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Record airstrike hits over 100 ISIL oil trucks gathered in Syria
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
A parking lot brawl between two women in South Los Angeles quickly escalated into a demolition derby.

Dramatic video captured fists flying in an apparent argument over a parking space near the 8400 block of South Western Avenue on Sunday. A number of women were seen fighting when one woman jumped into a white SUV.

The driver revved the engine and the video showed her smashing into a silver SUV, nearly taking off the passenger door. The vehicles collide several more times as they maneuver back and forth in the small parking lot.

The SUVs headed into the street where the white SUV was spotted delivering one more crunching blow to the silver SUV. The white SUV then mowed down a fire hydrant, sending a geyser of water into the air.

ABC7 reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department who said a report of the incident has yet to be filed. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was notified about the broken fire hydrant and crews quickly responded to fix the geyser.

And
A gunfight between two grandmothers landed one in jail and the other in the hospital.

Police say Janice Brown, 53, met a woman in a Walmart parking lot in Pleasant Grove (TX) on Sunday night to exchange custody of their grandchild. There was an argument between the two grandmas and Brown shot the other woman in the neck.

An off duty officer saw Brown with the gun and the two exchanged gunfire, but no one was hurt.

Brown is now charged with aggravated assault on a public servant.
But not with assault on the other grandmother?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What were the police charged with?
Posted by: gorb || 12/10/2016 4:06 Comments || Top||

#2  @#1: "Deprivation of 'Justice'" seems to fit.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 12/10/2016 11:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Reminds me of natives gathering in the produce dept at the PX on 'orange day'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 21:29 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
I have nothing to add to this photo
By Donald Sensing
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/10/2016 07:26 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  California's future?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/10/2016 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Could use a message parlor.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/10/2016 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Could use a message parlor.

'Mail Boxes are US'?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 18:24 Comments || Top||


Megyn Kelly says Trump aide Dan Scavino is responsible for inciting violent threats against her
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Megyn Kelly spoke about the threats she has received over the past 16 months and the fact that armed guards still protect her and her family

She also said that the man inciting this in some Trump supporters was Dan Scavino, Trump's director of social media

Scavino most recently attacked Kelly after Newt Gingrish went kaboom! on the Fox News host during her show The Kelly File

'Watch what happens to her after this election is over,' wrote Scavino on Twitter

Kelly has also been a frequent target of Trump's rage over the past 16 months
Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When will she take her new job at CNBC? Or at the local Scranton affiliate?
Posted by: Crusader || 12/10/2016 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Who?
Posted by: Tennessee || 12/10/2016 2:19 Comments || Top||

#3  How large an annual salary does it take to create a bit of humility and happiness? Burn-out and thorny regret surely face this recovering attorney.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/10/2016 3:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Trouble in Foxland? Staffers Hope to See the Last of Me-AGyn Kelly
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/10/2016 5:33 Comments || Top||

#5  The question is - can she prove that in court?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/10/2016 8:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 12/10/2016 10:40 Comments || Top||

#7  We can't miss you if you don't leave , Megs.
Posted by: charger || 12/10/2016 11:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Crusader, I think you spelled Scrotum wrong.
Posted by: gorb || 12/10/2016 13:04 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Mexico says army to stay in streets against the cartels
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday troops will remain in the streets to combat drug violence after his defense minister issued a rare complaint about the controversial deployment.

Although Pena Nieto acknowledged that the soldiers and marines have been doing law enforcement tasks that "don't correspond to them in the strictest sense," he said the armed forces are "determined to continue" policing the streets.

The military deployment has allowed "cities and regions in our country to return to peace and calm," he said.

Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos said on Thursday that the military "didn't ask" to be fighting criminals.

"We don't like it. We didn't study how to chase criminals," the general said.

"Our function is something else and it's been made into something unnatural. We are doing things that don't correspond to our training because there's no one else to do them."

Mexico marks 10 years on Sunday since then president Felipe Calderon deployed for the first time thousands of troops to combat drug cartels.

The deployment has led to the capture of major drug lords but soldiers and marines have been accused of committing torture and other abuses over the years.

Violence also soared in the years that followed as the arrests of drug bosses sparked turf wars in several regions.

Pena Nieto, who took office in 2012, has said that troops would return to their barracks once citizens feel safe across the country.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  We are doing things that don't correspond to our training because there's no one else to do them.

Pendejo, when your country is in the middle of a civil war this is your job.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/10/2016 11:40 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
House Republicans Form Second Amendment Caucus
[Free Beacon] A group of House Republicans formed the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus on Thursday.

The group, headed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), said the caucus plans to draft and sponsor pro-gun legislation in the upcoming Congress.

"Caucus members will lead efforts in the House of Representatives to pass meaningful firearms legislation and protect Americans against infringements of the Second Amendment," the group said in a statement.

Massie said the election of Donald Trump and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress were the catalyst for the formation of the caucus.

"The recent election results present us with a new opportunity to advance pro-gun legislation and reverse the erosion of the Second Amendment that’s occurred over the last few decades," he said. "I look forward to working with the new president and this determined group of conservatives to promote a pro-gun agenda."

In addition to sponsoring and supporting pro-gun bills, the caucus said they also plan to invite firearm experts, constitutional scholars, and pro-gun groups to speak to them regularly.

Some of those pro-gun voices praised the newly formed caucus in the statement released by the group.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/10/2016 04:27 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Egyptian women resist harassment with short dresses
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A group of Egyptian women have resorted to a new and original way to fight sexual harassment during a march in the capital, Cairo - wearing short dresses.

As onlookers watched on in silent amazement, the women waved signs carrying the message: "we are wearing the dresses of the past, we want the streets of the past". The message was referring to the sixties and seventies when women’s skirts and dresses were fashionably much shorter, but they received less unwelcomed attention.

Dr Riham Atef, the organizer of the march, told Al Arabiya.Net: "The concept behind this march is inspired by European traditions... We wanted to take part in the movement and raise awareness of the problem of sexual harassment in Egypt’s streets."

She said that although Egyptian women dressed modestly, they were still exposed to violent, verbal and sexual harassment. This bad reputation has earned Egypt a high ranking in the list of countries where sexual harassment is a problem, just after Afghanistan. And she stressed that the current laws did not deter offenders, especially in a culture where women refuse to report their aggressors, fearing scandal.
Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Brilliant.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/10/2016 7:14 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe 'Has the Strongest Currency in Africa' - State Media
[All Africa] "This is a fact: Zim-bob-we has the strongest currency in Africa".
Ever since they adopted the dollar...
Sounds unbelievable - but that's what the official Herald newspaper claimed on Wednesday, hours after President Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
resolutely avoided the vexed topic of bond notes in his State of the Nation Address (SONA).
But now they have their own paper money, backed by dollars. Really it is.
In its lead editorial, the pro-Mugabe paper said Zim-bob-weans "have full confidence in" their currency, ignoring the fact that photos of a broken bond coin are causing widespread alarm on social media. Ten million US worth of bond notes were introduced last Monday along with two million US worth of bond coins.

The central bank insists this surrogate currency is backed by a 200 million US dollar loan from Afrexim Bank. But many fear the notes will drag Zim-bob-we back to the dark days of hyperinflation that reached a peak around 2006-2008.

Long bank queues have not improved since the notes were introduced. That is partly to do with the fact that teachers have just been paid and are having to queue repeatedly because of capped daily bank withdrawals.
How does one improve a 'long queue ?'
The Herald claimed that Mugabe's speech to parliament showed the economy was on the "recovery path". Tweeted former education minister David Coltart: "Cd someone plse show me where that path is becos all I can see is bond notes?"
Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tweeted former education minister David Coltart: "Cd someone plse show me where that path is becos all I can see is bond notes?"

Simply wait until you see the trail of bodies.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/10/2016 12:39 Comments || Top||


Equatorial Guinea: UN Court Rejects Immunity for Autocrat's Son
[All Africa] Equatorial Guinea's government has tirelessly worked to stop the prosecution of the president's eldest son, known as Teodorin Nguema, who is accused of laundering tens of millions of Euros in La Belle France that were allegedly stolen from his oil-rich country. But yesterday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the United Nation's main court - dashed its last hope of stopping the trial, which is set for January 2.

The decade-long French case produced a mountain of evidence indicating Teodorin looted €110 million from the public treasury to finance his lavish lifestyle. That is about the same amount of money Equatorial Guinea spent on its entire public health system in 2008, according to the World Bank.

Between 2004 and 2007, Teodorin bought a mansion on the exclusive Avenue Foch, assembled a collection of 34 luxury cars and cycle of violences, and spent millions more on luxury goods. A separate US investigation revealed that he also went on a US$110 million spending spree in the United States, buying a Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, mansion and a jet. At the time, Teodorin was Minister of Forestry, for which he earned a salary of under US$100,000.

Instead of investigating the possible theft of more than US$200 million in public funds, Equatorial Guinea has been doing everything in its power to stymy the French prosecution. It sued La Belle France in the ICJ, claiming the prosecution breached his immunity.

A week later, the president promoted his son to vice president, apparently to bolster their immunity claim. The government also contended that it uses the Avenue Foch mansion as a diplomatic mission and it should, therefore, enjoy protection, but has yet to disprove the clear evidence that Teodorin used it as a private residence. His former butler described Teodorin's lifestyle in La Belle France in three words: "alcohol, whores, and coke."

The ICJ dismissed Equatorial Guinea's claim that Teodorin should be protected from prosecution because he is a senior member of government. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
it provisionally ordered La Belle France treat the mansion with diplomatic protections until it comes to a final decision on whether it is in fact a mission.

The ruling sends a clear message to kleptocrats everywhere: whatever their power in their own countries, when other countries take notice and start to crack down on their shopping sprees, they cannot instrumentalize international courts to protect against corruption.

Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Uganda: Tapped LRA Radio Calls Pin Ongwen On Killings, Crimes
[All Africa] Secret communication intercepts by the Ugandan army and police have come in handy for prosecution at The Hague to build its case that former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a perennial thorn in Africa's side commander Dominic Ongwen co-planned and commanded attacks against civilians, church institutions and military targets in northern Uganda.

The trial of Ongwen, who surrendered in January 2015, began on Tuesday at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where he is charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a lengthy evidence presented to the court over two days, the ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and senior trial lawyer Benjamin Gumpert played what they said were intercepted radio call communications between Ongwen and other LRA commanders, including the leader Joseph Kony
... The Lords Resistance Army is a religious and military group formed in 1987. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, and who is periodically possessed by demons, Beelzebub and Legion prominent among them. Kony advises his soldiers to draw crosses on their chests as a protection against bullets. This does't work, but nobody outside the LRA minds. The group is based on a hodge podge of apocalyptic Christianity, mysticism, and traditional Acholi religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on an odd interpretation of the Ten Commandments. The LRA is famous for systematic criminal conduct, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, forcing children to participate in hostilities, and occasional cannibalism. The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo...
In one such audio, Ongwen is recorded as reporting to Kony: "We are beginning to kill civilians seriously right now. I have deployed squads for killings and people will hear [about it] on the radio."

In another audio recording, the former commander of LRA's powerful Sinia Brigade is presented as reporting to his boss and former LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti after an attack on Odek Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp: "I have just come from shooting people, over. Let the people wait to hear about the waya (LRA slang for civilians), we have shot all of them."

The prosecution side states that the evidence showed Ongwen was a "murderer and rapist."

The audios, prosecution said, were obtained from the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and Uganda Police Force that set different bases in northern Uganda to eavesdrop LRA communication at the height of the insurgency.

The LRA communicated using High Frequency Radio and had a "reliable" method of communicating by radio, prosecution said, adding that the intercepts were reliable, unaffected by the fallibility of the human memory.

"They provide a unique opportunity to step inside the mind of Ongwen," Mr Gumpert submitted to the court.

Ongwen, who was in court sandwiched between three guards, looked unfazed. One person in the public gallery walked out sobbing as prosecution presented graphic details of how babies were burnt in huts, women indiscriminately raped, civilians chopped with machetes or bludgeoned to death with clubs during LRA attacks on the four IDP camps.

Speaking about the May 19, 2004 attack on Lukodi IDP camp, senior trial lawyer Gumpert said the "damage done was so bad that the camp had to be closed...Dominic Ongwen conceived, planned and executed the attack."

The defence will begin making its submissions mid-January, next year.

The Prosecution said the radio message intercepts were corroborated with hand-written logs by the UPDF, ISO and police spies.

Senior Ugandan security officials will appear as prosecution witnesses, Mr Gumpert said.

Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Ghana: Mahama Conceded Defeat Friday Evening
Longtime Ghanaian opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo has won the presidency on his third attampt, defeating incumbent President John Mahama.

Mahama acted just before the electoral commission officially announced Akufo-Addo as the winner of the election, with 53.85 percent of the vote, compared with 44.4 percent for Mahama.

Calls had been mounting on social media for the electoral commission to speed up its vote count following Wednesday's election. Speaking to supporters earlier Friday at his residence in the capital, Accra, Mahama appealed for calm and said he would accept the final results.

Akufo-Addo, who leads the opposition New Patriotic Party, or NPP, and the police also asked the public to remain patient while the electoral commission did its work.

Mahama was seeking a second term as Ghana's leader. The West African country is a major exporter of oil, gold and cocoa.

Akufo-Addo used Ghana's current economic woes as a main theme of his campaign, accusing Mahama and the National Democratic Congress, or NDC, of incompetence.

The new president has served as both foreign minister and attorney general in a previous NPP government, but twice narrowly lost earlier battles for the presidency.

Mahama's term was overshadowed by the plunge in global oil prices, which reduced government revenues and contributed to soaring inflation. The government accepted a $918 million bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Ghana is considered one of the most stable democracies in Africa, having witnessed several peaceful transfers of power since 1992.
Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And in other news:

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has declared his "total rejection" of the results of his country's December 1 election and called for his country to vote again -- a week after accepting his defeat.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/10/2016 12:42 Comments || Top||

#2  "Strongest African currency."
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 21:30 Comments || Top||


Thousands flee from fresh violence in Congo-Brazzaville
[Iran Press TV] Fresh fighting in the Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, between government forces and rebels has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.
Been a bit dodgy since the Belgians left. Indigenous 'home rule' has had a difficult time catching on.
The United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
refugee agency (UNHCR) warned on Friday that fighting in the southeast of the country had displaced an estimated 13,000 people.

"We are afraid some 13,000 displaced people soon may not have enough to eat," UNHCR front man William Spindler told news hounds in Geneva, Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
People in the area are "also having trouble getting health care and education because so many state-employed medics and teachers have fled," he added.

Spindler said that the uptick in violence in recent weeks between the Ninja Nsiloulou rebels and government forces has included an attack on a military vehicle in the southeastern district of Mindouli that killed two people.

The rebels, who fought two civil wars against the government in the 1990s, were seen as having been mostly disbanded after agreeing to a peace accord in 2003. However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
sporadic festivities between the two sides have continued ever since.

In October, at least 14 people, including children, were killed in an attack on a train in Mindouli. The assault was blamed on the Ninja rebels.

The situation in Congo-Brazzaville had been tense since a constitutional referendum in October 2015 removed a two-term limit on the presidency, allowing the 72-year-old leader to run in the 2016 election.
Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  fighting in the southeast of the country had displaced an estimated 13,000 people

Must have been election day.
Oh wait! Africa?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 21:33 Comments || Top||


Europe
French Presidential Hopeful Wants To End Free Education For Foreigners
[Daily Caller] National Front leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen wants to put an end to free welfare services for foreigners, including free education for children.

Le Pen has emerged as a serious contender in next year’s presidential election. The party has been accused of racism by opponents, but Le Pen claims she has nothing against foreigners in France.

"But I tell them: if you come to our country don’t expect to be taken care of, to be looked after, that your children will be educated without charge," Le Pen said Thursday during a speech in Paris. "No more playtime."

Le Pen clarified she only wants to cut free education for illegal immigrants and not all foreigners, according to AFP.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/10/2016 04:56 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Easy enough, no foreigners.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 18:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Russia was trying to help Trump win White House sez Spooks
Do they, indeed. Will they say this to his face when briefing him in the Oval Office?
[WashingtonPost] The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emailsfrom the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances.

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. “That’s the consensus view.”
Posted by: badanov || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, it could be a fiendish Rooski plot to sap and impurify our electoral process. Or it could be the DNC admins were lax and didn't change the default passwords on their servers.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/10/2016 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emailsfrom the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials.

Yet her own supporters don't believe there was anything *wrong* to actually *find*.

Those cupcakes don't realize that they can't have it both ways--if their candidate was squeaky clean, then why would the Rooskies have anything to gain from hacking their sainted One's emails?
Posted by: Crusader || 12/10/2016 1:19 Comments || Top||

#3  But it is OK to leak xetailed inferences and assessments from a Secret Report... Don't trust any info coming from a politicized cia. Not sure what value they bring to the table anymore.
Posted by: Tennessee || 12/10/2016 2:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Reference #2: Her (tbe Beest's) 'homebrew' server was so easy to hack, and it contained all sorts of classified information as well.

If you were a Russian hacker, which computer system might you wish to target? You do not have to like the SOB's, but have to respect their tenacity and determination. By the way, what cyrillic acronym is appropriate for High Value Target (HVT)

Dear Intelligence agencies and cyber warfare sleuths - Rhetorical yes, but why did you not (then or now) feel compelled to report the specific TARGET of the Computer Network Attacks (CNA) ?

Thank you for your awkward attempt at deception Klingon masters. And thank you as well Klingon WAPO propaganda arm.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/10/2016 3:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Funny how people living in glass houses don't want to be seen throwing rocks.
Posted by: gorb || 12/10/2016 4:03 Comments || Top||

#6  Question is: "Was Hillary clean?" "No, next question"
And BTW it was hillary(s criminal negligence at handling classifies information who allowed the Russians to use info against her.

Can you just imagine that old foll being handled the nuclear code? Shudder.
Posted by: JFM || 12/10/2016 4:21 Comments || Top||

#7  And if they did?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/10/2016 7:13 Comments || Top||

#8  “That’s the consensus view.” These are the most frightening words to come out of the intelligence community. It is a sure indication that there is a lack of evidence.
Posted by: Heriberto Greper9897 || 12/10/2016 7:47 Comments || Top||

#9  The Russians did this because they secretly wanted James Mattis named Secretary of Defense. Just like the Nazis worked behind the scenes to give Patton command of the Third Army.
Posted by: Matt || 12/10/2016 8:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Black propaganda - lies
Gray propaganda - interpretations
White propaganda - truths

It's hard to fight white propaganda, especially if your knee jerk reaction is to reply with black propaganda.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/10/2016 8:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Kinda funny after all these years of our government meddling in the affairs of other countries.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/10/2016 11:46 Comments || Top||

#12  I eagerly await the Klingons' immediate declassification and publication of this assessment.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/10/2016 12:45 Comments || Top||

#13  Personally, if the Russians did this, they are our friends. They also warned us that we were slipping into socialism five minutes after Olenin got elected. Would it be better if some basement dweller in NY had done this? What would they have to say then? And by saying that someone had hacked the RNC and/or Donald's campaign but didn't release it suggests that we need to believe that we would necessarily see the same misbehavior and therefore the DNC and Hillary's campaign are innocent by way of moral relativism.
Posted by: gorb || 12/10/2016 13:00 Comments || Top||

#14  Did the Chinese illegally interfere in a US election to help Bill Clinton? Yes, but that's not the point. The point is to de-legitimize Trump.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/10/2016 13:00 Comments || Top||

#15  As for the RNC and Trump email servers, assuming they were able to breach the security of properly managed servers, they probably didn't find anything newsworthy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/10/2016 13:46 Comments || Top||

#16  I'm pretty sure it was that guy K imd otcom in New Zealand.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/10/2016 14:15 Comments || Top||

#17  I seem to recall claims by Bernie Sanders supporters that one of their own, employed by the Clinton campaign, had passed on DNC records to WikiLeaks -- no Russian master hackers needed, Whenter Julian Assange is connected to the Russians is a different story, but his own life is so strange that the wonder is that he isn't a murdering psychopath altogether.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/10/2016 15:23 Comments || Top||

#18  "This is what we know,..."
"No, we can't reveal our sources."
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 18:15 Comments || Top||

#19  Whenter Julian Assange

Whether. PIMF!!
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/10/2016 18:37 Comments || Top||

#20  It's totally non-suspicious that everyone* is suddenly trying to sell this story.

* for non-Trumpian values of 'everyone'
Posted by: SteveS || 12/10/2016 19:00 Comments || Top||

#21  No evidence presented.

A little walk down memory lane: Putin Contends Clinton Incited Unrest Over Vote
"In a rare personal accusation, Mr. Putin said Mrs. Clinton had sent 'a signal' to 'some actors in our country' after Sunday’s parliamentary elections, which were condemned as fraudulent by both international and Russian observers. Anger over the elections prompted a demonstration in which thousands chanted 'Putin is a thief' and 'Russia without Putin,' a development that has deeply unnerved the Kremlin.

Speaking to political allies as he announced the formation of his presidential campaign, Mr. Putin said that hundreds of millions of dollars in 'foreign money' was being used to influence Russian politics, and that Mrs. Clinton had personally spurred protesters to action. The comments indicate a breakdown in the Obama administration’s sputtering effort to 'reset' the relationship between the United States and Russia."


If there was Russian skulduggery, it was targeted payback to Ms. Clinton, serendipitously assisting Mr. Trump.

“I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. partners,” Mr. Putin said. “The first thing that the secretary of state did was say that they were not honest and not fair, but she had not even yet received the material from the observers.”


Posted by: Chesney Sleting6498 || 12/10/2016 20:02 Comments || Top||

#22  He knew Clinton would want her CGI donations
Posted by: Frank G || 12/10/2016 20:13 Comments || Top||

#23  Just as N. Korea, Cuba and Venezuela would keep power by saying things like the US is preparing to do harm to our country, the socialist/Marxists are trying to find a way to do the same thing here. It ain't working.
Posted by: Joth Bluetooth2887 || 12/10/2016 22:34 Comments || Top||


Wapo steps in it with Fake News website citation
I have Naked Capitalism on my bloglist, but I regard them as left leaning. They post a lot of good information, however, about the doings of money people. This makes them an important resource, their politics notwithstanding.
WaPo did more than step in it -- in a decent world, other journalists would shun them for this episode.
The Washington Post—whose coverage of Watergate four decades ago angered the powers that be, toppled a president, and defined courageous journalism—has unleashed a hornet’s nest of a different sort, one unlikely to earn a Pulitzer Prize.

Indeed, Washington’s newspaper of record—which was purchased in 2013 by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos from the storied Graham family—is uncomfortably weathering a barrage of criticism from fellow journalists and others for a front-page story published over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The story, by Post technology reporter Craig Timberg and published Nov. 24, purported to reveal how “sophisticated” Russian propagandists had spread fake news through hundreds of web sites to destabilize American democracy, thwart Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump to the White House.

So far the story—which has attracted millions of page views and more than 14,000 comments—has provoked lawsuit threats from at least two of the web sites, notably the widely respected financial blog Naked Capitalism, which fired off a legal letter demanding a retraction and apology even though the Post story does not specifically mention Naked Capitalism or any of the other allegedly Russian-influenced websites.

There has also been a fusillade of disparaging commentary in publications ranging from The Intercept to The New Yorker.

“I thought it was completely ridiculous that the Post would put this sorry piece of trash on the front page,” Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harper’s magazine, told The Daily Beast in a typically vehement slam.

“The ‘Washington Post’ ‘Blacklist’ Story Is Shameful and Disgusting,” was the headline on Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi’s takedown.
And if you can't believe Rolling Stone on the ethics of journalism, who can you believe?
The critics panned the Post story’s heavy reliance on the judgments of unnamed “researchers” for PropOrNot.com, a shadowy website launched three months ago ostensibly to expose “Russian influence operations targeted at US audiences, distinguish between propaganda and commercial ‘clickbait’, and help identify propaganda and push back.”

Granting PropOrNot’s “executive director” anonymity to save him from “being targeted by Russia’s legions of skilled hackers,” the Post credulously cited the group’s assessment of “more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season”—a list that included not only Naked Capitalism, but also such independent enterprises as Counterpunch.org (founded by Alexander Cockburn, Andrew’s late brother), the right-leaning DrudgeReport.com, the libertarian website of former Reagan administration assistant treasury secretary and ex-Wall Street Journal editor Paul Craig Roberts, and the left-leaning Truthdig.com and Truth-out.org.
Much more at the link. As an aside, the website also fingers southfront.org as a Russian propaganda news website. I wrote a few stories for southfront.org about the civil war in the Don Basin earlier this year. They are very pro Russia, but nothing in my brief experience with them makes me believe they are in the pay of Russian security services. Their readers are obnoxious Euros, and are America haters and Russia lovers. As a matter of disclosure, none of the stories about the Donbas conflict I posted for southfront.org were crossposted to Rantburg. I stopped writing for them, not for anything southfront.org was doing but because a lot of the stuff I was getting from both sides was just straight up bullsh*t. I love writing about east European militaries, but the Russians and Ukrainians really strained my tolerance.
Posted by: badanov || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Passing along a little NYT 'Fake News' from many years ago. Enjoy !

Link

Posted by: Besoeker || 12/10/2016 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  NOW the Russians are the bad guys. I remember when the Usual Suspects toured Russia, met with the designated huggy bears and returned to tell us we have nothing to fear but Ronald Reagan.
Hard to keep up.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 12/10/2016 9:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Pretty much all of the MSM is fake news.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/10/2016 10:10 Comments || Top||

#4  NOW the Russians are the bad guys.

That's because they've devolved from descendents of Lenin to mere uncouth nationalists.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/10/2016 12:54 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon ‘closer to repealing’ controversial rape law
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] After several campaigns by women’s rights activists, several members of parliament in Leb have agreed to work to revoke a nearly 70-year-old law allowing rapists to avoid prosecution if they marry their victim.

Many Lebanese women, dressed as brides in white wedding dresses stained with fake blood and bandages, gathered last week outside government buildings in Leb’s capital to protest against the law.

Article 522 of the Lebanese penal code states: "In the event a legal marriage is concluded between the person who committed [crimes including rape, kidnapping and statutory rape] and the victim, prosecution shall be stopped and in case a decision is rendered, the execution of such decision shall be suspended against the person who was subject to it."

"We reject this violation of women regardless of their age, background, environment, whether they have special needs or the circumstances of the rape," said Ghida Anani, head of Abaad, a local NGO campaigning against the law.

Posted by: Fred || 12/10/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  rape, kidnapping and statutory rape

Apparently there is some confusion about pre-marital dating.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/10/2016 21:35 Comments || Top||



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