Both were treated and released. Harper was hit twice in the back and Murphy was hit in the foot.

    The shooter, a 16-year-old juvenile, was quickly apprehended – thanks to Patrick Shields.

    Shields is a 1996 graduate of Haywood High School who has served in the Army for 22 years, including three deployments. He currently serves in the National Guard.

    He watched his son, Taylor, and the rest of the Tomcat football team win their homecoming game over neighboring rival Crockett County on Friday night.

    But he didn’t expect his military training to become necessary while he and his brother were cleaning up their tailgating area after the game.

    “My brother and I were cleaning up, and we heard a bunch of kids hollering and yelling across the street at Walgreen’s, but we didn’t know what was going on,” Shields said. “Then we heard sounds like fireworks … like pow pow pow.

    “And I looked over there and saw the flame coming out of a pistol, and a bunch of the kids were running toward us.”

    Shields said he saw the shooter and the gun in his hand.

    “It looked like he was aiming for one person, but I don’t know who,” Shields said. “They were all running toward us, but he wasn’t shooting in our direction.”

    Shields said he had a few seconds to decide what he would do when he got within arm’s length of the shooter.

    “I grabbed him by the arm that was holding the gun and pulled him toward me and threw him up against the fence,” Shields said. “Then I grabbed him by the back of the shirt and got him on the ground.”

    A police officer was already headed in that direction and he was there quickly. Brownsville Police Assistant Chief Kelvin Evans was on the scene quickly as well and helped put handcuffs on the suspect and take him away.

    The shooter is charged with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. He’s being held in the juvenile detention center.

    A statement from Brownsville Police Chief Barry Diebold commended Shields for his work.

    “Mr. Shields’ quick thinking saved many lives,” Diebold’s said.

    Source: Army veteran Patrick Shields stops shooter at high school football game

  • Navy petty officer wins transgender bodybuilding contest

    Wes Phills, of Brooklyn, N.Y., center, walks offstage after winning the overall award and middleweight class in the International Association of Trans Bodybuilders competition in Atlanta on Saturday. At left are fellow competitors Peter Moore, and Sandy Baird, both of Oakland, Calif., and Kennedy Conners, right, of Conyers, Ga., who took home the heavyweight trophy. (David Goldman/AP)

    Competitors were judged in the categories of lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and masters, for age 60 and over, according to five disciplines: mass, definition, proportion, symmetry and stage presence.

    I thought the Navy was all about the water.

    It’s been 20 years since Charles Bennett took the stage to compete in bodybuilding. But at the age of 63, he’s now done something he’s never done before — compete as a man for the first time in what’s billed as the world’s only transgender bodybuilding competition.

    Bennett and seven fellow competitors went before a crowd Saturday evening in the annual International Association of Trans Bodybuilders competition at a theater in Atlanta.

    The competition has attracted bodybuilders from across the country and even Russia since it began in 2014, according to executive director and head judge Bucky Motter.

    Competitors were judged in the categories of lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and masters, for age 60 and over, according to five disciplines: mass, definition, proportion, symmetry and stage presence.

    Bennett had the most experience of those on stage, and saw his role as more coach than competitor, helping others practice their poses backstage. He also offered diet tips, shared his preshow rituals and helped Peter Moore of Oakland, California, apply fake tan, his hand running over the scars where Moore had his breasts removed when he transitioned to male two years ago.

    Go Navy !

    Source: Navy petty officer wins transgender bodybuilding contest

  • Tuesday morning feel good stories

    Tuesday morning feel good stories

    From JAMESTOWN, ND

    A man was arrested following a home invasion and three hour stand-off in Jamestown.

    Police received a call of an intruder inside a residence early Sunday. The homeowners were not at the residence, but had been notified by a surveillance system that there was an intruder inside. They returned and found 2 broken door frames. They were able to get a family member who was home safely out before police arrived.

    Officers found the suspect still inside. He refused orders to surrender and the James-Valley Special Operations Team made entry and took the suspect into custody.

    20-year old Chase Urie, of Proctor, Minnesota is being held in the Stutsman County Jail on charges of Criminal Trespassing, Criminal Mischef, and Minor consuming. Police have not yet said if Urie was armed or what his intentions were.

    From Greenwood, SC

    A man who had been admitted to the hospital for gunshot wounds to his face and hand is now facing an armed robbery charge, Greenwood police said Monday.

    Antonio Rodreges Nicholson, 38, of 3824 Highway 25 S., Greenwood was arrested Friday and charged with armed robbery and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.

    Greenwood police heard multiple gunshots at about 3:30 a.m. Friday, according to a report, and soon after learned someone had been taken to Self Regional Medical Center’s emergency room with gunshot wounds to the right hand and the face, according to a report.

    Officers went and spoke with the man, who said he had been shot in the area of White Oak Lane and Cokesbury Road. Officers searched the area, but couldn’t find a crime scene. The man drove himself to the emergency room, and the car he had been in had blood all along the driver’s side, with a large, bloody Bowie knife on the floorboard, the report said.

    Through an anonymous tipster, police learned the man in the hospital had tried to rob someone in the area of White Oak Lane, and the person he tried to rob shot him in self-defense, said Greenwood Police Department Public Information Officer Jonathan Link.

  • 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard seeks $3.5 Million

    1st Lt. Katie Blanchard seeks $3.5 Million

    We first wrote about Katie Blanchard HERE.   She has filed a $3.5 million case against the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    One year ago, an Army civilian who tossed a water bottle full of gasoline onto his supervisor and lit a match was sentenced by a judge to 20 years in prison for attempted murder.

    For the nurse who survived the attack, the fight is not even close to over.

    The Feres doctrine prevents service members and their families from suing the Defense Department in the event of injury or death, but for 1st Lt. Katie Blanchard, that is beside the point. In September, she filed a personal injury claim against the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she was working at Munson Army Health Center at the time of the September 2016 assault.

    “Is it okay for us to have gross negligence and zero accountability in the military? Because if you look at my case, that’s what it is,” Blanchard told Army Times in a Wednesday phone interview. “Zero accountability for the way they treated me and the things that they missed that will forever affect my life.”

    Blanchard, 28, is asking for just under $3.5 million to cover some of the costs of the permanent disabilities she faces, after more than 100 surgeries to date and an intense battle with post-traumatic stress.

    She had, for months before the Sept. 7, 2016, attack, warned her supervisors and security personnel at the hospital that she believed Clifford Currie, the civilian employee, would try to kill her. Their relationship had deteriorated over the previous year, as she tried to implement an administrative plan to get his work progress on track.

    A link to The Feres Doctrine is HERE.  Lt Blanchard had repeatedly tried to get her command to take action concerning her attacker.   I doubt Blanchard is perfect and from what I can gather seems to be more than capable of becoming a First Class Bitch at times.   After what she has been through…I can not say that I blame her in the slightest.

    While she’s fully insured with Tricare, she said she still fights constantly to get the treatments she needs. She has to fight for a temporary duty order to see specialists they don’t have at JBLM, or to fill a prescription for an extra-strength, non-irritating body moisturizer she applies daily just to be able to comfortably wear clothes and move around.

    They kept it stocked at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, she said, where she recovered from the initial attack in their specialized burn unit.

    “Here they’re like, ‘Nope, sorry, we don’t provide it,’ ” she said. “Well, it’s $20 for a tub of it, and I go through that every three or four days. This is not cosmetic. I don’t like just putting on a ton of lotion every day just to feel pretty.”

    “That’s for comfort,” was Tricare’s response, she said.

    So instead, she sleeps in a recliner in her basement after surgery, keeping herself in position with pillows that shift all night, waking up regularly to rearrange them.

    “Yes, you give me medical care, but how much of a fight do I want to do for that?” she said.

    The damages she’s seeking from Fort Leavenworth would cover those medical costs that are denied by Tricare, she said, as well as for child care for her sons while she’s in surgery and recovering, and her active duty officer husband isn’t available.

    “My husband is currently out in the field and then he’s deploying,” she said.

    Lt Blanchard deserves better than this.  I am not a big fan of those who file cases for money as if it will change the behavior of those who do not actually write the check…this is an exception.

    Please read the entire Article HERE.

     

     

     

     

  • It’s time to end the war in Afghanistan

    It’s time to end the war in Afghanistan

    Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment provide security near their armored vehicle in Afghanistan on Sept. 21, 2018, nearly 17 years after the conflict began. (Spc. Christopher Bouchard/Army)

    To mark the 17th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, Rep. Ruben Gallego wants to finally end the conflict.

    Gallego, D-Ariz. and a Marine Corps veteran who served in combat in Iraq, has been a vocal critic of the “perpetual war” in the recent years. In a statement this weekend, he said military and political leaders need to find a way to put a stop to America’s longest military fight.

    “It’s clear that continuing on the current course is not in our national interest,” he said. “American troops should come home.

    “Our objectives following (the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks) were to destroy al-Qaida, kill Osama bin Laden, and prevent a recurrence of an ungoverned space in Afghanistan that allowed for terrorists to plot and plan attacks on Americans and our allies. We accomplished all of those objectives years ago.”

    Hmm…and end to the conflict?  I don’t think that is actually up to us.  The idiotic Obama promised an end to the conflict.   His cowardice led to unspeakable acts of violence the region had never seen.

     

    At an appearance before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in July, President Donald Trump said U.S. forces “for the first time in years are making a lot of progress in Afghanistan” because of recent changes by his administration in U.S. strategy there. That included an increase in the number of American troops in the country.

    Gallego said any withdrawal of troops must be done “responsibly” but also without additional delays.

    “Over the past 17 years, almost 25,000 Americans have been killed or wounded in Afghanistan. Many thousands more bear the mental and emotional scars of combat,” Gallego said.

    “We must remember their sacrifice as we seek the best interests of our country, which involves the return of their comrades still in Afghanistan to their friends, family, and a grateful nation.”

    Operation Enduring Freedom launched on Oct. 7, 2001, in response to the al-Qaida attacks in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania a month earlier.

    As usual, there is no substance to this Democrats plan.  I bet that guy named Mattis has some plans for the future.  No matter how or when we end operations …  there better be a promise that we will return in a heartbeat if the Islamic Loons get out of hand again.