[KC Star] WASHINGTON - Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested Friday morning in the special counsel's Russia investigation and was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe.
The seven-count indictment against Stone, a self-proclaimed "dirty trickster," is the first criminal case in months from special counsel Robert Mueller and provides the most detail to date about how Trump campaign associates were aware in the summer of 2016 that emails had been stolen from the Hillary Clinton campaign and wanted them released. It alleges that unnamed senior Trump campaign officials contacted Stone to ask when the stolen emails might be disclosed.
The indictment does not charge Stone with conspiring with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website that published the emails, or with the Russian officers Mueller says hacked them. Instead, it accuses him of witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to WikiLeaks' release. Some of those false statements were made to the House intelligence committee, according to the indictment.
The indictment lays out in detail Stone's conversations about stolen Democratic emails posted by WikiLeaks in the weeks before Trump, a Republican, beat Clinton. Mueller's office has said those emails, belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, were hacked by Russian intelligence officers.
#1
Stone has always been sleazy. Again, though, this is a process charge, not a Russia Russia Russia crime. Mueller is grasping at straws because they've come up empty and once the Senate starts digging into teh dossier/FISA crap they'll look like teh partisan shills they are
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2019 7:54
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#2
and once the Senate starts digging into teh dossier/FISA crap
#5
Pre-dawn raid with a SWAT team seems a bit heavy-handed for white-collar crime. Makes for good theater, though. Pity only CNN was tipped off. I wonder how that works?
#12
The law that created the special counsel ought to be repealed. The office of special counsel is being used as a political instrument of retaliation, usurption of presidential power, a roadblock, and vindictiveness. If there are high crimes and misdemeanors, let Congress address these through the impeachment laws.
Posted by: Neville Dark Lord of the Wee Folk7365 ||
01/25/2019 21:36
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#15
There is something wrong in a country where the media obsesses over a group of Catholic school boys and constantly hammers DJT 24/7 over everything. But at the same time no outrage about the serious wrongdoing of the previous administration. Not a peep about the Clintons, Brennan, Clapper, Rice, Holder, Lerner, Jarret, Obama, Fusion GPS, Clinton Foundation, F&F, etc.--Not even process crimes. No real investigations, just phony investigations about those around Trump and grinned-up process crimes. It is a national disgrace. Things have been broken for awhile. Maybe Trump can get some things fixed but the Swamp has been spreading for a long time.
[Yiddish Book Center Store] Available for the first time in translation, Mendel Mann’s stories follow his life in reverse, from Israel in the 1950s to his experiences in the post-War Soviet Union and his childhood in Poland. With psychological insight and a focus on the tension between remembrance and reinvention, Mann provides indelible portraits of survivors as they confront the past and struggle to create a meaningful existence in the fledgling state of Israel.
[Tablet] Like so much else in the last two years, the three-week political Sturm und Drang over American troops’ withdrawal from Syria says less about a fissuring present and more about a fractured past. Donald Trump’s now-modified withdrawal order (four months, not 30 days, unless he changes his mind again) was another sloppy policy move, but one that’s widely misunderstood. Media chatter aside, Trump’s pullout represents not a new direction in foreign affairs but a coarse coda to a decade of institutional error that we need to understand before we can repair.
The central fact behind the withdrawal has been often stated but never explained. There were between 2,000 and 4,000 non-combat-assigned troops in the region, so why yank them out now? And that’s exactly the point. No matter the proximate cause behind Trump’s decision‐the conversation with Erdogan, an isolationist sop to his base, an impulse move‐keeping or leaving the troops made absolutely no difference in the bigger scheme.
It made no difference for a simple reason. The chips had already fallen between 2009 and 2015, when the Obama administration executed its post-Bush pivot toward Iran and its regional proxy, Syria, and away from America’s allies in the region for 30 years: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel. This is the situation Trump inherited, and Trump is not a fixer, he’s a canary in the coal mine. As with "build the wall" and "drain the swamp," his slogan about Syria‐"It’s yours, I’m leaving"‐isn’t a pivot, it’s an epitaph.
[American Thinker] Nancy Pelosi has had an eventful week. Wednesday, letters were exchanged between herself and President Trump, who eventually conceded to her seething demand to postpone the State of the Union address. Left-leaning media announced this as some kind of a victory, like CNN's front-page headline, which read, "Pelosi claims win over Trump in State of the Union showdown." It begs to be asked: what did this really accomplish?
The answer is that it has given Nancy Pelosi a feeling of vindication, that she finally got payback for President Trump canceling her vacation abroad trip. But does it help the American citizens whom she is supposed to represent? Not allowing the president to address Congress and the American people is just a maneuver so she can act as a gatekeeper between the country and its elected leader, and that is at the core alarmingly anti-American.
By using the government shutdown as an excuse to go against the tradition of the State of the Union, Pelosi is guaranteeing that the subtext of history remembers her as a spiteful obstructionist while paving the way for future speakers to use the same tactic, perhaps against a future Democratic president.
Then, on Thursday, Pelosi decided to celebrate the lack of progress she helped bring about when House Democrats shot down two separate bills that would have given affected federal workers their paychecks while the shutdown continued. How did she celebrate this blatant attack on federal workers? By giving the House a three-day paid weekend off, essentially contradicting her previous cries to "end the shutdown." Can't work on a solution if work is canceled.
While it's fully within her powers as speaker of the House to call for these "mini-recesses," maxed at the three days, her execution of this privilege is poorly timed and an insult to the 800,000 workers who are now watching her reward the House with a vacation that extends the uncertainty of their own economic security.
#1
This is her Alamo. When she loses she will lose control of the dem party. This will signal the end of the democrat deep state in congress. If she compromises with Trump she will lose the freshman class, much like the republicans did with the tea party. She cant compromise, like the Alamo she is stuck knowing she is not going to win, the Cav is not coming to rescue her. She is just hoping for a miracle...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/25/2019 10:41
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[Market Watch] Investors see fresh opportunities in Venezuela’s defaulted government bonds in a wager that recent unrest in the inflation-ravaged country could spark regime change and an eventual restructuring of its debts.
On Wednesday, the leader of the Venezuelan legislature, Juan Guaidó, declared himself the country’s legitimate leader, after President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a second six-year term a few weeks ago. The U.S. recognized Guaidó as the interim leader of the country, prompting Maduro to demand all U.S. diplomats leave Venezuela. On Thursday, Venezuela’s military threw its support behind Maduro.
"Yesterday’s events are likely to be followed by months of unrest, repression, and a much swifter escalation of economic sanctions by the U.S. Recent history suggests that such an environment tends to be supportive of bond prices as it fuels hopes of regime change," said Carlos de Sousa, senior economist at Oxford Economics, in a Thursday note.
Such optimism has led investors to SNP up defaulted Venezuelan government paper. Oxford Economics said Venezuelan bonds have rallied nearly 40% year-to-date, with the average bond now trading at more than 30 cents on the dollar for the first time in seven months. That is around the average historical recovery value for a defaulted sovereign bond, according to Moody’s.
#3
Why should the people be stuck with the 'promises' of a prior corrupt regime? Seems to me, the backers who bought the bonds are as guilty of crimes of the prior regime as those who carried it out. See - terrorist financiers.
#5
IIRC it was a large New York based bank selling the bonds. They were criticized for propping up Maduro with the funds. They were also warned that the bonds may eventually be worthless.
I personally hope the banks takes a loss on the bonds.
[Oilprice.com] The oil market is heading towards rebalancing this year, most analysts seem to think, with OPEC+ production cuts, combined with a potential slowdown in U.S. shale eating away at the surplus. However, the "rebalancing" all hinges on the steady demand growth projections that most analysts have at the heart of their forecasts. On that front, we just got another dose of bad news.
On Monday, the International Monetary Fund lowered its economic growth forecast and seemed to sound the alarm bells regarding the health of the global economy. "While global growth in 2018 remained close to postcrisis highs, the global expansion is weakening and at a rate that is somewhat faster than expected," Gita Gopinath, the Economic Counsellor and Director of Research at the IMF, said in a commentary on January 21.
The IMF only downgraded its growth estimate by 0.2 percent, down to 3.5 percent for 2019, but pointed out that "the risks to more significant downward corrections are rising." These risks include escalating trade tensions and trade uncertainty, the possibility of a sharper slowdown in China, and a resulting selloff in commodity markets. Also, budget fights in Europe, the Brexit saga and the ongoing government shutdown in the U.S. also present uncertainties.
These risks are layered on top of existing economic headwinds, which include weakness in the Eurozone, an "unwinding of fiscal stimulus" in the U.S., and crucially, higher interest rates and a strong dollar because of interest rate hikes.
[Daily Beast] The last time he was on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, Michael Moore said that that only way to stop President Donald Trump would be to "put our bodies on the line." On Thursday night, he had issued a new challenge, this one to the 800,000 federal workers who are either furloughed or working without pay during the government shutdown.
"Any sane person‐even if they're for the wall‐knows this is crazy that we're in month two of this," the director of Fahrenheit 11/9 said. "Nobody should be working without pay."
Asked by Colbert how this whole thing will end, Moore said there’s an "easy way" to end it. "Federal workers, don't go to work without pay," he said. "And we, the people, we shouldn't be supporting anything that requires someone who's not paid working for us." He went on to urge all Americans to stop taking flights and delay filing their tax paperwork to the IRS until the government reopens.
"Consult a lawyer first, don’t listen to him," Colbert warned viewers.
From there, the host moved on to the news that Trump may once again be on the verge of declaring a national emergency to secure funding for his wall. This idea did not sit well with Moore.
"Listen, if he declares a national emergency, this man is out of control," Moore said. "This is our country. We are a democracy, we're a free society. If this were any other country, if it were Turkey or the Philippines or Russia, and they had an election and the ruler's party somehow lost half their legislative branch like he did in November and then that ruler declared a month later, I'm shutting down the government, what would we call that if it were another country doing that?"
#1
Sounds like a call for a States Convention to me. I'm pretty sure 2/3rd to 3/4rds of the 'small' states would like to address the over centralization of power in the Swamp and among 10 or so major metro areas in this country.
LONDON (Reuters) - France is preparing for the worst as the clock ticks down to Brexit, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday, adding that he does not have any more to give as Prime Minister Theresa May battles to break the deadlock.
Le Maire said a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for Britain and that it was up to the government to find a solution before Britain leaves the European Union on March 29.
He added that in the event of a no-deal, France could not ease the process by offering side deals on aviation or logistics.
"You can’t be out of the EU and getting all the benefits of the single market," he told BBC radio. "That is a clear red line for France."
[Jerusalem Post] Notwithstanding the continuous story of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian-affiliated targets across Syria, another interesting claim emerged in Iraqi media last week.
Iraq emerges as a potential target for Israel as it steps up efforts to eliminate the Iranian land bridge to the Levant.
Recent Israeli airstrikes prove that air defense systems supplied to Syria by Russia are not enough to repulse Israeli aggression against Iranian targets in this country, but this may not be the end of the story. Israel may soon change the course of action to strike Iranian targets beyond Syria’s borders and launch aerial campaigns in Iraq where the airspace is defenseless and the political vacuum is too deep for the government to claim territorial sovereignty.
Russian S-300 air defense systems are waiting to be tested in the ongoing Syrian-Israeli conflict, and according to recent news, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) did not employ these systems to repel Sunday’s large-scale air raid by Israel on various Syrian and Iranian positions in southern Syria. SAA had used S-200 missiles to mistakenly target a Russian jet in September 2018, and Russia announced the subsequent delivery of the more advanced S-300 missile launchers along with new radar systems to Syria. Although the Syrian government and Russia claim that Syrian air defense systems have successfully concluded the mission by intercepting the majority of Israeli missiles said to be fired from the Lebanese airspace, it remains obscure whether the famous S-300 systems are capable of defending Syria against an advanced and technological nation like Israel.
Notwithstanding the continuous story of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian-affiliated targets across Syria, another interesting claim emerged in Iraqi media last week that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned the central Iraqi government of potential Israeli airstrikes against Shi’ite militia groups in that country. Iraqi news outlets alleged that Pompeo made it clear to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi that the US government would refrain from taking action should Israeli missiles start raining on Iranian targets inside Iraq.
Iraq’s test with Iranian-vetted militia groups that have gained access to the Iraqi parliament as the second largest bloc in the final elections of May 2018 has been a rather challenging one for the world and the central Iraqi government alike. Former prime minister Haider al-Abadi’s last policy attempt was designed to bring the militia groups closer to the government as he sought to sack the national security adviser responsible for militias, Falih al-Fayyadh, and replace him in this position by himself. Fayyadh, who does not see any necessity to hide his connections to Iran, regained this position under Mahdi, and was even nominated to become the interior minister. The dispute over Fayyadh created a political deadlock as Iraq is still waiting for someone to become its interior minister to deal with the world’s most fragile security situation.
Reports that the US was concerned about a possible Israeli aerial campaign against Shi’ite militias in Iraq emerged as the debate on the government’s control over militias continue. The only known fact within the dramatically complicated political stalemate of Iraq is the notion that the Iraqi government has given up the race to control the militias, and the current picture is about not losing the government to Iranian militias entirely.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ A splintered Senate voted down competing Democratic and Republican plans for ending the 35-day partial government shutdown, but the twin setbacks prompted a burst of bipartisan talks aimed at temporarily halting the longest-ever closure of federal agencies and the damage it’s inflicting around the country.
In the first serious exchange in weeks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., quickly called Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to his office Thursday to explore potential next steps for solving the vitriolic stalemate. Senators from both sides floated a plan to reopen agencies for three weeks and pay hundreds of thousands of beleaguered federal workers while bargainers hunt for a deal.
At the White House, President Donald Trump told reporters he’d support "a reasonable agreement." He suggested he’d also want a "prorated down payment" for his long-sought border wall with Mexico but didn’t describe the term. He said he has "other alternatives" for getting wall funding, an apparent reference to his disputed claim that he could declare a national emergency and fund the wall’s construction using other programs in the federal budget.
"At least we’re talking about it. That’s better than it was before," McConnell told reporters in one of the most encouraging statements heard since the shutdown began Dec. 22.
MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government will return the first group of migrants seeking asylum in the United States to the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Friday, U.S. and Mexican officials said, marking the start of a major policy shift by the Trump administration.
The policy dubbed the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and first announced on Dec. 20 will return non-Mexican migrants who cross the U.S. southern border back to wait in Mexico while their asylum requests are processed in U.S. immigration courts.
The plan is aimed at curbing the increasing number of families arriving mostly from Central America who say they fear returning to their home countries due to threats of violence. The Trump administration says many of the claims are not valid.
#1
The plan is aimed at curbing the increasing number of families arriving mostly from Central America who say they fear returning to their home countries due to threats of violence
TAIPEI (Reuters) - The United States sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday in the first such operation this year, the Taiwanese government said, as it increases the frequency of transits through the strategic waterway amid tensions with China.
The voyage risks further heightening tensions with China, which considers Taiwan its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.
[USA Today] The United States Department of Defense has enlisted the online travel agency Priceline to create a new leisure travel site for current and retired U.S. military personnel.
The new website, American Forces Travel, will give the military community access to hotel, flight, car rental and cruise deals. There will also be negotiated prices on vacation homes, apartments and packages for savings up to 60 percent.
More than 1 million hotel deals will be available in more than 71,000 destinations around the world.
The Department of Defense has about 1.3 million people in active service around the world.
But at launch, American Forces Travel will be open to more than 6.5 million active and retired members of the U.S. military community.
All five branches of the U.S. armed forces ‐ including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard ‐ will be part of the program. Others who are eligible to become users are Medal of Honor recipients and American Red Cross and USO paid personnel serving outside of the USA.
Department of Defense civilians serving within and outside of the USA will also be able to sign up. Family members of all of these groups will be able to use the site.
[BBC] An Australian woman "jumped off her seat" after being bitten by a snake on the toilet, a reptile handler says.
Helen Richards, 59, received the non-venomous strike in the dark at a relative's house in Brisbane on Tuesday.
She received minor puncture wounds from the 1.5m (5ft) carpet python.
Handler Jasmine Zeleny, who retrieved the reptile, said it was common to find snakes seeking water in toilets during hot weather.
Ms Richards told local media she had felt a "sharp tap".
"I jumped up with my pants down and turned around to see what looked like a longneck turtle receding back into the bowl," she told The Courier Mail newspaper.
#1
Some serpents might give one a fright --
Intruders, entitled by right,
Slick creatures that crush,
Problematic to flush --
But some are just pythons that bite.
#13
At 1.30 am about a week ago, my wife announces “there’s a snake on the bed” and throws the blanket on the floor. I chase it around the room - a brown tree snake of about 6 feet, and a really good climber- get it on a broom stick and out the door. We have a cup of tea and go back to sleep.
#14
To be fair.
Not too long ago, I was seated upon the commode.
A wasp came wondering by
between the water and my seat he did fly
Well that isn't dandy
What this human done hand me
At least the sting was not on the guy.
[Wash Examiner] Senators see a opening for legislation to eliminate unexpected massive medical bills after President Trump enthusiastically endorsed the idea this week, raising the possibility of bipartisan work on a topic marked in recent years by bitter divisiveness.
Key senators indicated on Thursday that they hope to work in the coming months across party lines and with Trump to address the problem of patients facing astonishingly high bills after being administered pricey medications or receiving care from doctors outside their networks. The lawmakers have been stymied in writing legislation related to other areas in healthcare, such as stabilizing Obamacare's exchanges or working to insure people who currently lack coverage.
"It will be a priority in our efforts to try to reduce healthcare costs," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. "People go to the emergency room and they suddenly are surprised a few weeks later with a bill for $3,000 for an out-of-network doctor. We don't want that to happen to anyone."
Alexander has met with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to discuss the problem and said that he expected the Senate would address it in "the next several months."
He also met with the top Democrat on the HELP Committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., of the Finance Committee. Lawmakers recognized that surprise medical bills were "an obvious candidate for that kind of bipartisan cooperation," he said.
Leading the charge on authoring bipartisan legislation is Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. A physician, Cassidy has frequently discussed the ways in which helping patients has influenced his policy positions.
During the last Congress, senators introduced a bipartisan draft legislation to tackle the issue. The plan would have barred doctors and hospitals from billing a patient for the remainder of a bill that the insurance company didn't pay when the patient was treated outside of his health insurance network and instead would have had the provider seek payment from the insurer. Another portion of the proposal would obligate hospitals to notify emergency department patients once they are stabilized that they may get high charges if the facility is outside of their network, giving them the option to get treatment elsewhere.
#1
Way to destroy hospitals, guys. Or they will stop treating ER patients who are not in their networks. Either way, the poor and unconnected will start dying in noticeable numbers.
#2
A large problem are the PARE docs, (Pathologist, Anesthesiologists, Radiology and ER. They don't join networks. I had a surgery Tuesday, am a Risk Management major have done network negotiations, PHOs, etc and I failed to see if the anesthesiologist was in network
[Wash Examiner] In a sweeping move to further influence federal courts with conservative picks, President Trump on Wednesday renominated 51 judges who saw no action in the last Congress.
The list showed 37 nominees to district courts, nine to circuit courts, two each to the International Trade and Federal Claims courts, and one to the Military Commission Review.
One, Naomi Rao, was picked to replace the opening left when federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh won a seat on the Supreme Court.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said in a statement, "I truly appreciate the prompt attention President Trump and his White House team have shown to judicial nominations. I also appreciate the list of 51 impressive judicial nominations to fulfill the Senate’s constitutional role in advice and consent." He added that his panel will try to "confirm as many as possible, as soon as possible."
The president is already on a historic pace to change the courts and fill vacancies with conservative picks. According to one tally, he has put 30 judges on the United States courts of appeals and 53 judges for the United States district courts.
#1
70 nominations were returned after the last Congress ended. All Trump has done is renominate 51 of them. We still have something like 140 vacancies -- more than when Trump first took office.
[Guardian] By declaring himself Venezuela’s president on Wednesday, Juan Guaidó has brought Venezuela to the edge of catastrophe. The hitherto unknown opposition leader’s actions, which appear to be closely coordinated with if not directed by the US, have set in motion a perilous chain of events.
The US recognized Guaidó as president minutes after his declaration. A number of Latin American nations, most with conservative governments backed by the US, have also done so. The growing list includes Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. Canada and the Organization of American States have also recognized Guaidó. The European Union has reportedly considered such a step, but for now has instead issued a call for new elections.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has responded to these actions by breaking relations with the US and ordering US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours. Guaidó, in turn, told US and other diplomats to stay, a message also put forward by Republican US senator Marco Rubio, a leading opponent of Maduro. The Trump administration is ignoring Maduro’s order, which a senior official called "meaningless." Another senior Trump official has declared, "All options are on the table," reiterating a message Trump himself has put forward since 2017.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. But a US invasion feels like a real possibility.
This course of action must be firmly rejected. This is not because Maduro deserves anyone’s support or sympathy. It is because of the untold suffering and damage US military intervention would bring to Venezuela and the region, and the vanishingly small likelihood such action could bring the change Venezuela needs.
Posted by: Jim Cramer6666666 ||
01/25/2019 3:26
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#2
[Guardian] By declaring himself Venezuela’s president on Wednesday, Juan Guaidó has brought Venezuela to the edge of catastrophe
Note its from the neo-commie Guardian. Venezuela is already a catastrophe. Guaido is simply the symptom of the disaster created by the failed political philosophy of the Left.
#5
Boy, I never thought anything could make me defend Maduro, but here we are.
A US intervention will be utterly disastrous. For America as well as Venezuela. Iraq would have been better off under the tyrant Saddam, Syria under the tyrant Assad, and both were much much worse than Maduro.
No more interventions.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
01/25/2019 8:18
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#6
Herb, you're not defending Maduro by not wanting a US invasion. You just don't want the US military to intervene in Venezuela. Neither do I, bad idea. Unless the Chicoms or Russians move in.
Most likely Guaido is a socialist anyway.
#7
If Canada and OAS has joined suit, Maduro is done. That's like the NFL firing its referees.
Who the crap said anything about intervention, armed intervention you present? For bug fuck sake mon, other than the last two years really the diet master has been encouraged by those in power in the USA. Where is Ambassador Spicoli?
#13
Exactly. The people who seem concerned about an invasion are the fellow travelers of those who, if a flotilla of food aid arrived, will be like, 'Trump unloads diabetic, heavy gluten diet upon the Venezuelans.'
I would make clear that if anything happens to the embassy, the movie won't be called 13 Hours, but 13 Minutes and the score will be by Tchaikovsky.
#14
The US is in a golden age of peace and prosperity thanks to President Trump. He's not going to fuck that up like his predecessors did.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
01/25/2019 12:34
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#15
I don't think Trump pulled the US out of the middle east only to get us involved in Venezuela. The suggestion is daft. Venezuela provided a wonderful reminder of the failures of socialism. Sorry for the Venezuelans that have to suffer through it.
[NR] Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday blocked a Republican bill that would pay the Coast Guard without ending the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Republican Senator John Kennedy, who attempted to move the legislation forward, refused Schumer’s request to add provisions reopening the federal government because, he said, such a bill would not be signed by President Trump.
"It will be a futile, useless exercise. Now, we can go through it if you want to. You can spend all day trying to teach a goat how to climb a tree, but you’re better off hiring a squirrel," said Kennedy.
Around 42,000 Coast Guard members are currently working without pay. Members of the other branches of the military have not been affected by the shutdown, but the Coast Guard is funded separately through the Department of Homeland Security.
The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, is now in its 34th day, and is poised to deprive around 800,000 federal workers of a second consecutive paycheck. Elsewhere on Thursday, two separate bills designed to break the impasse and reopen the government failed in the Senate.
[Aljazeera] The Afghan Taliban has named one of its co-founders as the leader of its political office in Qatar, as part of a major reshuffle that comes as talks with the United States to end the 17-year war appear to gain momentum.
The appointment of Abdul Ghani Baradar on Thursday was announced as a meeting in Doha between the group's representatives and US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad that was originally scheduled to last for two days entered its fourth day.
In a statement, the Taliban said the reshuffle in their team, which included new shadow governors for several Afghan provinces, was "taken to strengthen and properly handle the ongoing negotiations process with the United States".
It was not clear whether the talks in the Qatari capital were to continue on Friday, or how soon Baradar could join them.
"Baradar will soon fly to Qatar. He has been given the new position because the US wanted senior Taliban leadership to participate in peace talks," a senior Taliban official said.
Release from prison
Baradar is one of four men who founded the Taliban movement in Afghanistan in 1994. He served in several key positions when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001.
[The Federalist] The online giant Amazon, which is one of the world’s largest retailers, recently capitulated to a demand by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to remove products the terror-tied pressure group deems to be offensive to Muslims.
Earlier this month, CAIR called on their supporters to complain to Amazon about doormats and bath mats sold by third-party vendors on the Amazon website that were inscribed with Quranic verses of blessing and greeting. The group said it organized the effort because the Islamic references would be stepped on or otherwise disrespected.
Days later, CAIR announced that Amazon had agreed to remove the items. That week, CAIR claimed it had found other offensive items sold on the Amazon website, and asked for those too to be banned. Although they might seem a bit silly, CAIR’s bath mat complaints can be viewed as part of a current strategy to exert influence over tech giants and Silicon Valley powerhouses. While Amazon is chiefly known as an online retailer of almost any item imaginable, it is also one of the world’s largest tech companies.
The bathmat complaint came at exactly the same time CAIR is supporting efforts for Somali workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, to force the company for greater religious accommodations and other demands. According to The New York Times, Amazon recruited heavily from the Somali community and already designated spaces at the center for prayer and ritual washings dictated by the Quran. For one of its meetings with Somali workers, the company even brought in from Texas a Muslim manager "who works on accommodating Islamic practices."
WORKING HARD IS AGAINST OUR RELIGION
Still, CAIR participated in a rally outside the Shakopee Amazon facility on Dec. 14. Rallying Somali workers claimed the pace of work demanded at the facility infringes on their freedom of religion. CAIR-Minnesota’s executive director Jaylani Hussein spoke at the rally, saying he had toured the facility and that Amazon’s accommodations for Muslim workers were insufficient.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
01/25/2019
02:19 ||
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#1
Amazon recruited heavily from the Somali community
BLUF:
[Hot Air] The White House is preparing a draft proclamation for President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency along the southern border and has identified more than $7 billion in potential funds for his signature border wall should he go that route, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN...
According to options being considered, the administration could pull: $681 million from treasury forfeiture funds, $3.6 billion in military construction, $3 billion in Pentagon civil works funds, and $200 million in Department of Homeland Security funds, the official said.
If the declaration is made, the US Army Corps of Engineers would be deployed to construct the wall, some of which could be built on private property and would therefore require the administration to seize the land, which is permitted if it’s for public use.
#2
What's the monthly payroll of 800,000 laid off federal workers? I'm guessing about $4 billion per month, w/o including the health care premiums the gov still pays. Could be the ultimate slush fund.
Posted by: Jack Greagum5721 ||
01/25/2019 7:26
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#3
If he declares a national emergency and brings everyone back to work simultaneously, he might have a winner. It's got to be linked to an immediate return to work. If a leftest federal judge steps in to block it, POTUS must send everyone back to the bench at once.
[Townhall] Mike Rowe is known for going where no man (or woman for that matter) wants to go, which is how his hit TV show "Dirty Jobs" came about. He has traveled across the United States and explored a wide range of blue collar jobs, from crabbing in Alaska to pig farming in Las Vegas. Part of seeing the various blue collar jobs that exist in our country has made Rowe realize one thing: there’s a serious skills gap. Kids are being taught from a young age that they have to go to college and take out student loans in order to be successful for life.
Here’s the problem: America’s landscape has changed over the years. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s America was built on blue collar jobs. There was a desperate need for people to attend college in order to obtain white collar jobs. There was a shortage of educated individuals. But the public relations campaign used to push people into pursing college degrees had the opposite impact and actually tipped the scale the opposite direction. Instead of having a lack of people in vocations that require a college education, we now see a huge vacancy in so-called "dirty jobs," the jobs that are absolutely vital to our economy, and quite frankly, our way of life.
We need plumbers, electricians, mechanics and a wide range of manufacturing jobs in order to thrive. There’s job vacancies yet our future generations are being told they need to pursue college or else they’re doomed to fail. While we’re building up every single person to believe college is the only way to be successful, our country has more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe more than $1.5 trillion.
#1
People often confuse capability, intelligence and education. We have a bunch of ‘eductaed’ college graduates with little intelligence and very little capability that carry large student loan debt. A recipe for unhappiness.
#2
Nothing mentioned about SCOTUS removing companies ability to test/screen candidates for jobs so as to make Higher Education a mandatory paper mill requirement for Human Resource offices across the country?
[Daily Caller] Tucker Carlson took aim at Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on his show Thursday night because the Trump official made what many described to be insensitive remarks toward furloughed government employees earlier in the day.
In an interview with CNBC, Ross was asked about the furloughed employees who have had to go to food banks to feed their families. He responded by explaining that he wasn’t sure why that would be the case because people could get loans from banks.
"Democrats have become extremists on the question of borders, but you’d never know that from watching television or reading the paper, the media won’t say it. And nor will most Republicans by the way. Even in the Trump Administration, some officials seem intent on making Nancy Pelosi’s case for her," Carlson began. "The Republicans are the real extremists here. Here’s what Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said today when he was asked about workers who aren’t being paid during the shutdown."
Carlson then aired the clip of Ross saying, "The people might have to pay a little bit of interest. But the idea is that it’s paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea. There have been ads run by a number of the public-sector credit unions, those have announced very, very low interest rate loans to bridge people over the gap."
#2
What have military personnel for generations done when RIF'ed in repetitive downsizing of the uniform services? Seem DoD has been the only place for generations that experiences force (aka non-essential personnel) reduction in the federal work force.
[PJ] Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from 2012-2017, declared in a recent interview that the church needs to address the homosexual underpinnings of the clerical abuse crisis, saying that the "homosexual conduct of clergymen can in no case be tolerated."
Speaking candidly with Dr. Maike Hickson of LifeSiteNews, the German prelate said leaders in the Catholic Church still underestimate what he called a "homosexual network" wreaking havoc in the church.
Muller expressed disgust for disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who resigned in July after an investigation found credible evidence that he was a "serial predator" of adults and minors when he was a priest in New York.
"That McCarrick, together with his clan and a homosexual network, was able to wreak havoc in a mafia-like manner in the Church is connected with the underestimation of the moral depravity of homosexual acts among adults," Muller told LifeSite.
The conservative cardinal went on to criticize the Vatican for failing to look into all the rumors concerning McCarrick's misbehavior for decades, saying that a public apology is in order.
Said Muller: "There should very clearly come out a public explanation about these events and the personal connections, as well as the question as to how much the involved Church authorities knew at each step; such an explanation could very well include an admission of a wrong assessment of persons and situations."
[Free Beacon] Several nations, including China and Russia, are building powerful nuclear bombs designed to produce super-electromagnetic pulse (EMP) waves capable of devastating all electronics‐from computers to electric grids‐for hundreds of miles, according to a newly-released congressional study.
A report by the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, for the first time reveals details on how nuclear EMP weapons are integrated into the military doctrines of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
The report discloses how those states could use EMP attacks in theaters of battle in the Middle East, Far East, Europe, and North America.
"Nuclear EMP attack is part of the military doctrines, plans, and exercises of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran for a revolutionary new way of warfare against military forces and civilian critical infrastructures by cyber, sabotage, and EMP," the report states.
"This new way of warfare is called many things by many nations: In Russia, China, and Iran it is called Sixth Generation Warfare, Non-Contact Warfare, Electronic Warfare, Total Information Warfare, and Cyber Warfare."
Nuclear-electronic warfare also is called "Blackout War" because of its effects on all electronic devices.
EMP attacks will be carried out at such high altitudes they will produce no blast or other immediate effects harmful to humans. Instead, three types of EMP waves in seconds damage electronics and the strikes are regarded by adversaries as not an act of nuclear war.
#1
You can make your electrical grid EMP resistant, but that would employ a bunch of burly toxic masculinity in work. Why do that when you can better spend the money on a million illegals for the next voting cycle. Not a hard decision for one part of the political animal. Now if one of those suckers goes off, everything becomes decentralized and local eliminating the entire point of corrupting a centralized swamp. It's worth the gamble isn't it? /rhet question
#4
*snorg!*
Farging nuclear clock scam now includes climate change.
It is a wonderful picture, generation cupie fire ant marching to Beijing after their smart things get zapped. Can't you see 'thar jillette blades 'gleaming!
As soon as they figure how to use a paper map. Or a compass. Or a can opener.
I take comfort in the fact that the worm has turned from 'go rural cuz that where food comes from' to 'Go to Whole Foods cuz that's where food comes from'.
Excluding those in the inner sanctums, if the world's power got shut off, I'd take North America as the first to recover.
#5
Excluding those in the inner sanctums, if the world's power got shut off, I'd take North America as the first to recover.
Rural midwest and southeast would be why. Lots of prepper, and rural folk still have skills.
Add in Texas, has its own powergrid not part of the east or west grid, plenty of petroleum and refineries that could be recovered quickly. Not to mention large amounts of military there. Just fence off Houston and Austin and Dallas until the urbanites collapse.
#8
Politicians that didn't make our infrastructure EMP resistant back during the cold war should be sued for malpractice.
Having said that an EMP that would kill people vs one that would blackout a nation look the same when coming inbound on a missile. Such a move would be suicide if aimed at a nuclear power.
#9
An opening for some inventor to devise a better way to make transformers, mayhap a transformer that is more resistant to power surges like lightning strikes and EMP pulses. The Sun will hit us with another Carrington Event coronal discharge eventually.
#10
My comment is the electric power grid is a friking bad idea.
Look at it's losses!
It makes more sense to get electric power from natural gas at your own home. Generators with moving parts are not good so ecelerated R&D on natural gas fuel cells make a boat load of sense.
[Breitbart] An Ohio steel mill, forced into closure by free trade and imports, is reopening this year thanks to President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on foreign steel imports.
Republic Steel executives told Cleveland.com that the rolling steel mill is set to reopen in Lorain, Ohio, with 60 employees being initially hired to restart production.
"Over 60 employees have been hired and completed training, and the mill has undergone a complete refurbishment," executives said in a statement. "We have successfully run internal production trials, and now anticipate receiving sufficient orders to support moving to a production mode in the 2nd Quarter of this year."
[ArutzSheva] A federal US judge has let stand an Arkansas law requiring state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel, ruling that such a boycott is not protected by the First Amendment, The Associated Press reports.
The ruling was handed down on Wednesday by US District Judge Brian Miller, who dismissed the lawsuit the Arkansas Times had filed challenging the 2017 law.
The newspaper had asked the judge to block the law, which requires contractors with the state to reduce their fees by 20 percent if they don’t sign the pledge.
The Times’ lawsuit said the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College refused to contract for advertising with the newspaper unless the newspaper signed the pledge. The paper isn’t engaged in a boycott against Israel, according to AP.
Miller wrote on his ruling that refusing to purchase items isn’t protected speech. He noted that the Times wouldn’t be barred from other protected forms of speech, including writing or picketing against Israel policies. And the reason I put this in WoT Operations and not politics is because
Absolutely true. But as this form of the soft jihad of the law does not directly involve bombs, bullets, blood, and death, it goes on Page 2: War on Terror Background/Politics.
This is from another website, Reddit, which I usually wouldn't link to here but this is too delicious not to enjoy. There's a lot of "inside baseball" talk which you might not understand, because these forums get insular after a while. The conversation bod might not make a lot of sense. Still, just click some links from the summary and enjoy the red-on-red conflict.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
01/25/2019
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#2
That Reddit subgroup is like several lunatics wearing sandwich boards and screaming at anyone walking by while having an arguement. Tough to follow but sereral funny posts.
#3
Well, if the Left in American doesn't want to recognize the Constitutionally elected leader here, why should we recognize anyone they think should be there?
#6
Funny how we don't hear much about Chile. Last I heard they'd officially moved into the first world. A number of major earthquakes and they seem to have put themselves back together without any outside assistance.
What is their economic system again? The rest of Latin America should give it a go. Duplicate success, avoid copying failure. LEfties have that absolutely reversed.
#4
Not getting enough clicks? Maybe that's what happens when you squander your credibility with fake news.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2019 11:46
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#5
Huffpo was purchased in 2011 by AOL/TW for $100M plus. It was worth closer to zero then and is still worth close to zero.
It gets some money from advertising but pays its content providers very little. Management probably loots several million a year but the books are jumbled because of AOL is part of Verizon.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/25/2019 12:47
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#6
I'm convinced liberals can't tell the difference between opinion and fact anyway.
[Al Jazeera] Gazoo's rulers Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", have rejected a fresh tranche of Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i funds, accusing Israel of imposing new conditions on the money entering the blockaded Paleostinian territory.
So both the PA and Hamas have rejected funds? Glory hallelujah — I never thought this day would come!
The rejection of the expected $15m on Thursday raised fears of fresh tensions along the Gazoo-Israel border, ahead of weekly protests on Friday.
"We refuse to receive the third Qatari grant in response to the [Israeli] occupation's behaviour and attempts to evade the agreement," Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's deputy head in Gazoo, told journalists on Thursday.
Al-Hayya did not mention the specific conditions that were changed but said Israel was playing politics with the funds ahead of upcoming elections.
Qatari aid to Gazoo expected in coming days, says report
Under an informal agreement struck in November, Gulf state Qatar has sent $15m a month into the strip.
The payment would have been the third of six planned tranches, totalling $90 million, in connection with the truce.
The funds to pay salaries of Hamas employees and support impoverished residents of Gazoo are in exchange for relative calm along the border, where protests have taken place since March 2018.
Israel's permission is required since the cash must be delivered via its territory.
Reporting from the Gazoo Strip, Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford said: "This reference to political blackmail, as Hamas is calling it, comes during election season in Israel".
"Hamas are refusing to accept these conditions because Israel is demanding that if these funds come through, there has to be a halt to protests."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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[Twitchy] If you had any doubt that the media were trying to make themselves look even worse with the Covington Catholic High School story look no further than Noah Berlatsky’s take on Nick Sandmann.
Well, on Nick’s hat.
This has truly become the Left’s ’the skirt was too short’ moment, doncha think?" Very humorous until you realize the accuser is serious and not alone.
Merriam-Webster will probably have to "evolve" their definition of "literal" (If they know what's good for 'em.)
#1
Well "Nazi" is a term of opprobrium with these people. I wouldn't bet xim knows who or what Nazis were - which's a pity, because then xim might have noticed the similarities to ximself and xim's friends.
#4
Oh, press? Please keep dropping your knickers
And showing your pass, as Nick snickers
At coverage that hovers
Above all us lovers
Of him and his new n--- n-----s!
#7
Watch the shocked expressions on their faces when the guy in MAGA hat punches back. Then they'll claim that the guy in the MAGA hat was the racist agressor.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2019 11:43
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A prominent American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
who was held in the US as a material witness was released from jail Wednesday evening.
Marzieh Hashemi, 59, was released from jail in Washington after being detained for 10 days, according to Abed Ayoub, an attorney with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Hashemi, who works for the Press TV network’s English-language service, was detained by federal agents on January 13 in St. Louis, Missouri, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area, her son said. She was then transported to Washington and had remained behind bars since then.
Hashemi appeared at least twice before a US District judge in Washington, and court papers said she would be released immediately after her testimony before a grand jury. Court documents did not include details on the criminal case in which she was named a witness.
Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be detained if the government can prove that their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. The statute generally requires those witnesses to be promptly released once they are deposed.
A person familiar with the matter said Hashemi had fulfilled her obligation as a material witness and was released. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on condition of anonymity.
Hashemi is a US citizen and was born Melanie Franklin. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the United States about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the US, her son said.
Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hossein Hashemi said, "We don’t have any information along those lines."
He didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment on Wednesday. Press TV issued a statement Wednesday, saying, "Marzieh Hashemi and her family will not allow this to be swept under the carpet. They still have serious grievances and want answers as to how this was allowed to happen. They want assurances that this won’t happen to any Moslem - or any other person - ever again."
The network said Hashemi would remain in Washington for a protest Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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#1
Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity or knew anyone who might be implicated in a crime, Hossein Hashemi said, We don’t have any information along those lines.""
Curious non-denial
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/25/2019 10:57
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#2
Asked whether his mother had been involved in any criminal activity...
Answer hazy. Ask again later.
Question: Is it common for someone to be jailed as a material witness? Ima guessing some flight risk was involved here.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States and Britannia said on Thursday that Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy... is not legitimate, while Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... expressed their support to the legal authorities.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro not to use force against mass demonstrations and urged further international support for the self-declared acting president.
"The time for debate is done. The regime of former president Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate," Pompeo said.
"His regime is morally bankrupt, it's economically incompetent, and it is profoundly corrupt, and it is undemocratic to the core," he said.
Britannia said Nicolas Maduro was "not the legitimate leader of Venezuela" and that London would support the presidential claim made by opposition leader Juan Guaido.
"The United Kingdom believes Juan Guaido is the right person to take Venezuela forward. We are supporting the US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... to make that happen," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... on Thursday called his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro and expressed support, the Kremlin said.
"The President of Russia expressed support for the legitimate authorities of Venezuela in the context of a domestic political crisis that has been provoked from the outside," it said.
Putin said that any intervention by other countries "violates the fundamental norms of international law," according to the statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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Will the Military chose Maduro or the Peoples Assembly and the Supreme Court. I think the Military needs to turn NOW.
Or do you want to prolong the agony until what you cowards?
Russia and China will be paid back slowly
it IS the only stability option and I want it used
a fast open to a non situation
and I need it now. right now
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Scores of anti-government armed bully boyz have been killed during separate operations conducted by the Afghan and Coalition Forces in the past 24 hours.
According to the informed military sources, a coalition air strike in support of Afghan Special Forces killed 4 Taliban ...Arabic for students... fighters in Qaisar district of Faryab province.
The sources further added that Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Baraki Barak district of Pashtun-infested Logar province while a coalition air strike, in defense of soldiers on the ground, targeted and killed 4 Taliban fighters.
Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Jaji district of Paktia province killing 2 Taliban fighters, the sources said, adding that Afghan Special Forces conducted a separate raid in Sangin district of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province killing 20 Taliban fighters and destroying 23 IEDs, 1 mortar round and a large amount of home-made explosives. During the raid, 4 pressure plates, 3 remote control initiators and over 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate were destroyed.
Two coalition air strikes near Tarin Kot city of Uruzgan province killed 10 Taliban fighters, the sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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Graphic depicts Chinese marines training South African soldiers on Chinese weapons. [Small Wars] Introduction - Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party over the Nationalists in 1949, Beijing has viewed its interaction with the larger world predominantly within a construct of concentric defensive rings, with nearly the entirety of its security apparatus focused on defense of the Chinese homeland against threats to the Party. However, the Chinese government’s announcement of its intention to establish a permanent military support facility in Djibouti in 2015 signaled a significant departure from China’s long-term defense-focused strategy, which had steadfastly sought to avoid enduring overseas deployment of military personnel.[i] The decision to institute a military presence in Djibouti also marked a profound perception shift within the ruling Chinese Communist Party as it reassessed its strategic interests and roles in the Horn of Africa as well as within the broader global community. As a rising world power, China sees many advantages in expanding its engagement in the Horn of Africa as it increases its diplomatic influence, overseas military posture, and access to some of the fastest-growing economic markets and natural resource deposits on the planet. This evolving outlook has, and will continue to have, significant impact on the development of Chinese military strategy and its capabilities, particularly as it relates to the Peoples Liberation Army’s force projection modalities, counterterrorism and counterpiracy operations, peacekeeping contributions, and multinational military training and exercises.
This strategic shift confers substantial advantages to the PRC, but also comes with notable disadvantages as China acquires more diverse security obligations that expose its key military assets to potential isolation from the homeland. Beijing must carefully weigh these advantages and disadvantages as part of its strategic calculus. Finally, China’s increased security engagement in the Horn of Africa has important implications for United States’ policies equally in the region and globally. China’s expansion presents both risks and opportunities that the United States should judiciously consider and leverage to ensure continued stability and the advancement of interests shared between the U.S. and China.
#1
AH, now comes the money drain. China's natural nationalistic pride has caused alienation with all other nations. They are a poor neighbor. Blood purity is a priority. In Africa they have made inroads basically mixing with the locals. Blood purity is lost. Homeland and traditional Chinese will look upon them as something else. Certainly the new mixed bloods will recognize this quickly.
[WCPO] The family of 16-year-old Nicholas Sandmann, having already contracted Kentucky’s largest public relations firm to help repair his image after a viral incident outside the Lincoln Memorial, on Thursday hired a Georgia attorney known for aggressive libel and slander suits against media organizations.
L. Lin Wood, nicknamed "attorney for the damned" by former CBS anchor Dan Rather ...a former ancherperson, the man who put the BS in CBS News. In 2004 he put on a news story that highlighted dissatisfaction with Lt. George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. This was almost casually--but gleefully--debunked by the Blogosphere at large. Rather's face was rubbed in journalistic mud, four of his staff were fired, and within a short time his 43-year (about the same length as Muammar Qadaffi's) career had settled to the bottom... , visited the Sandmann family earlier in the day, according to a news release from Sandmann family attorney Todd McMurtry.
"He is committed to bringing justice to 16-year-old Nick Sandmann and his family," McMurtry wrote.
That justice might be green and made of 75 percent cotton.
Wood "often (seeks) eye-popping damages for those he believes have been libeled or slandered in the press," according to a 2011 Washington Post article about his defense of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain ...the personable but seemingly horny former Godfather's Pizza CEO who coulda been a contenda... . (Cain had been facing accusations of sexual harassment that derailed his campaign.)
Other notable clients include the family of JonBenet Ramsey, who were suspects in the child pageant queen’s murder, and Richard Jewell, a Centennial Olympic Park guard misidentified as having bombed his workplace in 1996.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/25/2019 3:02
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#5
Time to overturn the separate 'public' and 'private' definitions for libel and treat all Americans equal. There is no license to grant immunities to corporations who ignore quality control of their product that they dump on the public.
#8
P2K, they did not ignore quality control. This was not a "snap judgement" hastily made before all the facts were in. WAPO and a number of other media outlets deliberately and maliciously lied. They knew better but they did it anyway. They crossed a line by lying about innocent minors for partisan political purposes. I was happy to hear that Jeff Bezos will lose half of his fortune to his soon-to-be ex-wife. Now I hope he loses another significant chunk. Mr. Sandmann could well become this country's newest and youngest billionaire.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2019 11:56
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#9
But here's another aspect to this story: By attacking Catholic school kids who participated in a pro-life march, the MSM attacked the Catholic Church. If the Pope, cardinals and bishops remain silent they will betray their church and all of their parishioners. They need to speak out loudly and clearly on behalf of the Covington kids and they should also contribute to the legal fund.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2019 12:00
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#10
So, it appears that the Catholic bishop of Lexington, Ky has already betrayed his parishioners. How can you claim to represent Jesus when you falsely accuse your fellow Christians of racism as they are being fed to the lions?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/25/2019 13:10
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[Libya Observer] The front man for the self-styled army in eastern Libya, Ahmed al-Mismari, has called the UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, an opponent to them and part of the Libyan crisis.
"Salame is trying to control and operate the Libyan status quo through Fayez al-Sirraj (Head of Presidential Council) and this is rejected." al-Misamri said in a presser on Wednesday.
The remarks came as a reply to the statement made by the UNSMIL, headed by Salame, about "deep concern of the UN" over the mobilization in southern Libya, which al-Mismari called "a holy duty."
"We are not waiting for any thanks from anybody. But the achievements we make should not be denied." He added.
He also said, directing his words at Salame, that they won't let Libya be like Leb; a country of militias and multiple governments, adding that they won't also let Libya fall into the hands of terrorists, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... , which he said aim to take parts of Libyan lands.
The self-styled army led by Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... has been in control of Benghazi for several years now but in the last weeks, Haftar had to announce the state of emergency due to the chaos, security vacuum, crimes, and robberies that had gotten out of Haftar's forces hands.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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[3 views]
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[RADIOSHABELLE] A contingent of 13 Uganda Police Officers has been flagged off for a peace-keeping mission in Somalia under AMISOM.
Uganda Police Force, Director of Peace Support Operations, Grace Turyagumanawe, urged the officers to be disciplined as they go to serve in Somalia.
"Keep the same good standards of discipline as you go to serve in peace operations. Follow the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... codes of conduct," Turyagumanawe said during the briefing function at Police Headquarters in Naguru Kampala.
He called upon the officers to act with the highest level of professionalism, integrity, respect for culture and diversity, and to observe human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... and international humanitarian laws.
The officers are expected to spend at least one year on their tour of duty in Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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[DAWN] Claims for jobless benefits last week sank to the lowest level in nearly 50 years, signalling continued strength of the US labour market despite a slowing economy, according to data released on Thursday.
The decline came despite a spike in US government workers filing for unemployment benefits amid the longest government shutdown in history.
The sudden drop in claims also marked a recovery from increased layoffs following the back-to-back natural disasters of late 2018 and pointed to another strong month of job creation in January.
For the week ending January 19, first-time claims for unemployment insurance fell by 13,000, sinking below the 200,000 threshold to 199,000 ‐ the lowest since November 15, 1969, the Labor Department reported.
The four-week moving average also fell by 5,500 to 215,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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#1
Don't worry, with the recent legislation in Kalifornia, etc. number of jobs will drop.
[The Wire] While everyone was having a panic attack because a high school kid smiled at a Native American, a far more egregious act went entirely unnoticed. Owen Shroyer, a reporter with Infowars, was sexually assaulted by a demonstrator at the Women's March. The act occurred on camera and the woman openly admitted to it.
Put aside however you may feel about Infowars. That should make no difference here at all. The facts remain the same. A woman walked over to Shroyer and groped his genitals, announced that she had "grabbed [him] by the balls," and then proudly said "yes" when asked if she had committed sexual assault. Meanwhile a group of police officers stood literally feet from the incident and did not intervene or arrest the sex predator.
I need not point out the obvious, but I will. If the roles had been reversed and a man walked over to a woman, grabbed her genitals, laughed about it, and then bragged that he'd committed sexual assault and wouldn't be arrested, there would hysterical outrage across the country. If the deed was politically motivated and the man had assaulted the woman because he disagreed with her liberal ideas, the reaction would be apocalyptic in scale. The man's name and face would be plastered on every newscast. The "toxic masculinity" thinkpieces would rain down on our heads like hail. And the man would certainly be arrested.
[SacramentoCBS] Investigators say a private electrical system that was next to a home is to blame for sparking the destructive Tubbs Fire in 2017.
Cal Fire released their findings on Thursday.
The Tubbs Fire started in Oct. 2017 and, helped by strong wind gusts, exploded in size in a matter of hours.
By the time it was contained later in the month, 36,807 acres and more than 5,500 structures were burned. Officials say 22 people were killed in the fire.
Thousands of the structures destroyed were in Santa Rosa. One neighborhood, Coffey Park, was leveled by the fire. Bye-bye "Deep Pockets."
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan cops have nabbed Please don't kill me! three jacket wallahs including Pak nationals during separate operations in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The media office of Nangarhar provincial government in a statement said the suicide bombers were arrested by the operatives of the Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS).
The statement further added that the NDS operatives conducted operations in Jalalabad city, the thriving provincial capital of Nangarhar and Shinwar district, resulting into the arrest of the three suicide bomebrs.
The suicide bombers were looking to carry out an attack on a key government compound in Nangarhar, the statement by the provincial government added.
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[PRESSTV] A string of kabooms have stricken several towns in northwestern Syria, killing three people and injuring nearly a dozen others.
The blasts took place on Thursday after explosive-laden cycle of violences were detonated, Rooters reported, citing a resident and witnesses.
They said the fatalities included a woman, a child, and a young man, who died after one device went kaboom! near a public park at the heart of the city of al-Bab, north of Aleppo. The kaboom also maimed at least eight others.
Three people were also injured in the nearby towns of Qabasin and al- Ghandurah by similar blasts.
On Wednesday, two bombs were detonated in the city of Afrin. The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... -backed snuffies there accused the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) of carrying out the blasts.
There was no immediate comment from the YPG.
Turkey, which has been maintaining a military presence in northern Syria, without a Damascus permission, to push the snuffies back from the vicinity of its border, associates the YPG with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) holy warrior group.
Also on Thursday, a boom-mobile went off in Syria’s capital Damascus, inflicting material damage but causing no casualties.
The incident took place in the city’s al-Adawi neighborhood just north of the central Old City district on Thursday, the official Syrian Arab News Agency SANA reported.
"A witness said the blast occurred near a hospital and security forces were examining a blown-up blue car in the street," Rooters reported.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Five senior Taliban ...Arabic for students... leaders including the shadow judge of the group were killed during the operations of the Afghan Special Forces in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the Taliban leaders were killed along with 56 other militnts during the operations which were conducted with the help of coalition air support.
The statement further added that the operations were conducted in Chinar Shakh, Ghoraha, Khwajah Ziaratgah, and Syedabad Turkmenha areas of Qaisar district.
The senior Taliban leaders killed during the operations have been identified as Mawlavi Khan Agha the shadow deputy district chief of Taliban for Qaisar, Mawlavi Gandom Ali the shadow finance chief of the group for 5 provinces in the North, Mawlavi Hafizullah the shadow judge ofthe group for Qaisar, and Mawlavi Nasir alias Faryabi the local leader of the Taliban in Faryab, the 209th Shaheen Corps said.
The statement by 209th Shaheen Corps also added that Mawlavi Khan Agha, Gandom Ali, Hafizullah, and Nasir alias Faryabi were among the key leaders of the Taliban group who were involved in major attacks in Qaisar, Almar and Pashtun Kot districts.
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[BigLeaguePolitics] In 2015, Kamala Harris’ attorney general’s office made the unprecedented decision to release California’s Electronic Interceptions Report as a "locked" PDF not available to members of the public, according to documents obtained by Big League Politics.
An April 23, 2015 letter on Kamala Harris’ official attorney general stationery denied Lacambra’s firm’s request to see the report.
A deputy attorney general [The Lineup(?)]
wrote on Harris’ behalf:
"Since that time, our Office has changed its security protocol regarding reports and other documents that are made available electronically to members of the public on our public web site. Now, all such reports and documents appearing on our public website are only made available to members of the public in a locked PDF format. We have made this change in orderto better protect the security and integrity of the data in our public records.
Unfortunately, given our new procedure, we are unable to provide you with an electric copy of the 2014 Electronic Interception report in a Microsoft Word format. We apologize for any inconvenience that this new change may cause for you."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s persistence eventually led to the publication of the 2015 report, but problems persisted.
The report was incomprehensible in the sense that Riverside County wiretap reports did not correspond to the wiretap order numbers, and were not in correct sequential order like other counties, according to a source.
The Riverside County wiretaps had identifying numbers in the report starting at over 1,000, even though there were not more than 1,000 wiretaps from that county in 2014 or 2015, making it impossible to trace or identify some of the wiretaps, including in the case of Lacambra’s client, the retired California Highway Patrol officer. That officer’s issued wiretap number does not correspond with any of the numbers indexed in the report. The glint of a long knife?
#9
"Impeach! Special Prosecutor! We MUST ..." (listens to aide) "We must support our fellow Democrat against these baseless accusations by sexists accusers..."
[DailyWire] BLUF: The headline for the article, clearly meant to suggest the school is anti-gay, reads: "Gay valedictorian banned from speaking at Covington graduation ’not surprised’ by D.C. controversy." This headline actually makes the tweet look more accurate.
Others, including Federalist contributor Chad Felix Greene (who also happens to be gay), quickly noted how misleading the story was, as the student was not banned for speaking because he was gay. "He submitted the speech too late and it was too political for the venue," Greene wrote.
#2
"Why Covington students?" Because they supported Donald Trump by wearing MAGA hats and T-shirts. These students are being bullied by the left and used.
[Radio Free Europe] The Russian Foreign Ministry says private Russian companies are training the army in Sudan, confirming their presence in the African country being shaken by mass street demonstrations by opposition forces.
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on January 23 said that "according to our information, representatives of Russian private security companies, who have nothing to do with Russian state bodies, are operating in Sudan."
Zakharova's comments followed a story in the British press alleged that Russian mercenaries were helping Sudanese authorities crack down on the protests.
Zakharova denied the press reports and said the "task" of the private security firms "is limited to training staff for the military and law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Sudan," which is a close ally of Moscow.
Street protests have been carried out daily since December 19. The rallies were initially in protest against shortages of fuel and commodities, but they have turned into a call for an end to the 30-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir.
Britain's The Guardian newspaper on January 23 reported that Bashir's government was conducting an "alarming" crackdown on journalists covering the protests, with five reporters being held and dozens of others being detained before being released.
The unrest is one of the biggest challenges to Bashir's rule since he took power in a coup in 1989.
Reuters news agency reported that official statistics from the Russian Federal Security Service show a substantial increase in the number of the Russian citizens who left for Sudan in late 2017.
[ELUNIVERSAL] The Minister for Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, said on Thursday that the FAN recognizes only Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela.
The declaration comes from the Simón Bolívar room of the Ministry for Defense, in the Fort Tiuna Military Complex, Caracas.
The minister said that the FAN does not recognize any "parallel government" to that of "legitimate president Nicolás Maduro".
He also noted that "the FANB is here to avoid at all costs a confrontation between Venezuelans, it is not a war between brothers that will solve the problems, it is through dialogue, we will not do anything outside the Constitution."
These statements come one day after the head of Parliament, Juan Guaidó, was sworn in as president in charge of Venezuela, a fact that received the support of the United States and several countries of the international community.
Through a statement, the FAN ratified on Thursday its recognition of Nicolás Maduro as the "only legitimate and constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."
"As we stated in a solemn, public and notorious act on January 10, 2019, we recognize as legitimate President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, our Commander in Chief, the citizen Nicolás Maduro Moros, who was elected by the great majority of the voters, in free, universal, direct and secret elections, held on May 20, 2018 ", remarked the text released by Padrino López.
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[DAWN] An antiterrorism court in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on Thursday declared Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others innocent and quashed the cases filed against the four accused who had been killed in a staged police encounter by notorious encounter specialist former SSP Rao Anwar and his team.
The ATC-III judge in his order declared the police encounter "fake" and observed that the statements of witnesses and the forensic reports have not supported the allegations levelled in the FIRs lodged against Naqeebullah, Mohammad Sabir, Nazar Jan and Mohammad Ishaq after their killing in a staged shootout in Shah Latif Town of Karachi in January last year.
While accepting the police report, the court ruled that the cases were disposed of for being false.
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[DAWN] The Taliban ...Arabic for students... "criminal mastermind" behind an attack which left 65 dead has been killed in an Arclight airstrike, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Wednesday ‐ a claim the faceless myrmidons deny.
Monday’s violence was the latest high-casualty assault on Afghan forces, who experts say are continuing to suffer "unsustainable" losses since NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... withdrew combat forces from the country in 2014.
Militants detonated a Humvee filled with kabooms before three button menshot up a National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) intelligence agency base in central Wardak province, but further details have been difficult to independently verify.
A local official said at least 65 people had been killed. The NDS has given a lower toll, instead claiming 36 had been killed and 58 maimed. Afghan authorities are known to downplay casualties.
The agency said an aerial bombardment in the quiet provincial capital the following night killed eight Taliban holy warriors, including the planner of the Monday attack.
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[Libya Observer] The Prime Minister of the parallel "Interim Government" in al-Bayda, eastern Libya, Abdullah al-Thani has accused his government's Awqaf Authority of being a staunch follower of a certain religious sect and foreign agendas.
In a letter to the deputy prime minister, al-Thani said he would take strict measures to respond to the appointment and sacking orders made recently by the Awqaf Authority.
"The Head of the Awqaf Authority is individually making decisions without any consultation with the offices of the authority, which threatens nationality security." al-Thani added.
The Awqaf Authority had been for years sacking mosques' imams and preachers whose ideas were at odds with it, replacing them with others who share it the same ideologies.
Salafist-Madkhali ideology's followers - linked to and backed by Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... - have been controlling the Awqaf Authority in al-Bayda since its split from Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... 's headquarters in 2014.
The authority has been spreading the ideology since 2014 in eastern Libya, issuing many fatwas that helped break the well-knitted social fabric, such as the fatwa against the Ibadism doctrine in Libya saying Libyans mustn't pray behind an Ibadi Imam.
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[Libya Observer] Elders and leaders of Misrata held talks with Chairman of Presidential Council Fayez Sarraj on Wednesday on the current political and security dilemma in the country.
During their meeting in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , the Misrata delegation demanded Sarraj disclose names of the obstructors of security arrangements and dissolve the gangs that hinder implementation of the arrangements.
They also reiterated their utter rejection to the military rule and their aspiration for a modern democratic civil state, according to the Press Office of Sarraj.
"Misrata delegation expressed their support to the Presidential Council and its efforts to unify the country and end the political crisis. They also expressed support to the security and economic arrangements." The Press Office reported.
Misrata elders warned in a statement following the meeting that tension is growing in their city over the delay of security arrangements and the predominance of gangs in Tripoli, saying they will bear no responsibility for any reactions that may occur as a result of failure to meet their demands.
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[PRESSTV] The United States is attempting to push Venezuela in to a civil war by recognizing un-elected opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, an American human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... expert and peace activist says.
"Clearly they’re trying to foment a coup and possibly push the country into civil war," said Daniel Kovalik, who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in the state of Pennsylvania.
"They’re recognizing someone who wasn’t only not elected, he didn’t even run for office," Kovalik told Press TV on Thursday.
Guaido, the president of Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly, declared himself interim president of the country on Wednesday, and was immediately recognized by the administration of 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... .
"There’s no constitutional basis in Venezuela for this man to announce that he’s president and there’s no basis for Trump to recognize him," Kovalik said.
"So clearly the US is behind this, as they have been behind so many coups in Latin America in the past century or more," he added.
Shortly after Trump's recognition of Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president, President Nicolas Maduro Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy... said he was severing diplomatic and political ties with Washington, claiming that the US has given "orders" for a coup in the socialist Latin American country.
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#1
Well, when CIA is busy fomenting a coup & civil war in some Latino-American country, it's not fomenting coup and civil war in USA.
#5
Well, when CIA is busy fomenting a coup & civil war in some Latino-American country, it's not fomenting coup and civil war in USA.
Posted by g(r)omgoru
They're simply attempting to return to their core competencies of political chaos and global shi* disturbing. Intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination is difficult and boring.
[Dhaka Tribune] A total of 13 people have been killed in separate "shootouts" in this month
Three people have been killed in two separate "shootouts" in Teknaf and Maheshkhali upazilas of Cox’s Bazar districts.
Of the dear departed, one was identified as Helal Uddin, 30. Two of the dear departed were suspected drug traders while Helal was a robber.
Teknaf Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) 9 In-Charge Mirza Sahed said: "Acting on a tip off, we conducted a raid in Baharchharaghat area early Thursday.
"Sensing our presence, the yaba traders opened fire at us. In retaliation, we fired back, that left two of them injured."
Meanwhile, ...back at the argument, Livia grabbed for Jane's hair to make her point. Jane elbowed her in the face in rebuttal... police recovered 50,000 pieces of yaba pills, three firearms, and 14 bullets.
He said they died while being taken to the hospital.
Later, their bodies were sent to Cox’s Bazar Sadar morgue for an appointment with Dr. Quincy.
On the other hand, Maheshkhali cop shoppe Officer-in-Charge Probhash Chandra Dhar said: "Helal was injured in the shootout that took place in Shamlapur Dhala around 3am.
"The duty doctor declared him dead when taken to Maheshkhali Hospital around 4am."
He added that Helal was a marked robber and was accused in 14 cases.
Police recovered two firearms, 12 bullet shells from the spot.
Cox’s Bazar Addition Superintendent of Police Iqbal Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune as of today, a total of 13 people have been killed in separate "shootouts" in this month.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] One member of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service was killed and several other people were maimed on Wednesday night in a clash between members of the service and army troops in Port Sudan, a security body said in a statement.
The incident in the Red Sea city was the first of its kind between security and military forces since a wave of anti-government protests that has rocked Sudan began on Dec. 19.
The statement came from Major-General Mohammed Moussa Omar, secretary of a committee that oversees security in Sudan’s Red Sea province.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Arab Coalition in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... said on Thursday that Houthis have been blocking the passage of four aid ships since 34 days.
The ships heading towards the Hodeidah port carry oil and food aid, said the Coalition, stressing on the fact that preventing the ships from unloading will affect the lives of the Yemeni people.
Al-Salif port has been clear of ships for the past 12 days, and Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias are blocking the entrance of all ships, according to the Coalition.
The Coalition also announced issuing 12 permits for ships heading towards Yemeni ports, in addition to 34 aerial permits and 120 permits for convoy protection.
In the past three days, the total number of permits issued has reached 166, said the Coalition.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] ISIS made an aborted attempt to retake a village from US-backed forces in eastern Syria Thursday, a monitor said, leaving 50 fighters dead on both sides.
The failed assault came a day after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are backed by the US-led coalition, took the village of Baghouz from ISIS.
On Thursday, the group launched a counterattack including at least three jacket wallahs wearing boom belts against SDF fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Sixteen SDF and 34 ISIS fighters were killed in the assault aimed at retaking the village near the Iraqi border, the Britannia-based monitor said.
A further "21 ISIS fighters were taken prisoner as they tried to open up a gap" in defenses and make an escape towards Iraq, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The SDF have since September been whittling away at a pocket of territory on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
The latest advance by the US-backed group has left the last diehard ISIS fighters holed up in scattered farmhouses near the Euphrates.
Thousands of people, mostly women and kiddies, have fled into SDF-held territory in recent days, according to the Observatory.
ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, declaring a "caliphate", but they have since lost almost all of it to various offensives.
The group has however retained a presence in the vast Badia desert stretching across Syria, and have continued to claim attacks in SDF-held territory and abroad.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Israeli court has seized a Jerusalem property partly owned by late Paleostinian leader Yasser Arafat, holding it as collateral against a civil suit for damages against the Paleostinian Authority.
A copy of the ruling by the Jerusalem district court made available to AFP on Wednesday named "the estate of the late Yasser Arafat" as respondent.
"A temporary lien is granted on property owned by the respondent," said Tuesday’s judgement.
It said any future request to lift the order would be given a fresh court hearing and that the Arafat estate had 30 days to appeal.
Israeli NGO Shurat Hadin requested the lien so the Arafat asset in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem could serve as collateral for a pending civil claim for damages against the Paleostinian Authority (PA), the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Arafat estate, by eight families of victims of Paleostinian attacks.
"This move is one step closer towards justice for the victims and their families," Shurat Hadin head Nitsana Darshan Leitner said in a statement.
She said that the lien was necessary because if the suit succeeds, collection of damages was likely to be difficult.
"We will not allow a situation in which the Arafat estate can own land in the heart of Jerusalem while avoiding paying damages to his victims," she said.
"Yasser Arafat was the grandfather of modern terrorism, responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and kiddies."
Arafat, who led both the PA and the PLO, died aged 75 in a French hospital on November 11, 2004, with Paleostinians accusing Israel of having poisoned him.
The Israeli government firmly denies the allegation.
His body was exhumed in 2012 for tests but a subsequent French investigation found no proof of poisoning.
Swiss experts, however, said they found high levels of radioactive polonium on his personal effects.
Arafat’s nephew, Nasser al-Qidwa, said on Wednesday that the Jerusalem court ruling was "unacceptable."
The property in question covers about 2,700 square meters (29,000 square feet) on the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem’s walled Old City and its al-Aqsa mosque complex.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Embattled Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. is receiving words of support from some unlikely places as he faces deadly protests calling for him to step down.
South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011 following decades of brutal fighting marked by the mass abduction and enslavement of children, scorched earth ethnic cleansing and famines. Yet now the former arch-enemies describe themselves as the best of friends, bound together by a desperate need for oil revenues and peace to allow them to flow.
"When your interest is so intertwined, you are like a conjoined twin," South Sudan’s oil minister, Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth, told Rooters in the capital of Juba. "For us, the solution is not to remove Bashir, the solution is to improve the economy."
On Monday, Gatkuoth and his Sudanese counterpart jumped over a slaughtered cow, part of a traditional ceremony of welcome marking the start of increased production at Unity Oilfield near the two nations’ joint border, where less than a decade ago they fought tank battles against each other.
Some buildings were still pockmarked with bulletholes, and a large dark stain marked a place where a pipeline had been hit.
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[PRESSTV] The Israeli military has deployed the so-called "Iron Dome" missile systems in Tel Aviv and other parts of the occupied territories after Syria warned of a retaliatory strike on the Ben Gurion airport if the UN fails to stop the regime's aerial acts of aggression against the Arab country.
In a statement on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had set up an "Iron Dome" battery in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and others were stationed in the southern parts of the Israeli-occupied territories near the blockaded Gazoo Strip, where tensions have been running high with Paleostinian protesters.
A number of reservists from the regime's air force have also been called up to man the missile systems.
The announcement came after Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja'afari delivered a strong warning to the Israeli regime, which has recently stepped up its air strikes against Syrian soil.
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[PRESSTV] The leader of Yemen’s Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... Ansarullah movement says his country is determined to stand up to oppressive measures of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and its regional allies, which are involved in an atrocious military campaign against the impoverished Arab country.
Addressing his supporters via a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday evening, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said, "The honorable people of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... have decided to stand against oppression," calling upon Yemenis from all social strata to remain resilient in the face of existing challenges.
"We will continue our steadfastness until the aggression against us ceases. The enemy is doing its utmost because it is extremely frustrated after failure to occupy our country. Our armed forces have built great military capabilities at all levels -- land, sea and air," he said.
"The enemy launched an economic war against us in a bid to exert the maxim level of pressure. It, however, could not break the will of our people," Houthi said, adding, "The enemy seeks to use all methods to weaken the will of our nation in the face of its aggression."
He highlighted that those who chose to pledge loyalty to the Saudi-led military alliance stood with oppressors against the oppressed Yemeni nation.
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[Al Jazeera] Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi has been sworn in as the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , succeeding Joseph Kabila in the vast central African country's first transfer of power through an election in 59 years of independence.
In his speech before a cheering crowd of supporters on Thursday, Tshisekedi said that the country will not be one of "division, hate or tribalism".
"We want to build a strong Congo in its cultural diversity. We will promote its development in peace and security. A Congo for each and everyone, where everybody has his or her own place," he said.
Tshisekedi's speech, however, was momentarily disrupted when he "collapsed on the podium", according to Al Jazeera's Fahmida Miller, who was at the inauguration in the capital Kinshasa.
Tshisekedi was able to resume after a few minutes.
Tshisekedi's victory in the December 30 election was marred by accusations he struck a backroom deal with the outgoing president to deny victory to the strong opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2019
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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.
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.
[KC Star] WASHINGTON - Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested Friday morning in the special counsel's Russia investigation and was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe.
[Yiddish Book Center Store] Available for the first time in translation, Mendel Mann’s stories follow his life in reverse, from Israel in the 1950s to his experiences in the post-War Soviet Union and his childhood in Poland. With psychological insight and a focus on the tension between remembrance and reinvention, Mann provides indelible portraits of survivors as they confront the past and struggle to create a meaningful existence in the fledgling state of Israel.
MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government will return the first group of migrants seeking asylum in the United States to the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Friday, U.S. and Mexican officials said, marking the start of a major policy shift by the Trump administration.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - The United States sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday in the first such operation this year, the Taiwanese government said, as it increases the frequency of transits through the strategic waterway amid tensions with China.
[PJ] Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from 2012-2017, declared in a recent interview that the church needs to address the homosexual underpinnings of the clerical abuse crisis, saying that the "homosexual conduct of clergymen can in no case be tolerated."
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
[Small Wars] Introduction - Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party over the Nationalists in 1949, Beijing has viewed its interaction with the larger world predominantly within a construct of concentric defensive rings, with nearly the entirety of its security apparatus focused on defense of the Chinese homeland against threats to the Party. However, the Chinese government’s announcement of its intention to establish a permanent military support facility in Djibouti in 2015 signaled a significant departure from China’s long-term defense-focused strategy, which had steadfastly sought to avoid enduring overseas deployment of military personnel.[i] The decision to institute a military presence in Djibouti also marked a profound perception shift within the ruling Chinese Communist Party as it reassessed its strategic interests and roles in the Horn of Africa as well as within the broader global community. As a rising world power, China sees many advantages in expanding its engagement in the Horn of Africa as it increases its diplomatic influence, overseas military posture, and access to some of the fastest-growing economic markets and natural resource deposits on the planet. This evolving outlook has, and will continue to have, significant impact on the development of Chinese military strategy and its capabilities, particularly as it relates to the Peoples Liberation Army’s force projection modalities, counterterrorism and counterpiracy operations, peacekeeping contributions, and multinational military training and exercises. 
...a former ancherperson, the man who put the BS in CBS News. In 2004 he put on a news story that highlighted dissatisfaction with Lt. George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. This was almost casually--but gleefully--debunked by the Blogosphere at large. Rather's face was rubbed in journalistic mud, four of his staff were fired, and within a short time his 43-year (about the same length as Muammar Qadaffi's) career had settled to the bottom...
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
[PRESSTV] The leader of Yemen’s 
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka 
