Oh, noes!
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has upheld Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's four-game suspension for violating the league's policy on integrity of the game, the league announced Tuesday.
The full final decision from Goodell can be read here, although it doesn't necessarily end this saga. NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday that Brady will sue. Brady's camp will seek an injunction on this suspension to try to keep Brady on the field.
Goodell indicated that Brady's destruction of evidence was a factor in upholding the suspension.
"The most significant new information that emerged in connection with the appeal was evidence that on or about March 6, 2015 -- the very day that he was interviewed by Mr. Wells and his investigated team -- Mr. Brady instructed his assistant to destroy the cellphone that he had been using since early 2014, a period that included that AFC Championship game and the initial weeks of the subsequent investigation," Goodell wrote in the final decision on the appeal. They waited a long time to play that card.
JUST A COMMON SOLDIER
(A Soldier Died Today)
by A. Lawrence Vaincourt
He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.
And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.
But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.
He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.
Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,
And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.
When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were young.
But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land
A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?
A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives
Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.
It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,
That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know
It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?
Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend
His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?
He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part,
is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,
Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.
[FOXNEWS] A Chinese woman died after being trapped in a shopping mall escalator, but not before pushing her 2-year-old son to safety.
Sunday's horrific accident in the central city of Jingzhou was caught on surveillance camera footage that circulated heavily on the Internet in China.
The woman -- identified in media reports as 30-year-old Xiang Liujuan -- is shown reaching the top of the escalator when the section of landing platform she had stepped onto suddenly collapses, trapping her inside the still-moving machinery.
The footage shows that Xiang managed to push her son into the arms of shop attendants near the top of the escalator. The attendants tried to pull her to safety, but Xiang fell into the mechanism and was killed.
The state-run People's Daily's online edition and other media outlets said her body was recovered four hours later, after crews disassembled the escalator.
Although escalator deaths are extremely rare, China's breakneck economic development and sometimes cavalier attitude toward safety, quality control and maintenance have led to frequent industrial accidents such as fires, building and bridge collapses, and ship sinkings or collisions.
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07/28/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] At least 20 people were killed when a shootout broke out at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan, officials said Monday. Western bands have guitars or horns or something. In Afghanistan every band needs a rocket launcher.
The clash, which police blamed on quarrels between guests, erupted late Sunday in Deh Salah district in Baghlan.
The once-tranquil province has recently been plagued by growing insecurity as the Taliban insurgency spreads north from its southern and eastern strongholds.
"As a result of the festivities, 20 people were killed and 10 others were maimed," provincial police front man Jawed Basharat told AFP, adding that the incident appeared to be the result of a local dispute.
Armed men traded verbal barbs before the shootout broke out and the victims were all male guests at the wedding aged between 14 and 60, said district police chief Gulistan Qusani.
"A local security official had gun sex after the verbal exchange heated up... and then both sides started trading fire," Qusani told AFP, giving a higher corpse count of 21.
Baghlan police front man Sultan Mohammad Ebadi said an official delegation had been sent to the site -- a Tajik-dominated area that is largely unaffected by the Taliban insurgency -- to investigate the matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Western bands have guitars or horns or something. In Afghanistan every band needs a rocket launcher.
#3
That's more than the number of slackjaw ISIS members we bag in Syria and Iraq in a day. Let's encourage more weddings; create a hashtag and the like (sarc).
#7
If you're going to play in Kabul
You've got to have a rocket in the band
Dancing boys are hot to a talibani man
Use those safety gloves so the shot it doesn't glance
If you're going to play in Kabul
You've got to have a rocket in the band.
[REUTERS] President Barack Obama If you like your coverage you can keep it... and regional leaders discussed options on Monday that included sanctions and a "regional intervention force" if South Sudan's warring parties do no agree a peace deal by August 17, a U.S. official said.
Obama met with leaders from Kenya, Æthiopia, Uganda, Sudan, and the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... to discuss the crisis.
The group agreed on the urgency of the situation in South Sudan but did not reach a consensus on what to do if a peace deal is not reached, the official said.
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07/28/2015 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
As rebel officials commemorated the one year anniversary of Gorlovka being struck by Ukrainian artillery, Ukrainian artillery has been hitting Gorlovka since Saturday, according to Russian language news accounts.
According to data supplied by the Donetsk ministry of defense, artillery said to be sited in Artemovsk stuck Gorlovka at around 2200 hrs Saturday night, continuing "for several hours." The Donetsk government said that Ukrainians are using artillery as well as mortar fire. The artillery hit the Nikitovsky sector near the intersection of ulitsas Fonvizina and Zharov. Two unidentified men were wounded, one of them critically.
According to data supplied by the Donetsk ministry of defense, in Gorlovka 164 civilians have been killed and 506 wounded since July 27th, 2014.
Among the other rebel held towns and regions under Ukrainian artillery fire are the airport and Spartak, both of which have been struck by Ukrainian artillery several times since Saturday. Other towns also reportedly hit include Zaitsevo and the western suburbs of Donetsk city. The Donetsk ministry of defense claims rebel forces came under fire by various means almost 100 times since last Saturday.
Ukrainian media said Monday that their forces came under rebel artillery fire in various places including Marinka, Shirokino, Avdievka, Peski, and Opytnoye. Ukrainian reports say that rebels have been using 120mm mortar, 122mm rocket artillery, 122mm and 152mm artillery, as well as tank gunfire on those towns. Additionally, according to Ukrainian media, rebels have been using small arms and crew served weapons fire on those areas as well.
OSCE observer wounded
An observer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was wounded in a grenade-rifle attack early this morning in Shirokino, according to Ukrainian media. The OSCE set up camp in town to monitor the area when it was demilitarized after being an intense war zone since the fall of 2014.
The demilitarization took place after it was proposed by rebel officials in the ongoing Minsk peace talks, when rebel commanders, frustrated, decided to unilaterally pull out of town and withdraw about five kilometers to the east four weeks ago.
Elements of the "Azov" volunteer military unit occupied the area and had kept it under artillery observation, but now, according to Ukrainian media, all forces, including the Ukrainian national guard as well as "Azov" have left the area.
The withdrawal of Ukrainian forces has caused a good deal of frustration within the ranks of the politicized Ukrainian volunteer units, with some leaders demanding written orders to that effect.
Shirokino was part of the Ukrainian Mariupol defense zone, a fortified area made so in anticipation of offensive action by Russian supported rebels. The zone recently received a naval infantry unit and national guard units as reinforcements.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
In recent months, Ukrainian government officials have been crisscrossing the globe, asking Ukraine’s creditors for relief on $23 billion in debt the country says it can’t pay. Without relief, Ukraine’s economy could sink into the financial void. That puts Michael Hasenstab, the boy wonder of distressed debt management, front and center in a financial crisis that could determine the fate of a country Russian President Vladimir Putin covets with eager eyes.
Hasenstab, 42, represents the investment firm Franklin Templeton as one of the four members on the Ad-hoc Committee of Bondholders to Ukraine, a panel of representatives from three U.S. mutual funds and one Brazilian bank. The debt-holders have to decide whether they will acquiesce to Ukraine’s demands and allow it to pay 40 percent less than it owes. As the largest holder of Kiev’s debt, Hasenstab, chief investment officer of Templeton Global Macro, stands to lose billions of dollars if that occurs.
Ukraine is in desperate need of economic growth, something it has been severely lacking in recent years. Investors have been spooked away by the continuing civil war with Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east, as well as by years of endemic government corruption. More at the link
Good riddance!
A flurry of last-minute pressure from the United States Olympic Committee and strategic pushback from Mayor Martin J. Walsh -- plus a long stall by Gov. Charlie Baker -- gave everyone the face-saving outs they needed to douse the torch of Boston's ill-fated bid to host the 2024 Summer Games, close observers said yesterday.
Rikk Larsen, the former executive director of a committee that pitched a Boston Olympic bid in the mid-'90s, said the USOC and local pols had likely been looking for a way to save face and bail as public support continued to lag in the low- to mid-40s.
"For Mayor Walsh, this was becoming an albatross," Larsen said. "He has enough to do without worrying about the financial implications of this. The same thing goes for Gov. Baker. They were behind the scenes looking for a way to graciously end it -- that's my sense. I think that came very quickly in the last week."
The winding down -- dating back as far as March, when an anxious USOC reportedly told Boston 2024 it wanted to see improved public support -- concluded yesterday morning, when Walsh called a hastily arranged press conference to announce he would not bow to USOC pressure to commit to a taxpayer-backed guarantee for the 2024 Games. GTFO!
When's that ever stopped him before?Compared to Robert Mugabe, maybe...
While discussing democracy during his last speech in Ethiopia on Tuesday, President Obama jokingly graded his presidency -- Certified Fresh -- and his imaginary 2016 chances.
"I actually think I'm a pretty good president," he said. "I think if I ran, I would win."
#6
I don't think he's kidding; rather tossing some 'ideas' to those behind the curtain to maybe have him stand in as the VP for whichever D gets the nomination. Then assuming a D win, the 'prez' could resign, calling it personal reasons and there you have it, a third, legal term.
#9
What he could do if he was a better politician is run for a House seat and become the next Sam Rayburn. But he ain't got the skill set by a long shot to be like Mistuah Sam.
#13
Every time I hear this I think of Winston Churchill. "I like to think that if things had turned out differently, I might have held this gavel myself" (HEAVILY PARAPHRASED) on speaking to a joint session of Congress which is held in the House Of Commons. What a rat bastard he would have been!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/28/2015 18:39 Comments ||
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#15
Israel's Justice Minister MK Ayelet Shaked has confirmed minutes ago that the US parole board has recommended that Jonathan Pollard be released this coming Nov. 20th after 30 years in prison. It is not clear if Pollard will be allowed to leave the US and move to Israel.
#19
Narcissist. So of course he has a high opinion of himself - anything goes wrong its always someone else's fault. We've had a mentally ill person in charge of the nation now for years.
[IsraelTimes] Businessman apparently drove from conservative kingdom to Israel
Cars with foreign license plates are rare enough in Israel, but the one spotted in Jaffa on Friday caused quite a stir.
Army Radio's Arab Affairs news hound Jacky Hugi spotted a silver Mercedes parked near Jaffa's Clock Tower bearing a Saudi license plate -- a highly unusual, if not unprecedented sight in Israel. He quickly pulled out his camera, sharing the image on Twitter.
"The nuclear deal with Iran is starting to prove itself," he wrote, in ironic reference to the shared concern over Iran's nuclear project that has made unlikely private allies of Israel and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... Later, a Facebook friend notified Hugi that he had struck up a conversation with the driver in Jerusalem, and had learned that he was a Saudi businessman.
Hugi told the Times of Israel on Sunday that he had no further information on the car, but said that if the driver were given an exceptional entry visa to Israel, there'd be no reason for his car to be banned.
No response was available from the Transportation Ministry at time of publication.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ALMANAR.LB] At least 20 people were killed when a 
In recent months, Ukrainian government officials have been crisscrossing the globe, asking Ukraine’s creditors for relief on $23 billion in debt the country says it can’t pay. Without relief, Ukraine’s economy could sink into the financial void. That puts Michael Hasenstab, the boy wonder of distressed debt management, front and center in a financial crisis that could determine the fate of a country Russian President Vladimir Putin covets with eager eyes.
