...The breaking news is that the Left are freaking out. But this is an old story. They’ve been doing that for decades, whenever they don’t seem to be getting their way. It is part of the power formula, not only for them but for the average three-year-old. ... "What do we want?" ... "Goo-goos!" ... "When do want them?" ... "Now!"
...For decades the Left have been playing for keeps. The Right have been playing for mercy. With Trump, those Red State types -- "progressively" deprived of elementary freedoms, of their dignity, and even of their livelihoods -- have voted to play for keeps, too. They were used to shrugging and taking their lumps, from politicians they happened to despise. The politicians were used to administering the lumps, to their own fabulous enrichment. Suddenly the simpletons -- or deplorables, as they now prefer -- decide they’ve had enough. (Americans can be like that sometimes.) Elitist and anti-populist that I am, anti-nationalist and anti-tribalist, I kind of understand it.
The media think only the Left can get angry, and that it is their exclusive right. They are making a splash of how angry they can get, on the old assumption that it will intimidate the simpletons. Yet this is the very assumption they have pushed too far. For Middle America is in one of those Clint Eastwood moods. And the cameras are rolling, on frothing and hysteria; versus "make my day."
#1
I've been saying this for years. They are not the loyal opposition. They are not well-meaning people with whom we have a good faith difference of opinion. They are the enemy, and they are playing for keeps.
#2
"They" is a problem word for me. I prefer real names. "They" hide behind masks when attacking. "They" are referred to as leftists. What we need is a public registry of the actual names of each and everyone of these people.
h/t Instapundit
...For all the hysteria over the bluntness of the mercurial Trump, his agenda marks a return to what used to be seen as fairly normal, as the U.S. goes from hard left back to the populist center.
Trump promises not just to reverse almost immediately all of Obama's policies, but to do so in a pragmatic fashion that does not seem to be guided by any orthodox or consistently conservative ideology.
Trade deals and jobs are Trump's obsessions -- mostly for the benefit of blue-collar America.
He calls for full-bore gas and oil development, a common culture in lieu of identity politics, secure borders, deregulation, tax reform, a Jacksonian foreign policy, nationalist trade deals in places of globalization, and traditionalist values.
In normal times, Trumpism -- again, the agenda as opposed to Trump the person -- might be old hat. But after the last eight years, his correction has enraged millions.
Yet securing national borders seems pretty orthodox. In an age of anti-Western terrorism, placing temporary holds on would-be immigrants from war-torn zones until they can be vetted is hardly radical. Expecting "sanctuary cities" to follow federal laws rather than embrace the nullification strategies of the secessionist Old Confederacy is a return to the laws of the Constitution.
Using the term "radical Islamic terror" in place of "workplace violence" or "man-caused disasters" is sensible, not subversive.
Insisting that NATO members meet their long-ignored defense-spending obligations is not provocative but overdue. Assuming that both the European Union and the United Nations are imploding is empirical, not unhinged.
Questioning the secret side agreements of the Iran deal or failed Russian reset is facing reality. Making the Environmental Protection Agency follow laws rather than make laws is the way it always was supposed to be.
Unapologetically siding with Israel, the only free and democratic country in the Middle East, used to be standard U.S. policy until Obama was elected.
Issuing executive orders has not been seen as revolutionary for the past few years -- until now.
Expecting the media to report the news rather than massage it to fit progressive agendas makes sense. In the past, proclaiming the Obama a "sort of god" or the smartest man ever to enter the presidency was not normal journalistic practice.
Freezing federal hiring, clamping down on lobbyists and auditing big bureaucracies -- after the Obama-era IRS, VA, GSA, EPA, State Department and Secret Service scandals -- are overdue.
Half the country is having a hard time adjusting to Trumpism, confusing Trump's often unorthodox and grating style with his otherwise practical and mostly centrist agenda.
In sum, Trump seems a revolutionary, but that is only because he is loudly undoing a revolution.
A former soldier from Texas who made social media postings about police brutality, U.S. sovereignty and Islamic teachings is accused of fatally shooting an armed Regional Transportation District security officer in the head late Tuesday outside of Denver Union Station.
Authorities say the attack appears to be both unprovoked and random, but they worried that the alleged shooter -- 37-year-old Joshua Cummings -- targeted the contract guard because of his uniform, which resembles that of Denver police.
Witnesses told investigators that the suspect put a gun to the security officer’s neck and said, "Do as I tell you," and then pulled the trigger.
"We have concerns," Denver police Cmdr. Barb Archer told reporters at a Wednesday morning news conference. "Was the officer a target because he was wearing a uniform?"
Cummings was arrested after being found hiding a few blocks away from the shooting scene. He was being held without bail at Denver’s downtown jail for investigation of first-degree murder. A man with his same name and date of birth served in the Army from July 1997 to December 2002.
Army records show Cummings, whose last station was Schweinfurt, Germany, was an infantryman and was not deployed. His last rank was sergeant.
One of the women who witnessed the shooting told investigators the suspect had "a swollen face and different/weird-looking eyes," according to court documents.
Denver Police Chief Robert White said officers responded to the shooting scene within minutes, quickly reviewed security camera footage from nearby stores and tracked down Cummings within a half-hour. Investigators said Cummings was found with a gun.
According to a probable-cause statement for Cummings, he was found with a 9mm handgun with a live round in its chamber. The weapon also had an eight-round capacity magazine loaded with seven rounds. The rounds in the gun were FC 9mm Luger ammunition.
Cummings apparently came to Denver from Pampa, Texas, a small town northeast of Amarillo, where he ran Pampa Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Troy Schwiegerath, who also runs a martial arts studio in Pampa, said Cummings briefly trained at his studio before breaking off to open his own dojo.
Soon after, Schwiegerath says Cummings began bad-mouthing him. Cummings then began posting Islamic teachings at his academy and on Facebook, according to Schwiegerath, eventually going around to the churches in town and saying they should be teaching from the Koran.
"This dude was just straight-up crazy," said Schwiegerath, who splits his time between Texas and Denver, where he works as a firefighter. "It got to the point where I told everybody not to have any contact with him whatsoever. I actually had an armed security guard at the door because I was so afraid because of how radicalized he got that he was going to come into the dojo and shoot it up."
Schwiegerath said eventually law enforcement began tracking Cummings. A Pampa police sergeant Wednesday night declined to comment and directed questions about Cummings to the FBI’s bureau in Dallas. A Dallas FBI spokeswoman referred questions about Cummings to Denver police.
"Wake up, people," Cummings said in a June 2016 post on Twitter. "America is a failed state. It’s about to get so real."
In a posting the next month, he said an Arizona police officer accused of brutality should be put to death for treason.
Denver investigators say the shooting was unprovoked as far as they know. White, however, said that detectives will also investigate whether the suspect shot Von Lanken for a personal reason.
White said there is no reason to believe Cummings had an accomplice. Denver police issued a warning Wednesday to all of its officers because of the nature of the shooting.
While this seems to be a "sudden jihad" syndrome case, I suspect this guy is just bat shit crazy.
The productivity of American workers rose in the October-December period but at a slower pace than the previous quarter. Growth in labor costs increased. Productivity climbed at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter, weaker than 3.5 percent productivity growth in the July-September period, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Labor costs rose at a 1.7 percent rate, up from a tiny 0.2 percent gain in the third quarter.
For the year, productivity rose a tiny 0.2 percent. It was the worst showing in five years. Productivity has slowed significantly in recent years for reasons that are unclear.
Unexpectedly! No one could possibly understand how it is that in the past eight years productivity has come to a near-halt! It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the previous administration, of course...
It represents a worrisome trend given that growth in productivity is a key factor needed to boost living standards.
The fourth quarter slowdown had been expected given that overall economic growth, as measured by the gross domestic product, slowed in the fourth quarter. GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the final three months of the year, compared to a 3.5 percent gain in the third quarter.
Productivity gains have been anemic for the past decade. Since 2007, annual productivity increases have averaged just 1.1 percent. That is less than half the 2.6 percent average annual gain turned in from 2000 through 2007 when the country was benefiting from the increased efficiency from greater integration of computers and the internet into the workplace.
With productivity slowing, wage gains in many industries have stalled. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has pointed to the slowdown in productivity growth as a key challenge facing the country.
Analysts are hopeful that companies will put more emphasis on increasing productivity as the labor market hits full employment and the pool of available qualified workers diminishes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
09:41 ||
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#1
Unexpectedly!
Also unexpectedly is that the initial estimate always gets downgraded after all the data comes in.
#2
Productivity is pretty hard to compute. For example, Govt is considered a 'product', so if, say, the Dept of Def. spends $1B using 1000 employees, its not as productive as if they spent $1B using 1010 employees. There are also problems with high quality products (say, high definition panels replacing regular panels). Then there is the problem of garbage production. When companies sell $1B of snake oil with 10 people and the next year they sell $2B with 10 people, that is a big increase in productivity.
The number that is published is an estimate.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/02/2017 18:41
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[Breitbart] President Donald Trump reacted to the massive rioting at UC-Berkeley in response to a scheduled campus speech by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
"If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view ‐ NO FEDERAL FUNDS?" Trump wrote on Twitter early Thursday morning.
News of the rioting made cable news last night as students smashed ATMs and bank windows, looted a Starbucks, beat Trump supporters, pepper sprayed innocent individuals, and set fires in the street. Others spray painted the words "Kill Trump" on storefronts.
The speech was canceled by UC-Berkeley police as security failed. Yiannopoulos was evacuated from the area.
"The left is profoundly antithetical to free speech these days, does not want to hear alternative points of view, and will do anything to shut it down," Yiannopoulos told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview on Wednesday night. "My point is being proven over and over and over again."
#2
Fans of Ironic Historical Trends will note that the UC Berkeley campus was the home of the Free Speech Movement back in the 60s. From le Wik:
In protests unprecedented in scope, students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/02/2017 14:21
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#8
News of the rioting made cable news last night as students smashed ATMs and bank windows, looted a Starbucks, beat Trump supporters, pepper sprayed innocent individuals, and set fires in the street. Others spray painted the words "Kill Trump" on storefronts.
Spread the word: Milo is being hidden in the administration building!
#13
Problem with this idea is that the anarchists probably weren't students. Yes the campus cops should have done something but withholding federal funds because the cops are idiots doesn't sound right.
[Task & Purpose] Retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly’s decision to not wear an American flag pin on his lapel raises a good question: Why do politicians wear them?
An excellent message which speaks volumes about the man.
[FOX] Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blocked funding to Austin on Wednesday after its sheriff said the city’s jails would no longer honor most federal immigration detainers.
Abbott’s move begins a crackdown over sanctuary city policies in the state. The Republican governor is also pushing to sign new laws that could go even further than President Donald Trump’s new executive actions against sanctuary policies.
Travis County officials condemned Abbott’s decision, which would cost Austin 1.5 million in grant money earmarked for crime victim services, courts and other programs. They stood by Sheriff Sally Hernandez, who announced after Trump’s inauguration that her jails would only honor immigration holds I murder, aggravated sexual assault and human trafficking cases.
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt wrote in a letter to Abbott that she was confident the sheriff is within the law.
"I am certain you have come to the same conclusion; else you would not be seeking to change current State law to put all Texas Sheriffs in the service of the United States Department of Homeland Security," Eckhardt wrote.
#1
so Judge-shopped in the most liberal County? Same County that did the witch-hunt on Perry, Tom Delay, and kept Rosemary "Do you know *hic* WHO I am? I know people!" Lehmberg in power?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/02/2017 8:48
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#2
What's up with all these politicians doing what they said they'd do? What ever happened to useless posturing? It's like the whole world has gone mad.
#5
There is a clear problem with the cost of unfunded federal mandate here. Particularly if ICE/DHS are parking inmates in local jails like State governments are fond of parking inmates in county/city jails.
#6
The rest of us refer to it as 'The People's Republic of Travis County'. Thick with federal offices, thanks to LBJ, not to mention UT.
FYI in Texas, the County Judge is not courtroom figure; they're the head of the county commissioners.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/02/2017 17:56
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#7
There is a clear problem with the cost of unfunded federal mandate here
There may be a problem, but refusal isn't couched in terms of protesting an "unfunded mandate".
China continues to make strides in its aircraft carrier program, with a number of milestones achieved in 2016 and looks set to make more in 2017. The country’s sole carrier, the refurbished Soviet-era Kuznetsov-class ship, now renamed the Liaoning, was declared “combat ready” in November by Senior Capt. Li Dongyou, the political commissar onboard the ship as it departed for a training cruise that included a stopover at the purpose-built pier at the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) base near Sanya on Hainan island on the edge of the South China Sea.
The ship sailed with a battle group comprising of several PLAN destroyers, frigates and corvettes, while the Liaoning itself carried more than a dozen Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark carrier-borne fighters and several Harbin Z-9 and Changhe Z-18 helicopters onboard, including at least two Z-18J airborne early warning (AEW) helicopters.
Meanwhile, the same shipyard at Dalian that refurbished the Liaoning is building China’s second carrier. Known for now as the 001A — the Liaoning was designated the Type 001 — the new carrier is broadly similar to the Liaoning and retains the ski jump for launching aircraft, but contains a revised flight deck arrangement and other differences.
The superstructure of this carrier has been attached to the main hull, and it is expected that this ship will be launched later in 2017. Recent satellite photos of the PLAN air base near Huludao in China’s Liaoning province have shown that one of two simulated carrier decks painted on the runway for pilots to practice carrier landings has been modified sometime between June and October 2016, most likely to reflect the arrangement of the 001A’s flight deck.
The air base is where the PLAN’s J-15s are based when not deployed at sea. China has already built more than 20 production J-15s, with the 21st production aircraft operating off the Liaoning during its recent deployment. Two production batches of J-15s have been completed so far, with the first aircraft of the third production batch having recently been completed.
The use of the short takeoff but arrested recovery (STOBAR) method of launching and recovering fast jets on both Chinese carriers will, however, curtail combat utility by limiting the range and payload of its aircraft and precluding the operation of larger aircraft such as AEW or carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft.
The limitations of STOBAR have prompted China to continuing to pursue the development of catapults for launching its carrier-based aircraft. Satellite photos of the air base at Huludao show that China has constructed two parallel catapults, and analysts tell Defense News that it appears one of the catapults is an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System while the other is a conventional steam catapult, based on satellite photos of the inside of the catapults during construction.
Construction of the catapults was completed sometime between June and October 2016, with a satellite photo published by DigitalGlobe in mid-October showing a J-15 preparing to line up on one of the catapults. A photo of a PLAN J-15 with what appears to be a catapult launch bar on its nose wheel — used to couple the aircraft to the catapult of the carrier during the launch sequence — had surfaced the month before, adding further weight to the evidence that PLAN intends to switch to catapult-assisted takeoff but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) aircraft operations onboard its future carriers.
The construction of both types of catapults at Huludao suggests that China is exploring both technologies and has yet to decide on which type of catapult it will install on its future carriers. Chinese state media reported in 2014 that the country had reverse-engineered a land-based replica of the steam catapult and landing system from the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, which had been sold for scrap to a Chinese company in 1985.
Rear Adm. Song Xue, then-deputy chief of staff of the PLAN, had already confirmed as far back as 2013 that China would build more carriers that would be larger and with more aircraft-carrying capacity than the Liaoning. The first of these carriers, tentatively designated the Type 002, is expected to be able to conduct CATOBAR operations.
Andreas Rupprecht, author of three books on the Chinese aircraft industry and military aviation, told Defense News that in addition to the launch of China’s second carrier later this year, 2017 will likely see “more lengthy and intense exercises by the Liaoning and J-15s, as well as the likelihood that we will see a second J-15 regiment established with aircraft from the third production batch”.
In late January, a mock-up of an AEW aircraft was photographed at the full-scale aircraft carrier training deck and island mock-up at the Wuhan Naval Research Institute facilities near Huangjia Lake, Wuhan. The photo showed the mock-up of a twin turboprop, four vertical-tailed aircraft with a large dorsal radar rotodome, similar to the Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye used by the US Navy.
The Wuhan facility is used by the PLAN to carry out static tests of new platforms and systems; it usually serves as a good indication of future PLAN shipbuilding and platform plans. A prototype of a similarly configured AEW aircraft, based on an actual Xian Y-7 turboprop and designated JZY-01, has existed since 2011, although this is not believed to have ever flown and it is unknown if the recently seen mock-up is related.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
07:38 ||
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[Task & Purpose] The Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden has a book coming out about the Abbottabad raid. Notice how he waited until the 'real' UBL killer had left office.
The Navy SEAL Team Six veteran who gained fame when he went public saying he killed Osama bin Laden has a book coming out this spring about the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
"The Operator" by Robert O’Neill, will be published on April 25 by Scribner and will cover O’Neill’s career that spanned more than 400 missions with the SEALs. Most notably, the book will include details on the raid on bin Laden’s compound, according to the Associated Press. O’Neill was also on the missions that helped rescue Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell from Afghanistan and Capt. Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.
In a statement through Scribner, O’Neill said he wished to show "the human side" of the battles fought for the United States.
#1
pshaw! We all know Barack Obama killed Osama Bin Laden! He said so, many times
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/02/2017 8:49
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...I am hoping that there will be a Navy 0-6 somewhere in the E Ring whose sole job will be to annotate every single page for the charges that will be brought against him for violating his NDA.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/02/2017 9:15
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#3
Does rather seem like talking out of school.
But "Shoot bin Laden in the Face" could be a great video game. OK, the title needs work.
Personally, I hope the book contains all the black op details, including the mind control rays and remote operated squirrels. You know what could power a helicopter and be relatively quite...warp drive powered Yautja batteries.
The Republican-led US House of Representatives on Wednesday killed two Obama-era rules, one intended to root out corruption in the extraction sector and one aimed at reducing stream pollution.
Required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, the Securities and Exchange Commission's "extraction rule" was approved this summer to require oil, gas, mining and other companies to publicly state the taxes and other fees they pay to governments. Republicans say the requirement is burdensome and costly for energy companies, and also that it duplicates other long-standing regulations.
The stream buffer rule is intended to lessen the amount of waste from mountain-top removal coal mining deposited in local waterways. Republican lawmakers, though, say it is hurting coal jobs by placing unworkable limits on the industry.
The Republican-dominated Senate is expected to quickly take up killing both regulations and then send the resolutions to President Donald Trump to sign. The real war on terror
#1
The regulatory leviathan is the #1 threat to a vibrant economy. It is the #1 reason that small business formation is at its lowest point since the Constitution was ratified.
It is also the #1 reason that the publicly employed are making more money, on average, than private ones, and that they have come to see themselves as the private sector's rulers rahter than its servants.
Kill the leviathan, and many things become right again in the U.S.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/02/2017 6:15
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#2
....say it is hurting coal jobs by placing unworkable limits on the industry.
But that was the Gov't intent. Didn't Obama tell us in 2008 that he would make coal mining too onerous and expensive to pursue ?
"Vanguard"or the "Company") today announced that the Company has voluntarily filed petitions for relief under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division (the "Court").
#4
The stream buffer rule is intended to lessen the amount of waste from mountain-top removal coal mining deposited in local waterways.
Another way to reduce this sort of pollution would be to prevent hacks at the EPA from going into closed mines with backhoes and ripping up the retainer walls.
#5
There isn't much mountaintop coal mining going on these days. The current regulations have been adequate in pollution control. The opposition, and this article, make it sound like the coal mining companies are literally dumping coal waste into streams. It ain't happening. I live in coal country. Fearmongers all.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/02/2017 15:25
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[LI] Members of the House of Commons voted by 498 to 114 to advance the bill that would give Prime Minister Theresa May the authority to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty -- the formal process of leaving the EU.
The size of majority in favor of triggering Article 50 on Wednesday means the bill is almost certain to become law. But a battle is expected next week when the bill returns to the House of Commons for detailed scrutiny in the committee stage. Opposition parties will then try to push through a series of amendments.
The House of Lords, the UK’s upper house, will also need to approve the Article 50 legislation before it can become law. Triggering Article 50 gives the UK two years to negotiate a separation deal with the 27 other members of the EU. May has said she wants to fire the Brexit starting gun by the end of March.
The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that she would publish her detailed plan for Brexit in the form of a "white paper" on Thursday.
#3
Same trajectory as DJT's inauguration. Each step of the way, the lefties will be sure sone institution will stop what they are against. When that does not happen, they will punch people and burn stuff. But life will go on...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/02/2017 7:45
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#4
A preference cascade or pols realizing that the people are getting restive?
From all I read prior to the vote the MPs were not at all in favor, so something changed.
[LI] On MSNBC this evening, Chris Matthews cautioned Democratic Senators that if they vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, they will have to answer for it for the rest of their political career.
His reasoning was a supremely political one: that at age 49, Gorsuch is likely to be on the Court for 30 years. And that any Dem voting to confirm him would have to answer, over all those years, for his decisions on controversial issues such as abortion and gun rights: "it will be on you," warned Matthews.
[LI] Pay attention, college students. The debt you accrue obtaining your degree never goes away.
Social Security benefits were withheld from an estimated 114,000 individuals of at least 50 years in age as of 2015 in order to repay their student loan debts, a congressional watchdog reported Tuesday.
"An increasing number of older Americans have defaulted on their federal student loan debt," the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote in a blog post. "To recover this debt, the federal government can withhold a portion of Social Security payments -- a process known as offsetting."
The 114,000 total borrowers assessed marks a fourfold increase since 2002.
"This number is expected to continue to grow given the increasing number of older borrowers and their high rates of default," the blog post said.
#1
Bill Clinton insisted I pay federal income taxes on my Social Security checks (money I earned, paid into the fund, and never touched for 55 years), so don't forget to add interest charges to theirs.
#2
...And it's only going to get worse. I for one believe that the 'nuclear option' for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate will be calling for realignment or flat-out forgiveness of a LOT of student loan debt.
Gonna be hard to fix though - for instance, a BIG part of the building boom in downtown Columbia (SC, that is, a few miles away) is student apartments that have all the amenities one could ask for...and all of which can be paid for by student loans. Something's gotta give.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/02/2017 5:10
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#3
If you co-signed on your son's or daughter's student loan and they defaulted your social security benefits will be withheld as well.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/02/2017 7:27
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#4
This is a massive volcano that is way over due for an eruption.
The question is can a vent open the releases the pressure without blowing up big time.
#5
Doubt it Alan. This is a balloon bubble that the government made, promoted and now is fighting to the death over.
Collage enrollments are already declining, some especially rapidly (see law schools) and when this bubble bursts most collages will collapse with it.
Long past time, IMHO. The growth of administrators and SJW classes comes directly from these programs and if collages are forced to be profitable on their own, these will be the first cut.
[Free Beacon] The two Republicans who broke ranks with their party and announced they would vote against education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos have received thousands of dollars from the nation's largest teachers union.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have each benefited from contributions from the National Education Association. Collins received $2,000 from the union in 2002 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Murkowski, meanwhile, has received $23,500.
The NEA represents 3 million members, making it the wealthiest and most influential union in the country. The NEA, along with other labor groups like the American Federation of Teachers, has waged a fierce campaign against DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist and school choice activist.
Teachers unions donate almost exclusively to Democrats. The NEA contributed $2.3 million to Democratic candidates in 2016, while Republican nominees received $350,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The top beneficiaries of union largesse have already voted against DeVos' nomination at the committee level. The union donated $740,000 to the 11 Democratic members of that committee--all 11 attempted to prevent the nomination from reaching the Senate floor.
Murkowski received a 100 percent rating on a 2012 NEA Report Card, while Collins received a 75 percent rating--the only Republicans to earn marks above 50 percent from the group. Each senator has earned straight-A marks from the union since 2014.
#2
Up and coming black leaders could make their bones by freeing their people from the tyranny (dare I say slavery?) of a rotten education. But it's a bold move to go against the NEA and their money. Paging Dr. Ben Carson.
#3
I'm involved with a black group trying to set up a charter school, and they to a man (and woman) love the idea of charter schools.
Why do these racist ladies hate black people and want their children confined in failing public schools with no chance to choose a better future for their children
Posted by: Tom ||
02/02/2017 12:22
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#6
Collins received $2,000 from the union in 2002 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Murkowski, meanwhile, has received $23,500
#7
Best suggestion I've seen - notify Congress that there will not be any other nominations for this position. They can either confirm DeVos, or prepare to wind up DOE.
#8
Hardball time. The democrats are not going to like any of Trump's nominees so he might as well push these nominees through even it means passing with only 51 votes.
[Free Beacon] A manufacturing CEO told lawmakers on Wednesday that costs imposed by the Affordable Care Act had negatively impacted his company's ability to hire new workers, make capital investments, and develop new products.
Joe Eddy, president and CEO of Eagle Manufacturing Company, testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade association that represents more than 12 million Americans.
"Manufacturers appreciate your attention to the burdens of the Affordable Care Act that are impacting the competitiveness and growth of manufacturers around the nation," Eddy said.
Eddy said it had always been his priority as the president of a family-owned business to provide health insurance for his employees. His business traditionally covered 100 percent of medical costs, but Obamacare made that more difficult.
In 2009, the company paid about $13,500 per year per employee for health insurance, Eddy said, but today it pays more than $22,800 per year per employee--an increase of $9,300. Taxes, paperwork, fees, and mandates cost the business $1,000 per year per employee.
"Rising health care costs impact all facets of any company--hiring new workers, maintaining competitive pay rates, and making capital investments as well as researching and developing new products," he said. "I know that my struggle is not unique and that other manufacturers around the country are facing the same challenges."
[Free Beacon] Europe serves as a "launching pad" for ISIS jihadists to initiate attacks against the United States due to the absence of a cohesive information-sharing strategy among Western nations, former acting CIA director John McLaughlin said Wednesday.
McLaughlin, a 30-year CIA employee who served as acting director under the George W. Bush administration, warned that the absence of effective coordination between European intelligence agencies exposes the United States to greater risk of attack.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, McLaughlin said the Trump administration must work with European allies to establish an intelligence-sharing platform that coordinates Europe's extensive network of security services.
Western Europe has come under heightened pressure to establish such a network as ISIS loses ground in Iraq and Syria, raising the possibility that discouraged terrorists will return home to Europe.
"We have to recognize that as [ISIS is] defeated in Iraq and Syria, if they're not killed and if they don't melt into the population in those areas and retire from a life of extremism, they will go home and they will go home to European services," former CIA director David Petraeus said in congressional testimony.
[Deplorable Don Surber] Orrin Hatch may be a 82 and in the Senate way too long, but he has learned a new trick: Forget 'em.
Ann Althouse, a retired law professor, captured Hatch's new attitude with this headline:
"I don't care what they want at this point," said Orrin Hatch. "They" = Senate Democrats.
This is a new and refreshing attitude for Republicans, well in keeping with President Trump's demeanor.
Democrats have been throwing post-election tantrums for three months now. It is time to ignore their belligerence and incivility.
Hatch heads the finance committee which needed to vote on Steve Mnuchin before the Senate can vote to confirm him as Secretary of Treasury, and on Tom Price as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cheered on by a complacently liberal media, Democrats boycotted the meeting, in an effort to avoid confirmation. Committee rules require at least one Democrat be present before a vote occurs.
[National Review] The famous Columbia professor repeatedly used a Nazi-era metaphor to depict Jews as vermin.
Rashid Khalidi is unapologetic. The longtime Columbia University professor last month said repeatedly that supporters of Israel would "infest" the Trump administration -- language that evokes the imagery and metaphors of the Nazis. But for all the on-campus sensitivity seminars and trigger warnings that dominate our age, don’t expect an apology in this case.
Apparently, no language, even if it is dehumanizing and deeply rooted in historic anti-Semitism, is out of line in condemning Israel. Professor Khalidi is well known as Columbia University’s professor of modern Arab studies. January 17, in a lengthy radio interview on WBEZ Chicago’s "Worldview," Khalidi warned that this infestation would begin under the new president. Describing Israel supporters in terms that evoke vermin was not a momentary lapse or slip of the tongue.
He used "infest" three times, saying "these people infest" the Trump transition team and will soon "infest" the government. Who are "these people?" In his view, they’re a bit crazy but also scheming. Khalidi explains: There are a group of people, a lot of them in Israel and some of them in the United States, who live in a world of their own. That is to say, they think that whatever they want, and whatever cockamamie schemes they can cook up, can be substituted for reality. Free speech is a blessed thing, and hypersensitivity to offensive language is a curse on college campuses.
I have no desire to stifle discussion, but it’s fair to ask: What’s become of "reasonable people can differ"? What’s become of civil discourse? What’s become of the golden rule? One has to suppose that Khalidi would take offense if someone analogized Palestinians, rather than Jews, to rats or cockroaches.
#3
They didn't like the Jews when they were in Germany, in Russia, in France, in Israel and now in America? Where do they want the Jews to go? Ooops. Sorry I asked.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/02/2017 11:44
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#4
Prof Khalidi is just doing his part for the jihad.
[PJ] Thousands of anarchists and students are swarming the University of California, Berkeley campus to protest a planned speech by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulous. There is currently a large fire blazing in front of the student union, which is surrounded by a ring of protesters, many of whom are clad in black. The protesters reportedly include a mix of students, professors, and the usual anarchist rabble rousers. Some are protecting themselves with cardboard shields as police try to disperse the crowd. There are reports of broken glass at the student union in addition to the fire.
Berkeley announced via Twitter that the speech has been canceled:
#1
Ja! Vee kant let this Faschist speeken! Vee gettoo decide who speeks der Partie line!
Is that "projection" when the pot calls the kettle a "pot"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/02/2017 7:42
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#2
Yowled Oski, "Ow! Wow, Elagabalus,
Keep pounding away and you'll hobble us."
The populace, darkly:
"You once were so sparkly,
Our sinister toppled necropolis!"
#4
What would happen to a research university if Government sponsored research was suddenly terminated and moved to a more human rights friendly campus???
I wonder if the regents of this lefty playground posing as a university thought about that?
#8
During the inauguration over 200 anarchists were charged with a felony.
At Berkeley, after stores, banks, campus buildings were damaged and people assaulted, the police refused to arrest anyone.
Margo is the chief of campus police. I suggest as many people as possible, file a request with the state to have her law enforcement certification revoked.
Rendering her to never put on a public service uniform again.
That should also apply to the city of Berkeley chief.
[Wash Times] MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The money sent home to Mexico by migrants living abroad rose to almost $27 billion in 2016, the highest on record.
Remittances rose 8.8 percent, from $24.78 billion in 2015 to $26.97 billion in 2016.
Mexico’s central bank said Wednesday almost all the money was sent to Mexico by electronic transfers. About $600 million continues to arrive in cash or by money orders.
Remittances have become Mexico’s most important source of foreign income after manufacturing exports of almost $34 billion per year.
Remittances have far surpassed the $15.6 billion Mexico earns from oil exports and the $17.5 billion in tourism income Mexico received in 2015.
[Wash Times] About 76 Dakota Access protesters were arrested Wednesday after they set up a new camp on private land and then tried to stop law enforcement from reaching the encampment.
The arrests at the impromptu Last Child Camp came as law enforcement and the Standing Rock Sioux coordinated to clear garbage from protest sites located in the floodplain before the spring snow melt.
"Law enforcement showed great restraint, enduring verbal abuse and taunts and protesters resisting arrest but did not make use of any less-than-lethal munitions," said the Morton County Sheriff’s Department in a Wednesday statement.
Officers met first on the Backwater Bridge with representatives of the hastily constructed camp and asked them to dismantle their tents and teepees, but after multiple warnings, "they did not show signs of starting to leave," the department said.
"Our law enforcement officers conducted themselves in a safe and responsible manner," said Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier. "Regardless of this incident, it is our desire to continue the dialogue with tribal and camp leaders so that the camps continue to be cleaned and protesters leave prior to the flooding season."
#2
Follow the money. Who paid for these protesters?
Anything paid to them is taxable, and while they may not have gotten enough to take the income tax their employers are still on the hook for a lot of paper work, unemployment, SS/FICA etc.
[Daily Caller] Were the U.S. to go to war with North Korea, there is no guarantee that it could be contained to the Korean Peninsula, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed in the latest issue of Joint Forces Quarterly, a National Defense University publication.
Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford asserts that a war could threaten American allies and the U.S. homeland.
"There was a time, not long ago, when we planned for a conflict that might be contained to the peninsula. But today, North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile, cyber, and space capabilities could quickly threaten the homeland and our allies in the Asia-Pacific region," Dunford wrote.
The North is believed to have made significant advancements in ballistic missile technology. Last year, the reclusive country conducted around two dozen ballistic missile tests.
[FOX] An aspiring actor from Texas killed himself in Los Angeles on Monday just days after he was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, police said. He broadcast the suicide live on Facebook.
Frederick Jay Bowdy, 33, told followers watching the broadcast that he was going to commit suicide, Sgt. Tiffany Lujbetic told the Los Angeles Times. An out-of-state family member watching called the LAPD at about 5:30 a.m.
Police said Bowdy was doing the livestream from a car near Cumpston Street and Fulcher Avenue. Officers tried to reach the actor but he had killed himself before contact could be made, Lujbetic said.
A Zimbabwean pastor accused last year of trying to overthrow the government after helping launch protests against President Robert Mugabe has been arrested after flying home from the US. Evan Mawarire was detained at Harare airport, according to his lawyer. He was charged with subverting a constitutionally elected government and would probably spend the night in custody, Harrison Nkomo said.
A police spokeswoman, Charity Charamba, said Mawarire had been apprehended on an outstanding arrest warrant. “He skipped the country but, as you know, going to America was never going to wash away his crimes. We were waiting for him to return,” she said.
Last year Mawarire encouraged Zimbabweans on social media to hold protests against Mugabe, who turns 93 this month and is the world’s oldest current head of state.
It was not immediately clear why Mawarire had been returning home. Some in Zimbabwe had criticised him for leaving the country amid the protests. At the time he said he feared for his family’s safety.
Before he left Zimbabwe, Mawarire was detained and initially charged with inciting public violence before prosecutors changed the charges. A magistrate freed him after ruling that it was unconstitutional for prosecutors to bring the fresh charges to court.
Mugabe had said Mawarire and others should leave Zimbabwe if they were unhappy with the country’s situation. The economy has crashed and unemployment and frustration are widespread.
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FTFA:
In a time when satire and Shitposting are on the rise, one satirical Shitposter stands tall from the herd: Godfrey Elfwick.
The “Godfrey Elfwick” (Not his real name) Twitter account surfaced online a few years ago, and has since rose high to become one of the Internet’s most prolific and iconic satirists.
Godfrey satirizes Social Justice warriors and Feminist so well that most genuine Feminists end up agreeing with the things he says before realizing that he was mocking them.
Like that time he starting a debate on Twitter by launching the “Wrong Skin” movement.
In the mid of 2015, Rachel Dolezal, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter in Spokane, Washington, was exposed as having been born white. Rachel had pretended to be black her whole life to advance her career in civil right groups. Amid criticism of Rachel appropriating black culture/skin, Godfrey came out to show support. He claimed that he too, like Rachel, was “Wrong Skin”:
The hashtag #wrongskin trended on Twitter for a whole day, with thousands of people debating whether a person could change his race or not; few of them realizing that Godfrey was trolling. More at the link
No missile shot. The equivalent of a brushback pitch
The Russian anti-submarine corvette of Black Sea Fleet fired shots at Ukrainian An-26 military transport aircraft over Odeske gas field, located on the continental shelf of the Black Sea.
That was reported by dumskaya.net.
Russian soldiers opened fire from small arms from Russian anti-submarine corvette at Ukrainian aircraft. Ukrainian An-26 twin-engined turboprop military transport aircraft was damaged hull, the crew was not injured.
Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak in turn wrote on his Facebook page that the plane had been damaged by shooting but “the An-26 continued carrying out its flight.” “An An-26 transport aircraft belonging to the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was attacked from the drilling rigs previously seized by the Russian Federation, with the use of small arms during a training flight near the
“An An-26 transport aircraft belonging to the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was attacked from the drilling rigs previously seized by the Russian Federation, with the use of small arms during a training flight near the Odeske gas field in the exclusive (maritime) economic zone of Ukraine today, February 1, 2017,” he wrote.
In addition, he said, the crew detected and registered the operation of a Russian radar station in active mode, which is usually used for missile guidance of air defense systems.
“After the aircraft returned to the airfield, its visual inspection revealed a three-centimeter bullet hole caused by firing from small arms,” he added.
The Odeske natural gas field located on the continental shelf of the Black Sea on Ukrainian territory, but Russia has occupied this region. The total proven reserves of the Odessa gas field are around 746 billion cubic feet (21.1×109 m3), and production is slated to be around 35 million cubic feet per day (990×103 m3/d) in 2015.
Kenyan security agents have established that hundreds of al Shabaab fighters involved in the attack on the Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia were Kenyan youths recruited into the terror group.
There is suspicion indigenous Somali fighters are using foreign fighters, especially Kenyans and Tanzanians, as their first-line-of-attack fighters.
Use up the furriner riffraff first...
The Kenyan youths were part of the second wave of attack that accompanied the third explosive-laden vehicle that crashed across the fence after the first attack. Reports indicate more than 500 attackers participated. They attempted to overrun the Kulbiyow KDF camp that had at least 120 officers and soldiers that fateful night.
Security agents are yet to release the number of Shabaab fighters killed during the attack, though KDF spokesperson Colonel Paul Njuguna said KDF suffered nine casualties — two officers and seven servicemen.
Survivors of the Kulbiyow attack said the attackers arrived in the wee hours of Friday morning with two Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, which exploded at the gate. They were in the company of the first wave of attackers. Ill-trained youths from Somalia and new Kenyan recruits were pushed to attack.
“The first attackers were not so well-trained. They accompanied the explosives-laden vehicles and communicated to each other in Kiswahili.
The second wave had more mature fighters, some Arab-looking, while others spoke in Kiswahili too,” one of the survivors said yesterday.
The first group consisted of mostly kidnapped Somali youths threatened and coerced to participate in the attack. They constituted the biggest proportion of the Shabaab casualties.
After exhausting their ammunition and most of the young fighters, Shabaab commanders sent in the second wave that comprised foreign fighters, mostly from Kenya, Tanzania and other countries. They attacked as they escorted the third SVBIED vehicle.
Then came the third wave that comprised well-trained Somali fighters accompanied by photographers, who recorded the attack in videos and still pictures. They looted the camp and carried away the bodies of their accomplices before KDF reinforcements arrived. The third group moved in after fighting had subsided. It operated with minimal combat.
KDF battle damage assessment teams have established hundreds of Kenyan youths are among the Shabaab rank and file. They are mainly from the Somali and coastal communities.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
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#1
A Kenyon Mohammedan minister
Sustained her AK so magnanimiter,
The troops would applaud her
(the kufar she'd slaughter
assaulting the College perimeter).
Following clashes that resulted in five people being killed in Gasr Ben Gashir yesterday, three who injured in the fighting are reported to have been murdered today while being treated in a local hospital.
Local gunmen are said to have stormed the Al-Afia medical centre and shot the three in what is being seen as an act of revenge.
The three were from the Marghani family and related to local militia commander Salah Marghani. He is originally from Tarhouna, 40 kilometres from Gasr Ben Gashir.
Reports yesterday said the original clashes were due to attempts by Tarhuna traders, backed by Marghini militia, to assert control over the central vegetable market in Gasr Ben Gashir. Local merchants and their supporters resident. Known as Suq Al-Ahad (Sunday market), it reputedly provides Tripoli, 25 kilometres to the north, with some 50 percent of its vegetables.
As a wealthy institution, it is a prize target for money-hungry militias and local traders in the town had recently voiced their anger at attempts by Tarhouna traders supported by the Marghanis to control business there.
Following a meeting with local elders and security forces, schools in Gasr Ben Gashir have been closed in protest at the armed militias operating in the town, and roads in and out were reported blocked.
Posted by: badanov ||
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Turkey and Greece have become embroiled in a fresh rift over the Kardak islets in the Aegean Sea, which are claimed by both countries, and which almost led the two sides to war 21 years ago.
Tensions in the Aegean are the highest they have been in years, with Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and his top brass visiting the area near Kardak with a naval war ship on Jan. 29, prompting condemnation from the Greek side. Coast guard vessels of the two countries have also come head to head around the islets.
The islets, Imia in Greek and Kardak in Turkish, are two small uninhabited rocks in the Aegean Sea, situated between the Greek island chain of the Dodecanese
Which belonged to Italy until the end of World War 2...
and the southwestern mainland coast of Turkey. Greece and Turkey nearly went to war over the islets in 1996 in an escalation that resulted in each side landing soldiers on one islet.
Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos visited the air space over the Kardak islets, located about one nautical mile from Turkey’s tourism resort of Bodrum, on Feb. 1 to leave a wreath in the Aegean Sea in memory of three Greek soldiers who died in a helicopter accident during the 1996 crisis between the two countries over sovereignty of the islets.
Kammenos’ visit came three days after Akar, accompanied by the commanders of Turkey’s land, naval and air forces, on Jan. 29 paid a visit with two assault boats to the islets, the Turkish Armed Forces announced on the same day.
This move prompted a reaction from Athens, with Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos on Jan. 30 describing the visit as a “serious violation” that he hoped would not be repeated.
On Jan. 31, two Greek Coast Guard vessels passed the Kardak islets and entered Turkish territorial waters, after which Turkish Coast Guard vessels intervened and forced the Greek vessels to leave Turkish waters, Doğan News Agency reported. Tension was high for around 45 minutes around 11.00 a.m. (08:00 a.m. GMT), when all this took place.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
You'd think Turkey has enough on its plate at the moment, without stirring up the Greeks, who probably wouldn't mind a distraction from their economic woes.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) The self-proclaimed Islamic State group executed five civilians in Hawija District, west of Kirkuk, on charges of spying, a source told Alsumaria News on Wednesday.
The source said, “Today the Islamic State group executed five civilians in Hawija District on charges of spying and collaboration with government and Kurdish security forces.”
“The execution was filmed after the so-called Sharia Court of the Islamic State issued the death sentence,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
The Islamic State group executed dozens of civilians in Hawija for collaborating with security forces, after capturing the district in June 2014.
Qamishli – The Islamic State (ISIS) radical group has executed six of its own militant fighters in northeastern Syria, after accusing them of escaping the battlefield, activists reported on Wednesday.
The six militants were reportedly arrested by ISIS guards near Margada town in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah Governorate, after fleeing clashes with Syrian army forces in Deir ez-Zor.
“ISIS has accused them of treason for failing to defend the so-called Caliphate,” a media activist in Margada told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The militant fighters evacuated their post in northern Deir ez-Zor without permission, while clashes continued between ISIS and Syria regime’s forces in the area,” the source added.
The six militants were publicly executed by firing squad in central Margada on Wednesday.
The execution was ordered by the ISIS governor of Margada, Abdu Abdullah al-Jizrawi, a source close to ISIS told ARA News.
Reporting by: Ahmed Shiwesh | Source: ARA News
Posted by: badanov ||
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BLUF: [Geopolitical Futures] There is a somewhat deeper layer. As long as illegal immigration is permitted, the foundations of American culture are at risk. It is not simply immigration, but the illegality that is frightening, because it not only can’t be controlled, but also the law is under attack by those who claim to uphold it. The fear that a person’s livelihood is being undermined and his cultural foundation is being overwhelmed creates deep fear of the intentions of the more powerful.
Al shabaab fighters ambushed a military convoy ferrying Southwest state troops near Baidoa city, the regional capital of Baay province in Southern Somalia on Wednesday. The military convoy was attacked by Al shabaab militants as it left Baidoa and heading to Burhakabo town in the same region, according to a senior Southwest state police officer.
Confirming the incident, Col. Ibrahim Hussein Mohamed, Burhakabo district police boss, told Radio Shabelle over the phone that a number of soldiers were killed in the convoy attack.
Other reports indicate that at least two soldiers, including an officer lost their lives in the attack that was followed by heavy exchange of gunfire between the troops and Al shabaab.
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Pakistan has refused to grant identity cards to the family of Shakil Afridi, the jailed doctor who helped the US hunt Osama bin Laden, his lawyer has said, in effect denying them passports and voting rights.
Afridi has been in prison for more than five years after his fake vaccination programme helped the CIA track and kill the al-Qaida leader.
His lawyer, Qamar Nadim, said officials were refusing to renew Afridi’s wife’s ID card, which expired in December, because her husband’s card had lapsed in 2014. He has also been denied a new card. Officials were similarly refusing to grant new cards to his two children, said Nadim, who has been denied access to his client for more than two years.
ID cards are a key proof of citizenship in Pakistan. Without one, Pakistanis cannot get passports or vote, register for a phone number or get utilities installed, buy property or enrol children in school, and could face delays at security checkpoints, among other things.
“Why are they punishing the entire family? It’s not justice, it’s cruelty,” Nadim said. He said he would challenge the decision in a court in the north-western city of Peshawar this week.
Officials from the interior ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The refusal to grant ID cards means Afridi’s son and daughter face problems getting admission to college, the doctor’s brother, Jamil, said. “So the family can’t go abroad and the children are facing difficulties in continuing their education.”
Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May 2012 after he was convicted of ties to militants, a charge he has always denied. Some American politicians said the case was revenge for his help in the search for Bin Laden.
Last year a US threat to cut aid to Pakistan led a tribunal to cut 10 years off his sentence – but since then US pressure for his release has tapered off.
Donald Trump vowed during his election campaign last May that he would order Pakistan to free Afridi.
“I’m sure they would let them [him] out. Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan,” Trump told Fox News at the time, adding that Pakistan “takes advantage like everybody else”.
The comments sparked a blistering rebuttal from Pakistan, whose interior minister branded Trump “ignorant” and stated the “government of Pakistan and not Donald Trump” would decide Afridi’s fate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Wow!
Pakistan has a ID card mandate and the US doesn't?
#3
The comments sparked a blistering rebuttal from Pakistan, whose interior minister branded Trump “ignorant” and stated the “government of Pakistan and not Donald Trump” would decide Afridi’s fate.
The cartel leaders might want to re-think their threats...
President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop "bad hombres down there" unless the Mexican military does more to control them, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.
The excerpt of the call did not detail who exactly Trump considered "bad hombres," nor did it make clear the tone and context of the remark, made in a Friday morning phone call between the leaders. It also did not contain Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's response.
Still, the excerpt offers a rare and striking look at how the new president is conducting diplomacy behind closed doors. Trump's remarks suggest he is using the same tough and blunt talk with world leaders that he used to rally crowds on the campaign trail.
A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. The Mexican government said the account was not accurate.
The phone call between the leaders was intended to patch things up between the new president and his ally. The two have had a series of public spats over Trump's determination to have Mexico pay for the planned border wall, something Mexico steadfastly refuses to agree to.
"You have a bunch of bad hombres down there," Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt given to AP. "You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it."
A person with access to the official transcript of the phone call provided only that portion of the conversation to The Associated Press. The person gave it on condition of anonymity because the administration did not make the details of the call public.
There's someone who needs to be told, "you're fired!"
The Mexican website, Aristegui Noticias, on Tuesday published a similar account of phone call, based on the reporting of journalist Dolia Estevez. The report described Trump as humiliating Pena Nieto in a confrontational conversation.
Mexico's foreign relations department denied that account, saying it "is based on absolute falsehoods," and later said the statement also applied to the excerpt provided to AP.
"The assertions that you make about said conversation do not correspond to the reality of it," the statement said. "The tone was constructive and it was agreed by the presidents to continue working and that the teams will continue to meet frequently to construct an agreement that is positive for Mexico and for the United States."
Trump has used the phrase "bad hombres" before. In an October presidential debate, he vowed to get rid the U.S. of "drug lords" and "bad people."
"We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out," he said. The phrase ricocheted on social media with Trump opponents saying he was denigrating immigrants.
Trump's comment was in line with the new administration's bullish stance on foreign policy matters in general, and the president's willingness to break long-standing norms around the globe.
The fresh fight with Mexico last week arose over trade as the White House proposed a 20 percent tax on imports from the key U.S. ally to finance the wall after Pena Nieto abruptly scrapped his Jan. 31 trip to Washington. The U.S. and Mexico conduct some $1.6 billion a day in cross-border trade, and cooperate on everything from migration to anti-drug enforcement to major environmental issues.
Trump tasked his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner — a real estate executive with no foreign policy experience — with managing the ongoing dispute, according to an administration official with knowledge of the call.
At a press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May last week, Trump described his call with Pena Nieto as "friendly."
In a statement, the White House said the two leaders acknowledged their "clear and very public differences" and agreed to work through the immigration disagreement as part of broader discussions on the relationship between their countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
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#1
Trump should play good cop and bad cop with the Mexican President while agreeing to let the US Special Forces (with air assets) conduct a few raids to take some of the big wig drug barons out.
Once the cartels are leaderless the Mexicans can take over the war against them.
#5
Gen. Pershing tried the equivalent in 1916 without significant success. It did however provide some real-world experience that arguably made the US able to win WW I (without US entry they might still be stalemated...)
"“The assertions that you make about said conversation do not correspond to the reality of it,” the Mexican government said in a statement.
“The tone was constructive … and it was agreed by the presidents to continue working and that the teams will continue to meet frequently to construct an agreement that is positive forMexico and for the United States.”
The White House seemed pleased to have someone else calling out the U.S. media for a change.
“Reports that the President threatened to invade Mexico are false. Even the Mexican government is disputing these reports,” a White House official said.
The AP isn't the only one to have reported fake news about the call. According to the report, Mexican website Aristegui Noticias said Trump humiliated Nieto, an allegation that “is based on absolute falsehoods," Mexico’s foreign relations department said."
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said Wednesday they launched an offensive to clear the road linking the strategic towns of Tal Afar and Sinjar in western Mosul from Islamic State militants.
The force’s media service said the “complementary” operation sat on from the region of Ein Hussan to clear the road between the two towns located near the borders with Syria.
Since its formation in 2014 Al-Hashd al-Shaabi has been actively involved in the Iraqi government’s fight against Islamic State militants. PMUs have been active around Islamic State’s supply lines coming from Syria, and had achieved a remarkable victory in November when they recaptured the Tal Afar military airport.The conglomerate of dozens of Shia volunteer militias won state recognition as a national armed force in November.
Iraqi government forces, backed by PMUs and a U.S.-led international military coalition, have been fighting Islamic State since mid October to retake the city of Mosul, the group’s largest bastion in Iraq which fell in its grip in 2014.
Operations have so far managed to recapture the whole eastern section of the city, and preparations are underway to invade the west, where military commanders predict a tougher battle.
PMUs’ involvement in Tal Afar has been a controversial issue as Sunni regional players such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia had voiced fears that their participation in battles for the mostly-Sunni town could have sectarian consequences. The Iraqi government has reiterated its confidence in al-Hashd’s commitment.
Sinjar is, meanwhile, inhabited by a multi-sect population.
(Reuters) Business is booming for Mosul car repair shop owner Khaled Younes, a sign of the havoc wreaked on the Iraqi city that has become the focus for the international war on Islamic State.
Suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices, mortar attacks and airstrikes have wiped out everything in their path, including parked cars, and pulverized much of the northern city that was once a bustling trade hub. The twisted metal wreckage of vehicles can be seen on many streets.
“Business is great. It is up by 50 percent,” said Younes, instructing workers to attend to customers as he frantically glued together the windshield of a vehicle damaged by a mortar bomb.
He and fellow car repair business owners are just about the only people turning a profit as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces press ahead with an offensive to drive Islamic State out of their last urban stronghold in Iraq.
Mosul’s public transportation has been devastated by months of fighting. The mechanics are struggling to keep up with a growing number of customers who desperately need their cars to get to work and bring home food and other provisions.
Demand is set to rise further.
So far, Iraqi forces have cleared Islamic State out of eastern Mosul. The next phase of the operation – attacking western Mosul – is bound to bring in even more destruction.
Mosul is the largest city held by the jihadists and could prove pivotal to the fate of it self-declared caliphate of land of seized in Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi military officials say the militants will put up a ferocious fight to preserve their hold on the city. That means more suicide bombs, car bombs and mortar and rocket attacks.
The widespread damage to cars in Mosul speaks volumes about the intensity of battles over the last three months.
Islamic State car bombs often wreck other vehicles parked along streets. U.S.-led airstrikes cleave rooftops, sending heavy pieces of cement crashing down on cars. Mortar attacks fire shrapnel at great speed across streets – it tears through everything in its path, often killing or maiming people.
FAMILIES NEEDS CARS
Several car repair shops are located along a grimy, dusty lane on the eastern outskirts of Mosul, overlooking a potholed highway. They have been there for decades.
Some businesses there were closed after Islamic State swept into Mosul in 2014, largely unopposed by the army. Others went bust or were subject to the whims of the militants, who often imposed new taxes to fund their war against Baghdad.
For those shops that remain open, profits have never been so hefty.
One rickety truck arrived with about a dozen bullet holes in its windshield, probably the work of one of the many Islamic State snipers posted around the city.
The cost of vital repairs can hammer families’ finances, especially at a time when many people are unemployed and waiting for the local economy to recover while the government struggles to find funding for reconstruction.
“A rocket hit my house and part of the house landed on my car,” said Raghid Mohamed, a 35-year-old teacher, referring to his battered 1990 Mazda.
Beside him, market trader Nizzar Jassem, 50, said it would cost him 600,000 Iraqi dinars ($500) to fix his car, damaged by a piece of rubble that crashed on it after an airstrike, while his monthly income is only 200,000 dinars.
As he spoke, another customer who had only one seat left in his car pulled up. The queues on the lane sometimes form as early as six in the morning. Garages are filled to capacity.
“I have to repair three cars. One was damaged by the Iraqi army. Islamic State burned the other two to put up smokescreens to avoid airstrikes,” said another customer, Samir Abid.
It could have been much worse.
Repair shop owner Ayad Mohamed said, like Younes, his profits were up by half since the fighting began – but he has paid a heavy price for the destruction boosting his income.
One day as the army and jihadists exchanged fire, a mortar bomb killed his son and grandson.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/02/2017
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If you look at the pic at the link, the colonists migrants are sitting in a shiny, new Zodiac boat. Where are the smugglers getting them, and why isn't that market shut down?
Libya’s UN-backed prime minister, Fayez al-Serraj, has said Nato or EU ships could be permitted to operate in Libyan waters alongside the national military coastguard to slow the flow of people-smuggling across the Mediterranean.
Easier to transfer the colonists migrants to EU ships that way...
The move came as a report claimed elements of the Libyan coastguard were complicit in the smuggling and said returning anyone caught on boats to coastal detention centres was risky since conditions there were horrendous.
Complicit? They're business partners...
Serraj’s comments after talks at Nato on Wednesday will be a boost to EU plans to move its anti-smuggling mission Operation Sophia into Libyan waters to help prevent migrants from reaching Europe. The EU is due to discuss a comprehensive plan for Libya at a special heads of state summit on Friday.
“If there is something to be carried out jointly between the Libyan navy and any other party interested in extending a hand to the Libyan navy, that would be possible,” Serraj said. “Of course, we have to modernise our navy flotilla and enhance its capacities. Nato or any other friendly nation on a bilateral basis could extend a hand in this.”
Smugglers’ boats currently can only be turned back to Libya if they are stopped inside Libyan waters, but both Nato and the EU need Libyan government consent to operate inside its sovereign waters.
Why? And what Libyan government?
Serraj, struggling to gain authority inside Libya, is under pressure not to be seen to be succumbing excessively to outsiders.
On Wednesday Italy pledged €200m (£170m) in funds to several African countries as part of its drive to reduce migration at source. The foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, said the fund – aimed at Niger, Libya and Tunisia – would help bolster the “fight against human trafficking and illegal migration”.
He said Europe was not trying to build a wall but helping countries to reduce the incentive to migrate.
A report by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch thinktank, drawing on first-hand research, said migrants intercepted or rescued at sea by the Libyan coastguard were sent to detention centres “where they often spend months languishing with no legal recourse, subject to the whims of their jailers”.
That's supposed to make the next wave of colonists migrants think twice...
It said some smugglers tortured migrants to secure the release of more money from their families, or forced them to work in order to continue their journey. “Moreover, migrants are reportedly sold to criminal groups if they cannot pay for their voyage across the Mediterranean: for €15,000 they were sold to groups, mostly Egyptians, who are involved in removing and selling organs. Finally, based on self-reporting by migrants, up to 40% of migrants are forced on to boats.”
The report added: “Particularly in the northwestern part of Libya, migration is accompanied with absurdly high levels of crime and violence, and migrants are subject to the whims of the group that controls the area they are in. The line between smuggling and trafficking runs thin here, as cases of kidnapping, torture, sexual violence and killings are widespread, and the situation in and around detention centres for immigration is horrific.”
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Nato or EU ships could be permitted to operate in Libyan waters alongside the national military coastguard to slow the flow of people-smuggling across the Mediterranean.
That would imply that Libya had a navy of some kind, and that their dinghies could keep up. And that they had a government that deserved any respect.
Security forces on Wednesday claimed to have killed four suspected militants during an exchange of fire in Balochistan's Dera Bugti district.
Inter-Services Public Service Relations (ISPR) claimed in a statement that security forces also demolished four sanctuaries being allegedly used by the suspects during the action.
The killed suspects were said to be associated with an outlawed organisation operating in the area.
Security forces also claimed to have recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition from possession of the suspects.
The deceased were allegedly involved in attacks on security forces and vital national installations in the area, claimed ISPR.
In a statement released Monday, Department of Homeland Security secretary John Kelly announced that Daniel Ragsdale had been replaced with Thomas Horman as acting ICE Director, all without mentioning Ragsdale's name once. While it is not clear what caused the sudden swap, many speculated it was connected to Yates's dismissal and representative of the administration's attempts to appoint people who will best comply with Trump's ban.
In a separate statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ragsdale will now be returning to his former job as deputy director.
#1
From the linked article "In a separate statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ragsdale will now be returning to his former job as deputy director."
Okay I'll admit I'm slightly befuddled, why dismiss Ragsdale and keep him as deputy director of of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement?
Wikipedia article on Daniel Ragsdale, I couldn't find a bio on Thomas Horman at this point. (Not enough time to wade through a couple thousand google search results, most of has nothing to do with the ICE acting director.
#3
Ree-dick-u-louse! Trump propaganda! This is Fake Fox Fake News!
[/SJW]
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/02/2017 7:38
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This, as a Spaniard it always amuses me how can people vote without an official ID and how try to enforce that is considered racist.
Sorry guys if it sounds rude, but it makes your Election look as the election from some African cheap dictatorship.
In here (Spain) you have to bring a national Country-provided ID, national driver's license or passport. All of them have a picture on them to easily figure out if you're that person or not.
You wanna vote? Proof that you are a citizen with right to vote.
Any other way sounds like bullshit to me.
When you have millions of illegals who know they can go vote without repercussion, who know they are at increased risk of deportation under one candidate over another, and who know their access to government provided services are liable to be limited under one candidate, of course some number will vote.
They broke the law to cross the border. They will not scruple at voting illegally.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
02/02/2017 10:17
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#5
What a coïncidence. In 49 States Hillary did worse than Obama. Only in one did she better than Obam and it is that state, where you don't need an ID who put her ahead in the popular vote. A mere coïncidence.
#6
You wanna vote? Proof that you are a citizen with right to vote.
The poor here are too stupid to be able to do that. But they seem to be smart enough to game the system into getting multiple food stamp cards and perpetual unemployment and other welfare. And have iPhones and the latest Nike Air Whatevers.
[The Nation] Steel cooking-gas cylinders weighing 15 kilograms or less have been banned in southern Thailand except with permission from the provincial energy office. The ban was issued by Fourth Army commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanich to prevent militants making use of the cylinders for bomb-making and to prevent violence in the far South.
The Internal Security Operations Command Region 4's Front Command said that people violating the ban would face a criminal charge which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and/or a Bt40,000 fine.
The U.S government's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said in its latest quarterly report, issued on Tuesday, that 6,785 Afghan security force members were killed between January 1 and November 12 last year, with another 11,777 wounded.
Going on previous reports, this is an increase of about 35 percent against the same period in 2015, when some 5,000 security forces were killed.
The SIGAR report stated that the “majority of ANDSF casualties continue to be the result of direct-fire attacks, with IED explosions and mine strikes accounting for much lower levels of casualties.”
SIGAR’s analysis of the most recent data provided by U.S Forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A) suggests that the security situation in the country has not improved this quarter.
The numbers of Afghan security forces are decreasing, while both casualties and the number of districts under insurgent control or influence are increasing, the report stated.
USFOR-A found that about 57.2 percent of the country’s 407 districts are under Afghan government control or influence as of November 15, 2016 – a 6.2 percent decrease from the 63.4 percent reported the previous quarter ending late August, and a nearly 15 percent decrease since November 2015.
Of the 407 districts of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, 233 districts were under government control (83 districts) or influence (150), 41 districts (in 15 provinces) were under insurgent control (9) or influence (32), and 133 districts were “contested.”
The report describes contested districts as having “negligible meaningful impact from insurgents,” contending that neither the insurgency nor the Afghan government maintains significant control over these areas.
USFOR-A identified the regions/provinces with the largest percentage of insurgent-controlled or -influenced districts as Uruzgan province, with five out of six (83.3 percent) of its districts under insurgent control or influence, and Helmand with eight out of 14 (57.1 percent) of its districts under insurgent control or influence.
The region with the most districts under insurgent control or influence is in northeast Helmand province and northwestern Kandahar province, and includes the Helmand/Kandahar border area, Uruzgan province, and northwestern Zabul.
This region alone accounts for 16 of the 41 districts (or 31.7 percent) under insurgent control or influence.
The report states that USFOR-A attributes the loss of government control or influence over territory to the ANDSF’s strategic approach to security prioritization, identifying the most important areas that the ANDSF must “hold” to prevent defeat, and focusing less on areas with less strategic importance.
“This is an insurgency that still enjoys sanctuary and support from outside the country; that’s very difficult for the Afghans to defeat,” said General John Nicholson, Commander Resolute Support and U.S Forces-Afghanistan in an earlier interview.
However, USFOR-A noted that the insurgents failed in their eight attempts to capture a provincial capital this year.
SIGAR stated that at least 9.2 million people, almost one-third of the Afghan population, "live in areas that are contested," but that about 2.5 million people live under the control or influence of the insurgency, down from 2.9 million over the past three months. The majority, 20.4 million (63.5%), live in areas controlled or influenced by government, the report stated.
Meanwhile, head of Kunduz provincial council Amruddin Wali accused government of incompetence in terms of carrying out successful military operations.
“This incompetence by government and its unsuccessful military operations paved the ground for militants to expand their territory and increase fear among the people,” Wali stated.
“This would have bad consequences. For instance, Taliban took control of Musa Qala and then the war extended to Nad Ali, Marjah and southern districts of Helmand,” deputy head of Helmand provincial council Abdul Majid Akhundzada said.
Commenting on the report, Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said: “We managed to foil the enemy’s goals and we thwarted their plans. The reason behind an increase in our casualties in 2015 and 2016 was that we carried out the operations independently.”
If what I saw is true, I think this would redound to the credit of the Trump Presidency. We saw photo ops with Secretary Lurch in Afghanistan, where soldiers are giving hand-signals. This, on the return of the President from Dover.
I've searched around for a video clip to show what I saw. Couldn't find one. But I'd love to hear you feedback, if this is the case.
As for dropping or not dropping, the rule is that the lower rank initiates the salute, the higher/officer returns it and then drops it. Only after the higher rank/officer drops his can the initiator drop his. If the Marines are holding their salute past the president dropping theirs, this could be a sign they don't approve, or just the SOP for that guard post as they are saluting everyone going by in the party as there might be people in there that need to be saluted as well.
Either way, I would be the Marines really appreciate a man bringing fighters back into the military and who is willing to fight himself against his foes.
Also, in the links it seems they weren't sure about saluting on a battlefield. You never... EVER... salute on a battlefield. That is how you get officers shot by snipers. In base at times salutes will be allowed/expected, but not on a battlefield.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State militants were killed on Wednesday after they had an argument over the fair way to share money plundered from civilians, according to a security source.
The trio had an argument over amounts of money they had stolen from commercial shops at the town of al-Qaem, which turned into a deadly armed fight at al-Malaab area, according to a source Anbar’s security operations.
IS cells in Qaem had used to steal money, electricity generators, civilians’ cars, building materials and even sheep and sell them to smugglers or transfer them to Syria to secure finances for the fighters, according to the source.
Islamic State has been holding a number of towns in western Anbar, close to the borders with Syria, since it emerged in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate” on Iraqi territory. Army and U.S.-led fighter aircraft have occasionally pounded the group’s locations at those regions.
No official security campaign has been declared by the government yet to recapture western Anbar towns as its forces have been busy since mid October struggling to retake Mosul, Islamic State’s biggest stronghold in the country. Anbar’s military command launched a brief offensive early January, which succeeded in recapturing a few villages before halting again.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A source in Anbar Province revealed that security forces started to destruct the tunnels of the Islamic State group in Khalidiya area, east of Ramadi, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.
The source said, “Joint forces from Iraqi Army and police, in coordination with Khalidiya District Council started, today, to destruct the tunnels of the Islamic State group in al-Malahema area in Khalidiya vicinity.”
“Security forces managed to reopen main and secondary roads in al-Malahema area, after removing the remnants of the Islamic State, to facilitate the return of displaced persons to the area,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Noteworthy, security force liberated al-Khalidiya area few months ago, while continue to cleanse and secure the liberated areas in preparation for the return of displaced people.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
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Assuming the somber duties of commander in chief, President Donald Trump made an unannounced trip Wednesday to honor the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a weekend raid in Yemen.
Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. More than half a dozen militant suspects were also killed in the raid on an Al Qaeda compound and three other U.S. service members were wounded.
Trump's trip to Delaware's Dover Air Base was shrouded in secrecy. The president and his daughter, Ivanka, departed the White House in the presidential helicopter with their destination unannounced. A small group of journalists traveled with Trump on the condition that the visit was not reported until his arrival.
After returning to the White House, Trump commented on the trip at the swearing-in of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.
"I just returned from an amazing visit with a great, great family at Dover," Trump said. "It is something very sad, very beautiful. Ryan, a great man."
Marine One landed at Dover shortly before a C-17 believed to be carrying Owens' remains touched down. The president met with Owens' family during a two-hour visit to the base. The sailor's family had requested that Trump's visit and the return of Owens' remains be private.
Owens joined the Navy in 1998 and was the recipient of two Bronze stars, a Joint Service Commendation and an Afghanistan Campaign Medal, among other honors. In a statement following his death, the Navy Special Command called Owens a "devoted father, a true professional and a wonderful husband."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
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Most likely Trumps first combat mission that he approved. Has to be sobering to realize that your first order as Commander in Chief resulted in the death of good man. Something he has never had to experience before.
CAIRO, Egypt: A Syrian opposition figure who says he controls 3,000 Arab fighters has told Reuters they are training with US-led coalition forces in preparation to help drive Islamic State from its de facto capital in the city of Raqqa.
Ahmad Jarba commands the Syrian Elite Forces, described by the US military as a significant component of the coalition assembled against Daesh.
Its involvement in the battle for Raqqa, alongside the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is welcomed by Washington, which is keen to broaden the political base of the opposition forces in the area.
“Now we are preparing for the battle of Raqqa,” Jarba said in an interview in Cairo. “There is a training program with the coalition forces. We will be ready to enter this battle in force and we are in the process of preparing for it to liberate our lands.”
The SDF launched an operation in Raqqa province in November aimed ultimately at seizing the northern city from Islamic State. The first two phases captured territory to the north and west of Raqqa and the third will seek to take remaining areas.
One decision awaiting US President Donald Trump is whether to directly provide weapons to Kurdish fighters as they push toward Raqqa. Trump has made defeating Islamic State a key aim and ordered his joint chiefs of staff to devise a plan in 30 days to defeat the group.
Arab contingent
The United States considers the Kurds allies in Syria but has said the Raqqa operation should be predominantly Arab, the ethnicity of most of its residents. The SDF already includes an Arab contingent, the Syrian Arab Coalition, but recruiting Arab allies has been a priority to ease ethnic concerns locally and in neighboring Turkey.
Jarba said he had struck a deal with the US-led coalition in December to deploy his all-Arab force in the fight for Raqqa.
“In the last two months there have been meetings with senior officials of the American army and the international coalition forces against terrorism,” he said.
Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve, described Jarba’s men in December as a “notable” force, and said the Syrian was an influential player in the region.
The SDF also confirmed in December that Jarba’s forces would be joining it from the second phase of the attack on Raqqa.
Feud with terrorists
Jarba enjoys strong ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and commands what he says is a force of 3,000, currently deployed between Deir Al-Zor to the east, Raqqa to the north and Hasaka in the northeastern corner of Syria.
He aims to attract new recruits among locals who helped expel President Bashar Assad’s army from northeastern Syria in 2011-12 before losing ground to Daesh, which swept through the area in 2014.
“There is a feud between us and this terrorist organization,” said Jarba, who hails from northeastern Syria.
He welcomed Trump’s move to heal differences with Russia, a key Assad ally whose military support has swung the six-year civil war in favor of the government.
“What we are hoping for is that there will be a American-Russian agreement, because the differences between America and Russia are what have harmed us as Syrians,” he said.
Jarba said he would likely visit the United States in the coming months and may also travel to Russia.
Karbala (IraqiNews.com) Head of Karbala Provincial Council, Nassif Jassim al-Khatabi announced on Wednesday, that an airstrike destroyed a booby-trapped vehicle in the outskirts of al-Rahaliyah area, west of the province.
Khatabi said in a press statement, “Security forces conducted an air strike targeting a booby-trapped vehicle carrying rockets, mortar shells and grenades in Shuaib area, in the outskirts of al-Rahaliyah area.”
“The air strike destroyed the vehicle, which was prepared to attack civilians in the province, completely,” Khatabi added.
Khatabi also pointed out that the operation was carried out under the supervision of Commander of Operations, Major General Qais al-Mahamadawi, and based on accurate information.
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
based on accurate information.
More commonly referred to as tactical intelligence.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) A local source in Diyala Province revealed that Asayish forces found a booby-trapped flag belonging to the Islamic State in a village northeast of Baqubah, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.
The source said, “The Kurdish forces of Asayish discovered a booby-trapped flag, using three explosive devices, belonging to the Islamic State group in the village of Taba Tarma (114 northeast of Baqubah).”
“Security forces removed the flag, after dismantling the improvised explosive devices,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
“The incident raised concerns among the residents of the village, and represented a clear threat message from the Islamic State to them,” the source further explained.
Noteworthy, several areas and villages in Diyala Province suffer from attacks launched by the Islamic State against civilians.
Posted by: badanov ||
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General Baba Jan, the commander of 707 Pamir Police Unit, on Wednesday said that up to 600 foreign fighters and their families have moved in to some provinces in the northern parts of the country.
According to Baba Jan, the total number of militants fighting security forces in Samangan, Balkh, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul and Faryab provinces is estimated to be around 7,000.
He said the Afghan security forces are determined to clear insurgent hideouts in the northern zone next spring in order to prevent any further advancement.
“Up to 600 foreign militants and their families are in our area of responsibility,” said Baba Jan. However, no details as to the origins of these fighters were given.
Foreign militants are deployed in Kohistanat, Balcharagh, Garizwan, Ghormach and Dawlat Abad districts of Sar-e-Pul and Faryab where they frequently engage in armed confrontation with security forces, he said.
Baba Jan said some police commanders have handed over their weapons to some powerful elements in the north in a bid to secure their own survival.
Investigations are underway to regain these weapon and to identify those involved, he added.
“Some of our commanders provided weapons and vehicles to powerful persons for their own survival and now they are not able to take them back, it is a major violation,” said Baba Jan.
Meanwhile, civil society activists in Balkh have also raised deep concerns over drug smuggling in the northern regions of the country.
“There are some elements who exploit families of those addicted to drugs,” said civil society activist Abdul Hamid Sefwat.
“When they get the men addicted to drugs, then the smugglers ask them for their daughters in exchange for heroin,” he added.
There are huge concerns among the people in Balkh that the security will further deteriorate in the northern regions of the country if government does not take solid action against drug smugglers and take back the weapons handed over to powerful persons.
#1
It only seems fair that if the militants are there to mess with the locals' families that the locals ought to be able to mess with the militants' families.
Check musta cleared
A surgeon kidnapped one month ago in Sheberghan city of Jawzjan province has been killed by his kidnappers.
The victim’s son, Hamidullah, said the kidnappers were paid almost $20,000 USD in ransom but after receiving the money, they killed his father, Mohammad Ibrahimi, and dumped his body in Dasht-e-Laili of Sheberghan city.
Hamidullah has appealed to government to track down the kidnappers and ensure they are prosecuted. Officials from Jawzjan have not as yet commented.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of another doctor who was kidnapped two weeks ago in Parwan province is still unknown. Dr Saifullah Warasta, acting-technical adviser for the Parwan Public Health Department, was kidnapped two weeks ago in Hawoz-e-Mullah Shahid area of Jabal Saraj district when he was on his way to home.
Tribal elders from Jabal Saraj district of Parwan province have warned however that if government does not take serious steps to secure the release of this doctor they will organize a demonstration.
Oh that'll shake 'em. Get Ashley Judd to go nasty on them...
Government has not commented on this. But security forces said recently they are working on securing the release of the doctor.
On Tuesday a number of doctors gathered at the provincial governor’s building and warned government officials if the doctor is not released soon they will close all health centers in Parwan province.
Germany has ruled out giving Turkey unfiltered access to imagery gathered by its Tornado fighter jets operating out of the İncirlik Air Base in southern Turkey as part of a broader fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the German Defense Ministry said, according to a report on German website Bild.de on Jan. 31.
The statement came after another German media outlet, Der Spiegel, reported a diplomatic cable as saying that Turkey had linked its approval of German housing investments for its troops at the İncirlik base to getting access to imagery from Syria and Iraq collected by Germany’s six Tornado reconnaissance air crafts based in the same air base.
German lawmakers, concerned that Turkey could use the high-resolution aerial imagery in its military campaign against autonomy-seeking Kurds in Syria and Iraq, have put strict limits on how German forces can share the data they gather. The lawmakers also fear the imagery can reach Russia, after Turkey’s recent rapprochement with the country following nine months of highly-strained relations due to Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet along its border with Syria on Nov. 24, 2015.
The thorny issue, emerging a few days before Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to travel to Turkey on Feb. 2 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, could cause further strain in the already frayed relationship between the two NATO allies.
The cable published by Der Spiegel described Turkey’s push to tie the imagery issue to German plans to build new housing at the base as “blackmail.” It said two senior Turkish officials, a senior military officer and a policy adviser of Erdoğan had issued the demand.
A Defense Ministry spokesman said the German air force flew its surveillance missions in strict conformity with the underlying parliamentary mandate and provided the imagery “solely to the anti-ISIL coalition,” according to Reuters. He said the German military followed a careful process to ensure the data was not misused for other purposes, Reuters added.
The German Defense Ministry confirmed that the blueprints for the buildings aimed at being built inside the İncirlik base for the about 250 German troops have long been waiting to be approved by the Turkish side.
“The signing by Turkey is out, the reasons for the delay are not known to us,” Bild.de quoted the ministry as saying.
German lawmakers last year voted to extend support to the U.S.-led fight against ISIL over the end of 2017, including deployment of over 250 soldiers at İncirlik. But this was only after Ankara reversed its position and allowed German lawmakers to visit the base. Turkey had angered Berlin by temporarily blocking visits to İncirlik after German lawmakers voted last June to declare the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces in 1915 a “genocide.”
The two countries have also been at odds over Turkey’s crackdown on dissidents after the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt, and Turkey’s claims, which Berlin rejects, that Germany is harboring Kurdish militants and other enemies of the Turkish state.
Turkey’s Defense Minister Fikri Işık over the weekend said that Germany should reject requests for asylum from some 40 former Turkish soldiers that Ankara suspects of having links to the coup attempt.
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Syrian opposition representatives will have talks with Turkish officials in Ankara on Feb. 6 in order to set a course for the upcoming talks in Astana and Geneva, a Turkish official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Hürriyet Daily News.
The second round of Syria talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana is expected to take place on Feb. 8, between the regime and opposition fractions with the participation of guarantor states Russia, Iran and Turkey.
Representatives of the Syrian government and opposition groups recently came together in Astana on Jan. 23 and 24 with the participation of Turkish, Russian and Iranian diplomats, as well as the United Nations’ special representative for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Moscow, Ankara and Tehran agreed to monitor government and rebel compliance with the shaky cease-fire in Syria.
A joint communiqué released on the aftermath of the talks underlined the need for the continuation of the nationwide cease-fire in Syria and noted that talks would be held once more under the auspices of the U.N. in Geneva on Feb. 8.
But the convention in Geneva was postponed to Feb. 20, according to de Mistura, in order to allow a cease-fire to take hold and to give the opposition time to present a united front. De Mistura said at a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the postponement would help bolster preparations for the talks aimed at ending the nearly six-year war.
“We want to give a chance both to the government to become seriously engaged in discussions and the opposition … to actually be able to be given a chance to come with one unified opposition,” De Mistura told reporters after the meeting.
“If the cease-fire becomes as solid as we hope, that will only help the Syria talks,” said the envoy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week announced they would be delayed, without providing reasons or a new date.
De Mistura warned that if the opposition failed to agree on the composition of the delegation by Feb. 8, he would be selecting the representatives from the various groups, who will come to the peace table. The Syrian opposition has been divided over representation in the talks.
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The Syrian army continued on Wednesday striking ISIL terrorists in various provinces as the Russian reconciliation center in Hmeimim announced that the governmental troops managed within the past 24 hours to regain control over 8 villages in Homs and Deir Ezzor countryside from the takfiri group.
Damascus Countryside
An army unit carried out concentrated strikes against movements and infiltration points of ISIL terrorists to the east of al-Sein airport in northeastern Damascus Countryside.
A military source told SANA that the army unit killed a number of ISIL terrorists in the strikes and destroyed a tank and a vehicle equipped with a machinegun used by the terrorists.
Deir Ezzor
Army units, in cooperation with supporting forces and with aerial support, targeted ISIL gatherings and positions in the surroundings of Deir Ezzor city.
SANA’s correspondent in Deir Ezzor said that any army unit used a guided missile to destroy a machinegun-equipped vehicle for ISIL in the surroundings of the supplying brigade south of the city.
He added that the Syrian Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIL positions in the surroundings of the graveyards area, Jenaid battalion, and the supplying brigade south of the city, which inflicted losses in personnel and equipment upon the terrorists.
Homs
A military source told SANA that army units established full control over a large area about 15 km long and 25km wide which includes Fidda well, Fidda farm, and al-Hayr al-Gharbi castle to the south of T4 Airport 25 km in the countryside of Homs province, inflicting heavy losses in personnel and equipment upon ISIL terrorists.
Earlier, a military source said that army units destroyed 6 machinegun-equipped vehicles for ISIL in Ayed al-Hassoun hill and Oum al-Kheir hills in the eastern countryside of Homs province.
Source: SANA
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The Trump administration has said it was “officially putting Iran on notice” in reaction to an Iranian missile test and an attack on a Saudi warship by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen but gave no details about how Washington intended to respond.
The threat was made on Wednesday by the national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in his first public statement since taking office. Speaking in the White House briefing room, Flynn said a missile launch on Sunday and a Houthi attack on a Saudi frigate on Monday underlined Iran’s “destabilizing behavior across the Middle East.”.
Flynn did not specify how the new administration would respond. Asked for clarification, the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, said the president wanted to make sure the Iranians “understood we are not going to sit by and not act on their actions”.
At a White House briefing, senior administration officials repeatedly refused to rule out any options for a US response, including military intervention.
“There are a large number of options available to the administration,” one senior official said. “We’re going to take appropriate action.”
Asked if measures under consideration included a military option, the official replied: “We are considering a whole range of options.”
The official declined to say whether the White House had sent a message to Tehran putting it on notice.
“We are in the second week. We do not want to be premature or rash or take any action that would foreclose options or unnecessarily contribute to a negative response.”
The announcement was not accompanied by any change in the US military stance in the region, nor any immediate additional deployments.
“We saw the statement as well,” said a spokesman for US central command, which runs operations in the Middle East. “This is still at the policy level, and we are waiting for something to come down the line. We have not been asked to change anything operationally in the region.”
Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group in Washington, said: “It’s either an empty threat or a clear statement of intent to go to war with Iran. Both are reckless and dangerous ... In an attempt to look strong, the administration could stumble into a war that would make the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts look like a walk in the park.”
Thanks Mr. Expert. I think that makes clear your opinion, though it didn't shed any light on the situation.
During the election campaign, the Trump team repeatedly signaled that it would take a much tougher line towards Tehran.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
...as expert warns the White House could 'stumble into war'.
So they drag out one guy from a Soros funded Tranzi org with absolutely zero insight into the issue to cast the most ominous prediction. Globalst panic mode appears to be setting in quickly.
Israeli security forces began the long-threatened eviction of hundreds of hardline Jewish settlers from the illegal outpost of Amona on the occupied West Bank, hours after the government said it was approving the construction of thousands more settlement homes elsewhere.
Amona is just northeast of Ramallah.
The move, by several thousand police who descended on the windswept hilltop on Wednesday morning, came after years of foot-dragging and political controversy over the outpost, which is built on private Palestinian land.
The court-ordered eviction was expected to continue late into the night on Wednesday, as police moved in to drag out hundreds of mainly young supporters from the several dozen prefabricated homes in which they had barricaded themselves.
At least 13 police officers were injured in sporadic clashes with the settlers as teenagers set fires, threw objects and scuffled with officers as they swamped the outpost. A bulldozer and water cannon were brought up as residents were told to pack up their belongings.
Hours before the operation to seal the outpost of Amona, Israel announced 3,000 new homes in the West Bank settlements. Some 6,000 new settlement homes have been announced since Trump’s inauguration last Friday. Next week, Israel’s parliament is expected to vote on a bill to allow the “legalisation” of a tranche of other illegal outposts built on private Palestinian land.
As the police descended on the Amona site, Israel’s far-right education minister, Naftali Bennett, demanded the annexation of the “entire West Bank”.
About 250 people in 50 families live in Amona, but in recent weeks dozens more people have arrived to face off against Israeli forces. Residents had said they planned to resist their evacuation peacefully.
“This is a dark day for us, for Zionism, for the state and for the great vision of the Jewish people returning to its homeland,” Avichay Buaron, a spokesman for Amona, said as the operation began.
Far-right lawmaker Moti Yogev, whose Jewish Home party is part of Israel’s governing coalition, was among those who joined the settlers in a show of solidarity and linked the demolition to the prospect of further construction elsewhere.
“Yes, Amona will be destroyed,” he said, “but against Amona we are going to build 3,000 new homes.”
Israel’s supreme court ruled in 2014 that Amona was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished. It has set 8 February as the final date for it to be destroyed. Amona is the largest of around 100 unauthorised outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government. The outpost, built in the 1990s, stretches out over a rugged, grassy hilltop and looks out across the valley on to Palestinian villages.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2017
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two civilians were killed and 6 others were in three blasts that rocked areas north, east and west of Baghdadw, security sources said.
Alghad Press quoted the source as saying that an employee at the Iraqi electricity ministry died immediately when a bomb implanted beneath his private vehicle exploded in Abu Gharib in western Baghdad on Wednesday,
A second IED placed near a popular market in al-Shaab region, north of the capital, also wounded two civilians, sources told Alsumaria News.
Another civilian died east of Baghdad and four others were wounded when a bomb planted on the side of a road in Jisr Diyala region went off, Alsumaria News reported.
Violence surged in Iraq with the emergence of Islamic State militants who took over large areas of the country in 2014. Baghdad has been witnessing almost daily bombings targeting civilians and security personnel.
Nobody has claimed responsibility yet for the Wednesday bombing, but IS militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions that hit the capital in the past months, bringing the governorate’s municipal and security officials under critics’ fire.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence in the country left 19000 casualties in nine months of 2016.
Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses.
While losing Mosul could be the severest blow to the group’s existence in Iraq, some observers believe attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat for all cities.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and five others were wounded on Wednesday when an explosive device went off near a popular marketplace north of Baghdad.
A security source told Alghad Press that the device exploded at Boub al-Sham region, adding that police cordoned the area off following the blast.
The explosion follows three other ones earlier on the same day which killed 2 and wounded 6 in north, east and west of Baghdad.
Violence surged in Iraq with the emergence of Islamic State militants who took over large areas of the country in 2014. Baghdad has been witnessing almost daily bombings targeting civilians and security personnel.
Nobody has claimed responsibility yet for the Wednesday bombing, but IS militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions that hit the capital in the past months, bringing the governorate’s municipal and security officials under critics’ fire.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence in the country left 19000 casualties in nine months of 2016.
Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses.
While losing Mosul could be the severest blow to the group’s existence in Iraq, some observers believe attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat for all cities.
Idlib – Offices of the Syrian Red Moon Shaped Thingy Crescent in the northwestern city of Idlib were hit by airstrikes at midnight on Wednesday, activists reported. The strikes caused casualties among the organisation’s staff and an extensive material damage to its offices in Idlib.
“At least four staff members of the Syrian Red Moon Shaped Thingy Crescent were injured in the airstrikes, one of them is in critical condition,” media activist Abdulqadir Othman told ARA News in Idlib.
“The bombardment also caused a massive destruction to the organisation’s offices,” the source reported.
Although it was not immediately clear which airforce was behind the strikes, local activists accused the Syrian regime of conducting the attack.
“Destroying offices of the Red Moon Shaped Thingy Crescent and targeting its staff in Idlib would only serve the Assad regime. So the regime’s air force is most likely behind Wednesday’s strikes,” opposition activist Khalid al-Saleh told ARA News.
Idlib is considered one of the main Syrian governorates out of the regime’s control.
Syrian and Russian warplanes have been carrying out raids against rebel groups and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militants in Idlib Governorate. Also, the US-led coalition has recently started targeting positions of the al-Qaeda-splinter group of Fateh al-Sham in Idlib.
"If people had doubts about the Mexican government being influenced and controlled by drug cartels, well, they can put that doubt away. In a stunning segment on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN broadcast today Mexico’s former foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, states the Mexican government is willing to counter U.S. President Donald Trump policy by unleashing drug cartels upon the U.S. border. Helping make the POTUS case for greater border security.
Watch, and more importantly LISTEN, to his words at 02:10 at the link.
This is the most politically explosive admission by the Mexican government in the past decade. Even Fareed Zakaria realized what was being threatened and quickly attempted to redirect the conversation.
Castaneda is openly admitting a willingness to promote drug trafficking. Additionally, Jorge Castaneda is so proud of the threat, he even posted a video of the discussion on his own YouTube page.
However, don’t expect the video to remain in place too long, because the implications here are so politically explosive, and the admission so brutally obvious and threatening, it could undermine the entire argument of the Mexican government and expose an open secret of collusion they would prefer to remain hidden. Proving absolutely that the Mexican Government is in bed with the Cartels. Arm Photon Trumpedoes...
#2
I had better not EVER hear that fucking shit from you again.
Ever.
You want round three?
Fuck with my border - fuck with MY Officers, MY Civilians.
Forbidden.
You have a bad attitude. That goes for many of you other Nations.
This is not about Trump. This is about Correction. This is about making sure the shit your idiot ass does not happen.
#3
So the guy said he'd give the US military the green light to go into Mexico and destroy the cartels. Interesting offer. The real question is would we bother with nation building afterwards or leave them as the semi-failed state they are.
#4
The cartels are incenerating hundreds of men, women and children in 55 gallon barrels too close to our borders (Link) and since the story at the link, a location has been confirmed as at a government facility.
Trump now has privy to intelligence that most likely immediately made him think about intervention with this going down too close to our own border population.
#8
Re: drug vs narcotics. Yes, for practical purposes.There's a lot of confusions about 'drugs', 'narcotics, 'medications', 'pharmaceuticals' etc. ... For example, cocaine, and crack and other stimulants are definitely not narcotics from a medical point of view. "Narcotics" are drugs that put you to sleep.
#11
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster stated that there are only two ways to fight the US...stupidly or asymmetrically. This article outlines a classic asymmetric warfare approach. The warlords in the south have been exploiting us for decades...they weaken us with their poison, strengthen themselves with our money, send waves of poor refugees in to mask their activities and hobble our response. We should not forget the lessons learned in Afghanistan...that warlords can be more powerful than nation states...they exist in Mexico and are a clear and present danger.
#14
Wait a minute. This sounds like a hollow threat to me. I mean, what can they do that they are not already doing?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/02/2017 11:58
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#15
But I agree with Tennessee and Shipman: clear and present danger, tar baby on steroids. Just build the wall and make damn sure they stay on their side of it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/02/2017 12:00
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#16
Just start punishing American businesses which employ illegals - make employing illegals more expensive.
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.
A former soldier from Texas who made social media postings about police brutality, U.S. sovereignty and Islamic teachings is accused of fatally shooting an armed Regional Transportation District security officer in the head late Tuesday outside of Denver Union Station.
China continues to make strides in its aircraft carrier program, with a number of milestones achieved in 2016 and looks set to make more in 2017. The country’s sole carrier, the refurbished Soviet-era Kuznetsov-class ship, now renamed the Liaoning, was declared “combat ready” in November by Senior Capt. Li Dongyou, the political commissar onboard the ship as it departed for a training cruise that included a stopover at the purpose-built pier at the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) base near Sanya on Hainan island on the edge of the South China Sea. 
[Task & Purpose] The Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden has a book coming out about the Abbottabad raid.
[LI] Members of the House of Commons voted by 498 to 114 to advance the bill that would give Prime Minister Theresa May the authority to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty -- the formal process of leaving the EU.
[Free Beacon] The two Republicans who broke ranks with their party and announced they would vote against education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos have received thousands of dollars from the nation's largest teachers union.
[Free Beacon] A manufacturing CEO told lawmakers on Wednesday that costs imposed by the Affordable Care Act had negatively impacted his company's ability to hire new workers, make capital investments, and develop new products.
[Free Beacon] Europe serves as a "launching pad" for ISIS jihadists to initiate attacks against the United States due to the absence of a cohesive information-sharing strategy among Western nations, former acting CIA director John McLaughlin said Wednesday.
[PJ] Thousands of anarchists and students are swarming the University of California, Berkeley campus to protest a planned speech by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulous. There is currently a large fire blazing in front of the student union, which is surrounded by a ring of protesters, many of whom are clad in black. The protesters reportedly include a mix of students, professors, and the usual anarchist rabble rousers. Some are protecting themselves with cardboard shields as police try to disperse the crowd. There are reports of broken glass at the student union in addition to the fire.
Turkey and Greece have become embroiled in a fresh rift over the Kardak islets in the Aegean Sea, which are claimed by both countries, and which almost led the two sides to war 21 years ago.
[The Nation] Steel cooking-gas cylinders weighing 15 kilograms or less have been banned in southern Thailand except with permission from the provincial energy office. The ban was issued by Fourth Army commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanich to prevent militants making use of the cylinders for bomb-making and to prevent violence in the far South.
Karbala (IraqiNews.com) Head of Karbala Provincial Council, Nassif Jassim al-Khatabi announced on Wednesday, that an airstrike destroyed a booby-trapped vehicle in the outskirts of al-Rahaliyah area, west of the province.
