February 25, 2018

"A Total F-Up: Russian Mercenaries lament US Airstrike that killed dozens

Recordings have emerged in which Russian mercenaries subjected to a joint U.S. strike that killed dozens of their comrades describe the incident as “a total fuck-up.” Polygraph.info, a Voice of America project, published three recordings, which it received from a source close to the Kremlin. The source said that the recorded phone calls were made by personnel from CHVK Wagner, a Russian private military company.

The incident in question occurred on the night of February 7-8, when Syrian government forces—backed by Russian mercenaries employed by CHVK Wagner—attempted to capture an oil refinery near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor. After Russian personnel came into contact with American troops stationed there, the U.S. forces responded with artillery and air strikes. In the first audio clip, a man says “one squadron fucking lost 200 people …right away, another one lost 10 people… and I don’t know about the third squadron but it got torn up pretty badly, too... So three squadrons took a beating.”

The man explains that American forces used artillery and helicopter gunships to repel the assault. “They were all shelling the holy fuck out of it and our guys didn’t have anything besides the assault rifles… nothing at all, I'm not even talking about shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that… they tore us to pieces, put us through hell,” he says. The speaker is also critical of the Russian government’s response to the incident, saying, “They beat our asses like we were little pieces of shit... but our fucking government will go in reverse now and nobody will respond or anything and nobody will punish anyone for this.”

It has been reported that up to 300 Russians may have died in the strikes. The Kremlin initially denied all reports of Russians being involved in the incident. However, in recent days, Russia’s foreign ministry has acknowledged that “several dozen” Russians were killed or wounded. A foreign ministry report said, “Russian service members did not take part in any capacity and Russian military equipment was not used.” It said those involved were “Russian citizens” who were in Syria “of their own free will and for different reasons.”

http://www.newsweek.com/total-f-russian-mercenaries-syria-lament-us-strike-killed-dozens-818073?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

February 25, 2018

Viral videos promoting the presidential election are popping up online in Russia and nobody is sure

Ever wondered what Russian election propaganda is like? This is modern, 2018 Russia.

A video encouraging people to vote in the presidential election started spreading on YouTube and other social media on February 16. The three-minute clip’s star is played by Sergey Burunov, whom Russians know from the sketch-comedy show Bolshaya Raznitsa, the TV series A Policeman From Rublyovka, and the film Posledny Bogatyr. In the video, his character initially plans to skip the March 18 presidential election, but he changes his mind after having a nightmare that shows him the horrible consequences of not going to the polling station: he’s drafted into the army, despite being 52 (and one of the soldiers who delivers the summons is black, for some reason); his son, wearing a red Communist Pioneer neckerchief, asks him for 4 million rubles (almost $18,000) to donate to his school for security guards; and in the kitchen we find an “adopted gay,” because apparently the law now requires families to take in gay men who are dumped by their partners.

February 25, 2018

Students in Louisiana thought this math symbol looked like a gun - Police were called

A discussion among students at Oberlin High School in Oberlin, La., about a mathematical symbol led to a police investigation and a search of one of the student’s homes, according to the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office. On the afternoon of Feb. 20, detectives investigated a report of terroristic threats at the school, where they learned that a student had been completing a math problem that required drawing the square-root sign.

Students in the group began commenting that the symbol, which represents a number that when multiplied by itself equals another number, looked like a gun. After several students made comments along those lines, another student said something the sheriff’s office said could have sounded like a threat out of context.

Police searched the student’s home, where they found no guns or any evidence that he had any access to guns. Authorities also wrote there was no evidence the student had any intent to commit harm.

“The student used extremely poor judgment in making the comment, but in light of the actual circumstances, there was clearly no evidence to support criminal charges,” the department wrote, adding that the school board had been contacted to determine any disciplinary action for the student.

http://www.miamiherald.com/article201604224.html

February 23, 2018

Deputies are guarding the home of the Parkland school shooting officer

Source: Business Insider

Deputies from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office are guarding the home of the school resource officer who was stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after his family requested the protection, according to multiple news reports on Thursday. Local Fox affiliate WSVN said it sent a reporter to the Boynton Beach, Florida, home of Broward County Sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson for an interview when the reporter was met with six deputies "standing guard outside."

Peterson's family is believed to have asked for the protection, according to NBC affiliate WPTV reporter Andrew Lofholm. Peterson resigned from his post at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting at the campus in which 17 people died. He was later criticized after an internal investigation found he never entered the building where the shooting occurred.

"I am devastated," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference. "Sick to my stomach. He never went in." Peterson, who was armed and in uniform at the time, reportedly did "nothing" and remained outside of the building for at least four minutes during the incident, according to Israel.

Peterson had been the high school's resource officer since 2009 and made a salary of $75,673.72 in 2016, according to The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/parkland-shooting-officer-resigns-deputies-sent-to-protect-his-family-2018-2

February 23, 2018

'Suddenly there is a Confederate flag flying' in Seattle's Greenwood area well, not quite

A story about the times we live in, and assumptions we can make in our current political climate. The news tip a few days ago said:

“Hi. Suddenly there is a Confederate flag flying in front of a house in my Greenwood neighborhood. It is at the north-east corner of 92nd and Palatine, just a block west of 92nd and Greenwood Ave N. I would love to know what this ‘means’ … but of course don’t want to knock on their door. Maybe others in the area are flying the flag? Maybe it’s a story? Thank you.”

It was from Rebecca Morris, who is an author of The New York Times best-seller true-crime books. So, of course, we drove to that corner. There was no wind, and on a flagpole there was what obviously was the U.S. flag at the top, and below, a red flag with blue stripes.

Simply hanging down, not spread out, you could make some assumptions that it was the star-filled “Southern cross” of the Confederacy. Darold Norman Stangeland lives at the corner house.

“That’s a Norwegian flag,” he says. “It’s been up there since the start of the Olympics.” The Norwegian flag has a red background, with an off-center white-and-blue cross.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/both-have-crosses-so-norwegian-flag-mistaken-for-confederate-flag/

February 23, 2018

Sheriff's deputy did 'nothing' as gunman hunted students during Florida shooting

A school resource officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., remained outside of the high school when a shooter opened fire on students and teachers last week and did not engage the shooter. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said video footage showed the deputy, Scot Peterson, arrive on the west side of the high school’s freshman building and take up a position. Peterson, though, did not enter the school.

Israel said Peterson was armed and in uniform but did "nothing." "What I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of Building 12, take up a position and he never went in," Israel said." When asked what Peterson should have done, Israel said the deputy should have, “Went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”

“Devastated. Sick to my stomach. There are no words,” Israel told reporters Thursday. The video showing Peterson will not be disclosed at this time, and Israel said it may never be made public “depending on the prosecution and the criminal case.” Israel said he suspended Peterson without pay pending an internal investigation, but Peterson then resigned.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sheriffs-deputy-did-nothing-as-gunman-hunted-students-during-florida-shooting/article/2649807

February 22, 2018

Brendan Fraser talks about being sexually harassed by Hollywood exec

A few weeks later, Fraser calls me. There's something he wants to tell me that he couldn't quite bring himself to relate in London or New York. He's sorry about that, he says—that he didn't have “the courage to speak up for risk of humiliation, or damage to my career.”

In the summer of 2003, in the Beverly Hills Hotel, at a luncheon held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association... he was hailed by Philip Berk, a former president of the HFPA... He pinched Fraser's ass—in jest, according to Berk. But Fraser says what Berk did was more than a pinch: “His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around.” Fraser says that in this moment he was overcome with panic and fear.

He rushed out of the room, outside, past a police officer he couldn't quite bring himself to confess to, and then home, where he told his then wife, Afton, what had happened.

He knows now that people wonder what happened to Brendan Fraser, how he went from a highly visible public figure to practically disappearing in the public mind, and he'd already told me most of it. But this, he says, is the final piece. The experience, he says, “made me retreat. It made me feel reclusive.” He wondered if the HFPA had blacklisted him. “I don't know if this curried disfavor with the group, with the HFPA. But the silence was deafening.”

https://www.gq.com/story/what-ever-happened-to-brendan-fraser

February 4, 2018

North Carolina father-daughter couple arrested for incest after having love child

Source: Fox



A 42-year-old North Carolina man and his 20-year-old daughter have been arrested on incest charges after having a love child last year--and reportedly getting married. Steven Pladl, 42, of Knightdale, and Katie Pladl, 20, were arrested Jan. 27, WNCN-TV reported, citing "warrants." They have also been charged with adultery and contributing to delinquency. The maximum sentence for the incest charge is 10 years in prison.

The child, a boy, was born in September, the station reported. Steven Pladl was released on a $1 million bond. Katie Pladl’s bond is also $1 million but as of last week she was still being held. The charges were brought in Virginia where authorities believe the relationship began The station reported that Pladl gave up Katie for adoption when she was an infant. They reunited in 2016 when she tracked him down through social media.

At the time, according to the station, Pladl was living outside Richmond with his wife, Katie’s mother, and their two children, girls who would have been Katie's sisters.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/04/north-carolina-father-daughter-couple-arrested-for-incest-after-having-love-child.html