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Today: 56 articles and 86 comments as of 7:58.
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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Driver 'deliberately mows down pedestrians' outside London Museum
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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4 22:59 M. Murcek [7]
3 22:39 trailing wife [4]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Vegas shooter 'apple doesn't fall far from tree' theory
[PubMed] Genetic influences on being processed through the criminal justice system: results from a sample of adoptees.

Behavioral genetic research has revealed that antisocial phenotypes are under genetic influence. This study examines whether genetic factors also affect the odds of being processed through the criminal justice system.
METHODS:

A sample of adoptees (n = 191-257) drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was analyzed. They self-reported on whether they had ever been arrested, sentenced to probation, incarcerated, and arrested multiple times. Assessments were also conducted of the criminal status of their biological parents.

RESULTS:
Adoptees who have a biological father or a biological mother who have been arrested previously are significantly more likely to be arrested, sentenced to probation, incarcerated, and arrested multiple times when compared with adoptees whose biological parents have not been arrested.

CONCLUSIONS:
Adoptees who are genetically predisposed to antisocial phenotypes are at risk for being formally processed through the criminal justice system.

Newsweek - Las Vegas Shooting: What Controversial Genetics Theories Suggest About the Motive
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2017 09:08 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Behavioral genetic research has revealed that antisocial phenotypes are under genetic influence.

Well, that explains my employment history...
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 10/07/2017 11:15 Comments || Top||

#2  and my serial polygamy....8p
Posted by: Glineper B. Hayes2144 || 10/07/2017 12:26 Comments || Top||

#3  The studies are only controversial because the Left doesn't like the results.
Posted by: phil_b || 10/07/2017 21:33 Comments || Top||


Mercer: The Americans targeted in Vegas are what makes America great
[American Thinker] A man, Sonny Melton, 29, died, shielding his wife from the bullets.

Another commandeered a truck to drive victims of the Oct. 1 massacre in Las Vegas to the hospital.

At first, Vanessa, a concertgoer, fled the Vegas venue, which was being sprayed with bullets from high-velocity rifles. Then she turned and ran back. She credits her professional sense of duty as a nurse. We all know that it was Vanessa's heart that enabled her to push past the fear and place herself in the crosshairs.

From her hospital bed, Addison Short profusely thanked a stranger who had helped her escape the confines of the country music concert in the Vegas Village. She was hobbled by a gunshot to the leg. The first words Addison uttered to the ego in the anchor's chair quizzing her were words of gratitude for her rescuer. Short also gave thanks for having a minor injury.

"April" is a girl who stopped her car to pick-up a bloodied young Canadian couple. The young man had been shot in the head. He's fine. Heartbroken as he and his girlfriend are, they're still a vision of wholesomeness ‐ Canadian clones of the Americans attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

Heather Gooze, 43, cradled young Jordan McIldoon, 23, in her arms until he went limp. She was a bartender who had attended the concert, he a Canadian mechanic from Maple Ridge, British Columbia. He loved the Vancouver Canucks and his girlfriend, who was at the three-day country music happening as well.

As she spoke to CNN's John Berman and Poppy Harlow, Heather's moral resplendence only accentuated the depravity of the two notorious fake-news pornographers.

"No, ma'am, I didn't run." A cowboy hat clutched to his chest, Brian Mckinnon recounted how his best friend petered out in his arms. Only after his friend had passed did Brian flee. But then he stopped in his tracks, went back, put his pal's signature hat back on, and waited beside him.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WE never know the Saints among us, you may not even recognize yourself it it comes down to that moment. A single moment, a single choice. To see yourself step up to forever and to make a decision to stand on your death and go in as a shield for someone you don't even know their name.

That happened. People died trying to help and spare. We don't even know all their names. Only God knows some things, even if they are human things and human choices.

We ALL die, its HOW we die that is important.

Posted by: Glaviling Glomoth1291 || 10/07/2017 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 10/07/2017 16:46 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, October 7th, 2017


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A few points to raise on the Las Vegas incident:

The Physics

The range between Steven Paddock and his 22,000 targets was between 400 and 600 meters. I have heard from several people who believe that range is unusually long for the 5.56mm. However, Terrance Popp said that 400 to 600 meters was in fact a nominal range for the 5.56mm.

Russian armorers set the range for their 5.45mm AK-74 rifle at 400 meters. Ukrainian GRU Colonel Igor Bezler in 2016 remarked in the aftermath of a tactical engagement between the rebels of the Donbas and the Ukrainian Army how rebel riflemen were able to gain the upper hand in firing their rifles on Ukrainians at 300 to 400 meters.

How does this apply? It doesn't.

Most of those riflemen were in their late teens and older. Paddock was 64 years old, aiming and shooting in a visually impaired environment with darkness and lights from a country music show distorting his sight picture. Even firing from an elevated position with his eyesight corrected, I doubt he could see his targets. The Eotech sight he had was almost useless in such an environment because he was using a slide fire mechanism.

Which explains in part why only 159 people were actually struck by gunfire. Even firing pseudo-automatic fire, with a large target (a mass of people) before him, he still had to find something to hit. Watching the videos of the start, it was several minutes before the crowd realized they were being gridded by rifle fire and decided to leave or find cover.

All of which shows that Paddock was an amateur, firing rifles, perhaps not the first time, but the first time in anger. Even if he was completely benumbed by the carnage he was causing, it was because he probably could not even see how he was doing. I routinely use the 200 meter band at the gun range, in daylight with corrected eyesight in a relaxed atmosphere. 200 yards for me is a stretch to see a target, so at 300 yards and beyond I would not be able to see anything. Forty years ago, it would not have been as much of an issue.

If Paddock had better optics, more practice and chucked the slide fire mechanism, he could have done much more damage, especially had he fired his weapons in semiautomatic mode, in my opinion. Pseudo-automatic rifle fire is more tacticool than being efficient with your firearm, doncha know.

And then there is the issue of ammunition. At the moment we do not know if he bought ammunition with the same bullet weight. Firing in those ranges, bullet weight would have had a significant impact on where his rounds hit.

Conspiracies

My favorite theory in the Cool Story, Bro mode, was that Paddock was a gun runner who met with ISIS operatives, who then killed him and committed the massacre. The flaw in that theory is that a gun runner would not try to sell traceable guns that he had bought from a gun shop. His market would be almost entirely in stolen firearms, either from individuals, criminal gangs or from government armories.

Another flaw is where Paddock's showroom was: in a busy Las Vegas hotel crawling with security. Were I a gun runner, I would keep a warehouse in the middle of nowhere with security cameras, hungry dogs and booby traps. You meet somewhere other than where your wares are, and you send intermediaries. Paddock had the money for all that.

Also, if Paddock was going to sell illegal firearms, he should have had at least some security, armed steroid boys and former operators in the room with him.

Another theory is that Paddock was an FBI agent in the same gun running scenario trying to catch Bad Guys with guns bought in a gun shop. Jeez, at least set up a theft before you go claiming that.

Finally, Nancy Sinatra wants you dead if you are an NRA member. And we wonder where men like Paddock draw their inspiration for committing mayhem.

Loads.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Pistol ammunition prices were steady. Rifle ammunition prices were mostly higher.

Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mostly higher.

I said last week that ammunition prices should continue following a lower price trend until the holidays, when a spike in price would be expected.

Last week's massacre in Las Vegas may have caused a spike in prices for 5.56mm cartridges, with prices increasing $0.02 each. It may not mean much, but that is a 10 percent spike. Whether prices will continue to increase remains to be seen. A lot of ARs have been dumped on the used market since early last summer, so concomitantly demand for ammunition would necessary decrease. This is why the price increase is so significant.

It s unclear at the moment, since it has been only six days since the Las Vegas incident, how suppliers play into the increase.

New Lows:

Texas: .40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic): Bersa BP: $180

Pistol Ammunition

.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Highland Lakes Ammo, Own Brand, RNL, Brass Casing, Reloads .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammomen, Magtech, FMJFN, Brass Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo Valley, Own Brand, RNFP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .18 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))

9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Extreme Reloading, Own Brand, RN, Brass Casing .14 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Fedarm, Own brand, RN, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))

.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Highland Lakes Ammo, Own Brand, FNMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))

.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Highland Lakes Ammo, Own Brand, FNCJ, Brass Casing, Reloads .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: Ammo Valley, Own brand, FP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .24 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 each After Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks))

.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))

7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo King, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: True Caliber, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))

.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: +.06 Each After Unchanged (2Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Target Sports USA, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .60 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (1Q, 2017))

.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: +.03 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Winchester, Brass Casing, SP, .84 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Winchester, Brass Casing, SP, .82 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))

.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Bud's Gun Shop, Federal Eagle, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.37 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds : Wholesale Hunter, Federal, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.51 per round (From Last Week: +.15 After Unchanged (5 Weeks)

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $439 Last Week Avg: $410(+) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $387 (8 Weeks))
Arizona (201, 3Q, 2017(+3))(172, 184): Mixed Build: $500 ($625 (7 Weeks)), $300 (6 Weeks))
Texas (484, 3Q, 2017(+3))(449, 480): Delton: $400 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (249, 3Q, 2017(+6))(203, 214): American Tactical Imports: $400 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (282, 3Q, 2017)(235, 240): Anderson Arms: $400 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $400 (17 Weeks))
Florida (679, 3Q, 2017)(517, 559): Mixed Build: $450 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $804 Last Week Avg: $790(+) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $766 (18 Weeks))
Arizona (49, 3Q, 2017(+6))(43, 44): DPMS Panther: $850 ($2,300 (17 Weeks), $650 (40 Weeks))
Texas (178, 3Q, 2017)(107, 123): DPMS 308 Oracle: $750 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $675 (5 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (54, 3Q, 2017)(47, 47): Palmetto State Armory: $700 ($1,600 (48 Weeks), $700 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (86, 3Q, 2017)(53, 57): Mixed Build: $995 ($2,750 (1Q, 2016), $750 (34 Weeks))
Florida (128, 3Q, 2017(+3))(99, 103): Palmetto State Armory: $725 ($1,950 (2Q, 1016), $500 (3Q, 2015))

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $556 Last Week Avg: $635(-) ($668 (3Q, 2016), $450 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (34, 3Q, 2017(+3))(30, 30): Palmetto State Armory: $580 ($900 (17 Weeks), $400 (22 Weeks))
Texas (141, 3Q, 2017)(96, 102): RAS-47: $625 ($800 (1Q, 2016), $350 (3Q, 2014))
Pennsylvania (75, 3Q, 2017)(61, 56): Palmetto State Armory: $500 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $375 (1Q, 2015))
Virginia (72, 3Q, 2017)(68, 61): IO: $525 ($700 (2Q, 2016), $350 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (146, 3Q, 2017)(106, 115): WASR 10: $550 ($700 (1Q, 2016), $300 (4Q, 2014))

30-30 Winchester Lever Action Average Price: $385 Last Week Avg: $360(+) ($495 (50 Weeks), $296 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (14, 3Q, 2017)(7, 8): Marlin 336: $350 ($500 (37 Weeks), $200 (22 Weeks))
Texas (33, 3Q, 2017(+2))(27, 29): Winchester Ranger: $350 ($550 (1Q, 2015), $295 (21 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (23, 3Q, 2017)(11, 10): Marlin 30A: $350 ($450 (1Q, 2015), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Virginia (18, 3Q, 2017(+2))(19, 18): Marlin: $350 ($670 (2Q, 2016), $250 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (34, 3Q, 2017)(29, 28): Winchester 94: $525 ($500 (1Q, 2015), $250 (2Q, 2015))

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $421 Last Week Avg: $437(-) ($525 (3Q, 2016), $350 (4Q, 2015))
Arizona (134, 3Q, 2017(+4))(119, 125): Taurus: $380 ($700 (21 Weeks)), $325 (7 Weeks))
Texas (361, 3Q, 2017 (+2))(298, 313): Ruger SR1911: $500 ($600 (4Q, 2014)), $300 (44 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (178, 3Q, 2017)(166, 160): Rock Island Armory: $375 ($600 (9 Weeks)), $300 (2Q, 2015))
Virginia (197, 3Q, 2017)(183, 181): Iver Johnson: $500 ($775 (9 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Florida (440, 3Q, 2017)(368, 360): Tisas: $350 ($500 (1Q, 2016), $250 (1Q, 2015))

9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic) Average Price: $280 Last Week Avg: $280(=) ($358 (1Q, 2016), $207 (22 Weeks))
Arizona (238, 3Q, 2017)(223, 236): Sccy CPX2: $265 ($400 (28 Weeks), $200 (12 Weeks))
Texas (586, 3Q, 2017(+3))(559, 565): Taurus: $265 ($355 (1Q, 2015), $180 (8 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (368, 3Q, 2017)(331, 334): Smith & Wesson Model 59: $290 ($350 (4Q 2014), $150 (33 Weeks))
Virginia (348, 3Q, 2017(+3))(348, 343): Smith & Wesson SDVE9: $300 ($425 (4Q, 2016), $189 (2Q, 2016))
Florida (827, 3Q, 2017)(749, 767): Smith & Wesson SDVE9: $280 ($400 (1Q, 2016), $160 (22 Weeks))

.40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic) Average Price: $321 Last Week Avg: $315(+) ($399 (1Q, 2016), $262 (2Q, 2016))
Arizona (77, 3Q, 2017(+2))(65, 67): Beretta PX-4 Storm: $400 ($500 (38 Weeks), $195 (18 Weeks))
Texas (156, 3Q, 2017(+2))(133, 143): Bersa BPE: $180 ($425 (4Q, 2014), $180 (CA: $200 (41 Weeks)))
Pennsylvania (108, 3Q, 2017)(112, 107): Smith & Wesson SD40VE: $275 ($450 (2Q, 2016), $200 (3Q, 2016))
Virginia (109, 3Q, 2017(+4))(92, 102): Smith & Wesson SD40VE: $400 ($450 (2Q, 2015), $275 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (193, 3Q, 2017(+3))(164, 169): Walther PPS: $350 ($400 (1Q, 2015), $199 (4Q, 2015))

Used Gun of the Week: (Nevada)
Daniel Defense rifle chambered in 5.56mm
Posted by: badanov || 10/07/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I really believe the guy was simply miserable, had serious emotional issues. People had noticed him acting out in public against his wife.

My opinion via a comment late yesterday I made on a post here is since he had never done this before so he brought all of these weapons in as a security blanket. He possibly expected a huge fire fight with the police. However, he most likely had quite a few drinks before firing away on the crowd below. Now on an emotional roller coaster and drunk I think he decided to go ahead and commit suicide before being incapacitated by a police round and didn't want to survive to face the wrath of a nation. And maybe having a personal goal of out doing his biological father who was on the FBI's nation's 10 most wanted list.

Who can ever comprehend the mind of mass murderers? Like the kid at Sandy Hook, the two kids at Columbine, or Islamists who fly jet airliners full of people into sky scrapers full of people, or the NK leader who strapped people onto anti-aircraft guns and wants to Nuke his neighbors? Unfortunately they will always be with us and we will always have to keep that in the back of our minds wherever we go.
Posted by: Hupeting Sforza8196 || 10/07/2017 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Re the mass-murdering lunatics I worry about...

The leftist, in terrible temper
("The worst event I can remember!"),
Forgets, in his misery,
The long-suppressed history
That's called, in Chicago, "September."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 10/07/2017 4:49 Comments || Top||


Britain
Former British SAS Operator's take on ‘How the West was lost'
[SOFREP] Too little too late, shutting the gate after the horse has bolted and told you so, are all things I’ve heard being said about the latest terror attacks in London not two weeks since ISIS TARGETED AND KILLED CHILDREN in Manchester. In the same breath I hear we shouldn’t have a shoot kill policy, policemen shouldn’t carry guns and promises to investigate British soldiers who committed crimes against terrorists in Northern Ireland all banded about by politicians.

Britain is under attack and we are still debating whether or not we should let illegals stay or go. An election campaign has candidates who have openly sympathized with terror groups and a mayor who thinks we should just expect attacks in our great cities. Has Britain lost the plot?

I have had to scratch my head on more than one occasion this week in disbelief. How can there still be such a liberal attitude to such a dangerous problem. Are people blinkered with fright? Do they genuinely believe it won’t happen if we don’t think about it. The so-called decision makers are doing nothing other than a small display of arrests and a change in alert state from less than a week from severe to critical.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2017 07:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
James Stavridis: An expert's assessment on US options over North Korea
[Asian Review] As the doomsday rhetoric intensifies between two untested and inexperienced leaders in Pyongyang and Washington, the risk of actual combat is rising.

At the United Nations, U.S. President Donald Trump shocked most of the U.N. General Assembly by threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea to end the "suicide mission" of its "Rocket Man" leader. North Korea has threatened to create a "sea of fire" in both South Korea and the U.S. On Sept. 23, U.S. B-1 bombers flew close to North Korea's east coast on what the Pentagon said was a mission to demonstrate the military options available to Trump. The U.S. president warned that Kim Jong Un and his foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, "won't be around much longer" if they continue their rhetoric.

So what are the military options that the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military could put in front of the president?

FIRST STEPS At the lower end of the spectrum of force, the first set of options would dramatically increase missile defense, both in South Korea and on U.S. territories such as Guam. This would include three elements: greater deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, an anti-ballistic missile system for broad area coverage; more Patriot missile batteries ashore for defense of specific locations; and at-sea Aegis missile defense, which has the best overall kill ratio against incoming targets and extreme flexibility in positioning.

Beyond bolstering missile defense, the Pentagon will look at how to implement a full-blown naval blockade. This would reduce outgoing exports, helping choke the North Korean economy, prevent incoming shipments of oil and oil products, and stop exports of North Korean weapons, a source of cash for the regime. Such a blockade would require a couple of dozen smaller surface ships (destroyers, frigates, corvettes), as well as an aircraft carrier for air cover and a large command-and-control ship to run the complex operation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  I'm thinking bugs, the virulent ones, might be the quietest way to take out N. Korea. Unfortunately there might be some collateral damage.
Posted by: texhooey || 10/07/2017 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  If the United States does a complete Blockade ( the EXTENSIVE deployment of anti missile units to South Kore and our own territories is wise...a LOT of them ) Get the factories that produce this tech on war production footing. Keep it coming. Get more people trained as fast as possible, deploy them too.

Enforce Sanction ruthlessly...if you fook with the Bull we squash your cods .
Cruise missiles ( all over the place ) and if we get a fix on the little bastard. ( He has to let it slip sometime ). We kill him so fast he doesn't know he's dead.
Then we stealth bomb whatever we like and we eat breakfast and check the maps for more targets. China can squeal but they won't die for North Korea, but they might invade and gobble up a struggling dying neighbor.

The UN will piss and stand in it. We will read their note and throw it in the circular file, Iran will take it to heart. No body laughs. Give japan a few hi tech anti missile systems. See if Yamato dash is still around. The Democrats will predictably queer the Troops. But then, that is what Democrats are. And we can take notes on who backs out among the Republicans.
Put them on the Fairy Boy Roster at Vote time.

Something else predictable. The American People will back the war for all of about ten minutes.... so make it fast.
Posted by: Glaviling Glomoth1291 || 10/07/2017 9:37 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The New Yorker: Rex Tillerson at the Breaking Point
BLUF:
[The New Yorker] In June, shortly after the Administration announced that it was pulling out of the Paris accords, David Rank, the Deputy Ambassador to China, decided to resign, rather than deliver the official notice of withdrawal to the Chinese government. Rank told me that his greatest fear is that the damage done to the State Department, and to the American-led international order, will be too extensive to repair. Reflecting on his three decades as a diplomat, Rank said, "Maintaining our network for foreign relations is hard. It requires constant attention, a lot of people, a lot of work. Sometimes it’s beyond us. But rebuilding it? Not a chance."
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2017 05:31 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leave it to the New Yorker to give a career Foreign Service Officer (FSO) the last word (closing paragraph). Mr. Rank's comments capture the essence of the T-Rex conflict and frustration. Something akin to the broken Winchester. It won't work, and the frustrated Texas oil man is unable to fire it.

Foggy Bottom's Mr. Rank at the point of retirement anyway, along with a few other senior FSO's resigns in protest. He then tosses in a grenade as he walks out the door. The ultimate Swamp creatures, they reject both course correction and downsizing.

For good measure and political correctness, the New Yorker throws in the alleged enmity between T-Rex and Nikki Halley with F-Bomb comment and the word 'hate' for emphasis. Of course we all know all successful white men of 'privilege' deplore women.

Who could possibly blame T-Rex for 'pulling the rods.' It's a dry hole. Time to tear down the rig and move on. Life is too short. Who needs it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2017 5:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Whatever the New Yawker wants should be considered, once known, to be steered around or , better still, avoided completely by going the other way. And who loves or respects a State Department which co-operathed so well with the Obama Administration? Do you have any love for the State Department ? Any Prayers either?
I trust Rex Tillerson, I think he is excellent material.
I read the entire article, it was well researched and effectively written. Its written by someone comfortable with Voting for Hillary( unstated by apparent).
Out in the sticks ( North Georgia Mts. ) where I live, my general attitude to the State Dept. over all is "Screw 'em .
I would be willing to help Rex Tillerson changer a tire if he ever blew a tire on the back road ( nice place and a green view ) where I live. The State Dept. needs a poke in the sis boom bah. Tillerson has the smarts to see what to do. I trust him, its an intuitive decision on my part. But I am not a bad judge of character The Ambassador to China resigned? BYE !
Somehow America will survive him.
And Climate Change ( which the articles real unstated concern) is total Baloney. I welcome Tillerson and I voted for Trump. I WANT to see things shaken up in a LOT of ways.

And just think of what eight years ofTrump is going to be like. Screw the New Yawker and its little puffy poodle to.
Posted by: Glaviling Glomoth1291 || 10/07/2017 8:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Does Rex Tillerson look like he is blinking?
Posted by: Angeamp Lumumba2526 || 10/07/2017 15:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Attack on shrine
[DAWN] THE illusion of comparative peace, however tenuous, has been shattered. On Thursday evening, at least 20 were killed and over 30 injured when a jacket wallah went kaboom! at the entrance to a Sufi saint’s shrine in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
’s Jhal Magsi district. It being the day of the week considered most spiritually significant, and one on which the shrine was hosting a bimonthly event, the number of devotees present was larger than usual. Had it not been for a vigilant security guard who prevented the attacker from entering the main precinct of the shrine, the number of casualties would have certainly been far higher. This was the first major attack on a shrine after the horrific suicide kaboom at Sehwan Sharif in Sindh on Feb 16, 2017, that left 80 dead and injured more than 250.

Whatever the level of violence that prevails in a country, one is never completely inured to mass casualty attacks. And it takes just one major attack to roll back to some extent, at least psychologically, the gains made in counterterrorism until that point. Clearly, despite many intelligence-based operations in the country, there remain groups of gunnies who believe that anyone who does not espouse their austere brand of faith deserves to be annihilated. In fact, the kaboom at Jhal Magsi was the third major attack on a shrine within the space of a year. A suicide kaboom at the Shah Noorani shrine in a remote part of Khuzdar last November left over 50 dead and around 100 injured. After every such attack, the authorities vow that security will be enhanced at sensitive places, but complacency soon sets in. A couple more aspects are relevant here. Firstly, three out of four major terrorist incidents since the Quetta Civil Hospital bombing last year have been in Balochistan. It is well known that terrorist organizations ‐ including elements from the bully boy Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group ‐ have found a foothold in the province, despite several operations against them. Several religiously motivated attacks in Sindh have also been traced to them. Secondly, Baloch-majority areas in the province ‐ even where feudalism holds sway, such as in Jhal Magsi ‐ have traditionally had a secular ethos. That is being corrupted slowly but surely by hard-line, radical elements that have insinuated themselves into Baloch society. The only route to a sustained solution is to reverse this trend and indiscriminately eradicate extremism in the province.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2017 00:25 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Terror Networks
Could an Islamic State ‘virtual caliphate’ be defeated?
[SCMP] Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
may soon be defeated in Iraq and Syria but a "virtual caliphate" could be harder to conquer, experts and officials have warned.

The bully boy propaganda machine will continue to exist in hidden corners of the dark web, inciting sympathisers to action, they say.

"Defeating [IS] on the physical battlefield is not enough," General Joseph Votel, the top commander for US military forces in the Middle East, warned in a paper earlier this year.

"Following even a decisive defeat in Iraq and Syria, [IS] will probably retreat to a virtual safe haven ‐ a virtual caliphate ‐ from which it will continue to coordinate and inspire external attacks as well as build a support base until the group has the capability to reclaim physical territory," said Votel.

He described this online network as "a distorted version of the historic Islamic caliphate: it is a stratified community of Moslems who are led by a caliph (currently His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Abu Graeb jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
), aspire to participate in a state governed by sharia, and are located in the global territory of cyberspace."

Islamic State’s loss of almost all its territory in Iraq and in Syria has damaged its online communication efforts, following a boom in propaganda operations in 2014-2015.

But it has not put an end to it.

The IS "news agency" and propaganda machine Amaq continues to claim responsibility for attacks and incite further violence.

Most recently, it claimed that Stephen Paddock, the gunman who massacred 58 people in Las Vegas on Sunday, was an IS "soldier" ‐ an assertion met with widespread scepticism.

One theory is that IS is seeking to keep up publicity efforts to maintain relevance with its sympathisers and continue to recruit support, even as it faces military defeat on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Never got rid of the virtual Commie State either. That's buried in the institutions doing much damage.

The virtual caliphate is weak sauce by comparison.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/07/2017 11:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Harvey Weinstein and the Death of 'Feminism'
You don't need the Harvey Weinstein scandal to know that Hollywood is the world's capital of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy. You only need to be breathing.

From jetting the globe more frequently in private planes than most people go to the supermarket while inveighing against global warming to living in thirty million dollar homes and sending your kids to posh private schools while assailing school choice for the masses to, yes, making movies about sexual assault while assaulting females for decades in the privacy of their offices and swank hotel rooms, Hollywood has done it all!

And indeed it has been this way for decades and everybody who lives and works here knows it. The casting couch never went away. It just moved off the studio lot, for the most part, and went underground, sort of.

Anyone who takes seriously anything said about politics by Hollywood types -- and that includes those tedious and increasingly unfunny individuals known as late-night talk show hosts -- ought to have his/her proverbial head examined.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/07/2017 15:56 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As Moon Unit Zappa said, "Gag me with a spoon."
Posted by: Bobby || 10/07/2017 23:19 Comments || Top||


Government
The West Point and US Army 2LT Spencer Rapone Nightmare Continues
[MIL Corruption.com] This is a public relations nightmare. Worse than when a West Point grad and JAG officer was arrested by the FBI for sodomizing his infant son and recording the act on video. You can read all about it in the RSB below.

So far, the PAO shop has been lucky. The mass murdered in Las Vegas has grabbed up most of the headlines. But that may be about to come to an end. The disturbing case of Commie cadet and now 2LT Spencer Rapone is not going away anytime soon.

Some of you will recall he's the leftist punk who wrote inside his saucer cap "Communism will win," flashed the slogan at his 2016 USMA graduation and gave the clenched fist "salute." In another in-your-face pix, he is shown unbuttoning his uniform tunic to reveal a t-shirt emblazoned with the face of Cuban killer Che Guevara.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/07/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Diversity" at the service academies apparently now includes full-blown commie traitors. As I recall, Zero fired quite a few of the senior officers with backbones. This is what happens when all that's left are careerist ass-kissers. Same goes for the FBI, which is supposed to vet the applicants.
Posted by: PBMcL || 10/07/2017 0:38 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
30[untagged]
9Islamic State
4Govt of Pakistan
2al-Shabaab (AQ)
2Commies
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Moslem Colonists
1Narcos
1Taliban
1al-Nusra
1al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Hamas

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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2017-10-07
  Driver 'deliberately mows down pedestrians' outside London Museum
Fri 2017-10-06
  Iraqi premier claims victory against Islamic State in Hawija
Thu 2017-10-05
  3 Special Forces Troops Killed and 2 Are Wounded in an Ambush in Niger
Wed 2017-10-04
  Daesh defense line collapses in Hawijah as Iraqi forces liberate more villages
Tue 2017-10-03
  Key ISIS member Qari Zahid killed in US drone strike in East of Afghanistan
Mon 2017-10-02
  Terror Attack in Las Vegas - Mass Shooting - Updated 50+ dead, 400+ wounded
Sun 2017-10-01
  Kurdish secession bid in Iraq threat to entire region: Hezbollah chief
Sat 2017-09-30
  Islamic State sets oil wells on fire, urges militants evacuate villages in Hawija
Fri 2017-09-29
  Lebanon Military Tribunal sentences Takfiri preacher to death
Thu 2017-09-28
  Al-Qaeda leadership, dozens of jihadists wiped out by Russian missile strike in Idlib
Wed 2017-09-27
  Palestinians admitted Interpol membership
Tue 2017-09-26
  US drone targets ISIS vehicle in Nangarhar leaving 5 dead
Mon 2017-09-25
  Tennessee Church Shooter Suspect Identified As 25-Year-Old From Sudan
Sun 2017-09-24
  Saudi FM: We demand Qatar abide by Riyadh agreement promises
Sat 2017-09-23
  ISIS virtually annihilated in Raqqa city as Kurdish forces begin final push


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