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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Four Migrants Critical after Being Shot in Calais Brawl
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
White House worried FBI director could quit over Nunes memo release
[CNN] Top White House aides are worried FBI Director Christopher Wray could quit if the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools is released, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell CNN.

Wray has made clear he is frustrated that President Donald Trump picked him to lead the FBI after he fired FBI Director James Comey in May, yet his advice on the Nunes memo is being disregarded and cast as part of the purported partisan leadership of the FBI, according to a senior law enforcement official.

Wray's stance is "raising hell," one source familiar with the matter said.

Wray has not directly threatened to resign after clashing with Trump over the possible release of the memo, the source added, because that is not his style of dealing with conflict.
This article starring:
Christopher Wray
James Comey
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 00:42 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fire the SOB this afternoon and escort him from the building! He's obviously part of the problem.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Publish, and see that happens.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't let the door bump your rear on the way out.
Posted by: U. Slirt7126 || 02/02/2018 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Setting the stage for Trey G to take over...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/02/2018 10:16 Comments || Top||

#5  "Worried'? I thought that was part of the plan?

Release The Kraken Memo!
Posted by: Raj || 02/02/2018 10:30 Comments || Top||

#6  "one source familiar with the matter said."

So, anonymous sources admit he hasn't actually threatened to resign. but things that effectively protect the Democrats anyway? Funny that.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/02/2018 10:35 Comments || Top||

#7  What, me worry?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/02/2018 14:34 Comments || Top||

#8  CNN walked this story back. So I am walking my butt bump comment back as well.

Why Trump's FBI head Christopher Wray urged withholding the Nunes memo

The first thing Wray must do is avoid the trap of taking any actions that could be successfully contested. Even though the executive levels of the FBI do not enjoy civil service protections, they have promoted and placed staff allies with those protections at critical organizational positions. Those allies can slow walk desired actions, bottle up critical information (that can set-up the CEO for embarrsment and failure), and resist him in countless ways that will not be discovered for a long time, if ever.In order to combat these moles, Wray's principal counter-weapon has to be the mainstream FBI professionals, the ones who genuinely are committed to truth, justice and the American way, the ones who are embarrassed and appalled at what they have seen of the corruption. They are the ones who can spot the “resistance” forces, call out their activities, and counteract their politicization. There are a lot of long knives that start to be unsheated when careers are imperiled.

The most important weapon in mobilizing these allies is the powerful culture of the FBI, a culture that sustains the dedication expected of FBI professionals. He has to reinforce the positive aspects of that culture and turn them to the goals he and President Trump hold: removing politics from their operations and uncovering the abuses that have taken place since the poltiicization of the Obama years.

One of the foundations of the FBI’s organizational culture ever since founder J. Edgar Hoover’s days has been the imperative to avoid embarrassing the Bureau. Since uncovering corruption inevitably will embarrass the FBI, it is important that Wray establish the principle that only provable misconduct will be revealed and then punished. He must be seen not as a wrecking ball, but as someone who will restore the FBI’s standing and win back public trust by being totally honest, while protecting innocents from false accusations.

In this context, his reported urging of redaction of names in the Nunes memo can be seen as an effort to protect the good guys, not shield the bad guys. Don’t forget The Nunes memo is not the last word, for the Horowitz Inspector General’s report is going to be issued in a matter of weeks. Any shielding at this point is a short term act.

The task ahead for Wray includes moving moles out of their critical positions, firing those that can be fired for misconduct (a long and difficult process), and moving and de-fanging the others, while moving allies into positions where they can do the nitty gritty of cleaning up the messes. Those allies have to know that he has their back. An FBI Director who seemed eager to jump the gun and embarrass the agency without due process might have a much tougher time persuading people down the organization chart to take some career risks to help his reforms along over the opposition of powerful entrenched opponents currently in positions to retaliate against them.


Posted by: U. Slirt7126 || 02/02/2018 15:59 Comments || Top||

#9  I hear that Little Diomede Island, Alaska is 55 miles from Russia. I think that the entire 7th floor of the FBI HQ should be transferred to a field-hut on Little Diomede to better investigate Russian collusion.
Posted by: U. Slirt7126 || 02/02/2018 18:12 Comments || Top||

#10  You have to admit, seeing lefties and journalists running around screaming that "We MUST trust the FBI and CIA" is quite a hoot...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/02/2018 19:13 Comments || Top||

#11  LOL
Posted by: Matt || 02/02/2018 19:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Little Diomede Island doesn't even have running water but it's not to bad.
Alaska Paul described some of the small Aleutian islands that have population and water but are among the most uncomfortable spots he has ever visited.
That island is Atka.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 19:48 Comments || Top||

#13  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atka,_Alaska
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 19:50 Comments || Top||

#14  Atka: LOCAL WEATHER

32°28°FEBRUARY
32°28° MARCH
35°31° APRIL
39°34° MAY
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 19:58 Comments || Top||

#15  In order to combat these moles, Wray's principal counter-weapon has to be the mainstream FBI professionals, the ones who genuinely are committed to truth, justice and the American way, the ones who are embarrassed and appalled at what they have seen of the corruption.

Is there any evidence these people exist? In a hierarchical organization, culture flows from the top down. You may believe X, but if the guys at the top say Y, then Y it is, at least until the day you have finally had enough and quit.

There is evidence that the FBI crime lab is either incompetent or corrupt. Is that an anomaly or part of the organization's DNA. I would like to believe the FBI is populated with people "who are embarrassed and appalled at what they have seen of the corruption", but I wouldn't bet money on it. And that saddens me.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2018 20:24 Comments || Top||

#16  Steve S.
I watched Laura Ingraham recently. She stated that when DOJ/FBI announced that it had "lost" the Strozok text messages, her switchboard lit up with all the rank and file FBI agents calling in saying that that was not possible.

96 out of 100 are like you and me; the 4% is on the 7th floor.

A guy I knew didn't re-up for the Navy and left his commission to take less money working for the Secret Service protecting the president. There are good eggs out there who are being badly led.
Posted by: U. Slirt7126 || 02/02/2018 20:46 Comments || Top||

#17  3dc,
I admit that I was going for proximity to Russia figuring that it couldn't be good. The AF has Thule so I figured that DOJ/FBI could do with an analog. :-)
Posted by: U. Slirt7126 || 02/02/2018 20:54 Comments || Top||

#18  Atka is just as West as Little Diomede Island.
in google maps
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 21:54 Comments || Top||


New FBI messages reveal agents sought way to evade federal record requirements
[Sharyl Attkisson at The Hill] DOJ office says it has found missing text messages of FBI agents.

There’s an important but little-noticed subtext in the revelations about alleged FBI misconduct in the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email practices and Donald Trump’s Russia associations.

It’s the light they shine on what has come to be routine obstruction of public records laws by federal officials.

The records that federal agencies generate while in our employ aren’t owned by faceless bureaucrats or political officials who can choose to withhold or disclose at their discretion and convenience. The records are owned by us: the public.

That includes text messages.

In the past two decades as communications via email, smart phones and social media have grown routine, there’s evidence that federal officials have consciously devised ways to thwart public records laws and keep their communications ‐ our records ‐ secret. Federal officials have used private email accounts, private servers and aliases (not their own name) for public business. They have deleted or lost messages that are supposed to be saved.

And they have learned to use text messaging.

In a new exchange released by the Senate Homeland Security committee today, FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok seem to discuss this very issue in private texts.
This article starring:
Lisa Page
Peter Strzok
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 00:34 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And it is wonderful. Because an agent working to hide traffic from the Office of the Department of Justice is the gem of all up-ended.... ness.

Ukraine is close to Russia, you know.
Just thought I would throw that in there.

I will see this "investigation" to it's completion for sure.
I have no life you know?
Nothing to do but to follow misfeasance, malfeasance, and criminal negligence and conspiracy and high crimes to my docket because I AM so un-employed.

This discovery process I have already seen but you folks whom are convinced this is a dud, it is UXO.

In my discovery process I must make public, I see a pattern here.

Not foot lockers and pone calls but bathroom and barn servers, and a secret cabal committing sedition with a sitting President against an opponent.

The Statzicrat party weaponized the Federal Government for 8 years and more is going to come from this. Even the hackers know they are liars.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 3:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Who has been seriously punished in accordance with the law for evasion of records requirements? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2018 7:19 Comments || Top||

#3  "Who has been seriously punished in accordance with the law for evasion of records requirements?"

No One.
But the Administration is strong and the young Jedi in office has taught you how to fight.

It has been but one year and we have much chaff to let grow while we cultivate the wheat.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 8:23 Comments || Top||

#4  It’s the light they shine on what has come to be routine obstruction of public records laws by federal officials.

I'm sure it was merely the strangest coincidence that six key hard drives at the IRS all failed at the same time, just after a congressional subpoena was issued!
Posted by: Raj || 02/02/2018 11:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm sure it was merely the strangest coincidence that six key hard drives at the IRS all failed at the same time, just after a congressional subpoena was issued!

Drilling holes in hard drives is one sure way to insure they failed.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 02/02/2018 17:05 Comments || Top||

#6  I hear that sledgehammers can be effective too.
Posted by: U. Slirt7126 || 02/02/2018 18:06 Comments || Top||

#7  If they used CDMA phones then outside of the FBI's wiretap on the land side and the NSA's from space - most everything in a message should be possible to reconstruct from the phone companies Call Detail Logs. The reason is that CDMA always has 3 or more air links to the provider for quality of service. Usually one of the links (legs) is negotiating doing a handoff. The provider has a couple of seconds of actual call data/voice either side of the handoff and with the multiple legs one can walk the call detail logs of the different servers and link/overlay to reconstruct most of the call. In terms of text messaging that's likely the whole call. So yeah, all this stuff could be retrieved from the phone company engineering call detail records. The problem would be explaining the request to the phone companies. The manufactures were kind of aware but we (development teams) could never get the sales and support folks to listen to us explain this.
Modern GSM likely has similar features that the providers might not even be aware they have. (ATT and others are just kind of stupid.)
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 19:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Actually the only phone company(s) likely to understand is Japan's AU (not idiots) or the Israeli companies.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 19:33 Comments || Top||

#9  And for the FBI's land side - CALEA requires all data transmissions to be recorded and sent to the FBI. It has been that way since Al (Global Worming) Gore dreamed up CALEA.
EFF on CALEA
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 20:29 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
US officials estimate Taliban strength at a minimum of 60,000 fighters
[LongWarJournal] US and Afghan officials estimate the Taliban’s strength in Afghanistan to be a minimum of 60,000 fighters. This updated figure is significant, because as the report notes, for years the only previous estimate was approximately 20,000.

Pending Issues:

1) If the fighters “change their allegiance from one terror group to another,”

2) Some US officials remain blind to the fact that the Haqqani network is a integral part of the Taliban

3) Hope is not a strategy.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Arabia
On systematic ignorance during Islamic awakening
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi author Mohammed al-Mahmoud said in a tweet that Saudi Islamic scholar Safar al-Hawali said in a lecture that when poisonous gas was used against the Afghans, it cleared like a cloud and the winds then directed it towards the infidels’ path, adding that the wind was the God’s soldier.

Safar al-Hawali was a master of Sahwa (Islamic awakening) as he significantly contributed to establishing it and lecturing about its ideas. I am certain that many people who heard him talk about Afghanistan believed him.

This example and other stories which create faith in myths and legends are what distinguished the Sahwa rhetoric the most during that phase. You can only imagine the extent of ignorance which is actually one of the most important factors that hindered human development in the past three decades.

This ignorance controlled youths back then. Sahwaists, whether they belonged to the Moslem Brüderbund or the Sururi Movement, knew that this was the best way to control people who cannot read and who are not well-educated.

They made them more ignorant, unreasonable and illogical and fought all modern cultural phenomena and philosophy that encourage modern reasonable thinking.

Fall of Sahwa
Therefore, the fall of the so-called Sahwa, its ideology and preachers was inevitable as they destroy reason, oppose development, bet on ignorance and myths and cherish ignorance. They adopted this approach at schools as they controlled their curricula, at media outlets as they terrorized their employees and at mosques and preaching workshops.

They were never ashamed of opposing science, philosophy and logic and slamming those who act upon them. A Salafist once said: He who adopts logic is a non-believer. Those who echo these statements do not know that all the technological products they use today are actually the result of reasonable and logical thought.

I am certain that Sahwa collapsed for logical reasons of which the most important is the rationality that relies on discussions which spread thanks to the telecommunications revolution. Criticism is no longer supervised as thanks to technology, it’s widely shared across the world.

Since man is logical by nature, awareness increased in an almost revolutionary manner - that is when compared with the time when ignorant Sahwa leaders dominated the scene.

If societies have really learnt anything, then going back to this ignorant phase of believing myths will be almost impossible if not totally impossible. This is why I am reassured that the phase of institutionalized and systematic ignorance has become history in our country.


This article starring:
Safar al-Hawali
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia


Yemen: Déjà Vu All Over Again
[Strategy Page]
Executive summary at title link
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess there is no way to transform it into Aden again, no?
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 3:23 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Kissinger: 'Temptation to Deal' with North Korea 'with a Pre-emptive Attack is Strong'
[PJ] WASHINGTON ‐ While he said he agrees with the aggressive statements President Trump has fired at North Korea, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned Congress last week against potential military intervention near Russian and Chinese borders without the world’s support.

The Trump administration has signaled that North Korea would be crossing a red line if it developed nuclear capability for its intercontinental ballistic missile program. Yet some policy officials and military experts claim that North Korea has already crossed that line, or is at least very close to attaching nuclear warheads to its missiles.

Kissinger offered his thoughts on the impending "fork in the road," in which the administration may consider pre-emptive military action or increasingly tighter sanctions against the regime.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 01:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This coming from one of the primary architects of US Foreign policy during the war in Vietnam.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 1:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe we can get undead Zombie Robert McNamara to weigh in.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2018 2:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "Maybe we can get undead Zombie Robert McNamara to weigh in."

They sure gave him more rope than Rummy.
At least Rumsfield followed through and changed strategy albeit late.

The Bush Admin was prepping for the Messiah to come and save them while Bob McNamara was running a meat grinder with no stabilization of unit integrity.

At all points, the democrats not only tried to make US lose but were giddy when we did.

I F....

I hate the democrat party. I FHate it.


Point is, whatever your plans, leave democrats out of it because they are useless to all war fighting in the end.

Just kidding. Have many democrats advise you, but just don't trust their strategy ever because they have none.

I think a better plan for DPRK has been found and will see what it brings in time.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 3:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Kissinger warned Congress last week against potential military intervention near Russian and Chinese borders without the world’s support.

So, at most, you only need agreement from Russia & China?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 5:36 Comments || Top||

#5  "So, at most, you only need agreement from Russia & China?"

Well this is usually the ping pong strategy betwixt the two and US.

A couple adversaries park a hundred thousand troops at the river Y on each border with the commie idiots they set up to antagonize US.

Is it bait? Is it a trap? Can China and Russia actually work together?

Or were they caught unawares that this may be serious. The fake handshake happened after Trump put Kim on notice.

What happened is we ask China, then Russia, then China, then Russia again. And we are watching Captain Kangaroo and it is raining pingpong balls because we are it. '

America is the pinball wizard in theatre.

Everyone eyes each-other with suspicion even as that guy shoots off rockets - he could be the rock they fight US over?

Are you really fucking kidding me ?
Russia and China would gladly take the US down over that piece of shit fucking shithole north korea?

Something more is afoot. And My anger will grow.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 6:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Russia and China would gladly take the US down over that piece of shit fucking shithole north korea?

Down ---> on, IMO.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 6:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Let me put it this way, the western movies and the Torah is correct. If man is trying to kill you, you must kill them first. But this is not that.

This is "I want to hold something together as a shit sandwich, my Lord... kumbyah."

Well, let US watch for awhile.

I don't think any of you really know what you want for your nations. Maybe I do not think you know your nations.

Do you like apples?
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 6:10 Comments || Top||

#8  What say you, grom?
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 6:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Russiaand China would gladly take the US down over that piece of shit fucking shithole north korea? Something more is afoot. And My anger will grow. Posted by newc

North Korea, Cuba, Angola, Vietnam, North Korea a second time..... all useful communist proxy efforts. Yes, most here have seen at least a few of these play out.

Kissinger knows any preemptive strike against the NORKS will produce a Chinese response.... and there goes his Walmart, Target, import-export financial empire. FRA people tend to think in terms of not disrupting fixed incomes. Henry is probably no different.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 6:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Do you like apples?

Really?
A Soviet incursion into Turkey?
US massing forces to stabilize the Pacific Rim?
No wonder Formosa is atwitter.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2018 8:20 Comments || Top||

#11  Newc "Point is, whatever your plans, leave democrats out of it because they are useless to all war fighting in the end. "

Addendum, if you can't win the war 100% before the next Presidential election you might want to rethink entirely as they will sabotage and undo whatever good works you might complete.

This makes us almost isolationist but there isn't much choice when one party is willing to trash foreign policy gains in exchange for political gains.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/02/2018 11:48 Comments || Top||

#12  Read Ralph D. Sawyer, he has a list of ancient Chinese books on warfare, spycraft and politics translated into highly readable English prose. Very informative.
North Korea is classic, Classic Imperialist China diplomacy where you make 'barbarians fight barbarians'.
As to Kissinger... Just go away and terrorize the weeds in your retirement garden.
Posted by: magpie || 02/02/2018 12:55 Comments || Top||

#13  Invite Chinese ambassador to WH, and whisper "Tariffs" in his ear.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 17:51 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
The DACAnschluss: When Idealism and State Sovereignty Collide, the Result is a Threat to National Security
[SmallWarsJournal] When Senator Chuck Schumer monkey-wrenched efforts to pass a continuing resolution, and pitched the U.S. government into a disruptive shutdown, he – seemingly inadvertently – highlighted how the policy of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has facilitated political warfare, against the United States, by foreign interests. Although DACA - crafted by the overly-idealistic Obama administration - was probably the work of well-intentioned individuals, it has become a cudgel for non-citizens to wield against American institutions, harming legally present individuals in the process. Ultimately, this political empowerment of illegally present voices leads to an erosion of the United States’ sovereignty by allowing a foreign population to influence the country’s decisions.

Schumer and his ilk, whether they realized it or not, were victims of foreign coercion. In 1938, Austria ceded sovereignty to neighboring Germany, in what was portrayed as a merger of cultures. Foreign voices have argued for a U.S. policy that is similarly capitulatory. For instance, former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, has argued on behalf of DACA beneficiaries remaining in the United States.[i] Even while in office, Fox, according to Jorge Castaneda - his one-time foreign minister - had identified a higher U.S. visa quota for Mexicans and increased transition of undocumented Mexicans already in the United States as core concepts in the U.S. – Mexican bilateral relationship.[ii] (One must wonder if Fox’s foisting of Mexican nationals on the United States represented an implicit admission of failure as a leader.) DACA is consistent with these foreign desires for U.S. policies that will act as safety valves.

The problem of undocumented, illegal immigration is not a new one, nor is Mexico unique in its contribution to this population. However, what Obama did in 2012, by creating DACA (and in 2014 with Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents), was to give a voice, in U.S. politics, to foreign nationals. Despite not being able to vote, these individuals have nonetheless involved themselves in national political campaigns.[iii] These individuals have also taken to the streets, in emotionally charged demonstrations (which have resulted in arrests of participants) and have demanded that lawmakers adjust their positions on immigration.[iv] Even individuals whose DACA status has expired have felt entitled to be publicly vocal in making demands for immigration reform. However, when they have been arrested, their sympathizers seem unable to comprehend why out-of-status malcontents might be subject to law enforcement action.[v] These two currents – participation within the political process and exertion of outside pressure, in the form of populist outbursts – find their confluence in an assault on sovereignty that is directed at influencing / coercing elected officials to account for the voices of those who they were not elected to represent.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Chuck Schumer
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You made it here because you can cut and paste.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Although DACA - crafted by the overly-idealistic Obama administration - was probably the work of well-intentioned individuals...

I don't believe that for a minute. It's a crime foisted upon us by the criminal Baraq Obama.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/02/2018 10:58 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Is US bailing on Syrian Kurds?
[Al-Monitor] Although US President Donald Trump urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Jan. 24 to “exercise caution and to avoid any actions that might risk conflict between Turkish and American forces,” Turkey appears committed to extending its military operations beyond the current assault on Afrin.

Two days after Trump and Erdogan spoke, the Turkish presidency announced that, following a call between Erdogan adviser and spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and US national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster, “no weapons would be given” to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which would amount to a major American concession and potential turning point in the conflict.

The next day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called on US forces to leave Manbij.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  McMaster knows those people, it was his AO, his men fought beside them, trained them, and helped them.

If he sells them out, and it looks like he is, then he has been co-opted into being a Foggy Bottom douchebag toady.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 02/02/2018 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  It's traditional.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 6:04 Comments || Top||

#3  I think it's time for the 4th ID to finally get to tour the country.
Posted by: Spager Thirong8477 || 02/02/2018 8:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
In their love for illegals, Democrats pitch the black community overboard
[American Thinker] Democrats at President Trump's State of the Union address refused to honor the parents of two girls in New York who were hunted down and beaten to death by a pack of MS-13 gang members -- and the parents are angry about it. According to Fox News, some Democrats may have actually booed them.

In the Democrats' minds, it's all about staying on message. The killers were illegal immigrants and therefore were to be defended no matter what they did, because championing and encouraging illegal immigration is now the sole defining Democratic issue.

But this case is interesting because it pits them squarely against the black community, where the girls were from. It's a dilemma for them because there's no choosing here, the only right course of action is to support justice for the girls and comfort for the grieving parents. Trump got the tone just right in his SOTU speech honoring and comforting them.

And yet, incredibly, the Democrats, including even the congressional Black Caucus, sat stone-faced, glaring, maybe booing, and refused to honor them.

According to GatewayPundit, one of the parents, Robert Mickens, told radio host Laura Ingraham:
This article starring:
MS-13
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2018 01:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  White < Black < Illegal < Muslim?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 5:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Who are the blacks going to vote for really? I'm sure that same strategy worked well with working class whites.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2018 7:18 Comments || Top||

#3  According to GatewayPundit,

...and that's where I stopped reading! Too! Many! Exclamation! Points!!!
Posted by: Raj || 02/02/2018 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  g(r)omgoru, solid but incomplete hierarchy. My guess would be:

White < Asian < Female < Black < Gay
I don't know where Native Americans fit in.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/02/2018 10:32 Comments || Top||

#5  The 1986 immigration deal should have sent the message.
Posted by: Clem Kadiddlehopper9000 || 02/02/2018 12:32 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't know where Native Americans fit in.

Who do you think "Hispanic Illegals" are - Castilians?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 17:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Castilians?

Posted by: Spanky Spump1879 || 02/02/2018 20:11 Comments || Top||

#8  A pepper prince of Castilla
Once married a Mexic Maria,
Who bore -- que sorpresa! --
So brown a princesa
She passed for a ripened pasilla.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/02/2018 20:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Peppery, even. Doggone mayo.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/02/2018 20:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hezbollah returns to Lebanon: This is where the next conflict could erupt
[Ynet] After losing thousands of its fighters in Iraq and Syria, the Shiite organization is boosting its presence in Lebanese villages along the Israel border, undeterred by the high walls being built by Israeli engineering forces. 'In a spur-of-the-moment decision, they could hurl an bomb at us or fire from a passing vehicle,' battalion commander says.

Hezbollah is returning to Leb with self-confidence and operational experience, just in time for a new year which may include a violent turn against Israel.

The exchange of verbal punches and mutual warnings this week, which begun with the IDF spokesperson’s unusual op-ed in the Arab media and continued with the defense minister’s harsh warning, likely won’t be felt in northern Israel’s hiking treks and spectacular flowing streams this coming weekend, as Israeli tourists visit the area bordering on Leb and farmers keep working their lands in the Galilee Panhandle, right next to the fence.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Hey! We have played this movie before again.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Here's how Israel is adjusting its tune on Lebanon
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 6:01 Comments || Top||

#3  If Israel is truly our ally it might be appropriate to help 'em out with some B-52s.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/02/2018 11:07 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
The new Hitler of the Middle East
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In an interview with The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, described the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as "the new Hitler of the Middle East". The Crown Prince said: "We learnt from Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
that appeasement in such cases will not work. We do not want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat in the Middle East what was done in Europe."

This assessment by the Crown Prince of the Iranian situation seems quite apt as, since the revolution, Iran has adopted a brutal ideology, namely Vilayat-e-Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), which is the legitimate cover for the continuation of the revolution and incitement of problems and terrorism in the region and around the world.

The Guardian Jurist, also known as Supreme Leader, is the ultimate authority in Iran, quite similar to the Papal States of the Middle Ages. The Papal States regarded the leader as God’s representative on Earth. Article five of the Iranian constitution expresses that as long as Imam Mahdi remains in occultation, the absolute guardianship and the leadership of the Ummah in Iran is given to a Jurist who is decent, pious, informed of the demands of the times, brave and qualified for leadership.

Sectarian view
In addition, Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist does not acknowledge nationalism as it has a sectarian view that claims the loyalty of all Shiites of the world to Iran.

The constitution says that the Supreme Fearless Leader of the Islamic Revolution
...Iran's doddering head theocrat...
has the right to rule the "Shiite" nation since the original legitimate leader, i.e. Imam Mahdi, is in occultation. This suggests that the utmost loyalty of every Shiite in the world must be to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Thus, Iran transformed sectarianism into constitutional texts by turning the Shiites of the world into an agenda under the rule of the Guardian Jurist. It turned them into gangs, spy cells, militias and organizations with utmost loyalty to the Guardian Jurist with no account of their nationalism.

Many Shiite militias are operating on the directions of the Guardian Jurist including Hezbollah in Leb, Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, Houthis in Yemen, and sleeper cells in the Gulf States or around the world.

Referring to its close ties with Shiites in Iraq including Sistani and other Iraqi Shiite holy mans who studied in Qum, the Director of the Gulf and Middle East Center of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Hamed Reza Daghani, said that the Iranian "soft power" in Iraq was the key factor in achieving Iranian ambitions in Iraq and in the region.

Totalitarian ideology
Therefore, the Crown Prince’s description is profound and precise as the Iranian totalitarian ideology is no different to Nazi Germany or any totalitarian regime embracing expansionism, racism and disregard for all international conventions. Over the past eight decades of its emergence, containment and compromise only resulted in failure in dealing with the totalitarian ideology.

After decades of Saudi, Gulf and international patience, full confrontation is the optimal and final solution for dealing with such a regime, a main supporter of terrorism which continues to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and to destabilize their peace and security.

Only confrontation can give birth to those who choose to abandon the totalitarian revolutionary ideology and reject revolutionary concepts for the concepts of nationalism, national states, respect for international conventions and refrain from intervening in the internal affairs of other countries.

This is the only way to create a healthy political atmosphere that may contribute to the stability of the region and change its current chaotic reality.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  I like Salman. Muchly.
Posted by: newc || 02/02/2018 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Erdogan is giving him a run for the money - after all, he already staged his own Reichstag fire event (embarrassingly set up fake coup), and has his JOO equivalent to blame everything on (the Kurds), and the Turks have a history fo concentration camps (the genocide of the Armenians), and he has his brownshirts in the equivalent to the MB islamists backing him, and lets not forget the Turks sense of racial superiority, as well as the history of a failed empire (what number Reich would this one be?) which he wishes to restore. He even has his fellow travelers in Iran from whom he got the philosophical underpinnings like Hitler did with Italy's fascists.

All he needs now start taking land from Syria and others as "Lebensraum", while saying Hail Victory to mobs of his true believers at grandiose parades.

Oh, and he needs to shave the corners off his mustache as a final touch.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 02/02/2018 0:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Not Bibi anymore?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2018 5:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Does that make Erdogan the new Mussolini of the Middle east?
Posted by: magpie || 02/02/2018 12:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The coming crash as men and women go their own way
[Fabius Maximus] Summary: Men and women are going their own way. The result might be a crisis of unimaginable size and more difficult to fix than putting Humpty Dumpty together again. Think of it as social entropy, an arrow that runs in only one direction.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/02/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The circle of life continues.
Or continues, or rebounds.
Maybe goes around again.
Some say that’s why European languages have gendered nouns.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2018 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  "Toxic Masculinity" was in high demand on the morning of 9/11. When artificial bubbles get burst and the real world of human history rushes in, the old saying "The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully" applies.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2018 7:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe on the east and west coasts.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2018 11:19 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
40[untagged]
9Islamic State
4Commies
3Govt of Iran
3Sublime Porte
3Moslem Colonists
2Taliban
1Houthis
1Hezbollah
1Palestinian Authority
1South Yemen Resistance
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Boko Haram (ISIS)

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

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2018-02-02
  Four Migrants Critical after Being Shot in Calais Brawl
Thu 2018-02-01
  Robert Mueller Requests Postponement of General Mike Flynn Sentencing… It was a set up
Wed 2018-01-31
  Southwest State Confirms The Death Of Burhakabo Military Commander
Tue 2018-01-30
  Iraqi court sentences Al-Qaeda member to death over executing eight civilians in 2007
Mon 2018-01-29
  McCabe Resigns
Sun 2018-01-28
  Top Houthi leader killed in Sanaa by unknown individuals
Sat 2018-01-27
  Taliban kill 40 63 90 95 with ambulance bomb in Afghan capital Kabul
Fri 2018-01-26
  Mosul clean up continues: 21 turbans permanently unwound, 9 more jugged
Thu 2018-01-25
  Double car bombing kills 33 in Benghazi
Wed 2018-01-24
  Two suicide attackers, Islamic State member killed as troops repel attack in Baghdad
Tue 2018-01-23
  1.5K al-Nusra troops surrounded in Idlib
Mon 2018-01-22
  Tunisian forces kill top aide of Al Qaeda leader in Maghreb
Sun 2018-01-21
  Seven Niger troops killed in Boko Haram attack
Sun 2018-01-21
  Seven Niger troops killed in Boko Haram attack
Sat 2018-01-20
  Lebanon foils ISIS plans to attack places of worship, government buildings
Fri 2018-01-19
  Deso Dogg -- Dead Again

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