by | Jan 29, 2024 | Aggregate
Source: Daily Mail
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced an unexpectedly hostile reception at the AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens.
Despite her longstanding support for the Ravens, Pelosi was met with boos from fans upon her arrival at the stadium, the Daily Mail reported.
Accompanied by her husband, Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi stepped out of a black SUV on Sunday afternoon, ready to watch the highly anticipated game. A security guard attempted to keep the crowd in check, but the sounds of boos were clearly heard as the couple, both avid Ravens supporters, made their way into the venue.
The unwelcoming greeting contrasted with the Pelosis’ personal investment in the team.
Last year, after Paul Pelosi was the victim of a violent attack at home, one of his initial remarks upon regaining consciousness centered on the Ravens’ victory. Nancy Pelosi recounted to CNN that his first words were a cheerful note about their favorite team’s success.
“The first thing he said: ‘Oh, your mother’s going to be very happy because the Ravens won last night,’” Pelosi said. “Baltimore, you know, I have Baltimore connections.”
A native of Baltimore, Pelosi’s long-standing representation of San Francisco has often put her in a position of split loyalty between the Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, per the Daily Mail.
The Kansas City Chiefs emerged victorious against the Baltimore Ravens with a score of 17-10 in their recent matchup. This win has led the Chiefs to secure a spot in the Super Bowl.
The game was highlighted by Pfizer-sponsored Travis Kelce’s performance for the Chiefs, with 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown, significantly contributing to their victory.
The Kansas City Chiefs will be competing against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. The game is set to take place in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium. The Super Bowl is scheduled for February 11, 2024.
The post Crazy Nancy Pelosi Booed at Chiefs vs. Ravens Game in Baltimore with Husband Paul Pelosi appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Jan 29, 2024 | Aggregate
In a surprising turn of events, the ‘bittwersweet’ triumph by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA has taken a turn for the better, as the SLIM spacecraft has regained power.
The module performed a historical and very precise lunar landing a a little over a week ago, but ran out of electricity because it ‘ended up upside down in the moon surface’, with solar panels facing the wrong direction.
Read: Japan’s SLIM Lands on Lunar Surface, but a Problem in the Sun Panels Will Cut the Mission Dramatically Short
But on late Sunday (28), JAXA finally re-established communication with its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).
The spacecraft touchdown made Japan the fifth country to put a spacecraft on the moon, after the Soviet Union, the US, China and India.
The probe was able to generate power again thanks to a change in the sunlight’s direction, JAXA said.
Reuters reported:
“!SLIM resumed its operations to analyze the composition of olivine rocks on the lunar surface with its multi-band spectral camera, in search of clues about the origin of the moon, the agency added.
SLIM touched down on the moon within 55 m (180 ft) of its target in a crater near the lunar equator on Jan. 20. JAXA said it proved an advancement in what it called vision-based ‘pinpoint’ landing – a technology that could be a powerful tool for future exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a possible source of fuel, water and oxygen.
SLIM lost the thrust of one of its two main engines shortly before the touchdown for unknown reasons and ended up drifting a few dozen meters away from the target. The lander safely stopped on a gentle slope but appeared toppled with an engine facing upward in a picture taken by a baseball-sized wheeled rover it deployed.”
Read: Waiting for the Sun: Solar Cells Face the Wrong Direction, Japanese Slim Lander ‘Put to Sleep’ on the Moon – Sunshine From the West May Salvage Mission
SLIM’s solar panels ended up facing westward and could not immediately generate power. JAXA turned off the dying battery 2 hours and 37 minutes after the touchdown, as soon as it completed the transmission of the lander’s data to the earth.
JAXA has said that the lander was not designed to survive a lunar night, which begins on Thursday.
The Guardian reported:
“The probe, nicknamed the ‘moon sniper’, had tumbled down a crater slope during its landing on 20 January, leaving its solar batteries facing in the wrong direction and unable to generate electricity.
[…] ‘Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with Slim, and resumed operations’, Jaxa said on Monday. ‘We immediately started scientific observations with MBC [multi-band camera], and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation’, it said, referring to the lander’s spectroscopic camera.”
The lander achieved the historical goal of landing within 100 meters of its target, touching down only 55 meters away, more precisely than the usual landing zone range that experts put at several kilometers.
Read more:
OH, NO: Japanese SLIM Lunar Lander Is Upside Down on the Moon Surface!
The post SLIM IS BACK: Upside Down Japanese Moon Lander Recharged Batteries and Resumed Lunar Mission appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Jan 29, 2024 | Aggregate
Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma has been scolded by the Oklahoma Republican Party for what the party said was his support of a deal that will be produced in the Senate to address concerns about the leaky Southern Border.
The bipartisan deal, which is not yet final, would hand President Joe Biden the authority to shut the border when it is considered to be overwhelmed, according to Politico.
Former President Donald Trump has voiced his opinion in a Truth Social post that read, “A BAD BORDER DEAL IS FAR WORSE THAN NO BORDER DEAL!”
Lankford, who has been the lead Republican negotiator on any Senate agreement that is developed, told CBS he is upbeat about the deal.
“I do feel very positive about it because even the initial feedback has been good,” Lankford told “Face the Nation,” adding that criticism of the deal is based on “internet rumors.”
But back home in Oklahoma, storm clouds are brewing over the deal. Republican state Sen. Dusty Deevers posted on X the text of the resolution slapping Lankford’s knuckles for his role in the deal.
“Resolution Condemning & Censoring Senator Lankford’s Open Border Deal” as approved by the OKGOP State Committee members on January 27, 2024. pic.twitter.com/peVqHAfIpt
— Dusty Deevers (@DustyDeevers) January 27, 2024
The resolution opens by saying Lankford is partnering with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in “an open border deal to allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day to enter and work in the United States.”
It adds that Lankford “playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy not only disenfranchises legal immigrants seeking citizenship, but it also puts the safety and security of Americans in great danger.”
The resolution says that “authorizing several thousand people to invade our border before any action can be taken is contrary to the oath that Senator Lankford took to the Constitution and therefore outside of the area that he is authorized to negotiate in.”
The resolution says that the state’s Republican Party “strongly condemns Senator James Lankford, if and to the extent that he continues these actions, and calls upon him to cease and desist jeopardizing the security and liberty of the people of Oklahoma and of these United States.”
Further, it says that “until Senator Lankford ceases from these actions the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him.”
Trump ally Roger Stone chastised Lankford on X.
.@SenatorLankford went from being a border hawk before the last Republican senatorial primary to being in favor of allowing more than 5000 illegals to cross every day. What do they have on him ? pic.twitter.com/WEL3kXgc7V
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) January 28, 2024
The diminutive Senator from Oklahoma Lil’ @SenatorLankford is being blackmailed over his cover up of Child sex abuse at Falls Creek to support open borders -Oklahomans must demand his resignation! #Oklahoma https://t.co/qNmhheR2Ef
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) January 28, 2024
Former GOP state Chairman Anthony Ferate said in a post on X that the meeting was not legally convened.
“Today an extreme faction of the @officialOKGOP held a meeting without providing an official call to all members of the State Committee, including me, to attack Senator @jameslankford. Any vote taken by the OKGOP today was not legitimate and definitely does not represent the voice of all Oklahoma Republicans,” he wrote.
In a statement, party vice chairman Wayne Hill said the state committee is “committed to holding elected Republicans accountable to the standards set forth in the OKGOP platform which supports limited legal immigration,” according to Newsweek.
“It is our hope that Sen. Lankford will acknowledge the direction of the state committee and do all in his power to defend our border from the current invasion,” he said.
Hill noted the divide in the party, saying, “the grassroots movement in Oklahoma is strong and growing, because we take action and not provide empty promises.”
Hill called Ferate “a protector of the old guard of establishment Republicans” and “out of touch with the pulse of our OKGOP state committee membership.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post State GOP Condemns Their Republican Senator for Bipartisan Border Deal, Threatens to Go Further if He Doesn’t Back Out appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Jan 29, 2024 | Aggregate
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has uncovered a massive procurement fraud involving approximately $40 million, funds intended to purchase military ammunition.
The SSU announced that the scheme implicated several high-ranking officials within the Ministry of Defense and management figures from Lviv Arsenal, an arms supplier, the Boston Globe reported.
Lviv Arsenal received advance payment for the ammunition in August 2022, but the shells were never delivered.
Instead, the allocated funds intended for buying 100,000 mortar shells were transferred to a foreign commercial entity and subsequently rerouted to another affiliated organization in the Balkans without delivering any ammunition.
“After receiving the funds, the company’s management transferred part of the money to the balance sheet of a foreign commercial structure that was supposed to deliver the ordered ammunition to Ukraine,” the statement said.
“However, it did not send a single artillery shell to our country, and took the received funds into the shadows, transferring them to the accounts of another affiliated structure in the Balkans.”
The fraud is a blow to Ukraine’s military efforts and its reputation among international allies, notably in Washington and Brussels, where ongoing discussions about European Union membership and continued financial and military assistance are sensitive to issues of governance and corruption.
The SSU claimed that the embezzled funds were from the state budget, not foreign aid.
The SSU’s investigation has led to the issuance of “notices of suspicion” to five individuals, a precursor to formal legal proceedings in Ukraine. Among the accused are former and current officials from the Defense Ministry, including Oleksandr Liev and Toomas Nakhkur, as well as Yuriy Zbitnev, head of Lviv Arsenal and a former presidential candidate.
One suspect was detained while attempting to cross the Ukrainian border. Those involved face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
Boston Globe reported:
The fraud took place under former defense minister Oleksii Reznikov, who was ousted last year amid several high-profile allegations of corruption in the ministry, particularly the purchase of food and jackets for the military at inflated prices. Reznikov, who wasn’t personally implicated in any malfeasance, declined to comment.
A defense official familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the case to the media, said, “this is not a new case,” as the ministry filed a criminal report to law enforcement about the stolen $40 million in May 2023, after the shells were not delivered. Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet, reported many details about the case in July.
The stolen funds have been seized, the agency said, adding that “the question of their return to the budget of Ukraine is being resolved.”
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a recent Pentagon report has brought to light that over $1 billion in military aid sent to Ukraine by the United States has not been properly accounted for.
The Defense Department report, which was presented to Congress, reveals serious lapses in the tracking of critical weapons systems amidst heated congressional debates regarding additional support for Ukraine.
The unaccounted-for arsenal includes advanced shoulder-fired missiles, sophisticated kamikaze drones, and state-of-the-art night vision devices.
These items are classified as “high-risk” due to their advanced technology and the ease with which they could be transported and potentially fall into the wrong hands.
According to the report, of nearly 40,000 arms delivered to Ukraine, a substantial proportion has not been adequately monitored.
The report added, “It was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine whether there has been diversion of such assistance. The DoD OIG now has personnel stationed in Ukraine, and the DoD OIG’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service continues to investigate allegations of criminal conduct with regard to U.S. security assistance to Ukraine.”
Austin, however, claimed that there was no evidence of misuse regarding the weapons in question.
Corruption is rampant in Ukraine.
According to an unnamed senior adviser to Zelenskyy, people at the top are “stealing” like there is no tomorrow and Ukraine’s president faces pressure to root out corruption as its allies continue to give the country everything it asks for, as reported by Time Magazine.
In January 2023, several high-ranking officials were removed from their positions. This group includes a top presidential adviser, four deputy ministers — two of whom were defense officials — and five regional governors.
As per the disclosure by senior government official Oleg Nemchinov, the following individuals have been relieved of their duties:
Deputy Prosecutor General Oleskiy Symonenko
Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Ivan Lukerya
Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Vyacheslav Negoda
Deputy Minister for Social Policy Vitaliy Muzychenko
Regional Governors of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Sumy, and Kherson
The Ministry of Defense previously announced the resignation of Deputy Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was responsible for the army’s logistical support. This followed allegations of signing food contracts at exorbitant prices.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov resigned in September in what Reuters referred to as a “wartime shakeup” of Zelenskyy’s Cabinet.
Reports that people in the Ukrainian government are “stealing” come as President Joe Biden and U.S. lawmakers face pushback from taxpayers about their blank check policy toward funding a war with no end in sight.
Last year, the Pentagon revealed that an overestimation in the value of weapons sent to Ukraine over the past two years has resulted in an extra $6.2 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ money earmarked for the Eastern European country. This figure is approximately double what was originally estimated and allegedly will be utilized for future security packages.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh provided clarification on the nature of the error, explaining that the military services had used the replacement cost rather than the book value of equipment pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine.
According to Singh, the error was identified during a detailed review of the accounting process.
“We discovered inconsistencies in equipment valuation for Ukraine. In a significant number of cases, services used replacement costs rather than net book value, thereby overestimating the value of the equipment drawn down from U.S. stock and provided to Ukraine,” Singh said at a news briefing.
This corruption scandal emerges at a critical juncture, with the Biden regime’s request for an additional $60 billion in aid for Ukraine facing scrutiny in Congress.
GOP lawmakers are demanding greater oversight to ensure the appropriate use of US funds. Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the US has committed over $46.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine.
In July 2023, Senate Democrats rallied to oppose the establishment of a new office intended to audit taxpayers’ money sent to Ukraine as military aid.
The opposition to the creation of the Office of the Lead Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance saw forty-five Democrats, including every member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, voting against the amendment, according to New York Post.
Independent Senators Angus King (Maine) and Bernie Sanders (Vermont), as well as Republican Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky), also sided with the Democrats.
This move saw several key Democrats, including Jacky Rosen (Nevada), Joe Manchin (West Virginia), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Bob Casey (Pennsylvania), preventing the amendment from reaching the necessary 60-vote threshold.
The post SHOCKER: $40 Million Earmarked for Military Ammunition Stolen by Corrupt Ukraine Officials appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Jan 29, 2024 | Aggregate
In 1947–1949, there was a struggle between the Army and the Navy as they were required by law to unify themselves and a new, separate, independent Air Force under a singular Secretary of Defense.
It was high stakes and high drama as the original proponent of the merger, James V. Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense, started to have second thoughts about the merger, and then possibly had a mental breakdown and was replaced by President Truman.
Forrestal fell, jumped, or was pushed out of the high tower at Bethesda Naval Medical Center while he was recovering. Forrestal’s death is a mystery that has never been fully resolved.
Which was to deliver the Atom Bomb? The B-36 vs. the U.S.S. United States. Air Force Photo and U.S. Navy concept sketch by Bruno Figallo
The debate at the time was not only the subordination of the formerly independent Navy and Army to a Secretary of Defense, but about the mission of atomic bombing.
The new Air Force wanted a new long-range bomber for the atomic mission, the Navy wanted a new, super aircraft carrier for the same mission. The Air Force, supported by the Army won, despite high drama and intrigue by Navy staff and their opponents in Army and the Air Force.
The Air Force bomber went into production – but a few years later, the Navy did get a consolation prize and started receiving new super carriers, named the Forrestal Class, but they were not intended to replace the Air Force in the nuclear mission.
In modern times, a significant brouhaha is in progress and growing – but over a much more mundane and obscure topic. The debate is growing fierce over which Service should be the lead for smaller, amphibious warfare vessels and craft.
This topic is very important for operations in the Western Pacific to deter and if necessary, defeat Chinese actions. Until very recently, this is a topic neither the Marines, Navy, nor Army were paying close attention to.
Lieutenant General Karsten Heckl currently serves as the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, and the Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, USMC Photo by Cpl. Tia Carr
The Marines want their own rides
There has been a growing frustration of Marine Corps leadership with the Navy. The amphibious ships of the U.S. Navy are large and capable, but are limited in number and too big to support the Marine plans for rapid movement of small units among different islands to defeat the Chinese.
The Marines have had a growing sense of being an inconvenience to “big” Navy and want their own wheels or in this case hulls to significantly supplement the Navy.
This is like a family with only one car but multiple adult family members with their own work schedules. However, this family is large, well-funded, and have life or death decisions to make in their jobs. This is not simple squabbling over resources.
The Marines are demonstrating leadership by making hard choices and divesting in capabilities like tanks which they have had for years. The Marine Commandant made a hard decision and said if they need tanks, they’ll ask Army tank units for tank support. A rare example of leadership in the partisan DOD where Services rarely walk away from long standing capabilities.
The Marine Corps Light Amphibious Warship (LAW)/U.S. Navy Landing Ship Medium (LSM) Sea Transport Solutions Image
But a new capability that the Marines have never really had before are smaller amphibious warfare vessels (called the Light Amphibious Warship LAW by the Marine Corps current requirement, the Navy is now calling it the Landing Ship Medium (LSM)) and they want their own.
Currently they are communicated as a Navy/Marine requirement, but it’s clearly meant to be Marine focused and perhaps even Marine Corps operated.
Navy not meeting the Marine requirements
In current times the “larger” amphibious force levels in big Navy have hovered at just over 30 ships (down from about 60 at the height of the Reagan buildup). In the past, the Navy has placed emphasis on the Amphibious Warfare portion of the Fleet, but the Secretary of the Navy has been at odds with Congressional mandates to grow the size of the Navy.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has been accused of “…Ignoring the Law…” with his plans submitted to Congress that demonstrate 38 large amphibious ships at some vague point in the distant future (potentially 2050).
I have never seen such a mess of different plans before in my national security service. It is also not helpful that the U.S. Navy lost a key amphibious warfare ship, USS Bon Homme Richard, in a pierside fire in 2020.
Comparison of different shipbuilding plans, Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress. January 22, 2024, Congressional Research Service
Under the confusing list of different shipbuilding plans, the Navy might have six of the LAWs in service or on order by 2030. This is a long way away for what is supposed to be a relatively simple, non-developmental, off the shelf acquisition of commercial vessels painted Navy gray or Marine green.
The absolute chaos of different plans is also possibly representative of the cancerous effect of “woke-ism” on the professionalism of the Department of Defense Staff. The slow pace of new vessels for the Marines is at crisis levels.
Army surrenders the watercraft mission space, now wants back in
The tragedy of the Army saga has been the melodramatic theatrics and indecision of the Army. Since World War II, the light amphibious warfare and transport mission set had been an Army Mission in which Army would provide support to all the Services.
Army carried out this watercraft mission with enthusiasm and gusto – until the Peace Dividend of the Clinton years. This once mighty vessel and boat force evaporated.
During the disastrous Secretary Gates/Admiral Mullins tenure when the DOD budget was self-eviscerated without a commensurate cut in mission, the Army bailed on the Joint High Speed Vessel Program as a cost savings measure.
The Navy took the five Army vessels, and the now Navy-only program has expanded significantly as an intra-theater high speed transport which is very useful.
It lacks the beaching capability of the LAW so it doesn’t quite deliver the capability the Marines are looking for. Army’s poor budget decision left Army avoiding the Western Pacific watercraft role – a role traditionally encumbered by Army.
US Army Photo, Maneuver Support Vessel Light
DOD Photo, Balikatan Exercise in the Philippines 2023. US Army HIMARS Missile Launcher landed from U.S. Army landing craft, utility USAV Calaboza (LCU 2009) on Basco Island. From this island, the HIMARS and other Missile Types can control the ocean gap between Taiwan and the Philippines.
Even more fecklessly, the Army, while touting its Multi-Domain Operational (MDO) concept made the calamitous decision in July 2019 to totally walk away from the world of amphibious watercraft.
I was at a meeting with an Army General in July 2019 who gave an important briefing on MDO. Afterwards, I pointed out to him that his MDO slides looked like a 1980s tank battle in Germany – baffling for an MDO concept supposed to be oriented toward the Western Pacific.
I further pointed out that his peer Generals had just decided to sell off and totally divest of the watercraft mission set. What good would Army be to the Joint fight if they had no watercraft?
He paused, made a call, and this set off a yearlong debate in which Army decided it was returning to the light amphibious transport world (Congressional intervention helped). The Army is back in, full speed ahead, with the Maneuver Support Vessel Light as wells as a medium version and a heavy version that are more capable than the Marine Corps LAW.
What’s the way ahead?
The inter-service arguing on the way ahead on small amphibious warfare vessels is reaching a culminating point. The DOD is now at a point where multiple Services and programs are competing for the watercraft mission. I’ve never seen this level of gnashing of teeth and disagreement over who has the Service lead on a topic.
This should have been an Army mission set, but Army has been climbing out of a deep hole on this topic. Navy is doing an excellent job with the High-Speed Transport, but that’s a different mission set then what the Marines are looking at.
The Marines are leading the fight and have a clear requirement and are moving forward with strong support. The Marines are running over the Navy in their semi-revolt as the Navy tries to get some firm footing and get its shipbuilding master plan together.
The Services went from nobody paying attention to the problem set to three Services claiming the mission. Might be time for another council of Generals and Admirals to avoid any further bloodshed in a modern revolt over a topic no one seemed to care about only a few years ago. The Chinese are not waiting for an answer on this.
The post The Revolt of the Marine Generals (2024) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
