Weapons Free:

A manhunt continued on Sunday for the “armed and dangerous” gunman who allegedly shot and killed New Kensington police officer Brian Shaw, authorities said.

Rahmael Sal Holt, 29, was identified by Pennsylvania State police as the gunman in Friday night’s shooting, which occurred about 18 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Authorities filed charges of first-degree murder and murder of a police officer against Holt on Saturday.

https://twitter.com/BackTheCops/status/931880250199359489

Police describe Holt as being armed and dangerous and urged anyone with information to call 911.

Authorities said Shaw, 25, was shot in the chest Friday night during a foot pursuit that stemmed from the traffic stop in New Kensington. Investigators are still determining on Saturday why Shaw had initiated the traffic stop that ultimately led to his death by gunfire, but they declined to provide those details, citing the ongoing investigation.

The Pittsburgh area also continued an outpouring of support for regional first responders and for Officer Shaw’s family.Tributes included a moment of silence at Saturday night’s NHL hockey game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks, and a tweet from NFL head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Follow me on Twitter and get the only podcast that covers the most important news of the week:

https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/932014365108137984

The black hole continues its inexorable sucking: 

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — Rahimullah served in the Afghan Army for two years, deployed to the bloody front lines of the southern province of Helmand. When he quit, it was not because of the combat: It was when the Taliban went after his family back home, telling them that if he didn’t leave the army there would be a fine of one Kalashnikov rifle, seven cartridge magazines and $1,000 — or worse.

“My father called me to say the Taliban are demanding this,” said Mr. Rahimullah, 30, who now lives back in the eastern province of Kunar with his family. “I left the army, and some other of my friends left, too. We didn’t have the money to pay them. We had joined the army from poverty.”

Such demands are another way that the Taliban have been able to keep pressure on the Afghan Army, which was already struggling with record casualties and attrition. As the insurgents have made inroads in eastern and northern Afghanistan — long the most important recruiting grounds for the army — they are directly threatening the military’s ability to replenish its dwindling ranks.

Interviews with residents and army recruitment officers across several provinces suggest the Taliban pressure is taking a serious toll, with officials in some provinces reporting recruitment down by as much as 50 percent. Exact data on Afghan forces has been classified by both the Afghan government and the United States, which largely bankrolls the security forces.

In no way do I see this going horribly wrong:

CAP-HAITIEN/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haiti’s president on Saturday heralded the re-establishment of the country’s military after 22 years, a divisive issue in the impoverished Caribbean nation which has a history of bloody coups and political instability.

Haiti has been without military forces since 1995, when former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the army after returning to power following a coup, leaving the national police responsible for security.

The army’s comeback has been a divisive topic in a country still suffering from a catastrophic earthquake and a fierce hurricane in recent years, with critics and activists concerned that armed forces would meddle in politics and rob essential resources from education and health care.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise on Thursday named former army colonel Jodel Lesage as acting commander-in-chief, moving troops closer to full operation. The appointment still needs to be approved by Haiti’s senate…

…“The army is our mother,” he said. “When your mother is sick and wears dirty clothes, you do not kill her. You take her to the hospital. So let us join forces to provide needed care to our mother.”

After Haiti’s independence, the military mounted dozens of coups and its forces were accused of rampant human rights abuses.

Get back to work, you:

https://twitter.com/Copvids911/status/932009963622412288

Missing Argentine sub may have sent distress signals:

(CNN) A missing Argentine submarine attempted to contact naval bases via satellite seven times, but communication with the vessel was not established, the nation’s defense ministry said.

The calls came to different bases between 10:52 a.m. and 3:42 p.m. Saturday, and lasted between four and 36 seconds, the ministry said in a statement to CNN en Español.
“We received seven satellite calls that likely came from the submarine San Juan. We are working hard to locate it. To the families of the 44 crew members: We hope you’ll have them home soon,” Argentina’s Defense Minister Oscar Aguad tweeted.
The military is working with a US company that specializes in satellite communication to determine the location of the submarine that vanished three days ago.
The ARA San Juan submarine and its 44 crew members were traveling through the Atlantic Ocean from a base in southern Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego archipelago to its home port in Mar del Plata. It was scheduled to arrive at its destination Sunday.
 The submarine was last spotted Wednesday in the San Jorge Gulf, a few hundred kilometers off the coast of southern Argentina’s Patagonia region and nearly midway between the bases.

Oh now we snitching????:

Eminem has taken a Twitter beating over his performance on Saturday Night Live.

The 45-year-old rapper’s performance was skewered on social media as some took shots at the entertainer for performing a medley of old hits.

The Detroit native delivered a rendition of his latest single Walk On Water from his forthcoming album Revival, while integrating elements of past hits such as Stan and Love The Way You Lie.

But the feedback wasn’t likely what Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, and his label were looking for, with many grousing that the veteran rapper had lost his touch and had to rely on past glories to win over the crowd.

‘Eminem doing a time machine performance and it ain’t helping the fact that he’s washed up and old,’ a user wrote, with another saying, ‘Awful performance on SNL. @Eminem.’

‘Eminem sucks so bad and it sounds like he’s spitting every time he talks @nbcsnl make it stop,’ one user wrote, breaking specific elements in the performance which they believed weren’t up-to-snuff.

Another groused: ‘#Eminem is terrible…damn does the dude have any sense timing/rhythm? Well at least he got the grey dyed out of his beard… that’s something I guess.’

Echoing a similar sentiment, one said: ‘Wish I could text my 7th grade self like: ‘Omg b****, Eminem still raps in 2017 and he sucks!’

Japan continues to be weird: 

Tokyo, Nov 15:  A serial killer in Japan allegedly beheaded 9 young people aged between 15 and 26 by luring them though his suicidal thoughts. According to reports,  the suspect Takahiro Shiraishi, called the “Twitter killer”, spilled the beans during disappearance of a 23-year-old woman, who had tweeted that she wanted to take her own life.

The woman had tweeted that she was looking for someone to die with. She had tweeted with hashtag “suicide recruitment.”

Shiraishi allegedly used social media to convince the woman that he would help commit suicide or even die with her. However, he even got caught using Twitter as he had fixed up the meeting using the micro-blogging website. Investigators tracked him down.

The bodies were found in his apartment last month. This has sparked a debate in Japan as to banning suicidal posts in the country. Four days after the discovery, Twitter released guidelines that no one should encourage suicide or self-harm. But it didn’t ban such posts.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government was trying to bring in tight regulations for websites on suicides.

Japan has one of the highest rates of suicides in the world. More Than 20,000 people take their lives in the country.

He Gawn:

Following a high-profile screw-up in Iraq a decade ago, the US Army has been reluctant to deploy armed ground robots. But rival armies—Russia’s, in particular—have no such hang-ups, and are quickly developing lethal ground bots that could render today’s armored vehicles obsolete.

That’s the conclusion of a new study from Robert Bunker, a professor at the Army War College in Pennsylvania. “While the United States has the technical lead in developing teleoperated ground sys­tems, it has stumbled in their actual fielding in combat,” Bunker writes.

The Army possesses arguably the world’s best tank—the M-1A2, a heavily upgraded version of a fighting vehicle that first entered service in the early 1980s and carries a crew of four.

But the M-1 is beginning to lose relevance, Bunker argues. “Corporate and Congressional district interests” are the only reasons the Army still builds new M-1s, he claims.

Armed ground robots will begin replacing tanks “at some point in the future,” Bunker predicts. Sensing the change, in mid-November the United Nations held a hearing on the dangers armed robots pose to human civilization…

…That Special Weapons Observa­tion Remote Direct-Action System, or SWORDS, could have been America’s first purpose-made, armed ground drone, and the precursor to future robotic tanks. In parallel, the Army was developing an array of new vehicles—some of them semi-autonomous—as part of the $100 billion Future Combat Systems.

But it wasn’t to be. SWORDS “suf­fered mechanical aiming glitches,” Bunker recalls. In other words, it pointed its gun at the wrong targets. Spooked, the Army yanked the bot from Iraq after just a few months. And a couple years later in 2009, the Pentagon cancelled Future Combat Systems on cost grounds.

Be careful out there:

https://twitter.com/NoChillPosts/status/930591270472429568

How do you let a ship drift into you?:

TOKYO — A Japanese tugboat lost propulsion and drifted into a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer during a towing exercise Saturday, the Navy said.

The USS Benfold sustained minimal damage, including scrapes on its side, the Navy said in a statement. No one was injured on either vessel. The commercial tugboat was being towed to a port in Yokosuka, the home of the Navy’s Japan-based 7th Fleet.

The collision occurred in Sagami Bay, which is southwest of Tokyo. The Navy said the Benfold remained at sea under its own power, and that the incident would be investigated.

The 7th Fleet has had two fatal accidents in Asian waters this year, leaving 17 sailors dead and prompting the dismissal of eight top Navy officers, including the 7th Fleet commander.

Still the worst disease:

The president of the American Heart Association, Dr. John Warner, had a minor heart attack Monday during the organization’s scientific conference taking place in Anaheim, California, according to a press release.

Warner, CEO of UT Southwestern University Hospitals in Dallas, was taken to a local hospital where doctors inserted a stent to open a clogged artery. Warner is recovering and doing well, according to the Heart Association.

Prior to the attack, the 52-year-old practicing cardiologist delivered a Sunday speech where he talked about the effects of heart disease on his family. Both his father and his father’s father had heart bypass surgery while in their 60s, he told the audience. He also lost his maternal grandfather and a great grandfather to heart disease.

“After my son was born and we were introducing him to his extended family, I realized something very disturbing: There were no old men on either side of my family. None,” he told his audience. “All the branches of our family tree cut short by cardiovascular disease.”

This movie is going to make a billion dollars:

I mean if you try to convince me deep dish pizza is better than thin crust I might do the same thing:

An argument over a pizza slice was the catalyst behind a physical altercation between two friends Monday afternoon that involved a golf club, a mop handle and a 5-inch buck knife, police say.

Drew Cywinski, 25, told police he became enraged when his friend ate a slice of pizza that Cywinski wanted for himself, according to arrest reports.

He was so angry, he struck the man in the head with a golf club — breaking the club — then pulled out a knife and cut the man on his chest several times, Melbourne police say.

The altercation unfolded like this, according to arrest reports:

Earlier in the day, Cywinski and the friend were smoking a drug called K2, a synthetic marijuana, on Garfield Street in Melbourne, where Cywinski lives.

When the two were done, they parted ways, but planned to meet later.

Cywinski invited the man to his home in the afternoon, and they hung out on the back porch. Then, the man went inside and started eating a piece of pizza that was on the kitchen table.

But Cywinski told his friend that slice was for him, according to the police report.

A verbal argument started between the two. Police noted on the report the two were “at odds over recreational drug use.”

The friend got his backpack from the porch, grabbed his bike and started to leave. But Cywinski followed him, picked up a golf club and said, “I’m gonna kill you,” according to police. Cywinski struck the man in the head. The club broke.

Gordon Ramsay is a good Twitter follow:

Even after they leave the city, the Chargers still mange to piss people off:

“Typical Chargers.”

That was the response by retired Army Sgt. First Class Johnny Case when an uproar over social media developed this week after the Los Angeles Chargers edited a photo of Army soldiers — including cropping out a service member and the bottom of the American flag — so they could eliminate “San Diego” from the Chargers flag in the picture.

The photo, taken in Afghanistan in 2014, was arranged by Case, who grew up in National City as a “die-hard” Chargers fan. He has a huge “SD” and lightning bolt tattooed onto his upper right arm.

Case, 32, who lives in Paradise Hills, said he didn’t know about the Chargers’ Twitter post, in honor of “Salute to Service” week, until friends inundated his phone with messages.

“For them to do that to my picture, and not even ask, to crop out one of our guys … it was like, “Wow, of course they’re going to do that,” Case said Friday morning in a phone interview. “They have this spite for San Diego. But it’s not about San Diego. It’s a soldier. It’s Veterans Day. You cropped out a veteran.

“I was (mad), but I guess social media had my back and took it over for me.

“People are saying, ‘You should sue Dean Spanos,’ ” Case added with a laugh. “I wish. I’d bring the team right back to San Diego.

“…But, honestly, the passion is not there. The organization has done so much to destroy it for us. It’s just not the same and it’s never going to be.

“I guess I hope the team sucks this bad for the next five years so they’ll get sold and come back down here.”

A very sad story: 

A veteran who had sought help from a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in New Jersey killed himself in front of the building after his mental health needs were neglected, an investigation has found.

In a report released Wednesday by the VA’s Office of Inspector General, investigators determined that Charles Ingram III, a 51-year-old veteran who fought in the Gulf War, died by suicide last year after receiving inadequate care from the clinic. Missteps by the facility included a lack of communication between the patient and medical professionals and a lack of proper followup. Perhaps the most egregious incident was when Ingram, trying to schedule an appointment, was told he couldn’t be seen for more than three months.

Ingram ultimately took his own life in March 2016 by setting himself on fire in front of the clinic, shortly before his scheduled appointment.

The investigation came at the request of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D), Sen. Robert Menendez (D) and Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R), who wanted the inspector general to “assess concerns that a patient’s insufficient access to timely mental health care may have contributed to the patient’s suicide.”

Trump vs. LaVar Ball is the feud that America needs:

(CNN): President Donald Trump on Sunday shot back at Lavar Ball, the father of one of the UCLA basketball players arrested in China, for belittling the President’s role in the students’ release.

“Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal,” Trump tweeted. “I should have left them in jail!”

Days after Trump touted his involvement in the release of three students who were arrested in China on suspicion of shoplifting, Ball suggested the President had little to do with the matter.

“Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump’s role in the situation. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

The video is tremendous:

Some things are better left in the privacy of one’s home.

But one naked man didn’t feel that way when he was captured on camera pleasuring himself in public at a gas station in front of aghast onlookers.

While it is unknown where the video was filmed it does appear to be in the US.

‘Guys this is what drugs do to you, look at this,’ said the camera man in the brief clip.

‘Look at this guy!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F03fWsN9yZ4

 

He pans the camera to show a man sitting next to a gas station pump, nude and masturbating.

A visibly-stunned man stands in the background wearing a black shirt with a turquoise cross.

‘This is unbelievable, in the middle of a gas station,’ added the camera man.

While it is unknown if the man was actually on drugs, there does appear to be a bottle behind him. It is also unclear if he was subsequently arrested for indecent exposure.

I’m pretty sure he was on drugs. @BKactual