Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalUkraine's Death-Defying Raids Right Under Putin's Nose
Ihor and Andriy’s helicopters flew under cover of dawn and fog deep into enemy territory. “We came from the sea to avoid being spotted by Russian defenses, flying at altitudes of less than 10 meters… it is extremely dangerous because you can run into power lines or trees,” Andriy told The Daily Beast while puffing on a cigarette in a training ground near the city of Lviv. Ukrainian servicemen generally do not give last names for security reasons. Despite being only 22, Andriy has already flown more than 30 secret missions in the world’s most dangerous airspace. “We were flying into Mariupol at the height of the siege [in April last year],” he said.
Their mission was considered impossibly risky when it was first proposed and—perhaps because it was so audacious and unexpected—it was working. For weeks, the Russians had surrounded the port city of Mariupol, trapping resolute defensive forces in the Azovstal steelworks. With no way in or out of the city by land, the only way to resupply the defenders was by air, a death-defying infiltration that required them to get in and out across 70 miles of Russian-controlled territory.
The exhausted soldiers were astonished when the pilots landed, having expected to be trapped with no possibility of escape or resupply. In a trip lasting under an hour, they unloaded supplies of food and ammunition, and picked up wounded soldiers for extraction to free Ukrainian territory.
The Russians soon realized what was happening—several helicopters on later missions to Azovstal were shot down, and the missions were canceled. Ihor and Andriy’s missions were a reminder of Ukrainian heroism in what seemed like impossible circumstances, and the country’s determination not to leave its people behind.
These helicopters, many of them rickety-looking decades-old designs that date from Soviet times, were not supposed to still be flying. A Russian missile barrage on the first day had smashed into Ukraine’s air bases throughout the country, putting many of the newer choppers out of commission. But the pilots had been listening to American pleading, and at the last moment had moved their best assets out of danger. A year and a half into the war, they are still fighting the Russians for control of the sky.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukraine-pulled-off-death-defying-raids-right-under-putins-nose?ref=home
Imagine what they could do with real helicopters...if the MAGAts in Congress would just get off their asses!
Maine Police Feared Confronting Lewiston Gunman Weeks Before Deadly Mass Shooting
Police in Maine feared that confronting an Army reservist in the weeks before he killed 18 people in the state’s deadliest mass shooting would “throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas,” according to video released Friday by law enforcement.
The footage, which was released to the Portland Press Herald and then sent to The Associated Press, documents a call between Sagadoc County Sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Skolfield and Army Reserve Capt. Jeremy Reamer. Skolfield was following up with Reamer about the potential threat posed by Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist from the Lewiston area who carried out the Oct. 25 attacks at a bowling alley and a restaurant.
Skolfield mentioned Maine’s yellow flag law, which can be used to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, after Reamer said Card had refused medical treatment after his hospitalization during his Army service.
Reamer echoed the idea that officers could get hurt if they went further to make sure Card wasn’t a threat: “I’m a cop myself. ... Obviously, I don’t want to want you guys to get hurt or do anything that would that would put you guys in a compromising position have to make a decision.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/maine-shooter-robert-card-police-footage_n_6585de2ce4b03e698a135a38
Chickenshit when it comes to this, but happy to shoot into a car. This is what's wrong with cops nationwide.
A Mississippi mother was shot in the head after police opened fire during a car chase
The last thing Sherita Harris remembers before a bullet tore into the back of her head is a friend saying the police were pulling them over.
She woke up in the hospital three days later, her face swollen and mangled.
More than a year has passed since the Aug. 14, 2022, shooting. Harris says she struggles to see, to hear, to eat, to mother her children. At a news conference Wednesday announcing a $3 million lawsuit against Mississippi authorities, Harris said she still doesn’t understand what happened.
“Why did I get shot?” Harris asked through tears. “This changed my life forever. I can never be me, so money don’t cover it.”
Her search for answers and accountability led her to file the lawsuit in federal court in Jackson against the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the Mississippi Capitol Police and two officers involved in a traffic stop that erupted into gunfire and injured her.
Harris was a passenger in a car the officers tried to pull over in downtown Jackson that August night, the lawsuit states. Harris’ lawsuit accuses both officers of excessive force and says they had a duty to avoid “shooting blindly into a moving vehicle.” They should have known, the lawsuit states, that it was unsafe and violated the Capitol Police’s policies.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-capitol-police-jackson-shooting-head-mother-rcna93833
So "failing to stop for a red light" is an excuse to shoot into a car? Mississhitty Goddam!
Four teens sue San Francisco and police chief over mass arrest of youths at 'Hill Bomb' skateboarding event
Every year, throngs of youths descend upon San Francisco’s Mission District for a skateboarding event, but this year festivities ended in chaos with police arresting over 100 young people — some as young as 13 — and leaving them in the streets with no food, water or chance to use the bathroom for hours, a new lawsuit claim.
Four youths, aged 13 to 17, have filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against the city of San Francisco and police personnel alleging wrongful detainment and violation of rights at the "Dolores Hill Bomb" event.
"Hill Bomb," a gathering organized by high school students to celebrate the city's skateboarding culture, unfolded on July 8 down Dolores Street near the city's Dolores Park.
By evening, more than 100 San Francisco Police Department officers descended upon the event, sealed off the streets and "corralled and trapped" the crowd without "giving notice, warning, or opportunity to disperse," The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), which filed the suit, said in a news release.
That's a violation of police's crowd control policy which demands that there be “time to disperse," and an announcement of "a safe, clear route" for people to exit, the suit filed in the Northern District of California on Tuesday said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/four-teens-sue-san-francisco-police-chief-mass-arrest-youths-hill-bomb-rcna130931
And we should "respeck their authoritah" exactly WHY? Tell me again...
Trump on 'poisoning the blood' remarks: 'I never knew that Hitler said it'
Former President Donald Trump on Friday defended his recent remarks about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of America, saying he never knew it was language used by Adolf Hitler.
Trump's assertion that he didn't know Hitler used similar phrasing in his manifesto, "Mein Kampf," came after the former president made the comments last weekend, drawing comparisons to the genocidal Nazi dictator — and then repeated the term several more times.
In an interview Friday, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Trump if he used "poisoning the blood" in the same way Hitler meant it — that Jewish blood cannot be part of German blood.
"No, and I never knew that Hitler said it, either, by the way," Trump said. "And I never read 'Mein Kampf.' They said I read 'Mein Kampf.' These are people that are disinformation, horrible people that we’re dealing with. I never read 'Mein Kampf,'" the former president added.
Asked whether he intended the term to have a racist sentiment, Trump said, "Dear, no."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-poisoning-blood-remarks-never-knew-hitler-said-rcna130958
Yeah right. He just regurgitates what Stephen Miller tells him to, and you can bet Stevie boy has read all this stuff!
Violent online rhetoric heats up after the Colorado ballot ruling on Trump
Violent rhetoric is up in some online spaces where supporters of former President Donald Trump are reacting to news that he is ineligible to appear on Colorado's primary ballot.
Personal information, including phone numbers and addresses, of the Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled against Trump are circulating on some far-right platforms. So, too, are calls for his base to take up arms.
"We saw trending the terms 'insurrection' and 'civil war' really within hours of the Colorado decision," said Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit public interest research group based in Washington, D.C.
To extremism researchers who monitor online spaces for indications of planned violence, the uptick is not surprising. Since Trump left the White House and as he has come under greater legal pressure relating to his personal businesses and the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, these spikes have become somewhat predictable and more frequent.
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221031783/colorado-trump-ruling-violent-online-rhetoric
Every single one of these dumbasses should get a knock on their door...."Hello, we're from the FBI"
A senator wants the Marines to explain why wounded troops weren't told the truth
Elena Zurheide was relaxing at her home in Camp Pendleton, Calif., due to deliver her first child. It was April 12, 2004. On the other side of the world, her husband, Rob, lay dying.
A U.S. Marine mortar had sailed through the sky and dropped nearly on top of him, inside a dusty courtyard of a school in Fallujah, Iraq, where he and other members of his Marine unit were hunkered down, fighting insurgents.
But when a Marine officer came and knocked on Elena's door, he didn't say her husband and two others had been killed that day by a horrible mistake. He told her Rob was killed by enemy fire.
The Marines finally acknowledged it was friendly fire three years later, under pressure from Congress, but Elena still has questions.
"All of this is a big fat lie," she says. "Why did they keep it secret to begin with?"
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221101449/senator-wants-marines-to-explain-why-wounded-troops-werent-told-the-truth
So typical. Just like Pat Tillman.....
Secret Service Probes Actor's Call for Biden Hanging
It’s been a whirlwind 48 hours for former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider.
The eventful few days began with his winning second place on The Masked Singer and was bookended by scrutiny from the United States Secret Service over a call for President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, to be “publicly hung.”
Just hours after his Masked Singer appearance aired, Schneider took to X to air his grievances with the president.
“Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung. Your son too,” Schneider tweeted. “Your response is..? Sincerely, John Schneider.”
Biden didn’t appear to take notice, but his security detail did. The Secret Service opened a probe into Schneider’s remark, DEADLINE reported, potentially opening the actor up to serious charges.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-service-probes-john-schneiders-call-for-biden-to-be-publicly-hung
Lock him up!
For the third year in a row, ACA health insurance plans see record signups
The Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces appear set to break a record for the number of Americans enrolled, for the third year in a row.
More than 19 million people have signed up for the insurance plans often called Obamacare, and there are still three more weeks of enrollment, federal health officials said Wednesday.
On Dec. 15, HealthCare.gov – the online portal where people shop for and buy plans in most states – had 745,000 people enroll in plans. It was the biggest day for the portal since it opened a decade ago, health officials said.
"Four out of five people who are shopping are ending up getting a plan on the marketplace website for $10 or less a month in premiums," Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra tells NPR. "You can't go see a movie for $10. Here's one month of health care coverage for $10 or less."
The 19 million number includes Americans who buy health insurance in state-based marketplaces like CoveredCalifornia, and people who live in the 33 states that use the federal marketplace. More than 15 million have already signed up in those states, which is about 4 million more than this time last year.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/12/20/1220621785/for-the-third-year-in-a-row-aca-health-insurance-plans-see-record-signups
And "everybody hates Obamacare"? I don't think so!
'The Color Purple' Removed From Schools Under New Florida Law
Classics like 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost and Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World are among 673 books removed from Orange County, Florida, classrooms in wake of a new state law that requires schools to remove “sexual content” from their shelves.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that some books among the hundreds of titles—including bestsellers and those previously taught in high school such as The Color Purple and Catch-22—are at least temporarily banned until district staff can give them a second review.
Orange County Public Schools began compiling its list of targeted books this summer to comply with House Bill 1069, which passed the Republican-controlled Legislature, was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, and is an expansion of the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
At a Dec. 12 school board meeting, the Sentinel reports, one board member said media specialists were under “great fear” because of the laws that hold them liable for classroom library titles and were thus engaging in “over censorship.”
“It’s creating this culture of fear within our media specialists and even teachers who just want to have a library in their classrooms, so kids have access,” said former elementary teacher and board member Karen Castor Dentel.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-color-purple-removed-from-school-classrooms-under-new-florida-law
FloriDUH...tne Stoopid State. Yeah, it USED to be the Sunshine State!
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