Thanks to everyone for the feedback from last week’s news roundup. Message me on twitter @BKactual if you think we need to take a look at a story. Whether it’s veteran, SOF, pop culture, or nudity-related, we want to hear about it.
The U.S. airman was with an elite Air Force pararescue unit when he helped hoist her to safety from her family’s destroyed home in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. The storm had roared ashore in Louisiana on Aug. 29, and the little girl’s family was still waiting for help about a week later, as the flood waters slowly receded.
Maroney, now 40, had spent more the last week rappelling repeatedly from an MH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter into devastation around New Orleans, trying to help whoever he could. Some people were beyond saving. Then there was the small girl, perhaps 5, who threw her arms around him at New Orleans International Airport after he and his fellow airmen dropped off her and her family members unscathed.
Mike Maroney and the search to find out what happened to his friend (pictured above) have been featured by People magazine, the Air Force Times, and the Washington Post, among others. If you have any clues, pass them along to us here at cms.sofrep.com or twitter me @BKactual.
Hite was among 80 men aboard 16 B-25 bombers whose mission was to strike Japan in April 1942. While the attack inflicted only scattered damage, it was credited with boosting American morale while shaking Japan’s confidence and prompting strategy shifts less than five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Eight Raiders were captured and three were executed; one more died in captivity and three others were killed after crash-landing or ditching at sea. Hite was among the Japanese captives and was imprisoned for 40 months.
He was liberated by American troops in 1945. In 1951, he returned to active duty during the Korean War and served overseas before relief from active duty in 1955.
FORTY months in a Japanese prison camp. I’m sure that didn’t suck too bad. And then the guy goes right back to work. Tough people, the WW2 generation. Well done, Lt. Colonel Hite.
Two women suspected of being terrorist sympathizers were arrested Thursday for allegedly plotting to detonate pressure cooker bombs in New York.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed the arrests, but circumstances surrounding them or the alleged plot were not immediately clear. NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller said the arrests were part of a local and federal investigation.
“What I can confirm is that arrests were made by the JTTF and NYPD in a national security investigation earlier this morning in New York City,” he said.
The complaint, which identified the suspects as Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, said Velentzas idolized Usama Bin Laden, even keeping pictures and video of the Al Qaeda mastermind on her cell phone.
Yer in a heap o’trouble, ladies.
Ya know, I realize that I make fun of the feds quite a bit, but if their is one thing they have absolutely NAILED, it’s convincing dopey would-be jihadists on the internet that they can facilitate their meeting Allah and the 72 virgins in a blaze of glory.
Visit this page and take the time to read through the actual complaint. It’s chock full of hilarious nuggets, like this one:
During a conversation about co-existing with non-muslims, Siddiqui stated, “How do I co-exist when I’m constantly saying, ‘I’m all about jihad,’ you know what I mean?”… Velentzas (said) she did not understand why people were traveling overseas to wage jihad when there where more opportunities of “pleasing Allah” here in the United States.
I mean, they raise good points. How DOES one co-exist while explaining that one is all about jihad?
Later that day, Velentzas pulled a knife from her bra and demonstrated how to stab someone to show Siddiqui and the UC (undercover) what she would do it attacked. Velentzas added, “Why can’t we be some real bad bitches?” and stated that people needed to refer to them as “citizens of the Islamic state.”
At this point I feel compelled to remind you: These are two “American” citizens. Well done, law enforcement.
According to a statement issued by the United States Department of Justice on Monday, two federal agents are charged with wire fraud, money laundering and falsifying government documents for stealing Bitcoin while working on the Silk Road investigation.
The agents were part of a Baltimore-based task force investigating the Silk Road marketplace. Their mission included the task of building a relationship with Ross Ulbricht (aka ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ the accused owner of Silk Road who was found guilty last month). The two agents leveraged their status as federal agents to mislead, pressure, and personally profit from their activities during the investigation – all of it which went unreported or unnoticed to the departments that employed them.
Oy. Basically, the agents were hacking into the bitcoin accounts of the drug dealers of the “silk road” marketplace, transferring the bitcoin into a different account under a name of the LLC that the agents created, and then wire that bitcoin back to the U.S., where they’d convert it into cash money.
Guys that are smart enough to catch these sophisticated international criminals are highly capable of setting up these complex mazes of shell corporations and wire transfers to steal a little for themselves. But no matter how smart you think you are, there’s always someone smarter.
I watched the premiere of the new scientology documentary, “Going Clear: Scientology and the prison of belief” on Sunday night. HOOOOOO BOY. That is some craziness right there. Tom Cruise and John Travolta come off looking like absolute insane people. The doc has tons of testimony from ex “church” bigwigs about the slavery and violence that the organization has desperately tried to keep under wraps all these years. Riveting television, to say the least.
I have to give an Affable Nod to screenwriter/director and now ex-scientologist Paul Haggis, who was a member of the church for 35 years. Haggis is about as big as you can get in Hollywood; absolutely a member of the A list. For him to tell his story; to sit there and basically admit to being duped for a huge chunk of his life and swindled out of hundreds of thousands of dollars took some huge cajones.
Nobody likes admitting they were wrong. Now imagine filming a documentary admitting you were wrong, and stupid, and oh, by the way, you are super famous and everyone is going to know about it. But you do it anyway because you think it’s an important story and it needs to be told. Kudos to him.
Exit question: The church’s membership has declined down to around 50,000 members worldwide. But they still take in about 500 million dollars a year, and, according to the documentary, have about 3 billion in assets. Do you stick around and play along with the scam, knowing that there’s a ton of money coming in from the rubes that you have a good numerical chance to get your hands on? Or is the shame too much?
AKRON, Ohio — The former Navy SEAL acquitted Wednesday during a two-day trial said the Bath Township police ambushed him with charges and that he lost “seven figures” worth of business after prosecutors accused him of lying about being shot.
Christopher Heben said Friday the charges tarnished his image and affected his various business ventures including a security training business, a gig as spokesman for a local car dealership and his various appearances on nationally televised news programs…
…The 45-year-old decorated SEAL told police that he got into an argument March 28, 2014 with “three black men” in the parking lot of the Mustard Seed on Ohio 18. Police and prosecutors disputed several parts of Heben’s explanation as to how the argument resulted in Heben being hospitalized with a gunshot wound in the stomach.
Heben said in court that the men drove past him, shot him and drove off. He then followed them in his truck until he realized he was going into shock and drove to the Bath Township Fire Department for help.
Bath Township police investigated the shooting and eventually charged Heben with falsification and obstructing official business. Heben maintained his innocence throughout the case and an Akron Municipal Court jury found him not guilty Thursday on both counts…
(Akron Deputy Prosecutor) Morgan said Friday he believes they had overwhelming evidence that Heben was guilty in the case, but that he respected the jury’s decision. Morgan said the case proved difficult because of Heben’s status a heroic military veteran and because they had no tangible victim in the case.
Strange story. I can’t really form an opinion on this one, because I haven’t followed the trial and haven’t seen any evidence. Honestly, I don’t think I even remember reading about this when it first happened. So is this a case where the guy made it all up because he was embarrassed that he shot himself, and the jury doesn’t want to trash a war hero?
Nobody except Heben himself was injured, and he’s been acquitted. But when you hear a prosecutor say “overwhelming evidence,” this sounds like they had tons of physical evidence that clearly told the story. How did he refute that? I’m not going to call the guy a liar out of respect for his service and the fact he was acquitted, but something stinks here, either on his side of the story or the prosecutor’s.
But if there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that you cannot underestimate the stupidity of the jury when it comes to ignoring evidence that reflects poorly on their heroes. Or, it could be a little Jury Nullification at work, since he was the only victim and they felt he was punished enough? If anyone knows more about this case, contact us here at cms.sofrep.com or twitter.
America’s business community recognized a long time ago that discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business. At Apple, we are in business to empower and enrich our customers’ lives. We strive to do business in a way that is just and fair. That’s why, on behalf of Apple, I’m standing up to oppose this new wave of legislation — wherever it emerges. I’m writing in the hopes that many more will join this movement. From North Carolina to Nevada, these bills under consideration truly will hurt jobs, growth and the economic vibrancy of parts of the country where a 21st-century economy was once welcomed with open arms…
..Our message, to people around the country and around the world, is this: Apple is open. Open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. Regardless of what the law might allow in Indiana or Arkansas, we will never tolerate discrimination.
Maybe one day in America, everyone will conduct business with whoever the hell they want and have sex with whoever the hell they want and not have to involve the government in their weird beliefs. On both sides.
A 1st Armored Division officer died early Tuesday during a training exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas, after a mine-resistant vehicle allegedly rolled over him in his cot while he slept, the base announced in a Wednesday news release.
Capt. Jonathan F. Wynkoop, 27, was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Division Artillery, and was participating in Iron Focus 2015, a two-week, division-level training exercise that began March 23.
A mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicle, or M-ATV, allegedly backed over the cot around 5 a.m., according to the release. Wynkoop was pronounced dead about an hour later; the incident is under investigation.
Awful. Captain Jonathan F. Wynkoop is survived by his wife and three children.
Today this world lost a truly amazing man. RIP Charles “BEAST” Fuller. No better MAN, BROTHER, FRIEND, FATHER, MARINE, PILOT, PATRIOT, FIREFIGHTER, BIKER, UNCLE ever walked this earth… He was taken from this life when his vehicle crossed the median into an on coming tractor trailer while returning home from work to his family 31 March 2015
Chuck was a 42 yo former F.A.S.T. Marine and Fire Fighter who spent several years as a contractor overseas, putting himself in harms way, to support his family back home. He was the sole bread winner for his Wife and amazing Daughter who he loved dearly. He recently returned to take a position closer to home because the resposibility of caring for his family financially no longer out weighed the necessity of a Father and Husbands presence.
He was also one of the greatest men many including myself had ever known. A man of few but valued words…a man who you could ask for a favor and he didnt care why, only that he was needed. A man who called you friend but you knew it meant family.
The link goes to the family’s gofundme.com page, which is raising money for the funeral. Charles was a U.S. Marine and overseas contractor. If you can spare a couple of bucks, go do it. RIP.
A pharmacist at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wisconsin said she was discouraged by higher-ups from performing drug tests on patients prescribed opiates, as is recommended by VA guidelines.
In a joint U.S. House and Senate committee hearing in Tomah on March 30, Noelle Johnson, a pharmacist who was fired from the facility and now is employed by VA as a pain management specialist in Des Moines, Iowa, said pharmacists were discouraged from testing patients for drug use for fear of what prescribing physicians might learn.
If the tests were negative, it might indicate that the patient was not taking the medication, raising questions as to whether they were “diverting” or selling their meds.
If the tests were strongly positive, it could suggest overuse or abuse and VA could be held liable “when something unfortunate happened,” Johnson said she was told.
So, if we drug-test our veterans and they are clean, they are non-compliant. If they test positive, then we’ve successfully hooked them through the nose with powerful opiate drugs that mask symptoms and do nothing to treat the underlying issue. Fantastic. The VA is basically Scarface at this point.
Police have released footage of a man who stripped naked and paraded in front of a roadside speed camera operator while holding a stubbie on Australia Day.
Stubbie? Help me out here, Aussie readers.
This is what I imagine every Australian guy does all the time
The footage shows him removing his boardshorts, climbing onto the bonnet of the van and thrusting his hips back and forth, with his genitals in full view of the dashboard camera.
He also yelled abuse at the civilian operator inside the van, before rubbing his bare bottom along the vehicle.
The men, believed to be aged in their 30s, returned to the van about an hour later carrying six-packs of alcohol.
The same man again proceeded to strip off and rub his genitals along the bonnet and doors of the van, while gesturing to passing motorists in an apparent bid to warn them of the speed camera’s presence.
I always try to include a little beefcake for the ladies. How many of you fine cms.sofrep.com female readers took a look at this guy and thought, “yes, please.” Also, I love the fact that he went and got beer and did it AGAIN.
Side note: Who says “six-packs of alcohol?” Weird. Anyway, everyone in America should do this to those damn camera cars. God DAMMIT, let us strive to be more like the Australians. (that’s the first time in history anyone has written that sentence. )
10/8/2014: For every opening, Google receives at least 1,000 applications. “The good news is that we have computers to do the initial vetting,” Schmidt said. “You can figure out if someone’s going to be a good fit in five interviews.” -Steve Schmidt
2/19/2015: “Everyone actually agrees that there should be more H-1B visas in order to create more tech, more science, more analytical jobs. Everyone agrees, in both parties.” -Steve Schmidt.
One would think at one of these forums that Schmidt attends, complete with numerous reporters, ONE GUY would ask him to explain theses two seemingly contradictory views. Instead, they coo over him like he’s Nerd Jesus. I know the real reason he wants the visas. From Senator Chuck Grassley’s opening statement at a recent judiciary hearing:
Just last year, a Fremont, California tech company, Electronics for Imaging, Inc., was found by the Department of Labor to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act for having grossly underpaid a group of Indian nationals who the company had transferred on L-1 visas from its office in India to install a new computer system at the headquarters facility in Fremont. Specifically, the company flew eight L-1B workers from Bangalore, India to California and paid them only $1.21 per hour to work 120-hour weeks. The $1.21 hourly rate was equivalent to what the employees made in Indian rupees at their workplace in India. Importantly, though the company was found by DOL to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act for paying the workers below the State’s minimum wage, it did not apparently violate any of the terms or conditions of the visa program because there is no prevailing wage requirement.
Got that? They want to fire you stupid Americans and run a sweatshop. And the only law they broke was the minimum wage law of CALIFORNIA, since the feds don’t care how much you pay them. Everytime you see one of these silicon valley guys on TV yammering about H1-B visas, just imagine them dressed all in black, cackling evilly, and holding a whip. That’s who they are inside.
A 21-year-old woman, who attended a prestigious military academy high school, has been charged with the murder of a married lawyer found stabbed to death in an upscale DC hotel. Jamyra Gallmon, of Washington D.C., was arrested on Wednesday, according to police. She has been charged with first-degree felony murder while armed over the killing of 30-year-old David Messerschmitt.
Police sources told NBC Washington that the woman in the video is Gallmon and that she went to the hotel that evening for a ‘sexual encounter’. Among the items recovered from the room were a computer, lubricant, condoms, cell phone and enema kit, Fox DC reported. Fingerprints were also found in the room.
Gallon graduated Forestville Military Academy in Maryland in 2011, and, by their account, was a good student. So what the hell is this? The cops went for first-degree, so this must have been planned out. Just what has Gallmon been up to since she graduated 4 years ago? This is some cold-blooded gangster shit.
I am curious to find out how she linked up with this lawyer. Is this some sort of Craigslist sex-ad plot? Did Gallmon place an ad, or did Messerschmitt? Also, Craigslist is the worst.
The Special Forces group that ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001 is preparing to deploy to Jordan to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, but many of the U.S. military’s most elite warriors have a gnawing fear that those efforts may be too little, too late.
Four years after the start of the uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group is getting ready to establish a multinational special operations task force in Jordan to train and equip Syrian rebel forces that the United States deems “moderate” — which means allied with neither the Islamic State nor al Qaeda’s local affiliate, al-Nusra Front.
But daunting challenges lie ahead for 5th Group. They include finding and vetting enough moderate rebels to make a difference on the battlefield; potential friction with the CIA, which has its own rebel training program going on in Jordan; the Obama administration’s refusal to let special operations forces fight alongside the rebel forces they have trained; and a confusing chain of command that none of the relevant American military headquarters seem willing or able to explain.
Everyone got that? We have no idea what we’re doing, or who we are supposed to be doing it with, and nobody knows who is is charge. LET’S DO THIS! Good luck, men… you’ll need it.
Vetting Syrian rebels? How are you going to do that, exactly?
SF guy: “So, Ahmed… Do you hate the infidels?”
Syrian terrorist moderate rebel: “Maybe?”
SF guy: “OK, you’re in. Here’s a million dollars.”
…Nigeria, a country of 170 million, gave the world a largely peaceful and credible election, with its most transparent vote to date. Retired Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the presidency…
…This is is also the first time that Nigeria used biometric card-reading technology, to help cut back on vote fraud and rigging. Though there were hiccups and malfunctions — even Jonathan couldn’t get accredited electronically at first, and there were reports that polling agents didn’t remove the protective film from touch screens — these instances did not dramatically alter the outcome of the vote. Also, Nigeria’s Transition Monitoring Group used “Quick Count” statistical verification methodology and confirmed that the results were accurate.
Quick, get some of our activist shysters over to Nigeria to explain how they are actually HURTING elections by requiring ID. And a bio-metric one at that! JUST LIKE BULL CONNOR. And speaking of Africa…
Cape Town (AFP) – A bucketload of human excrement flung at a statue has toppled a symbol of British imperialism in South Africa, marking the emergence of a new generation of black protest against white oppression.
The senate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) on Friday bowed to student demands that a brooding bronze statue of colonialist Cecil John Rhodes should be removed from the campus…
…Eusebius McKaiser, an author and commentator who attended Rhodes University and won a prestigious international Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, summed it up in an opinion piece in the New York Times…
McKaiser, who is of mixed race, defended the fact that he accepted a Rhodes scholarship, telling a radio interviewer that in moral terms the colonialist’s money belonged to “the millions of black South Africans whose rights were trampled on”.
He took the scholarship to Oxford “so that I could come back and show the middle finger to his legacy,” McKaiser said.
Is this a thing where the human excrement is fresh out of the chute, produced on the spot in a blaze of social justice warrior fervor, and THEN flung? Or, logistics being what they are, is this something that has to be prepped overnight? If so, is it stored in the refrigerator? What if, due to poor diet, it is un-flingable? So many questions.
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If you are or know a veteran who owns a business, contact me @BKactual via the twitter machine.
A police officer decorated for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing who was shot in a motor vehicle stop has been upgraded to stable and improving condition, police said today.
Officer John Moynihan underwent surgery to have a bullet removed from his neck, the Boston Police Department reported.
On Saturday, Moynihan had been in a medically induced coma, but he is now listed in stable and improving condition, police said.
He is “expected to be moved out of the Intensive Care Unit in the coming days,” the police added…
When Moynihan and five other officers pulled over a driver in Roxbury, Massachusetts, Friday night, the driver began firing at them, police said.
Moynihan, 34, was shot under his eye and the bullet became lodged behind his ear, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans.
Evans called the shooting “unprovoked.” The officers hadn’t drawn their guns when the driver began shooting, said Evans. As the officers chased after him, the driver continued to fire, emptying his revolver as he ran.
The officers later shot the driver, who died on scene, police said. Evans identified him as Angelo West, 41, adding that he had a violent criminal past.
This is great news. Of course, there has to be a few articles with all the handwringing over the career criminal Angelo West:
“We want to see for ourselves the scene, we want to know how long the body was out there on the ground,” (president of Urban League, East. Mass.) Williams said. “We want to send the right message out to the community.”
Are you kidding me, guy? Who freaking cares how long the body was out there? This Angelo West character was a lifelong violent criminal who has spread nothing but shit his whole life, and the grifter civil rights guys are worried that they took too long? Oh, it got worse:
Members of the audience asked Curry to ask Boston police on what basis officers stopped West to begin with, whether police officers asked West to provide identification before asking him to step out of the car, and how long EMTs took to attend to West once they appeared on the scene.
This is what is important? Forget about the decorated U.S. Army veteran and police officer, laid up in a hospital fighting for his life after getting SHOT IN THE FACE, we need to know if you asked dickhead for his I.D.? Unreal. Choke yourselves.
In brief: 31 year-old South African comic Trevor Noah has been dubbed the new host of “The Daily Show.” Following this announcement, Twitter started digging through his 8,000-odd tweets with a fine-toothed comb. And they didn’t like what they found. “Manchester United is like a white girl. Heavy upfront but lacking in the back”? “Oh yeah the weekend. People are gonna get drunk & think that I’m sexy! -fat chicks everywhere”? “Messi doesn’t go down easy, just like jewish chicks”? Really?
Remember when you could tell a joke in America? Those days are behind us, and not from conservative prudes, but from liberal pearl-clutchers who spend their days fretting that somewhere, somehow, someone is being made fun of.
To be clear: I have no problem with his comedy targets. He’s just not funny. Watch this and tell me otherwise. But he’s got a lot of twitter followers, so he’ll be hilarious or something. Have television executives learned nothing from the Ronan Farrow debacle?
Trevor Noah is a weird choice for comedy central. He’s never hosted a talk show, he’s not American, and he’s got that weird, awkward, South African sense of humor. I can’t describe it exactly, but if you’ve ever been around S.A. military guys, you know what I’m talking about. This is like making your girlfriend watch Monty Python, which she will hate because only 5% of it is actually funny and the rest is strange inside-british gags that you don’t understand.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A newly revised tattoo policy that will remove the limit on the number and size of soldiers’ tattoos is coming very soon, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Wednesday…
…The more lenient tattoo rules are based on input from soldiers, he said. Many soldiers have told Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey they want fewer restrictions on tattoos. Some saw their tattoos as a hindrance to advancing in their careers.
Search engines like Google or Yahoo make people think they are smarter than they actually are because they have the world’s knowledge at their fingertips, psychologists at Yale University have found.
Browsing the internet for information gives people a ‘widely inaccurate’ view of their own intelligence and could lead to over-confidence when making decisions, experts warn.
In a series of experiments, participants who had searched for information on the internet believed they were far more knowledgeable about a subject that those who had learned by normal routes, such as reading a book or talking to a tutor. Internet users also believed their brains were sharper.
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