Hi there, !
Today Mon 02/22/2016 Sun 02/21/2016 Sat 02/20/2016 Fri 02/19/2016 Thu 02/18/2016 Wed 02/17/2016 Tue 02/16/2016 Archives
Rantburg
531696 articles and 1855971 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 80 articles and 180 comments as of 13:21.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Foreigners among 24 terrorists killed in Badakhshan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
0 [] 
6 18:49 Procopius2k [] 
3 22:58 JosephMendiola [] 
3 20:47 49 pan [1] 
2 18:21 Shipman [] 
1 22:00 JosephMendiola [] 
1 10:11 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [] 
2 19:28 trailing wife [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 []
0 []
0 []
2 15:30 Skidmark []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
2 11:10 gorb []
0 []
0 [1]
1 15:32 Skidmark []
1 16:28 Shipman [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
3 19:07 Procopius2k []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 10:30 JohnQC []
Page 2: WoT Background
0 []
0 [1]
4 19:42 JosephMendiola [1]
0 []
4 21:34 JosephMendiola []
5 18:48 Besoeker []
12 17:21 Besoeker []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
7 18:01 Pappy []
1 08:16 Procopius2k []
1 21:37 JosephMendiola []
5 15:31 Besoeker []
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 19:48 gorb []
8 22:31 JosephMendiola []
3 16:24 rjschwarz []
2 21:28 Frank G []
8 21:24 JosephMendiola []
4 16:15 Besoeker []
6 17:06 Shipman []
1 09:19 Glenmore []
0 []
3 10:12 Skidmark []
17 19:30 DarthVader [1]
1 08:07 Procopius2k []
Page 6: Politix
5 13:38 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
14 21:56 JosephMendiola []
11 16:27 rjschwarz []
1 11:20 Frank G []
11 22:45 3dc []
4 10:41 Deacon Blues []
3 10:10 CrazyFool [1]
7 21:00 Alaska Paul [1]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Manny Pacquiao sez people are 'alarmed by the truth' about gay marriage
[Guardian] Manny Pacquiao says that he respects Nike's decision to sever ties with him over his comments about gay relationships but remains opposed to same-sex marriage and added he's happy that "a lot of people were alarmed by the truth".

Nike said on Wednesday that it will no longer have any business dealings with the former Filipino world champion, adding that it found his comments "abhorrent." Nike says it strongly opposes any kind of discrimination.

"Whatever decision Nike makes is its decision and I respect that and its sponsorship of me now only involves my clothes for my fight," Pacquiao told reporters on Thursday. "Our contract has already ended aside from sponsoring the boxing."
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/19/2016 07:40 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Manny doesn't mind starting and stepping into a $hit storm does he?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/19/2016 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Nike, like most consumer goods organizations, get their corporate guidance from their Marketing Departments.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 02/19/2016 13:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Its ok for the left to call people bigots because they are Christians and follow their beliefs. So much for our nation letting people speak their beliefs, Fascism is running strong in America.
Posted by: 49 pan || 02/19/2016 20:47 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin's next strike could be anywhere in the world, warns Polish official
[The Guardian] Adviser to Poland's president says Russia's Syria intervention demonstrated to US that its diplomatic 'pivot to Asia' was a mistake.

Vladimir Putin's new geopolitical ambitions have led the US to realise it made a strategic mistake turning away from Europe and making a pivot to Asia, the foreign affairs adviser to the Polish president has said.

Krzysztof Szczerski urged the west to recognise that the Russian president was no longer simply seeking to restore his country's dominance in former Soviet states such as Ukraine, but to adopt a more dominant military posture across the globe.

He told the Guardian: "It is now a strategy of geopolitical confrontation, so the next strikes of Putin are not guaranteed to be in the post-Soviet sphere. It could be anywhere in the world. It is wrong to think that Putin has narrow territorial limits. Syria has shown that is not the case."

Szczerski said Putin's Syrian intervention last year showed Russia had the capacity to move large amounts of equipment at speed across a great distance without their preparations being noticed. "His capacity to set these new challenging fronts around the world should be an alarm call," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/19/2016 07:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I doubt 'anywhere' includes some man made islands in the South China Sea.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/19/2016 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Back in the day, we used to joke that the Poles went on alert every time the Germans or Soviets cranked their tracks to take engine oil samples. (Anyone remember the AOAP?)

Given their history, this is understandable.

Sure hope President Trump will have enough of a clue to do the right thing by the poles. Besides, I understand that Poland is a pretty nice duty location- standard of living almost as good as Germany was circa 1985, and a lot more grateful for our presence.
Posted by: nguard || 02/19/2016 11:52 Comments || Top||

#3  As per the Bammer's "Pivot to Asia" ...

* See THE DIPLOMAT > AMERICA'S MICRONESIA PROBLEM.

Tremendous MilPol or Geopol opportunities for China + PLA + China's "2nd Island Chain" strategy in CENTPAC iff the FSM succeeds in voiding the Compact of Free Asociation wid the US???

GUAM [+ Camel Rock + Pearl Harbor 1941 USN BB USS "OKLAHOMA"] AT RISK [again].

PLA to get access to former WW2 IJN Fleet Base at CHUUK/TRUK LAGOON - ditto Ulithi Lagoon? Kwajalein?

PUTIN TO SAVE GUAM + HAWAII FOR OWG NAU AMERIKA???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/19/2016 22:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The Elephant in the Room
h/t Instapundit
Donald Trump is succeeding, we're told, because he appeals to angry voters -- but that's obvious; tell me more. Why are they angry, and how does he appeal to them? In 2016, Americans want to vote for a person and not a white paper. If you care about America's fate under Obama, naturally you are angry; voters should distrust a candidate who is not angry.

But there's more to it than mere anger. Chris Christie was angry, and he's gone. Trump has hit on important issues -- immigration, the economy, appeasement unlimited -- in ways that appeal to voters emotionally. There's nothing wrong with that; I trust someone who feels what I feel more than a person who merely thinks what I think. But though Rubio and Cruz are plainly capable of connecting with voters emotionally, Trump is way ahead -- for many reasons, but the most important is obvious and virtually ignored.

Political correctness. Trump hasn't made it a campaign theme exactly, but he mentions it often with angry disgust. Reporters, pundits, and the other candidates treat it as a sideshow, a handy way for Trump (King Kong Jr.) to smack down the pitiful airplanes that attack him as he bestrides his mighty tower, roaring. But the analysts have it exactly backward. Political correctness is the biggest issue facing America today. Even Trump has just barely faced up to it. The ironic name disguises the real nature of this force, which ought to be called invasive leftism or thought-police liberalism or metastasized progressivism. The old-time American mainstream, working- and middle-class white males and their families, is mad as hell about political correctness and the havoc it has wreaked for 40 years -- havoc made worse by the flat refusal of most serious Republicans to confront it. Republicans rarely even acknowledge its existence as the open wound it really is; a wound that will fester forever until someone has the nerve to heal it -- or the patient succumbs. To watch young minorities protest their maltreatment on fancy campuses when your own working life has seen, from the very start, relentless discrimination in favor of minorities--such events can make people a little testy.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/19/2016 17:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Loser Pope takes on Donald Trump, suffers massive humiliation, slinks off to {walled} Vatican
Donald Trump has somehow managed to bait His Holiness into a public fight:
Sorry, gotta disagree. The Pope stepped into that one all by his politically gullible self.
Hours after praying for Mexican migrants who died trying to reach the United States, Pope Francis singled out Donald Trump, telling reporters aboard the papal plane that anybody who wants to build border walls "is not Christian."

"A person who thinks only about building walls -- wherever they may be -- and not building bridges, is not Christian," Francis said Thursday, according to a translation from the Associated Press. "This is not in the Gospel."

He added: "I'd just say that this man is not Christian if he said it this way."
Christianity is not a religion of suicide. You have to expand the system under consideration until it is large enough to include all the causes and effects. Has the Pope considered Mexico's laws regarding illegal immigration and foreign workers vs. America's? Crime? America's already generous welfare and immigration laws? SUSTAINABILITY? What would happen if the US was reduced to only being able to take care of its own? The hypocrisy of the Vatican's immigration laws and protective wall when compared to this situation? Jesus could turn water into wine and make fish appear out of thin air. We can't. There's no asking WWJD here.
According to ABC News, the Pope's criticism of Trump was prompted by a reporter who asked: "Can a good Catholic vote for this man?" ABC's account notes that the Pope demurred on that aspect of the question, by saying:

"About whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt."

You'll be shocked to hear that this restraint did not cause Trump to temper his response in the slightest. Trump's statement is worth quoting in full:

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians.

The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story -- he didn't see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn't see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation.

For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.

Let's pause for a moment of silence to marvel at the degree to which Trump managed to stay on his core message here. Remember, the story that Trump has been telling for at least six months now has not changed. Our elites are failing you, because they are allowing you to be cheated by a whole cast of villains -- illegals, multinational corporations, other countries (usually China, but more recently, Mexico, which Trump now says is "the new China") -- whether through stupidity, corruption, weakness, or some combination of the above.

In his response to the Pope, Trump hit every one of these buttons: Mexico wants to continue to "rip off" America; our stupid leaders continue to allow it to happen because they are getting "outsmarted"; Trump would not, because he is "wise" to the scam; and so, "they" (Trump's word) have now enlisted the Pope "as a pawn" in keeping the scam going.

The only slight tweak to Trump's storyline on display here is that he merely said the Pope was an unwitting victim of this scam, rather than suggesting that he is one of the elites who is actively complicit in it, either through corruption or weakness or stupidity (though arguably Trump did hint at the possibility of the latter two).
I've never seen Donald read from a script before. He did when responding to a reporter's question about the Pope.
Oh, and for good measure, in his reply to the Pope, Trump also managed to reiterate his oft-repeated vow to Make Christianity Great Again.

Not even the Pope can knock Donald Trump off message.
Posted by: gorb || 02/19/2016 11:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Pope stepped into that one all by his politically gullible self.

Trump is like the tar baby. People can't resist taking a swing at him, however much they regret it later. And in all fairness to His Leftness, this pope doesn't seem to be - uh, how can I put this nicely? - quite as astute as his predecessors.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/19/2016 13:15 Comments || Top||

#2  There's no asking WWJD here.

Jesus didn't seem to mind the Romans who invaded his country even when they crucified Him. I think he saw them all as potential converts and indeed they were because Rome eventually became the very seat of Christianity. That's where the Pope lives, surrounded by a wall of course. There is a great deal of irony in all of this. The Jews hated paying taxes to the Romans and I'm not all that crazy about my tax dollars subsidizing the lives of illegal immigrants. So maybe I'm really a Jew at heart. But Jesus told the Jews to pay their taxes. But the illegal immigrants are mostly Catholic so I don't have to convert them. All I have to do is subsidize them, let them turn the United States into a Third World country, let them smuggle narcotics into this country and let them vote for Hillary.

I have no problem with a couple of bridges across the Tijuana River, one at I-5 and the other at I-805, as long as we have lots of those nice ICE guys there to check for visas.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/19/2016 13:39 Comments || Top||

#3  The walls around Vatican City are about thirty feet high and made of stone. You want to immigrate to the Vatican? See if it is even possible. Just go check. You don't have a life span long enough to even climb the stacked paper work . Provided you can even get to see the pile.
The Pope is somewhat dim....plus he does seem to sound and act like a clueless EUroweenie. The only people who want to move to EUroweenie are Moslems. See if you can figure that out. Moslem home countries are sh*&holes. And EUroweenies are stupid. You know where that leads without even looking.
Posted by: Omolutle Spawn of the Gepids4508 || 02/19/2016 13:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, and you know what would be really cool? If I could buy a place on the beach in Baja California and live with all the rights, security and amenities that I enjoy here in the United States? Not gonna happen? whimper
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/19/2016 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  If trump becomes president he should tax churches to pay for the wall.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/19/2016 13:47 Comments || Top||

#6  #4 for those who do not know -

Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution -

The property of all land and water within national territory is originally owned by the Nation, who has the right to transfer this ownership to particulars. Hence, private property is a privilege created by the Nation.

Expropriations may only be made when there is a public utility cause.

The State will always have the right to impose on private property constraints dictated by "public interest". The State will also regulate the exploitation of natural resources based on social benefits and the equal distribution of wealth. The state is also responsible for conservation and ecological considerations.

All natural resources in national territory are property of the nation, and private exploitation may only be carried out through concessions.

Nuclear fuel may only be exploited and used by the State. The use of Nuclear elements in the Nation may only have peaceful purposes (i.e., Mexico cannot build nuclear weapons).

This article also deals with other subtleties on what constitutes Mexico's territory.

Foreign nationals cannot own land within 100 km of the borders or 50 km of the coast; however, foreigners can have a beneficial interest in such land through a trust (fideicomiso), where the legal ownership of the land is held by a Mexican financial institution. The only precondition sine qua non to granting such a beneficial interest is that the foreigner agree that all matters relating to such land are the exclusive domain of Mexican courts and Mexican jurisdiction, and that in all issues pertaining to such land, the foreigner will conduct him or herself as a Mexican, and settle any issues arising from their interest in such land exclusively through Mexican courts and institutions. The stipulated consequence of a failure to abide by these terms is forfeiture to the nation of their interests in all lands where the foreigner has such beneficial interests.

That an area of land at the coast (20 meters from the highest tide line) is federal property which cannot be sold.


D'em fools on HGTV thinking they're buying land on the coast (till some local judge decides to nullify their fideicomiso).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/19/2016 18:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
1984....1993....2016 - Your ultimate bottom line between the FBI and Apple
Posted by: newc || 02/19/2016 01:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  FTA: Crypto is no existential threat, instead the abuse of the laws we have on the books is.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/19/2016 10:11 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Another spiritual advisor: Lessons in wife-beating
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/19/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Arabs flog the female frame,
The patriarchy is to blame;
And Englishmen (fee fie fo fum!),
Because, you know, like, rule of thumb.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/19/2016 7:12 Comments || Top||

#2  :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/19/2016 19:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hopeless but not Serious (Spengler)
Welcome to Permanent War, as Russian Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev dubbed today's Middle East. It isn't as bad as it sounds, provided, of course, that you're not in it. The bonfire built on tribal enmity and national disillusionment will have to burn itself out over time. The risk lies in the possible spread of the fire outside the region.

First, a quick review of what is not going to happen in Syria, rhetoric to the contrary:
Neither Turkey nor Saudi Arabia will send ground troops into northern Syria and fight US-backed Kurdish militia. Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz declared on Sunday that his country had "no intention" of sending its army into Syria, while Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said that deployment of Saudi forces is up to the United States.

Turkey won't send combat aircraft into Syria to be shot down by Russian air defenses. Turkey would only sacrifice its aircraft in the hope of drawing the United States into a showdown with Russia, and the United States has evidently told Ankara that it's on its own. Saudi Arabia may base some aircraft in Turkey, but won't use them. The United States does not want to finnd out how good Russia's S-400 air defense system actually is; Pentagon analysts believe that it is very good indeed.

The Russian-Iranian reduction of Aleppo will add little to the flood of Syrian refugees. Perhaps 40,000 people have fled Aleppo and nearby towns. Syria's refugee count had already reached 5 million in late 2013.

Russia and the United States will not stumble into a strategic confrontation over a long-since-unsalvageable patch of Levantine desert.

As long as the dance of death remains within the Middle East as such, the strategic risks to the rest of the world will be small. It is disgusting, but not dangerous. The risk is that the conflict will spill over into the rest of the world. There are two ways in which that might happen: through the actions of terrorists on the ground, and through long-range missiles bearing weapons of mass destruction.

America's past support for Islamists has spawned conspiracy theories in Russian and Chinese media to the effect that the US created ISIS in order to destabilize its rivals. That is not the case. Americans have a brain cramp about democracy. The Republican and Democratic mainstreams both believe that the mere form of democracy as such will fix most of society's ills. No accumulation of facts to the contrary appears sufficient to shake the democracy cult.
Except inside USA where democracy/freedom of speech/presumption of innocence has long since been sacrificed on the altar of equality.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/19/2016 04:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Turkey won't send combat aircraft into Syria to be shot down by Russian air defenses.

Bummer. I really wanted to see the S-400 at work. Does that make be a bad person?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/19/2016 13:10 Comments || Top||

#2  A-10s would be impervious.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/19/2016 18:21 Comments || Top||


SPENGLER: A Syrian Ghost Story: Lessons from Cardinal Richelieu
The sketch reposted below first appeared in Asia Times in February 2012. In it, the ghost of Cardinal Richelieu explains balance of power and disequilibrium in the ethnic-patchwork states of the Middle East. I am informed via Ouija board that the Cardinal's analysis and recommendations remain the same.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/19/2016 04:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Speaking of [Pre-Musketeer]FRANCE + KNIGHTS TEMPLAR ... ...
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/19/2016 22:00 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
56[untagged]
5Govt of Pakistan
5Islamic State
4Taliban
3Commies
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1ISIL-K
1Boko Haram
1Lashkar-e-Islam
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1al-Qaeda

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2016-02-19
  Foreigners among 24 terrorists killed in Badakhshan
Thu 2016-02-18
  Freed Gitmo detainee, ex-bin Laden aide returns to former career
Wed 2016-02-17
  44 Daesh militants killed in Nangarhar's Achin District
Tue 2016-02-16
  British Sniper Decapitates ISIS Executioner
Mon 2016-02-15
  Taliban confirm losing 13 fighters in Paktika drone strikes
Sun 2016-02-14
  Boko Haram kills at least 30 people in northeastern Nigeria
Sat 2016-02-13
  Turkish artillery hammers airfield near Aleppo
Fri 2016-02-12
  Syrian rebels launch offensive on pro Syrian troops in Latakia
Thu 2016-02-11
  Female Suicide Bombers Kill 58 in Nigeria
Wed 2016-02-10
  New Hampshire primary: Trump, Sanders win
Tue 2016-02-09
  Russian police arrest 7 Islamic State militants
Mon 2016-02-08
  ISIS executes 300+ in Mosul
Sun 2016-02-07
  North Korea fires long-range rocket despite warnings
Sat 2016-02-06
  Yemeni Army's Tochka Strikes Saudi-US Aggression Camp in Marib, Kills 104
Fri 2016-02-05
  6 al Qaeda operatives die in Yemen drone strike

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
44.201.94.1
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (34)    WoT Background (18)    Non-WoT (12)    (0)    Politix (8)