[Reuters] Philippine police killed 11 suspected drug dealers during operations at the weekend, police said on Monday, adding to a surge of drugs-related killings since Rodrigo Duterte swept an election last month on promises to wipe out crime.
Duterte's single-issue campaign of tackling illegal drugs and other crime within six months, and his staunch advocacy of extrajudicial killings, struck a chord with Filipino voters. However, rights groups have rebuked him over concerns that, as president, he would live up to his nickname of "the punisher".
The more than 40 drug suspects killed since Duterte's May 9 election victory compares with the 39 deaths recorded in the four months before it, said National Police spokesman Wilben Mayor.
Duterte takes office on June 30 and has repeatedly reassured police they would have his full support if they killed criminals who resisted with violence. He has also warned that police found to be involved in the drug trade would suffer the same fate.
Speculation has been rife in Manila that some police involved in the drugs business were clearing the decks before Duterte takes office by eliminating criminals who could implicate them.
#2
Speculation has been rife in Manila that some police involved in the drugs business were clearing the decks before Duterte takes office by eliminating criminals who could implicate them.
Much the same could happen here if Trump wins and the Clinton Gang has to clean house. May need to dedicate a CSI unit just for Ft. Marcy Park....
#1
We are not even halfway through the year. Maybe we will break 600 by Christmas. And not a word from O&Co or BLM (black lives matter). Just crickets.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/20/2016 0:33 Comments ||
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#2
Loooong hot summer = peak depopulation
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2016 11:59 Comments ||
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#3
As someone said somewhere on Facebook, if gun control worked, Chicago would be one of the safest places in America.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/20/2016 12:30 Comments ||
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[Army Times] You’ve asked for it, and the Army has heard you.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday announced during a trip to Fort Hood, Texas, that soldiers will be able to roll the sleeves on the Army Combat Uniform.
But don’t start rolling your sleeves just yet, Army officials said. Milley is calling for a 10-day pilot at Fort Hood with the intention of continuing it for the rest of the Army.
Milley’s announcement is so popular that soldiers at Fort Hood are already rolling their sleeves, Army officials said. Army common sense needs a 10-day pilot program.
#3
...Now that one of my Cleveland teams has won a championship, I should let you know that it's possible a man in a red suit and carrying a pitchfork may be around here looking for me and saying something about, "Time to pay up."
If he does, tell him you haven't seen me.
All kidding aside, this is a wonderful bit of happiness that my hometown should enjoy, because in a few weeks we'll be forever associated with the 2016 Republican Convention.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/20/2016 4:42 Comments ||
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#4
I don't think Cleveland won, so much as Golden State choked.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/20/2016 7:02 Comments ||
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#5
These things come in threes.
1) The Red Sox won the WS. I was in Boston and can appreciate what Clevelanders feel like.
Rome (AFP) - Virginia Raggi was elected Sunday as Rome's first female mayor, exit polls showed, in an electoral triumph for the populist Five Star Movement that represents a major setback for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
For some reason populists are doing well in all sorts of places this year.
Exit polls gave Raggi around two thirds of the vote in a run-off contest with Roberto Giachetti of Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
The 37-year-old lawyer and local councillor, a complete unknown only a few months ago, had been widely expected to claim the keys to City Hall. But the margin of her victory exceeded expectations with the exit polls pointing to her taking between 62 and 68 percent of the vote.
Polls suggested the PD had not suffered such big reverses elsewhere but the centre-left was in danger of losing control of the major northern cities Milan and Turin while holding on to Bologna and Naples.
Victory in Rome is a major coup for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (MS5) founded by comedian Beppe Grillo only seven years ago.
The party has since established itself as the major opposition force in Italian politics and analysts say victory in Rome will give it a platform to mount a challenge to Renzi in national elections due in 2018.
Raggi successfully tapped into widespread anger among voters over the state of the capital's public transport and other services, widely seen as having been undermined by years of sleaze in the municipal administration.
‐ Time for change ‐
"It's time to change Rome," was the battle cry of her campaign, along with Five Star's constant refrain of "honesty".
Her cause in the capital was helped by the ousting of her predecessor, the PD’s Ignazio Marino, over an expenses issue and a much bigger scandal over organised crime's infiltration of the city administration.
In what is known as the "Mafia Capitale" case, dozens of local businessmen, officials and politicians are currently on trial for their involvement in a criminal network that ripped off the city to the tune of tens -- if not hundreds -- of millions of euros.
Scams abounded for years, from stealing the funds allocated to transport ethnic Roma children to school to paving the city's streets with wafer-thin surfaces, according to prosecutors.
Raggi has vowed to make such abuses impossible with far-reaching reforms of the way the local administration is run, as well as getting public services back on track.
But many analysts are sceptical about her ability to make a difference given her lack of experience and the city's huge structural problems, which include a debt mountain of over 13 billion euros ($14.7 billion).
Olympics not a priority
Raggi was a late entrant to politics, telling AFP recently that she had been inspired by the birth of her son Matteo to try and make her home city a better place for him to grow up in.
One area in which she is likely to make an immediate impact is on the credibility of Rome’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
She said during the campaign that she did not consider winning the Games as essential, arguing that the city has bigger problems it needs to address first.
"No Roman has asked me whether I back the Olympics," she said, in comments that will delight rival cities Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest. "They talk to me about transport, they talk to me about schools. (The Olympics) are not a priority, they're really not a priority."
SH-60 Seahawk it ain't. More like an SH-2 Seasprite. Given the platform it's supposed to work from, that may be more appropriate.
The South Korea Navy received its first four Wildcat ASW helicopters on Monday, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) has received its first batch of four AW159 shipborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters from Ango-Italian defence company Leonardo-Finmeccanica.
The aircraft, which were delivered on 13 June, is part of an order for eight airframes announced in January 2013 under South Korea’s Maritime Operational Helicopter programme that seeks to boost the RoKN’s submarine prosecution capabilities. The helicopters are expected to be operated from the RoKN’s Incheon-class guided-missile frigates.
The AW159 Wildcat will serve in the ROK Navy in an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role, though it is also capable of other missions such as anti-surface warfare (ASuW), intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and search and rescue (SAR). ASW aircraft – including helicopters as well as fixed-wing aircraft such as the P-3C, also in ROK Navy service – use sensors and weapons to detect, track, and damage or destroy enemy submarines.
South Korea’s new Wildcat helicopters are capable of flying for more than three hours and cover a range of up to 265 nautical miles (490 kilometers). The helicopter utilizes sonar and active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar to locate and track submarines. The Wildcat can also be armed with torpedoes, depth charges, and Spike NLOS missiles.
Currently, the ROK Navy has a total of 39 ASW aircraft including 16 P-3C Orion fixed-wing aircraft and 23 helicopters (11 Lynx Mk.99 and 12 Super Lynx Mk.99A). The Lynx and Super Lynx helicopters – built by the British Westland Helicopters before their merger with the Italian Agusta in 2000 – are the predecessors to the AW159 Wildcat.
The addition of the eight total AW159 Wildcats – including the four just received and the remaining four expected by the end of this year – will bring the number of ASW aircraft in the ROK Navy up to 47. Additionally, the ROK Navy has ordered 30 KUH-1 Surion helicopters – built by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) – some of which will be equipped for ASW.
South Korea is continually making efforts to improve the capabilities of the ROK Navy, both generally and to counter North Korea. Last week, the ROK Navy launched its most advanced frigate yet, the ROKSDaegu, capable of launching ground strikes on targets in North Korea.
Aircraft Specs can be seen here
Recently, news that the first batch of China’s Xian Y-20 large military transport aircraft has been deployed to troops appeared on Weibo and in online military forums. However, the news hasn’t been confirmed by the PLA. People’s Daily Online interviewed military expert Xu Yongling on this issue and according to him, no more than 100 Y-20s will be deployed to troops in the future and in the next five to ten years, China may develop its third generation military transport aircrafts.
According to Xu, if the Y-20 has been used to equip the troops, then it only takes three and a half years from the maiden flight to actual use. The A-400M transport aircraft of the Europe took six years for this process. Since the maiden flight, the Y-20 hasn’t experienced any major technological difficulties; in addition that this transport plane doesn’t need so many experiments as the fighters, so it is believable that the Y-20 will be deployed to troops in the near future.
Some media previously reported that the PLA needs over 300 Y-20s to better meet the strategic need of the air force. Xu disagreed, “I think the total number of Y-20s used to equip the troops will not exceed 100.” This prediction is based on the transport needs of the PLA as well as the international strategic environment. Moreover, the cost is also a practical factor being taken into consideration.
“It is unlikely that we will invest so much in the second-generation military transport aircraft. In the next five to ten years, China may develop more advanced third generation military transport aircraft, the loading capacity and delivery distance of which will be greatly improved from the second generation,” Xu said.
(Source: People’s Daily Online; published 17.06.2016)
[PJ] Unnamed sources have told the Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard that Clarence Thomas is considering retiring from the Supreme Court after the 2016 election. They say Thomas never planned to stay on the Court until he died, and has been considering retirement for a while.
After the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February, Thomas's retirement would leave only three conservatives on the Supreme Court: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Anthony Kennedy -- and Kennedy has sided with the liberals on numerous issues, most notably gay marriage. It is already perhaps a bit generous to call the current 4-4 court divided between conservatives and liberals, but without Thomas it would shift into true blue territory.
The next president is expected to replace the seat left vacant by Scalia, and if Thomas retires, that would be two Supreme Court appointments right off the bat. And with two of the least popular major party nominees in history, half of America is almost guaranteed to end up very angry about the makeup of the court.
If Donald Trump becomes president and nominates two conservative justices (to replace both Scalia and Thomas), there would be a slight conservative edge to the court unless one of the conservative justices becomes more liberal. Trump laid out a stellar list of potential appointees, but will that be enough to rally conservatives to his cause?
Seen at Instapundit at 11:00 a.m. ET: UPDATE [FROM GLENN]: His wife Ginny says this is BS.
[DAWN] KARACHI: An old family dispute took an ugly turn on Saturday afternoon when a man and his son were killed in an exchange of fire with his brother and two relatives in an under-construction bungalow in Nazimabad.
The three maimed attackers were jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! following the incident, police said.
According to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Central SSP Muqadas Haider, Qadeem Khan was supervising construction of his bungalow in Nazimabad-2 near Chhota Maidan when his brother, Khateeb Gul aka Attaur Rehman, with two relatives, Saeedullah and Asad, stormed the place and opened fire on him.
In the ensuing exchange of fire, five persons were maimed. They were shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced Qadeem Khan and his son, Abdullah, dead on arrival. The attackers, Khateeb Gul, Saeedullah and Asad, were admitted to the hospital for treatment.
The SSP said the two brothers had an old matrimonial dispute though the installation of a water line in the under-construction bungalow triggered violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2016 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
Liberal billionaire George Soros donated $33million to social justice organizations which helped turn events in Ferguson from a local protest into a national flashpoint.
The handouts, revealed in tax filings from Soros's private foundation, were given to dozens of different groups which weighed in on the crisis.
Organizers from professional groups in Washington, D.C., and New York were bussed into the Missouri town to co-ordinate messaging and lobby to news media to cover events using the billionaire's funding.
#3
I look forward to reading this guy's obituary.
Posted by Raj
I don't turn in until 10:00 or 11:00. If you see his obit before then, ring me up. Oh wat the hell, call me regardless of the hour. That old casket dodger's demise should be well celebrated.
"For countless years, service members have given the "flag-folding speech" at military and civic events, including retirement ceremonies. Traditionally, this speech explains the colors, symbols, and history of the flag.
The flag-folding speech also contains several religious references, including, "Let us pray that God will reflect with admiration the willingness of one nation in her attempts to rid the world of tyranny, oppression, and misery. It is this one nation under God that we call, with honor, the United States of America."
The speech closes with, "God bless our flag. God bless our troops. God bless America."
In 2005, the Pentagon changed the speech to remove all references to the divine, substituting additional historical facts such as Neil Armstrong’s planting of an American flag on the moon in 1969. But many service members prefer the traditional speech and desire that version given at their own retirement celebrations.
Rodriguez retired from the Air Force in 2013 after 33 years of service to his nation. He has a clear and distinctive voice and is frequently asked to deliver the flag-folding speech at retirement ceremonies.
On April 3, 2016, Master Sergeant Charles Roberson was retiring from active duty. Roberson had heard Rodriguez give his stirring rendition of the traditional flag-folding speech and asked Rodriguez if he would give that speech at Roberson’s retirement celebration at Travis Air Force Base where Roberson served in the 749th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.
According to a demand letter sent by First Liberty Institute on Monday, when the squadron’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Sovitsky, learned that Rodriguez would give the traditional speech mentioning God, he expressed his opposition and allegedly tried to block it. As Roberson explained in a video interview seen for the first time on Breitbart News, Roberson asked Rodriguez to press forward." Anybody know if I can get Block 4 of my DD-214 changed?
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
06/20/2016 09:08 ||
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[MilitaryTimes] Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants to open the door for more "lateral entry" into the military's upper ranks, clearing the way for lifelong civilians with vital skills and strong resumes to enter the officer corps as high as the O-6 paygrade. Never thought I'd see the day when the phrase "90-day Wonder" became obsolete.
#2
Going back to when I entered over 40 years ago, the pay charts always reflected senior officers with less than 2 years of service, see - 2016.
When Stilwell was 'relieved' of duty in WWII, they replaced him with a diplomat, but Chiang Kai Shek wanted a military officer, so the War Department made the man a 2 star IIRC. So the precedent is there. Same with the specialty branch of doctors, nurses, lawyers and padres. They hold their rank by their skill not by command authority.
#3
Yep, cyber warriors are much like doctors, lawyers, and nurses. They have skills that are needed, they are experts and need the authority to boss around a bunch of minions, and they are temporary, because not many would stay in a government job for a long time, but they could work for a few years and contribute a lot. And finally, no Service Academy educated General officer would appoint any of them to a non-technical command.
This is exactly what should happen and it is about time someone figured it out.
#6
"Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants to open the door for more "lateral entry" into the military's upper ranks, clearing the way for lifelong civilians with vital skills and strong resumespolitically connected leftists to enter the officer corps as high as the O-6 paygrade."
Revised to reflect the suspected real intent of Carter's move...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/20/2016 8:59 Comments ||
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#7
I can understand bringing in those qualified to an O-3 slot (like physicians, etc.), but O-6?! Really?
#9
You would only bring in one or two O6 types to run the units of misfit cybernaughts. They would have 20 years experience and an MBA, and never be promoted. Most of these folk will be o1-o3 to lead a group of NCOs and Warrants through enemy cyber terrain. The O5-O6 would be there to manage a bunch of them, keep the lawyers out of their way, and make sure that the pizza is delivered to the terminals on time.
#10
The military used to have a brevet rank where junior officers could be promoted to high levels of command when needed, then reduced to the previous rank when the war or need was over.
A modern version of this may work for at need fields. They would hold a temporary brevet rank with decent pay to compensate for the loss of civilian pay, but the rank expires if not renewed and the person can go back to civilian life when not needed.
#11
Been there. I was an RN in the AF 1993-1996. I was an LT. My charge nurse was an 03. The main nurse in charge was an O6, full bird col. This was at Travis AFB and the medical wing had about 500 employees. So you might need a specialist with an O6 pay grade to run the operation.
#12
They don't have the 'qualified' people to supervise contractors. The script kiddies are not going to conform to militarism (that spit and shine NCO) vice military (mission) nor to duty details. No attraction what so ever. Contractors can herd them, but we lack technical people who can watch the contractor. None in uniform in sufficient numbers if any at all. This would be the contracting officer or Technical Representative to the Contracting Officer. O6 probably is right for a very large or major contract. Lessor rank for lesser contracts or programs.
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.
[Reuters] Philippine police killed 11 suspected drug dealers during operations at the weekend, police said on Monday, adding to a surge of drugs-related killings since Rodrigo Duterte swept an election last month on promises to wipe out crime.
Rome (AFP) - Virginia Raggi was elected Sunday as Rome's first female mayor, exit polls showed, in an electoral triumph for the populist Five Star Movement that represents a major setback for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Eight year pilot leadership program nearing successful conclusion. 
