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Taliban leader Mansour 'likely killed'
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
1 15:23 Mike Kozlowski [5] 
5 17:55 Procopius2k [11] 
3 17:56 Procopius2k [10] 
5 17:58 Procopius2k [9] 
18 19:22 SteveS [9] 
16 20:40 Percy McCoy7690 [11] 
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1 20:03 Percy Omeash2419 [12]
5 23:35 Alaska Paul [21]
Page 2: WoT Background
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1 20:07 Percy Omeash2419 [11]
5 13:35 trailing wife [5]
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1 09:58 Procopius2k [4]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
6 23:03 rammer [9]
3 13:48 Dale [4]
2 19:12 Pappy [15]
1 00:50 Shipman [5]
Page 6: Politix
14 20:07 Ho Lee fuk [8]
18 23:55 Alaska Paul [13]
5 20:12 Percy Omeash2419 [14]
Africa North
EgyptAir pilot told colleagues he was 'ready to die'; Brother calls him a martyr.'
[Right Scoop] Investigators are trying to unravel why the plane went down into the Mediterranean Sea. Is it terrorism? Is it a Muslim suicide pilot?

We don’t know for sure yet, but the Muslim pilot of EgyptAir flight 804, Mohamed Said Shakeer, is looking very suspicious!

The pilot’s own brother told El Watan News that Shakeer called him before the flight and asked him to pray for him. Not only that, but his brother is calling him a martyr for Islam.

Caps removed, still appears viable.

Steve White's posting from today appears to rule out suicide.
Moved to Opinion. This is speculation with translation from the Egyptian press and social media by Walid Shoebat, who knows whereof he speaks. Whether or not this was a suicide by airplane, the pilot's connections should be of interest.

-- trailing wife at 3:25 pm ET
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2016 02:37 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All caps like that just screams not credible.

What is it about crazies that makes them label themselves this way? They'd have a lot more impact without the capitals.
Posted by: Elmavish Panda1401 || 05/22/2016 2:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Upper or lower case, all possibilities should be thoroughly examined.

Shoebat link.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2016 3:08 Comments || Top||

#3  "homosexual looking pilot"

What does that even mean? Yeah sure it's credible. LOL.
Posted by: Elmavish Panda1401 || 05/22/2016 4:55 Comments || Top||

#4  the pilot suicide is somewhat inconsistent with the fire in the cabin
Posted by: lord garth || 05/22/2016 6:34 Comments || Top||

#5  the pilot suicide is somewhat inconsistent with the fire in the cabin. Posted by: lord garth

If the suicide candidate leaves the cockit to go to the loo before landing, starts a small fire, returns to the cockpit. Fire alarm goes off, non-suicide pilot leaves to investigate.....

Without the flight recorder, no one knows. With the flight recorder, we may still not know.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2016 7:28 Comments || Top||


#7  Speaking of CAPS any word on JOE?
Posted by: Shipman || 05/22/2016 8:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Ship: When was his last post ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2016 8:20 Comments || Top||

#9  "any word on JOE?"

OMG - you don't suppose Guam tipped over, do you?
Posted by: Barbara || 05/22/2016 9:23 Comments || Top||

#10  Joe is a perfect example of someone I might read if his text were not unreadable.

Still no word on what a "homosexual looking" pilot has to do with anything. Anyone want to try?
Posted by: Elmavish Panda1401 || 05/22/2016 9:45 Comments || Top||

#11  Joseph M. Mendiola is a member of the Senate of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. He represents the second senatorial district of Tinian & Aguiguan and is a member of the CNMI Covenant Party.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/22/2016 9:50 Comments || Top||

#12  Joe is a perfect example of someone I might read if his text were not unreadable. Still no word on what a "homosexual looking" pilot has to do with anything. Anyone want to try?

Now that you've slandered Joe, please go ahead and share your wisdom regarding the homosexual issue.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2016 11:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Thanks for the info Deacon. Joe often did have insights that were well worth parsing out.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/22/2016 11:36 Comments || Top||

#14  24 hour?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/22/2016 12:21 Comments || Top||

#15 
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/22/2016 15:05 Comments || Top||

#16  That would not appeal to either gay or lesbian, as Bruce Jenner found to his sorrow, Skidmark. It is, however, a demonstration that wishing does not provide good taste; that outfit appears designed to make the wearer look astoundingly unattractive in every possible way to every potential viewer.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2016 15:25 Comments || Top||

#17  Speaking of CAPS any word on JOE?

A very quick search gives the most recent post I could find as April 6, 2016. Here.

Perhaps he is busy with local politics. The Republican caucus was March 12th, the Democratic caucus was May 7th.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/22/2016 16:54 Comments || Top||

#18  a perfect example of someone I might read if his text were not unreadable.

It's not unreadable. He just has an accent.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/22/2016 19:22 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Radical tourists have been deluded pimps for Venezuela
Al-Grauniad actually gets one right
Posted by: Frank G || 05/22/2016 10:40 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Right? Close but no cigar. Of course Al Guardian assumes that all "sex tourists" are male.

Ever been to Jamaica or Kenya?
Posted by: European Conservative || 05/22/2016 12:23 Comments || Top||

#2  "Ever been to Jamaica or Kenya?"

No. Gott sei dank.
Posted by: Barbara || 05/22/2016 13:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Nice pic. Is that 'Venezuela sleeps with the fish'?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/22/2016 17:56 Comments || Top||


Economy
The 50-Year Decline of the American Worker
Henry Ford had two great ideas. One was the creation of the first factory assembly line with a conveyor belt. It cut the time to produce a Model T from about a day and a half to an hour and a half. It created a massive productivity change.

But Ford had another idea that is less discussed. He bet the company on a bizarre notion: If he doubled workers' wages from $2.50 to $5 a day, he could reduce production problems, accidents and absenteeism. At the same time, worker turnover and training would be reduced. Productivity would increase.

The bet paid off. It made Henry Ford rich. It opened the door to careful labor force management and higher wages for many workers. It contributed to the creation of a middle-class America.
I think they call that capitalism.
I remembered this bit of history as I read Neal Gabler's "The Secret Shame of Middle Class Americans" in the May issue of The Atlantic. It's something everyone should read, particularly those in the top tier of corporate America.

The article explains the anger and discontent that Donald Trump has mobilized for himself, as himself, and that Bernie Sanders has mobilized for his part of the Democratic Party. After nearly half a century of slow but constant decline, a majority of Americans are angry. The root of that anger is the terms of trade for work.

Yes, you read that right ‐ nearly half a century of decline. It has taken that long to cross all collar colors. It started in the 1960s with the peak of power for the coal and auto unions. It spread further when the communications workers lost their power in the '70s. And it climaxed when Ronald Reagan broke the air traffic controllers union in 1981.

All those events marked the decline in the terms of trade for American workers. Along the way, pensions have disappeared, benefits have been whittled away, job security has vanished and wage gains have trailed inflation. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, labor's share of the business sector peaked in 1960. It began a steep decline in 2000.

At the same time, corporate executive salaries have soared and corporate profitability, by multiple measures, has reached record levels. Much but not all of the gain has been achieved by exporting American jobs.
Much reporting at several different income levels - percentile-wise. Bottom line:
Those higher up the wealth scale do progressively better. At the 99th percentile, 20 percent of wealth was lost between 2007 and 2013 but wealth increased 145 percent between 1983 and 2013.

No solution in sight

There is no sign this trend will reverse. Will the solution come from Washington? Probably not. In any case, no one can hold his breath that long.

We need a 21st-century Henry Ford. Shout if you see him.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/22/2016 13:47 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And it climaxed when Ronald Reagan broke the air traffic controllers union in 1981.

...I'd take some exception with that - PATCO broke itself, with a leadership bound and determined to hold US and international air travel hostage. Had they struck, Reagan would have been pilloried around the world (not that the world needed any more reasons, but I digress) and the pressure to give in would have been unbearable. PATCO could have changed it at anytime, but they got greedy and stupid, and that's no way to go through life.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/22/2016 15:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Media in agony as Trump makes it relive Clinton sex scandals
[Wash Examiner] he press is balking at the idea of revisiting Bill Clinton's sex scandals, and many in media are warning presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump and his supporters against even mentioning the issue.

Trump escalated things in a Fox News interview this week when he used the word "rape" in reference to a charge brought against the former president by a woman named Juanita Broaddrick.

Broaddrick maintains she was sexually assaulted by Clinton in 1978.

"In one case, it's about exposure," cable news host Sean Hannity said of the many charges brought against Clinton. "In another case, it's about groping and fondling and touching against a woman's will."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/22/2016 03:01 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He, he, he. I like him more every day.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/22/2016 12:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Good. I like reruns now and then. Media dances to his tune.
Posted by: Dale || 05/22/2016 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  If he had just liked anything other than girls, the media would be able to say "Nothing to see here, you h8ters!"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/22/2016 14:13 Comments || Top||

#4  The media never wanted to get into Bill Clinton's proclivities in the first place. If it hadn't been for Drudge they would have buried it. Let them agonize, they deserve it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/22/2016 15:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, torment them in their crimes against the old republic. Sell your soul and eventually you'll pay.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/22/2016 17:58 Comments || Top||


Trump is Conservative Enough
Almost two weeks old, but I quickly checked and don't recall seeing it here.
[FoxNews]. So are you ready for my takeaway of all this?

1. Trump isn't just conservative. On important issues, he's the most conservative Presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Bobby || 05/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No, he's not conservative enough. Not conservative at all. But we had our chance to pick conservatives and chose not to. Now we have a choice between a sleazy progressive narcissist and a sleazy evil progressive narcissist. I guess that's enough of a difference...
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/22/2016 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Apparently, the US of A likes celebrities

Well if you have a titular head of the country who is also a chief executive (IMO, two jobs what require a completely different set of skills & talents)...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/22/2016 3:51 Comments || Top||

#3  If it came down to Trump vs McCain this article might contain a glimmer of truth, but we chose a life long liberal democrat and Hillary supporter over the likes of Perry, Walker and Cruz - some of the most conservative elected officials in a generation. And now that we've gone full retard what do I keep hearing - he's better than Hillary. The same crap I heard when they were trying to force feed me that parade of fools which includes McCain, Romney, Jeb, Dole, etc.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/22/2016 9:30 Comments || Top||

#4  How about "Trump is the most conservative candidate"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/22/2016 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  He's the most conservative lifelong liberal Democrat left in the race.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/22/2016 10:57 Comments || Top||

#6  How about "Trump is the most conservative candidate"?

About as meaningful in this race as asking which candidate has the better hair.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/22/2016 11:46 Comments || Top||

#7  You really think there's no difference between Hillary and Trump, Iblis? I'm really curious.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/22/2016 12:17 Comments || Top||

#8  Trump is an avowed hard line Capitalist.

Hillary is an avowed hard line Socialist.

This contest is not Conservative vs Socialist.

This contest is Capitalist rule vs Socialist rule.
Posted by: Percy Clolump2741 || 05/22/2016 12:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Trump is an avowed hard line Capitalist.
Hillary is an avowed hard line Socialist.


And that's the contest in a nut shell.
Posted by: Slereting Mussolini4204 || 05/22/2016 13:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Trump is an avowed hard line Capitalist.

John C. Osgood curiously unavailable for comment.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/22/2016 15:36 Comments || Top||

#11  He's dead, Jim.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/22/2016 15:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Trump is a capitalist, but he depends heavily on the 'crony' aspect of it. Clinton is also a capitalist, of the crony kind, but she wears heavy socialist camouflage.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/22/2016 17:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Glenmore, is he a crony capitalist from choice or is that the only/smart option in today's game?

If the game is rigged, as I believe it mostly is, is it not dumb to pretend it isn't?
Posted by: AlanC || 05/22/2016 17:52 Comments || Top||

#14  Grom - missed my point. They are both train wrecks. Just one kind of disaster vs another. Either way, you get disaster.

Ask for Trump being a capitalist, sure, in the sense that PT Barnum was a capitalist.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/22/2016 17:56 Comments || Top||

#15  PT Barnum was one of the founders of the Republican Party; he was the mayor of Bridgeport Connecticut at the time, back when it actually made stuff.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/22/2016 20:37 Comments || Top||

#16  is he a crony capitalist from choice or is that the only/smart option in today's game?

Posted by: AlanC 2016-05-22 17:52


Todays game per the American right wing voter is elect the most effective NON POLITICIAN who wants the job into the highest political office to clean up the cronyism if at all possible.

Americans now know what limited choice means and they are trying to make the best of it.
Posted by: Percy McCoy7690 || 05/22/2016 20:40 Comments || Top||


Government
Progressives Failing Poor People
Portland is part of the fifth-whitest major metropolitan area in America. Almost 75 percent of the region is white, and it has the third-lowest percentage of blacks, at only 3.1 percent. (America as a whole is 13.2 percent black.) Portland proper is often portrayed as a boomtown, but the city's tiny (and shrinking) black population doesn't seem to think so. The city has lost more than 11.5 percent of its black residents in just four years. Metro Portland's black population share grew by 0.3 percentage points from 2000, but that trailed the nation's 0.5 percentage-point growth. This implies that some of Portland's blacks are being displaced from the transit- and amenity-rich city to the suburbs that many progressives insist are inferior.

These figures might not be important if they merely reflected a choice by blacks to move to more auspicious locations, but the evidence suggests that specific public policies have excluded and even driven out blacks. Primary among them are restrictive planning regulations that make it hard to expand the supply of housing. In a market with rising demand and static supply, prices go up.

As a rule, a household should spend no more than three times its annual income on a home. But in West Coast markets, housing-price levels far exceed that benchmark. According to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, the median multiple, which is the median home price divided by the median household income, should average about 3.0. But the median multiple is 5.1 in Portland, 5.1 in Denver, 5.2 in Seattle, 8.1 in Los Angeles and San Diego, 9.4 in San Francisco, and 9.7 in San Jose. As the Demos/IASP report found, differences in home ownership rates between whites and blacks account for a large share of the racial wealth gap. Policies that put the price of home ownership out of reach for many black families exacerbate the problem.
Progressives - Improving the lives of the lesser peoples everywhere, but not in my backyard.
Some on the left recognize how development restrictions hurt lower- and middle-income people. Liberal commentator Matt Yglesias has called housing affordability "Blue America's greatest failing." Yglesias and others criticize zoning policies that mandate single-family homes, or approval processes, like that in San Francisco, that prohibit development.
Busting middle-class neighborhoods with government regulations; protecting neighborhoods with government regulations.
These commentators don't mention the role of environmental policy in creating high housing prices. Portland, for example, has drawn a so-called urban-growth boundary that severely restricts land development and drives up prices inside the approved perimeter. The development-stifling effects of the California Environmental Quality Act are notorious. California also imposes some of the nation's toughest energy regulations, putting a huge financial burden on lower-income (and disproportionately black) households. Nearly 1 million households in the Golden State spend 10 percent or more of their income on energy bills, according to a Manhattan Institute report.

In some cases, western cities; support for gentrification has come at the expense of long-standing black communities. In Portland, residents of the historically black Albina neighborhood complained about bike lanes (a progressive fetish) being built in their neighborhood. In Oakland, recent upscale arrivals got the government to cite Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, a fixture in the city for 65 years, for creating a public nuisance - because its gospel-choir practice was disturbing the newcomers.

When it comes to how state and local policies affect black residents, the track record of the most liberal cities in the United States is truly dismal. These results should be troubling to progressives touting blue-state planning, economic and energy policies as models for the nation. After all, if wealthy cities like San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle - where progressives have near-total political control - can't produce positive outcomes for working-class and middle-class blacks, why should we expect their approach to succeed anywhere else?
Try Venezuela.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/22/2016 13:34 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  8.1 in San Diego seems about right
Posted by: Frank G || 05/22/2016 14:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, boo hoo. Portland doesn't want to end up looking like Los Angeles? Shame on them. And San Francisco has no more open space left? How did that happen? So you take Los Angeles, or San Diego, where they've been screaming for more affordable housing and building as fast as they can for decades and the cost of housing just keeps sky rocketing. That's what happens when you have a great demand on top of a government policy like the Community Reinvestment Act. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac promoted all those exotic and sub prime mortgages to "help people". Only problem is when you make it easier for unqualified borrowers to get a home loan you drive the cost of homes up. IIRC, CRA was a liberal, progressive idea. Bottom line is: San Diego is expensive and it's already way too crowded. Try Detroit.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/22/2016 15:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Even Detroit is losing black folks -

The most distressed cities in this region are the usual suspects: Detroit, Cleveland, Flint and Youngstown. All have declining black populations, both in their urban cores and region-wide. They are losing black residents to migration.

Leaving a void filled with ... southwest Asians?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/22/2016 16:33 Comments || Top||

#4  And where are those blacks leaving Detroit et. al. going?

Seriously, I don't know. Are they going to Cali. or Texas or NY or back to the south?
Posted by: AlanC || 05/22/2016 17:44 Comments || Top||

#5  ...who's giving out the most free stuff? From the aerial photographs, it doesn't appear to be Windsor, ON.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/22/2016 17:55 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
25[untagged]
12Islamic State
9Taliban
3Boko Haram
2Govt of Pakistain Proxies
2Govt of Pakistan
1Commies
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Syria
1Houthis
1Salafists
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Shabaab
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Arab Spring

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
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trailing wife
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2016-05-22
  Taliban leader Mansour 'likely killed'
Sat 2016-05-21
  ISIS commander kill his 11 fighters in east of Afghanistan
Fri 2016-05-20
  One of the eight killed militants in Multan was ‘Al Qaeda country head’
Thu 2016-05-19
  EgyptAir Jet Disappears Over Mediterranean Sea
Wed 2016-05-18
  Fighting among Syrian rebels kills more than 50
Tue 2016-05-17
  Pro-Rassoul Faction Declares Jihad On Mansour Clan
Mon 2016-05-16
  ISIS release execution photos of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan
Sun 2016-05-15
  ISIS kill 16 Real Madrid fans in massacre at supporters club headquarters
Sat 2016-05-14
  Rebels kill at least 75 Quds Brigade militants north of Aleppo
Fri 2016-05-13
  Top Hezbollah commander in Syria Mustafa Badreddine killed by Israel, group says
Thu 2016-05-12
  ISIS says it's behind Iraq blasts that killed over 90
Wed 2016-05-11
  Bangladesh executes top Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman over '1971 war crimes'
Tue 2016-05-10
  US airstrike kills ISIS 'Emir of Anbar Province' in Iraq
Mon 2016-05-09
  78 militants killed in latest air and ground raids of Afghan forces
Sun 2016-05-08
  Suspected bombers die in Soddy security operation


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