[Babylon Bee] SALEM CENTER, NY‐A federal investigation into a college admissions scandal has revealed that student Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee's parents may have paid up to $6 million to help her cheat her way into Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.
Lee's parents paid off testing organizations and several teachers and faculty at the school in order to get her considered for enrollment, sources confirmed.
"We started to get suspicious when a student whose only accomplishment is the ability to shoot fireworks out of her hands was admitted to the school," one FBI agent said. "I mean, the school has students who can blast out ice and fire, control your mind, and move at incredible speeds. So when we saw Lee chewing gum and shooting off fireworks as though that's some kind of academic achievement, we knew something was up."
"It's like, fireworks---really? Come on."
Similar investigations have been opened up into how on earth Captain Marvel was inducted into the MCU and how Aquaman made it onto the Justice League.
[MIL.com] In the years following the American Civil War, Canada was still very much a possession of the British Empire. As such, it had a number of official fortifications and other important areas along its border with the United States.
One of those was Fort Erie, directly across the Niagara from the American city of Buffalo, New York. In June 1866, some 850 men crossed the Niagara from Buffalo, intent on capturing the fort.
They were Irishmen, and they were going to conquer Canada to free their home country.
Irish immigrants flowed into the United States in droves following the Acts of Union that saw British domination of Ireland since the early 1800s. The Great Irish Famine of the late 1840s also saw a huge emigration of Irish people to the United States.
By 1860, there were more than 1.6 million people of Irish descent who called themselves American ‐ and upwards of 175,000 of them were about to serve in the Union Army.
The Irish made-up 40 percent of foreign-born enlistments in the Civil War, and were 17 percent of the overall Union force. When these battle-hardened veterans returned home after the war, many of them were headed to New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New England. It was there that Irish National leaders were waiting to use the veterans' new talent for combat.
[Red State] In a war or disaster, the first reports are often wrong or conflicting.
In the case of the Ethiopian Airlines crash of the 737 Max 8, there are two very different reports. The first is that the loss of control that crashed the plane and killed all onboard was related to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System ("MCAS") system that tragically appears to have caused the Lion Air crash last year. Indeed, early analysis indicates a similar pattern to the Lion crash indicating a struggle between the aircraft and crew.
Yet the other report is the statements of several witnesses on the ground, as reported by Reuters, who reported loud noises, smoke streaming from the aircraft, as well as clothing and papers escaping from the plane before it crashed.
From the Reuters story: "Half a dozen witnesses interviewed by Reuters in the farmland where the plane came down reported smoke billowing out behind, while four of them also described a loud sound. "It was a loud rattling sound. Like straining and shaking metal," said Turn Buzuna, a 26-year-old housewife and farmer who lives about 300 meters (328 yards) from the crash site.
"Everyone says they have never heard that kind of sound from a plane and they are under a flight path," she added. Malka Galato, 47, a barley and wheat farmer whose field the plane crashed in, also described smoke and sparks from the back. "The plane was very close to the ground and it made a turn... Cows that were grazing in the fields ran in panic," he said.
Tamirat Abera, 25, was walking past the field at the time. He said the plane turned sharply, trailing white smoke and items like clothes and papers, then crashed about 300 meters away."
These two reports are entirely inconsistent.
In the event of a MCAS or other-caused loss of control of the aircraft by the pilots, the plane would make no explosive-like sounds, nor would there be smoke and debris escaping from the aircraft. Ground witnesses would have observed an intact airplane dive steeply into the ground without explosive-like sounds.
The statements of the ground witnesses appear consistent with a bomb or other explosion that opened the fuselage. A fire that caused an explosion or a bomb could plausibly damage data cabling, instrumentation and other electronics, making the cockpit controls inoperative or partially compromised‐perhaps approximating the symptoms of a MCAS-like failure or even triggering a MCAS failure-event by damaging a crucial sensor.
The probability of both MCAS and explosive events happening simultaneously seems slim, however if the statements by the ground witnesses hold up to forensics investigations, and if as initial analysis shows, there was a MCAS-related loss of control, then this coincidence must not be ruled out.
#1
If an engine blew, the rattling would be metal grinding in the turbines, which rkcket tbe metal into the fuselage and suitcases resulting in clothing scattering. White smoke is the automatic fire suppression system coating the exploded engine.
Engines are under greatest stress lifting the airliner from the ground to 30,000 feet.
#2
The MCAS will not cause an explosion. However, an explosion can cause flight control failure. If something exploded, as the witnesses saw, tail control would most likely be an issue and that means loss of Pitch control. This could make them think its an MCAS failure, but in reality its not. This is going to get interesting.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/15/2019 9:43 Comments ||
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#3
Masking a terrorist act (aircraft bombing) by selecting a single type of aircraft for 'mechanical failure'....?
Confucius say, "Man who buy Boeing
Still hungry, though maybe not knowing.
Try order of pecking
With two sides of wrecking,
Wake up and hear Beijing duck crowing!"
Posted by: Kojo Lover of the French7802 ||
03/15/2019 10:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Masking a terrorist act (aircraft bombing) by selecting a single type of aircraft for 'mechanical failure'....?
Hmm, interesting. Playing Devil's Advocate, that model is in wide use which could mean chance selection and terrorists generally like publicity as much as destruction.
If this was a Tom Clancy novel, it would be Airbus engaged in corporate warfare. I wonder how much you could make on a Soros-ish stock manipulation?
Chance selection? Not so fast; Flightaware as well as other flight tracking apps will display the equipment used on a particular flight; current as well as historical. So you could stack the deck if your targeted plane of choice were known on the desired routes.
#10
So you could stack the deck if your targeted plane of choice were known on the desired routes.
Interesting, USN, Ret. Insider stuff like this is just another reason why I love the 'Burg.
As a connoisseur of How Stuff Breaks, I've noticed that catastrophic failures are usually due to a cascade of events rather than a single failure. As I understand, the MCAS was grafted on to the control system after some changes to the wing design made the plane squirrelly. We've seen a number of crashes where the autopilot is doing something inappropriate, usually in response to bad sensor data and the pilot is unable to regain control, whether from forgetting to turn off the automation, lack of experience, or just running out of speed/altitude.
#12
also not to pile on the “Lazy B,” but the usaf stopped taking deliveries of the KC-46 tankers due to fod throughout the aircraft; mass quantities if reportsare true
[DAWN] IT is rare, but not unknown, for deceased candidates to be elected to public office. It is somewhat less uncommon for moribund time-servers to be reinstalled in, or elevated to, positions of power in what are clearly their last years.
Perhaps the most farcical instance of this phenomenon was witnessed in the Soviet Union in the first half of the 1980s, when Leonid Brezhnev, barely alive in the final phase of his leadership, was succeeded by an ailing Yuri Andropov, who lasted about 15 months, whereupon Konstantin Chernenko was virtually dragged out of his deathbed and propped up in the red chair.
A related phenomenon is leaders who consider themselves irreplaceable. Vladimir Putin
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Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Rudaw] In the United States, newly elected Democratic Party congresswomen Ilhan Omar Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She is apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw... has created a fair amount of controversy in recent weeks. Omar and Paleostinian-American Rashida Tlaib are America’s first Moslem congresswomen, and Omar is the first to wear a hijab.
Before being elected, Omar led Jewish Democratic primary voters in her district to believe that she did not support the "BDS" (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) movement. According to Ha’aretz newspaper, "When she was asked at an August primary debate held in a synagogue to specify ’exactly where you stand’ on BDS, Omar said that BDS was ’not helpful in getting that two-state solution’ ‐ never explaining that she in fact supported the policy."
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[DAWN] THE police in this country suffer from an image problem, and every so often incidents make the headlines revealing just why there is such a massive trust deficit between the law enforcers and the citizens.
Four coppers in 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... were dismissed from service on Tuesday after a video emerged of them harassing a couple at the city’s Sea View beach.
The incident reportedly occurred on Sunday, and after the video went viral, police authorities moved in to take action against the errant cops.
The video is quite disturbing, as it shows the thuggish coppers in uniform manhandling a woman. The man making the video said the lawbreaking cops approached him and his wife and demanded money, while pointing guns at them.
Higher authorities in the police have done the right thing by taking action against such individuals, while Clifton SP Sohai Aziz, in whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, was absolutely correct in emphasising while talking to the media that coppers "are not supposed to engage in moral policing".
It is a sad fact that in a city that suffers from a high crime rate, many coppers are more interested in extorting money from couples or shaking down motorists and bikers than curbing crime.
Some men in uniform are apparently not motivated to protect and to serve, but, instead, to harass the public.
The only way to address this malaise is to take strict disciplinary action against those found indulging in unlawful behaviour.
Moreover, the force requires more women officers, such as the current Clifton SP, to sensitise the police and make it a more professional force.
When coppers break the law, they give a bad name to the whole force, and the sacrifices of many honest officers who have laid down their lives in the line of duty are forgotten.
Action against black sheep in the police force needs to be a constant process, and there must be zero tolerance for the sort of atrocious behaviour witnessed recently in Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2019 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] FINANCE minister Asad Umar has done the right thing by writing to the Financial Action Task Force and asking for one of the co-chairs of the International Cooperation Review Group ‐ an individual who is a serving officer of the Indian government ‐ to be replaced.
Given the co-chair’s position, the question arises of a conflict of interest when it comes to dealings with Pakistain.
The ICRG is tasked with reviewing Pakistain’s progress on its implementation plan to move out of the grey list, and its report will play a crucial role in the June meetings of the global financial watchdog when Pakistain’s listing comes up for a decision.
Pakistain narrowly avoided being blacklisted in the February meetings of the global watchdog that monitors terror financing and money laundering. The meetings took place against the backdrop of the Pulwama attack and the subsequent rise in Pakistain-India tensions.
Departing from script, India made a spirited case for the immediate blacklisting of Pakistain at that meeting and found some backers around the table. Deft outreach efforts made by Pakistain’s delegation in Gay Paree and senior government officials back in Islamabad saved the day.
But since then, India has continued with its campaign and used diplomatic channels to reach out to member countries of FATF, urging them to support a move to blacklist Pakistain in the June meetings. And all this even before the implementation of the action plan had begun.
Since the Indian government is pushing this agenda through diplomatic channels, it is hard to imagine how the co-chair of the ICRG, who in this case holds a controversial position, will follow a line other than the one adopted by his government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Jpost] Ali Mussa Daqduq, Nasrallah's former bodyguard, is said by the IDF to be the mastermind behind Hezbollah's Golan Project.
Six years after senior Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq was released from an Iraqi prison for the murder of five American servicemen, he has resurfaced mere miles from Israel’s border on the Syrian Golan Heights as the criminal mastermind of a new and dangerous Hezbollah terror network.
According to the IDF, Daqduq is the leader of Hezbollah’s clandestine "Golan Project" ‐ a terrorist network which the IDF believes is aiming to build up its capabilities to one day launch serious attacks against Israel such as rocket and infiltrations into communities on the Israel Golan Heights.
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#2
Six years after senior Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq was released from an Iraqi prison for the murder of five American servicemen, he has resurfaced
He wasn't rehabilitated by his stint in the pokey? Color me surprised!
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.
[Babylon Bee] SALEM CENTER, NY‐A federal investigation into a college admissions scandal has revealed that student Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee's parents may have paid up to $6 million to help her cheat her way into Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.
[MIL.com] In the years following the American Civil War, Canada was still very much a possession of the British Empire. As such, it had a number of official fortifications and other important areas along its border with the United States.
