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Author: TriSec    Date: 11/30/2021 01:50:43

Good Morning.

Let's dive right in, shall we?


Heading right to the Med, we'll join the Royal Navy. Thanks to that "special relationship", they often get to have the same weapons we do, at about the same time. Perhaps you've heard of the HMS Queen Elizabeth. She's the most recent aircraft carrier laid down by the Navy, and the largest built since WWII. She was purpose-built to take on board the brand new F-35 "Flying Turd".

So of course this happened.


The footage shows a pilot ejecting as the £100m aircraft falls into the sea.

A UK F-35 jet crashed soon after take-off earlier this month while the carrier was conducting flying operations in the Mediterranean.

The MoD has said it was too soon to comment on the footage and efforts are ongoing to recover the aircraft.

The footage - shared on Twitter - is extraordinary, and appears to show an F-35 jet approaching the ski jump of an aircraft carrier as it prepares to take off.

Instead of gaining speed, the jet slows down as it reaches the ramp and the aircraft topples into the ocean.

The video - which appears to have been recorded from one of the carrier's own surveillance cameras - then shows a pilot ejecting from the aircraft.

Seconds after the jet disappears from view, a parachute can be seen floating down towards the sea just in front of the 65,000-tonne ship.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that a crash had taken place and said the pilot was recovered safely.

In a statement on Monday night, the MoD said it was aware of a video circulating online but said it was too soon to comment on the potential causes of the incident.

That investigation is still continuing - as are efforts to recover the aircraft.

It has been speculated that the crash might have been caused by an engine cover being mistakenly left on the jet.

There is also now likely to be another investigation into how this sensitive video was released online.


That's just lovely. To the uninitiated, that actually looks like a "soft cat shot", when the catapult malfunctions. But the ship doesn't have any, and the F-35 was designed with that ski-lift launch in mind. Oh, well. It's only 100 million pounds. Each.

Moving to the United States - we all know about the "Florida Man" meme. Today marks his first appearance here at Ask a Vet. Just ordinary VA Fraud, really nothing to see here.


Two Florida residents have been charged with allegedly defrauding the federal government's largest health care programs, including a man linked to the American Mafia.

The Department of Justice announced Nov. 19 that Thomas Farese, 79, of Delray Beach, and Domenic Gatto, 47, of Palm Beach Gardens, have been charged with health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and other crimes totaling $25 million in losses by Medicare, Tricare and CHAMPVA, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health program for eligible veterans' spouses and children.

The charges mark the second time in seven months the men have faced charges for allegedly engaging in health care fraud: in April, they and others were charged with conspiracy and committing fraud, allegedly bilking government health programs of $65 million.

According to court documents, Farese and Gatto hid their ownership of several medical equipment companies and arranged orders for medical devices, namely orthotic braces.

They then supposedly arranged and paid for orders, soliciting, bribing and receiving kickbacks from physicians for braces that weren't needed by patients -- orders that in turn were billed to the federal government, according to the Justice Department.

The pair also were involved in a related kickback scheme involving prescriptions for compounded medications -- prescriptions that are prepared for individual patients by specialty pharmacies that have been a frequent target of scammers for nearly the past decade.

Farese is no stranger to the U.S. legal system: he was charged and convicted in 1980 of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana smuggling and distribution operation through a Fort Lauderdale shipping company, sentenced to 30 years in prison and released in 1994.

Two years later, Farese was charged for laundering more than $1 million in drug money through several Florida coast strip clubs.

During his sentencing hearing in that case, federal prosecutor Jeffrey Slomar called Farese "a capo regime [captain] in the Colombo organized crime family" with "contacts throughout the world to facilitate money-laundering transactions," according to court documents.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and released in 2005, only to return seven years later, convicted again of money laundering.

He remained in prison until 2012, according to court documents.


Nice, huh? Well, at least he's 79 now. Probably won't get the chance to try again, but his track record would indicate otherwise.

But let's end on a lighthearted note for a change. The USMA at West Point as well as the USNA at Annapolis have a fine tradition of 'pranks' between the two of them. Mostly revolving around kidnapping mascots before important football games. One of them didn't quite go as planned recently.


The recent cold snap along the East Coast can mean only one thing: The Army-Navy football game is afoot, and with that, the time-honored tradition of stealing the schools’ mascots, a mule and goat, respectively.

The Naval Academy adopted the goat as its mascot in 1904 and all goats have since been lovingly dubbed Bill. West Point officially made the mule its mascot in 1899 without bestowing a name.

The deeply ingrained tradition of thievery has been occurring for nearly 70 years, and despite being banned in 1992 after Navy midshipmen were a little overzealous in their attempt — cutting phone lines and zip-tying six Army employees while stealing West Point’s mules — the observance of the annual heist has continued unabated, albeit unsanctioned.

The first cadet theft of Bill occurred in 1953 and involved a convertible and chloroform. Since then, 10 successful (more PETA friendly) Army-conducted raids have occurred.

This year, however, the cadets fumbled their mission. Hard.

According to a joint statement released by the Army and Navy in response to questions from The New York Times, the West Point raiders attempted to sneak up on Bill No. 37 as he dozed peacefully in a pasture with several other retired Bills.

“The noisy assault team spooked the goats into a run, though, and when the fumbling cadets gave chase, they managed to grab only one goat — and not the right one. After a four-hour drive back to West Point, they unveiled not Bill No. 37 but Bill No. 35, an arthritic, 14-year-old retiree with only one horn.”

Bill No. 35 was unharmed and safely returned on Monday by some rather sheepish Army officers.


I don't know anything about this so-called GOAT. We used to have one too, but he's dead to me now.

Anyway...





 
 

7 comments (Latest Comment: 11/30/2021 17:24:31 by Scoopster)
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