America Missing Golden Opportunity In Syria Because Of Arrogance

I'm telling ya, if Russia wants to step up to the plate in that Hell Hole then more power to 'em.
They have serious self interests in getting that mess under control and the logistics are better for them anyway.
It would save us a boat load of trouble and expense to let the Russkies take over and kick some ass for a while.

Kerry rebuffs Russian demand, says US airstrikes in Syria ‘will continue’

Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday rebuffed Russia's demand that U.S. warplanes leave Syrian airspace to make way for their own airstrikes, saying coalition forces are not going anywhere.

"These strikes will continue," Kerry said.

Kerry spoke at a United Nations Security Council meeting chaired by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, with whom he reportedly spoke before the meeting. The meeting followed a dramatic escalation in the Syrian conflict, as Russia began bombarding opposition targets inside the country.

Speaking in New York, Kerry said he was prepared to welcome Russia's actions if they are directed only at the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

"We would have grave concerns should Russia strike areas where ISIL and Al Qaeda-affiliated targets ... are not operating," Kerry said, adding that nations must not confuse fighting ISIS for supporting Bashar Assad.

Russia says it is striking ISIS positions, but U.S. officials and others cast doubt on that claim. A U.S. defense official noted Russian warplanes have struck targets in Homs and Hama, where there is no ISIS presence.

Kerry called Wednesday for holding "de-confliction talks" with Russia as early as possible. But he made clear that amid the discussions over Russia's role, U.S. and coalition action would continue.

Typical, they want to talk more.
What have we got here, a bunch of women running the joint? The phrase, "We need to talk" makes my skin crawl.

There is a time to talk and a time to walk, this would be a good time for the latter.
GTFO and let Putin do what he does best, eating Obama's lunch on the world stage while bombing the shit out of a bunch of trouble makers.

They Have Beer Too.

Oh yeah, and great Chicken Wings.

Who Needs The Middle East?

We have a War Zone right here at home in Chicago.

4 Dead, 52 Wounded in Shootings Across Chicago Since Friday Evening

A violent weekend left four people dead and at least 52 others injured, including a 10-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy, in shootings across Chicago.

This marks the second weekend in a row where more than 50 people were shot in Chicago. Last weekend, eight people were killed and at least 45 others were wounded, reportedly making it the city's most violent two-day weekend since Father's Day 2013. 

My bold.

Since most of the people being shot and the ones doing the shooting are Black, you would think those Black Lives Matter people would be up there raising all kinds of Hell.

I don't hear a fucking peep out of them concerning this.

One would be tempted to call them a bunch of hypocritical motherfuckers if one stopped to think about that.

Before The Yellow Submarine, There Was This

These kinds of old inventions crack my ass up.

1954

The Rhino

An all-terrain, unflippable beast.

Ya gotta admit the damn thing worked though!

Greek-American inventor Elie Aghnides amassed a fortune coming up with clever inventions.
One of his more unusual creations was the "Rhino," an amphibious four-wheeled vehicle designed to patrol and defend the vast roadless wastes of Alaska and Canada.
Weighing in at five tons, the four-wheel-drive machine could hit speeds of 45 miles per hour on the highway.
Defining features were its massive front wheels, which had six-foot diameters and weighed 1,500 pounds each. Their hollow, hemispherical shape gave the Rhino its unique all-terrain capability. As the vehicle sank into mud, sand, or other soft surfaces, the bearing surface of the ribbed wheels increased, giving it greater traction.
The Rhino's massive wheels and low center of gravity also meant it could tip 75 degrees to either side without toppling over.
In the water, the hollow wheels provided flotation, while a rear water jet provided propulsion at speeds of about four miles per hour.

H/T to Ernie. (NSFW)

FBI To Start Tracking Police Shootings

Now we shall see about this phony 'War On Police" bullshit they have been trying to foist on us.

The last statistics I remember from this year is that the cops have had under 30 die from being shot and over 850 civilians have died at the hands of the police.

FBI to collect better data on police shootings, use of force 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI will begin collecting and providing to the public more information about police shootings of civilians, FBI Director James Comey said Monday as the agency released annual data on crime nationwide.
Federal law enforcement officials have acknowledged in the last year a lack of reliable data about how often police officers use force in the line of duty. Former Attorney General Eric Holder urged better record-keeping in a speech this year, calling it a matter of "common sense," and Comey has publicly expressed frustration with the absence of nationwide data following the Ferguson, Missouri shooting in August 2014.
As part of its Uniform Crime Reporting program, the FBI tracks the number of police officers who are slain, as well as the number of justifiable homicides by police that are reported by law enforcement agencies. But that data are known to be incomplete since it is voluntary for police departments to feed data into the FBI's system, and little more than a third of local agencies do it, Comey said.
Comey on Monday encouraged every agency to submit the data to give the public a more complete picture of crime. He said the FBI also intends to collect more details about both fatal and nonfatal shootings by police of civilians, including the facts and circumstances of each incident and who was involved.
Once the information is collected, the FBI will produce a special publication chronicling police use of force.

 

That Was Rare Alright

Tonight was the Super Dooper Blood Moon Eclipse I have been hearing about for a while now.
Only happens once in a great while so they say.
Well, not only is that rare, my actually being able to see any eclipse around here is rare.
But, for once, it wasn't cloudy or overcast and I actually got to see a bit of it!
Of course I couldn't get a picture of it though, there was a street light just underneath of it down the road a bit that would have made it impossible. As it was it was kind of hard to see because of it but the moon definitely looked a bit red and the top third of it was dark by the time I remembered to go look.

Pretty cool.

Now we shall see about all these prophesies I have been hearing about too.

On a road trip

No fucking WIFI. Later.

Weepy Sees The Writing On The Wall And Is Resigning

That message was pretty hard to miss as it was written in blood.

This is way the hell overdue but people who hold the levers of power in this country are loathe to let go unless forced to and that is exactly what he was facing.

Not only is he stepping down as Speaker, he is resigning from Congress.
This leads me to wonder just how much dirt someone dug up on this guy.

House Speaker John Boehner: 'I decided today is the day'

"Last night I started thinking about this and this morning I woke up and I said my prayers -- as I always do -- and I decided today's the day I'm going to do this. As simple as that," Boehner said during an emotional Capitol Hill press conference a day after he had a moving encounter with Pope Francis.

This is the equivalent of the old "spend more time with my family" excuse we see on occasion when someone is getting out before charges are filed in a discreet plea bargain deal or the certainty of losing the position was too plain to ignore.
 I have been following politics for so long I can smell a bullshit excuse for leaving office a mile away and something stinks here.

Boehner said the main driver behind his resignation was concern for his conference, he also recalled emotionally when he and the Pope found themselves alone during the visit Thursday -- something Boehner, a devout Catholic, had sought since taking the helm of the House GOP caucus.

"The Pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulls me to him and says please pray for me. Who am I to pray for the Pope? But I did," Boehner said, struggling to hold back tears.

This is why Boehner will forever be known as Weepy, his emotional breakdowns are legendary already.


The Conservative wing of the republican party has been after his head for quite a while now and were amassing another attack to get him to resign yet again, this time he got the message.

Boobs

It's been a while.

51,624 Virgins Can Sleep Better Tonight

It's not been a good year for the Muslims and their pilgrimage to Mecca. First a  crane collapse killed a bunch on the anniversary of 9/11 and now this.

Stampede at Saudi hajj kills 717

 

How could it have happened again?
Anguished relatives and stunned pilgrims demanded answers after at least 717 people were killed and 805 injured Thursday in a crushing crowd outside the holy city of Mecca, according to Saudi Arabia’s civil defense directorate.
The stampede occurred in Mina, close to Mecca, during the last major rite of the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, according to the official Saudi press agency, citing civil defense officials. Photos and video from the scene showed white-clad corpses laid out on orange stretchers — rows and rows of them.

Reading a bit further, it seems that there is going to be some sectarian backlash.
A little infighting could be on the schedule.
Funny how they come to that conclusion, it's not enough that several hundred people are already dead?
Because I am not interested in their religion or their politics other than wanting them to stay in their own sand box, I am not going to bother trying to understand it.

Thousands had gathered Thursday for the rite of “stoning the devil,” in which the faithful hurl pebbles at a wall symbolizing Satan.

Then again, I was raised Catholic and they have their own rituals from antiquity that I don't quite get either since I am not a fan of Organized Religion to begin with.

Like so much else that occurs in the Persian Gulf region, the fatal stampede took on overtones of sectarian rivalry. Shiite Muslim Iran suggested that Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia bore responsibility for the deaths, including those of at least 89 Iranian pilgrims, Iran’s state news agency reported. That led to some angry online exchanges between critics and defenders of Saudi Arabia.

Just what the Doctor ordered, a little more fuel to the internecine feud.
These people have been killing each other for centuries over this shit.

Maybe they should make this a twice a year event.

 

24 Hours In A Day

Or night as it may be and I am working for half of that for at least the next few day.

The dreaded twelve hour shift.

Gotta love it.

Needless to say, it's three thirty in the morning, I just got home and I am tired.
I'm going to sit here for a few minutes and unwind, then I am going to go collapse into bed so I can get up and do it again.

There is a massive retro fit going on where I work on a multi million dollar machine.
When I say machine, I mean a three story tall monstrosity with many large and very heavy components.
They are completely redoing the computer system on it so there are electricians everywhere on top of the mechanical upgrades we are doing.

Of course because they have known we were doing this for well over a year now, the most common phrase I hear all day is "I don't know".
They tell you to start taking this three ton component that goes inside this monster apart so they can send some of it out for machine work.
OK, were do you want me to put all these parts?

"I don't know".
 By the way, there are two of them.

Every time I ask a question, that is the answer I get.

There are pallets full of parts getting stuffed into every nook and cranny around the joint and the whole time they are still running production in all the other machines so it is hurry up and wait for a crane all the time.
If it ain't a crane it's a fucking forklift.

Every time I ask a question, that is the answer I get.

It is going to be one long and very fucked up week and then Saturday will be get in a rig and ride five hours one way to go to my Grandmothers funeral.

In case I have to point it out, it is probably be going to be kinda quiet on this blog for a few more days.
It's all I can do to keep up with the goings on in the world on my cell phone here and there.


I would like to take a moment and extend my sincere thanks to all of you who left such kind comments on the passing of my Grandmother, that was very unexpected and also very appreciated. you guys are the best.

Hang in there with me and I will get back to my usual caustic asshole self as soon as possible.

Closer To Thee My Lord

It may get a little quiet around here for a day or so.
My Grandmother passed away last night while I was holding her hand.

Her name was Rosella, Rose for short.

She was 101 so it wasn't a big surprise that she finally went but it progressed pretty quickly when she decided it was time. . My Aunt called me about 4 in the afternoon and said Grandma hadn't eaten or drank anything in about 36 hours and she thought the time had come. She left us at 9:40 .

She was more of a second Mother to me than a Grandmother, I grew up in a broken home and had a pretty fucked up child hood, at fifteen I ran away from home and lived with my Mom's parents until that Grandmother died and then shortly afterwards moved in with my Dads Mom.

I had dropped out of school and she is the reason I went back and finally graduated.
She also kept me alive when I was broke and starving down in California, sending me Care Packages .
You would be amazed at what you can cram into a shoe box.

I gave the poor woman a nervous breakdown at least once worrying about my stupid ass. I was a crazy bastard when I was young, just plain wild. She was a proper Christian Lady who went to Catholic church every Sunday for longer than I have been alive.
Let me tell ya, Jewish Mothers have nothing on a properly trained Catholic woman when it comes to laying guilt trips on ya and my Grandmother was the one they made the mold from.

The sweetest and nicest woman you would have ever met in your life though, I can say that with all honesty because that is what other people have told me about her my whole life, may she finally rest in peace.

Because I lost my phone last week I have to got to my Mom's tomorrow, she still has my Dad's cell phone. She is going to charge it up and then I can get all the phone numbers for all the people I need to get a hold of.
Right now I don't even have my own kids's numbers but I will get those from my wife tomorrow too.

The service is going to be in the town I grew up in and she will be buried next to her husband who died in 1973.
That Grandfather, my real Mother, her Mother, and a bunch of people I grew up with are all in the same cemetery down there.

I don't know why I am blabbing about all this on a very public Blog to people all over the world who I will never meet but I am kind of out of sorts here at the moment.
It hasn't completely soaked in yet and it feels like I should be doing something yet there isn't anything I can do at the moment. Sitting here staring at this computer like a zombie was getting on my nerves and I can't concentrate enough right now to do anything long enough to take my mind off it.
I tried playing my favorite game but after a few minutes I got tunnel vision and caught myself staring off into space.

Sometimes I write on this blog just to sort things out in my own mind and more than once I have hit that Publish button when I should have just deleted what I had written instead.

This may well be another one of those times but right now I need an outlet and here it is.

Please excuse my ramblings, if you don't see much going on around here for a day or so, you will know why.

I think I am going to start the grieving process here shortly.

Gaze Into The Eyes Of A Complete Fucking Idiot

This stupid fucker took 35 Viagra pills in one hour as a joke and lived.

It just goes to prove that Darwin Awards aren't nearly as easy to come by as they should be.

British man has erection for five days after taking 35 Viagra in an hour as joke

Daniel Medforth took 35 Viagra pills in one hour.

It was a hard lesson to learn.

A British man had an erection for five days after taking 35 Viagra pills in an hour as a joke, The Sun reported.

"I ended up feeling sick, dizzy and hallucinating — everything I saw was green," Daniel Medforth of Yorkshire told the newspaper. "And I had a massive erection that would not go away."

Medforth said he spent 36 hours in the hospital, to the delight of some who cared for him.

"The paramedics were very professional but you could see they were trying not to laugh," he told The Sun.

Medforth, 36, stayed in bed for an additional few days after leaving the hospital.

“It wasn’t a permanent erection but every time I brushed against something for five days it sprang into life — and it was no use to me," he told the paper.

He realized that he was "very, very lucky" because Viagra could have more serious and sometimes deadly side effects if not taken correctly, according to The Sun.

WordPress Blogs Being Infected With MalWare

I found this over at The Patrick Henry Society Blog.

As reported in Ars Technica, a new malware campaign is attacking WordPress blogs.

The campaign began 15 days ago, but over the past 48 hours the number of compromised sites has spiked, from about 1,000 per day on Tuesday to close to 6,000 on Thursday, Daniel Cid, CTO of security firm Sucuri, said in a blog post. The hijacked sites are being used to redirect visitors to a server hosting attack code made available through the Nuclear exploit kit, which is sold on the black market. The server tries a variety of different exploits depending on the operating system and available apps used by the visitor.

“If you think about it, the compromised websites are just means for the criminals to get access to as many endpoint desktops as they can,” Cid wrote. “What’s the easiest way to reach out to endpoints? Websites, of course.”

If you have a WordPress site then you can check it here.

The people who do these kinds of things are the lowest form of scum.

But The Media Can't Be Biased, Right?

Fuckin' A right they are. Every time you see a news story ask yourself what it is they are either NOT covering or what angle are they pushing because every single news item you see has been vetted for these two things.

She's A Keeper

Always Has A Signal

Town Of Liberty NY On Trial For Violating Man's First Amendment Rights By Arresting Him For Writing Curse Words On Speeding Ticket

You couldn't make this shit up if you tried.

Even better?
The Prosecutor is liable!!

That just gives me a huge warm fuzzy!

BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!

Judge: Arrest for cursing on ticket is a rights violation

 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A village named Liberty must stand trial for arresting a man who wrote curse words on a speeding ticket and a prosecutor is liable for violating his First Amendment rights, a judge has decided.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel in White Plains ruled last week that Willian Barboza's rights were violated when the Fairfield County, Connecticut, resident was arrested on an aggravated-harassment charge three years ago. The New York Civil Liberties Union publicized a transcript of the proceeding Tuesday.

Barboza protested his speeding ticket by writing three curse words on his payment form. He also replaced the village's name, Liberty, with "Tyranny."

The village, 100 miles northwest of New York City, refused to let him pay by mail after one of its clerks, who were all women, told a local judge his profane phrase, which referred to them as "bitches," upset and alarmed them, according to court records. The judge referred Barboza's speeding payment form to a prosecutor and ordered Barboza to appear in court.

When Barboza showed up, the local judge reprimanded him for his comments on the form and told him he would be arrested, Seibel said in her ruling. Barboza was handcuffed and taken away before his release on $200 bail.

Seibel said the arrest violated Barboza's First Amendment rights, and she noted the criminal charge eventually was dismissed on those grounds. She said Barboza's phrase was crude and offensive to some but "did not convey an imminent threat and was made in the context of complaining about government activity."

 

She goes on to say that just because those clerks got their panties in a wad didn't alter the fact that it was Free Speech because there was no threat.

This isn't the first time someone was arrested in "Liberty" for cursing either. Remind me to stay away from that little shit hole, they wouldn't let me see the light of day again.

Seibel said that between 2003 and 2012 as many as 63 arrests by police officers in the village had occurred "because of the use of vulgar words in what may be perceived as a threatening context." She said one arrest occurred when a defendant called someone a slut, another resulted from someone talking about sexual acts on a police department phone line and another came after a defendant threatened to kill someone's dog.

No shit, they arrested someone for calling some chick a slut?

Dayum, them be some tight assed motherfuckers!!

"The village has no requirement to insure its officers are trained on the First Amendment," Seibel said before announcing she was requiring the Sullivan County village to face trial on claims it failed to properly train police officers about free speech.

She said the trial would include a damages phase for a prosecutor who is not protected by immunity because his actions were unreasonable.

Barboza's lawsuit had sought unspecified damages.

I hope he cleans 'em out.


That's some seriously puritanical local government.

A Monday That Stretched Into Tuesday

Yet another 12 hour day, one that was fucked up from the get go and didn't let up until I finally walked away.
Someone else's turn to headache with it.
I'm going to bed now. Hopefully I will get up in time to find something else to put up here.

Later.

This Could Get Interesting

Apparently these asslowns are going to do us all a favor and start fighting amongst themselves.


That works for me, I hope they go all in on both sides and slaughter each other by the thousands.

Al Qaeda declares WAR on ISIS as evil regimes go head to head in bloody showdown

The boss of Al Qaeda has declared war on fellow jihadists in Islamic State (ISIS) in a scathing attack discovered on the 14th anniversary of 9/11.

Al-Zawahiri accused al-Baghdadi of "sedition" for last year calling on the world's Muslims to "obey" him as the head of the caliphate.

Egyptian doctor al-Zawahiri said in the message: “We have endured a lot of harm from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his brothers, and we preferred to respond with as little as possible, out of our concern to extinguish the fire of sedition.

“But Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his brothers did not leave us a choice, for they have demanded that all the mujahideen reject their confirmed pledges of allegiance, and to pledge allegiance to them for what they claim of a caliphate."

Snip

Counter terrorism expert Matthew Olsen said the dramatic move will cause an "irreconcilable" fracture between the two terror groups.

He said: Zawahiri until now has not been willing to openly condemn Baghdadi and ISIS - it highlights how deep the division is between al Qaeda leadership and ISIS.

"It suggests that the differences are irreconcilable.

"Had ISIS and al Qaeda realigned by joining forces, it would be terrible."

ISIS was originally the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda but spilt from the larger group two years ago.

What A Pain In The Ass

We went on a day trip to Bend Ore today and did some tourist stuff.
Me, the wife, one kid and both her sisters. One of her sisters drove. I was behind her and was pressing the floor board looking for the brakes going both ways.
She tends to follow people a little closer than I do, I'll just leave it at that.
We had a decent time, it was hot as fuck over there and it was tourist season so the little shops and the sidewalks were pretty full.
We had a very late lunch and started back later than we wanted, it got dark before we hit Mt. Hood. You have to go over Mt. Hood to get there and it's kind of a winding road with lot's of corners, hills and trees on both sides so at night it's like driving in a tunnel.

We made it back to Government Camp which is pretty much the high spot and pulled into a rest area so folks could take a leak.
I had been taking some nice pictures of the mountains coming back with the sun setting behind them but the battery was going dead on my phone so I shut it off before we got there.

Everyone piled back in and we went another fifteen or so miles and dropped the other sister off. My wife decided to get in the front seat so I got out to let her out.
When I went to get back in I noticed my phone wasn't sticking out of my pocket, I must have had it on the seat between my legs. It wasn't on the ground or in the car either.

I'll be a motherfucker, it must have dropped out at the rest stop.
The battery was almost dead and it was off, I'm hoping my sister in law backed over the fucking thing and killed it dead.
Of course, that means here we go with the fun stuff. The wife has another phone, which is good, I hated that other sonofabitch because I couldn't hear it ring unless I put an aftermarket ring tone to someones name.
Couldn't hear people talking on it half the time either.

The bad part is that it had over a hundred pictures on it from our vacation that I hadn't gotten around to downloading, not to mention every fucking phone number for everybody I know that are now gone.

Most I can replace, some are gone forever because I have friends I don't see very often who have moved a couple of times since I got that phone.
Why no, I didn't write them down, thanks for asking.

Fuck, me, running.

So, now the wife has to go down and get the old phone deactivated, this one activated and then I get to spend all fucking day tomorrow calling people and getting phone numbers from them.
I am just so looking forward to that.
Even better, the old one had the Android operating system and this one is Windows based so I get to learn how all that shit works too.

Ya know, I can remember a time when I had never even heard of a fucking cell phone and I don't recall being especially unhappy that I wasn't available to everyone and their brother 24/7 at a moments notice.

Funny that.

Just A Little Something To Keep In Mind

Because You Are Too Stupid To Drive

You wonder why the average price of a new car is almost twenty thousand dollars?
Here's why.

10 carmakers will offer automatic emergency braking as a standard feature 

 

Federal safety regulators, the insurance industry and a coalition of the world’s largest automakers announced an agreement Friday to make automatic emergency-braking a standard feature in future car models sold in the U.S.
Such systems, which alert a driver to a potential forward collision and robotically trigger the brakes, have proved successful in reducing crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, but they are typically an expensive option.
“We are entering a new era of vehicle safety, focused on preventing crashes from ever occurring, rather than just protecting occupants when crashes happen,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “If technologies such as automatic emergency braking are only available as options or on the most expensive models, too few Americans will see the benefits of this new era.”

Ten automakers — Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo — will work with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop a timeline for installing automatic braking as a standard feature in all vehicles they sell.
Those companies accounted for 57% of U.S. auto sales last year.
Making the systems standard will be an important step in motor vehicle safety, said Jake Fisher, automotive test director at Consumer Reports.
As the feature finds its way into more vehicles, Consumer Reports will stop recommending cars that lack it, Fisher said.

A little  "incentive", also known as Extortion.

I used to be a factory trained Ford automotive technician, or as we used to call it, a mechanic.
I worked at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership for almost ten years back through the nineties and I saw this technology explosion in it's infancy and could see what was coming way back then. When I threw in the towel, they had just come out with automatic windshield wipers and already had a list of electronic gadgetry a mile long.
Things like Multiplexing, where ELEVEN computers on one car talked to each other simultaneously through one wire.

Now, what they have boggles my mind.

I quit working on that shit because it's unnecessary bullshit, "entertainment" systems, dual climate control, back up and crash avoidance systems, WIFI systems and on board personal computers that make the laptops available five years ago look like an Atari system, the list of crap goes on and on and on.
The average mechanic these days has to have as much education as a medical professional just to keep current yet the pay is so far apart as to be ridiculous.
Not to mention the thousands of dollars of tools one has to buy.

None of this is necessary if you look from the standpoint that cars are for transportation. It is only when you look at it from the perspective that people spend a lot of time in their vehicles and started demanding all these creature comforts and the government decides to impose safety requirements that you realize cars are an extension of home and society on wheels.
Transportation almost is an afterthought.

This is why I refuse to own a computerized vehicle. The wife has one and that's fine. My own?
Fuck that shit.
The only way I compromise is electronic ignition and even that is only if I can't get my hands on a non electronic distributor with a set of points and a condensor in it.

Take a look at this car from 1964, they lasted forever. You could not kill the Slant 6 engines in these things.

To this day, I still see these things running around.

That twenty thousand dollar plastic piece of shit you drive now?
It wont' be around in forty years, I guarantee it.

 

About That "Everyone Is Equal Under The Law" Thing....

Yeah, right. there are probably hundreds of financial sector people who should be rotting in jail right fucking now.

New Justice Department Rules Aim to Prosecute Executives in Corporate Crime

The memo urges prosecutors to demand evidence against named employees, "regardless of their position, status or seniority"

The Justice Department will put a renewed focus behind targeting individual executives in incidents of corporate fraud and other white-collar crime, according to a new memo released Wednesday.

The memo, obtained by the New York Times, was released to prosecutors nationwide. In the document, Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates urges prosecutors to demand evidence against named employees, “regardless of their position, status or seniority,” in exchange for being credited for cooperating with the government—a status that could save companies billions of dollars and lessen charges against them.

The Just Department has been criticized for accepting large settlements from companies it has investigated while failing to punish individuals behind the wrongdoing. The department has countered that charging executives themselves is often difficult, if not impossible. The memo acknowledges that charging higher-level employees is challenging because they “may be insulated from the day-to-day activity in which the misconduct occurs.”

In an interview with the Times, Yates explained the Justice Department was seeking to lose its image of being too cozy with Wall Street: “The public needs to have confidence that there is one system of justice and it applies equally regardless of whether that crime occurs on a street corner or in a boardroom,” said Yates.

Ongoing Criminal Enterprise sound familiar?

50 US Intelligence Officers Complaining Top Brass Altering Their Reports On ISIS

Not one, not five, not ten, FIFTY of them.

I'm thinking heads are gonna roll after this shakes out.

The Daily Beast scooped this,

Exclusive: 50 Spies Say ISIS Intelligence Was Cooked

It’s being called a ‘revolt’ by intelligence pros who are paid to give their honest assessment of the ISIS war—but are instead seeing their reports turned into happy talk.

More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military's Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.

The complaints spurred the Pentagon’s inspector general to open an investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence. The fact that so many people complained suggests there are deep-rooted, systemic problems in how the U.S. military command charged with the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State assesses intelligence.

“The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command,” one defense official said.

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Two senior analysts at CENTCOM signed a written complaint sent to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that the reports, some of which were briefed to President Obama, portrayed the terror groups as weaker than the analysts believe they are. The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS and al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the analysts claim.

That complaint was supported by 50 other analysts, some of whom have complained about politicizing of intelligence reports for months. That’s according to 11 individuals who are knowledgeable about the details of the report and who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.

Repeat after me kiddies,
GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA.
This is how it works.
The thing is, these people sugar coating these reports are Bullshitting the ones who make the critical foreign policy decisions.

Still Think Your Medical Records Are Confidential?

Sucker.

Texas: Med Board lets DEA sneak peeks at patient records

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been sifting through hundreds of supposedly private medical files, looking for Texas doctors and patients to prosecute without the use of warrants.

Instead, the agents are tricking doctors and nurses into thinking they’re with the Texas Medical Board. When that doesn’t work, they’re sending doctors subpoenas demanding medical records without court approval.

The DEA can’t even count how many times it has resorted to the practice nationwide. A spokesman estimated it was in the thousands.

But, as a legal brief filed last week points out, lawyers for the federal government can’t find a single case in which a court has “authorized the use of such a broad array of patient information with such a sparse record as to why it needs such information.”

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Texas did just that, setting up a showdown in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals over whether the DEA needs a reason to go rummaging through private medical records in search of pill mills and prescription drug abusers.

Without the legalese, the issue is simple: How good a reason does the DEA need to get access to medical records? The DEA doesn’t think it needs much of one.

Attorneys for Dallas-area doctors Joseph and Abbas Zadeh argue “the DEA should not be allowed to circumvent the requirements of a warrant, and should be required to show probable cause.” Failing that, they should at least have to justify their intrusions to a judge who’s acting as more than a rubber stamp.

The DEA’s practice of avoiding warrant requirements has produced this absurdity: If you have a prescription for Adderall or OxyContin, you might be safer getting your drugs on the street than through your own doctor.

This is why I love my doctor. he is old school and doesn't use electronic record keeping.
If the DEA wanted to go sniffing through his records they had best bring a lunch because they would be doing a lot of paper shuffling.

He also doesn't ask about things that do not have anything to do with why I am there.

As far as I can see from this, the DEA should have it's ass spanked, hard, for violating peoples privacy without cause.

I am not getting a warm fuzzy knowing these assclowns have nothing better to do than go sniffing through supposedly private medical records looking for a reason to justify their existence.

Phil, The REALLY Early Years

It's probably not too far fetched, I can remember working on my first tricycle.

Once Upon A Time...

It's Labor Day

So I'm going to work.
Isn't that what you are supposed to do?

As Was Foretold, So It Is.

Jefferson was a smart guy.

 

If the 
American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their 
currency,

first by 
inflation, then by deflation,

the 
banks and corporations that will grow up around 
the banks

will 
deprive the people of all property -

until 
their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers 
conquered."

 

Thomas 
Jefferson  1802

 

 

 

Full speed ahead.

The Happy Family!

The Happy Family returns home after a brief 5 million dollar vacation.

Must have been a day trip if it was only 5 mil.



Sent to me in an e mail from a sweet little old lady.

A Gun Grabber's Wet Dream, Australian Man To Be Sentenced For Posessing Unregistered BB Guns!

There is so much wrong with this scenario it's hard to pick a starting point. One I guess, would be that this is what happens when you let spineless pansies pass gun control laws that leave you unable to even defend yourself, the other is if you live in such a place, don't even let your damn girlfriend know if you do have any.
Another would be to be smart enough to know if you are buying a non functional replica! The stupid here is mind boggling. This boxer dude must have taken one too many punches to the ol' noggin.

Personally, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of allowing anybody to tell me I can't own the most effective means out there to defend myself. Fuck, that.
This is why we defend  the 2nd Amendment so strongly.

Boxer Chad ‘‘Hollywood’’ Bennett's guns to shoot ‘fat cat’: court

A REPLICA pistol and an air gun found in a garage at Chad ‘‘Hollywood’’ Bennett’s Mayfield home were used ‘‘to shoot a fat cat’’, Newcastle Local Court has heard. 
Bennett, the two-time World Boxing Foundation welterweight world champion, pleaded guilty to two charges of possession of an unauthorised pistol in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday.
Court documents state the 42-year-old told police the firearms were purchased to shoot at an overweight feline.
‘‘I got sold a BB pistol to shoot a fat cat ... It was to shoot the cat but it doesn’t even work,’’ Bennett told police during a recorded interview.
In relation to the second firearm, an air gun, Bennett told police: ‘‘It fires ball-bearings and did do the effect on the cat.’’
The firearms were uncovered after a tree fell on top of Bennett’s garage during the April storms, court documents state.
Bennett’s partner, Megan Beukers, found the firearms while cleaning up and confronted him about them. When asked about the firearms, Bennett said: ‘‘They have got nothing to do with you. They are pre you knowing me.’’
Ms Beukers told Bennett that he needed to get rid of the firearms and he agreed, court documents state.
Police were called to Bennett’s home on May 24 in relation to an alleged domestic incident and searched the garage for the firearms, finding them in a box marked ‘‘Chad clothes’’.
He later told police he had bought the air gun in Thailand. ‘‘I got it in Thailand ... and brang that back in my luggage from Thailand.  It is a BB gun. I didn’t think there was any problem bringing a BB gun back. Maybe I am wrong.’’
Police said Bennett did not have an active firearms licence and neither of the firearms were registered.
Magistrate Les Brennan adjourned the matter for a pre-sentence report to be prepared. Bennett will be sentenced in October. 

"No Californians" stickers being slapped on Real Estate For Sale signs in Portland ORE.

They are thirty years too late is all I can say.

There used to be a joke among Oregonians saying they wanted to put up a sign at the California border informing Californians trying to move North that every third Californian was being shot ten miles inside the border and two just went through.

It looks like some locals are getting outbid trying to buy houses around here and they are sending a message.

Good luck with that, shit talks and money walks.
People are paying big money for houses in certain parts of Portland that used to be how shall I say, less than desirable.

'No Californians' stickers being slapped on For Sale signs in Portland

 

By Luke Hammill | The Oregonian/OregonLive 

 

 

Portlanders apparently upset with the direction of the local housing market are slapping "no Californians" stickers on For Sale signs in the city, real estate agents say.
When one of realtor Lori Fenwick's buyers sent her a picture of one of the stickers, she took it to a real estate group on Facebook to see if any other agents had seen them around town.

Courtesy of Lori Fenwick 

Three other realtors replied they had. One of them was Quinn Irvine, of M Realty. Somebody plastered one of the stickers – showing a silhouette of California with a "No Smoking"-like red slash through it – on his sign outside a house on North Burrage Avenue.
"A lot of these homes are going into bidding wars and going over ask price," Irvine said. "And a lot of these guys are getting outbid. And I think they're going around to agents who have properties that have sold over ask price and putting anti-California stickers."
Fenwick, of Premiere Property Group, said somebody covered her name on one of her signs, replacing it with a phrase: "STOP THE BUBBLE." Both Fenwick's and Irvine's listings were in North Portland's Arbor Lodge neighborhood, they said.
"People think that our signs magically appear," Fenwick said. "But they don't. We pay money for them, and it's none of their business to be putting stickers on them."
Irvine eventually sold the house where the sticker appeared for $450,000 – to a man from New York, he said.
Fenwick said people upset with housing prices "can just go ahead and voice their opinions wherever they want, but it sucks that they're doing that."
She and Irvine acknowledged that they are dealing with a lot of out-of-state buyers, many of whom do come from California.
"I'm dealing with a couple of San Francisco buyers," Irvine said. "One guy's cash."
But both agreed that out-of-state buyers are coming from everywhere – not just south of the Oregon border.
"There's the lowest inventory we've had in over 10 years, and people are frustrated," Irvine said. "They're basically blaming Californians for raising their real estate prices."

They are absolutely fucking right too.
This isn't a new thing, it's been going on for twenty years that I know of and it is the entire Portland/Metro area, which is basically a twenty mile circle around Portland that includes South West Washington, the Vancouver area especially.

Fuck Starbucks

I want one of these in my neighborhood.

H/T to Grizz Bear.

Peek a Boo!

I just walked in the door after a 13 hour day and am going to go fall down and go Thud.

Later.

Hillary Clinton Is Out Of Touch With Reality

You know, ten billion dollars would go a long ways towards financing some major infrastructure projects this country is ignoring at the moment.

Those projects would create jobs. Those jobs would give the people working them a reason to stay clean and somewhat sober.
I'm sure there would be drug testing involved to make sure anyone still abusing these things would not stick around, thus giving them yet another reason to stay clean and somewhat sober.
I say somewhat because hey, weekends ya know.

Instead, Mrs. Clinton wants to throw ten billion dollars at treatment centers and shit like that.

Here's a hint honey, when people can't find jobs to support themselves and their families, they turn to drugs and alcohol to dull their feelings.

But hey, we get it, anything except those pesky Emails, right?

Hillary Clinton proposes $10 billion plan to combat drug and alcohol addiction

(CNN)Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign announced a $10 billion plan to "combat America's deadly epidemic of drug and alcohol addiction" on Wednesday.

The plan looks to boost treatment and recovery programs, ensure that first responders have drugs needed to stop opioid overdoses from becoming fatal and urges states to focus more on treatment than incarceration.

"It's time we recognize that there are gaps in our health care system that allow too many to go without care — and invest in treatment," Clinton wrote in an oped about the plan. "It's time we recognize that our state and federal prisons, where 65 percent of inmates meet medical criteria for substance use disorders, are no substitute for proper treatment — and reform our criminal justice system."

The bulk of Clinton's plan will focus on $7.5 billion in new federal-state partnerships to boost local treatment programs. According to the plan, if a state proposes "a comprehensive plan" for dealing with addiction, that state can receive $4 of federal support for every $1 they put up.

Clinton's plan would also direct state Attorneys General to prioritize "treatment over incarceration for nonviolent and low-level federal drug offenders." Clinton's campaign argues that the savings to the criminal justice system would be used -- in part -- to pay for the plan.

What the fuck, it's all phony money anyways.
I hear they are warming up the presses for another run.

Never Forget This

“Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance.” – Thomas Jefferson, Legal Argument, 1770

Bear Grylls To Take Obama Shark Jumping In Alaska

Give me a fucking break.

President Barack Obama to go 'Running Wild With Bear Grylls' in Alaska

President Barack Obama is hitting the trail again, but this time, it's got nothing to do with a campaign.

NBC and Electus announced on Monday that the president will appear on survival expert Bear Grylls' "Running Wild" later this year, in a special episode that will feature the pair trekking in Alaska.


Obama and Grylls will pair up to highlight and observe climate change on the wilderness of America's 49th state, and the president will become the first U.S. commander-in-chief to receive a crash course in survival techniques from Grylls.

Obama couldn't survive a power outage at the Astoria Hotel for more than two days by himself.
This is just another political stunt and shame on Bear Grylls for being an accomplice to it.

Honolulu Destroys One Half Million Dollars Of Police Department Firearms.

I'm glad I don't live and pay taxes there, I would be incensed at the asinine decision to destroy these pistols without even trying to make a buck back. Some of them were brand new, still in the box.

‘Anti-gun stupidity’: Honolulu destroys $575G worth of police firearms

Second Amendment advocates are firing away at a decision by Honolulu officials to destroy $575,000 worth of perfectly good handguns in a move one critic called the “height of anti-gun stupidity.”
Some 2,300 Smith & Wesson 9 mm handguns, including at least 200 that are brand-new and in unopened boxes, were issued to the city’s police department. But with the 2,200-member force upgrading to lighter and less expensive Glock 17s, the guns were set to be permanently holstered. While it is customary throughout the country for departments to auction the guns to law-abiding citizens, including the police who once carried them, or donate them to another department, Honolulu opted to destroy them.
“Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the Honolulu Police Department agreed that they would not allow the guns to be sold to the general public and end up on the streets of Honolulu,” Honolulu Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu told FoxNews.com. “The same goes for selling the individual gun parts that could have been used to assemble a gun.”

You can bet your ass I would be remembering this little stunt the next time they came around crying poor and wanting a budget increase.