BLUF:
[Daily Caller] "A number of employees were aware of this and believed that the woman was protected from discipline or termination as a result of it," the report alleges.
#5
assuming the woman was not an illegal immigrant it shows that there are maybe very few jobs that Americans will not do if they are given good salary and benefits
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/06/2018 19:13 Comments ||
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[TRIBLIVE] A Philadelphia man’s freedom from the Westmoreland County Prison on Tuesday was short-lived.
Moments after Thomas Lee Williams, 36, was released from the Hempfield jail at about 6:15 p.m., police said he attacked a West Leechburg woman in the parking lot, took her sport-utility vehicle and fled with her 1-year-old grandson in the back seat.
Williams crashed 2 miles away in Youngwood about 15 minutes later, ran into a wooded area and was eventually apprehended, according to county Park Police Chief Kirk Nolan.
Williams was back behind bars Wednesday on $250,000 bail.
Investigators will be examining surveillance video from outside the prison Wednesday. It appears the victims and suspect did not know each other, but authorities are continuing to investigate, Nolan said.
"As far as we know, it doesn’t seem there was any relationship," he said.
Both the boy and his grandmother were taken to hospitals to be checked out. The woman had cuts and abrasions, Nolan said.
Court interest in a 2016 drug case against Williams was closed during a bench warrant hearing Tuesday morning. He served 3 to 12 months in that case, but his parole was revoked March 2017 and he was overdue in paying $1,131 costs and fees, according to online court records.
Williams pleaded guilty in January 2017 in that case to dealing drugs at Knights Inn in South Greensburg.
The judge’s ruling Tuesday allowed Williams to be released from the Hempfield Township jail later in the day.
He encountered the 65-year-old victim in the parking lot and allegedly opened the door of her Kia Sorrento, hitting her numerous times in the face, back and shoulders, police said. He took the vehicle and crashed it in the area of Avenue A in Youngwood.
"He tried to get into another vehicle" but was unsuccessful and fled into a wooded area, Nolan said.
K9 officers from park and Greensburg police flushed him out of the woods. Authorities jugged You have the right to remain silent... Williams within about an hour of the alleged assault at the prison with the help of numerous police agencies and Youngwood firefighters, Nolan said.
Williams is charged with kidnapping, robbery of a vehicle and two counts each of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. A Dec. 21 preliminary hearing is set.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
i see potential here for a new Farmers Insurance commercial...
The report of the National Defense Strategy Commission, released Wednesday, reaches conclusions with profound implications for U.S. national security. The report itself is a rarity for Washington, presenting bipartisan consensus that reflects hard-hitting views rather than watered-down, lowest-common-denominator mush.
In sixty-four pages of plain language, the commission paints an extraordinarily troubling picture of the state of U.S. national defenses, calling our present situation a "grave crisis" demanding "extraordinary urgency." It’s a call we should heed.
The Commission
The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act authorized a commission to "examine and make recommendations with respect to the national defense strategy of the United States." The commission members are all national security experts, half selected by Republican and half by Democrat leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. The bipartisan structure gives the commission’s findings particular weight and credence.
In general, the commissioners agree with the administration’s National Defense Strategy (NDS) published this in January 2018. The strategy focused largely on great power competition and stressed the importance of alliances, increasing readiness and achieving Pentagon reforms.
However, after identifying those areas of agreement, the report proceeds to describe some significant shortfalls with the strategy and the supporting resources and concepts. In a key passage, the commissioners express skepticism that the Defense Department "has the attendant plans, concepts and resources needed to meet the defense objectives established in the NDS."
Insufficient Forces
The report notes that the United States now faces five rising challenges‐China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and transnational terrorism‐yet has fewer military forces than at any time since the end of World War II. "Simply put," it observes, "the United States needs a larger force than it has today if it is to meet the objectives of the strategy."
Numerous defense experts, both inside and outside of government, have been telling us the same thing for years. Today, the navy says it needs 355 ships to execute the NDS; they have 286. The air force says it needs 386 squadrons; they have 312. And the army states it needs 500,000 active soldiers; it has only 476,000.
With five potential adversaries to account for, the report observes, a "two-war force sizing construct makes more strategic sense today that at any previous point in the post-Cold War era." Yet the NDS used only a one-war force sizing construct with an additional undefined ability to "deter" another opponent. Essentially, that construct provides no capability to deter an opportunistic adversary who sees the U.S. engaged in one regional conflict. Moreover, it provides no ability to suffer combat losses or to maintain any forward presence in any area other than the conflict zone.
In sum, the NDS’ one-war force sizing construct understates the amount of forces the U.S. needs to prevail. The commission does not approve.
Inadequate Resources
The commission is unsparing in its description of how inadequate the resourcing is for national defense: "the available means are clearly insufficient to fulfill the strategy’s ends." The report points to the cumulative impact of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which effectively removed $539 billion from the Pentagon budget, causing a series of cascading ill effects on readiness, modernization and force size.
This assessment is spot on. In 2017, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis testified that, to rebuild the military to necessary levels, the defense spending would need to see sustained real growth of 3-5 percent annually. Yet the projected defense budget fell well short of that goal‐even before President Trump announced the Pentagon’s FY 2020 budget would take a 4.5% cut.
The report concludes, ominously but wisely, that "if the United States does not adequately fund its military now and in the future, it risks forfeiting any near-term financial savings with vast long-term costs in blood, security and treasure."
Global Posture
The commission comes down strongly in favor of forward-based forces. It recommends that the army return a heavy division to Europe with a corps headquarters. It also urges establishing a more robust defense-in-depth in the Indo-Pacific.
Both recommendations are sound. Numerous experts favor stationing more U.S. forces forward to provide better deterrence and early defense. As General Breedlove, the former commander of U.S. European Command, testified in 2015, "Permanently stationed forces are a force multiplier that rotational deployments can never match."
Other Useful Insights
The commission wisely picked up on the NDS' failure to flesh out its strategy for confronting China and Russia. Operational concepts, the report notes, "constitute an essential link between strategic objectives, defense policy, and budgetary priorities, and they are sorely lacking in the NDS." It's a subtle point that reflects the remarkable depth of the commission's analysis.
Readiness also caught the commission's eye. It has suffered, the report observes, due to "unfettered high demand on a smaller force, persistent budget uncertainty and inadequate funding." Yet clear assessments of readiness are hard to come by. To remedy this, the commission recommends that the Pentagon "develop analytic tools that measure readiness across the range of challenges from low-intensity, gray zone conflicts to protracted high intensity fights with major power rivals."
The report addresses modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, as well. It says that "all legs of the triad, as well as much of the supporting infrastructure approaching the ends of their service lives, nuclear modernization must receive sustained and predictable funding from Congress."
That's sound advice. But following it will be challenging, given the current defense funding picture.
A Difficult Pill to Swallow
In the end, the commission's report brings but little good news. Rather, it paints a sobering picture of the state of U.S. national defense and the military's ability to execute the NDS. But, despite the bitterness of the medicine, it's a prescription that's needed.
The commissioners and staff should be commended for producing an accurate and thoroughly candid assessment. Everyone with an interest in national security should read this report. In the coming months and years, necessary debates will be had on the relative priorities of defense funding versus other needs. For those seeking to the truth about our defense needs, the NDS Commission's report should serve as an authoritative reference.
The report concludes that "America has reached the point of a full-blown national security crisis." It's a wake-up call that needs to be heard. Unheeded, one of the report's most chilling statements could come to pass, "put bluntly, the U.S. military could lose the next state-versus-state war it fights."
It costs blood and treasure to keep a global trade network. The seas, skies and surface don't get smaller. The UK just couldn't keep it up after WW2 and have collapsed into insignificance. If we don't stay strong to keep the trade lanes open, China will take them from us and dictate our future.
#1
In sixty-four pages of plain language, the commission paints an extraordinarily troubling picture of the state of U.S. national defenses, calling our present situation a "grave crisis" demanding "extraordinary urgency."
Anything like our grave Climate Crisis and Global Climate Change urgency?
Budget and Appropriation time used to be the fall, now with Congress not engaged in their main job dealing with the purse strings till later and later, the unending call for 'more money, more money, more money' just becomes another chorus at the trough.
I usually don't see in any of these 'studies' the recommendation to seriously cut back on commitments. You don't need as much if you don't cover as much.
The report notes that the United States now faces five rising challenges‐China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and transnational terrorism
To paraphrase Fredrick the Great - he who tries to defend everything, defends nothing.
Make real war. Devastating, ugly, unholy. Your potential adversaries will notice. Make them worried about what you will do.
#2
Ridiculous scaremongering with the Chinese. This is just a ploy to get more money into the military-industrial complex. Bipartisan support, well now there's a shocker. It's like they're both secretly on the same side!
We outnumber the rest of the world put together and it's still not enough for these people. We have spent SIX TRILLION DOLLARS on wars since 9/11 with fuck-all to show for it, and they want to spend even more.
#3
We keep the trade lanes open for the Chinese for free, at no cost to themselves. It's what's enabled them to crush us. China won't dictate our future because we're not dependent on trade. We are the least connected major nation, and most of the trade that we do have is with Mexico and Canada.
If the US Navy pulled its protection from the seas the Chinese would be screwed badly.
[MEDICALXPRESS] At a time when immigration is a hot-button issue, the American health care system is highly dependent on professionals born in other countries, an analysis of U.S. census data shows.
In 2016, roughly 17 percent of professionals in 24 medical fields‐from optometrists to chiropractors to veterinarians‐were foreign-born, and almost 5 percent of them were not U.S. citizens, according to the analysis published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis could not distinguish between professionals trained in their country of origin and those trained in the United States.
The rates were even higher for the most educated providers. About one in five pharmacists, one in four dentists, and 29 percent of physicians‐approaching one in three‐were foreign-born.
Among one of the biggest occupational groups‐psychiatric, nursing and home health aides‐23 percent were foreign-born.
"We rely very heavily in health care on those who were born abroad," said lead author Anupam B. Jena, an economist and physician at Harvard Medical School. "That tells you what would happen if we had a policy that restricted skilled immigration."
Controversy has surrounded the Trump administration's policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration from Mexico, and his ban on travel from six predominantly Moslem countries. But changes that are less well known have chipped away at legal immigration, including new compliance rules, documentation requirements, and visa restrictions for skilled workers and college students.
Jena's interest in the intended and unintended consequences of immigration policy is partly personal. He was born in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... , but his parents‐a physician and a physicist‐emigrated from India.
"People like my mom who are able to make it to this country and perform professionally, these are generally very skilled, very motivated people," Jena said.
Yet doctors trained outside the U.S. are so often perceived as less qualified or less competent that Jena and his colleagues did a study to evaluate the quality of the care they provide. The study found that hospitalized Medicare patients who were treated by international medical school graduates had lower mortality rates than patients treated by U.S. medical graduates.
For another study, Jena looked at the scientific contributions of foreign medical graduates by counting their journal publications, federal research grants, and clinical trials. The conclusion: Physicians educated abroad but working in the U.S. account for nearly a fifth of U.S. biomedical research scholarship.
Jena led the new analysis‐which used data from an annual household survey conducted by the Census Bureau‐to look broadly at the health care workforce. While studies over the past decade have reported that about a quarter of doctors working in the U.S. were born abroad, most other health care professions haven't been examined.
The fields with the smallest percentages of foreign-born professionals were audiologists (5.9 percent), veterinarians (7.3), nurse-anesthetists (8.4) and psychologists (9.5).
About 16 percent of nurses, optometrists, dietitians and dental assistants were born abroad. Asia was the most common region of birth, accounting for 6.4 percent of all U.S. health care professionals. Mexico and the Caribbean were next, accounting for nearly 5 percent.
"As the U.S. population ages, there will be an increased need for many health care professionals, particularly those who provide personal care like home health care aides, a large proportion of whom are currently non-U.S. born," the researchers concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
At a time when immigration is a hot-button issue
The distinction between legal and illegal too subtle for the author?
[PULSE.NG] Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday voiced support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as he visited Moscow seeking financial assistance for the socialist country's collapsing economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#4
If Putin is planning on sending technicians to jumpstart the Venezuelan Oil Production... who will pay for it? With all Putin's other foreign adventures...?
[PULSE.NG] Russian internet giant Yandex on Wednesday launched its first ever smartphone in a highly anticipated move into hardware that builds on its popular service apps.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Next move will be to bribe a few officials to allow it to be used by the US military.
#6
The flaws will be a feature. But I wouldn't buy a Huawei either, and they are actually good phones.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2018 10:11 Comments ||
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#7
"The good news? We backed up all your contacts. The bad? We also backed up copied all your communications, pictures, browsing, passwords, ...."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2018 10:44 Comments ||
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#8
The FSB cloud
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2018 10:48 Comments ||
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#9
It's strange, I'm more afraid of the NSA and Google being in my phone than the FSB. The Russians have no motive to mess with my life...but my own government-corporate complex I believe to be the greater threat.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/06/2018 13:23 Comments ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Ukrainian security forces may be planning to use "chemical poisonous substances" in the Donbass region, speaking in her weekly press briefing in Moscow on Wednesday.
Citing reports originating from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the spokesperson said that such information "cannot but cause concern."
"We call on the OSCE monitoring mission to intensify its monitoring activities in Donbass. What is required is not fragmentary information but a comprehensive view of the military preparations of the Ukraine’s army," she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
I see. Preparing for a little false flag operation to go all in?
Ukraine would be batshit crazy to do such a thing.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2018 10:19 Comments ||
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#2
I was thinking the exact same thing, "there's a false flag operation coming up".
[ALMASDARNEWS] The U.S. Navy is making preparations to enter the Black Sea’s waters as tensions between Russia and Ukraine reach an all-time high over the recent detention of the Ukrainian sailors, a CNN report said on Wednesday.
According to the report, the U.S. military requested that the State Department notify The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... about its potential plan to enter the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait.
CNN said that a State Department front man said, "the United States carries out its activities consistent with the terms of the Montreux Convention. We will not, however, comment on the nature of our diplomatic correspondence with the Government of Turkey."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#5
Our captain was so good to us
He dipped his prick in phosphorus
It shined a light
All through the night
And steered us through the Bosporus
( via Patrick O’Brien)
[Independent] Two US military aircraft have collided off the coast of Japan during refuelling, and search and rescue efforts are underway.
The crash was announced by the United States Marine Corps, and the force said Japanese search and rescue jets responded immediately to the incident.
The crash some 200 miles off the coast involved an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet made by McDonnell Douglas, and a KC-130, a refuelling plane with propellers made by Lockheed Martin.
"Search and rescue operations continue for US Marine aircraft that were involved in a mishap off of the coast of Japan around 2.00 am Dec 6," a Marine Corps news release said.
"The aircraft involved in the mishap had launched from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and were conducting regularly scheduled training when the mishap occurred," according to the release. "Japanese search and rescue aircraft immediately responded to aid in recovery".
[BBC] Fuel tax rises which sparked weeks of violent protests in France have now been dropped from next year's budget, the government has announced.
The move was announced by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who a day earlier had only promised to postpone them for six months.
The "gilets jaunes" (yellow vest) protests have hit major cities over the past three weekends.
Further demonstrations are planned for this weekend. They have grown to reflect more widespread anger at the government.
Who are the 'gilets jaunes'?
Jobseeker: Macron should help me find work.
The "yellow vests" are so called because they have taken to the streets wearing the high-visibility yellow clothing that is required to be carried in every vehicle by French law.
Four people have died since the unrest began and the resulting violence and vandalism have been widely condemned.
[PULSE.NG] French farmers said Wednesday that they will stage a series of protests next week, adding to President Emmanuel Macron's woes as the "yellow vest" anti-tax movement rocks the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A Pak man was incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! on Wednesday on suspicion of stabbing to death a teacher outside a university in the Gay Paree suburbs, a police source said.
The 66-year-old teacher was stabbed repeatedly in front of the private Leonard-de-Vinci university in Courbevoie, northwest of Gay Paree.
The police source, confirming a report in the Gay Pareeien newspaper, said the suspect was a former student at the university who was born in Pakistain in 1981.
The Gay Pareeien reported that the victim was an English teacher and that he had been stabbed in the throat.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] The EU commission on Wednesday presented its plan to reduce the dollar's overwhelming dominance of the global economy and to strengthen the role of the euro, particularly for energy transactions.
European capitals are increasingly frustrated with the global dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency, which hands the United States unparalleled diplomatic and economic power in a globalized world.
Governments, banks and multinationals are at the mercy of US authorities, which have the legal power to switch off access to the world economy if any company or country should run afoul of Washington.
"In the current context of incertitudes -- trade conflicts, extra territorial sanctions by the US -- the market participants are looking for alternative," said EU economics affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici at a news conference in Brussels.
The most frustrating recent example for the EU is Iran, where international companies that choose to trade or invest with the Islamic Theocratic Republic despite US sanctions are vulnerable to punishment by Washington in part through their use of the dollar.
The single currency -- born on January 1, 1999 -- "should reflect the political, economic and financial weight of the eurozone", the single currency bloc of 19 EU countries, said European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Hahaha EU sucks and their people are incompetent. They couldn't knock the dollar off if they tried. Talk, talk, talk is all they do. Plans for the future - the far future.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/06/2018 0:38 Comments ||
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#2
35% tariff on Holy Roman Empire (French and German) goods.
The Dollar is dominate because of the trust the world has that the US economy is still good and the US will be around tomorrow to back it up.
The EU is not a solid union, as much as the leaders wish it would be. And there is serious doubts on its ability to keep countries in its union and if the Euro will be around in a decade.
Therefore the Euro will not knock off the dollar until that happens. Or the US descends into Civil War.
#7
The Euro will not "knock off" the U.S. dollar anytime soon (probably never).
Currently 62.70% are held in dollars, 20.15% in euro (Euro was already at 27% at the height of the financial crisis, but dropped when the euro crisis hit).
I see 30% as an achievable goal in ten years. Of course we don't know what kind of crisis Europe or the U.S. may experience. We also don't know what will happen in China.
People seem to exaggerate the consequences of sanctions. Let's face it: Most sanctions the U.S. prescribes are well warranted.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/06/2018 9:56 Comments ||
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#8
prior to the Euro the Pound was pretty solid as was ( is ) the Swiss franc. but thats about as "solid" as they ever got
[DAWN] 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... police on Wednesday started the paperwork but haven't done much else against a man over charges of attempting suicide and others, after he climbed an electric pole in Korangi area reportedly to protest against police’s alleged harsh attitude and to "have other demands fulfilled".
Awami Colony police booked Mohammed Shakir under Sections 325 (attempt to commit suicide) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for shorter terms) of the Pakistain Penal Code.
The area's Station House Officer (SHO) Shahid Khan, said the case had been registered on behalf of the state and the suspect was tossed in the calaboose Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! .
Shakir on Wednesday afternoon climbed a pole of high-tension wires passing through the Korangi neighbourhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] An Indonesian soldier was killed while investigating reports that more than two dozen construction workers were rubbed out by separatist rebels in restive Papua province, officials said on Tuesday.
If confirmed, the killings would mark the deadliest bout of violence in years to hit a far-flung region wracked for decades by a low-level independence insurgency.
Citing local police, Indonesian media reported late on Monday that the workers were rubbed out on Sunday in Nduga, a district in the centre of the region on the western half of New Guinea island, just north of Australia.
Police and military teams were sent to the area on Monday when they came under rebel gunfire with one soldier killed and another maimed in the firefight, authorities said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2018 00:00 ||
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h/t Instapundit
Thanks to the excesses of the #MeToo movement, sexual encounters have morphed into an episode of South Park. In the midst of an otherwise romantic night, gals, you might be asked to create a so-called "consent video" so your understandably petrified partner can cover his behind against any future false accusation leveled against him. p.s. Since when a woman not entitled to change her mind afterwards?
#8
[snicker] Legally, a consent video would not necessarily give a man blanket coverage cornering an accusation of sexual misconduct, since certain sex acts might not be "covered" in the consent video and consent can be withdrawn at any time, post-consent video included. "Consent is ongoing and can be withdrawn at any time. Therefore, a video may record 'consent' but the situation may then change and consent is withdrawn," Durham University law professor [said].
[gag] But aside from the legal aspects, feminists are not pleased with the idea of consent videos and their "problematic" ramifications.
In the case with Poppy, King complains that the "implication" of a consent video "is that those in a position of power are the ones who need protection, and that’s just not true."
Right. In the olden days, the fella had to promise matrimony before the act.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/06/2018 8:48 Comments ||
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#12
Women can change their mind and remove consent during the act which in theory makes the videos less valuable, but the videos will still make any kind of legal claims of rape difficult to prove before a jury.
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.
[TRIBLIVE] A Philadelphia man’s freedom from the Westmoreland County Prison on Tuesday was short-lived.
The report of the National Defense Strategy Commission, released Wednesday, reaches conclusions with profound implications for U.S. national security. The report itself is a rarity for Washington, presenting bipartisan consensus that reflects hard-hitting views rather than watered-down, lowest-common-denominator mush.
