Russia’s deputy foreign minister is brushing back suggestions that an American being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying could be exchanged for a Russian.
I have no idea how useless a Russian would have to be in order for me to exchange a guy with a Bad Conduct Discharge from the Corps for him. Let me think … ah … nah, Ivan can keep this dirtbag as long as he wants to.
Whelan’s Marine record also would likely prevent U.S. intelligence from hiring him. He began active duty with the Marines in 2003 and was deployed twice to Iraq, rising to staff sergeant. But his military career ended with a court martial in 2008, when he was convicted on charges that included attempted larceny and dereliction of duty.
Court documents released by the military show he was accused of attempting to steal more than $10,000 while on duty in Iraq, where he worked as a clerk, in September 2006. He was also convicted of using a false social security number and profile for a military computer system to grade his own examinations, and of writing 10 bad checks totaling around $6,000.
He was dropped two grades in rank and given a bad conduct discharge from the Marine Corps.
Let Putin feed his ass for a while. Not sure where a guy that works for a Temp Agency gets money to travel. He seems to like Russia, let him stay for a while.
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) – A U.S. court on Friday ruled in favor of a Trump administration policy barring certain transgender people from serving in the U.S. armed forces, handing the president his first legal victory on the issue after several defeats.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a decision by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that blocked the policy, saying it likely violates the constitutional rights of transgender recruits and service members.
President Donald Trump announced in March that he would endorse a plan by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to restrict the military service of transgender people who experience a condition called gender dysphoria.
The appeals court victory is limited because other federal courts issued injunctions against the policy, which applied nationwide. The administration already has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue.
The high court is due to consider whether to hear three separate government appeals at its private conference on Jan. 11.
The various injunctions allowed transgender troops to join the ranks as of Jan. 1, 2018.
Some sanity reigns, but the social experimenters are readying their appeals as I type. The rest of the article, and complexly expected backlash, may be read here: MSN.com
“The Anne Arundel County police chief defended Maryland’s new “red flag” protective law Monday, just hours after a 61-year-old man was shot and killed while officers were trying to serve a court order requiring him to surrender his guns.
Chief Timothy Altomare said the fatal shooting in Ferndale was a sign that the law, which went into effect Oct. 1, is needed. There have been 19 protective orders sought in the county since then, tying Harford County for the most in Maryland, according to a report on the first month. Statewide, about half of the 114 orders sought have been granted.
“If you look at this morning’s outcome, it’s tough for us to say ‘Well, what did we prevent?’ ” he said. “Because we don’t know what we prevented or could’ve prevented. What would’ve happened if we didn’t go there at 5 a.m.?”
Altomare said the two investigating officers, who he did not identify Monday, “did the best they could with the situation they had.” One of them fatally shot Gary J. Willis at his Linwood Avenue home. – Article.
According to the article, Mr. Willis did put the gun down on the floor. If so then, why was it necessary to shoot him, and why did those cops go there at 5AM and wake him up? Per the article, Linwood became agitated and picked up the gun and a struggle ensued. So why was it necessary for either cop to pull out a gun and shoot him, instead of calling for back up and putting him on the floor? Is Anne Arundel County turning into Chicago?
And who called the cops on him, anyway? Was it family or a disgruntled neighbor? Apparently, it was a family member, but why aren’t these people responsible enough to get him to counseling if he’s agitated about something?
Regarding this incident in Marylnad, which is now a “red flag law” state, there are many questions left unanswered. I’m hoping they will be answered, because this is bizarre, from my point of view.
As you may or may not know, red flag laws allow someone to make a call to the police and say you’re some kind of threat, even if you are not. If this by itself does not smack of Stalin’s era, then what is it? Someone likened it to “Minority Report”, a “gag me with a spoon” movie with that midget actor TCruise. (N.B: if Scientology has so much influence, why isn’t he more famous and more taller?)
There are states that already have those laws in place. I think in Florida, there is also the Baker Act. Here’s the list:
In Illinois, jumping through all those hoops to comply with state legislation has been tested several times now. As you may recall, the Mayor of Deerfield, IL, was slapped by the court for violating the “unlawful search and seizure”, “due process” and all those other cautionary measures, in addition to violating the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. That sparked the Sanctuary County movement which is ongoing and becoming wider spread in the state of Illinois. (Hey, how about some Sanctuary States?)
I’d like to point out the obvious here. In the Florida Parkland school shooting, there were calls reporting the shooter and the police did absolutely nothing. He didn’t have a “collection”, which is something that is kept in order and looked after. He just had a big pile of guns. He did make threats because he didn’t fit in at school and was bullied. The school did nothing about it. The people he lived with did nothing about him. And, finally, the police did nothing about his threats, even with the backup of the Baker Act, so there was nothing that stopped him from his rampage.
We must remember, too, that nothing stops cops from being jackasses either, which has a lot to do with what happened to Mr. Linwood. The Chicago cop who shot LaQuan MacDonald shot him in the back 16 times, instead of in the leg to disable him. The Chicago cop who beat up a female bartender half his size because she wouldn’t serve him any more liquor is another example. When the police do these things, they make the rest of us doubt their sanity.
And remember: we were subjected to Piglet and His Friend Pooh in Parkland, making their grandstanding appearances during their attention-whoring day or two.
So when someone goes in to a panic attack over “red flag laws”, my response would be that he file a public complaint that a law like that does not comply with the US Constitution, does not allow due process or follow that part about ‘unreasonable search and seizure’. You have to sometimes stand up for your rights if you want to keep them.
That it is Nazism and Stalinist KGB/NKVD stuff at its worst, that it specifically follows those practices that led to concentration camps and gulags – those are all true, but has any of that come to pass? Use whatever legalities you can come up with, but keep it calm and assertive. Go through the courts and get that crap overturned. At my age, if I’m not allowed to have a gun on me when I’m on the trails with a camera, in the odd but possible event that I may or might run into a rabid coyote (they never get their shots), I want to know why.
You can file a complaint pro per or get the help of law students, and all of them need a shake-up now and then to rattle their complacency. They also need the real-world experience of dealing with something that they may not agree with, but which is still legally and constitutionally valid and/or invalid, and they are required to do some real legal work in some states. Good practice for them.
Seriously, if someone really wants to be Gestapo, shouldn’t they at least wear the armbands and the insignia so we know who they are?
Unless we take the old bullshit by the horns, the bullshit can and will bury us deep. We must always pay attention to our AO.
The Bad Guys are out there in the darkness…. And they want Your Guns. (Snerrkkkk!)
Infamous ‘Norfolk Four’ sailors wrongly accused of a woman’s rape and murder are paid $4.9million in settlement 21 years after their conviction, following a campaign by novelist John Grisham
Four sailors were convicted in 1997 rape and killing of Michelle Moore-Bosko
Eric Wilson, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Derek Tice were later exonerated
The city of Norfolk has agreed to pay $4.9million to the sailors and the state agreed to pay $3.5million
DNA evidence linked another man, Omar Ballard, to the crimes
Three of the men were granted conditional pardons in 2009 but their convictions remained on the books
Wilson had failed to get his conviction overturned in court because he had already completed his sentence when he brought the challenge
The men have long said they confessed only after being intimidated by police
The city of Norfolk has agreed to pay $4.9million to four former sailors who were wrongly convicted of a woman’s rape and murder based on intimidating police interrogations. The state also has agreed to pay $3.5 million.
The payments close out a decades-long case that drew widespread attention as the men’s innocence claims were backed by dozens of former FBI agents, ex-prosecutors and crime novelist John Grisham.
‘These guys can now put all this behind them and try to recoup their lives,’ said Tony Troy, a lawyer who represented one of the sailors.
The men – Eric Wilson, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Derek Tice – were pardoned by then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe last year of the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko.
Omar Ballard admitted sole responsibility for the killing and is serving a life sentence
I will not even pretend I can understand what those 4 men went through. Nor can I imagine the emotional nightmare the loved ones of Michelle Moore-Bosko have been through.
Police have identified two Florida women accused of nabbing a service dog from a Vietnam veteran last month.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call on Oct. 28 that a Pomeranian service dog had disappeared without a trace. Its owner: a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Surveillance video shows one woman starting an altercation with the victim, while the other comes from behind, unleashes the dog, named Kira, and walks off with her, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.
Two Florida women were captured on surveillance video stealing a service dog from a Vietnam veteran on Oct. 28. (Osceola County Sheriff’s Office)
Jennifer Gotschall, 53, and Monique Cosser, 51, were identified Wednesday after a tip to police from a “concerned citizen” led them to the pair. Kira was also recovered “in good health,” police say.
The victim, who has not been identified, was in Old Town with his two Pomeranian service dogs at the time of the incident.
Gotschall and Cosser have been charged with grand theft, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years’ incarceration. Officials said they are thought to have been released on bond.
Book ’em Danno. Scum like this needs to be put under the jail.
Weeks after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation — and the sexual assault allegations against him — captured the country’s attention, the Senate Judiciary Committee has released a massive report on those accusations that’s largely flown under the radar in the run-up to the midterms.
But the 414-page document, authored by the Republican majority and released over the weekend, contains a number of key revelations.
Among them: the report summarizes a statement from a man who believes he may have been involved in an encounter with Christine Blasey Ford around the time of her claim of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. Some of this emerged during the Supreme Court confirmation process, but the report provides more details.
Ford was the key witness against Kavanaugh. In detail, she said Kavanaugh tried to remove her clothing during a high school party, but had trouble because she was wearing a bathing suit underneath them. She said she ran off when Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge jumped on top of them and they fell off the bed. Kavanaugh denied the accusation and, on Oct. 6, the Senate confirmed him to the Supreme Court.
The man who claims he may have had the encounter with Ford was one of 40 people committee investigators interviewed as part of its probe into the sexual allegations against Kavanaugh, which was done alongside the FBI background check that was compiled in a matter of days.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in releasing the report, said there “was no credible evidence to support the allegations against” Kavanaugh.
Ford testified she was 100 percent positive Kavanaugh assaulted her, rejecting the notion of a case of mistaken identity.
~
Judge Kavanaugh
Witness Tampering?
Committee investigators are in the process of trying to determine if Ford friend Monica McLean, a former FBI employee, tampered with a witness.
“Several media outlets have reported that the FBI’s supplemental report indicated that Leland Keyser, a friend of Dr. Ford, felt pressure from Dr. Ford’s allies to revisit her initial statement to the Committee that she did not know Justice Kavanaugh or have any knowledge of the alleged incident,” the report says.
Ford said that when Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party, Keyser was one of the people downstairs.
The report added that according to the news articles, Keyser reported that McLean and others contacted her to suggest she “clarify” her account.
McLean’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Mistaken Identity at Yale?
The report summarizes an interview with a Yale grad who said that a member of Kavanaugh’s fraternity — who was not Kavanaugh — had a reputation for exposing himself publicly.
The man was interviewed after Deborah Ramirez told the New Yorker that Kavanaugh had thrust his penis in her face when they were at Yale. She said she was drunk and wasn’t sure it was Kavanaugh until she thought about it for a week and spoke to her attorney. Kavanaugh vehemently denied her accusation.
The reports says the man, whose name was redacted, also provided a yearbook photo of the frat brother exposing himself.
The report says the man said he had personally witnessed the flasher expose himself at a party and that the flasher was in the same residential college as Ramirez.
Ford Friends
The report summarizes a statement from William Rand, who went to the University of North Carolina with Ford and told investigators that Ford had a very robust and active social life.
His statement seemingly was at odds with Ford’s assertions that she had a difficult time making friends due to her encounter with Kavanaugh, according to the report.
“He also stated that Dr. Ford did not seem to be afraid to be in rooms or apartments with only one entrance, which contradicts her claim to the Committee that she had to build a second front door to her house due to the trauma of the alleged assault,” the report says.
DOJ Referrals
The report also says that the committee has referred four people to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.
They are a Rhode Island man who recanted an allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman on a boat in Newport in 1985; Judy Munro Leighton, who claimed to have written an anonymous letter asserting Kavanaugh forced her to have oral sex; and Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick and her attorney Michael Avenati, who also represents the porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Avenatti told Fox News that the Grassley report was “garbage.”
”There is no evidence my client or I did anything wrong,” he said. “We are still waiting and hoping the FBI fully investigates this matter. Chuck evidently doesn’t have any juice.”
The creepy porn lawyer hasn’t had a lot of luck lately either, and I’m good with that. Thanks Pat, for the request. We do listen to you folks, and do our best to meet expectations.
Lt. Col. Keithen Washington, shown in this November 2013 photo during his tenure as commander of the 86th Force Support Squadron, is being court-martialed on charges of sexual assault and aggravated assault. Some of the alleged assault incidents took place while Washington was commander of the 86th. (Senior Airman Jonathan Stefanko/Air Force
A Lieutenant Colonel is being court-martialed on charges of sexually assaulting a civilian woman with whom he was in a relationship, and repeatedly hitting her in 2014 and 2015 while he was a squadron commander.
Portions of Lt. Col. Keithen Washington’s court-martial began at Joint Base Andrews in Washington on Oct. 15. Although his court-martial was originally scheduled to end five days later, the judge delayed the hearings to address a scheduling issue, said Lt. Col. Darrick Lee, the spokesman for Air Force District Washington at Andrews. A new date has not yet been set for the court-martial to resume.
Washington was commander of the 86th Force Support Squadron at Ramstein Air Base in Germany from July 2012 to August 2014, during which some of the alleged abuse took place.
Washington faces one specification of a sexual assault charge, which allegedly occurred in or near Philadelphia in late June or early July 2015, according to his charge sheet, which was provided by the Air Force. Washington allegedly digitally penetrated the woman without her consent, and “with an intent to abuse, humiliate or degrade” her by causing bodily harm.
He also is charged with five specifications of aggravated assault inflicting grievous bodily harm, in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the charge sheet. While in Germany, Washington allegedly struck the woman in the leg with his foot in March or April 2014, and allegedly struck her in the head with a cell phone in June 2014.
And in February 2015, in or near San Antonio, Washington allegedly struck her in the leg with his foot on multiple occasions, allegedly struck her in the face with his hand on multiple occasions, and allegedly struck her in the hand and stomach with his fist.
Everyone is innocent until proven otherwise, but obviously there was enough evidence at the Article 32 to advance this case to a Court Martial. That being said, this sort of behavior is completely unwarranted, and those found guilty should face the full legal consequences under the law.
Section 1 if the 14th Amendment to the Constitution states:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
In today’s ROT, Combat Historian broke the news that Trump is planning an Executive Order to end the practice of “anchor babies” where when illegal aliens give birth on US soil, that child is automatically a US citizen. While this practice is not unknown in the world, it is rare and found in countries with a history of slavery; even though the emancipated parent(s) is/are not citizens, their children born on US soil are. This now causes problems.
For example “birth tourism” is a flourishing business. Pregnant women fly here, stay at special hotels and pay sometimes extraordinarily high fees for “concierge services” designed to facilitate the birth of their children. The benefit to the family is that the child is thereby eligible to claim U.S. social welfare, be educated at much lower cost and obtain certain medical benefits for life here.
It also allows for “chain migration” of immediate relatives of the anchor baby to petition for visas.
President Trump is moving forward with a plan to end birthright citizenship via executive action.
“On immigration, some legal scholars believe you can get rid of birthright citizenship without changing the Constitution,” Axios’ Jonathan Swan asked President Trump in a video interview.
“With an executive order,” Trump replied.
“Exactly,” Swan followed up. “Have you thought about that?”
“Yes,” Trump replied.
“Tell me more,” Swan implored.
“It was always told to me that you needed a Constitutional amendment–guess what? You don’t,” Trump said. “Number one, you don’t need that. Number two, you can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it with just an executive order. Now, how ridiculous–we are the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits? It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous–and it has to end.”
Swan asked if Trump has discussed this matter with legal counsel for the White House and he confirmed he has, and that this is “in the process.”
“It will happen–with an executive order, that’s what you’re talking about right?” Trump said. “I didn’t think anybody knew that but me, I thought I was the only one.”
Revoking birthright citizenship would have immediate and far-reaching consequences. It would mean the children of illegal aliens, even if born in the United States, would not be bestowed U.S. citizenship upon birth. It would also likely deter the practice of foreigners having “anchor babies,” where they aim to give birth to children on U.S. soil so as to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children at birth.
In fact, the anchor baby population–those born in the United States to at least one illegal alien parent–has skyrocketed in recent years. According to a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the anchor baby population per year now exceeds the number of U.S. citizen births from American citizens.
Trump moving forward on such plans would likely set off a legal and political battle of epic proportions, as lawsuits would come in challenging the order’s legality and the president’s authority to act via executive action on this front. But there also remains a possibility, if Republicans hold the House in next week’s midterm elections and add seats in the Senate, that a more permanent legislative fix not dependent on who is in the White House could come for dealing with ending birthright citizenship.
Lawsuits falling like autumn leaves. If the planets align and Reps keep the House, expand their majority in the Senate, and Trump gets another bite at the SCOTUS apple, this could actually happen. Someone once said, “Elections have consequences.” VOTE!
Two Florida women were captured on surveillance video stealing a service dog from a Vietnam veteran on Oct. 28. (Osceola County Sheriff’s Office)
Senator Grassley
Judge Kavanaugh
Lt. Col. Keithen Washington, shown in this November 2013 photo during his tenure as commander of the 86th Force Support Squadron, is being court-martialed on charges of sexual assault and aggravated assault. Some of the alleged assault incidents took place while Washington was commander of the 86th. (Senior Airman Jonathan Stefanko/Air Force