[PennLive] A witness who testified in the investigation that led to President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will be coming to Carlisle. He could be looking over his shoulder for a very long time.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was ousted from his post on the National Security Council Friday, will start classes at the U.S. Army War College this summer, CBS News is reporting.
The decorated combat veteran will return to the Department of the Army for reassignment until he reports to Carlisle in July.
Vindman, who had told Congress in November he didn’t think it was proper for the president to urge the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was escorted from the White House on Friday. His attorney, David Pressman, said Vindman was asked to leave in retaliation "for telling the truth."
Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, also was asked to leave his job as a White House lawyer on Friday, the Army said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, was also released.
According to The Washington Post, the post-impeachment firings released some key figures who complied with congressional subpoenas and testified in a process Trump called a "hoax" and a "witch hunt."
"I’m not happy with him," Trump told reporters Friday when asked about Vindman’s future. "You think I’m supposed to be happy with him? I’m not."
The president’s critics are not surprised at the dismissals.
"These are the actions of a man who believes he is above the law," Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat and lead House impeachment manager, told the New York Times.
The White House would not discuss the Vindman situation, only saying it does not comment on personnel matters.
#1
So the fellow who never commanded anything above company level and hasn't worn a uniform in decades, was boarded and will soon attend the prestigious Army War College.
LTC Sausage was 'exempted' from normal career selection gates? I see. I take it his upcoming promotion ceremony will be a very private affair. Additional questions? No, I believe I have it now.
....A third brother Leonid Vindman, who reportedly was fined $1.3 billion when he worked for Unicredit for violating trading sanctions by trafficking nuclear energy materials to Libya and Iran, runs Tungsten Capital an investment firm with ties to former Soviet satellite countries.
#5
It’s not like they can let him actually command anything, and this way they can keep him at an empty desk for half a year without anyone fussing about it. A lot can happen in half a year when the commander-in-chief knows your name.
#6
/\ Excellent point TW. Too many years behind the 'Green Door.' He's a walking hand grenade. No one wants this fellow going full 'John Bolton' with a tell-all book right now. Get him off 'center stage.' Give him a short sabbatical to do some leisure reading, rest up, and get his PT program re-energized before reporting to Carlisle Barracks.
#7
Three Rs. Reserve advisor, Recruiting command, ROTC duty. I'll take number 3. North Dakota State University? University of Alaska - Fairbanks? University of Idaho?
#15
Three Rs. Reserve advisor, Recruiting command, ROTC duty. I'll take number 3. North Dakota State University? University of Alaska - Fairbanks? University of Idaho?
No. There are some good guys to be recruited in those places. Put him in San Francisco.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/10/2020 14:10 Comments ||
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#21
Hmm. My son Tom (an Air Force Major - Major Tom!) may be assigned to a joint command at Ft. McNair, the site of the Army War College. If so, I will tell him to keep a lookout for LtCol Sausage. Too bad Tom isn't a LtCol himself yet. At this point he will have to salute the fat POS if he sees him.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/10/2020 18:15 Comments ||
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#22
Ref #21: At this point he will have to salute the fat POS if he sees him.
Probably not. The students wear Mufti (civilian attire).
#23
re #22: I haven't been to Ft McNair since 1979, when I was a Lieutenant (Navy). We wore uniforms.
I wasn't a student; my reserve unit was putting on a seminar for the Navy.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/10/2020 19:00 Comments ||
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#24
Civilian clothing is worn extensively both on and off duty. You will need complete summer and winter service uniforms, including a heavy overcoat and a raincoat. There are a few occasions when you will need your Class A or dress uniform.
The U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Chief of Staff, and/or Dean of the School of Strategic Land power, is responsible for designating the proper dress for academic activities on the USAWC Weekly Schedule.
[AlAhram] Thousands of people stranded aboard a cruise ship in Hong Kong for five days were allowed to disembark on Sunday after its 1,800 crew tested negative for the deadly new coronavirus.
Health authorities in the semi-autonomous Asian financial hub said the crew and a similar number of passengers had been released from a quarantine imposed because of fears some staff could have contracted the deadly virus on a previous voyage and passed it on.
The World Dream carried three Chinese passengers to Vietnam between January 19 and 24 who were later found to be infected with the SARS-like coronavirus, which has killed more than 800 people in China since it emerged in December.
The government grounded the ship on its arrival in Hong Kong Wednesday while tests were carried out on the crew, but said the passengers need not undergo examination as they had no contact with the three sick holidaymakers on the January trip.
First found in the city of Wuhan in central China last December, the virus has infected more than 37,200 people on the Chinese mainland and at least 36 in Hong Kong.
The passengers and crew isolated on the vessel had been expecting to stay aboard until Tuesday after Hong Kong authorities said testing would take at least four days.
But chief port health officer Leung Yiu-hong said Sunday "all tests have results this afternoon and are all negative".
He added that passenger testing was deemed unnecessary because they were at relatively low risk. All 3,600 onboard will not be required to self-quarantine after leaving.
As he left the ship, passenger Rocky Chan said quarantine conditions had been "okay", though his time on board had caused him a few problems.
"My job was somewhat affected due to the time I had to spend here," he said, but added that a letter he received from the Department of Health should smooth out any issues.
Vice-president of marketing at Dream Cruises, Phoebe Yip Ching-man, said the company arranged for dozens of coaches to take passengers into the city, while free hotel rooms were booked for the more than 100 foreign passport holders on board who needed them.
Hong Kong on Saturday began enforcing a 14-day quarantine period on all people arriving from mainland China in a fresh bid to curb the spread of the virus.
The city's health minister on Sunday morning said 468 people had so far been ordered to stay at home, in hotel rooms or at a government quarantine camp since the policy took effect.
Kim Jong Un canceled a big parade with no real explanation just as the South Korean press reports coronavirus has hit North Korea hard and could explode there.https://t.co/JegQhJ9ekf
1 Spanish, 5 British tourists catch coronavirus in France as officials test hundreds of children and their families in Contamines-Montjoiehttps://t.co/JQ9bkT13Yk
She's my Corona-sharona,
My Yokohama-mama,
A cruis-in' fer a bruisin'
Twerkin' like a Miley Cyrus-virus
From Osaka Sock-it-to-muh
By the light of the silvery mooooooon...
#4
A raccoon once crooned his kabuki
As spooky as any tanuki.
The Japanese nation
Immediately and unanimously decried this profoundly problematic example of cultural appropriation and coon supremacy!
I'm kidding. They just cooed, "You kooky!"
And of course enriched and honored him, eventually making him a citizen.
Rail operator Deutsche Bahn says it halted long-distance train services in many parts of northwestern Germany because of disruptions caused by Storm Ciara and will extend the suspension to the rest of the country.https://t.co/IS2fhTz04o
Manchester City’s Premier League game against West Ham is called off due to a storm battering northern Europe, along with matches in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.https://t.co/zwMqeZB2XZ
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2020 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11128 views]
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#1
The storm is currently battering Munich. Well... a winter storm in February.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/10/2020 1:29 Comments ||
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#2
So much for the flood defences! Storm Ciara leaves Yorkshire Dales and Pennines towns under water as £30m barriers finished last year catastrophically FAIL
#2
...Where the hell did they go? This is communist China, you're not supposed to be able to just tootle around without the Party knowing right where you're at...unless, as it may turn out, that the vaunted controls of the CCP were just so much nonsense.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/10/2020 4:29 Comments ||
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NEW YORK (AP) ‐ A gunman was arrested after he ambushed police officers in the Bronx twice in 12 hours, authorities said, wounding two in attacks that brought outrage from officials who blamed the violence on an atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric.
Robert Williams, 45, of the Bronx, was captured after he walked into a police station in the Bronx and started shooting shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, police said. His shots struck a lieutenant in the arm and narrowly missed other police personnel before he ran out of bullets, lay down and tossed his pistol, officials said.
That attack came just hours after Williams approached a patrol van in the same part of the Bronx and fired at two officers inside, wounding one before escaping on foot, police said.
All of those shot are expected to recover, authorities said.
"It is only by the grace of God and the heroic actions of those inside the building that took him into custody that we are not talking about police officers murdered inside a New York City police precinct," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a news conference.
Williams is being charged with attempted murder, criminal weapon possession and resisting arrest, police said in an email late Sunday identifying him as the suspect. He was hospitalized Sunday evening, the Bronx prosecutor’s office said. It wasn’t clear whether he had an attorney to speak for him.
Williams' grandmother, 80-year-old Mary Williams, on Sunday told NBC 4 New York her grandson had been looking for a job recently, adding that he “didn’t have no problem with no police lately.”
“I was really shocked,” she said of the allegations. “I would tell him to get his life straight and don’t do things like that. Because I love him, and God loves him.”
Thanks to BLM, Soros, the insurgent Left that's rising up, we're going back to the 1970s. How long before NYC tops the 1,000 murders/yr threshold again?
#2
Pangolin meat, meanwhile, is served as a sign of wealth and privilege at ostentatious banquets, with the animals often killed at the table to prove they are the genuine article. Some gourmands even claim to enjoy tiny, skinned pangolin foetuses which, when floated in wine or soup, are believed to be an aphrodisiac.
#3
I forget the name of that theory that why space isn't being colonized by various extra terrestrials is that at some point they run out of resources, couldn't figure out radiation shielding, blow themselves up in a war, whatever.
Could it be that each species has its own pangolin eaters, constantly kicking out the legs of technology and civilization?
#5
In the matter of making things meet,
A hungry Chinese can't be beat:
If a treat's inauspicious
To Mao, try Confucius;
And if it should run, bind its feet.
Officials confirmed that Trump and national security adviser Robert O’Brien have cut 70 positions inherited from former President Barack Obama, who had fattened the staff to 200.
Many were loaners from other agencies and have been sent back. Others left government work.
O'Brien recently said that former President George W. Bush handled the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with 100 NSC aides, a model he is instituting.
[National Interest] The infantry soldier with an M-16 entering a congested urban area won’t have to call in for support and wait precious minutes for it to arrive in the future battlefield. Israeli technology that links fighters on the ground with their battalion commanders will give a full picture to all the boots on the ground, the UAV assets and shooters in the vicinity to find the best angle to take out adversaries who hide among civilians. It will also protect against friendly fire because all the soldiers are on the same network and can see each other through the new technology.
Called ’Fire Weaver’ by its developers at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the Israeli Ministry of Defense is now betting big on its technology as Israel’s army seeks to digitize the modern warrior on the frontline. The ministry announced a contract for the system in early February 2020 that will see the IDF’s ground forces divisions equipped with it in the coming years. The system "enables closing rapid, precise, effective and secure sensor-to-shooter loops." It works in GPS-denied environments and is based on open architecture so it can be flexibly integrated to other western hi-tech armies depending on how they want to use it.
For many years, soldiers on the modern battlefield have faced a variety of challenges, especially in urban areas, such as during the battle for Mosul against ISIS. A modern army has no shortage of different weapon systems, from tanks to artillery, drones and special forces. But harnessing them and having the commander know in real time where everyone is located is essential. It’s also essential to find the best weapon that will bring precision and reduce collateral damage, such as civilian casualties or damaging sensitive buildings. Gone is the era of carpet bombing and the casualty rates of the First World War. Such technology led to high death tolls in the last century, now it may reduce them. Israel's land forces think this digitization revolution is a key to that.
[AP] For the first time in years, a commercial passenger plane has flown across the Atlantic in less than five hours.
A British Airways flight landed early Sunday morning at Heathrow Airport in London after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York just four hours and 56 minutes earlier.
That set a new speed record for subsonic ‐ or slower than the speed of sound ‐ commercial aircraft to fly between the two cities, according to Flightradar24, which tracks global flights.
The previous record was held by a Norwegian Air flight, which flew between the two cities with a flight time of five hours and 13 minutes.
The flight had been expected to take 102 minutes longer. The recent average flight time between New York and London is 6 hours and 13 minutes, according to Flightradar24.
The wind and air currents were ideal for a fast flight, said Ian Petchenik, Flightradar24′s director of communications. "In the winter, the jet stream dips down a bit," he said. "It’s kind of in a perfect spot for flights across the North Atlantic to take advantage of it."
British Airways just narrowly beat out a Virgin Atlantic flight, which arrived in London at around the same time but one minute slower.
British Airways confirmed the flight time for the Boeing 747 plane, saying the company prioritizes safety over speed.
The supersonic Concorde flights used to fly across the Atlantic in just over three hours, but stopped flying in 2003.
While I normally cover the tactical and CCW guns, I do have one other group I always snatch up if the opportunity presents itself. I guess you could call them 1866 tactical guns, and be correct. I’m talking about lever actions of course, including this week’s Henry in 45-70.
From a practical standpoint, I find that lever actions still have a place. They are so well balanced and handle so quickly, it would surprise you if you grew up on an AR. I didn’t shoot one more than a handful of times until I was already full-grown, and a soldier to boot. But I still came away impressed. With some practice, they also provide a remarkable rate of fire.
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.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] 
[NBC] Not a fan of NBC News, but I caught this last eveninng (in lieu of watching the Commie Oscars). Thought it might be of interest.
