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Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Kurd, Turkish army troops fighting near Rojava
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Update:Baltimore seeking FBI, ATF help to combat skyrocketing murder rate
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what's the cause?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/04/2017 3:07 Comments || Top||

#2  No feds till after the governor has provided all state aid (cops, natl'l gaurd, etc.) has been tried.

This could be nothing more than an attempt to suck Trump into a lose lose situation on the part of the Baltimore political establishment.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/04/2017 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  The Baltimore pols created the mess. Let them defend it in the next election.
Posted by: Dopey Snore2686 || 05/04/2017 9:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Is Baltimore a sanctuary city?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/04/2017 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  The Baltimore pols created the mess. Let them defend it in the next election.
Posted by Dopey Snore2686


They CAN'T let it continue. The carnage and potential voter attrition favours republican election outcomes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 9:54 Comments || Top||

#6  They made this bed and shit in it, now they can stay in it.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/04/2017 9:57 Comments || Top||

#7  The Dems under the control of the Obama Regime encouraged attacks on local police so they could implement a Federal police controlled by them like one sees in Socialist countries.

They will continue to call for "federal help" using body counts before they will make local law enforcement work.
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 05/04/2017 10:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Starting to threaten the sports arenas?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/04/2017 12:44 Comments || Top||

#9  It's softshell crab season.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/04/2017 13:16 Comments || Top||

#10  Is Baltimore a sanctuary city?

Why yes, so it happens to be. Is it possible that there may be some kind of connection?
Posted by: gorb || 05/04/2017 21:27 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Sacred cow ambulance service launched in India
[TELEGRAPH.CO.UK] An ambulance service for cattle has been launched in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state in a bid to protect animals sacred to the country’s majority Hindu community.

State deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya announced the Cattle Healing Mobile Van Service on Monday and publicised a toll free number to help the authorities rescue cows in distress.

Maurya said each ambulance, which included a veterinarian and an animal paramedic, would transport abandoned, ill or injured cattle to special shelters or take them to animals hospitals for treatment in the state capital Lucknow and four other nearby cities.
Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An amoolance?
Cowbonix misappropriation. Ten yard penalty.
Posted by: gorb || 05/04/2017 1:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Pls, pls Pappy let him stay at the table.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/04/2017 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  With apologies to black and Hindu 'burgers, a twee meditation on reincarnation...

Thou back of the bovine, O Brahma...
Barack! Kamadenu, yo mama,
Was quick to go, "Jambo!"
To bigamous Shambo
And... cue self-born speech-lord Obama.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/04/2017 9:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Kamadhenu, even. Can't spell for sh-t, lately. I blam kreyboad.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/04/2017 10:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Udderly ridiculous.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/04/2017 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  When you see a sacred cow, milk it for all its worth.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 05/04/2017 10:52 Comments || Top||

#7  "The cow is a poem of mercy."
So said the Mahatma. In verse he
Rephrased it: "Thanks, Jersey,
For milk -- and you, Guernsey --
And urine to sip when I'm thirsty."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/04/2017 11:21 Comments || Top||

#8  Lampooned the lieutenant so listful,
"Woo woo," and the mooing was wistful,
Behooving a luvvie:
"This movie was groovy.
Some Hindu should give you a fistful!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/04/2017 11:39 Comments || Top||

#9  And promptly landed on Abdul Mannan.

(from a couple days ago)
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/04/2017 12:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Too bad SacredCowBurgers.com closed about 10 years ago...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/04/2017 12:02 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Psycho suitor arrested for abduction and torture of ex
[Dhaka Tribune] Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) placed in durance vile
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
a young man for the abduction and torture of a private university student on Monday.

On Monday morning, around 1am, Oliur Rahman alias Kochi, 30, was arrested from his house in Lake Circus road in Kalabagan, Dhaka. RAB managed to rescue his victim, but found her at death's door.

RAB 1 Senior Assistant Superintendent Akramul Hasan confirmed the news to the Dhaka Tribune on Monday evening.

According to Akramul, RAB 1 had received an anonymous tip and had immediately deployed a team on a drive which resulted in Kochi’s arrest.

He added that the victim was a young woman who was a BBA student at Independent University, Bangladesh and lived in the Bashundhara Residential Area.

A year earlier, the families of the two had started discussions about a potential marriage between the two young people. At the time, Kochi had just returned to Bangladesh after having completed his Barrister‐at‐Law degree abroad and had become romantically and physically involved with the girl.

However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
noting that Kochi had behavioural problems and seemed mentally unstable, the girl’s father had rejected the proposal. Enraged at the girl’s father, Kochi began to harass the girl.

On the morning of April 28, he had driven up to the girl while she was on route to her university and carried her off in a white car. He took her to an unknown location and then sexually abused and physically tortured her.

He had then called the girl’s family and made them listen to her screams. He demanded Tk500,000 as ransom. He threatened to shoot and kill her if money was not sent to his bank account or through b-Kash.

On April 29, he took her to Cox’s Bazar but returned with her to Dhaka the next day. Locking her up in an unknown location in the city, her shaved off all the hair from her head and further tortured her physically. Subsequently, fearing the legal action which might be taken against him, he brought in a doctor to help heal her wounds.

RAB sources said when Kochi’s mother found out about the situation, she pushed to have the girl returned to her family. She further demanded that her son be tried in court for his atrocities.

During the primary investigation, Kochi confessed to all the facts. RAB will be taking legal action against him.
Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm surprised he wasn't shot resisting arrest.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/04/2017 3:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Need a brickyard and a three a.m. timeframe for that.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/04/2017 11:14 Comments || Top||


Britain
April Freeze Destroys Much of England's Wine Making Vineyards
from the Guardian, May 2. News of more damage from global warming
English winemakers are reporting "catastrophic" crop damage after the worst frost in a generation wiped out at least half of this year's grape harvest.

Chris White, the chief executive of Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey, said up to 75% of its crop was damaged by last week's sub-zero temperatures:
[began Tues April 25 but it takes a few days for the damage to manifest]
"The temperature dropped to -6C and at that level it causes catastrophic damage to buds," he said.

White said staff had worked in vain using special fans and heaters to protect the vineyard, which at 265 acres in the UK's biggest, after an Arctic blast swept across the UK. "We are very disappointed and it's quite heartbreaking for the people who work in the vineyard all year round," he said. "From what I hear the majority of English vineyards have been affected to some degree."

Some of France's most famous winemaking regions, including Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy, were also affected by last week's severe frosts.
Posted by: lord garth || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  English wine?!?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/04/2017 2:03 Comments || Top||

#2  William the Conquerer's Domesday Book (circa 1090) documented wine production as widespread in England at the time, and in many places was the most valuable commercial crop.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/04/2017 2:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Medieval Warm Period.

Posted by: no mo uro || 05/04/2017 6:07 Comments || Top||

#4  grom,

yes, several English brands of sparkling wine have won awards in Intl tasting events
Posted by: lord garth || 05/04/2017 6:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Look, I know all of you are right. It's just, since reading the article, I can't rid of the thought "English wine, goes with steak & kidney pie".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/04/2017 6:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Gore Climate Change at it again.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/04/2017 8:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Gee, G(rom), what kind of wine goes with kippers and bangers?
(Probably one that leads to unconsciousness...)
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/04/2017 8:30 Comments || Top||

#8  AAAA!!! Something is different weather wise than we are used to!! GLOBAL WORMING!!!!
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/04/2017 9:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Stick to things you do best: beer, whiskey and gin.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/04/2017 12:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Jellied Eels Hit Hardest
Posted by: Whavigum Elmavitle6905 || 05/04/2017 13:22 Comments || Top||

#11  What wine goes with snorkers?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/04/2017 14:57 Comments || Top||

#12  I'd stick with the full bodied reds for snorkers and steak & kidney pie. Something Sangre de Torro-ish.

Or Stout if you opt out of the wine, for the pie at any rate. Porter might do okay for the bangers.
Posted by: Angusock Chuting6110 || 05/04/2017 15:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Deacon:
Snorkers, good-oh!!!

/channeling the Leftenant on the Compass Rose, great novel of the war in the Atlantic, "The Cruel Sea," By Nicolas Monsarrat
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/04/2017 15:10 Comments || Top||

#14  White Lighning cider crop is A Ok, all good here then.
Posted by: Punky Phineling9335 || 05/04/2017 17:11 Comments || Top||

#15  Alaska Paul: Good catch. "/channeling the Leftenant on the Compass Rose". Even worse, he was an Australian, and that drove them all crazy.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 05/04/2017 20:41 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
The Revolution in Venezuela Won’t be Televised- It'll be on the Internet
Television is mostly silent about deadly protests as President Nicolas Maduro pushes for a new constitution. Instead, people are turning to visual forms of social media barely available to Venezuelans three years ago — Instagram and Snapchat stories, live videos on Facebook and Twitter, and WhatsApp chat rooms — to transmit and consume information.

The opposition and government compete to shape the national narrative there. Maduro’s administration sends a stream of anodyne images as protesters send out up-to-the-minute updates of arrests and violence.

For example, dueling May 1 marches in Caracas drew thousands of supporters on both sides. While the opposition posted images of national guard troops firing tear-gas canisters at protesters, pro-government accounts showed of smiling supporters dressed in red at a peaceful rally.

“There has been an increase in the number of people using smart phones, because they know there is no information on the regular television and radio channels in conventional media,” said Andres Canizalez, a communications professor at the Andres Bello University in Caracas. “Opposition politicians used to complain that traditional media didn’t give them any space, but they understand the change that’s occurring with the young people now and have turned toward social media to get their message out.”

Still, about 30 percent of the population does not have access to either an Internet connection or smart phone and relies on the government and over-the-air television stations for information, he said. That’s why the government was so quick to shut down or censor television stations that broadcast coverage it didn’t like.

While Maduro ordered an investigation into Spain’s Telefonica SA’s local Movistar unit last month, claiming it helped opponents deliver text messages promoting protests, Venezuela’s government is for now competing on social networks instead of shutting them down.

“To counteract this situation of hyperconnectivity, the government has created its own digital militias, because it knows people are looking for information in other places,” Canizalez said. “But many people only have access to simply text messaging, and that’s why you’ve seen the government starting to try and control that.”
Posted by: Pappy || 05/04/2017 00:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korea State Media Confirms Arrest of US Professor
[An Nahar] North Korea on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of a US professor for trying to "overturn" the regime, as tensions spike between the isolated nuclear-armed nation and Washington.

Kim Sang-Duk, or Tony Kim, became the third American held in the North when he was detained at the capital's airport on April 22 as he tried to leave the country, after teaching for several weeks at an elite university.

In the North's first confirmation of the professor's detention, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said he had been held for "committing criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn the DPRK", using an abbreviation for the country's official name.

It added that Kim was "under detention by a relevant law enforcement body which is conducting detailed investigation into his crimes".

The confirmation of Kim's detention comes as Pyongyang issues increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense stand off with the administration of new US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
over its rogue weapons programme.

Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Somehow I don't think Pudgy will be able to hide behind him.
Posted by: gorb || 05/04/2017 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Why would any American go to North Korea unless they were part of a military operation or some international NGO trip?
Posted by: AlanC || 05/04/2017 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Why would the US ever try to get anyone back for being stupid enough to go to North Korea? Yer on yer own, Perfessor.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/04/2017 15:40 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought Soetoro's ombudsman Dennis Rodman was going to sort all of this out. Is Dennis being held captain as well ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 16:18 Comments || Top||


Economy
Oil prices plunge 4% below $46 a barrel
h/t Instapundit
Oil prices collapsed on Thursday to their lowest since late November as investor worries about the world's stubbornly persistent glut of crude erased most of the gains that followed last year's OPEC's output cut.

The slide worsened after OPEC delegates downplayed the chance that their group and other producing countries would deepen their output cuts when they meet on May 25. They did say current output cuts were likely to be extended.

Brent crude oil futures were down $2.31, or 4.6 percent, at $48.48 a barrel by 1:27 p.m. (1727 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $2.25, or 4.7 percent, at $45.57 a barrel.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/04/2017 14:32 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...It does tend to put a drag on my 401K, but the money I save all around with lower fuel prices makes up for it.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/04/2017 20:58 Comments || Top||

#2  It's taken a while, but we are getting closer to the end of cartel monopolist profits for OPEC. As fracking spreads, their corruption and incompetance will shift OPEC from the lowest cost producers toward the highest cost producers.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/04/2017 21:41 Comments || Top||


Pew Study: U.S. Middle Class Smaller But Richer Than Europe's
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/04/2017 10:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I really don't give a damn about the other kids. I'm concerned about our grades here at home.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 13:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Prolly richer than Zimbabwe, as well. And that matters, just how?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/04/2017 13:40 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't feel rich.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/04/2017 14:39 Comments || Top||


Puerto Rico Declares a Form of Bankruptcy
[NYTIMES] Puerto Rico’s leadership moved on Wednesday to place the island’s debt crisis into federal bankruptcy court, making it the largest United States government entity to seek court refuge from its creditors in American history.

The move sends Puerto Rico into uncharted territory. America’s recent spate of municipal bankruptcies has involved various state and federal laws, but Puerto Rico is not a state, so none of that hard-won precedent will apply. The outcome of its case could help determine where and how the deep financial troubles of certain states, such as Illinois, are resolved.

On an island that has already been experiencing an exodus of its professionals and well-educated citizens, the move toward bankruptcy is widely perceived as another sign that Puerto Rico has lost all control of its future.

The island has been in a painful recession since 2006, and previous governments dug it deeper into debt by borrowing to pay operating expenses. For the last two years, Puerto Rico has been seeking assistance from Washington, sending officials to testify before stern congressional committees and even making fast-track oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court.

Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what idiots loaned them the money?
Posted by: phil_b || 05/04/2017 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  #1I wonder what idiots loaned them the money?
Posted by: phil_b 2017-05-04 02:06


We by-God better find out. If PR is gonna pull this stunt then they had better be held to the same standards as Joe Schmoe, and document every last dime of income and expenditure.

I am taking a bit of pride in my forecasting abilities, however - I figured they'd cry uncle no later than June 1st. Had last election day ended differently, they would have already had their bailout package.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/04/2017 5:22 Comments || Top||

#3  A good time for Blue Origin or SpaceX to by Roosevelt Roads to launch rockets - best place in the hemisphere.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/04/2017 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Puerto Rico Libre.
Posted by: regular joe || 05/04/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Which explains why, a few weeks back, the "Puerto Rico Should Be Our 58th State" was floated.
Posted by: Bubba Craick3044 || 05/04/2017 10:22 Comments || Top||

#6  And the US Gummint is not too far behind, given Congress spending habits.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/04/2017 16:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Trump Son-In-Law Jared Kushner Borrowed $250 Million from Soros Family
[Breitbart] Mr. Kushner co-founded Cadre in 2014 with his brother Joshua and Ryan Williams, a 29-year-old friend and former employee of Kushner Cos., the family-controlled business that Mr. Kushner ran until recently...

Cadre also secured a $250 million line of credit from the family office of George Soros, a top Democratic donor whom Mr. Trump criticized during his presidential campaign, the people close to the company said. Mr. Soros’s family office is also an investor in Cadre.

[Kushner’s lawyer Jamie] Gorelick said the Cadre stake is described in a revised version of [Kushner’s] financial-disclosure form that will be made public after it has been certified by ethics officials. She said Mr. Kushner has previously discussed his Cadre ownership with the Office of Government Ethics and that Mr. Kushner has "resigned from Cadre’s board, assigned his voting rights, and reduced his ownership share." A spokesman for the Office of Government Ethics didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jamie S. Gorelick is an American lawyer who served as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1994 to 1997, during the Clinton administration.
Is that why she is revealing things that, it seems to me, her fiduciary duty requires her to keep confidential at least until the client makes them public? I also note that having a line of credit is not the same as borrowing money; it is a way of nailing down the possibility of quickly borrowing money in the future, should an opportunity arise making it necessary. Mr. Wife and I had a line of credit from our bank for years that we never touched, because we never needed to -- it came with the bank account Mr. Wife's company had us open so they could pay him more easily when they sent us to Germany, and it would have been useful in an emergency.
Posted by: Jiggs Guelph1771 || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ethics is one issue. If a guy, his brother and a friend come to me and ask for a line of credit, I am going to make sure that these three people can make my money back if they ever need my money. If one of the three is married to the daughter of Donald Trump, I am going to give him the line of credit.

But if he then bails on the company and decides to focus his energies somewhere else, I would consider the landscape has changed considerably. Unless the somewhere else is an office next to the President of the United States.

If he had refocused somewhere other than the White House then he probably would have lost it and Kushner's other major investors would have also been concerned.

Is he a man of his word? Or if a sweeter deal comes along will he abandon our deal?
Posted by: Clyde Bourbon1146 || 05/04/2017 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  The difference between a line of credit and a loan is the latter is transferred to you immediately and the former when you need it. There is no real difference in the conditions. I doubt he got it on personal surety and would have posted collateral, probably including his shares in Cadre.

Sounds a normal business transaction to me.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/04/2017 1:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think Kuchner is active in the day to day business. He's just a venture capitalist by the sound of it.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/04/2017 2:01 Comments || Top||

#4  A prudent move might be to keep the family away from the WH day-to-day. Just saying.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 8:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Jamie S. Gorelick is


the Zelig of the Deep State.
Posted by: charger || 05/04/2017 8:59 Comments || Top||

#6  A nasty little tangle of convenient relationships, isn't it?
Posted by: Pappy || 05/04/2017 11:17 Comments || Top||

#7  I hope Soros gets stiffed out of every penny.
Posted by: Raj || 05/04/2017 13:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Good for him.
That's $250m that won't be misspent elsewhere.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/04/2017 14:54 Comments || Top||

#9  You have to read this article translated from the Hungarian at Gates of Vienna HERE. All about Soros' operations in the Balkans and elsewhere. Put Jared Kushner, line of credit from Soros, retaining the services of Jamie Gorelick, Republicans caving to max out the credit cards, and Soros together and I say that we are well and truly fooked.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/04/2017 15:08 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Case against 200 for lynching two ‘robbers’
[DAWN] BAHAWALPUR: The Lodhran Saddar police on Tuesday started the paperwork but haven't done much else against 200 people on the charges of lynching two suspected robbers in a nearby village.

Police said hundreds of people tortured two persons who, along with an accomplice, were suspected to have entered the house of Muhammad Nawaz at Chatti village to commit a robbery.

As Nawaz’s family raised hue and cry, they said, the suspects took to the heels but the villagers began to chase them. They overpowered two suspects and brutally tortured them as a result of which one of them, who was later identified as Arif, died.

A Saddar police team reached the place and rescued the other man, Falakshair, and shifted him to the District Headquarters Hospital, Lodhran, where he also expired. Their accomplice made good his escape.

The police claimed that the dear departed had criminal record and were wanted in several cases. The Saddar police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against 200 attackers, 18 of them nominated in the FIR.

Lodhran District Police Officer Asad Sarfraz Khan is said to have condemned the mob and said those who took law in their hands also deserved to be punished.

Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Science & Technology
MILbot exercise
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it possible to protect all this tech against an EMP? Because, if not, all of this unmanned/robotic/drone warfare stuff is just a big waste of time. One pulse and it's back to the old way of fighting.
Posted by: Whitch Turkeyneck3879 || 05/04/2017 11:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Some strategies are not meant to be fought but to escalate an expensive response. One drone 'triplet', as in the video, would require countermeasures to be distributed across a target area to limit access. Such a show also drives competition to copy/mimic/buy their own, another economic burden.

Please also note that a simple passive nylon tangle wire mesh along sensitive shorelines would/could bind both the boat prop and the rover wheels. No expensive EMP required.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/04/2017 14:53 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Malaysia arrests two Turks suspected of threatening national security
[AlAhram] Malaysian police have placed in durance vile
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
two Turks, including the head of an international school, suspected of activities threatening national security, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said.

The men, school head Turgay Karaman and businessman Ihsan Aslan, were arrested on Tuesday under a section of the penal code related to "terrorist acts", he said in a Tweet.

No further details of their alleged activities in Moslem-majority Malaysia were immediately available.

The police confirmation came after Karaman was seen on CCTV recordings circulated on social media being forced into an unmarked car by five unknown men at a carpark in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur.

A police report was filed on Karaman's disappearance by a friend on Tuesday night.

Aslan was also reported missing by his wife on Tuesday night after she failed to hear from him for more than a day.

Karaman's lawyer, Rosli Dahlan, told Rooters that the disappearances bore similarities to a case in October when two Turks were reported missing and later discovered to have been deported to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
He denied speculation that the men were supporters of U.S-based Moslem holy man Fethullah Gulen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
, who is being blamed by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for orchestrating a failed coup last year. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed coup in which more than 230 people were killed.

"They are academics. They have not been charged for any Gulen activities," Rosli said.

Turkey has applied pressure to other countries that are home to institutions backed by Gulen, whose Hizmet movement runs about 2,000 educational establishments around the world.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said the two men should not be forcibly sent to Turkey, and called for an urgent investigation.

"There is little doubt that if they are returned to Turkey, they will face torture in detention, and if charged with crimes there, be subjected to a trial that will fall far short of fair trial standards," Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/04/2017 00:49 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Government
House Passes Revised American Health Care Act
[Breitbart] House Republicans passed a revised version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on Thursday.

The bill passed after moderate Republicans fretted this week about how well the bill will protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Many, including former Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), previously came out against the bill, but now support it after GOP leaders agreed to add an amendment adding $8 billion to help cover people with pre-existing conditions.

The vote comes after a tumultuous process for the bill, which has seen previously scheduled votes pulled after Speaker Paul Ryan failed to accumulate enough Republican support. Speaker Ryan received widespread criticism after drafting the bill in secret and retaining many parts of Obamacare. Pundits dubbed the original bill, "Ryancare."

House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) stepped up and brokered a revised version of the bill, known as the MacArthur amendment, along with Tuesday Group co-chairman Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ). The addition of the amendment collected enough Republican votes to pass the bill.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 14:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now for the Senate.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/04/2017 19:05 Comments || Top||

#2  The demo rats who lost their majority because they passed Obamacare announce that republicans will be voted out for repealing. Democrats still appear clueless.
Posted by: Airandee || 05/04/2017 19:51 Comments || Top||


Shulkin Mulls Closing 1,100 'Underutilized' VA Facilities
[NYT] WASHINGTON -- Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin says his department is seeking to close perhaps more than 1,100 VA facilities nationwide as it develops plans to allow more veterans to receive medical care in the private sector.

At a House hearing Wednesday, Shulkin said the VA had identified more than 430 vacant buildings and 735 that he described as underutilized, costing the federal government $25 million a year. He said the VA would work with Congress in prioritizing buildings for closure and was considering whether to follow a process the Pentagon had used in recent decades to decide which of its underused military bases to shutter, known as Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC.

"Whether BRAC is a model that we should take a look, we're beginning that discussion with members of Congress," Shulkin told a House appropriations subcommittee. "We want to stop supporting our use of maintenance of buildings we don't need, and we want to reinvest that in buildings we know have capital needs."

In an internal agency document obtained by The Associated Press, the VA pointed to aging buildings it was reviewing for possible closure that would cost millions of dollars to replace. It noted that about 57 percent of all VA facilities were more than 50 years old. Of the 431 VA buildings it said were vacant, most were built 90 or more years ago, according to agency data. The VA document did not specify the locations.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 14:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Gender Bias Study by Women Researchers Suffers From Gender Bias
h/t Instapundit
[HeatStreet] Internet feminists are outraged after a scientific journal told a group of female researchers that their work on gender bias in academia was gender biased.

Two female evolutionary geneticists collaborated on the piece, which claimed that fewer women Ph.D. candidates were published by established scientific journals, leading them to believe, based on interviews with women across the scientific fields, that the publishing industry was biased against female scientists.
Not clear that the above has to do with evolutionary biology - but typical. (I wonder if it somebody I know?) The reason females are published less because - unlike female professors of my youth, who got in on being better than average, nowadays its cuteness + the ability to game the system.
When they submitted their article to a journal that specializes in publishing research on diversity in the fields of science and medicine, a reviewer suggested that the women include a male voice in their study, just to show that they, themselves, were not coming at the issue from a position of gender bias.
Which, I guess, was her way (in today's climate, a male wouldn't be asked to review a paper like this - and, if asked, wouldn't dare to criticize) of saying "your article has no original research, and your conclusions are twaddle
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/04/2017 02:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thereby demonstrating that if it's all in your head, you can't get it out of your head.
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/04/2017 8:33 Comments || Top||

#2  "It's okay when we do it!"
Posted by: charger || 05/04/2017 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Scientific method:

You are all biased
You are all wrong until proven otherwise by peers
Pushing facts to prove a theory is not science
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/04/2017 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Gender bias study biased? No surprise.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/04/2017 12:01 Comments || Top||


High School Coach Loses Job Because He 'Doesn't Communicate Effectively with Millennials'
[Daily Caller] A longtime high school baseball coach in Phoenix, Ariz., was told to hit the bricks -- apparently because he "doesn't communicate effectively with millennials" (aka snowflakes).

Stan Luketich, the now former Desert Vista High School baseball coach, claimed that he was not sure what school officials meant, but assumed that it had something to do with the fact that players on the Desert Vista Thunder were expected to follow certain rules.

Luketich, who has coached baseball for 42 years, has led the Thunder to two state championships. He said that the news that he was being let go hit him "from out of nowhere." The high school principal, however, stated that the decision was made "after several conversations over the course of two years."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Successful white male over 50, he surely must have seen this one coming.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2017 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Coached baseball for 42 years. Sounds like he's just short of retirement.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/04/2017 0:15 Comments || Top||

#3  A lot of that going around.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/04/2017 1:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Luketich said the Athletic Director had previously told him that his kids "don't play with passion and energy." Should one of these snowflakes get injured playing with passion and energy, then the parents will be all over the coach and school. Just can't catch a break either way.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/04/2017 12:08 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2017-05-04
  Kurd, Turkish army troops fighting near Rojava
Wed 2017-05-03
  Taliban kill 27 ISIS militants in East of Afghanistan
Tue 2017-05-02
  FBI translator married ISIS terrorist she was supposed to investigate: report
Mon 2017-05-01
  Al-Qaeda ready to join forces with Saudi-led groups to fight ‘Houthi Shia’ in Yemen
Sun 2017-04-30
  Jaish Al-Islam executes Al-Qaeda commander as rival jihadists slaughter each other in Damascus
Sat 2017-04-29
  ISIS on its last legs as the Syrian Army imposes full control over gas field in east Homs
Fri 2017-04-28
  Fighting between Kurds and Turkish troops continue in Northern Syria
Thu 2017-04-27
  Damascus airport rocked after 'Israel air strike' on arms depot
Wed 2017-04-26
  Abu Sayyaf beheads captive Philippine soldier
Tue 2017-04-25
  Sweden arrests second suspect over deadly truck attack
Mon 2017-04-24
  Drone strike kills 5 Qaeda suspects in Yemen
Sun 2017-04-23
  5 terrorist suspects arrested in Brussels after arms, ammo & drugs seized in police raids
Sat 2017-04-22
  Dozens of About 140 Afghan troops dead in Taliban base attack
Fri 2017-04-21
  ISIS Media Chief dies in airstrike
Thu 2017-04-20
  Paris - cops shot, 1 killed. Suspect dead, Suspicious package left

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