"Pentagon Papers"-Leaker Warns, US Is "Close To Nuclear Armageddon"

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon papers which exposed the government’s lies during the Vietnam war is vocalizing a warning. He says the United States is really close to a nuclear Armageddon.

Ellsberg, now 86-years-old, leaked the Pentagon papers back in 1969 and he’s now got a new book out which serves a warning to those who care to listen.

According to the Daily Mail, Ellsberg’s 7,000-page report was the WikiLeaks disclosure of its time, a sensational breach of government confidentiality that shook Richard Nixon’s presidency and prompted a Supreme Court fight that was supposed to advance press freedom.

In his new book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Ellsberg details how easy nuclear bombs can be triggered and shot off on a false alarm – and that the president isn’t the only who can launch the nukes, as we are often told. 

Low-level military commanders are capable of launching nuclear weapons too...

“All out-nuclear war - an irreversible, unprecedented and almost unimaginable calamity for civilization and most life on earth  - has been, like the disasters of Chernobyl, Katrina, the Gulf oil spill, Fukushima Daiichi, and before these, World War I, a catastrophe waiting to happen, on a scale infinitely greater than any of these,” writes Ellsberg in his new book.

Adding to fears of a nuclear armageddon is North Korea’s insistence on building a nuclear weapon.  This has created a mass panic in nations all around the globe.  Not to mention, last month, President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that allows the US to impose more sanctions and risks inflaming tension over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

North Korea then denounced Trump’s decision to relist it as a state sponsor of terrorism, calling the move a “serious provocation and violent infringement,” as the rogue nation sentenced the US president to death, saying he “hurt the dignity” of the “supreme leadership.” All of this is alarming, according to Ellsberg, who believes a nuclear war can be started simply by a false alarm.

Nuclear bombs “are susceptible to being triggered on a false alarm, a terrorist action, unauthorized launch or a desperate decision to escalate,” Ellsberg wrote in his book.

 

“They would kill billions of humans, perhaps ending complex life on earth. This is true even though the Cold War that rationalized their existence and hair-trigger status - and their supposed necessity to national security - ended 30 years ago.”

Many US citizens falsely believe that only the US president, in this case, Donald Trump can order the use of nuclear weapons. But Trump isn’t the only military commander authorized to launch nuclear weapons, according to the New York Post.

“There has to be a delegation of authority and capability to launch retaliatory strikes, not only to officials outside the Oval Office but outside Washington too,” Ellsberg wrote.

Ellsberg says that the only way to avoid a nuclear holocaust is full disarmament by the United States and Russia.

“The risk that one city will be destroyed by a single (perhaps terrorist) weapon in the next year or the next decade cannot, unfortunately, be reduced to zero,” Ellsberg writes.

 

“But the danger of near-extinction of humanity - a continuous possibility for the past 65 years - can be reduced to zero by the dismantlement of most existing weapons in both the United States and Russia.”

"They Called It "The Rape Room"" - 10 Women Share Chilling Details Of Ken Friedman"s Sexual Abuse

In a bombshell report that has rattled the food world, several former employees of restaurant impresario Ken Friedman shared chilling details of the sexual harassment and abuse they suffered at Friedman’s hands with the New York Times, describing the omerta that existed among staffers at his restaurant, who inevitably accepted the harassment as part of a job that offered many perks, including great pay and bonuses in the form of concert tickets and other in-demand items.

In addition to Friedman, the story also includes many lewd anecdotes of the egregiously inappropriate sexual misconduct perpetrated by renowned chef Mario Batali, who yesterday admitted that salacious depictions of his past behavior were accurate.

Together, the two men are possibly the most high-profile restaurateurs to be tarnished by the national reckoning with sexual harassment in the workplace that has effectively led many famous and powerful men in a range of industries to be expelled from polite society.

Ken Friedman

But of the many reports that have surfaced so far – and there have been many – some of the details from the Times piece almost beggar belief. In anecdotes from former staffers at the Spotted Pig, one of New York City’s hottest restaurants, the depictions of Friedman’s behavior push way past inappropriate: In many cases, he appeared callous and cruel, such as when he fired one of his managers shortly after she informed one of his staff that she was pregnant.

Ten women said that Mr. Friedman, 56, had subjected them to unwanted sexual advances: Groping them in public, demanding sex or making text requests for nude pictures or group sex. Many others also said that working or him required tolerating daily kisses and touches, pulling all-night shifts at private parties that included public sex and nudity, and enduring cat calls and gropes from guests who are Mr. Friedman’s friends.

 

The Spotted Pig has been a regular late-night stop for Mr. Batali, who this week said he was stepping away from day-to-day operations at his own restaurants and other businesses amid reports of inappropriate sexual behavior.

 

Employees of the Spotted Pig said they regularly witnessed sexual aggression by Mr. Batali, often with Mr. Friedman’s knowledge.

Like Matt Lauer, Al Franken and many of the other powerful men who’ve been forced to withdraw from polite society following accusations of sexual misconduct, Friedman admitted only that there was some truth to the allegations, but disputed the details. “Some incidents were not as described, but context and content are not today’s discussion."

“I apologize now publicly for my actions."

Interestingly, Friedman’s wife was once a server at the Spotted Pig. Like Batali, Friedman also announced that he has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the management of his restaurants.
Carla Betts, who was formerly the wine director at the Spotted Pig, the Breslin and the John Dory - three of the restaurants Freidman runs with partner and chef April Bloomfield - from 2009 to 2013 said she persistent sexual harassment at the hands of Friedman was one of her reasons for leaving her job at his restaurants.

“There is a grab-ass, superfun late-night culture – I love that part of the industry. But there is a difference between fun and sexualized camaraderie and predation. When you are made to feel unsafe or dirty or embarrassed, that is a different thing."

Friedman frequently engaged in consensual sexual relationships with his employees and openly hired based on employees" physical appearance (an incredibly rare practice in the modern food-service industry, we imagine).

Former employees also claimed that Friedman was frequently intoxicated at work, and would pressure staff into taking drugs and drinking with him.

Echoing some of the allegations from the NYT’s takedown of disgraced studio head Harvey Weinstein, staffers said they feared Friedman because of his volatile temper and burly frame. Friedman also had a reputation for openly retaliating against employees who defied or disappointed him. In many cases, they were fired, blacklisted or harassed.

“We had to brace ourselves every time Ken arrived,” one former server said. “When he wasn’t coming on to us, he was screaming at us."

Some of the former employees who spoke with the NYT said they brought their concerns to April Bloomfield, Friedman’s business partner and the head chef at many of his restaurants.

Her response, the women said, was always the same: “That’s just the way he is. If you don’t like it, go work somewhere else."

One manager said she complained to Bloomfield that the sexually charged atmosphere fostered by Friedman was driving the huge turnover among her restaurant’s staff. “She really didn’t want the turnover to continue. But she totally backed off getting involved in the behavior."

Bloomfield denied this, saying she referred the two matters that were brought to her attention to her company’s labor representative.

While the company’s human resources department said that none of the women who spoke with the Times filed complaints about Friedman’s behavior with HR, one reason that many employees might’ve tolerated Friedman’s behavior was the exceptional compensation that servers at his restaurants could earn.

And the rewards of a job at a Friedman-Bloomfield restaurant can be ret. Servers at the top of their game can earn six figures in a year. Working with Ms. Blomfield confers prestige in restaurants around the world. Mr. Friedman has treated favored employees to after-work drinks, field trips to his beach house and top-tier concert tickets.

 

Ms. Rza Betts, the former wine director, said working at the Breslin while Ms. Bloomfield’s star was rising was so rewarding that she simply shrugged off his hugs that went on too long, and his occasional slaps on her buttocks.

Interestingly, the Times concedes that, in the food-service industry, flirting and playful, sexually charged banter are sometimes a part of the job that employees welcome. But Friedman “turned that formula up several notches."

Industry veterans say restaurants are especially accommodating of behavior that pushes the boundaries of sexuality in a work place. Experienced severs accept that flirting is sometimes a part of securing a good tip. Shifts are filled with sexual banter that many welcome as playful.

 

The Spotted Pig turned that behavior up several notches. In past interviews, Mr. Friedman – aa former manager of bands, including the Smiths – has said his goal was to ake a restaurant, with exceptional food, that was as sexy as any bar in town.

But perhaps the most startling detail from the New York Times story was the nickname that some of Friedman’s employees had bestowed upon the third floor of the Spotted Pig, a space where celebrities would congregate for exclusive after-hours parties.

They called it “the rape room."

But late night, after the first-floor dining room closed and the party moved upstairs, Mr. Friedman made it clear that normal restaurant rules did not apply, several employees said. In the frequently packed room, guests openly groped female servers, who said Mr. Friedman required them to work until parties ended, often after dawn.

 

Among employees and industry insiders, the third-floor space has earned a nickname: “the rape room."

Toward the end of the piece, the Times unfurls another stunning anecdote from an employee who was abruptly and inexplicably terminated shortly after becoming pregnant.

In 2015, soon after her marriage, she requested a meeting with Mr. Friedman and another manager ot discuss her compensation. A worried Mr. Friedman asked her if she was pregnant, she said. She told him she wasn’t.  “Could you at least schedule this kind of thing for the slow season?” she quoed him as sayig.

 

Later that year, Ms. Brown did become pregnant, and told a supervisor in confidence. Just over a week ater, she was terminated; managers told her it was because the organization was downsizing and her position was being eliminated."

The timing is curious – to say the least.

Friedman and Batali are probably the two most high-profile figures in the restaurant industry to be felled by the national reckoning with sexual harassment in the workplace that began with the New York Times November expose about disgraced studio executive Harvey Weinstein’s use of settlements and NDAs to silence his victims. Since then, media reports have asserted that Weinstein cultivated a network of enables by leveraging his influence, money and vicious temper.

Mario Batali

But, if there is humor to be found in situations like these, it certainly lies in the delicious hypocrisy as many men who professed to be “feminist allies” have been exposed for pathologically mistreating women.

Two months ago, Batali humble-bragged to the New York Post about how the kitchen staff at his newest and fanciest restaurant consisted exclusively of women.

“It’s not because they have a vagina,” he said. “It’s because they’re the smartest people for the job."

Whatever you say, Mario.
 

Israel Has Built A Robot Army (And It Should Scare The Sh*t Out Of You)

Authored by Darius Shahtahmasebi via TheAntiMedia.org,

As Israel prepares for yet another war directly on its border, the truth about Israel’s vast military capabilities has been largely absent in the corporate media.

However, if one were to be fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be able to travel to Israel’s border with Syria in the north and the Gaza strip in the south, they might see what looks more or less like a scene from RoboCop.

Israel is the first country in the world to use unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to not only patrol its borders but also to replace soldiers on missions, as well. The new Border Patroller model can be armed with remote-controlled weapons, reconnaissance means, and additional components that cannot be fitted on the traditional Guardium model it had been using for years prior.

The robot is also able to patrol underground and gather information for units that are present on the surface. For example, it can help soldiers avoid booby-trapped tunnels.

These robots can be given pre-designated routes for their patrol, making them more or less autonomous.

According to the New York Post:

“The increasing use of robots by the Israel Defense Forces is part of a larger strategy to minimize risk to soldiers when possible. In addition, soldiers require breaks, food and water. All a Guardium needs is a full tank of gas. Other UGVs in use by the IDF include the Segev, which is based on a Ford F-350 pickup truck.”

However, this is only the beginning of Israel’s robotic capabilities. As the Post notes, the same thing is happening in the water, too.

Israeli defense contractor Rafael has developed an unmanned patrol ship that is currently defending Israel’s strategic ports and patrolling the coastline.

Israel also has advanced a “drone that can reach Iran,”  an unmanned aerial vehicle that can stay airborne for 24 hours and is believed to be capable of launching air-to-surface missiles. Israel has also deployed satellites far smaller than American ones that can discern objects as small as 20 inches from hundreds of miles away.

If that wasn’t enough, the small nation has also developed a tank that more or less comes with its own personal missile defense system.

Earlier this year, Defense News reported that Israel is readying its Iron Dome defense system for its first intercept test in the U.S., which is aimed at selecting an interim solution for a medium and short-range air defense system.

Not to mention that according to former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s leaked emails, the country has at least 200 nuclear weapons “all targeted on Tehran.”

So why is Israel going to such great lengths to modernize its army far beyond that of any other country?

As the New York Post explains:

“Due to Israel’s small size and lack of territory, all ballistic missiles deployed in the region — Syria, Iraq and Iran — can reach anywhere within the country and pose a strategic and possibly even existential threat. Israel, the developers argued, needed a system that could shoot down enemy missiles over neighboring countries and provide overall protection for the tiny Jewish state.”

In fact, a top Israeli general has already admitted that the country cannot fight Iran alone and would instead seek to rely on American help to take on the Islamic Republic if a direct conflict should ever arise.

So, are Israel’s advances in military technology purely defensive and for deterrence purposes only, or does the country’s leadership have something far more preemptive in mind in the coming years under the Trump administration?

Only time will tell, but one way or the other, these vast technological developments will be frightening for the civilians caught in the middle, to say the least.

Victoria"s Secret Staff Think The Chinese Are Spying On Them

Stories about the shambolic Victoria’s Secret fashion show – which is slated to take place Tuesday Nov. 28 in Shanghai – just keep getting weirder.

Chinese bureaucrats have so far refused to cooperate with the show’s producers and planners, denying visas to Gigi Hadid, one of the show’s highest-profile models, and Katy Perry, the US pop superstar who was slated to be the musical guest.

The Communist Party has also inexplicably refused to issue press passes and visas to members of the western media who were supposed to travel to China to cover the event.

Already, we imagine the marketing brass at L Brands have learned their lesson, and that this will be both the first, and the last, VS fashion show held in China.

But as if all this weren’t enough, the New York Post is now reporting that the show’s organizers believe the Chinese government is spying on them. Which, of course, is probably true, given Chinese authorities’ well-known penchant for monitoring foreigners.

The Post says e-mails of VS show staffers and production crew are apparently being monitored by Chinese authorities.

TV and media-industry insiders who are desperately trying to figure out what’s going on amid the production chaos are getting frustrated by messages from colleagues in China simply saying that they can’t speak frankly about the issues with the government because their communications are being watched.

Perry had her visa application declined because she once showed support for Taiwan (which is in an independence struggle with China) during a Beijing concert. Hadid’s was denied because of a picture her sister, Bella Hadid, published on Instagram that the Chinese public deemed offensive. Plus, fellow Angel Adriana Lima’s visa application has been imperiled by an unknown “diplomatic issue.” Meanwhile, a host of other models have also had their visas denied.

Many fashion bloggers have also been denied visas, and TV producers have discovered that they need permits to shoot outside of the Mercedes-Benz Arena, where the show, which is slated to air on CBS later this month, is set to take place.

As one source put it, “If you’re going to China you want to show that you’re in China!”

The surveillance is apparently making it difficult for the show’s organizers to find replacements for the models who have been denied entry. Harry Styles has already been booked to fill in for Perry.

“They want to discuss what’s going on as far as replacements for those denied visas and alternative arrangements, but they have to be tight-lipped because it seems that the government is watching their e-mails,” said a source.

With more than a week to go before the show, we can only imagine what fresh entanglements will crop up as the date draws nearer.
 

Apple Diversity Chief Forced Out After Saying White Men Can Also Be "Diverse"

Silicon Valley"s disdain for its mostly white, mostly male tech workforce has reached absurd new heights.

The New York Post is reporting that, after just six months on the job, Apple Diversity Chief Denise Young Smith, who was named vice president of diversity and inclusion in May, has resigned her post after making a “controversial” comment last month during a summit in Bogota, Colombia.

What was Young’s crime? She insinuated that “diversity” can still exist among a group of white men because of their different life experiences.

“There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blond men in a room and they’re going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation,” the inaugural diversity chief said.

“Diversity is the human experience,” she said, according to Quartz. “I get a little bit frustrated when diversity or the term diversity is tagged to the people of color, or the women, or the LGBT."

That’s right: Young, who is – for the record – a black woman, has been forced out of Apple because her views on diversity were too inclusive.

As the Post pointed out, Young’s comments appeared to defend Apple’s overwhelmingly white and male leadership at a time when the company’s makeup is markedly uneven. This begs the question: What, exactly, was she defending them from?

Young, a 20-year Apple veteran who previously served as the company’s head of worldwide human resources (a senior level position), was later forced to apologize for her remarks, telling Apple staff that her comments “were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it."

“For that, I’m sorry,” she said in an email. “More importantly, I want to assure you Apple’s view and our dedication to diversity has not changed."

“We deeply believe that diversity drives innovation,” an Apple spokesman told TechCrunch in a statement. “We’re thrilled to welcome an accomplished leader like Christie Smith to help us continue the progress we’ve made toward a more diverse workplace."

In 2017, only 3 percent of Apple’s leaders were black, and women held just 23 percent of tech jobs, according to Fortune. Female leadership stood at 29 percent, Apple said.

“Meaningful change takes time,” the company said in its diversity report. “We’re proud of our accomplishments, but we have much more work to do."

Smith will leave the company at the end of the year. Taking over as VP of inclusion and diversity will be Christie Smith, who spent 17 years as a principal at Deloitte.

She is also a white woman.
 

Katy Perry, Gigi Hadid Banned From China As Victoria"s Secret Fashion Show Unravels

As we reported yesterday, this year’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which is slated to take place in Shanghai in just two weeks, is unraveling like a cheap lace thong thanks to Chinese authorities’ refusal to cooperate with its producers, and Communist Party"s decision to deny visas to some of the biggest stars who were slated to participate in the show.

The latest update on the deteriorating state of affairs comes via the New York Post, which has reported that US pop sensation Katy Perry – who was slated to perform at the show – and supermodel Gigi Hadid, who was supposed to walk in the show, have been indefinitely banned from China.

Sources told the Post’s infamous Page Six gossip section that the “Roar” singer had tried applying for a visa to enter the Communist nation, but was denied by Chinese officials.

And while she was initially informed that she’d be able to gain access, the decision was apparently reversed after the government caught wind of a controversial incident from 2015, in which Perry donned a bright, glittery dress with sunflowers on it during a performance in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

Gigi Hadid

The innocent gesture wound up causing widespread outrage in China because the sunflower had been adopted the year before by anti-China protesters.

However, Perry also waved a Taiwanese flag during the concert in show of support for the country, which has been clashing with the mainland for years over its autonomy.

“She was initially granted a visa to perform at the VS show in Shanghai, then Chinese officials changed their minds and yanked her visa,” a source explained. “For every artist who wants to perform in China, officials comb through their social-media and press reports to see if they have done anything deemed to be offensive to the country. Maroon 5 was banned a few years ago because one band member wished the Dalai Lama happy birthday on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Hadid and a handful of other models were banned because of social media posts that apparently offended Chinese government officials.

Hadid, who was booked for the show back in August, was banned because of a February Instagram video — in which she held up a biscuit shaped like a Buddha and imitated the religious figure by squinting her eyes.

The clip was posted by the model’s sister, Bella Hadid, in February. It was later deleted following a storm of criticism as Chinese social-media users warned her not to come to Shanghai, calling her racist.

Apparently, Victoria’s Secret has decided that the show will go on, with or without Hadid:

 

I’m so bummed I won’t be able to make it to China this year. Love my VS family, and will be with all my girls in spirit!! Can"t wait to tune in with everyone to see the beautiful show I know it will be, and already can"t wait for next year! :) x

— Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) November 16, 2017

 

Some of Victoria’s Secret’s biggest names have been denied entry to China, in addition to lesser-known models, such as Julia Belyakova, Kate Grigorieva and Irina Sharipova.

Model Adriana Lima’s visa has been held up due to an ongoing “diplomatic problem."

Harry Styles will reportedly replace Perry as the show’s performing artist.
 

"It"s A Nightmare" - Chinese Bureaucrats Are Killing The Victoria"s Secret Fashion Show

The marketing brass at L Brands are probably starting to regret their decision to hold this year’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show - expected to have the largest audience in the show"s history - in Shanghai.

As the New York Post reports, the fashion show, which takes place in two weeks and will feature  Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Karlie Kloss, among other internationally recognized supermodels, is transforming into an international diplomatic crisis.

Chinese government officials are refusing to work with the show’s producers and grant the necessary expedited visas so fashion bloggers and other media types who’re supposed to cover the show, according to the New York Post.

Bureaucrats have also stubbornly resisted other seemingly routine requests, like approving shooting locations for the TV crew.

We’re told fashion bloggers booked to cover the glitzy event are canceling their trips because the Chinese government won’t give them visas; TV producers are grappling with bureaucrats over permission to shoot outside the Mercedes-Benz Arena, where it’s being held (“If you’re going to China, you want to show that you are in China!” fumed an insider); and Victoria’s Secret staffers in China can’t send out press releases because they have to be approved by government officials.

 

“It’s just a nightmare for all the media trying to cover [the show],” said a jet-setting insider. “These TV companies are spending a fortune on it, and they don’t even know what they can shoot when they get there."

 

We’re told that producers charged with coordinating the coverage for various outlets are “on the verge of nervous breakdowns."

The show, which will be broadcast on CBS, has mostly been held in the US since 2001, but the popular purveyor of ladies’ undergarments has had a run of bad luck in the past few years since trying to host the show overseas, the Post reports. Last year’s show (which was held in Paris) was also plagued with production issues caused by a terror attack and Kim Kardashian’s high-profile robbery.

For that event, every journalist covering the event had to submit to background checks and provide government ID, and security was so tight that cars dropping off VIP guests were only allowed to stop momentarily outside the venue, so celebrities had to circle the block before being dropped off.

This year, they’d be lucky to get a visa.

Northeast Facing Record-Low Temperatures As Polar Vortex Returns

The return of the dreaded polar vortex is battering much of the eastern US this week, sending temperatures well into freezing territory and close to record lows - a phenomenon that could persist for much of the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

According to the New York Post, record-low temperatures are forecast for Friday and Saturday, with nighttime and early-morning mercury dipping into the 20s.

The temperature dropped into the 20s in some places in the northeast last night, and could sink as low as 21 degrees fahrenheit on Saturday, according to AccuWeather forecasts.

The record low for November 10 was 27 degrees in 1914. The high Saturday will be 37 to 43 degrees - up from the predawn low of about 24 degrees. The record low for November 11 was 29 degrees, set in 1933.

The forecast calls for 50 degrees on Monday, setting off eight straight days with high temps of at least 50, AccuWeather said.

The forecasting service added that signs are pointing toward a shift of the polar vortex that may cause snow, rain and other hazardous weather conditions like icy roads in some parts of the Northeast.

Right now, a cold snap is bringing an abrupt November reality check to most of the eastern US that will persist for the rest of the Veterans’ Day weekend. As Accuweather explains, the weather pattern will become even more interesting later in the week because it will feature a meteorological phenomenon called “the Greenland block”.

This pattern consists of relatively high pressure wind pattern near greenland that forces the polar jet stream to move sharply south toward the eastern US.

"Model forecasts have been pretty consistent and increasingly strong with the -NAO," said Dr. Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist with the Weather Company, an IBM Business.

Crawford said the strength of this upcoming Greenland block/negative NAO would be about a "90th percentile event for late November.” In early to mid-November, it’s far more rare.

 

 

The first snow.

A post shared by ??? (@jinyanran927) on

Nov 10, 2017 at 10:10am PST

 

While the pattern is of relatively high confidence, there are some impacts we"re more confident about and others that remain uncertain this far out in time.

One near certainty in this pattern is another series of plunges of colder air deep into the Midwest and East by the weekend before Thanksgiving.

If the weather pattern holds, it’d be impossible to rule out a powerful snowstorm arriving just in time for the Thanksgiving travel season. Indeed, snow is already falling in the Chicago area.

However, none of this is certain - yet. It’s merely just something to keep an eye on, Accuweather’s meteorologists said.

These Are The Two Heroes Who Stopped Texas Church Shooter Devin Patrick Kelley

As details about yesterday’s shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas started trickling out, witnesses and police sources shared how one brave man with a rifle confronted and shot  suspected killer Devin Kelly, forcing him to flee.

A  high-speed pursuit ensued, which ended when Kelly’s car crashed into a ditch. Police said they found Kelly dead in his vehicle, but it isn’t clear how he died.

However, two men who reportedly helped stop the shooter are now being hailed as selfless heros - “good guys with guns” who potentially saved dozens of lives by stopping the killer before he could murder more innocent people.  As Sheriff Joe Tackitt pointed out in an interview with CNN, “there’s another church right down the road,” suggesting that the killer could’ve headed there next after murdering more than half of First Baptist’s congregation if he had not been stopped.

My San Antonio is now reporting that the man who confronted Kelly outside the church is Stephen Willeford, a sharp-shooting plumber with no military background who managed to shoot Kelly - who was reportedly dressed in tactical gear - prompting him to flee the scene. Earlier media reports identified Willeford as being a neighbor of the church.

Stephen Willeford

As Willeford exchanged gunfire with Kelly outside the church, a second man - identified as Johnny Langendorff - pulled over when he witnessed the carnage and saw Kelly speed off. Willeford saw Langendorff and quickly rushed to his car.

Here’s more from My San Antonio:

Johnny Langendorff was one of the men who chased after suspected killer Devin Kelley, a 26-year-old from Comal County, he told KSAT  in a television interview.

 

"I pulled up to the intersection where the shooting happened and I saw two men exchanging gunfire," Langendorff said, noting the shooter and another local were shooting at each other.

 

Once the gunman fled the church grounds in his vehicle, Langendorff said the other man came to his car.

 

"The other gentleman said we needed to pursue (the shooter) because he shot up the church," he said. "So that"s what I did. I just acted."

 

“So we were doing about 95 mph, going around traffic and everything,” he added.

 

The pair chased the man down FM 539 headed North before the shooter lost control and ran off the roadway. Langendorff said the other man with him jumped out of the car and drew his rifle on Kelley.

 

"He didn"t move after that," Langendorff said.

According to the New York Post, Texas Department of Public Safety chief Freeman Martin said Willeford “grabbed his rifle and engaged the suspect” after Kelley left the First Baptist Church. An area resident told the paper that Willeford, an avid biker who attends another church, learned about the shooting when his daughter called to say a man clad in body armor was shooting worshipers.

The local said that although Willeford has no military background, he didn’t hesitate when he came face to face with the suspect — and managed to squeeze off a round that struck the gunman, who had dropped his Ruger AR-15 variant.

Kelley had taken a hostage in his SUV’s passenger seat before fleeing, the local man told the paper.

Devin Patrick Kelley

According to Langendorff, it took cops about five to seven minutes to arrive. In the meantime, they kept a gun trained on Kelley.

“The police arrived and they pushed us back and they took care of the rest,” he said.

Langendorff’s girlfriend, Summer Caddel, said Kelley died a few feet away from Langendorff.

Johnny Langendorff

The local man, who knows both heroes, said Willeford made sure Kelley’s hostage was outside the vehicle when they approached the SUV.

Authorities are now reporting that between 12 and 14 children were among the 26 fatalities of the shooting. Another 20 people were injured. Police said not all of the victims were shot inside the church, but declined to elaborate.

Yesterday’s church shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history, and the deadliest shooting at a church in US history.
 

Air Force Reporting Error Allowed Texas Shooter To Buy Guns

As details slowly trickled out this morning about yesterday’s mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, one glaring inconsistency quickly became clear: How did Devin Patrick Kelley - the deceased suspected shooter - manage to get his hands on the AR-556 rifle he used to murder 26 people (including up to 14 children) and and maim another 20?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a morning interview on Fox News that Kelley had been denied a Texas firearms permit because he had been dishonorably discharged from the military. However, a clerk at an Academy Sports & Outdoors store in San Antonio where Kelley had reportedly purchased the Ruger AR-556 rifle told reporters that Kelley had obtained the gun legally, and had checked off in his paperwork that he had no criminal history or history of mental illness that would disqualify him from obtaining a license for the firearm.

Since Kelley should’ve been prohibited from legally possessing a firearm because of his criminal history in the military, the question of just how Kelley came into possession of the firearm perplexed reporters, investigators and the public.

But in a stunning revelation, the Air Force cleared up any lingering confusion by admitting on Monday that it had failed to enter Kelley’s domestic violence court-martial into a federal database that could have blocked him from buying the rifle - something that could’ve potentially prevented the shooting.

The Air Force has reportedly launched a review into how the records were handled, according to the New York Times.

The conviction of the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, for domestic assault on his wife and infant stepson - he had cracked the child’s skull - should have stopped Mr. Kelley from legally purchasing the military-style rifle and three other guns he bought in the last four years. But that information was never entered by the Air Force into the federal database for background checks on gun purchasers, the service said.

 

“The Air Force has launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former Airman Devin P. Kelley following his 2012 domestic violence conviction,” the Air Force said in a statement. “Federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing firearms after this conviction."

 

The statement said that Heather Wilson, the Air Force secretary, and Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, had ordered the Air Force inspector general to work with the Pentagon’s inspector general to “conduct a complete review of the Kelley case and relevant policies and procedures."

 

The Air Force also said that it was looking into whether other convictions had been improperly left unreported. “The service will also conduct a comprehensive review of Air Force databases to ensure records in other cases have been reported correctly,” the statement said.

Other details about the killings emerged on Monday, including clues about Kelley’s motive. Local law enforcement officials said that he may have been driven by anger toward his estranged wife’s family, a fitting end to a life punctuated by eruptions of domestic rage.

In addition to his court-martial, in which his previous wife was the victim, Kelley had been investigated on a rape complaint, though he was not charged and his relationship to the victim was unclear. His current wife’s mother attended First Baptist Church, investigators confirmed Monday.

The New York Post reported that Kelley was “a wannabe tough guy who worked dead-end jobs, dated underage girls - and beat his infant stepson so badly he broke the child’s skull."

“He pled to intentionally doing it,” Don Christensen, a retired colonel and chief prosecutor for the Air Force.

Kelley also reportedly dated underage girls, whom he stalked and harassed.

One of his exes, Brittany Adcock, now 22, said Kelley dated her for two months around 2009 — when he was 18 and she was just 13.

“At the time I didn’t think much into it being so young but now I realize that there’s something off about someone who is 18 with someone who is 13,” she said.

Kelley became so desperate after the 13-year-old dumped him that he offered her money to get back together, she said.

He even crudely suggested the girl move in with him and his wife — an offer that came with a twisted string attached.

“One time he told me I should move in with him and his wife and that he would take care of me as long as I walked around topless,” Adcock said.

Kelley graduated from New Braunfels High School in 2009, according to a now-deleted LinkedIn page where he claimed to have attended the school for six years.

Also in 2012, he was charged with animal cruelty for beating a puppy while he lived in a Colorado trailer park.

Kelley died after sustaining three gunshot wounds, including one that was self-inflicted.
 

NYC Terror Suspect Was "Very Friendly" Uber Driver, Friend Claims

It"s been less than two hours since police identified the suspect in today"s Halloween terror attack in NYC as 29-year-old Uzbek national Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, and already the New York Post has published an interview with a friend of the suspected terrorist who reportedly expressed complete shock when told his friend had killed 8 people and injured more than a dozen others in what some sources described as the deadliest terror attack in NYC since 9/11.

Kobiljon Matkarov, 37, and a fellow Uzbek native, described Saipov as a "very friendly" man who worked for Uber. Matkarov met Saipov in Florida about five years ago shortly after he came over from Uzbekistan. The two connected over their mutual heritage, with Matkarov adding that Saipov had no terrorist connections.

“He is very good guy, he is very friendly… he is like little brother… he look at me like big brother,” Matkarov said by phone Tuesday from his home in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Saipov was identified as a resident of Tampa, Florida, by police but according to Matkarov had been living in New Jersey where he drove for Uber as recently as this summer. Matkarov said he last saw Saipov in June when he asked him to a ride to JFK, where the family was catching a flight to Uzbekistan.

“He dropped me to the airport with my family… I called him and said I needed a ride."

Matkarov said Saipov got along well with Matkarov"s five kids, who enjoyed playing with Saipov.

“My kids like him too, he is always playing with them. He is playing all the time,” Matkarov remembered.

But when Matkarov’s son asked for a picture with Saipov, he refused.

“He no like that. He said no,” Matkarov said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saipov acted alone when he carried out today"s attack and that there were no signs of a wider plot. However, the New York Times has reported that allegiance notes to ISIS written in Arabic were found at the scene.

"$100,000 Bought Me The Mayor": Shocking Testimony Of De Blasio Donor Revealed

You don"t have to look around too hard to realize that the "political swamp" in America stretches from sea to shining sea and from the highest offices in Washington D.C. to the lowliest of city halls on Main Streets all across the country. 

The latest evidence of such comes to us from New York City where a Mayor Bill de Blasio donor-turned-felon testified in extraordinary detail yesterday that he and his businessman pals wrote the book on city corruption — buying off the Mayor’s Office and the Police Department using brazen pay-to-play tactics.  As the New York Post details today, 34-year-old Jona Rechnitz went into staggering detail in his testimony about political favors he received from City Hall for a small $100,000 donation.

“We’re going to become significant contributors, but we want access,” Jona Rechnitz, 34, testified telling de Blasio fundraiser Ross Offinger after Hizzoner clinched the Democratic nod for mayor in 2013.

 

De Blasio soon paid Rechnitz a visit in his office, the disgraced businessman told jurors in Manhattan federal court.

 

De Blasio — who last year called his relationship with Rechnitz “not a particularly close’’ one — handed the wheeler-dealer his private cellphone number and email address, the witness said.

 

The pair then began chatting “at least” once a week about “different issues in the city” — as Rechnitz funneled about $160,000 to de Blasio’s campaign and pet political projects, said the government witness.

Rechnitz appeared as the star witness in the bribery trial of former city corrections union chief Norman Seabrook. He is accused of bribing Seabrook to get him to invest $20 million in union pension money in a pal’s ailing hedge fund.  But testimony quickly veered toward de Blasio, as Rechnitz was questioned about his ties to the ­administration.

Rechnitz said he had high hopes for the kinds of favors he could potentially receive.

“My mind was limitless,” he said.

 

Business pal “Jeremy [Reichberg] had told me in the days of Giuliani, people made a fortune.

 

“I was focused on making money, getting my name out there, becoming a big player in town. So I figured maybe I’ll buy an office building, and I’ll get the city as a tenant. Maybe I’ll need to get special permits to make residential developments.”

 

Rechnitz and Borough Park businessman Reichberg initially targeted the NYPD in their pay-to-play scheme, doling out gifts and cash to cops in return for favors. Then they set their sights on City Hall, Rechnitz said. “We had the police going for us — and now it was time to get into politics,’’ he testified.

 

Rechnitz started calling Offinger every time he needed a favor — including one involving a friend’s massive water bill and violations Rechnitz faced for a tenant subletting a residence on Airbnb.

Rechnitz even admitted to using "straw donors" to circumvent caps on individual political contributions, a scam which he says De Blasio"s fundraisers were privy to.

In 2014, Rechnitz donated another $102,300 toward a failed effort led by de Blasio to help Democrats wrest control of the state Senate.

 

Rechnitz said some of the dough was from straw donors, which is illegal.

 

“A couple of people in my office, I had them write checks, because I wasn’t allowed to give more than $4,950. And I reimbursed them for those donations,’’ Rechnitz said.

 

Rechnitz said he promised Offinger to hit target donations — and the fundraiser would stop by his office to check on the fundraising.
“I had a lot of pressure from him to bring that amount in,” Rechnitz said of the pledged amount.

But it wasn"t just De Blasio"s office where Rechnitz attempted to buy political favors as he admitted that his pay-to-play scams stretched north to the affluent suburbs of Westchester County and involved County Executive Rob Astorino. 

During his hourlong testimony, Rechnitz said the corruption even extended beyond the Big Apple.

 

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino gave him and Reich­berg positions as police chaplains in exchange for their ­financial contributions — even though neither of them is a rabbi or a priest, Rechnitz said.

 

“It meant that I got my parking placard,” said Rechnitz, whose firm JSR Capital donated $15,000 to ­Astorino’s campaign in June 2013.

 

He said Astorino once approached him with a picture of a Rolex watch and asked for help in procuring it.

 

“I told him I’m happy to give it to him; he doesn’t have to buy it,” Rechnitz testified.

 

“He told me that he couldn’t take it as a gift. He had to pay something because that wouldn’t be allowed. It was a $7,000 to $10,000 watch, if I remember correctly.”

 

In the end, Astorino agreed to pay $1,000 to $2,000 — and Rechnitz covered the rest, he said.

Not surprisingly, De Blasio"s office dismissed Rechnitz" testimony saying "the administration has never and will never make government decisions based on campaign contributions"...clearly just more attempts to "criminalize behavior that is normal."

Mysterious "Missing" Vegas Security Guard Left The Country Days After Vegas Massacre

The mystery surrounding Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos grows increasingly bizarre by the day.  Following Stephen Paddock"s October 1st massacre in Las Vegas, Campos, who may or may not have been shot by Paddock, flaked on a press conference that he reportedly scheduled then went missing for days before suddenly resurfacing on the "Ellen" show.

Now, Fox News has uncovered Customs and Border Patrol documents showing that Campos apparently crossed the border into Mexico days after the Vegas massacre.  Campos reportedly crossed the border at the same place in January but, for whatever reason, was driving a rental car this time around instead of his own vehicle.  Per the New York Post:

Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos mysteriously left the country just days after the Las Vegas massacre, a report says.

 

Customs and Border Patrol documents obtained by Fox News show that the 25-year-old entered the United States from Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing in California — one week after the mass shooting.

 

It’s unclear how long Campos was out of the country. The documents only show that he entered back into the US.

 

The young man reportedly crossed the border at the same location in January.

 

While Campos was driving his own vehicle with Nevada plates during that trip, sources told Fox that he took a rental car this time around — which was registered in California.

Of course, this raises a number of new questions including, but certainly not limited to, the following: (1) why would the FBI allow a material witness to flee the country during an ongoing investigation, (2) if Campos was shot, why/how did he spend hours in a car on a road trip to Mexico rather recuperating in a hospital bed and (3) if this was a "pre-planned" visit, as his union suggests, then why did investigators seem so baffled by his disappearance.

The new information raises even more questions about Stephen Paddock’s Oct. 1 massacre — such as why authorities would allow Campos to leave the country in the middle of their investigation or how the security guard managed to make it down to Mexico with a gunshot wound to his leg.

 

Campos reportedly took a bullet from gunman Stephen Paddock at the start of his killing spree.

 

The union that represents him told Fox that they were aware of his trip to Mexico and claimed it was pre-planned visit. What’s unclear, though, why the group didn’t report his whereabouts in the days following the massacre.

So what say you?  Was this just an innocent, pre-planned trip to Mexico or is there a lot more to the Jesus Campos saga?

Shkreli Lawyer Distances Himself From "Most Hated Man In America" As Trial Begins

While former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli languishes inside a federal jail in Brooklyn, the trial of his former attorney - and alleged co-conspirator - Evan Greebel is just beginning, with the defense and prosecution giving opening statements Friday.

The timing is unfortunate. Shrekli’s trial - which ended in him being convicted of three out of eight counts of fraud - briefly revived the public rancor over his many misdeeds. Given Shkreli’s toxic public image, it comes as no surprise that Greebel’s lawyers are already seeking to distance their client - who was arrested on the same day as Shkreli and whose picture was splashed across cable news networks alongside Shkreli’s - from the disgraced pharma executive, who was jailed last month after a judge revoked his bail following a series of controversial and vaguely threatening Facebook posts, Bloomberg reported.

As many will remember, Shkreli’s comfortable life as a successful young pharmaceutical CEO began to unravel in September 2015 when the New York Times reported that Turing had hiked the price of a life-saving toxoplasmosis drug by 5,000%, thrusting Shkreli into an uncomfortable public spotlight and drawing a public rebuke from Hillary Clinton, then presumed to be the next president of the United States.

Following his indictment, Shkreli seemingly set out to destroy any lingering public sympathy by antagonizing the federal government and harassing female journalists - actions that ultimately led to his jailing. Prosecutors have accused Greebel of helping Shkreli steal $11 million from Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company Shkreli founded and ran before being forced out in 2014. Greebel was terminated as Retrophin’s counsel soon after.

Shkreli allegedly used the money, along with Retrophin stock, to repay investors in two failed hedge funds by signing them on to sham consulting agreements with salaries and stock grants. Greebel is also accused of helping Shkreli manipulate the price of Retrophin stock.

Fortunately for Greebel’s defense team, their client has a somewhat more resepectable public image than his associate. He has a family and was once a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and Kaye Scholer LLP. They’re essentially trying to sell a narrative of him being a quiet family man who got in over his head.

In opening statements on Friday, Greebel’s lawyer told jurors that the 44-year-old father of three and Shkreli, a former biotech executive notorious for aggressive drug-pricing tactics, were as "different as two people can be." Greebel was by no means Shkreli’s "right-hand man," defense lawyer Reed Brodsky told jurors at the trial in Brooklyn, New York.

 

Greebel “lived a quiet life,” Brodsky said, while Shkreli was "cultivating this public personality and persona, blogging and tweeting.”

 

It’s no mystery why Greebel, a former corporate lawyer, would want to separate himself from Shkreli, who is in jail after his conviction for lying to hedge fund investors (although jurors weren’t told about that). Greebel wants to show that Shkreli lied to him as well, and that Greebel had no reason to believe he was being asked to do anything wrong.

 

"Mr. Shkreli is kind of a contradiction," Brodsky said, arguing that Shkreli managed to con people with his "image" of success, brilliant ideas and "photographic memory."

Meanwhile, prosecutors allege he knowingly helped Shkreli loot his company and manipulate its share price for profit.

In the government’s opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kessler said Greebel started working for Shkreli’s companies around 2011 and used his legal talents to aid Shkreli’s fraud. Kessler said Greebel wanted to please Shkreli to make millions of dollars in fees for his firm.

 

"Agreeing to help the CEO of a company steal from the company is a crime," Kessler said. "Agreeing to help illegally control the stock market is a crime."

As Bloomberg noted, Greebel’s demeanor in court couldn’t have differed more from Shkreli’s. He sat quietly by his defense team, smiling briefly but otherwise remaining expressionless.

Meanwhile, Shkreli’s was on the receiving end of more bad news this week when a Brooklyn judge refused to return his $5 million bond, saying the money might be needed to offset any monetary penalties that may be levied against Shkreli, the New York Post reported.

Shkreli’s lawyer Ben Brafman asked her to release the money so his client — No. 14 on New York state’s list of top delinquent taxpayers — can start paying taxes.
 

Hillary Goes To College: Clinton In Talks To Accept Columbia Professorship

Like the old joke goes: Those who can’t, teach.

And after losing an election to the most controversial and unpopular candidate in American history, Hillary Clinton is going back to school.

The New York Post is reporting, citing sources close to the Clinton camp, that the former Secretary of State is in talks to accept a professorship at Columbia University in Morningside Heights.

“She’s been in discussions about a professorship, but nothing has been locked down,” a friend of the ex-secretary of state said Thursday.

As the Post reports, the Ivy League university in upper Manhattan has been a friendly landing pad for other Democrats who have lost elections. Al Gore became a professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism a year after losing the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. And the school hired former mayor David Dinkins after he lost his re-election bid to Rudy Giuliani in 1993.

The former mayor told the Post that he’d be happy to see Clinton in Morningside Heights.

Columbia is familiar territory for the Clintons. The Clinton Foundation once had an office in Harlem. Her professorship would reportedly involve leading seminars about issues she is passionate about. No word yet on whether these will include a thorough deconstruction of the forces that cost her the 2016 election.