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100 Syrian Refugees Rush into Country After Seattle Judge Halts Trump Executive Order
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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14 23:58 Zenobia Floger6220 [3]
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15 20:26 Rambler in Virginia [4]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Planned Parenthood sets ‘abortion quotas,' former employees say
[Wash Times] Planned Parenthood sets ambitious goals for the number of abortions it wants each clinic to perform by providing incentives for those that reach their quotas and meting out corrective measures against those that underperform, according to former employees.

In a video released Tuesday by Live Action, Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood clinic manager, said that even clinics that did not perform abortions had to refer a certain number of patients to other facilities for the procedures.

"Every center had a goal for how many abortions were done," Ms. Thayer said in the video, "and centers that didn’t do abortions, like mine, that were family-planning clinics had a goal for abortion referrals. And it was on this big grid, and if we hit our goal, then our line was green. If it was 5 percent under, we were yellow. If it was 10 percent under, it was red. That’s when we needed to have a corrective action plan -- why we didn’t hit the goal, what we were going to do differently next time."

She said employees were trained to manipulate women into choosing abortion by bringing up the costs associated with raising a family.

"We would say things like, ’Your pregnancy test, your visit today is X number of dollars. How much are you going to be able to pay toward that?’" Ms. Thayer said. "If they say, ’I’m not able to pay today,’ then we would say something like, ’Well, if you can’t pay $10 today, how are you going to take care of a baby? Have you priced diapers? Do you know how much it costs to buy a car seat?’
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2017 00:41 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How can one run a profitable factory without production schedules and quotas ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2017 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey, we need parts.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/08/2017 2:56 Comments || Top||


Flight Attendants Fight Human Trafficking With Eyes in the Sky
[NYT] Donna Hubbard, a flight attendant who lives outside Atlanta, has no problem speaking forcefully about the issue of human trafficking in the United States. But her voice begins to falter when she talks about her own life -- how years of exploitation shattered her confidence and turned her life upside down.

"For many years, I couldn’t talk about being an addict," she said. "I couldn’t talk about being imprisoned. I couldn’t talk about getting on my feet, getting my life back, getting my children back."

She paused to fight back tears.

"I could not talk about that part of me where I was victimized."

But having realized that airline employees are perfectly positioned to stop human traffickers and their victims in transit, Ms. Hubbard has found her mission: teaching other flight attendants to spot and report cases of human trafficking.

The nonprofit organization she joined in 2015, Airline Ambassadors International, trains workers at airlines and airports how to spot, and report, cases of human trafficking. It also delivers humanitarian aid around the world and transports sick children who need medical care.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2017 00:34 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Putin Scrambles Russian Air Forces to Check Readiness
President Vladimir Putin has put the Russian air force on high alert, the latest in a series of drills amid tensions with the West.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the drills launched Tuesday will check the air force's readiness and its ability to repel an enemy aggression.

Shoigu told military officials that special emphasis will be given to practicing the deployment of air defense systems.

The maneuvers are the latest in a steady series of war games intended to strengthen the troops' readiness. Despite Russia's economic downturn, the Kremlin has continued to spend big on military training and weapons modernization amid tensions with the West over the Ukrainian crisis.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/08/2017 07:08 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Melania's first court win is a warning shot to journalists with dodgy info
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Recently, there's been an argument among top-flight journalists like BuzzFeed's Ben Smith about whether it's a good idea to publish potentially defamatory information that is unverified and which even you yourself doubt in part or in whole.

The only correct answer is: never do this. And if you have to do it ... still don't do it. Because there's an excellent chance that, if you are sued, a court will interpret your willingness to publish that which you acknowledge might be false as "reckless disregard" for the truth.

American libel laws are famously and rightly lenient toward those who write and publish. The First Amendment is a durable shield, and it takes a lot to lose such a case. But when you publish something you yourself believe might be false, you are already on the cusp of meeting the "actual malice" standard by which even public figures can successfully sue you.

A very big test case of this has just been settled in Maryland. First Lady Melania Trump sued a blogger who had accused her of being a high-end escort. He has agreed to pay LawNews reports:

LawNewz.com has learned that First Lady Melania Trump has agreed to settle her defamation lawsuit filed against a Maryland blogger who published an article accusing her of being a high-end escort. The blogger has agreed to pay Trump a "substantial sum," according to a statement from Melania's attorney, Charles Harder. The blogger, Webster Tarpley, also agreed to issue an additional apology for the posts.

Take heed, rulers of the earth. Libel law is no joke. Mrs. Trump's parallel case against the Daily Mail in New York may provide another example of this soon enough.

Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the 14th Amendment grants equal protection before the law for any citizen, then the two tier standard of public and private citizen for actions of libel can not stand. Corporations should be held fully accountable for the quality of their product, whether its food, vehicles, or news.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2017 10:04 Comments || Top||


Sanitation crews work to remove massive amounts of garbage from DAPL protest camp before spring thaw
[KFYRtv] "Sanitation crews are working hard to dispose of six months' worth of garbage from a community the size of Wahpeton or Valley City. The mountains of debris need to be moved before the spring thaw occurs.

"Standing Rock Environmental Protection Agency and Dakota Sanitation are working together to try and advert an environmental tragedy," says Tom Doering, Morton County Emergency Manager.

It's estimated it will take 250 trucks filled with litter to clear the camp."
Remember, this is the group that was stopping the pipeline "for the environment".
Posted by: Spaise Slaitle1516 || 02/08/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So the protestors caused more pollution to the environment than the pipeline ever will?
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 02/08/2017 15:49 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Has China been practicing preemptive missile strikes against U.S. Bases?
[War on the Rocks] You’ve probably heard that China’s military has developed a "carrier-killer" ballistic missile to threaten one of America’s premier power-projection tools, its unmatched fleet of aircraft carriers. Or perhaps you’ve read about China’s deployment of its own aircraft carrier to the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. But heavily defended moving targets like aircraft carriers would be a challenge to hit in open ocean, and were China’s own aircraft carrier (or even two or three like it) to venture into open water in anger, the U.S. submarine force would make short work of it. In reality, the greatest military threat to U.S.

vital interests in Asia may be one that has received somewhat less attention: the growing capability of China’s missile forces to strike U.S. bases. This is a time of increasing tension, with China’s news organizations openly threatening war. U.S. leaders and policymakers should understand that a preemptive Chinese missile strike against the forward bases that underpin U.S. military power in the Western Pacific is a very real possibility, particularly if China believes its claimed core strategic interests are threatened in the course of a crisis and perceives that its attempts at deterrence have failed. Such a preemptive strike appears consistent with available information about China’s missile force doctrine, and the satellite imagery shown below points to what may be real-world efforts to practice its execution.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2017 07:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies


#2  Sounds a lot like 1940, in the western Pacific.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/08/2017 12:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Refute our foreign debt to China and shut off imports?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/08/2017 14:37 Comments || Top||


Fat Boy Kim Jong-un Keeps Uncle in Check
North Korean leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un in early 2015 shunted his uncle Kim Pyong-il from his perennial post as ambassador to Poland to the Czech Republic to weaken his position, sources say.

Kim Pyong-il (63), a half-brother of Kim Jong-il, had been ambassador to Poland for 16 years and had an entrenched network of connections there.

The source said Kim Pyong-il was poised to become dean of the diplomatic corps in Warsaw when the incumbent left in late 2014. The position, which is customarily held by the longest-serving envoy, would have meant hosting various diplomatic events and cementing his status as an influential player on the international stage. The cheap Kim Jong-un apparently wanted to avoid this and decided to shunt his uncle abruptly to the Czech Republic.

Kim Pyong-il was born to regime founder Kim Il-sung and his second wife Kim Song-ae. He was at one point involved in a power struggle with his half-brother but was then sent into cushioned exile, spending altogether 38 years abroad, first as a military attaché in the embassy in Yugoslavia in 1979.

"The presence of Kim Pyong-il, who resembles Kim Il-sung, must be a threat to the corpulent Kim Jong-un, who is trying to win people's hearts by imitating his grandfather," speculated a researcher at a government-funded think tank here. "It seems the regime has sent a senior officer from the State Security Department to Prague to watch him."

Hong Kong media last year reported that there was a movement among senior defectors to form a government-in-exile with Kim Pyong-il as its head.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/08/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Economy
Trump administration to approve final permit for Dakota Access pipeline
[WASHINGTONPOST]
Posted by: Fred || 02/08/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Facebook adds feature to help people in crisis
[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] Facebook launched Safety Check in 2014 to help people inform friends and loved ones that they were safe following natural disasters and other crises.

On Wednesday, Facebook adds a new feature to Safety Check called Community Help. As its name suggests, the feature is meant to help people in need request assistance after a fire, earthquake or other natural disaster, or to make it simpler for the people who can lend a hand provide food, shelter or other assistance.

Facebook is initially launching Community Help in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Saudi Arabia as it learns how people uses the feature and seeks to improve it. The social network plans to then open it up to other countries and additional types of incidents.

People can view posts by location and by category (food, baby supplies, shelter, etc.). Facebook says it consulted outfits like the Red Cross to come up with the category list. And folks can send direct messages to helpers through the feature.

Facebook’s vice president for Social Good Naomi Gleit says that two things need to happen before Safety Check (and ultimately Community Help) can be activated. For starters, global crisis reporting agencies NC4 and iJET International must alert Facebook that an incident has occurred and give it a title. When that happens, Facebook begins monitoring for posts about the incident in the area.

Second, if a lot of people are talking about the incident, they may be prompted to mark themselves safe, and invite others to do the same.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2017 12:48 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WTF? The bloody machines ARE the 'crisis.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/08/2017 13:04 Comments || Top||


If a meteor hit New York, would anyone notice?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/08/2017 07:15 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Large enough, yes we would. But not for long. ELE event
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/08/2017 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  What about Berkeley?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/08/2017 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  ...I think the underlying California faults can handle that 'act of God'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/08/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Notice? Yeah. Care? Not so much.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/08/2017 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  What? Did you say something?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 02/08/2017 11:03 Comments || Top||

#6  HOORAY!!

Something else to worry about other than Trump's disastrous (anti-leftist) presidency!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/08/2017 11:25 Comments || Top||

#7  An impact. Manhattan. And silence.
No frantic lamenting or violins.
No millions of marchers,
No yeomen or archers,
No bagpipes' drone over the highlands.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/08/2017 13:23 Comments || Top||

#8  I guess we wouldn't have a lot of those stupid liberal pandering morning "news" talk shows and evening "news" programs.

Other than that and a lot of fall out and cold weather for a decade or so....I don't think it would be that noticeable.

It might finally put the Clintons out of business and where would Chuckie Schumer run for re election? Botswana?
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/08/2017 16:11 Comments || Top||



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1Houthis
1Sublime Porte

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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
Wed 2017-02-08
  100 Syrian Refugees Rush into Country After Seattle Judge Halts Trump Executive Order
Tue 2017-02-07
  Firing in Afghan consulate in Karachi leaves diplomat dead
Mon 2017-02-06
  Senior Hamas Commander Dies in ‘Work Accident’
Sun 2017-02-05
  Syrian Democratic Forces launch new anti-ISIS operation in eastern Raqqa
Sat 2017-02-04
  Louvre terror attack: Egyptian man, 'who arrived in France in January' shot five times after attacking soldier with machete
Fri 2017-02-03
  ISIS sets ablaze Syria’s largest source of gas as Syrian Army closes on their positions
Thu 2017-02-02
  German Report: Iran Tested Nuclear-Capable Cruise Missile
Wed 2017-02-01
  US: Female Al-Qaeda combatants killed in Yemen raid
Tue 2017-01-31
  ISIS makes another attempt at seizing east Damascus airbase
Mon 2017-01-30
  5 killed, dozens injured in Canada mosque shooting
Sun 2017-01-29
  10 ISIS and Lashkar-e-Islam militants killed in Nangarhar
Sat 2017-01-28
  90 ISIS bodies found in southwest of Sirte
Fri 2017-01-27
  Yemen’s Rebels Seize 3 Trucks Carrying Aid to Al-Bayda
Thu 2017-01-26
  Libyan Army captures Ganfouda district
Wed 2017-01-25
  Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (Nusra) expels Jund Al-Aqsa from its ranks


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