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Masked gunmen attack TV stations reporting the protests in Iraq
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Carjacking career of Reece Ramsey-Johnson ends abruptly
[Metro] A carjacker died after he accidentally blasted himself in the chest while trying to smash a window with the butt of his shotgun, an inquest has heard. Officers investigating the death of Reece Ramsey-Johnson said they were satisfied there was ’no third party involvement’ as they closed the probe into his killing.

Witnesses who saw the 22-year-old dying from gunshot wounds in the street outside a Lloyds bank in Sydenham on Sunday, September 8, said his own gun may have gone off when he used to to hit a car window. Opening the inquest at Southwark Coroner’s Court on Thursday September 26, Dr Andrew Harris confirmed the police investigation had now ended. He said: ’The investigating officer is satisfied there is no third party involvement.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 07:11 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BUT, BUT WHAT about GUN, KNIFE, Spoon control. IS it NOT working a PLANNED! LMAO! fools to the end?
Posted by: ranture || 10/05/2019 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting pic. I wonder how he came by the name "Reece Ramsey-Johnson"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Must have been painful, until the bleeding stopped.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 8:24 Comments || Top||

#4  'no third party involvement’ ?

There wasn't even no second party involvement !

I hope they sing Amazing Grace at the funeral. It should be fitting, except not for reasons they think.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/05/2019 9:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Feece Ram-Me-Again-Johnson
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/05/2019 9:58 Comments || Top||

#6  On Reece Ramsey-Johnson, a whimsy.
Were namesakes of Reverend James Ramsay,
By whom surely aided,
Enslaved and degraded
By fans of goddamned Andy Gramsci?
Posted by: Angerert Grumble4096 || 10/05/2019 10:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Mr. Reece Ramsay-Johnson, his ballad:
I might not be pushing up salad,
A figure of fun
Made a butt by my gun
If I'd bashed that sedan with a mallet.
Posted by: Angerert Grumble4096 || 10/05/2019 10:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Or a mallard. Or pretty much anything except a bass-ackwards shotgun, actually.
Posted by: Angerert Grumble4096 || 10/05/2019 10:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Rantburg is the place to be,
for the War on Terror and Poetry.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/05/2019 11:55 Comments || Top||

#10  We are at war with poetry too ?! Calling Herb ...☺
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/05/2019 12:14 Comments || Top||

#11  I guess some folks call “shotgun” differently when running to the car.
Posted by: Airandee || 10/05/2019 15:05 Comments || Top||

#12  Thumb on the trigger while smashing the butt into the window. Brilliant!
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 10/05/2019 15:28 Comments || Top||

#13  Maybe he wanted to ride shotgun but ended up shotgunned?
Posted by: Lex || 10/05/2019 16:32 Comments || Top||

#14  #11 - Snark O' The Day candidate
Posted by: Frank G || 10/05/2019 16:52 Comments || Top||

#15  Once again, someone invents something they think I'm against, and then criticize me for what they made up. Just like Leftists are prone to do.
Posted by: Glotch Ebbusons2137 || 10/05/2019 17:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Welp, since you changed nyms (perhaps by mistake?) , you're on notice. Next time, you're spamcopped
Posted by: Frank G || 10/05/2019 17:53 Comments || Top||

#17  Once again, someone invents something they think I'm against, and then criticize me for what they made up.

Aw, lighten up, Francis. Is joke. You should rejoice that you have achieved infamyfame as a Rantburg mem. And besides, a lot of us agree with you about endless wars.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/05/2019 18:47 Comments || Top||


Jesús María's head found in toy box
[Metro] A woman who gave her neighbour a box ’full of sex toys’ had allegedly stuffed her partner’s decapitated head inside. María del Carmen M. G., 61, had given her neighbour the box for safekeeping at her home in Castro Urdiales, in Cantabria, northern Spain.

After keeping hold of it for some time, the neighbour started to notice an awful smell coming from the package. In the early hours of Saturday morning, she finally decided to open it but was horrified by what she saw ‐ the severed head of her neighbour’s partner, Jesús María B. R. The woman suffered a panic attack at finding the decapitated human head, that was in an advanced state of decomposition, and immediately alerted authorities. Civil Guard officers set out searching for the body of 67-year-old Jesús María, who had been reported as missing in February, this year.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 07:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...With God as my witness, I have no idea what I should say next.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 10/05/2019 9:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Surprise!
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 10/05/2019 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  The Garcias were lengthily linked
And their lingo had gotten distinct.
As she went up to bed,
She said, "Bring me the head
Of Alfredo Garcia!" and winked.
Posted by: Angerert Grumble4096 || 10/05/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Frank G || 10/05/2019 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  What Mike said. There's just no words.

Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/05/2019 12:01 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't think 'sex toy' means what she thinks it means.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/05/2019 22:55 Comments || Top||


College basketball bribers slapped with more prison time for payouts to coaches
[Daily News] Two basketball bribers already convicted of paying the families of prized prospects were slapped with more prison time this week for secret payments to coaches.

Aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins faces a year and a half for his bribery schemes. His partner-in-bribes, former Adidas consultant Merl Code, faces nine months total.
"This is my brother Merl, and my other brother Merl"
The men were convicted in separate trials that turned a spotlight on the sleazy world of college athletics, where brands, agents and hangers-on all compete for a slice of the fortune elite awaiting young basketball players upon turning pro.

In March, Dawkins and Code were sentenced to six months each for a plot to bribe players attending Adidas-sponsored colleges. In separate proceedings this week, Judge Edgardo Ramos sentenced Dawkins to a year and a day and Code to three months. The second scheme involved payments to coaches who steered players to select managers for handling money once the players turned pro.

"Christian Dawkins and Merl Code have now been sentenced to prison a second time for their roles in corrupting the world of college basketball. The sentences imposed this week should make crystal clear to other members of the basketball underground exposed during the various prosecutions brought by this office that bribery is still a crime, even if the recipient is a college basketball coach," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 05:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe time to abolish sports scholarships? Amateur sports should be amateur.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 5:39 Comments || Top||

#2  The only colleges practicing something really close to amateur athletics and fully funded scholarships belong to DoD.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/05/2019 7:02 Comments || Top||

#3  And here I was, hoping this article was gonna mention Rick Pitino...
Posted by: Raj || 10/05/2019 7:04 Comments || Top||


'A problem in every national forest': tree thieves were behind Washington wildfire
[Guardian] Tree theft, which led to the deadly Maple Fire in Washington, may be costing the US Forest Service up to $100m each year

When two men discovered a rare and valuable 90ft-tall bigleaf maple tree in Washington State’s Olympic National Forest last year, they allegedly set about trying to steal it.

But there was a problem ‐ the tree was home to a bee hive. The men reportedly tried to use a wasp killer to get rid of it. When that didn’t work, one allegedly poured gasoline on it, and lit it on fire.

The result, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week, was an August wildfire that raged across the eastern half of the ancient forest, setting 3,300 acres of public land ablaze and costing $4.5m to fight.

Known as the Maple Fire, the smoke from the blaze also served to exacerbate an already bad summer for the region’s air quality. There were fires raging in Canada and Eastern Washington, and as smoke from these blazes struck Seattle, at some points the city reportedly had the worst air quality in the world.

Justin Andrew Wilke and Shawn Edward Williams have been charged with multiple federal felonies related to timber theft and could face years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines if convicted.

The bigleaf maple’s wood was covered in a distinct pattern, which if harvested is extremely popular for woodworking and potentially worth thousands of dollars. Before the fire, the pair had allegedly spent months illegally harvesting these high-value maple trees and selling the wood, which is used to make furniture and musical instruments.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 05:07 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Justin Andrew Wilke and Shawn Edward Williams a pair of libertarian entrepreneurs?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 5:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like a good plot line for the next Cohen Brothers movie.
Posted by: Lex || 10/05/2019 12:43 Comments || Top||


It Is A Terrible Idea To Call The Cops And Ask Them To Test Your Meth
[Smoking Gun] An Alabama woman concerned that her methamphetamine may have been tainted with another drug asked police to test her stash, a service request that resulted in her arrest for possession of a controlled substance.

Cops report that Jennifer Colyne Hall, 48, called police dispatch Wednesday seeking assistance.

When Limestone County Sheriff's Office deputies subsequently arrived at Hall’s residence in Toney, a Huntsville suburb, she presented them with a clear plastic bag she had removed from a baby wipes container.
Not a Toney Huntsville suburb. Punctuation counts, kids
"I want this dope tested," declared Hall, who added that she was concerned that her speed was somehow tainted.

The baggie proffered by Hall contained meth, cops report. As a result, Hall, seen above, was arrested on a felony narcotics possession charge and booked into the county jail. She is being held in lieu of $2500 bail.

And, yes, this has happened before and before.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 00:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you stopped reading after "An Alabama Woman" the penalty is waived.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/05/2019 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  She is being held in lieu of $2500 bail

"Errm... judge, can I just pay with the dope ? After all it's legit, right ?"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/05/2019 3:52 Comments || Top||

#3  A wasted mind is a terrable thing to use.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 10/05/2019 4:03 Comments || Top||

#4  If her shit was tainted with something else (fentanyl, I'd suspect), charge her for possession of that one as well.
Posted by: Raj || 10/05/2019 7:08 Comments || Top||

#5  So where does one go to get their drugs tested?
Asking for a friend
Posted by: SteveS || 10/05/2019 12:38 Comments || Top||

#6  What purity grade was it?
Asking for Steve.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/05/2019 22:57 Comments || Top||


Kidnapped California tech executive found dead, authorities confirm
[TWITTER] Tushar Atre, founder and CEO of web marketing and design firm AtreNet, was taken from his Santa Cruz home on Tuesday. Atre's body was later discovered in his car by authorites.
Posted by: Fred || 10/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I have information that will confirm Hillary Clinton was illegally....*ack*"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/05/2019 6:03 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and Arkancide claims another victim!
Posted by: Raj || 10/05/2019 7:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Was also in the cannabis business. 'Nuff said.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/05/2019 8:53 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Tanzanian president backs official who caned school pupils
[PULSE.NG] Tanzanian President John Magufuli has lauded a regional governor who caused outrage by caning 14 schoolchildren, saying he should have done more.

They had violated a ban on having mobile phones in their school and are accused of burning down their dormitory in retaliation.
Footage of the punishment, which went viral on the internet, showed Albert Chalamila, governor of Mbeya in southern Tanzania, giving three strokes of the cane to each student, all of them stretched out on the ground.

They had violated a ban on having mobile phones in their school and are accused of burning down their dormitory in retaliation.

The punishment was administered in front of the students' schoolmates, coppers and teachers and unleashed wide criticism on social media.

"I congratulate the regional commissioner for caning the students and that was actually not enough. He could do more," the president said on Thursday during a visit to a neighbouring region.

"Some people are talking about human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
but there is no way we can afford having arrogant students like these. They can't burn a dormitory just because their phones which are not allowed in schools were taken by teachers.

"I told the regional commissioner to suspend all students in that school and their parents must pay before the students are allowed back to school. Those who were directly involved should be taken to jail."

Posted by: Fred || 10/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If they administered corporal punishment like that in our schools we could have avoided a whole lot of problems.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 10/05/2019 11:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Corporal Punishment has an immediacy that is easier to comprehend by the children. In school counseling *Yawn*, sent home ♫ Yay! ♫ err... *YAWN*, threats that their "future is at risk!" *zzzZZZ Snore*.
Posted by: magpie || 10/05/2019 11:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Ecuador's president declares state of emergency amid fuel protests
[TWITTER] President Lenín Moreno declared a state of emergency as protests were held across the country against the end of decades-old fuel subsidies. Troops were sent to the city of Cuenca, where taxi drivers blocked streets.
Posted by: Fred || 10/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lenín Moreno

Holy sh*t!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 4:50 Comments || Top||

#2  ^No wonder they've economic problems
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 4:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Lenin is a nickname, his real name is Karl

or so I heard
Posted by: Frank G || 10/05/2019 5:54 Comments || Top||

#4  If Ecuadorans care about their country, his real name should be Decomposing.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 6:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Soviet command economy, what can go wrong? Well, at least they don't have to worry about a major influx of illegal Venezuelans.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/05/2019 7:05 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukraine says plans major prisoner swap with Russia
[PRESSTV] Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko says his country plans to conduct a “large-scale” prisoner swap with Russia.

The two sides exchanged dozens of prisoners on September 7 in a move that appeared to pave the way for the restoration of relations between the two countries after a nearly five-year hiatus over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Moscow and Kiev also achieved a breakthrough in talks that would open the way for an international summit aimed at ending the fighting in Ukraine’s east.

“I hope that very soon — and I mean literally next week — we plan an even more large-scale exchange,” Prystaiko said on a talk show on a national TV channel late on Thursday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the specific plan from the Kremlin, but it did say it would be happy to do an exchange.

“The Russian side has long ago said Russia would be happy to do an all-for-all exchange and this must be the final goal,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He declined to offer a timeline for a swap, saying it depended on the preparedness of the two countries.

Posted by: Fred || 10/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
US #trade deficit widened in August to $54.9 billion
[TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 10/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, how's they going to collect?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/05/2019 4:51 Comments || Top||

#2  The trade deficit won't go down until higher tariffs and other trade barriers are in place across the board. Until then, the China trade deficit transfers to Vietnam, Thailand and every other low wage country.
Posted by: Harry Angomoque6080 || 10/05/2019 17:41 Comments || Top||


US unemployment rate falls to 3.5 percent, a 50-year low
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET]
Posted by: Fred || 10/05/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Trump To Trim NSC Staff : Enough Whistling !
[Time] Trump Orders Substantial Cut to National Security Council Staff After Whistle-Blower Complaint

President Donald Trump has ordered a substantial reduction in the staff of the National Security Council, according to five people familiar with the plans, as the White House confronts an impeachment inquiry touched off by a whistle-blower complaint related to the agency's work.

Some of the people described the staff cuts as part of a White House effort to make its foreign policy arm leaner under new National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien.

The request to limit the size of the NSC staff was conveyed to senior agency officials by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and O'Brien this week. The whistle-blower complaint, focused on Trump's conduct in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been followed by damaging reports on the president's private conversations with other world leaders.

The New York Times has reported that the whistle-blower was a CIA officer who was at one point detailed to the White House. The complaint has become the driving motivation behind House Democrats' impeachment effort, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began last week.

Two of the people familiar with the decision to shrink the NSC insisted it was largely rooted in both the transition to O'Brien's leadership as well as Trump's desire to increase efficiency at the agency, which grew under former President Barack Obama. About 310 people currently work at the NSC.
We can safely say at least half are absolutely unnecessary then ?
Read the rest of the thing at TIME.

Posted by: Dron66046 || 10/05/2019 14:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Then slash CIA, FBI, DOJ and State. Send to remainder to Iraq and Afghanistan to do their job.
Posted by: Harry Angomoque6080 || 10/05/2019 17:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Fire anyone who files charges against another based on heresy. They displayed extreme incompetence.
Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 10/05/2019 20:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Guaranteed to create 'sour grapes' complainers.
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/05/2019 22:54 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
5Govt of Iran
5Govt of Iraq
3Islamic State
2Hamas
2Govt of Iran Proxies
2Govt of Sudan
2Houthis
2Sublime Porte
2Taliban
1PFLP
1Antifa
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1Human Trafficking
1al-Qaeda
1Moslem Colonists
1Narcos
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Palestinian Authority
1Arab Spring
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Qatar (MB)

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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.
Click here for more information

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2019-10-05
  Masked gunmen attack TV stations reporting the protests in Iraq
Fri 2019-10-04
  At least 35 Russian mercenaries killed fighting for Haftar in Libya
Thu 2019-10-03
  Breaking: Paris knife attacker kills 4 people at police headquarters
Wed 2019-10-02
  Soleimani claims he and Nasrallah barely escaped Israeli air raid in 2006
Tue 2019-10-01
  Uzbekistani militant among 64 killed, wounded in Faryab clashes
Mon 2019-09-30
  Yemeni army captured over '2000 troops', inflicted heavy casualties on Saudi army
Sun 2019-09-29
  Susan Rice: Obama Put Call Transcripts On Top Secret Server, Too
Sat 2019-09-28
  Egypt Armed Forces kills 118 takfiris in anti-terrorism operations in north, central Sinai; 10 army personnel killed, injured: Statement
Fri 2019-09-27
  US deploys air defense systems, troops to Saudi Arabia
Thu 2019-09-26
  Israeli woman stabbed near Modiin; 14-year-old Palestinian arrested
Wed 2019-09-25
  High Alert In India As JeM Cells Feared Active | Balakot Camp Reopens For Business
Tue 2019-09-24
  Iraqi court sentences 6 IS militants to death over 2013 car bomb attack
Mon 2019-09-23
  Aramco’s Repairs Could Take Months Longer Than Company Anticipates
Sun 2019-09-22
  Greek police make arrest in 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847
Sat 2019-09-21
  US to send troops to Saudi Arabia, hold off on striking Iran

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