May 29, 2020

Before you call the cops ...

May 26, 2020

Four Minneapolis officers are fired, video shows one kneeling on neck of black man who later died

Four Minneapolis officers are fired after video shows one kneeling on neck of black man who later died, mayor says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/26/minneapolis-police-death-custody-fbi/

By
Timothy Bella and
Brittany Shammas
May 26, 2020 at 3:17 p.m. CDT


<snip>

The incident began when two officers arrived at the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South around 8 p.m. Monday, police said. Officers located the man, whom they believed to be under the influence of an intoxicant, inside his car. After he got out, police said, the man “physically resisted officers.”

“Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and realized that the suspect was suffering a medical distress,” a Minneapolis police spokesman said in a news briefing early Tuesday. “Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died a short time later.”

Police said that no weapons were used at any time by the man or the officers during the encounter.

<snip>

“The police killed him, bro, right in front of everybody,” Frazier said on Facebook. “He was crying, telling them like, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and everything. They killed this man.”

<snip>

May 25, 2020

Forensic scientists caught a deer munching on a human carcass for the first time ever

Forensic scientists caught a deer munching on a human carcass for the first time ever

It’s gruesome, but could help investigations
Sarah Fecht
By Sarah Fecht
May 5, 2017

https://www.popsci.com/deer-eating-human-remains/

Warning: the photos at site may be disturbing for some people.

<snip>

In July 2014, researchers left a body in a wooded part of FARF. They wanted to learn about how different scavengers leave their marks on human remains, so they set up a motion-sensitive camera to see who would stop by. In this part of Texas, it's not unusual to see foxes, turkey vultures, raccoons, coyotes, and other carrion-gobblers picking at a corpse. But after a few months, someone new came to the table.

On January 5, 2015, the camera caught a glimpse of a young white-tailed deer standing near the skeleton with a human rib bone in its mouth. Then it happened again on January 13—the camera caught a deer with another rib sticking out of its mouth like a cigar. It’s not clear whether it was the same deer in both cases, but it's certainly possible first one came back for seconds.

It is not, however, the first time we've seen deer violating their vegetarian diets. In fact, they're known to have a taste for blood. Previously they've been spotted eating fish, bats, and dead rabbits. Scientists think deer and other herbivores may occasionally seek out flesh to get minerals—such as phosphorus, salt, and calcium—that may be missing from their regular diets, especially in wintertime.

<snip>


Although it’s likely rare for deer to munch on human remains, being able to recognize the signs of ungulate gnawing may help investigators pinpoint where a body came from and how long it’s been dead—which could help turn a mysteriously mangled crime scene into a solved case.

May 24, 2020

Tara Reade Is Dropped as Client by a Leading #MeToo Lawyer

By Lisa Lerer, Jim Rutenberg and Stephanie Saul

May 21, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/us/politics/tara-reade-credentials.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=69717971

<snip>

The lawyer, Douglas H. Wigdor, has been a leading plaintiff’s attorney of the #MeToo era. His firm is best known for bringing discrimination cases against Fox News — and its former star host Bill O’Reilly — and Harvey Weinstein, and his presence at Ms. Reade’s side gave her claims added legal heft.

His announced departure came a day after defense lawyers in California said they were reviewing criminal cases in which Ms. Reade served as an expert witness on domestic violence, concerned that she had misrepresented her educational credentials in court.

<snip>

“Much of what has been written about Ms. Reade is not probative of whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted her, but rather is intended to victim-shame and attack her credibility on unrelated and irrelevant matters,” he said. “We have and will continue to represent survivors regardless of their alleged predator’s status or politics.”

<snip>

Then known as Alexandra McCabe, Ms. Reade testified as a government witness in Monterey County courts for nearly a decade, describing herself as an expert in the dynamics of domestic violence who had counseled hundreds of victims.

<snip>

May 22, 2020

Trump in his Presidential mask. Yes there was a photo!!!

May 22, 2020

Where's Captain Crozier?? 'The USS Theodore Roosevelt departs Apra Harbor at Naval Base Guam'

As aircraft carrier heads back to sea after coronavirus outbreak, no guarantees the virus is gone

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=691

The USS Theodore Roosevelt departs Apra Harbor at Naval Base Guam on Thursday, following an extended visit in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. (Staff Sgt. Jordan E. Gilbert/U.S. Marine Corps/AP)
By
Dan Lamothe
May 21, 2020 at 11:16 a.m. CDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/05/21/aircraft-carrier-heads-back-sea-after-coronavirus-outbreak-no-guarantees-virus-is-gone/


<snip>

The USS Theodore Roosevelt departed Naval Base Guam on Thursday, in anticipation of needed qualifying landings for pilots on the 1,093-foot ship. The Navy’s top officer, Adm. Mike Gilday, asked how he could be confident there will not be an additional outbreak aboard, asked for a different perspective.

The carrier, with a crew of about 4,900 sailors, is returning to sea after the virus first appeared on the ship in March and rapidly spread through the crew. The ship pulled into port in Guam at the end of the month, and more than 1,100 sailors eventually tested positive, including one who died.

Gilday acknowledged 14 sailors who previously tested negative for the virus developed flu-like symptoms after returning to the ship and have been placed in quarantine again. The Navy, he said, is still understanding the incubation period for the virus and is preparing for the possibility of dealing with the coronavirus beyond 2020.

<snip>

Gilday said a few hundred sailors from the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew are still in Guam recovering from the virus, and Navy officials are working to understand when those individuals are no longer contagious. Some of those sailors will rejoin the ship after the aircraft qualifications are complete in a few days, he said.

<snip>



Why hasn't Admiral Crozier been given back his command?

May 19, 2020

Trump's Secret New Watchlist Lets His Administration Track Americans Without Needing a Warrant

Trump's Secret New Watchlist Lets His Administration Track Americans Without Needing a Warrant

By E.D. Cauchi AND William M. Arkin On 5/18/20 at 9:26 AM EDT
Current Time 1:29

https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-secret-new-watchlist-lets-his-administration-track-americans-without-needing-warrant-1504772


<snip>

NSPM-7 defined the individuals, organizations, groups and networks "assessed to be a threat to the safety, security, or national interests of the United States" to include "cyber threat actors, foreign intelligence threat actors, military threat actors, transnational criminal actors, and weapons proliferators." However, the administration stated that it envisioned "an expansion ... to also include additional threat actor categories, as appropriate."

<snip>

"Insider threats" make up yet another category: leakers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, or corporate scientists and university professors researching sensitive areas like weapons or biotechnology. In February, FBI Director Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that the bureau had recently expanded initiatives "to focus on insider threats partnering with TCO [transnational criminal organization] actors."

By early 2020, the new watchlist was TOC in name only.

"It's an intelligence analyst's nightmare," says Nate Snyder, a former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism official, about this loosening of definitions and conflation of terrorist and criminal threats. You wouldn't "treat this pandemic like you would a flood or a hurricane. The same thing could be said if you're taking a gang and you're now affiliating them with a terrorist organization. One is not like the other."

<snip>

"Once you're on the watchlist, the government has the ability to collect tremendous amounts of information," says retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeff Danik, who spent most of his 28-year career tracking terrorist activity, including several years inside the classified watchlisting hub. "This data is a bomb," he says. "You should have great respect for the damage that it can do."

<snip>

"Compiling lists of national security enemies strikes me as what Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s or what Stalin did in Russia in the '30s, '40s and '50s," says General Taylor, the former head of intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security, referring to American citizens. "That is nothing more than trying to take a sledgehammer when you need a stiletto."

May 16, 2020

A Sitting President, Riling the Nation During a Crisis

A Sitting President, Riling the Nation During a Crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/politics/president-trump-coronavirus-pandemic-response.html

By smearing his opponents, championing conspiracy theories and pursuing vendettas, President Tru​mp has reverted to his darkest political tactics in spite of a pandemic hurting millions of Americans.


By Alexander Burns, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin and Nick Corasaniti

May 15, 2020

​​Even by President Trump’s standards, it was a rampage: He attacked a government whistle-blower who was telling Congress that the coronavirus pandemic had been mismanaged. He criticized the governor of Pennsylvania, who has resisted reopening businesses. He railed against former President Barack Obama, linking him to a conspiracy theory and demanding he answer questions before the Senate about the federal investigation of Michael T. Flynn.

<snip>

Still, Mr. Trump’s behavior has rattled even some supportive Republicans, who believe it is likely to backfire and possibly cost them the Senate as well as the White House. It has also further alarmed Democrats, who have long warned that Mr. Trump would be willing to use every lever of presidential power and deploy even the most unscrupulous campaign tactics to capture a second term.

<snip>

In addition to his attacks against Mr. Obama, he separated himself from the highly popular Dr. Anthony Fauci, downplayed the importance of testing and has refused to wear a mask. And Mr. Trump’s appetite for conspiracy theories is often embarrassing to his party: Several times in recent weeks, he has falsely accused a prominent television host of murder and called for a “cold case” investigation.

<snip>

When Mr. Trump was visiting Pennsylvania this week, for instance, his team scheduled a friendly interview in the hope that he would make the case that Mr. Biden would undermine fracking, an important industry in Pennsylvania. But Mr. Trump made no mention of fracking and instead attacked Mr. Biden’s mental condition and called wind power a “disaster” that “kills all the birds.”

<snip>

May 16, 2020

Several Surfers Are Found Dead in the Netherlands

Several Surfers Are Found Dead in the Netherlands

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/world/europe/surfers-netherlands-dead.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=969099208&imp_id=756200664

At least five bodies were found or seen in the foamy waters off the beach resort of Scheveningen, a district of The Hague.


By Elian Peltier

May 12, 2020

Five surfers drowned off the coast of the Dutch beach resort of Scheveningen after they were caught in strong winds and foamy waters, the local authorities said on Tuesday.

?quality=90&auto=webp

The Dutch Coast Guard started a search operation on Monday after six surfers went missing. The rescue efforts were complicated by strong winds and a rough sea, the service said on Twitter.Credit...Sem Van Der Wal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


Rescuers from the Dutch Coast Guard began a search operation shortly after six surfers went missing Monday evening. Three people were rescued, two of whom were later pronounced dead. Two further bodies were found Tuesday morning, and one more was seen floating out to sea. The Coast Guard ended its search in the early afternoon and said it had not found that last person, taking the toll to five.

The deaths shocked the surfing community in the Netherlands and locals in Scheveningen, a district of The Hague about 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam. “When a group of people went surfing early in the evening, no one expected that some would not come home,” Johan Remkes, mayor of The Hague, said in a statement.

The rescue operation was complicated by strong winds and a rough sea, the Dutch Coast Guard said on Twitter. “There are still water sports enthusiasts active in the vicinity of our search area,” the service wrote Monday evening. “We call on them to leave this area as soon as possible.”

Other European countries have severely restricted outdoor activities during the coronavirus pandemic, but the Netherlands has taken a more relaxed approach, only asking people to stay at home as much as possible and to respect social distancing practices when outside. Many beaches are closed, but surfing has been allowed as long as surfers respect 1.5-meter distances according to the Holland Surfing Association.

<snip>



A sign at the beach by a pile of surf boards washed in:

Please check if 1 of these boards is yours! https://t.co/FQM7hluRJi
— City of The Hague (@CityOfTheHague) May 12, 2020

May 15, 2020

'Be Careful What You Wish For': Lindsey Graham Rips Trump Demand That Obama Testify

‘Be Careful What You Wish For’: Lindsey Graham Rips Trump Demand That Obama Testify

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-obama-investigation-trump_n_5ebdbbc7c5b6c9c1874155c2

But “both presidents” are welcome to “share their concerns about each other” before his Senate committee, he said, adding it would “make for great television.”


By Mary Papenfuss

<snip>

Graham indicated that such an investigation would be a gross overreach of executive power and that it could backfire by putting Trump in jeopardy after his time in the White House is over.

Trump has been saying that “Obamagate” is the “biggest political crime” in American history — but has yet to explain what crime he’s talking about. Asked early this week at a press briefing what specific crime he was referring to, Trump insisted that the “crime is very obvious to everybody”— but still did not say what it might be.

Graham said in a statement released Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, “I am greatly concerned about the precedent that would be set by calling a former president for oversight.”

<snip>

The Judiciary Committee plans to hold hearings in June on the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The hearings will include the FBI probe of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Trump fired Flynn in 2017 for lying about secret talks he was having with a former Russian ambassador and reputed Kremlin spymaster Sergey Kislyak.







Like lindsey says ... “I understand President Trump’s frustration, but be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for.”