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ISIS shells east of Mosul with chlorine gas, 10 casualties
Today's Headlines
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2 10:48 Pappy [3] 
3 17:07 SteveS [5] 
7 17:19 Crusader [3] 
5 15:35 magpie [3] 
39 23:02 rjschwarz [1] 
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Page 4: Opinion
6 18:24 Vespasian Stalin8312 [6]
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7 16:32 Skidmark [2]
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5 14:13 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [5]
Page 6: Politix
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18 23:48 Zenobia Floger6220 [6]
6 21:52 rammer [8]
9 21:37 Besoeker [3]
8 21:25 rammer [3]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
'Best banker in America' blamed for Wells Fargo sales scandal
[REUTERS] An investigation by Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) board laid blame for the company's unauthorized accounts scandal on a high-pressure sales culture and a retail executive obsessed with stamping out negative views about her division.

The report, carried out by board Chairman Stephen Sanger and three other independent directors and released to media on Monday, said former retail division head Carrie Tolstedt ignored the systemic nature of abusive sales practices and accused her of impeding the board's efforts to address an issue that festered for years.

Lawyers for Tolstedt rejected the report's findings on Monday. She had declined to be interviewed for the investigation.

"We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt. A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion," Enu Mainigi, Williams & Connolly LLP, attorneys for Tolstedt, said in a statement.

Sanger, a board member since 2003, faces pressure to root out the problems amid calls by advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services for investors to oust him and other directors in place when the scandal broke. Glass Lewis meanwhile has recommended votes against six board members at the bank's April 25 annual meeting.

In an interview with Rooters, Sanger said the bank was not scapegoating anyone.

"I’m not surprised that some of the people involved see it differently but we stand by the findings of this investigation," he said.

Posted by: Fred || 04/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In an interview with Rooters, Sanger said the bank was not scapegoating anyone.

And then their lips fell off. In a Japanese firm, the senior exec would publicly resign and issue an apology (which is less messy than the old fashion seppuku). Post this under the 'Hillary Blame Everyone Else' File.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/11/2017 9:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Holding a female executive accountable is politically incorrect and Sanger has become the latest scapegoat. The politics/economics of personal destruction already --->.
Posted by: Whavish Thusoling5684 || 04/11/2017 10:01 Comments || Top||

#3  There should be a death penalty for misbehaving corporations, and ALL of WFC.N should be the very first to go.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/11/2017 14:18 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Hill County In Dispute With Man Who Wrote '$exual Favors' On Property Tax Check Memo Line
Havre resident Scott Dion felt he was getting screwed on his taxes.

So on Nov. 30, 2016, when he sent a property tax check into the Hill County Treasurer, he included a note on the memo line. It wasn't the first time he'd done this.

"I probably wrote something on the majority of my checks, and she's cashed them," Dion said, referring to Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown.

This time, he wrote "sexual favors" on the memo line. The check was otherwise normal -- a $745.77 payment made out to the county office.

But when the county didn't cash that check for months, Dion got a lawyer involved.

His lawyer, Jamie Young, sent a letter to the Hill County Treasurer on Feb. 23, saying that leaving the check uncashed violated the First Amendment as well as Montana law.

Young cited a state law that requires banks or financial institutions to report deposited public funds and another that requires county treasurers to log the payments. He wrote that not cashing Dion's check amounts to official misconduct and the treasurer should be prosecuted.

Young sent a follow-up letter to Hill County Attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson on March 6.

"There is no exception under the law permitting Ms. Brown to refuse to perform her duties because she is offended by Mr. Dion's personal memo," Young wrote.

Brown, the county treasurer, said on Monday that she didn't know where Dion's check was at, though it was last with the county attorney.

Cole-Hodgkinson, the county attorney, wouldn't comment on Dion's situation specifically, though she said there is no current civil or criminal case related to the check scuffle.

She said that, in general, the treasurer can't cash a check if it isn't clear "what you want the funds applied to."
Couldn't tell which county worker who buying the $exual favors the check applied to?
Dion said that aside from the memo, the rest of the check was normal, signed and made out to the county.

Montana Department of Revenue spokeswoman Christie Magill said that the state conducts assessments, but the tax collection is largely left to county treasurers.

Dion said that the property tax check hasn't yet been cashed. He plans to go through his bank records and pull previous checks with memos that have been cashed.

"The memo has nothing to do with them at all," he said. "Nothing."

Dion, who said he is a registered traveling nurse, added that for his first tax payment of 2016, he wrote "bulls--t" into the memo line. Dion said the county cashed that check.
Posted by: gorb || 04/11/2017 15:06 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For some reason, that read as Hillary Clinton.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/11/2017 18:44 Comments || Top||


I'll have the Greek salad with Chiroptera strips please
[Breitbart] Miami (AFP) ‐ US health authorities on Monday studied the remains of a dead bat discovered inside a prepackaged salad mix sold in Florida for possible traces of the deadly rabies virus.

The Orlando, Florida-based Fresh Express announced a "precautionary recall of a limited number of cases" of their prepackaged Organic Marketside Spring Mix, which had been distributed to Walmart stores across the southwestern United States.

The company issued the recall on Saturday when it learned "that extraneous animal matter was allegedly found" in a salad container.

"Out of an abundance of caution, all salads manufactured in the same production run are being recalled," Fresh Express said, failing to describe the offending "animal matter."

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) said it was working with the Florida health department and the US Food and Drug Administration "to support an investigation of a dead bat" found in the packaged salad sold at "a grocery store in Florida."
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/11/2017 08:42 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ya know, when I read the headline about a "dead bat", I couldn't help but remember it's baseball season.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 04/11/2017 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Speaking of "dead bats" and Florida, how are the Marlins doing?
Posted by: Pappy || 04/11/2017 10:48 Comments || Top||


Marvel removes 'secret, coded anti-Christian and anti-Jewish messages inserted into X-Men Gold comic
  • [Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf inserted several hidden references in X-men comic

  • Included references to passages of the Koran and Muslim protests from Jakarta

  • Marvel has said it will take disciplinary action against the artist Ardian Syaf

  • Syaf defended himself saying: 'I don't hate Jews or Christians, I worked with them for 10 years. A lot of good friends too. For all that happened I apologize'
Posted by: Fred || 04/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I worked with them for 10 years. A lot of good friends too.

OMG, could he have used a more cliched racist cliche?

Will all the BLM and SJW crybullies now jump all over this Muzzie artist and Marvel?

BTW isn't drawing human figures forbidden in Islam?
Posted by: AlanC || 04/11/2017 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  ...depiction of the Prophet. Others not so much.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/11/2017 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  BTW isn't drawing human figures forbidden in Islam?

I think drawing a knife across a human figure's throat is not only permitted, but encouraged.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/11/2017 9:13 Comments || Top||

#4  For all that happened I apologize...

Uh, that's not an apology. An apology would be worded "For all that I did, I apologize."
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 10:24 Comments || Top||

#5  From a comment in Sir Richard Burton's Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah the pre-Islam witchcraft involved using pictures of creatures and people in casting spells. He had to cut up his sketches and hide them in folded/rolled-up form in his bandages and other kit.
Posted by: magpie || 04/11/2017 15:35 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
RBG Calls Sen. Graham One Of The 'Women Of The Senate'
Senile old coot, or dead on balls right? You make the call!
Posted by: Raj || 04/11/2017 14:27 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, I don't see the problem with that. Do you?
Posted by: AlanC || 04/11/2017 14:57 Comments || Top||

#2  An open secret among the DC cognoscenti for years now.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/11/2017 15:19 Comments || Top||

#3  RBG is Rantburg?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/11/2017 15:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/11/2017 15:37 Comments || Top||

#5  I had to go with her initials, lest the headline span two lines. I try to avoid that at all times.
Posted by: Raj || 04/11/2017 16:17 Comments || Top||

#6  May not be a woman but he's a p*ssy!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/11/2017 16:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Good lord, *that* is a Supreme Court Justice speaking in that video?

Were she not already in a job-for-life position, is there another job that she would be convincing enough to hire? She *really* needs to consider retiring.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 17:11 Comments || Top||

#8  It's an easy mistake to make.
Posted by: Bugs Hupish4420 || 04/11/2017 17:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Ruth Burn! Ginzburg
Posted by: Regular joe || 04/11/2017 18:50 Comments || Top||


United Airlines CEO Apologizes After Video Shows Man Dragged Off Flight
[NBCNEWS] The CEO of United Airlines apologized to customers on Monday following an incident on an overbooked flight where video appeared to show an elderly man being dragged from his seat and through the aisle of a plane.

Several videos posted on social media appeared to show three law enforcement officers pull a screaming man from his seat on the plane and then drag him by the arms down the aisle as shocked passengers look on. A witness told NBC News the ordeal began after the airline said the flight was overbooked and asked four customers to leave the plane and take a flight the following day.

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."

"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation," he added in the statement.

The reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
Police Department said in a statement Monday afternoon that around 6 p.m. on Sunday, a 69-year-old passenger "became irate" after he was asked to leave the plane.

"The passenger in question began yelling to voice his displeasure at which point Aviation Police were summoned," police said in the statement.

Police said the officers attempted to carry the man off the flight "when he fell."

"His head subsequently struck an armrest causing injuries to his face," police said, adding that the man was taken to a hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries. An investigation into the incident was still ongoing.

Multiple attempts to reach the Department of Aviation for comment were not immediately returned.

Tyler Bridges, who posted video of the incident on Twitter, told NBC News he and his wife were on the United plane at O'Hare International Airport from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday when a flight attendant said the flight was overbooked and four people would have to leave to make room for airline employees.

Bridges said the flight attendant offered an $800 voucher for anyone who would volunteer to get off the flight and leave the following day at 3 p.m.

"Nobody moved, nobody got up," he said.

When no one volunteered, Bridges said, a gate agent told them the airline had used an algorithm to randomly select four people to get off the plane.

First, a young couple is asked to leave and, "they're not happy, but they get off. No problem," Bridges said.

Then the unidentified man in the video was asked to leave, Bridges said.

"He says he's a doctor and has to be in Louisville in the morning to see patients," he said. "He says he can't be delayed a day."
Posted by: Fred || 04/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The total arrogance of this industry highlighted once again. They've treated people like cattle for decades. Perhaps this incident will finally bring about some change.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/11/2017 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  And what if the Doctor's patients had died because he wasn't there to treat them?

Perhaps United Airlines thinks it can refund their lives to them...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/11/2017 0:57 Comments || Top||

#3  The solution is obvious. Keep increasing the money offered to get off the flight. Everyone has their price.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/11/2017 1:03 Comments || Top||

#4  The overbooking is whose fault? The Airlines CAUSED the problem. And then the airline arbitrarily drags a CUSTOMER off the flight by force and injures him in the process?

THE AIRLINE IS AT FAULT.
STUPID way to do business.

Don't book a flight on that airline. Just don't do business with them in future... take another airline. Remember them. Spend your money somewhere else. See how stupid they stay.

Remember them anyway.
Posted by: Deadeye Bourbon1820 || 04/11/2017 5:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Aviation Police?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/11/2017 7:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Good thing the guy wasn't wearing leggings.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/11/2017 7:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Don't forget Deadeye - they also forcibly removed the PAYING CUSTOMER to make room for UNITED EMPLOYEES.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/11/2017 7:49 Comments || Top||

#8  And you now know why I opted for retirement.

I do not ever miss my weekly trips to and from airports.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/11/2017 7:51 Comments || Top||

#9  And you now know why I opted for retirement.

But WAIT there's more! Even before airline passenger boarding, there is NOTHING any more disgusting than being herded by Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, attitude ridden, Federal Job Corps TSA chimps. NOTHING !
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/11/2017 8:05 Comments || Top||

#10  As long as they're jamming them into the sardine cans, they could care less about it. Just remember you and I bailed them all out after the grounding on 9/11. Just another form of entitlement.

The old CAB rules on the books had the requirement that if you have one of the old fashion paper tickets (not your modern print out), the airline had to get you on the next available flight to your destination regardless of carrier.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/11/2017 8:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Reason #453 that I don't fly United.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/11/2017 8:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Three issues:
1. Yes, any airline can remove a paying customer if they deem it appropriate. Read the fine print on your ticket. It is my understanding that 40,000 paying customers were undramatically "bumped" last year.
2. The Gendarme may be at fault for physically injuring the person said to be a Doctor, but there may be some blame to go around here. Btw, would my Doctor act in a manner like the one deplaned? If so, I'd be thinking about changing Doctors.
3. The PD Supervisor via UAL personnel may not have accurately conveyed the situation to the cop on site. If the copper only knew "disruptive person on an airplane," well, that may have needlessly got some adrenaline going.

But, as I told the Missus last night while she glared at me through jaundiced eye "What is, is, and United will weather the storm."
Posted by: Harcourt Juth4746 || 04/11/2017 8:49 Comments || Top||

#13  But, as I told the Missus last night while she glared at me through jaundiced eye "What is, is, and United will weather the storm."

...and the inevitable legal action and monetary awards to the removed passenger will be picked up by future UAL customers. Never mind the inconvenience suffered by the passengers permitted to stay aboard the flight.

Peanuts or crackers? Peanuts, crackers?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/11/2017 8:56 Comments || Top||

#14  What moron let the to be bumped passengers board? Don't you have to be assigned a seat? They don't have an algorithm to keep two people from being assigned the same seat? Me think there is more to this.
Posted by: Crusoling Turkeyneck1852 || 04/11/2017 8:56 Comments || Top||

#15  Trespassing plus failing to obey commands of a crew member. It's an open and shut case.

I'm ashamed of Rantburg for supporting this lawbreaker.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 04/11/2017 9:24 Comments || Top||

#16  There is more. They did the normal overbooked weeding at the gate, and boarded the remainder. All good so far.
THEN UA found they had to move four of their own (UA) personnel, and decided to offer the typical monetary reward for volunteers. No volunteers; too low a bid on UA's part. Then it became a "fuck em, drag their asses off" thing. Three went grudgingly, one didn't want to volun-selected. The rest of the story we've heard. The ethnic chinese Dr. (I don't know if he was a real doctor) appeared to be in shock when he re-boarded, bloodied, muttering about them trying to kill them. No info on that. So what is unsaid is they got a fifth person to volun-select? If the doc re-boarded, a seat had to be open. (Then they had to un-board to clean up the blood? What?) I am made of questions here.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/11/2017 9:43 Comments || Top||

#17  ^^^^UAL troll
Posted by: chris || 04/11/2017 9:43 Comments || Top||

#18  It's simple. Overbook, fine 10K per. Not cost effective to do anymore. You think your K streets reps in Congress will back that? I have a bridge in San Francisco to sell you.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/11/2017 10:03 Comments || Top||

#19  I think Harcourt is right. When the airline crew tells you to leave the plane you must do so. It does not matter if their reason is justified. I suspect United acted legally but stupidly - it wouldn't be the first time.
That said, I can easily understand the doctor - and everybody else - not wanting to be stuck in Chicago...
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/11/2017 10:21 Comments || Top||

#20  I'm ashamed of Rantburg for supporting this lawbreaker.

I'm ashamed that anyone thinks its ok to boot a paying customer that has already been seated merely because an EMPLOYEE wishes to take that seat at the last minute. Fuck UA for being so foolish.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 10:32 Comments || Top||

#21  But, of course: StarTrek actor John Cho blames Trump for United’s forced removal of passenger

Who woulda' thought Chinese Takeout would turn into such a problem?
Posted by: Harcourt Juth4746 || 04/11/2017 10:46 Comments || Top||

#22  Go to your room.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/11/2017 10:52 Comments || Top||

#23  Police are now serving computers!
Posted by: Hupinetle Chavinter7433 || 04/11/2017 11:13 Comments || Top||

#24  A public relations disaster that could have been averted. Corporate stupidity. It will cost UA a bundle in lost ridership. Despite that airlines can legally remove a passenger from the plane, I've got a feeling there is a legion of attorneys salivating to take on this case.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/11/2017 11:32 Comments || Top||

#25  Who woulda' thought Chinese Takeout would turn into such a problem?
Posted by Harcourt

That is so funny!
Posted by: jvalentour || 04/11/2017 13:06 Comments || Top||

#26  For some reason United Stock went up yesterday?

Weird thought came to me. What if the feds found out a terrorist had boarded, this would be a nice way to remove them without freaking out all the other passengers.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/11/2017 13:23 Comments || Top||

#27  United Airlines sux so bad I don't understand how they're still in business.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/11/2017 13:30 Comments || Top||

#28  I am not seeing UAL stock going up. It started at 70.15, dipped to 68.36 maybe around 11 AM, turned up to nearly match its open 69.54, seems to be trending down now. Market seems to be signaling a loss of ~2.5% of its cap, so $550M out of $22.08B. Expensive seat change.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/11/2017 13:45 Comments || Top||

#29  Stocks down $1.4 Billion.
Posted by: Thomoth Smith2015 || 04/11/2017 14:08 Comments || Top||

#30  Perhaps down today but Fortune was reporting the stock soaring yesterday despite the incident. CNBC also reported that but their links now go to a report about the stocks falling as PR catches up.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/11/2017 14:29 Comments || Top||

#31  I'm actually afraid to fly commercial but I try to at least once a year to catch up on my drinking and praying.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/11/2017 16:11 Comments || Top||

#32  United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said Tuesday that all 70 seats on United Express Flight 3411 were filled, but the plane was not overbooked as the airline previously reported. Instead, United and regional affiliate Republic Airlines, which operated the flight, selected four passengers to be removed to accommodate crew members needed in Louisville the next day.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 17:31 Comments || Top||

#33  Explain to me any other business that sells something they don't have without getting charged with fraud? You pay for a ticket (usually with small print that says non-refundable) a contract is made. If you miss the flight or blow it off, the seat is already paid for whether filled or not. The practice of overbooking is an old scheme made 'legal' by airline lobbyists and Congresscritters who look the other way to the practice that would not be tolerated in nearly every other business.

Excellent point !
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/11/2017 17:33 Comments || Top||

#34  That's a good one Deacon.

Both right, both wrong. IIUC, United and airport security are two different entities?

$800 voucher to overnight in Chicago, no way. Not even cash. Probably only bag I'd have is my carry-on, gotta get out of O'Hare (I have been there a couple times), pay for a taxi, hotel room, dinner, taxi back to O'Hare with enough time to get to terminal, check-in (hopefully I am on the passenger list), go through security, hopefully enough time to tredge a food line, get some airport priced meal, get to gate, board. So maybe three or four hundred left of the voucher for all that extra work and now messed up schedule. How much would I have earned the day I was supposed to be at work?

What kind of voucher, $800 off my next flight from a company that just booted me from a seat I had reserved and made plans around that reservation? Come'on.

No volunteers for that? Shocking. $1000 cash and I get a first class seat.

None of this stuff really changes my opinion on anything, and unruly passengers are on my top 5 things I hate....but the memes going around are killing me.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/11/2017 18:08 Comments || Top||

#35  If you have a full price ticket, you can get on any flight if there is room, regardless of whether you have a reservation. I have done it numerous times. And you can book a seat and simply not show up without consequence.

No shows have always been a problem for airlines, and they routinely overbook based on the estimated number of no shows.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/11/2017 18:24 Comments || Top||

#36  But this flight was *not* overbooked. United needed to get 4 crewmembers to Louisville for the next morning so they kicked 4 paying customers off - including this doctor.

Why couldn't they have placed their crew on a different flight with a different airline?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/11/2017 19:41 Comments || Top||

#37  Dr. is Asian. Big stink about it in China where UA is big. They are accusing UA of being racist...
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 04/11/2017 21:02 Comments || Top||

#38  Like pinging a sub you catch prying.
How bu hao! Some Chinese guy crying.
A Peking duck, winging?
A jing ju star, singing
When suddenly spotlighted flying?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 04/11/2017 21:04 Comments || Top||

#39  Apparently this happens all the time but usually they kick the folks before boarding so there is less of a fuss.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/11/2017 23:02 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Daily Mail update on Koreas
Trump warns 'North Korea is looking for trouble' and if China 'does not decide to help we will solve the problem without them'

* USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group sent to Korean Peninsula

* North Korea insists it is ready for war, calling US Navy deployment 'reckless'

* Pyongyang warned it can respond to 'provocateurs' with 'powerful force of arms'

* Russia says officials are 'extremely worried' by prospect of US military action

* Donald Trump has tweeted that if China decides not to help 'we will solve the problem without them'
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/11/2017 08:14 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Trump should start making colorful but crazy proclamations the way the North Korea Press does.

* Calling US actions reckless is an act of war and we will rain endless fire down upon Baby Kim!!!
* We understand Baby Kim is friendless and sad but his threats have earned him the hell of the upside down sinners!
* Etc.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/11/2017 13:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Also add to the list it was reported China deployed 150,000 troops the NK border

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4399076/China-deploys-150-000-troops-North-Korea-border.html
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 04/11/2017 15:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Trump should start making colorful but crazy proclamations

You want wild & crazy? I'd invite Pudge to Mar-a-Lago for dinner and cognac. Offer to fly him in on Trump Force One.

Or maybe drinks on the bridge of VINSON. It's a shorter flight, but given US-NKOR relations, it may be a ... wait for it ... bridge too far.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/11/2017 17:07 Comments || Top||


150,000 Chinese troops sent to North Korean border
South Korean media are reporting that an additional 150,000 Chinese soldiers have been sent to China's border with North Korea. Google translates the page thus:
As the United States announced its independent North Korean behavior and moved the United States Navy's nuclear-powered Calvinus (CVN-70) carrier class to Singapore, the Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops in two groups, "The report said. It is because of the prospect of taking "military options", such as preemptive attacks on North Korea, just as the United States has launched an air raid on Syria. ...

There is an observation that medical and back-up support units will be dispatched to "train for North Korean refugees," the newspaper added

What this means is that when President Trump sent 60 cruise missiles against Syria's Sharyat airfield, the Chinese very soon took seriously the possibility that an attack could be made against North Korea's atomic-weapons program unless Kim Jong Un, the North's dictator, backs down peacefully.

The additional troops are almost certainly to prevent floods of North Korean refugees from crossing into China if the is a military strike against the DPRK's nuclear program. China has long had to contend with thousands of refugees annually refugees from the DPRK. Many are killed or die making the attempt. China has a mixed record at best of turning over successful escapees to North Korea. Amnesty International reported in 2012,
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/11/2017 04:43 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Wonder if this was coordinated during Xi's visit?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/11/2017 7:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Skidmark,
That would be my wager.
Posted by: Crusoling Turkeyneck1852 || 04/11/2017 8:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Chinahas long had to contend with thousands of refugees annually

The more likely reason, rather than the tete a tete at Mar Largo.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/11/2017 13:48 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't understand the refugee shibboleth. If there's one thing China has no shortage of, it's housing. And if there's one thing it has a shortage of, it's labor, with salaries up 20x since economic liberalization 40 years ago. The troops aren't there to stem the flood of refugees - they're to discourage a potential invasion by SK (and US troops) in response to the collapse of NK's government after US air attacks, or even to invade NK itself. Note that there's plenty of Chinese troops on NK's border already, mainly to face off against Russian troops in the vicinity and to have a presence adjacent to Russian territory that was once part of the Manchurian realm. The additional troops aren't a border control force - they're a strike force.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 04/11/2017 15:22 Comments || Top||

#5  As I recall, the US exercise with ROK in the spring, 'Team Spirit' usually added about 150k US troops to the landmass.

China still burns from the Mao thing and has a fight with the muslim thing. I can see why they would want to stop idolater refugees.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/11/2017 15:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Zerohedge pointed out a strange opinion piece that they claim was posted today at english.chinamil.com.cn/ and later vanished from the internet. Clicking on the supposed original source URL gives a "Page Not Found" message in Mandarin. I don't know if this is real or fake, but it's interesting.
BEIJING, April 7 (ChinaMil) -- Global Times mentioned the bottom line of China on DPRK nuclear issue in an article titled Commentary: The United States Must Not Choose a Wrong Direction to Break the DPRK Nuclear Deadlock on Wednesday, triggering wide speculation.

According to the article, China very much hopes that the DPRK nuclear issue can be solved as soon as possible. But no matter what happens, China has a bottom line that it will protect at all costs, that is, the security and stability of northeast China.
....
First, “DPRK's nuclear activities must not cause any pollution to northeast China.”

Is this sentence designed for the United States? Maybe, but it is designed for the DPRK more. We all know that the DPRK's sixth nuclear test is imminent, and various parties, especially China, are generally worried about this.

It is very insidious for the DPRK to select Punggye-ri, located in Kilju County of North Hamgyong Province in DPRK, as the site for the nuclear test. The place is the farthest point from Pyongyang within the DPRK territory, but near the border of China and DPRK.

Residents in northeast China suffered every time DPRK launched a nuclear test. The news may remain fresh to us: buildings showed cracks, and students in classes were evacuated to the playgrounds.

With the increase in nuclear equivalents, the threat to the Chinese people nearby also surges. In particular, if by any chance nuclear leakage or pollution incidents happen, the damage to northeast China environment will be catastrophic and irreversible.

This is the bottom line of China, which means China will never allow such situation to happen. If the bottom line is touched, China will employ all means available including the military means to strike back.

By that time, it is not an issue of discussion whether China acquiesces in the US’ blows, but the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will launch attacks to DPRK nuclear facilities on its own.

RTWT
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/11/2017 17:02 Comments || Top||

#7  #6 Fascinating.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 17:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Brucer Jenner now leaning directly over porcelain
[Breibart] Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, has undergone successful sex reassignment surgery, according to a book of memoirs set to be released later this month.

According to excerpts published by Radar Online, the 67-year-old Jenner went under the knife for a "final surgery" in January of this year, just over two years after coming out as transgender in a blockbuster interview with Diane Sawyer in 2015.

"The surgery was a success, and I feel not only wonderful but liberated," Jenner reportedly writes in Secrets of My Life, a book of memoirs due out April 25.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/11/2017 09:09 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who gives a damn?
Posted by: chris || 04/11/2017 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  ..the surgeon who got paid?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/11/2017 10:04 Comments || Top||

#3  When he reaches the stage of being sorry he went in this direction, he will be a lot sorrier than he would have been before he took such drastic action.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/11/2017 10:17 Comments || Top||

#4  When do the "hot flashes" start?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 04/11/2017 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  He's still a man pretending to be a woman. Real women don't need dick removal surgery.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/11/2017 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Where's the hook that pulls this brood of Jenners and Kardashians off the stage; it's the humanitarian thing to do, i.e. spare the rest of us?
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/11/2017 11:36 Comments || Top||

#7  John QC - from your mouth to God's ears!
Posted by: warthogswife || 04/11/2017 12:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Cloud Cukoo Haiku

WTF?
YJCMSU, yo.
70s Bruce jokes.
Posted by: JHH || 04/11/2017 13:48 Comments || Top||

#9  There was a time when such behavior would have lead to the diagnosis of insanity.

Nowadays those on the left wish to pretend that this is perfectly normal behavior.

To me this is one of those "marker" issues. If one can't be trusted to shoot straight on clear cut yes/no issues (was the subject born demonstrably male?) and instead prefers to pretend that the issue is "more complicated than that", then they certainly can't be trusted for their opinions/beliefs on anything else.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 14:38 Comments || Top||

#10  Keeping it in a jar on his desk?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/11/2017 14:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Agree Crusader.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/11/2017 15:00 Comments || Top||

#12  I am disappointed in y'all. Bruce Jenner is a great American hero, who has fallen from glory into something less than that.

His personal travails sadden me. But his real achievement in the decathlon was remarkable, and I have great respect for that.
Posted by: rammer || 04/11/2017 21:03 Comments || Top||

#13  Come on Ram, the man (yes man) is a father to six kids (kuddo's for that). He decides he wants to be a woman and now has his crank removed ?

Screws loose....no? Or what am I missing ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/11/2017 21:32 Comments || Top||

#14  You are not missing anything. He, personally, has fallen into some sort of twilight. And that makes me sad, but I will not let this taint of the present change in any way my view of the glory of the past.
Posted by: rammer || 04/11/2017 21:45 Comments || Top||


Government
Gorsuch sworn in as 113th Supreme Court justice
[WASHINGTONPOST] Colorado appeals court judge Neil M. Gorsuch took his oaths to be the Supreme Court’s 113th justice Monday morning, first in a private ceremony at the court and later at a Rose Garden ceremony with the man who nominated him, President Trump.

At the first, private event in a grand room inside the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administered the oath that all federal employees take. All eight justices and most of their spouses were on hand, as well as Maureen Scalia and Eugene Scalia, the widow and son of the justice Gorsuch is replacing, Antonin Scalia.

Gorsuch’s wife, Louise, held a family Bible, and his daughters Emma and Belinda looked on.
Posted by: Fred || 04/11/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Had this been DJT's only achievement in office, electing him would have been entirely worth it.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/11/2017 17:14 Comments || Top||



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