GUNNED DOWN IN VEGAS

This just came across my radar screen late last night; a quick double check of the story via Google verified this event . . . S.L.

Eric Scott 1972-2010

Erik Scott was a West Point graduate, Army veteran, MBA graduate of Duke University, and a medical sales rep for Boston Scientific. He was gunned down by three Las Vegas police officers after they responded to a 911 call by Costco store employees reporting a man with a gun, possibly on narcotics, behaving erratically.

Scott was 38 years old, shopping with his girlfriend for items they needed as they moved in together. Unfortunately, those are the only details of the story on which anyone agrees.

To hear the side of the story presented by Scott’s family, friends, and some eyewitnesses, Erik Scott’s death was the result of ignorance and embellishment on the part of the Costco staff, and a combative, deterministic mindset from responding officers.

Other witnesses and the police claim that Eric Scott was armed and acting irrationally, and that his own actions led to his shooting.

What we know for certain is that Scott was in the camping section of the store taking bottles out of their packaging, attempting to determine how many of the bottles would fit in a cooler he was thinking of purchasing. At some point he bent over and his shirt rode up, exposing the pistol he had concealed at the small of his back.

A Costco employee saw the holstered sidearm and told Scott he was not allowed to have the weapon in the store. Scott replied that he had a permit and the right to carry his weapon. He then went back to shopping. The employee called over a manager, who informed a 20-something security guard, who made a 911 call to police.

We do not know precisely what was said in that important call, because the police have refused to release it. We do, however, know from police radio traffic picked up by a scanner that the guard had told police that Erik Scott was armed with a gun, was acting aggressively and erratically, and that he may have been under the influence of drugs.

It must have been a frightening tale: over a dozen police officers responded, along with a helicopter, ambulance, and competing incident command teams.

As the police began to form a massive perimeter outside, Costco managers began evacuating the entire store without apparently explaining why to anyone. As Scott and his girlfriend exited the store he was identified to police officers, who were waiting with guns drawn outside the front door.

A blog from Erik’s family described what happened next:

Erik turned to find three officers facing him, guns drawn, and all three shouting different commands: “Get on the ground!” “Drop your weapon!” “Keep your hands up!” Erik held his hands up, spoke calmly, told them he DID have a concealed firearm and a legal CCW and was an ex-Army officer. His girlfriend was screaming about Erik being a West Point grad, former Army officer, etc. Erik leaned to his left, hands still up, to expose the pistol, and repeated, “I am disarming; I am disarming.” Witnesses say he started to lower his right hand, palm OUT, perhaps intending to remove holster and gun together — but never got the hand below his shoulder, when one of the cops (believed to be William Mosher, who had committed a fatal shooting in 2006) shot Erik in the chest with a .45-caliber semi-automatic weapon. Erik dropped to his knees, clearly in shock, his face a picture of disbelief. He was shot a second time and collapsed. The rest is ugly. The three officers unloaded again, firing a total of seven hollow-point rounds. At least four, possibly five, hit Erik in the back, after he was on the ground and dying.

Two experts hired by Scott’s family examined his body. They claim that of the seven .45 ACP hollowpoint bullets fired into Scott’s body, one was fired through his armpit, suggesting his arm was raised at the time. Four remaining shots were fired into his back. There were no exit wounds, making it all but impossible for police to claim that investigators misread through-and-through wounds.

Metro Police Captain Patrick Neville claimed a different series of events, based in part on the 911 call that police have not released:

"I could clearly hear the officers giving commands to the individual to get him on the ground, hear people yelling and screaming in the background. You could hear the shots being fired. When you listen to that, it definitely sends a chill down your spine."

There are no commands or communications between Erik Scott and police captured on a nine-minute audiotape during which the shooting occurred. Officers not directly in front of the store are heard over the radio establishing a perimeter and trying to block off access to the store’s parking lot. The first indication Scott and the police have made contact is when a officer breaks in to call “shots fired” after Scott is on the ground, already dying or dead.

In another interview, Captain Neville claimed Scott did not listen to police commands:

"He does not comply with that order. He reaches for the weapon, pulls the weapon out . . . uh, at which time the weapon was out of the waistband, the officers — three officers — discharged their weapons."

Others on the scene did not see it that way. Robert Garcia directly conflicts the reports of police:

"I was close enough to see this guy’s face, and to see his hands, and to see his body go down."

Walking just ten feet in front of Erik Scott, Garcia exited the Costco to see officers with guns drawn. He heard an officer yell: “Put it down! Get down!”

Then he claims four shots were fired, and he instantly turned towards the victim:

"After hearing the shots I see the guy going down. I looked at — I saw his hands. His hands had no gun in it. I looked on the ground because — just, I just did that. I looked down and I didn’t see a gun. I saw what I thought were maybe sunglasses. And a pen."

This matches up with several other eyewitness claims that officers William Mosher, Joshua Stark, and Thomas Mendiola fired nearly immediately after shouting conflicting commands at Scott, giving him little or no time to respond. Four other witnesses within 20 feet of the store’s entrance all agree that Scott never brandished a weapon or made a move that could be interpreted as brandishing a weapon.

Please support the Scott Family by following:

http://erikbscott.com
Twitter: @IMOErikBScott
Facebook: In Memory of Erik Scott
YouTube: In Memory of Erik Scott

A coroner’s inquest is to be held next week, but the outcome seems foreordained. In the past 34 years, only one Metro officer has ever been found to have acted improperly out of at least 190 inquests, and that officer wasn’t charged with a crime.

For the record, the Costco did not have signs posted prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons. Scott did not violate any laws in carrying his weapon in the store. It is quite possible that Erik Scott was gunned down without having committed so much as a misdemeanor crime, and that the officers who shot him will be merely the latest exonerated in a long line from an apparently unaccountable police force.

"Welcome to Las Vegas . . ."

". . . LAY FLAT ON THE GROUND AND SPREAD OUT YOUR ARMS AND LEGS!"

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.50 CALIBER AT WORK

Dear STORMBRINGER:
I have a question about the .50 bmg as used in special-purpose military sniper rifles. I read a work of fiction recently that repeatedly asserts that the .50 caliber "destroys people" "blows men apart", and so on. Is this realistic (at a few hundred meters)? I would have thought ball ammunition would put a .50 caliber hole straight through them without slowing down much or expanding much, the way a .458 caliber bullet does when shooting a human-sized animal. Am I wrong?
Sincerely,
Michael


Michael -
Trust me . . . a .50 bullet explodes a head at any range:


Garbage in, Garbage Out is a good way to understand the damage done by any non-exploding (cannon) projectile. Take the energy in foot-pounds striking the victim, subtract the energy of the projectile exiting the victem the result is a very accurate measure of the damage inflicted. A .50 BMG ball round with 10,000 ft lbs of energy exiting a torso with 8500 ft lbs of energy does no more damage than an old 50 cal muzzle loader.

"Destroys people" sounds pretty close, "blows men apart" could be a stretch, it will do considerable damage but stops short of actually cutting you in half like some claim. at any rate, 12,000+ FT/LBS of energy could ruin your day.

Hope this helps - S.L.







"Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair." - Winston Churchill


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The BEST Gun Commercial Ever

ROGUEs GALLERY - TRAITORS

America has had traitors in every war we've had. Here are the Top Ten Traitors of all time:

JANE FONDA

During the height of the Vietnam war in 1972, film starlet Jane Fonda visited Hanoi and collaborated with the North Vietnamese enemy. She condemned all US soldiers as “war criminals”, posed for photographs on North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns wearing portions of Communist uniforms, and repeated Communist propaganda that American prisoners of war were being treated humanely - something only a brainwashed mind-numbed robot could possibly believe. Upon hearing of POW claims of torture, Jane Fonda denounced them as “liars”. She encountered no legal or professional repercussions upon her return to the US, but claims to deeply regret her actions today. How nice for her.

ADAM YAHIYE GADAHN

American-born Adam Yahiye Gadahn (a.k.a. “Azzam the American”) converted to Islam, traveled Afghanistan and served on the Al Qaeda “media committee” as translator, video producer, cultural interpreter and spokesman. His zeal in their propaganda was cartoonish in its intensity, but all too real; Gadahn referred to the United States as “enemy soil” and threatened a terrorist attack on Los Angeles in a 2005 Al Qaeda video. After Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri endorsed the videos the Justice Department indicted Gadahn, the first American accused of treason since World War II. It is believed that “Azzam the American” is now “Azzam the DEAD American” following reports that he was killed by Predator drone strike in January 2008.

ALDRICH AMES

Aldrich Ames began with the CIA during high school, and worked there for almost 36 years until he was discovered to be a Soviet double agent in 1994. He specialized in selling the identities of CIA spies within the KGB, to the Soviets. The damage he caused US intelligence can’t be measured; conservative estimates he exposed over 100 agents, and was directly responsible for at least 10 deaths. A thorough accounting of his finances revealed that he and his wife made over $4.6 million over the course of their espionage career. Ames explained the full extent of his activities as part of a plea bargain to mitigate his wife’s sentence (how gallant). As a result, Ames was sentenced to life in prison, while his wife received 63 months.

TOKYO ROSE

“Tokyo Rose” is a collective nickname applied to several sultry-voiced women who worked for Radio Tokyo during World War II. In between popular songs, these sirens cooed Japanese propaganda designed to make American soldiers nostalgic and homesick. UCLA grad Iva Toguri D’Aquino was the most infamous. An American citizen of Japanese descent, she worked as a Radio Tokyo announcer from 1943-1945. Immediately after the war, D’Aquino was arrested, but released without being charged. Authorities reopened her case with a vengeance in 1948, and she was promptly convicted of treason in 1949. D’Aquino served six years in prison. Throughout her trial she denied any disloyalty to the US, and prosecutors didn’t present a single radio broadcast as evidence against her. In fact, critical testimony against her was later found to be false and coerced, to the extent that President Gerald Ford pardoned D’Aquino in 1977.

AARON BURR

Soldier, adventurer, lawyer, duelist and Vice President of the United States, Aaran Burr was also one of our nation's greatest traitors. Fresh off his duel with Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr's political career was dead in the water. Burr developed a plan to steal a sizable chunk of the new Louisiana Purchase; so he contacted Britain’s ambassador, offering to help Britain take the territory. Then, in a move only a lawyer could dream up, Burr sabotaged his own plans when by sending the infamous “Cipher Letter” to General James Wilkinson - Commander-in-Chief of the US Army - detailing the plot and requesting his services. Wilkinson believed the plan would fail, and ratted him out to President Thomas Jefferson. Thus, on December 9, 1806, the US Army seized most of Burr’s boats and supplies. But Burr knew it was REALLY over when he saw a New Orleans newspaper article with a verbatim copy of the Cipher Letter to Britain. Burr appeared in court and was not initially indicted, but fled when asked to appear a second time. After recapture, he was found not guilty, due to a very precise Supreme Court reading of the Constitution’s definition of treason. He then fled to Europe but returned after four years, living a reclusive life in New York and working as an attorney.

JULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBERG

On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became the first American civilians executed under Section 2 of the Espionage Act. Charges related to passing atomic bomb secrets to Russian agents (the data came from Ethel’s brother, who worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos). Their legal prosecution continues to be controversal; many feel the couple were unfairly convicted. However, recently declassified cables from the Soviet Union’s VENONA project, now support testimony that Julius was, indeed, a courier and recruiter for the USSR. In fact, Morton Sobell, who was tried along with the Rosenbergs (and served 17 years in prison), admitted in 2008 that yes, he was a spy, and that Julius Rosenberg handed atomic bomb information to the Soviets.

ROBERT HANSSEN

Robert Hanssen is a former FBI agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States for 22 years (1979 to 2001). During his espionage career Hanssen compromised scores of investigations and operations, including the surveillance of suspected mole Felix Bloch, and completed an eavesdropping tunnel directly under the Soviet Embassy decoding room. At one time, he even became responsible for apprehending himself, and he passed some of that off to Aldrich Ames (above). Worse, however, were his leaks to the USSR of every KGB agent contacting the FBI— conveniently identifying detected double-agents and prospective defectors alike. The FBI was so flummoxed at finding Hanssen, they had to buy the information to put him away (most of which they already had). Cash and Hanssen’s carelessness eventually led to his capture, and in 2001 he pled guilty to 13 counts of espionage in the United States. He was then sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole, and can be found in America’s “Supermax” prison, where he remains in his cell, alone, 23 hours a day. Many have described his activities as “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history.”

NIDAL MALIK HASAN

U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers and their families at the Fort Hood military base, weeks before scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan. Prior to the shooting, Hasan repeatedly expressed extremist views, most of which had been communicated to his superiors and the FBI. The Feds had even monitored his e-mails to Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, a.k.a. the “Bin Laden of the Internet”. Political correctness prevented the Army from taking action before Hasan murdered 13 people and wounded 30 others. Oddly, the Pentagon makes no mention of Hasan’s Islamism in its entire 86-page review of the incident - despite the fact that during the attack, he was dressed in traditional Muslim clothing and was shouting “Allahu Ackbar”. Hasan is currently under heavy guard at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Houston, Texas, reportedly paralyzed from the chest down.

JOHN WALKER, JR.

In 1967 Navy communications officer John Walker, Jr. walked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington DC and offered to sell secrets. He then handed over settings for the KL-47 cipher machine, which decoded sensitive US Navy messages. His motivations were purely financial; over the next 17 years, Walker gave the KGB the locations of all American nuclear submarines, the launch procedures for US nuclear missiles in the event of war, the locations of underwater microphones tracking Soviet nuclear submarines,every American troop and air movement to Vietnam from 1971-1973, and the planned sites and times for U.S. airstrikes against North Vietnam, which they passed this on to their Communist allies. A family man and an enterprising team player, Walker recruited his older brother Arthur, a Lt. Commander in the Navy, his son Michael, his wife and fellow Navy Warrant Officer Jerry Whitworth into his spy ring.
According to Vitaly Yurchenko, a KGB defector, “It was the greatest case in KGB history. We deciphered millions of your messages. If there had been a war, we would have won it.”

BENEDICT ARNOLD

His name is synonymous with disloyalty. During the Revolution, Arnold was a general officer in the Continental Army, but later defected to the British Army. In September 1780, as Commander of West Point he offered to surrender the fort over to the British. Arnold’s plan unraveled when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers revealing the proposed surrender of West Point. Arnold fled to a British ship docked on the Hudson river, narrowly escaping the forces of one highly pissed off George Washington. After the plot came to light, Arnold joined the British Army as a brigadier general, with a sizable pension and £6,000 signing bonus. Many believe that he was frustrated at being passed over for promotion, by others taking credit for his achievements, and groundless accusations that he exacted private property for the use of the Army. In fact, Congressional investigations later found Arnold had spent much of his own money on the American war effort. Britain quickly secured Arnold’s services, and he led British raids in Virginia, New London and Groton, Connecticut, before the war ended with the American victory at Yorktown. Arnold died in London; incredibly enough, there is a monument dedicated to his heroic actions on behalf of the Continental Army, prior to his betrayal.


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DARWIN AWARDS

These are from the actual Darwin Awards site:


Who would park the car on a busy freeway in heavy fog, for a quickie?

Picture this: A young couple driving on Via Dutra, the major freeway in Brazil with tons of heavy traffic, at 6AM under heavy fog the couple decided to park the car for "dating" according to the charming Google translation. And yes, they parked in the right lane of freeway, not on the shoulder or at a gas station - and naturally, a huge cargo truck comes by and runs right over the car, immediately killing both inside during the act. Double Double Darwin! Two (2) people making two obviously stupid decisions, and natural selection acts at the very moment the two are reproducing . . . Textbook Darwin Award.


Glacier Erasure

In the late fall and early winter months, snow-covered mountains become infested with hunters. One ambitious pair climbed high up a mountain in search of their quarry. The trail crossed a small glacier that had crusted over. The lead hunter had to stomp a foot-hold in the snow, one step at a time, in order to cross the glacier.

Somewhere near the middle of the glacier, his next stomp hit not snow but a rock. The lead hunter lost his footing and fell. Down the crusty glacier he zipped, off the edge and out of sight.

Unable to help, his companion watched him slide away. After a while, he shouted out, "Are you OK?"

"Yes!" came the answer.

Reasoning that it was a quick way off the glacier, the second hunter plopped down and accelerated down the ice, following his friend. There, just over the edge of the glacier, was his friend . . . holding onto the top of a tree that barely protruded from the snow.

There were no other treetops nearby, nothing to grab, nothing but a hundred-foot drop onto the rocks below. As the second hunter shot past the first, he uttered his final epitaph: a single word . . .


Burdens of our Fathers

(April 2010, Romania) A thirty-five-year-old man from Braila was only trying to fix a broken soil tamper, a tool his father had made himself and used for decades. The metal handle of this family heirloom had rusted loose and our man was trying to weld it back into position, but unfortunately he was welding the metal rod onto an antique WWII cannon shell.

Yes, the family had been banging a cannon shell against the garden dirt for two generations!

Specialists from the Bucharest ISU (General Institute for Emergency Situations) stated that the first weld had been made in a harmless position, but the second weld was made in exactly the wrong spot. The heat triggered the shell to explode, mortally wounding the man. In his defense, he was sure the projectile was harmless because his father had used it to compact earth for almost 40 years.

If one generation doesn't get it right, the next does.


Barrel Ride, with Flames!

(19 July 2010, Washington) Two out-of-town race car crew were at a machine shop that builds and services race cars, when they dreamed up an unusual thrill ride. Fire Chief Dean Klinger reported that on Sunday evening, the men poured four gallons of methanol into a 55-gallon barrel in the parking lot, sat on top of the barrel, and lit it.

The men were in the town of Sedro-Woolley (pop. 10,000) to participate in the American Sprint Car Series at Skagit Raceway. Apparently they thought the barrel would slide across the parking lot like a rocket sled, with a tail of flame shooting out, and two rodeo clowns sitting on top, waving their caps and hooting. But instead of sliding across the pavement, the barrel blew up beneath them. Who woulda thunk that 4 gallons of methanol inside a 55-gallon drum would be a bomb?

The explosion was so powerful that one end of the barrel landed 120 feet away from the blast site. The two geniuses landed in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Racing folks are smart people with a high degree of mechanical ability. The work is risky, but this was not a random "shop accident." Rather, it was a dangerous and ill-conceived stunt by two bored men who were hoping to find some fun in the small town of Sedro-Woolley. Instead of fun, one man lost his life, and a second survived with a sober lesson on the power of combustion.


Epitaph: She Liked Feathers

22 Feb 2009, Devon, UK. Location: A seaside town, a coastal trail. Fencing was in place to protect people from falling off the path, but this protective barrier was no match for the allure of a feather blown by the breeze . . . just out of reach. A woman in her forties climbed that fence and chased the elusive feather right off a seaside cliff.


Double Parking

10 December 2009, Philippines: This small island nation has already produced several of the most illustrious Darwin Award winners. Intelligence Blunders: National Bureau of Investigation agents cop a smoke in a room full of seized explosives, and Home Grown Parachute: An airplane hijacker robs passengers then bails out with an untested homemade parachute. Now the Philippines have produced that rare oddity, the Double Darwin Award.

We begin with Francisco C. and Ronaldo C., two businessmen who own restaurants adjacent to one another on Apacible Boulevard in Batangas. Their tempers erupt over a poorly parked car.

One has partially blocked the door to the other's establishment, and this does not sit well. Heated words are exchanged, a fistfight breaks out! But bystanders pacify the fighters, and the situation is defused. Or is it?

Each man retreats to his respective car, pulls out a gun, and shoots the other - killing both. Francisco suffered two bullet wounds to his chest, Renaldo was shot once beneath his arm. Francisco, 41, and Ronaldo, 39, two enemies brought together in death - much to their own chagrin.


Tiny Electric Fence

10 January 2010, Brazil: An electrical discharge made toast of municipal guard Arthur de Souza Coelho, 47, on Sunday evening. According to police reports, he had installed a tiny electric fence around his car to protect against the frequent robberies that occur in his neighborhood in Belem, Para. Then (direct translation from Portuguese) "he forgot that he had left the fence on and he ended dying with the electric shock."

After all, we are all dying, but some end sooner than others.


Carbidschieten

1 January 2010, Netherlands: Every now and then a completely new window into the world opens before our eyes. Here we have rural Dutch families enjoying their traditional winter sport, carbidschieten, or Carbide Shooting. It's a ridiculously dangerous machine akin to a potato gun, designed to hurl projectiles from the mouth of a metal milk can.

Carbide shooting, that wacky Dutch New Year's tradition, begins with moistening calcicum carbide and placing it in a large milk container. The damp CaCb emits acetylene (ethyne) gas which builds up inside the container. Then a spark is supplied, causing the pressurised gas bomb to blow the lid (or packing) off the milk jug.

Our nominee, a 54-year-old male, was having the time of his life - right up until the moment he poured a container filled with liquid oxygen over a fire to "flare it up" - and the container obligingly exploded.


Self-Defeating Insurance Fraud

1 November 2009, Belgium: Police received a desperate call from a man who had been attacked on a motorway near the town of Liege. When the policemen arrived, they found Thierry B., 37, lying dead on the ground, his body stabbed, his car burning. Witnesses had seen a big truck driving away.

But there was no evidence of fighting or struggling around the body - only the knife wounds on his shoulder and neck. Puzzled, inspectors analysed Thierry's cell phone calls. He had recently reconnected with an old friend, a fact that intrigued Inspector Clouseau. I mean, Commissioner Lamoque. Childhood friend, lost sight of for ten years, back in touch? Lamoque asked the 42-year-old friend in for a chat about the roadside aggression.

Turns out the dead man was aggrieved regarding insurance money he felt was owed, but never paid, after his restaurant burned two years before. He had asked his old friend to bring him a knife and a jerrycan of fuel, and leave him alone on the motorway: a man with a plan to get the insurance money one way or another.

The "victim" then set his car on fire, called police, and stabbed himself, accidentally cutting an artery in his own neck. By the time his simulated act of violence was over, he was over too, face against the ground ten yards from his burned car. Roll credits on this little drama.

"Mock aggression mocks death"


Teeming With Crocodiles

1 January 2010, South Africa: Let's just say it was a short New Year for Mariska B., 27, a waitress and former swimmer.

According to a long-time resident of Phalaborwa, locals know, "You don't even put a toe in the river. It's teeming with crocodiles and hippos." This local, on her third refreshing dip of the day, didn't have time to scream or struggle. Friends saw just a ripple on the water where seconds before she had been swimming.

Did I mention that swimming was strictly prohibited? Police searched for Mariska's body with long poles, and with the chemical detectors known as sniffer dogs, but found nothing. The cycle of life continues.

SIDEBAR: Olifants = Elephant


"Dedicated to the memory of those persons who improve the human genome by accidentally removing themselves from it."

BLOOD MONEY

Cindy Lohman’s son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.


Get this - the Government insurance plan: they recruit you, train you, insure you, ship you around the world and when you get your head blown off, then they get that last inch of blood out of the stone by profiteering off of the blood money:


Veterans Agency Made Secret Deal Over Benefits

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enabling Prudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.



Since 1999, Prudential has used so-called retained-asset accounts, which allow the company to withhold lump-sum payments due to survivors and earn investment income on the money for itself.



OOOPS! Oh H-E-E-E-Y-Y-Y-!-!-! We're SORRY . . . we conveniently FORGOT TO TELL YOU we're making millions in interest and investments off the money that belongs to your survivors!


“It’s very clear they violated the original terms of the contract,” says Bridgeland, who is retained by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners
to represent consumers.

“Every veteran I’ve spoken with is appalled at the brazen war profiteering by Prudential,” says Paul Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War as an Army cavalry scout and is now executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.


The U.S. Government mothballs ships and tanks, assorted small arms weaponry, equipment, even rucksacks and web gear, for cannibalization or sale to foreign militaries. Now we see an ghoulish angle of this kind of pragmatism:


Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit

The “checkbook” system cheats the families of those who die, says Jeffrey Stempel, an insurance law professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who wrote ‘Stempel on Insurance Contracts’ (Aspen Publishers, 2009).


A sample "check" for a Prudential retained asset account. Photographer: David Evans/Bloomberg


‘Bad Faith’

“It’s institutionalized bad faith,” he says. “In my view, this is a scheme to defraud by inducing the policyholder’s beneficiary to let the life insurance company retain assets they’re not entitled to. It’s turning death claims into a profit center.”


This thing stinks. This is absolutely disgraceful. In my view, this is only a few steps away from what the Nazis did: harvesting gold teeth, eyeglasses, wristwatches, jewelry, furs, clothing and shoes from gassed concentration camp inmates - their own citizenry.

What's even more mind-boggling is how on Earth are they going to sort this thing out? Think about it; there's the profits themselves to be divvy'd and distributed to fallen soldier's families. Then there's the amounts that insurance company executives and managers realized in bonuses, and then there's dividends to the stockholders; a significant percentage of these payouts should rightfully go to the survivors. But how to possibly calculate these amounts?

Anybody out there still think the Government is going to TAKE CARE OF YOU? Hmmm? HHHMMMMMMMMM ? ? ?

"If you expect the Government to take care of you, you're gonna get what the American Indian got." - Sergeant Major Loclomancil, US Army Special Forces and full-blooded Payute.


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USMC FORCE RECON TAKES DOWN PIRATE SHIP

This heroic operation took place last week . . . -S.L.




Over a 48 hour period, the 15th MEU/PELARG team conducted offensive air operations in Afghanistan resulting in the deaths of 5 confirmed enemy fighters, provided disaster relief in Pakistan to 120 victims who had been without aid since July, and seized a pirated vessel, rescuing a crew of 11 hostages and detaining 9 suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia. A busy couple of days and an impressive battle-rhythm by any standard for this dynamic Navy-Marine Corps team.


Read it here


"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." - Ronald Reagan.