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At least 60 killed in terror attack at Shi'ite holy site in Syria
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mike Mukasey: If Champ Blocks a Beest Indictment, Expect Resignations
[Breitbart] Monday on Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzburg Show," while discussing the FBI investigation of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's handling of classified material on an unsecured server during her tenure as secretary of state and possible charges, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said President Barack Obama would face Watergate-level resignations if he attempted to block a recommended indictment.

Mukasey said, "I have confidence in the FBI. I have confidence in people at the Justice Department, some of them, at any rate, who are involved in this investigation--that is people in the national security division. It's less a matter of confidence than it is a matter of believing that people, out of self-preservation, would not want to be seen to be sweeping this under the rug."

When host Malzberg asked if Obama could protect Clinton, Mukasey said, "The fact is that the president can direct the attorney general not to bring charges. The attorney general works for the president and the president can order that ... Although I can't believe that you wouldn't get people resigning in the wake of something like that, the same way that we did at the time of Watergate."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/31/2016 03:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ryan is meeting with the 0bean to discuss legislative priorities. Lets hope that he reminds 0bean that this could be a tale of two cities....
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/31/2016 11:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Yea, so, more unreliables to be replaced with loyal Party members.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/31/2016 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Lets hope that Ryan hasn't sold out completely.

It occurs to me that most Americans have no idea about how serious a breech of compartmentalized security really is nor how ludicrous the claim of "over classification" in this context really is. Somebody better start explaining it. The fox news guys are clueless which is not surprising since none of them have any relevant experince.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/31/2016 12:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Catherine Herridge has been all over it. Napolitano has discussed the implications. Special Report covers it.
Posted by: Frank G || 01/31/2016 12:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Time will tell. If Hilldabeast can get away with:
1) Not marked classified at the time. So if I cover the markings (top and bottom) and put it in an email then I haven't violated the law? Righttt.

2) It was over classified. Given that compartments have subcompartments to limit to as few who have a need to know as possible? How stupid is the propagandist that the beast is paying to come up with this manure?
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/31/2016 12:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Assuming for the moment that there are conscientious careerists at the FBI (and I concede this is possible), please explain why Champ would give 2 shits about them quitting.

Now, that said, the only reason the FBI is investigating Hillary is because Champ has directed them to, and the only reason he would call them off is as a result of a deal that would turn a Hillary administration into a 3rd Obama term.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/31/2016 12:59 Comments || Top||

#7  "Mike Mukasey: If Champ Blocks a Beest Indictment, Expect Resignations"

I'm sure Bambi's depending on it. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 01/31/2016 13:27 Comments || Top||

#8  Bernie has changed his tune. The first debate he said he was tired of hearing about Hillary's emails. Now he's saying it's a very serious situation. What did he and Obama discuss? Could be he smells blood in the water and is moving in for the kill.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/31/2016 13:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Time is running short for Uncle Joe or similar to jump into the race to "save" the party.

If it is unavoidable that Hillary is going to burn then someone else will have to step up cause they can't leave it to crazy uncle Bernie.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/31/2016 13:35 Comments || Top||

#10  Run, Lizzie, run!
Posted by: Raj || 01/31/2016 14:42 Comments || Top||

#11  It was over classified.

"Gee, this stuff sure looks to me like its overclassified. So I guess there's no harm in me giving it to that nice young Russian lady I met at the bar. Besides, she looks trustworthy."
Posted by: Matt || 01/31/2016 14:55 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm pretty sure as P2K noted yesterday, that the DNC can pull of a brokered convention or an amnestry for delegates who jump ship from Hildebeest. And voila, my Uncle Joe/fauxcahontis scenario still works. Remember, these are democrats so rules don't matter if it's serious.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/31/2016 16:15 Comments || Top||

#13  NoMoreBS - Indeed, recall how NJ got Frank Lautenurg as Senator.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/31/2016 16:25 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin lives in fear of another war in Chechnya
Posted by: ryuge || 01/31/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
This Is China's Master Plan to Destroy the U.S. Navy in Battle
[The National Interest] When Chinese officers go to bed at night, what do they fear most?

Despite all the hard work, all the billions of dollars spent, no Chinese sailor wants to tangle with the U.S. Navy. As one retired Chinese senior defense official told me in late 2014: "The 3 A.M. crisis 'call' I feared the most is that we were at war with your navy."

While such a statement surely tickles the hearts of Pentagon officials, know this: Fear, when focused properly, can make the mind--and the collective power of nations--help craft solutions to complex military challenges that might at one time have seemed nearly impossible.

For example, during the 1995-1996 Taiwan Crisis, Beijing's 'nightmares' were nearly realized. When faced with a superior military power that could deploy massive amounts of advanced naval assets and project power from multiple domains like no other nation in history, China simply could not compete. Chinese leaders, especially President Jiang Zemin, would fear the power of American Carrier Battle Groups (CBGs) and their ability to negate what little military might Beijing could bring to bear on Taipei. At one point, there is strong evidence to suggest China could not even find the location of U.S. Carriers--a big problem for sure. The crisis would clearly shape Beijing's thinking on the development of weapons that could provide an asymmetric edge.

So what weapons would China use against the U.S. Navy if combat did ever commence? Some of these weapons, and I am talking to you National Interest readers, you know--and know well. Others, such as one or two of the three platforms I would like to focus on for this blog post, are not as well known, and yet, could give the U.S. Navy the greatest of fits. In a Taiwan crisis scenario--a scenario in which Beijing to this day still sees as the greatest possible military challenge--the following listed below are platforms U.S. strategic thinkers truly fear (and arguably don't have exact solutions to mitigate at the moment):
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/31/2016 02:47 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So what weapons would China use against the U.S. Navy if combat did ever commence?

Prez, Senators and Congresscritters who are more interested in gold plating ships with the best their donors and districts can get away with so that America won't be able to afford a navy or one they could risk in combat.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/31/2016 8:33 Comments || Top||

#2  So what weapons would China use against the U.S. Navy if combat did ever commence?

"Prez, Senators and Congresscritters"
Posted by: Grampaw Pelosi5115 || 01/31/2016 9:36 Comments || Top||

#3  100000 mines is not much.
Posted by: Lionel Thoth9784 || 01/31/2016 10:51 Comments || Top||

#4  kamikaze?
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/31/2016 11:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Great post, Sir.

The drill-downs referenced are real eye-openers also.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 01/31/2016 17:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Sending USN CVBGS into the Taiwan Straits was one of the few things the DemoLeft's Anti-Reagan-ergo-Pro-Reagan answer to Reagan-Bush41 Admin did right.

Or was that Pro-Reagan-ergo-Anti-Reagan? D *** NG IT, I'LL LET LINDSAY LOHAN + MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ DECIDE!

lol.

I highly doubt China + PLA will allow the USN-USDOD to get that close to Taiwan, China Seas, or Chinese Mainland ever again - THE USDOD NEEDS TO DUST OFF + UPDATE ITS COLD WAR RESPONSE PLAN FOR CHINA TO INVADE + TAKE OVER THE NORTHERN PHILIPPINES.

I still hold to my belief that China will meet or attack any US intervening mil forces while the latter are still far out in WESTPAC or CENTPAC, vee Submarines, LR PLAAF Heavy Bombers + TacAIr, + ultimately LRBMS including ASBMS - CONSEQUENTLY, CHINA WILL NEED LAND-BASED STAGING AREAS, ETC. WHICH THE SPRATLY + PARACEL ISLANDS IN THE SCS AREN'T IT, HENCE CHINA'S + PLA'S NEED FOR NORTHERN PHILIPPINES = PH TERRITORIES WHERE THE US HAS LITTLE TO NO MIL PRESENCE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/31/2016 22:48 Comments || Top||


Can China emulate the US Marine Corps?
Posted by: ryuge || 01/31/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Classic "Chinese copy" thinking. They are emulating the form, without quite understanding the function that the form is intended to produce.
Posted by: Nguard || 01/31/2016 0:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Unless you are going to empower the NCOs, no. [Don't worry though Beijing, the asshats in Washington and the Puzzle Palace are removing that difference by yanking up power to the 'mother may I' level destroying the one thing that made American military effective.]
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/31/2016 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  You mean make their Marine Corps CoEd?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/31/2016 15:12 Comments || Top||


Economy
The Fed Is Freaked Out About the Financial Markets
Early in the new year, on Sunday, Jan. 3, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer delivered a hawkish speech to the American Economic Association. Completely misreading the economy, which is woefully weak while inflation is virtually nil, Fischer strongly hinted that the Fed would be raising its target rate by a quarter of a percent every quarter for the next three years.

The next day Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 1.5 percent. In the week that followed, the broad index fell 6 percent. The week after that it fell over 2 percent. During that two-week period, the Dow Jones dropped 1,437 points.


The dollar went up. Oil plunged 21 percent. Raw material commodities dropped. And credit risk spreads in the high-yield junk market rose substantially.

Actually, it was a global event, as stock markets around the world plunged. Utter chaos.

This past week, the Fed retreated in its Federal Open Market Committee policy statement. For the first time in a long while, it didn't bother with a risk assessment between inflation and employment. The whole statement had a much softer tone. It reminded me of the prevent defense of Bill Parcells' old New York Giants.

Putting it more starkly, I'd say the Fed is completely freaked out by financial markets that are turning against it.

More at the link
Posted by: badanov || 01/31/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's because they are stupid.
Posted by: gorb || 01/31/2016 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Easy money is a hard habit to break and when it finally happens will cause all sorts of pain.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/31/2016 1:50 Comments || Top||

#3  If they didn't do the bail outs at the start of the fiasco and allow the natural processes of open markets to take place, we'd already be in a recovery instead of lurching from one bubble to another bubble sustained by the cabal of employees who move from the money houses, the Fed and the Treasury. But hey, the big donors have made a lot of money in the process.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/31/2016 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  "Utter chaos" - No. Not by a long shot. "Utter chaos" is when stores run out of stock of bare necessities because deliveries have stopped, the ATMs don't dispense cash anymore, when very few are even willing to accept cash, companies cannot secure even the shortest term loans to stay in business, or when prices for necessities rise 10% - a day. Or when an indefinite bank holiday is imposed and private ownership gold is outlawed, and the US Supreme Court ratifies it. Oh wait - that's already happened!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/31/2016 13:12 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm freaked out by the Fed(s), so we're even.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/31/2016 13:17 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Analysis: No surprises in report of US, UK spying on Israel
Israel's defense establishment will probably not view reports of US and British intelligence agencies tapping into Israel Air Force video transmissions as being particularly dramatic or surprising revelations.

But don't you see?We have new Persian friends and deals to protect.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/31/2016 02:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israel spies on the USA & UK so, no surprise
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/31/2016 11:36 Comments || Top||

#2  We only spy on you to find that your spying on us discovered. Ok, ok, and to find out which deals you make with our other enemies.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/31/2016 11:39 Comments || Top||

#3  It is more than that. Three sovereign nations whose interests form a complicated Venn diagram. But I will grant that with 0bean I would be worried too.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/31/2016 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  It goes back eighteen years, long preceding the current adminiatration.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/31/2016 22:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
This Week in Books 01/31/2016
Funny thing. I had planned on reviewing Washington's Crossing this week when I noticed, or rather remembered, I had sold it. My wife just walked in the door with a new copy, but it being an excellent book, and the time 15:30 (just finished at 19:30), I am going to continue with my backup plan of expanding upon Paul Revere's Ride and the origins of the armed citizen, a subject merely brushed upon last week.

Paul Revere's Ride
David Hackett Fischer
Oxford University Press, 1994

As the action of April 19th was concluding: (page 262)

Attack was the last thing in British minds. As the rear guard of Royal Marines passed over Charlestown Neck, Lord Percy looked at his watch and noted that the hour was past seven o'clock. His men were utterly exhausted. The grenadiers and light infantry had not slept for two days. Some had marched forty miles in twenty-one hours. Most had been under hostile fire for eight hours. The soldiers sank gratefully to the soggy ground on the heights above Charlestown, and fell instantly asleep. One British officer, unconscious of the irony, noted that their refuge was a place called Bunker Hill.


But how did hand picked professional soldiers whose units were known to put down civil insurrections get so soundly beaten, and would probably have been annihilated if it were not for a smart retreat led by Lord Percy and his reinforcements? (page 152)

The Provincial Congress recommended that one quarter of the militia should be organized in "minute companies," ready to march "at the shortest notice." Special groups of that sort had existed in New England since the mid 17th-century. In 1645, militia commanders throughout Massachusetts were ordered "to make choice of thirty soldiers of their companies in ye hundred, who shall be ready at half an hour's warning." On the eve of King Philip's War in 1675, the Suffolk and Middlesex regiments were required to "be ready to march on a moment's warning, to prevent such danger as may seem to threaten us." When the French wars began after 1689, and New England settlements were attacked by winter raiding parties, the Massachusetts legislature created special units of "snowshoe men," each to "provide himself with a good pair of snowshoes, one pair of moggisons (sic) and one hatchet," and to "hold themselves ready to march on the shortest warning." These were roving patrols of frontier guards. To support them other unites were ordered in 1711 and 1743 to be "in readiness at a minute's warning." During the French and Indian War, militia companies that mustered for the Crown Point campaign of 1756, called themselves "minutemen." When the Provincial Congress advised the founding of minute companies, it was building on a long tradition.


This is a nice transitional paragraph from the happenings of the alarm to the various histories of the militias. That is over one hundred years of self defense tradition before the colonials even considered creating their own nation. Able men of fighting age were expected to be in the local militia, with some militias fining members who missed practice. And again, the culture of self defense and self determination. (page 159)

Most town expected individual militiamen to supply their own weapons, and acted only to arm those who were unable to arm themselves. Newton's town meeting made special provision to arm its paupers at public expense: "Voted, that the Selectmen use their best discretion in providing fire-arms for the poor of the Town, who are unable to provide for themselves." Not many societies in the 18th century would have dared to distribute weapons to their proletariat. At the same time, the rich applied the New England habit of philanthropy to an unaccustomed cause. The town meeting in Newton also noted that "John Pigeon presented to the town two field pieces, which were accepted, and the thanks of the town given him."


These are not hunting parties. This is not in lieu of a professional army; indeed there were a number of Regulars in nearby Boston even before the relationship between colonials and king turn cold. Self defense and self determination are the backbone of the 2nd Amendment. But before there was a 2nd Amendment, there was General Gage. (page 264)

Gage later come to agree with Percy. He wrote to Dartmouth on June 25, The Rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be, and I find it owing to a military spirit encouraged amongst them for a few years past, joined with an uncommon degree of zeal and enthusiasm that they are otherwise...In all their wars against the French they never showed so much conduct, attention and perseverance as they do now."


It really is a fascinating book, beginning around The Boston Massacre, trekking through The Powder Alarm, The Portsmouth Alarm where Paul Revere made an even more amazing ride through a blizzard in a race with HMS Canceaux and the first shots fired between the colonials and the king's soldiers, The Salem Alarm, The British Expedition to Concord, and an excellent epilogue as well as reference section and fantastic pictures.

Links are to Amazon.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/31/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...over one hundred years of self defense tradition before the colonials even considered creating their own nation.

And that's the 2nd Amendment argument right there. Thnak you, swksvolFF. I've downloaded the kindle samole so I don't forget to take the next step. We just got back from a road trip to the international blues competition in Memphis, and I'm a little exhausted.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/31/2016 22:22 Comments || Top||


Glenn Beck's media empire on the ropes?
In what knowledgeable observers say is a sign of increasing turmoil in Glenn Beck’s troubled media empire, Beck’s longtime mentor and corporate executive, Kraig Kitchin, has quit as CEO of The Blaze.

Kitchin’s replacement, Stewart Padveen, a digital startup entrepreneur who joined Beck’s company last summer, will be the fourth leader of The Blaze since late 2014.

Kitchin, 54, who took over operations of Beck’s conservative-leaning subscription digital and cable television enterprise last June—after two previous CEOs abruptly left in the space of six months—is resigning along with two other senior executives: Jeremy Price, director of advertising sales, and Liz Julis, director of marketing…. Several other key employees, including at least two senior producers based in The Blaze’s shrinking New York operation, are expected to follow them out the door.

A source close to the situation predicted a “mass exodus” from the New York studios, which are housed in a largely unoccupied 35,000 square-foot space at Midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park, previously rented by Yahoo, under a 10-year lease costing Beck’s privately held company an estimated $2 million a year.

More at the link
Posted by: badanov || 01/31/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:



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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
Sun 2016-01-31
  At least 60 killed in terror attack at Shi'ite holy site in Syria
Sat 2016-01-30
  Shibir men held for plotting religious unrest
Fri 2016-01-29
  Man Arrested in Disneyland Paris Hotel with 2 Handguns
Thu 2016-01-28
  Melbourne teen accused of plotting to pack kangaroo with bomb
Wed 2016-01-27
  FBI arrests Milwaukee man accused of planning mass shooting at Masonic temple
Tue 2016-01-26
  Suicide bomb attack kills 28, wounds dozens in Cameroon
Mon 2016-01-25
  Drone strike kills IS-Khorasan commander, five others in Nangarhar
Sun 2016-01-24
  2 Houthi leaders killed in special op
Sat 2016-01-23
  Somali Security Forces End Siege At Beachfront Restaurant; At Least 20 Dead
Fri 2016-01-22
  Al Qaeda's Emir of Sana'a Banged in Yemen
Thu 2016-01-21
  7 killed, 25 wounded in blast near Russian embassy in Kabul
Wed 2016-01-20
  Terror attack at Pak's Bacha Khan University
Tue 2016-01-19
  Morocco arrests Belgian with links to Paris attacks
Mon 2016-01-18
  But wait - ther's more: Kerry Says U.S. to Pay Iran $1.7 Billion in Debt and Interest
Sun 2016-01-17
  Burkina Faso attack: At least 23 dead, scores freed after hotel siege

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