[Zero Hedge] The ironically named Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless (so many potential one-liners here but we'll let you create your own), along with 8 other senior Navy officials, including four retired captains and a retired marine colonel, have been arrested today in the so-called 'Fat Leonard' bribery scandal and charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators.
According to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today, the Navy officers worked together to help Singapore-based defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis (a.k.a. "Fat Leonard") and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), pull off a 'colossal fraud' that cost the Navy ‐ and ultimately U.S. taxpayers ‐ tens of millions of dollars.
The indictment alleges that, among other things, 'Fat Leonard' and his associates repeatedly bribed Navy officials with "meals, entertainment, travel and hotel expenses, gifts, cash, and the services of prostitutes." Per RT:
#1
I thought "rotating LBFMs" we're called spinners.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/16/2017 7:29 Comments ||
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#2
It's kind of like revolving or rotating your tires. For safety reasons and extended mileage you should always go to a trained professional.
A spinner is what you use to get your nuts off.
[WAPO] The Justice Department announced Wednesday the indictments of two Russian spies and two criminal hackers in connection with the heist of 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014, marking the first U.S. criminal cyber charges ever against Russian government officials.
The indictments target two members of the Russian intelligence agency FSB, and two hackers hired by the Russians.
The charges include hacking, wire fraud, trade secret theft and economic espionage, according to officials. The indictments are part of the largest hacking case brought by the United States.
The charges are unrelated to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the move reflects the U.S. government’s increasing desire to hold foreign governments accountable for malicious acts in cyberspace.
[Vegas Review-Journal] Three people were shot, one fatally, after what Las Vegas police are calling a robbery-home invasion in the northwest valley late Monday night.
One man was killed and another was wounded after binding a couple with duct tape in their home on the 8000 block of Hesperides Avenue about 10:30 p.m., Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Dan McGrath said.
Police received calls of gunshots from neighbors and a call from the homeowner. When officers arrived, they formed a team and found a man and a woman inside the home near West Elkhorn and North Cimarron roads, McGrath said. Inside, police also found a man’s body lying in a rear entryway to the backyard.
McGrath said it appeared the homeowner escaped from being bound by the duct tape.
"I’m not sure how he was able to break free, but he was able to retrieve a firearm and shoot the suspect multiple times," McGrath said
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/16/2017 15:26 Comments ||
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#3
With a little practice (like one rep) escaping that particular restraint is easy especially if hands are in the front. Its all in the set up. Good job dumping the turd for Act II.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
03/16/2017 22:53 Comments ||
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#4
All weapons were purchased legally by suspects or their straw buyers in Virginia.
No. The guns were purchased illegally. That's why they got busted and the guns themselves are now considered illegal contraband. Now, the guns were sold legally. And prior to that sale the guns were legal products. But you see it's the actions and intent of the criminals that determines legality not the process or products. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp. But, of course, when the events are stated correctly it really doesn't advance their narrative now does it.
#5
If you buy a car in another state, but intend to drive it in your state, it usually involves getting a state tag within so many days, plus paying state taxes on it. Otherwise, you have an illegal vehicle. Not much different. BTW cars kill more people than guns.
#7
There's an obvious solution: New York needs to put up TSA style border stations and search everybody who comes in for guns, everyday. They're your laws, you enforce them.
That'll fix multiple problems.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/16/2017 17:53 Comments ||
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Dubai-based construction technologies firm Cazza has announced plans to build the world’s first 3D printed skyscraper.
The firm will be able to 3D print high rises using a new construction technique called ’crane printing’. Cazza will use cranes with added units that are specifically created for building 3D printed structures 80m and above.
CEO of Cazza said: "When we first thought of implementing 3D printing technologies, we were mostly thinking of houses and low-rise buildings. Developers kept asking us if it was possible to build a 3D printed skyscraper. Through our technologies, we will be able to build architecturally complex buildings at never-before seen speeds." I wonder if they can print fireproofing?
A mechanical engineer at Cazza, said: "The material side leaves vast possibilities with concrete and steel being just one of many materials that can be used with 3D printing." Concrete and steel is one material? Now THAT'S news!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/16/2017 08:52 ||
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#1
Concrete and steel is one material? Now THAT'S news!
Not to worry, Bobby, this Dubai engineer has an Egyptian or Palestinian assistant who deals with "minor" details.
[Telegraph] Where do you go if you recently handed over the reins to one of the most stressful jobs in the world, have memoirs worth $60 million (£49 million) to write, and have a new-found love of kitesurfing?
For Barack Obama, the answer is French Polynesia. The former US president slipped quietly into Tahiti by private jet yesterday, touching down at Faa’a International Airport near the capital of Papeete at about 3.30pm. He is expected to stay in French Polynesia for the next month, but his initial visit to Tahiti was a short one.
According to local television channel Tahiti Nui TV, Mr Obama left the island just 30 minutes later aboard a smaller, private plane bound for eco-luxe resort The Brando on the nearby atoll of Tetiaroa. Formerly the Tahitian royal family's favourite retreat, Tetiaroa later became the home of legendary actor Marlon Brando, who bought parts of the idyllic atoll in the 1960s.
#6
He'll be much too busy to pay attention to events back home, which is as it should be... and Mrs. Obama can no doubt organize the household to her satisfaction much better without him underfoot. I foresee a great many such solo trips until the money runs out.
#9
Coincidence; Obama had a quick stop in Hawaii 48 Hours before the Judge blocked Trump's travel ban, only minutes away from the Judges home. Suspicious to me.
Before flying to French Polynesia
Posted by: Jan ||
03/16/2017 18:59 Comments ||
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#10
Coincidence; Obama had a quick stop in Hawaii 48 Hours before the Judge blocked Trump's travel ban, only minutes away from the Judges home. Suspicious to me. Before flying to French Polynesia
The Donald Trump administration may go ahead with imposing secondary sanctions on Chinese companies and build up U.S. military power to increase pressure on the Asian rival in a bid to rein in an increasingly wayward North Korea, a South Korean think tank predicted Thursday.
Forecasting the Trump administration's North Korea policy direction, Asan Institute for Policy Studies' researcher Go Myong-hyun said in a report that the U.S. policy on North Korea will be formulated under the administration's broader diplomacy focus on "America First" and defense power buildup.
The Trump administration will basically inherit the previous government's North Korea policy concentrating on missile defense and economic sanctions, but may newly add the element of pressuring China, which will enhance the effectiveness of the U.S.' North Korea policy, the report said.
We've been advocating this for a while: The North Koreans are the lapdogs of the Chinese. China has to curb their dog.
Go cited "secondary boycott" as well as nuclear build-up and the U.S. missile defense system as means of pressuring China, which the Trump administration may use in order to get Beijing to use its influence to stop North Korea's nuclear ambitions and provocations.
"The U.S. nuclear and military buildup has the potential of frustrating China's nuclear deterrence capability, thus it may pose tremendous pressure on China," the researcher said.
"For a while in the future, the U.S. policy toward North Korea will be led by the Department of Defense, not the Department of State, putting military pressure to hold China in check rather than diplomatic means," he noted.
"For its part, South Korea should also continue its pressure on China under a solid South Korea-U.S. defense alliance, increasing strategic dialogue with China over what benefits or losses a unified Korean Peninsula may bring to China," the researcher said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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USS Carl Vinson arrived at the southern port of Busan, in South Korea, to join the annual joint military exercise
South Korea military source says heightened presence is part of plan to decapitate North Korean leadership
Pyongyang has long condemned the annual joint drills - called Foal Eagle - between South Korea and the US
Tensions have escalated with missile launches from North and assassination of Kim Jong-Un's half-brother
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency claims the heightened military presence is part of a plan to decapitate North Korean leadership. They claim a military official, who wished to remain anonymous, told them: 'A bigger number of and more diverse U.S. special operation forces will take part in this year's Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North's war command and demolition of its key military facilities.' Interesting photos and a vid @ link.
[SanDiegoTribune] The scenario is apocalyptic: The United States plunges into darkness after its electrical grid goes down— not just for a few hours or even a few days, but a vulnerable power system could take 18 months to recover, so long a period of time that millions would die.
The reason? An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack come from a terrorist group or rogue state using a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere.
It sounds like something out of the most dystopian of Hollywood disaster movies.
But news that North Korea recently launched four missiles that traveled 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan has heightened concerns among those who have warned that an EMP attack that could essentially vaporize the U.S. energy infrastructure.
“I think this is the principal, the most important and dangerous, threat to the United States,”said James Woolsey, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995.
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has blocked some military training and other work with NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... "partner countries" in an apparent escalation of a diplomatic dispute with EU states, officials and sources said on Wednesday.
Turkey was not immediately available to comment, but sources said it had blocked NATO's 2017 rolling programme of cooperation with non-EU countries, including political events, civilian projects and military training.
Turkey is angry at several western European countries for stopping it holding political rallies to promote an April 16 referendum granting President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers.
Erdogan has compared Germany and the Netherlands to fascists and Nazis, but as fellow NATO members, Turkey is unable to block cooperation with them. A NATO official said Turkey's action was ostensibly aimed at Austria, which is not a member of the alliance but is a partner country.
"We regret the current situation and the impact it is having on all of our cooperation programmes with partners," the official said. "We count on our ally Turkey and our partner Austria to solve their bilateral issue swiftly."
Austria, last year led calls for the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... to end Turkey's EU accession talks, criticising its response to a failed coup when it locked away Please don't kill me! tens of thousands of people. Turkish referendum rallies have been cancelled in Austria.
Austria's defence ministry confirmed the Turkish block. A front man said there was no immediate effect on ongoing missions, but could cause problems in the longer term "for example for the preparation of missions in Kosovo, because there are joint training programmes."
Another NATO official said some events had already been cancelled.
"We hope maybe some will still take place at a later time," he said. "The problem is a political one. We hope the situation will calm down after the referendum."
Turkey's action potentially affects all 22 NATO partner states, including Sweden and Georgia, some of which contribute troops to NATO missions in places such as Afghanistan and Kosovo.
A senior diplomat from another non-NATO state said: "The longer this continues, the bigger the volume becomes of cancelled and postponed activities between NATO allies and partners and the more problematic all this becomes."
"This concerns some education events, training, military exercises, so that will make practical cooperation more and more difficult in time. The interoperability of NATO allies and partner countries will suffer."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/16/2017 05:43 ||
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[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Wednesday put on trial a top UN court judge on charges of links to the group blamed for the failed July 15 coup, in a case that has caused anger and held up legal proceedings over the Rwanda genocide.
Aydin Sefa Akay, a top judge attached to the UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), was detained in September at the family home and had been held in detention since.
He is charged with "membership of a terror group" over alleged links to the organization of Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , the US-based preacher blamed by Ankara for the July 15 coup bid.
Specifically, he stands accused by the Turkish authorities of downloading and using a messaging app called ByLock which Ankara says was used by the plotters to prepare the coup.
Akay and his lawyers took part in the first hearing at the Ankara criminal court, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in jail.
In his statement, Akay denied the charges, saying he was not a member of Gulen's group. "I am not one of them," he said.
According to Anadolu, he admitted downloading Bylock but said he had not used any password to access the system.
His lawyers called for his release, arguing Akay should enjoy immunity due to his status. But the court ordered he be kept under arrest, setting the next hearing for April 13.
Possession is nine tenths of the law.
Akay had been working with the UN international court trying suspects over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and his detention has paralysed proceedings into an appeal hearing of former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware.
The UN court has already said Turkey has failed to comply with its obligations and said it would report Ankara to the UN Security Council.
Presiding judge Theodore Meron has insisted that Akay, a former diplomat who was nominated to the bench by Ankara, has diplomatic immunity and has repeatedly voiced concern over the conditions of his detention.
Under a state of emergency imposed after the coup, Turkey has embarked on a relentless crackdown against alleged supporters of Gulen, arresting some 43,000 people.
[AnNahar] Two Turkish soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a roadside kaboom in the southeast blamed on Kurdish turbans from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), local media reported.
The attack took place when security forces were scanning mines on a highway between Mardin and Diyarbakir provinces, the private Dogan news agency reported.
The explosives had been placed by PKK turbans who blew them up when a vehicle loaded with soldiers passed by, Dogan said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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I woke up at 5:15 this morning realizing I forgot to file one set of extensions, so I got them out a few minutes later. Around high noon both the IRS and the Mass. DOR accepted both of them, so I thought I got one past them both. But noooo!
WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service today granted many businesses affected by this week’s severe winter storm additional time to request a six-month extension to file their 2016 federal income tax returns. The IRS is providing this relief to victims and tax professionals affected by this week’s storm (known as Winter Storm Stella) that hit portions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Business taxpayers who are unable to file their tax return by today’s due date (March 15, 2017) can request an automatic extension by filing Form 7004, available on IRS.gov, on or before March 20, 2017. Form 7004 provides a six-month extension for returns filed by partnerships (Forms 1065 and 1065B) and S corporations (Forms 1120S).
Eligible taxpayers taking advantage of this relief should write "Winter Storm Stella" on their Form 7004 extension request (if filing Form 7004 by paper). As always, the fastest and easiest way to get an extension is to file this form electronically.
The IRS will continue to monitor conditions and provide additional relief if circumstances warrant.
[TexasObserver] The government offered $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande. If Flores chooses not to accept the offer, the land could be seized through eminent domain.
The week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Yvette Salinas received a letter she had been dreading for years: legal notice that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to build a border wall on her family’s land near Los Ebanos. The 21-page document, entitled a "Declaration of Taking," is addressed to her ailing mother, Maria Flores, who owns the property with her siblings. The letter offers Flores $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande. If she chooses not to accept the offer, the land could be seized through eminent domain. "It’s scary when you read it," Salinas says. "You feel like you have to sign."
The 16-acre property has been in the family for so long that none of them can remember the year it was acquired. Salinas only knows they’ve had it for five generations. Her uncle runs a few head of cattle on the property, which lies not far from Los Ebanos’ most famous attraction, a hand-drawn ferry that shuttles cars and their passengers across the river to Mexico.
This is not the first time the federal government has wanted to seize the land for a border wall. In the wake of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, the Bush administration put up 110 miles of border fencing, much of it on private land in Texas. In 2008, Salinas’ family received a condemnation notice offering them the same low, low price of $2,900. Others in Los Ebanos were mailed similar notices.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
03/16/2017 00:00 ||
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The landowners should be compensated the going rate.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration will end federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
On a background call with reporters Wednesday, Mulvaney said defunding public television and public radio, including National Public Radio, will not be immediate because of the nature of government contracting.
"We proposed ending funding, but technically what you'll see--it's an elimination--but you'll see an amount of money in the budget, and it is some amount of money that's necessary for us to unwind our involvement with CPB," Mulvaney said during the briefing on the administration's budget blueprint. "So you won't see a zero next to it, but the policy is that we're ending federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."
"Next year it might be zero, it may take a while to unwind that relationship, it's just the nature of contracts," he said.
The Washington Free Beacon previously reported defunding NPR and public radio would likely take years because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets its funding two years in advance.
#1
Could fund it with Social Security money 50 years ago for your Great Society programs. Today they have to print money to pay their debt of money spent like this to SS recipients who paid in. Don't we feel good? /rhet question
#2
While I hope this happens, I'll believe it if and when CPB, NPR, NEA, NEH, etc., etc. are fully defunded in the final budget passed by Congress.
Planned (non)Parenthood should be at the top of this list. When the usual lefty's/MFM scream, the Pubs should just say "If this and the rest of these programs are so important to you, Soros and your other megadonors are free to fund them."
[Hot Air] Everyone is on the lookout for new trends ever since President Trump came to town. This is particularly true of those who are opposed to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and prefer the term "undocumented immigrant" to illegal alien. It’s precisely that group which seems to be the most upset over a new pattern they are noticing in the world of law enforcement. It seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been "lurking" around courthouses and arresting suspected illegal immigrants when they show up there with their attorneys. (Los Angeles Times)
[I]n the past few weeks, attorneys and prosecutors in California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado have all reported teams of ICE agents -- some in uniform, some not -- sweeping into courtrooms or lurking outside court complexes, waiting to arrest immigrants who are in the country illegally.
ICE officials have defended the tactic, saying they make arrests in courthouses only when all other options have been exhausted. But activists, attorneys and prosecutors fear ICE’s increased presence in courthouses could deter other immigrants without legal status from appearing in court to testify as witnesses or answer warrants, which ultimately could endanger prosecutions.
Pardon me if I immediately respond by playing a slow, mournful tune on the world’s smallest violin after hearing that. Despite whatever previous practices were in place, those are simply agency guidelines. There is absolutely nothing illegal about having an ICE agent show up at a courthouse where they know or suspect that an illegal alien will be and take them into custody if no better opportunity presents itself. Particularly in the case of "clients" who are at the courthouse because they are facing charges, the agents probably wouldn’t have to be hanging around there if local law enforcement was actually doing their job and cooperating with them. That’s the point being made by Virginia Kice, an ICE agency spokeswoman.
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.
[WAPO] The Justice Department announced Wednesday the indictments of two Russian spies and two criminal hackers in connection with the heist of 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014, marking the first U.S. criminal cyber charges ever against Russian government officials.
[Telegraph] Where do you go if you recently handed over the reins to one of the most stressful jobs in the world, have memoirs worth $60 million (£49 million) to write, and have a new-found love of kitesurfing? 
[AlAhram] 
[TexasObserver] The government offered $2,900 for 1.2 acres near the Rio Grande. If Flores chooses not to accept the offer, the land could be seized through eminent domain.
[Free Beacon] The Trump administration will end federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
[Hot Air] Everyone is on the lookout for new trends ever since President Trump came to town. This is particularly true of those who are opposed to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and prefer the term "undocumented immigrant" to illegal alien. It’s precisely that group which seems to be the most upset over a new pattern they are noticing in the world of law enforcement. It seems that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been "lurking" around courthouses and arresting suspected illegal immigrants when they show up there with their attorneys. (Los Angeles Times)
