Pentagon UFO chief says alien mothership in our solar system possible

By Zamone Perez

MILITARY TIMES
Thursday

(Canva via Getty)

There is a possibility that extraterrestrial motherships and smaller probes may be visiting planets in our solar system, the head of the Pentagon’s unidentified aerial phenomena research office noted in a report draft shared Tuesday.

“[A]n artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions,” Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, wrote in a research report co-authored by Abraham Loeb, chairman of Harvard University’s astronomy department.

Kirkpatrick, who was appointed as director of the AARO when it was founded in July 2022, previously served as the chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center. The AARO was established to investigate unidentified “objects of interest” around military installations, according to a Pentagon press release.

Loeb, on the other hand, gained notoriety when he proposed our solar system had been traversed by its first extrasolar visitor in October 2017. At that time, the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii detected an object moving at a speed that caused some scientists to suggest that it originated outside our system. The object’s orbit also hinted at other forces besides the sun’s gravitational pull influencing its movement.

Scientists dubbed the object “Oumuamua,” the Hawaiian term for “scout,” which Kirkpatrick and Loeb offer in their research paper as an example of a possible mothership with probe capabilities.

“With proper design, these tiny probes would reach the Earth or other solar system planets for exploration, as the parent craft passes by within a fraction of the Earth-Sun separation — just like ‘Oumuamua’ did,” the authors explained. “Astronomers would not be able to notice the spray of mini-probes because they do not reflect enough sunlight for existing survey telescopes to notice them.”

The research paper — titled “Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” — comes following a month of intense scrutiny of unidentified flying objects, a stirring trend ignited when a Chinese spy balloon captivated the nation by drifting across U.S. airspace. Three additional unidentified objects were subsequently found.

On Feb. 16, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and 12 other senators sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and Deputy Director of National Intelligence Stacey Dixon calling for full funding for the AARO. The Biden administration’s previous funding request for fiscal year 2023 failed to fund anything beyond the office’s basic operating expenses, the lawmakers argued.

“AARO provides the opportunity to integrate and resolve threats and hazards to the U.S., while also offering increased transparency to the American people and reducing the stigma,” the lawmakers’ letter stated. “AARO’s success will depend on robust funding for its activities and cooperation between the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.”

Observation Post is the Military Times one-stop shop for all things off-duty. Stories may reflect author observations.

Alien mothership lurking in our solar system could be watching us with tiny probes, Pentagon official suggests

Hannah Osborne

SPACE.COM
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Artist's illustration of a large alien spaceship above Earth.

Could an alien mothership be hovering around the solar system, sending out tiny probes to explore planets? According to a Harvard scientist and a Pentagon official, it's possible.

In a draft paper, the pair said it is feasible an extraterrestrial spaceship could be in our galactic neighborhood, exploring the region by the means of "dandelion seeds" — small spacecraft that can gather and send back information, similar to the way humans send out spacecraft to explore planets.

Avi Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University, and Sean M. Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) — established in July 2022 by the Department of Defense (DoD) to detect and study "objects of interest" — released the draft, Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, on March 7. It is not an official Pentagon document but was carried out in partnership with the DoD. It has not been peer-reviewed.


Loeb is known for his research into 'Oumuamua — an interstellar visitor from beyond the solar system. Astronomers first detected the cigar-shaped object in 2017 and originally thought it was a comet. However, its elongated shape, its lack of coma (the cloud of gases that envelope a comet), and the fact that it was accelerating away from the sun raised questions about the comet theory. Loeb suggested instead that 'Oumuamua was an alien spaceship.

Six months before 'Oumuamua's close approach to Earth, a small interstellar meteor measuring around 3 feet (1 meter) wide smashed into Earth. This meteor, IM2, was not related to 'Oumuamua, but it got Loeb thinking.

Graphic illustration shows 'Oumuamua as a long and flat space rock against a starry background of space.
The interloper 'Oumuamua continues to puzzle astronomers and astrophysicists. 

(Image credit: Bjorn Bakstad via Getty Images)


That coincidence inspired him "to consider the possibility that an artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions," Loeb told Live Science in an email. "These 'dandelion seeds'... could be separated from the parent craft by the tidal gravitational force of the sun or by a maneuvering capability."

In the draft paper, Loeb and Kirkpatrick looked at Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs, the government's preferred term for UFOs) confined by known physics. The authors suggest the dandelion seed probes could reach Earth for exploration without being detected by astronomers as they would likely be too small to reflect enough sunlight for survey telescopes to detect.

"Equipped with a large surface-to-mass ratio of a parachute, technological 'dandelion seeds' could slow down in the Earth's atmosphere to avoid burnup and then pursue their objectives wherever they land," they wrote.

Aliens would likely want to explore rocky planets with an atmosphere in the solar system, the authors propose. From a distance, Venus, Earth and Mars would all look appealing, with Earth being of greatest interest once aliens found signatures of liquid water. The alien civilization that created the probes would not need to be on the mothership. It would be unlikely that it could even communicate with the probes.

The alien civilization may not even exist anymore. Most stars in the solar system formed billions of years before the sun. A habitable planet with intelligent life could have been sending out probes long before Earth formed. Searching for "resembles checking our mailbox for any packages that may have accumulated over time there, even if the senders are not alive anymore," Loeb said.

Related stories

— Sorry, E.T. fans: Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua isn't an alien spacecraft. It's just passing gas.

— Will we ever know the true nature of 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitor?

— Could a spacecraft 'catch up' to interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua in just 26 years?

Since first suggesting 'Oumuamua was an alien spaceship, Loeb has faced criticism from the scientific community. One Perspective article published in Nature Astronomy in 2019 said the idea ‘Oumuamua was sent to Earth on purpose was "provocative" and "baseless."

In 2021, a letter published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics dismissed the idea on logistical impracticalities of interstellar travel: "Given the likely cosmological timescales required to traverse between stars, we conclude that it is unlikely that 'Oumuamua has been sent by an extraterrestrial civilisation and more likely that it is just an unusually shaped rock, which has happened to wander into the solar system."

Another study, published on March 22, 2023, explains 'Oumuamua's strange movements as the likely result of hydrogen off-gassing — again refuting the alien spacecraft theory.

Still, the Pentagon has taken a renewed interest in studying unidentified objects over U.S. airspace in the previous year. Since the AARO's founding last summer, the office has opened more than 360 new investigations into alleged UAP encounters reported by U.S. military personnel. About half of these have been explained as "balloons or balloon-like entities," while the other half lack sufficient data to conclusively resolve.

I'm a Stanford professor who's studied organizational behavior for decades. The widespread layoffs in tech are more because of copycat behavior than necessary cost-cutting.

Jeffrey Pfeffer
Sarah Jackson
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer says copycat behavior is a key factor in the mass layoffs sweeping tech, finance, and other industries.

Nancy Rothstein

Industries like tech, media, and finance have slashed thousands of jobs in the past few months.


Companies have cited an economic downturn and a drop in demand for the job cuts.


A Stanford professor says there's another simpler reason: Companies are blindly copying each other.


This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. It has been edited for length and clarity.

The idea that human behavior is influenced by what others do is really old. If you're a pedestrian and you see a stop signal, but no cars are coming and somebody steps into the street, you'll probably do it too. It's almost automatic behavior.

We should expect this to also be true in business. A lot of companies were hiring during the pandemic, so everybody decided to hire. Now, companies are laying off, and everybody decided to follow each other and lay people off. A lot of this is just imitation.

Companies don't throw out their capital equipment the minute market turns down. Hiring and firing like this is expensive. First you pay severance, then you go back into the market and pay recruiters and head hunters. You may also pay bonuses to get people to come work for you.

And when the economy turns down, you do this all over again. These are all extra expenses that companies wouldn't incur if they had a long-term idea of how many people they needed instead of hiring and firing with every economic fluctuation. If you think about it, companies are essentially buying high and selling low with their employees, which doesn't make sense.

A lot of companies doing layoffs cite the economic downturn, but many of them aren't going to run out of money if they avoid layoffs. This is a choice.

When people no longer have jobs, their purchasing power and purchasing activity goes down. So these layoffs help create the very economic downturn that they're supposedly protecting against.

The companies also try to justify the layoffs by saying there's been a drop in demand, but you could argue that one of the reasons for that is that all this talk about layoffs has scared everybody. That means fewer companies want to advertise, for example, which affects companies like Meta and Google. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There was a time when companies cut employment only in times of severe economic stringency. But now they've become kind of routine, and there's very little consideration of the harm they cause.

Layoffs have a huge behavioral and physical negative effect on people. So while companies are trying to maintain their margins, they're exacting an enormous human toll.

Layoffs are stressful, and stress leads to a bunch of unhealthy behaviors. People's social identity and friends networks are often tied up with their jobs and where they work. Research has shown layoffs can cause a 15% to 20% increase in death rates for affected workers for the following 20 years, and they can drive the odds of suicide up by two times or more. We as a society will pay for the health consequences of these layoffs.

In many instances, layoffs don't increase stock prices or cut costs. Between things like the cost of severance and the loss of productivity, layoffs have pretty nasty and negative consequences for the company. It's not clear they actually increase profits.

The irony is that these same companies were talking a year ago about people as their most important asset, and now they're treating their employees pretty badly, laying them off via email or by abruptly cutting off their access to the company. These layoffs are a decision that reflects the company's values, and these companies have basically given their employees the middle finger.

US base drops Confederate name, honors decorated Native American soldier

W.G. Dunlop
Fri, March 24, 2023 


The United States on Friday renamed a military base to honor a decorated Native American soldier instead of a general who fought for the pro-slavery breakaway Confederacy.

Previously called Fort Pickett, the 41,000-acre Virginia National Guard installation is the first of nine bases to drop the name of a figure who served the Confederate States of America, which was made up of southern states that seceded and were defeated in the 1861-1865 US Civil War.

The base was renamed after Colonel Van T Barfoot, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, its commander, Colonel James Shaver, said in a ceremony there.

"This will be the first army post in the continental United States to bear the name of a Native American soldier," Shaver said, referring to Barfoot's Choctaw heritage.

Members of Barfoot's family attended the ceremony and helped unveil a sign bearing the base's new name: Fort Barfoot.

"Having his service to this nation memorialized by this redesignation is a tribute to a man who epitomized what is great about our American soldiers," his daughter Margaret Nicholls said.

Barfoot, who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and reached the rank of colonel, died in 2012 at age 92.

He received the Medal of Honor -- the nation's highest military award for valor -- for actions including taking out two German machine gun nests, capturing 17 enemy soldiers, disabling a tank and aiding wounded troops in Italy in 1944.

- 'Step in the right direction' -

The base was previously named for Confederate major general George Pickett, who led three brigades in an assault on Union troops during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg that became known as "Pickett's Charge."

Pickett -- who graduated last in his class from West Point and served in the Mexican-American war before resigning his commission to join the Confederacy -- lost over half his command in the attack, which was ordered by general Robert E Lee.

The Confederacy lost the battle and the war, but Pickett survived both and later worked as a farmer and insurance salesman.

The president of the Virginia NAACP civil rights organization welcomed the renaming of the base.

"Public property should not be named after Confederate folks, so I think it's a good step in the right direction to change it," Robert Barnette told AFP.

Calls to change the names of bases that honor Confederate figures gained momentum during nationwide protests against racism and police brutality that were sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd, an African American man who died at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

In the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021, Congress required the establishment of a commission to plan for the removal of Confederate-linked "names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia" from Defense Department property, and gave the secretary three years to carry out its recommendations.

Then-president Donald Trump opposed the renaming effort, tweeting in 2020 that his administration "will not even consider" changing the names of the bases, which "have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom."

He vetoed the defense bill, but Congress overrode it in a blow to Trump, who by then had lost his bid for presidential re-election to Joe Biden.

wd/st

Empty for years, NYC's famous Flatiron Building — and its weird narrow passages — may get a fresh start with $190M sale

WE HAVE ONE IN EDMONTON SO DOES SAN FRANSISCO, FRANCIS COPPOLA STUDIOS OWNS IT


Empty for years, NYC's famous Flatiron Building — and its weird narrow passages — may get a fresh start with $190M sale

The Flatiron Building has been used as both a retail and office space throughout its 120-year history, and it achieved national landmark status in 1989


Jordan Hart
Sat, March 25, 2023 at 10:16 AM MDT·3 min read

The historic Flatiron Building went to a court-mandated auction on Wednesday after being practically empty for years.

Investor Jacob Garlick outbid previous owners to buy the landmark for $190 million, reports say.

One previous owner predicts renovations will cost Garlick around $100 million.

The Flatiron Building is one of New York City's most recognizable structures, and it now has a new owner after a public auction on Wednesday.

In an auction ordered by the New York Supreme Court, investor Jacob Garlick outbid the building's current owners and other big names in real estate to secure the Manhattan landmark for $190 million, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

Dozens of onlookers gathered in Lower Manhattan to watch the historic building go on the block with an opening bid of $50 million. It went for nearly four times that to Garlick following a 45-minute bidding war.

"It's been (a) lifelong dream of mine since I'm 14 years old. I've worked every day of my life to be in this position," Garlick, managing partner at firm Abraham Trust, told NY1. "We are honored to be a steward of this historic building, and it will be our life's mission to preserve its integrity forever."

The Flatiron Building was completed in the summer of 1902 at 175 Fifth Avenue, and has become an iconic tourist attraction for visitors of New York City. It's known for its triangular shape where the tip of the structure is as narrow as six feet wide.

But, more recently, its interior has been of little use as its previous owners struggled to agree on what renovations and the building's future should look like, per Smithsonian.

According to NY1, its last office tenants left four years ago, and the previous owners spent around $100 million reducing the building's carbon footprint and modernizing the landmark.

One witness to the auction, real estate broker Tom Brady, told NY1 that the sale was an "iconic moment." The last time the building went up for public auction was in 1933, and it sold for $100,000, according to a New York Times report.

"Look, you're talking about one of the most famous buildings in the world — iconic," Brady said. "One of the most photographed manmade structures in the entire world, and I think it's kudos to the new owner."

However, not everyone was thrilled at Garlick's latest acquisition. One of the Flatiron Building's previous owners, Jeffrey Gural of GFP Real Estate, said he wished Garlick "hadn't shown up" to the auction.

"I was kind of shocked, to tell you the truth. I never thought that someone would bid so much for the building. It's a beautiful building, but it needs $100 million of upgrades. It's basically empty," Gural said, according to NY1.

It's currently unclear what Garlick has planned for the 22-story building. Gural, his bidding competitor, told The Real Deal that the 255,000-square-foot property could be worth $1,500 per foot after renovations. Insider did the math, and that could mean the Flatiron will be worth over $380 million someday.

US Trade Rep fires back at GOP House member who said she has 'too nice a smile' to do her job: 'I don't need your pity'

Nicole Gaudiano
Fri, March 24, 2023 

US Trade Representative, speaks during the Senate Finance Committee Hearing on the Presidents 2023 Trade Policy Agenda at the U.S. Capitol on March 23, 2023 in Washington, DC.

• A US House member said the US Trade Representative had "too nice a smile" to do her job.

• Now Katherine Tai is winning kudos on Twitter for her quick response.

• "I don't need your pity. I stand up for the American people," she said.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai is winning kudos on Twitter for her response to inappropriate remarks from from a GOP House member, who said during a congressional hearing that he feels "sorry" for her and  has "too nice a smile" to do her job.

"Well, let me just take off the nice a little bit," Tai said. "I don't need your pity. I stand up for the American people. And when I speak people listen because I represent the interests of the United States."

During a House committee hearing, Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina told Tai that Republicans are frustrated because the US is distracted, China is advancing and it "just does not appear we are moving the needle on trade."

"I personally think you're too nice a person to be in the job that you're in," he said, adding that she's "handicapped" by administrators that she must report to. "Negotiators are usually very, very tough and sometimes mean people. They aren't nice people like you are. And if you look at what's happened with us, we are absolutely handcuffing the United States because we worry more about green things."

The US is at a disadvantage, he said, and "personally I feel sorry for you. You're stuck in the middle of that."

 

Tai laughed at first and said she knows to be nice to members of the House Ways and Means Committee. "I've never been faulted for being too nice," she said.

Then Murphy responded, "You have too nice a smile."

Tai replied, "I also don't need you to feel sorry for me. So, please don't."

Female members of Congress responded to the clip as it made the rounds on Twitter.

"I sat in the room with @AmbassadorTai as we negotiated the strongest labor, environmental, and enforcement provisions in U.S. history. No one is a tougher and more capable negotiator on behalf of America's trade interests and values," tweeted Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, wrote: "You tell 'em sister."

"You don't need his crocodile tears," she added. "Thank you for your tireless work on behalf of our country."

A member of Biden's Cabinet, Tai is the principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on U.S. trade policy.
She previously served as chief trade counsel and Trade Subcommittee staff director for the House Ways and Means Committee and as chief counsel for China trade enforcement at the Office of the US Trade Representative, according to her biography.

She earned degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School and is fluent in Mandarin.

Credit Suisse accessed billions in liquidity last weekend - finance minister

Sat, March 25, 2023 

ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse tapped the Swiss National Bank for "a large multi-billion amount" last weekend to secure its liquidity, the country's finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter told Swiss broadcaster SRF on Saturday.

The troubled Swiss bank had said last week it intended to borrow up to 50 billion Swiss francs from the country's central bank to boost its liquidity.

"Last weekend, a large multi-billion amount was withdrawn by Credit Suisse for liquidity protection," Keller-Sutter said.

She said this was because customers had again withdrawn money, but also because counterparties were demanding guarantees when they are doing business with the bank.

Keller-Sutter said "it is to be assumed" that the figure was above 50 billion Swiss francs ($54.35 billion), but said the Swiss National Bank had the exact number.

"The important thing is that the situation has stabilised," she said.

Last Sunday, UBS agreed to buy its rival Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs in stock and agreed to assume up to 5 billion francs in losses in a merger engineered by Swiss authorities to prevent more market turmoil in global banking.

($1 = 0.9199 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Noele Illien; Editing by Jane Merriman)

Bond giants Pimco and Invesco are facing losses of hundreds of millions on rotten Credit Suisse debt

George Glover
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Some of the world's biggest bond investors have suffered massive losses after Credit Suisse imploded.

NurPhoto/Getty Images

• Some of the biggest names in fixed income are nursing their wounds after Credit Suisse's rescue.

• Bond giants Pimco and Invesco lost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to data from Bloomberg.

• They held Credit Suisse's AT1 bonds – which were marked down to zero by the Swiss regulator a week ago.

Some of the biggest names in fixed income investing have lost millions of dollars following the rescue of Credit Suisse by its rival UBS last week.

Pimco and Invesco both suffered massive losses because they held the failed Swiss bank's Additional Tier 1 bonds, according to data from Bloomberg.

FINMA, which is Switzerland's top financial regulator, marked the value of all Credit Suisse AT1s down to zero when UBS's takeover of the struggling bank was confirmed.

That wiped out 16 billion francs ($17 billion) worth of value overnight – and left the bond giants nursing their wounds.

AT1s, which are also known as contingent convertible bonds or CoCos, are a riskier type of bank bond that offers a higher yield than assets that are typically considered safer, like government debt.

But the reason for those greater returns is that there's more risk attached to them – because the bank can choose to convert them into shares to prop up its capital and reduce its debt if its financial health falls beneath a certain level.

Pimco had $807 million worth of Credit Suisse CoCos written off when the bank was rescued, according to Bloomberg – while Invesco held around $370 million worth of AT1 debt at the time of the takeover.

Asset management giant BlackRock also held Credit Suisse CoCo bonds worth $113 million at the end of last month, per the Bloomberg data, and may have had all of that wiped out Sunday.

Ten individual fixed-income funds also had over $100 million invested in the bank's AT1s, according to a CNBC article that cited data from Refinitiv.

First Trust, Nuveen, and Vanguard also had significant exposure to the CoCo bonds, that data shows.

The litigation firm Quinn Emanuel said Monday that it had put together a team of lawyers and was approaching AT1 bondholders about potentially pursuing legal action over FINMA's move.

But the only comparable previous case suggests that Pimco and Invesco are going to struggle to get their money back.

In 2017, Spain's Banco Popular collapsed and both its shareholders and AT1 bondholders were wiped out as part of its rescue by rival Banco Santander.

Some of the Spanish bank's CoCo bondholders instructed Quinn Emanuel to pursue legal action on their behalf – but failed to win their case against the regulator.

Read more: Credit Suisse's rescue had a sting in its tail for the banking crisis. Here's what you need to know about AT1 bonds.

A home-improvement contractor from Connecticut who went to fight in Ukraine posted a video of his location online, revealing his unit's location, and then admitted he falsified his military record


John L. Dorman
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 3, 2022.

AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File

Infighting has plagued some US volunteers who've fought in Ukraine, per a New York Times report.


The squabbles have not only threatened the war effort, but have exposed deeply consequential lies.


Some volunteers have left the war effort in Ukraine after questions arose about their backgrounds.

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last year, groups of Americans — many of them US military veterans — committed themselves to fight in the conflict to aid the Ukrainian government in battling back Moscow's advances.

But a recent New York Times report detailed how many of those volunteers became mired in infighting, jeopardizing the success of the war effort, while some poured money down the toilet after purchasing less-effective military gear and others have sought to make money off the conflict.

The Times spoke with over 30 volunteers, fighters, and officials in both the US and Ukraine about these situations.

In one case, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel may have potentially exported military technology illegally, while in another case, an ex-Army soldier came to Ukraine to aid in the war effort but later defected to Russia.

And a Connecticut man who went to fight in Ukraine and has posted his location on the battlefield admitted to The Times that he falsified his military record, previously claiming to be a Marine.

While some volunteers who went to Ukraine were killed in the war, the spotlight on the role of volunteers has grown exponentially as the conflict has moved past the one-year mark.

Foreign Legion volunteers in Ukraine.Courtesy of Hieu Le/Facebook

'I had to tell a million lies to get ahead'

In the interviews conducted by The Times, individuals told the newspaper of errors and disputes that have limited the effectiveness of the volunteer effort since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

At the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy encouraged allies to help the country defend itself against Russian forces. While some individuals joined the International Legion, which was created by Ukraine last year as a foreign military unit, others aided in fundraising efforts for the conflict.

However, some individuals who may have otherwise raised red flags were apparently able to embed themselves in the Legion and other groups — blatantly misrepresenting facts about their backgrounds, according to the Times.

James Vasquez, a home-improvement contractor from Connecticut who made waves when he left for Ukraine last year, was hailed as an ex-Army staff sergeant who had decided to aid the country in fighting for its freedom.

But according to The Times, Vasquez not only revealed the exact location of his unit after publishing a video online he misrepresented his service record. Vasquez was never sent to Kuwait or Iraq, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman who spoke with The Times, and apparently misrepresented his duties and rank during his short stint in the Army Reserves.

But Vasquez had no issues gaining access to weaponry while in Ukraine, which included American rifles. But he was unsure where they originated.

"I'm not exactly sure," he told The Times in a text exchange. "We have plenty."

Vasquez fought in Ukraine until last week, when The Times probed him about his military record; he then deactivated his Twitter account and stated that he was considering leaving the country because he had been fighting alongside soldiers without a requisite military contract.

He told The Times that he had been booted from the Army, but would not delve into the reasoning. Still, he revealed that for years he'd been dishonest about his military record.

"I had to tell a million lies to get ahead," he told The Times. "I didn't realize it was going to come to this."

Malcolm Nance, a former United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer and intelligence and foreign policy analyst.  Malcolm Nance

Another major issue that has arisen is wasteful spending, driven not by malice but by individuals unaware of the efficacy of certain tools.

For example, Mriya Aid, which is commanded by a Canadian lieutenant colonel, used roughly $100,000 in donated money to purchase night-vision devices, but they wound up being less effective than ones that were made in China, per documents reviewed by The Times.

After the volunteer group, Ripley's Heroes, had spent roughly $63,000 on night and thermal vision devices, some of the equipment fell under US export restrictions.

And Ripley's Heroes also purchased $25,000 for remote-control reconnaissance cars in 2022, but they have yet to be delivered, tied up by Polish authorities due to legal concerns, the Times reported.
'A verified con artist'

After the International Legion was formed, volunteers were quickly processed in roughly 10 minutes or less, according to a Legion official who spoke with The Times.

Such missteps may have accelerated problems in the unit.

A Polish fugitive who had been imprisoned in Ukraine over weapon violations eventually earned a spot leading troops, according to The Times.

And while Ukrainian officials estimated that there were possibly 20,000 Legion volunteers, that number was officially much smaller.

Individuals with knowledge of the Legion told The Times that there are roughly 1,500 members in the unit. (A recent Vice article detailed how thousands of volunteers have left Ukraine since the start of the conflict.)

One of those members was John McIntyre, a former US Army private first class who was cut from the Legion for "bad behavior," per The Times. He then left for Russia and the outlet said he was purported to have given some kind of intelligence information to Moscow.

Malcolm Nance, an ex-Navy cryptologist and well-known cable news commentator, told Insider's Alia Shoaib and Bethany Dawson that McIntyre was "a highly unstable character" who "was known to be a professional fuckup and mentally ill."

Nance told the paper he came to Ukraine to offer some structure to the Legion. But he became wrapped up in some of the infighting surrounding the conflict, calling out a one-time ally as "fat" and slamming an associate as "a verified con artist," according to The Times.

Nance is no longer in Ukraine but hasn't stopped his fundraising efforts with another group of allies, which includes Ben Lackey, who was once in the Legion.

Lackey told Legion members that he was a Marine and said that he had been an assistant manager at LongHorn Steakhouse. But the Pentagon told The Times that Lackey didn't have any military experience, and the steakhouse chain disclosed that he was a server and not an assistant manager.

While speaking with The Times, Lackey said he had never been a Marine, but revealed he said so in order to become a member of the Legion.

IN CONTRAST SEE:

Meet the motley crew of anarchists and anti-fascists fighting Russia in Ukraine 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/03/meet-motley-crew-of-anarchists-and-anti.html

Why Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other major Dems are going all out for a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin



Nicole Gaudiano
Fri, March 24, 2023 




• Stakes are high in an April Supreme Court election in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

• State abortion rights, districts, and even the 2024 general election hang in the balance.

• Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both weighed in on the race

Normally, you wouldn't see high-profile figures like former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighing in on an upcoming state Supreme Court election.

But the stakes couldn't be higher in the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the outcome on April 4 could determine the future of state abortion rights, congressional district boundaries and even the results — if challenged — of the 2024 presidential election. And Democrats are pouring money and high-wattage endorsements into the race.

A win by Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge backed by Democrats, would give the bench a liberal majority for the first time in 15 years on a court that only narrowly rejected former President Donald Trump's lawsuits attempting to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

"If you don't want to wait in terror for Wisconsin Supreme Court rulings in the final days and hours before and after the election is called in 2024, you want to win the Supreme Court race right now," Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler told Insider.

Big spending and heated debate in a state race

Campaigns and outside groups have spent $27 million overall in the race, as tallied by WisPolitics. That's nearly double that of the previous record for a state Supreme Court seat.

The race has been heated and personal between Protasiewicz (pronounced  "Pro-tuh-say-witz") and Daniel Kelly, a self-described judicial conservative who previously served on the court and was endorsed by Trump in 2020 in his failed bid to retain the seat.

During their only debate, Protasiewicz called Kelly "a true threat to our democracy," saying he advised state Republican Party officials on a fake electors scheme to overturn the 2020 election results. Kelly said she was "lying" and that his advice was a 30-minute conversation.

In testimony to the House committee probing the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the state's former GOP chairman Andrew Hitt said he had "pretty extensive conversations" about fake electors with Kelly, a "special counsel" brought on to advise on "election law matters," the AP noted.

The candidates are running for a 10-year term spanning the next three presidential election cycles and the 2030 redistricting cycle. Wikler said the results could affect control of the US Congress, the Supreme Court, the White House in 2024. He said the race could even determine if the US has "something even vaguely legitimate as an American democracy at all."

The state Democratic Party is helping fund Protasiewicz's campaign while other Democratic power players are working to drive interest in the race.

"It's going to be close, so don't wait until April 4th. Make a plan to vote today," tweeted Obama.

A pinned tweet by Clinton directs her followers to a fundraising page for Protasiewicz, saying she is the "progressive candidate who believes women should be able to make their own health care decisions."

The Republican Party chairman did not respond to a request for comment.

'We have people knocking on doors in the snow'

Republicans clearly have their eye on Wisconsin's 10 Electoral College votes. They will head to Milwaukee for their first primary debate and their 2024 national convention to formally select the party's presidential nominee.

Wisconsin is a battleground state that elected Biden by less than a percentage point in 2020 and Trump by the same margin in 2016. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson won his 2022 reelection by a percentage point and Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is up for reelection in 2024.

With a Democratic governor, the GOP-controlled legislature can't get new legislation concerning voting rights signed into law. But there's a risk that they could try to accomplish that through the courts, Wikler said.

Last election cycle, the court sided with a conservative legal group in ruling that most ballot drop boxes aren't allowed in the state.

"This is the last key thing to ensure that we have a free and fair election in 2024," he said.

A win by Protasiewicz could also mean that Republican-drawn legislative maps could be revisited, which could lead to at least two house seats moving from the GOP column to "very much in play," he said.

Another matter that could come before the court is a 1849 ban on nearly all abortions except for women who are dying.

Protasiewicz has said she supports abortion rights but would rule based on the law. She sparred with Kelly on the issue during their debate. "I can tell you with 100 percent certainty, that 1849 abortion ban will stay on the books" if Kelly is elected, she said. Kelly, endorsed by anti-abortion groups, said she was lying and had "no idea" what he was thinking.

Wikler said the election is as close as Wisconsin will come to having an actual referendum on abortion. "This really profound basic question will be decided by who wins on April 4," he said.

The state party's organizing push is the biggest it has ever mobilized in a spring election, but none can predict who will turn out, he said.

"We have people knocking on doors in the snow all over Wisconsin," he said.

IN AMERIKA ACCEPTING OTHERS IS CONTROVERSIAL

Wisconsin 1st graders were told they couldn't sing 'Rainbowland' by Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus because it was too controversial. The song is about accepting others.

Katie Balevic
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Dolly Parton (L) and Miley Cyrus perform onstage during the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California

.Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

A Wisconsin school district said no to 1st-graders singing a song about acceptance at their spring concert.

School administrators in Wisconsin found the song to be too controversial, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton's "Rainbowland" is the song at the center of the controversy.

Students in a first-grade class in Wisconsin were excited to sing a song about coming together and loving each other by Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus, but school administrators said the song was too controversial.

Preparing for their spring concert, a class of students at Heyer Elementary School in Waukesha, Wisconsin — about 20 miles west of Milwaukee — was planning on singing "Rainbowland," a song by Cyrus and Parton about acceptance and love, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Sarah Schindler, a school parent, told the Times her daughter was excited about the song, which she had never heard before.

"We love Dolly Parton!" Schindler told the Times.

However, administrators quashed the song.

"We can't sing it anymore," Schindler's daughter told her when she came home from school one day, according to the Times.

Schindler told the Times she reached out to her daughter's teacher, Heyer Elementary's principal, and the superintendent of the School District of Waukesha to ask about why the songs were removed, and she was informed that the songs were removed after they were deemed too controversial.

"Rainbowland" includes the lyrics: "Living in a Rainbowland, The skies are blue and things are grand, Wouldn't it be nice to live in paradise, Where we're free to be exactly who we are, Let's all dig down deep inside, Brush the judgment and fear aside, Make wrong things right, And end the fight, 'Cause I promise ain't nobody gonna win."

In a statement provided to Insider by school district superintendent James Sebert, he said the teacher who suggested the song "Rainbowland" checked with the school principal "to determine if the song would be acceptable to use in a first grade concert." When the principal reviewed the song alongside a district policy about "Controversial Issues in the Classroom," they "determined that the song could be deemed controversial in accordance with the policy," the statement said.

At that point, according to the statement, the song "Rainbow Connection" was selected.

Representatives for Parton and Cyrus could not be reached or did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Saturday.

Melissa Tempel, who teaches Schindler's daughter's class, posted on Twitter about the administration's opinion of the song.

"My first graders were so excited to sing Rainbowland for our spring concert but it has been vetoed by our administration. When will it end?" Tempel tweeted earlier this month.

In a later tweet, Tempel said that "Rainbow Connection" – another song that had been nixed, Schindler told the Times – had been reinstated "after parents sent emails to admin."

In a comment to Insider, Tempel said the school district had not provided any additional reasoning for removing "Rainbowland" besides its initial communications that it "could be deemed controversial."

Schindler told the Times that the school board had a "conservative flip" in recent years and has since instituted "some policy changes that have been causing some controversy in our community."

"One of those is a controversial topics policy saying that teachers can't have any kind of signage that could be deemed political," Schindler told the Times. "Discussion of pronouns with students was another thing that came up. And teachers aren't allowed to wear rainbows."

The statement from the school district noted that the Board of Education was not involved in the decision and that the "entire matter has been reviewed and the outcomes are fully supported by the Superintendent."

The school district started spring break on March 25, according to its website.

Read the original article on Insider