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Emir of Al-Qaeda allied Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, Zakir Musa, has been officially killed
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Legislators Brawling (comic)
[GoComics] I am sure this applies to several governments.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/24/2019 10:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  India, Pakistan, Japan. All African parliaments.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 11:00 Comments || Top||


Europe
Verhofstadt in Budapest gets vocally mugged.
[YouTube] "You are a traitor of Europe, go for dentist now!" (4.55 in)..Islamic call to prayer and shouts of Alan Snackbar directed at the "Bruselista". .some English spoken here and there.



Posted by: Unosh Hupinelet8756 || 05/24/2019 10:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Government
USDA staffers quit en masse as Trump administration eyes moving offices out of DC
[FoxNews] Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway.

Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers.

“This move does not serve a public purpose,” Peter Winch, a representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents ERS workers, told Fox News. “Employees don’t want to move, and it doesn’t make sense for them to move.”

Winch added that since ERS employees joined AFGE earlier this month, six employees have already quit their jobs with the government agency in response to the planned move. He said overall staffing is down to 209 from 300 during the Obama administration.

A Washington Post report cited an estimate that the ERS used to see roughly one “non-retirement” departure per month – but that pace has doubled since October. NIFA reportedly has also seen people leave.

Critics, including former USDA officials, say the move would weaken the agencies, reduce their influence with lawmakers and provide little benefit to the farming community.

Winch argued that weakening the agencies' influence in Washington is at least part of the point. The NIFA funds grants that go into researching the effects the agriculture sector has on climate change – which the Trump administration has tried to downplay – and Perdue was allegedly upset by NIFA’s policy to support LGBT members of the 4-H youth farming organization.

The president’s 2020 budget has also proposed slashing funding to ERS research from $87 million to $61 million and cutting 160 jobs, while Perdue has suggested moving the agency from under the USDA’s science arm to being supervised by the USDA’s chief economist, a political wing of the department.

“There is some sort of punitive motivation,” Winch said. “Someone has made a negative judgment about these agencies.”

Perdue and his staff have narrowed the list of places where the two agencies could go down to three from an original 130 -- with Kansas City, the state of Indiana and North Carolina’s research triangle in the Raleigh-Durham area on the shortlist. St. Louis, Mo., and Madison, Wis., are two alternate locations.

Perdue is expected to make the announcement of where the agencies will move as soon as Friday, but it remains unclear whether the two agencies will actually leave Washington.
Brilliant.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 09:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He said overall staffing is down to 209 from 300 during the Obama administration.

That isn't a problem, that's a solution.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 14:01 Comments || Top||

#2  "This is preposterous ! I did not join the federal Govt. to live near farms. Do they even serve iced Latte in Kansas ?"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 14:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Makes logistical sense, but these are government staffers. They didn't get this job to rub elbows with the serfs.

Good fucking riddance you parasites.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 14:30 Comments || Top||

#4  also i believe it would serve a purpose too the people of the US. It would probably alot cheaper too have the offices away from Washinton D.C.
Posted by: chris || 05/24/2019 14:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Also, shift the FBI HQ to Connecticut.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 14:43 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't see why they couldn't share office space and possibly staff with various local State Ag departments that also do these same things. Cut the Federal staff down to the bone. The only cash crop raised in DC is higher taxes.
Posted by: magpie || 05/24/2019 15:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Just close the damn thing. We don't need the USDA, the Department of Education or the Department of Energy, just to name three.
Posted by: Creling Pelosi3622 || 05/24/2019 21:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Also, shift the FBI HQ to Connecticut.

Adak, Alaska.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Clavith3514 || 05/24/2019 21:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Doctored videos shared to make Pelosi sound drunk viewed millions of times on social media
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 08:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not really much of a side by side. How do we know it was doctored?
Posted by: Iblis || 05/24/2019 13:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Or maybe the 'un-drunk' one is the doctored one, courtesy of the fine edit labs at CNN.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 13:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I doubt they are all that doctored.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 16:15 Comments || Top||

#4  She has always seemed as if she is drunk.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 16:16 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
What Happens when You Release a Traitor?
Open season?
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/24/2019 08:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If he heads to Ireland, he better watch his knees.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/24/2019 16:33 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
SPENGLER: There's No Cure for Jihad
My review essay "The Koran and Jihad" appears in the latest Claremont Review of Books, America's premier journal of conservative thought and the only publication I read cover to cover. CRB has generously unlocked the essay from its paywall for PJ Media readers.

I review two book on Islam, including the estimable Robert Spencer's new History of Jihad. If jihad were just an ideology, it could be eliminated, at least in theory. But it's something worse, I argue: it's a manifestation of tribal barbarism assaulting civilized society:
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 08:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is MOST definitely a cure. Know muslims, no peace. No muslims, know peace.
Posted by: Ebbusoter Phomort9156 || 05/24/2019 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Jihadist like a pedo? No cure?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Sure there is. It is called killing those fuckers.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe not, but you can bury those that you catch sewn into a pig carcass and watch what happens.

On the other hand, you can do like 0bumhole and bury them at sea with full Muslim honors.
Posted by: gorb || 05/24/2019 9:51 Comments || Top||

#5  I say enforce the Texas Law:"He deserved killin'!! "
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/24/2019 10:05 Comments || Top||

#6  This is defeatism talking. The writer just means to say that because the sociological evolution of the cult has been so charged with historic folly and so many western influences have failed to civilize its adherents - there is no point in attempting to control or curb their tendencies.

We don't want to civilize them. We want them to realize that violence is not going to get them anywhere near their ill-defined, ambiguous goals.

Eliminate enough sasquatches and eventually the message will get across, that you may rob, kill, rape or abduct anyone of your own communities, but non-muslims are off limits. This should be enough.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 10:52 Comments || Top||

#7  You can't kill your way to victory. We've been doing that for 17 years and it Does. Not. Work.

If it was going to work, it would have worked by now.

What do you call someone who pushes theories that don't make accurate predictions?

What do you call someone who is no longer looking at what is actually happening, and just shouting down anyone that disagrees with them?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 10:56 Comments || Top||

#8  i'm all for not killing them anymore, as long as they either go back to or stay in their Dar al-Islam

Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 05/24/2019 11:17 Comments || Top||

#9  What do you call someone who pushes theories that don't make accurate predictions?

A Weatherman?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 11:21 Comments || Top||

#10  You can't kill your way to victory. We've been doing that for 17 years and it Does. Not. Work.

Killing your way to victory looks like the piles of skulls and streets and rivers running red with blood. It looks like Dresden after the firebombing. We have most definitely not been doing that — we’ve been carefully targetting key individuals and groups while trying to win the hearts and minds of the populace, trying to drain the sea in which the bad guys swim, if you will.

And that is manifestly not working in Afghanistan and Somalia, etc. We haven’t even tried as much as that in Pakistan. Perhaps Herb is right — perhaps it’s time to change what we’re doing and do unto them what they did to others: Kill our way to victory, leaving piles of bodies and devastation in our wake.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 11:37 Comments || Top||

#11 
You can't kill your way to victory. We've been doing that for 17 years and it Does. Not. Work.


We have NOT been doing anything of the sort. We've been social-working the problem, lying to ourselves by saying "the jihadis don't have any support". We find that Jihad Group A doesn't have support in Tribe B, and assume that means no one supports them -- despite "womens and orphans" "charities" around the world funneling them cash.

Muslims don't support jihadis who target them. Muslims enthusiastically support jihadis who target non-Muslims.

So long as we keep lying to ourselves, we won't win.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/24/2019 14:21 Comments || Top||

#12  I seem to remember reading about someone a long time ago who killed his way to victory, I think his name was Ghengis Kahn....or maybe it was Vlad Tepich.

I think we could find some others if we looked.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/24/2019 14:27 Comments || Top||

#13  You can't kill your way to victory

Like "true" socialism... it hasn't been tried yet
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/24/2019 16:28 Comments || Top||

#14  You can't kill your way to victory

Oh, yeah?
Japan, 1945
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 16:38 Comments || Top||

#15  You can't kill your way to victory

Please do go on.
Posted by: Tamerlame || 05/24/2019 17:09 Comments || Top||

#16  You can't kill your way to victory

Have you read my book? There must be a copy around here somewhere.
Posted by: Gaius Julius Caesar || 05/24/2019 17:38 Comments || Top||

#17  Have you read my book? There must be a copy around here somewhere.

Caesar, I believe there is a copy in theCuria Pompeia...come, I shall show you where.
Posted by: Gaius Cassius Longinus || 05/24/2019 17:42 Comments || Top||

#18  The Japanese surrendered because their worst fear was realized and Russia, their old enemy, declared war on them.

"Kill our way to victory, leaving piles of bodies and devastation in our wake."

My, you're a bloodthirsty one. I had no idea. So they were right about us when they found out about Abu Ghraib. I always thought that was a horrible aberration, and now it seems like a picnic compared to the mountain of skulls you want to make.

How about this for a strategy: instead of bombs, send cargo planes to drop $100 bills on them. It would work better and be cheaper. Plus, no mountain of skulls. Because that just screams "we're the good guys".
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 19:19 Comments || Top||

#19  your continued rewriting of history is part and parcel of Commie Symp 101
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 19:52 Comments || Top||

#20  OF COURSE, in Herb's world, it was teh Rooshuns declaring war adding the coup de grace.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 19:59 Comments || Top||

#21  The Japanese imperial command seriously thought the Soviets — with their American Lend/Lease equipment, 20 million casualties, and reliance on General Winter — were a more serious threat than Americas dropping more atomic bombs? No wonder they thought attacking Pearl Harbour was a good idea.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 20:00 Comments || Top||

#22  Early Herb:
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 20:35 Comments || Top||

#23  I prescribe a few onces of lead to be injected directly into the brainpan....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/24/2019 21:10 Comments || Top||

#24  How about this for a strategy: instead of bombs, send cargo planes to drop $100 bills on them.

Naive.
I remember shipments of bottled water sent to the hill regions to hold them over because someone decided they needed a well.

They dumped out the water and kept the container bottles. Should have sent them Tupperware.

$100 bills would be used to line their slippers or for rectal cleaning.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 21:12 Comments || Top||

#25  Sorry Skid. Stones are for rectal cleaning. So says Alan in the Wholey Crayon...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/24/2019 21:14 Comments || Top||

#26  You can't kill your way to victory. We've been doing that for 17 years and it Does. Not. Work.

Hundreds of years of Japanese and German militarism was wiped off the face of the earth by '45 and hasn't come back. Though the Chinese seem to be working in making it otherwise in the Pacific.

As for Japan. Please read the Emperor's 'unthinkable' announcement. He mentions a new terrible weapon not the Russians. The bomb provided the rational and means to remove the militarist from further running the war, even with a last minute failed but attempted coup.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/24/2019 22:18 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
82% of US Off-shored US Manufactures in China Report Tariff Pain
Key text (which is most of it. The writer is an economist. ) posted per Raj’s request. Lots of links to sources at the link.

— trailing wife at 1:40 p.m. EDT
[AmericanThinker] The American/China Chamber of Commerce found that 82 percent of American-owned manufacturers in China are suffering significant pain from Trump Trade War tariffs.

‘AmCham’ surveyed business conditions for its 900 member American-owned companies operating across China during the week of May 16-20, following President Trump’s announcement that he was raising tariffs on $200 billion U.S. imports from China from 10 percent to 25 percent.

The survey found that due to the U.S. action and the retaliatory Chinese response, American-owned companies in China reported that 52.1 percent were experiencing lower demand; 42.4 percent were experiencing higher manufacturing costs and 38.2 percent were seeing higher sales prices for products.

Although China/WTO was championed as an opportunity to U.S. companies to compete for the business of over 1.3 billion emerging Chinese consumers, the vast majority of AmCham members operate off-shored production facilities for export back to the U.S.

As a result, U.S. imports from China from 2001 to 2015 increased from $102.3 billion in 2001 to $483.2 billion in 2015, while U.S. exports to China during the same period only grew from $19.2 billion to $116.1 billion.

It is generally accepted that between 2001 and 2015, the WTO deal with China cost about 3.4 million American jobs, with about 74.3 percent of losses due to U.S. companies off-shoring production jobs to China for cheaper labor and lower taxes. The estimated American worker wages is estimated at about $37 billion per year.

The AmCham survey found that due to the tariff battle, 35.3 percent of members have adopted an “In China, for China” strategy. But members also report indirect retaliation by Chinese authorities against U.S.-owned companies in China, including 20.1 percent suffering increased inspections, 19.7 percent experiencing slower customs clearance, and 14.2 percent facing slower license approvals and greater regulatory scrutiny.

Approximately 33.2 percent are canceling further investments in China and 40.7 percent of respondents have already relocated manufacturing facilities outside China. The most popular manufacturing relocation spots have been 24.7 percent in Southeast Asia, 10.5 percent in Mexico and 6 percent back to the United States.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 07:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Would it kill you to at least insert some of the article when you post stuff, guy?
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 7:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Look up Indian elections
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Lacking correct tariffs just transfers wealth from lots of employees to a single importer
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  The survey found that due to the U.S. action and the retaliatory Chinese response, American-owned companies in China reported that 52.1 percent were experiencing lower demand; 42.4 percent were experiencing higher manufacturing costs and 38.2 percent were seeing higher sales prices for products.President Bill Clinton called it a “good day for America” on May 24, 2000 when he successfully convinced the U.S. House of Representatives to award China permanent normal trade relations under the rules of the World Trade Organization.




Posted by: Bobby || 05/24/2019 8:10 Comments || Top||

#5  The other 18% too busy moving back to comment?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 8:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Gosh. That's too bad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/24/2019 10:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Nah, I won't be looking up any Indian elections. What relevance that has to China importers I have no idea; moreover I do not care to spend time searching.

Post the relevant bits on Rantburg and let us have a look. YOU do the work, we're not doing it.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 12:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Although China/WTO was championed as an opportunity to U.S. companies to compete for the business of over 1.3 billion emerging Chinese consumers, the vast majority of AmCham members operate off-shored production facilities for export back to the U.S.


I believe this has some salience.
Posted by: charger || 05/24/2019 20:54 Comments || Top||

#9  YOU do the work, we're not doing it.

Classic for your generation, Erb.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 20:58 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India election results 2019: Modi claims landslide victory
h/t Instapundit
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has claimed a landslide victory in national elections that cements the Hindu nationalist leader as the country’s most formidable politician in decades.

Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) had been expected to easily form a governing coalition with smaller allies, but official results showed the party ahead in at least 300 seats, comfortably beyond the 272 seats required for a majority in the lower house of parliament.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 07:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good for Modi. Now, can he do something about all those little weasels who keep calling me on the phone either telling me my computer is being hacked or trying to get me to tell them my credit card number?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/24/2019 10:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Abu, seriously now... would you join the movement to cut countries that don't crack down on this B.S. off the Internet and Phone systems?

I would..
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 12:03 Comments || Top||

#3  This spells doom for islamists across the subcontinent really. The second term win also saw the obliteration of all communist parties from the Indian political scene.

The scammers ? A result of education without employment, lax law enforcement and corruption. Did you know that a recent bust uncovered an operation running a call-center that had swindled over two thousand American elderly out of their savings. Investigation by the CBI (Indian g-men) revealed that the local police officials took their own cut and let it run for two years.

Under another government, it would still be running.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 13:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Abu, seriously now... would you join the movement to cut countries that don't crack down on this B.S. off the Internet and Phone systems?

Gladly.

Then I'd firewall the Chinese, Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians and a whole bunch of others.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/24/2019 14:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Big.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/24/2019 18:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Yale women's studies professor: Gay white men are symbols of heterosexuality
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 07:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Works in very cold office?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:29 Comments || Top||

#2  The result of 4 decades of accepting Liberal gibberish uncritically. At least there WAS a time when they attempted to compose some form of evidentiary arc, no matter how preposterous to reach a conclusion. Now they have done away with that altogether and just deliver up random nonsense like some kind of seriously malfunctioning fortune cookie printer.
Posted by: Cesare || 05/24/2019 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  "Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy"
Eagles
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm still amazed that people get paid, and get paid well, to write such world-class codswallop.
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

#5 
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Darth - but the day is still young!
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 9:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Yale women's studies professors are symbols of low intellect virtue signalling government supported so-called centers of learning.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/24/2019 10:03 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm still amazed that people get paid, and get paid well, to write such world-class codswallop.

It is, for all intents and purposes, the Fred Phelps Model. Get a swollop of litigation lawyers, go about saying outrageous things, and sue those who disagree.

If the Phelps groups wasn't an actual agent, and there is enough evidence to make that case, they were a case model for this very activity, just as the tobacco lawsuits of ago are the sugar and straw laws of today.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/24/2019 10:41 Comments || Top||

#9  Both diseases should have remained in the DSM-whatever.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 11:44 Comments || Top||

#10  It's about Buttigieg and his husband.

Yale, Buttigieg, women's studies... got it.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 13:31 Comments || Top||

#11  There was a time when Yale, my alma mater, was known for superior scholarship. These days, I'm afraid, you get better scholarship across town at Southern Connecticut State College.
Posted by: Tom || 05/24/2019 15:50 Comments || Top||


Cold office temperatures are hurting women's productivity, study says
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 07:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two women hired to deliver bread out of bread trucks claimed it was inhuman not to have air conditioning. They didn't last long. This delivery has been done this way for many years. Men never complained. I am hearing this complaint from people who work in factories not air conditioned. Snowflakes are failing in most hard work environments (men or women).
Posted by: Dale || 05/24/2019 9:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Wouldn't the extra air conditioning contribute to gerbil worming?
Posted by: gorb || 05/24/2019 9:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Finally a study by millennial scientists that found a biological difference between men and women.

Next up : Trump Gifts Capitol Building Brand New Air Conditioning.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 14:11 Comments || Top||


Economy
Young people blame climate change for their small 401(k) balances
[Market Watch] Lori Rodriguez, a 27-year-old communications professional in New York City, is not saving for retirement, and it isn’t necessarily because she can’t afford to ‐ it’s because she doesn’t expect it to matter.

Like many people her age, Rodriguez believes climate change will have catastrophic effects on our planet. Some 88% of millennials ‐ a higher percentage than any other age group ‐ accept that climate change is happening, and 69% say it will impact them in their lifetimes. Engulfed in a constant barrage of depressing news stories, many young people are skeptical about saving for an uncertain future.

"I want to hope for the best and plan for a future that is stable and secure, but, when I look at current events and at the world we are predicting, I do not see how things could not be chaotic in 50 years," Rodriguez says. "The weather systems are already off, and I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to be a little apocalyptic."

Mental-health issues affecting young adults and adolescents in the U.S. have increased significantly in the past decade, a study published in March in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found. The number of individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 reporting symptoms of major depression increased 52% from 2005 to 2017, while older adults did not experience any increase in psychological stress at this time, and some age groups even saw decreases. Study author Jean Twenge says this may be attributed to the increased use of digital media, which has changed modes of interaction enough to impact social lives and communication. Millennials are also said to suffer from "eco-anxiety," according to a 2018 report from the American Psychological Association, with 72% saying their emotional well-being is affected by the inevitability of climate change, compared with just 57% of people over the age of 45.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 07:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lori Rodriguez, a 27-year-old communications professional in New York City

You can probably guess what I was going to say
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Mental-health issues affecting young adults and adolescents in the U.S. have increased significantly in the past decade, a study published in March in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found.

Is that what we're calling rank ignorance nowadays?
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 7:29 Comments || Top||

#3  If hope is not a plan, I guess despair is not a plan either.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/24/2019 9:15 Comments || Top||

#4  One thing for sure, all that money they could be saving in their 401(k), is now available to keep paying my Social Security. Muchas gracias, pendejos.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/24/2019 10:08 Comments || Top||

#5  I see.

Is this why Britney Spears went mad after ♫ till the world ends ♪ ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Would it be that great of a loss if New York City was submerged under the Atlantic Ocean?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/24/2019 10:46 Comments || Top||

#7  If she feels that strongly she should be one of Musk's early Mars colonists... Of course his future plans to terraform it include things like meteor impacts and massive nukes but that shouldn't bother her...
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 11:58 Comments || Top||

#8  One wonders how this compares to the Baby Boomers who grew up under the shadow of nuclear destruction.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 13:52 Comments || Top||

#9  By any chance is Rodriguez in Ocasio Cortez's district where everyone will succumb to climate change in 12 years?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 13:53 Comments || Top||

#10  hell, why even aork at all then
Posted by: chris || 05/24/2019 14:37 Comments || Top||

#11  work
Posted by: chris || 05/24/2019 14:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Hey, Lori, if you're that gullible, please call me. I can solve ALL of your retirement savings problems by selling you a GREAT bridge in Brooklyn--it will earn you so much money that all your problems will be solved. Don't delay! Call me now!
Posted by: Tom || 05/24/2019 15:53 Comments || Top||

#13  I guess despair is not a plan either.

It's not a plan, it's a lifestyle!

These whiny-ass millennials and their global warming...
Why back in my day, we had overpopulation, famine, pestilence, resource depletion, the coming ice age, and nuclear war. It was Apocalypse coming and going, uphill both ways. We were doomed, DOOMED I tell ya!

Determining why none of this unavoidable awfulness ever happened and why there are more people today living richer, longer, healthier lives is left as an exercise for the Reader.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 19:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Young people blame climate change for their small 401(k) balances penes.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 21:14 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran youth will witness demise of Israel, 'American civilization': Khamenei
GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran’s youth will witness the demise of Israel and American civilization, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in comments published on his official website.

"You young people should be assured that you will witness the demise of the enemies of humanity, meaning the degenerate American civilization, and the demise of Israel," Khamenei said in a meeting with students.

He gave no further details.

Tensions have spiked between Iran and the United States after Washington sent more military forces to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles, in a show of force against what U.S. officials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests in the region.

Khamenei said last week that there would be no war with the United States.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 06:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  "This is all veddy good, Shaikh. But all ve vant is job. Uhh..."
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  If they did witness such it would be as air gaspers sitting in ponds in a radioactive Iran.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 12:00 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd wager Iranian yutes care more about getting laid and why they can't access jack shit on their smart devices.
Posted by: jpal || 05/24/2019 18:33 Comments || Top||


Britain
British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation
[Guardian] Theresa May has bowed to intense pressure from her own party and named 7 June as the day she will step aside as Conservative leader, drawing her turbulent three-year premiership to a close.

Speaking in Downing Street, May said it had been "the honour of my life" to serve as Britain’s second female prime minister. Her voice breaking, she said she would leave "with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love".

The prime minister listed a series of what she said were her government’s achievements, including tackling the deficit, reducing unemployment and boosting funding for mental health.

But she admitted: "It is and will alway remain a matter of deep regret to me that I have not been able to deliver Brexit."

May’s announcement came after a meeting with Graham Brady, the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee ‐ which was prepared to trigger a second no-confidence vote in her leadership if she refused to resign.

Her fate was sealed after a 10-point "new Brexit deal", announced in a speech on Tuesday, infuriated Tory backbenchers and many of her own cabinet ‐ while falling flat with the Labour MPs it was meant to persuade.

The leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, resigned on Wednesday, rather than present the Brexit bill to parliament.

A string of other cabinet ministers had also expressed concerns, including Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling and David Mundell.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 05:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I have tried my best, in the short time that I knew I had, to practically cripple and mangle the will of the British people, and ensure that my successors too cannot achieve Brexit in the near future. I have served the EU to the best of my inability."
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 6:12 Comments || Top||

#2  May her name be forever associated with other Quislings
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 6:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Now Constituency Party Groups need to bin their Remainiac MP's if they cannot vote as instructed by their constituents
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 6:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Speaking in Downing Street, May said it had been "the honour of my life" to serve as Britain’s second female prime minister.

Let's put it bluntly, honey - in three hundred years you will still be considered the worst British female prime minister, by a longshot.
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 6:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Ref #3: Now Constituency Party Groups need to bin their Remainiac MP's if they cannot vote as instructed by their constituents. Posted by Bright Pebbles

When you find out exactly how this is accomplished, please share the recipe. When our pols go to Washington, most do a constituent brain dump and rush to enlist in the Beltway Party.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 6:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Geeesh, so the world still has to put up with her for another two weeks or so.

When is President Trump's visit there?
Posted by: DooDahMan || 05/24/2019 7:45 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 8:49 Comments || Top||

#8  she said she would leave "with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love".

According to Google Translate, this is British for "f**k all y'all and the horses you rode in on"
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 8:57 Comments || Top||

#9  Good riddance, you worthless bitch.

Also it looks like her party and labor are in for a 2016 style ass fucking from the voters.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 9:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Re #7, outstanding poster, Bright Pebble!
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/24/2019 13:18 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Visas for ‘the Brilliant' Is Kushner Code for Replacing You
[Mercer at Unz Review] "The U.S. government discriminates ’against genius’ and ’brilliance’ with its immigration system," asserted President Trump, as he rolled out Jared Kushner’s immigration plan.

The president has insisted that "companies are moving offices to other countries because our immigration rules prevent them from retaining highly skilled and even ... totally brilliant people."

While it’s true that U.S. immigration policy selects for low moral character by rewarding unacceptable risk-taking and law-breaking‐it’s incorrect to say that it doesn’t "create a clear path for top talent."

Kibitzing about a shortage of talent-based immigration visas is just Mr. Kushner channeling the business and tech lobby’s interests.

No doubt, Big Business wants the "good" old days back. They currently operate in a labor market. They don’t like that, because, in a labor market, firms compete for workers and wages are bid up. Companies don’t like a labor market. They prefer that workers compete for jobs and wages not rise.

Multinationals, moreover, are stateless corporations. They are "global beasts with vast balance-sheets" and no particular affinity for American labor. But it’s not only about the Benjamins (to borrow from a U.S. congresswoman who, too, dislikes Americans).

The "men" who run multinationals are true believers. They are social justice warriors first; businessmen second. Tech traitors like the FAANG‐Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google‐are certainly radical leftists, who believe in replacing American labor as a creed and as a principle to live by.

Back to the talent-shortage myth. The 2017 IEEE-USA Employment Survey, which appears to be the latest from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, has some "bad news." "The nearly two-thirds of U.S. IEEE members who reported being unemployed at some point during 2016, had not been re-employed by mid-April of 2017." Hopefully, the updated report will be more upbeat.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 05:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No doubt, Big Business wants the "good" old days back. They currently operate in a labor market. They don’t like that, because, in a labor market, firms compete for workers and wages are bid up. Companies don’t like a labor market. They prefer that workers compete for jobs and wages not rise.

Cheap labor continues to be very popular and the "Multinationals" paras that follow nail it as well. I'm not certain of Kushner's role in all of this however.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 6:02 Comments || Top||

#2  "The nearly two-thirds of U.S. IEEE members who reported being unemployed at some point during 2016, had not been re-employed by mid-April of 2017."

Lies and hyperbole. I always see "We're Hiring" signs at various fast-food joints. Food Preparation Engineers are in need.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 05/24/2019 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  A major issue among people w STEM degrees is that they are frequently disappointed that their work is not fully STEM but includes a lot of admin as well. This gets worse with time because the more responsibility you have, the less actual STEM work you get done. In addition as companies change their business operations, people have to fill functions that they really didn't expect to work in, e.g., engineers have to evaluated job applicants, mathematicians have to edit company reports, etc.
Posted by: lord garth || 05/24/2019 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  + Potential employers prefer to hire graduates from institutions where professors are allowed to fail members victim groups.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 8:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe our universities could try educating some Americans for a change.
Posted by: gorb || 05/24/2019 9:54 Comments || Top||

#6  The president has insisted that "companies are moving offices to other countries because our immigration rules prevent them from retaining highly skilled and even ... totally brilliant people."

I've said it before. If they want cheap foreign labor let them move to the Third World shit hole of their choice. They can move their headquarters, the board of directors and chief operating officers offshore, move their mission critical databases. Move it all; lock, stock and barrel. Then they can deal with the Third World infrastructure, taxes, bribes and bureaucracy. Buh-bye.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/24/2019 10:55 Comments || Top||

#7  A major issue among people w STEM degrees is that they are frequently disappointed that their work is not fully STEM but includes a lot of admin as well. This gets worse with

This is because — and I know this because Mr. Wife started out in STEM — the training required to get a STEM degree (look at a situation, figure out the solvable problem, then solve it) translates usefully to many other things, and the ability to apply mathematics covers much of the rest. The trick is to be sure that one really does want to remain in STEM, and find a company that offers a parallel technical track, where achievement is rewarded with a higher level technical problem to solve rather than promotion to management. The thing is, contra lord garth, it turns out some who started out in STEM — again like Mr. Wife — discover they really enjoy solving the problems that management presents, and are glad they were given the opportunity to develop unexpectedly enjoyable skills.

Bottom line, if one wants to be sure to stay in the lab, do not progress academically beyond a BS in the sciences or associate degree in engineering. To be sure, then one will find oneself merely executing others’ ideas rather than generating one’s own, but to limit oneself one must be limited. Or rich enough to self-finance the work, but that is a different question.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 17:10 Comments || Top||

#8  I was accused a number of times of being cynical, sarcastic, and aggressive with sociopathic tendencies while seeking re-employment. I was told I needed to up my 'emotional intelligence' which would make me more valuable than decades of STEM-based critical thinking.

There's not a talent shortage, there's an abundance of 'nice'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 21:22 Comments || Top||

#9  I was accused a number of times of being cynical, sarcastic, and aggressive with sociopathic tendencies while seeking re-employment. I was told I needed to up my 'emotional intelligence' which would make me more valuable than decades of STEM-based critical thinking.

Could we...somehow be related Skid ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 22:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Gay Man Miraculously Turned Straight By Single Bite Of Chick-Fil-A
[Babylon Bee] Local gay man Landon Ellison was out protesting a Chick-fil-A in his city Wednesday morning when he got hungry. He looked around to make sure his fellow protestors weren't watching before slipping into the restaurant and ordering a classic chicken sandwich.

"It's probably terrible," he sneered at the cashier, who only smiled and said it was her pleasure to have her place of work insulted. "I'll bet it tastes like HATE!"

But when Ellison's food was served 3 seconds later, something miraculous happened: he took a bite of the sandwich and suddenly found he was no longer attracted to men. The woman who served him the sandwich instantly appeared attractive to him. "How you doin'?" he said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. She told him it was her pleasure to be hit on and walked away.

Ellison emerged from the restaurant in a daze, fell to his knees, and lifted his hands and eyes up to the heavens in praise and thanksgiving for the amazing transformation that had occurred in his life.

Sadly, he was turned back by a Whopper.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 01:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's the chicken hormones, right?
(Yeah, I know. There's a chicken soup joke in there, too.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/24/2019 5:23 Comments || Top||

#2  If he tries the sweet tea at chick-fil-a he may run out and buy a gun and join the NRA.
Posted by: Airandee || 05/24/2019 5:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Truly fabulous!
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 6:46 Comments || Top||

#4  LOL. What's next? #WalkAway campaign and Trump supporter?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Sadly, he was turned back by a Whopper.

Nice punchline.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/24/2019 10:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
The Left is mainstreaming Palestinian Marxist terrorists
[Washington Examiner] A disturbing trend of open support for the Palestinian Marxist-Leninist terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, has emerged on the political Left amid rising anti-Semitism that hides behind the label of anti-Zionism.

On May 8, San Diego State University English professor Peter C. Herman observed that an email from SDSU's Women's Resource Center included the slogan "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free," and a photo of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist Leila Khaled clutching an AK-47.

Khaled is famous for hijacking two airliners in 1970. She and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was designated in 1997 as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, have been active in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement that seeks to economically and politically strangle Israel. Khaled remains a member of the PFLP's political bureau.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists also gained notoriety for the 1976 hijacking of a Paris-bound Air France flight that was diverted to Entebbe, Uganda. More recently, the group claimed joint responsibility with Hamas for a deadly East Jerusalem attack in 2017 that left an Israeli female police officer dead and several others were wounded.

Coming so soon after last month's Poway synagogue shooting near San Diego, the imagery of this email from a group ostensibly promoting women's issues "seems especially shocking," Herman wrote. "But how are we to respond to a glorification of violence in a university-sanctioned newsletter?"

Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 00:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The University of Minnesota students and profs were also quite appreciative of Illhan Omar's rise to power.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Shades of the Weather Underground, Baader - Meinhof, etc. Lefties sure love their 'chic' radical terrorists.
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 6:15 Comments || Top||

#3  The PaleanimalOmarization syndrome. Also known as DNC diuretic hatred of Christians.

Marxist-Leninist? Bull, it's fundamentalist Islamists following the Pedophile for Profit. Not some commie Sharia plot.

That part is primarily promoted by CAIR types for pliability of their useful far left idiots.

Hence the marrying flat out muzzie Jew hating racists-Christophobics and Dhimmicrats.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/24/2019 6:19 Comments || Top||

#4  They would be terrorists themselves - if they'd the guts.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
US charges WikiLeaks founder with publishing classified info
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ In a case with significant First Amendment implications, the U.S. filed new charges Thursday against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, accusing him of violating the Espionage Act by publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources.

The Justice Department’s 18-count superseding indictment alleges that Assange directed former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history. It says the WikiLeaks founder, currently in custody in London, damaged national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.

The case comes amid a Justice Department crackdown on national security leaks and raised immediate fear among news media advocates that Assange’s actions ‐ including soliciting and publishing classified information ‐ are indistinguishable from what traditional journalists do on a daily basis. Those same concerns led the Obama administration Justice Department to balk at bringing charges for similar conduct.

Assange’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said Thursday that the "unprecedented charges" against his client imperil "all journalists in their endeavor to inform the public about actions that have been taken by the U.S. government." The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called the case a "dire threat" to media freedom, and the American Civil Liberties Union said it was the first time in history a publisher was charged for disclosing truthful information.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 00:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Alright, it's a good start. What about Clinton's 'home brew' server and the reported SNEAKERNET of thousands of SIPRnet/JWICS docs from the State Department and elsewhere? Are we going to look into that as well ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  IS Assange American? this seems a stretch!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 5:26 Comments || Top||

#3  "Government is thuggery."

- Anonymous
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 5:49 Comments || Top||

#4  If the NY Times published the same material they would get a pulitzer.
Posted by: warthogswife || 05/24/2019 10:43 Comments || Top||


Iraq
French-Peshmerga op kills 3 extremists in Tuz Khurmatu – Kurdish sources
[Rudaw] At least three Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) turbans were killed on Thursday in a joint operation launched by Peshmerga and French military on the fringes of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, outside disputed Tuz Khurmatu, according to local and Peshmerga sources.

"Today a French force together with [a special Peshmerga force] carried out an operation using aircraft in Shoraw, Palkana and Gharra villages," Jamal Salih, the mayor of Naujul town, told Rudaw.

The Kurdistan Region’s armed forces, the Peshmerga, have a number of forces inside and outside of the official ministry. Specialty units are sometimes trained by internationals in counterterrorism, mine clearance, urban fighting, and other areas of warfare.

A senior Peshmerga official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a French force accompanied the Peshmerga in the operation near the Palkana village close to Tuz Khurmatu ‐ not to be confused with Palkana in western Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
close to Erbil province.

The three villages are located are in Naujul town which is between Kifri and Tuz Khurmatu in Garmiyan in areas of the Kurdistan Region which border Iran. The former is associated with the Kurdistan Region and the latter is part of the disputed territories claimed by Erbil and Baghdad.

Tuz Khurmatu is a diverse city home to Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen. Iraqi forces have managed the security portfolio of the city, including after the events of October 16, 2017.

The US-led international coalition to defeat ISIS was not immediately available for comment.
"I can say no more!"
French diplomats in Iraq were not able to comment.

Mayor Salih said in addition to the killing of three ISIS bully boys, several weapons depots belonging to the group were destroyed. He added that visible ISIS fighters have emptied 13 of 42 local villages.

The turbans are essentially free to operate in the vacuum between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces where security gaps have been exposed after federal forces ousted the Peshmerga from these zones in the aftermath of the Kurdistan independence referendum of September 2017.

To the west in the disputed areas, notably Makhmour some 60 kilometers southwest of Erbil, bully boy continues to maintain a presence instilling fear among locals as they kill, torch farmlands and forcefully take taxes from them.

Sirwan Barzani, a Peshmerga commander on the Makhmour-Gwer Front, told Rudaw on Thursday that "the security situation of the Qaraj is in danger."

Qarachogh Mountain, the Qaraj Plains, and the Zab area near Makhmour are areas connecting Erbil, Nineveh, Kirkuk and Saladin provinces.

Barzani said to remove the threats they have "called on the coalition and Iraqi army for a joint operation in the region."

"The Peshmerga's demand is to station on the heights to prevent any possible reemergence of ISIS. The Iraqi army has so far failed to take control of the," he said.

"They have not yet responded to our call," Barzani noted.

ISIS turbans seized Makhmour and surrounding villages in 2014 before they were quickly routed in a combined operation led by the Peshmerga ‐ supported by the coalition and fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Although the jihadist group was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017, its remnants have retreated into Iraq's deserts and mountains, where they have resumed earlier hit-and-run tactics of kidnap, ambush, bombing, and execution.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Turkey suspended import of Iranian oil to 'respect' US sanctions - report
[Rudaw] A senior Ottoman Turkish official told news hounds on Wednesday that Ankara stopped buying Iran's oil in early May out of "respect" for the United States.

"We don’t believe in sanctions, but as a strategic ally we respect the U.S. decision ... We don’t believe isolation of Iran will be helpful," Rooters quoted the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying.

Ankara has abided by the sanctions since its waiver ended this month, according to official. The remarks were made during Ottoman Turkish Deputy of Foreign Affairs Yavuz Selim Kiran’s visit to Washington, D.C.

"We are not getting any oil from Iran now," the unnamed source added.

In 2017, Iran accounted for only about 4.9 percent of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's oil imports. Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
was first at 14 percent, followed by Iraq at 7.3 percent, and the Emirates at 5 percent, according to statistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  :Heh: Remember the columns of oil tanker trucks in northern Syria transporting ISIS oil to ,,, where? Shangri-La?
Posted by: magpie || 05/24/2019 10:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey senior Turkish official - Can I interest you in buying this nice old bridge in Brooklyn?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 11:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Cause the Russians offered them a better price.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 20:52 Comments || Top||


Iraq
US grants Iraq another Iran sanctions waiver for energy
[Rudaw] Iraq has been granted yet another exemption from US sanctions on Iran, allowing it to continue importing Iranian energy, Joey Hood, chargé d’affaires of the US Mission in Iraq, confirmed Wednesday.

However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
Hood said the US is working with Iraq to help break its reliance on Iranian energy.

"Iraq has an exemption from the American sanctions, so that it can continue to purchase energy from Iran, but we are also working with the Iraqi government and supporting them in every way that we can to increase the energy independence of this country," Hood told news hounds in Baghdad.

Hood's comments first appeared in the Iraqi media and were later confirmed by the US embassy in an email to Rudaw English.

Iraq depends on Iranian energy to subsidize its ramshackle power grid. Riots broke out in Iraq’s southern city of Basra last summer when Iran briefly cut is electricity exports.

Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, specifically targeting Tehran’s lucrative oil sector.

Major importers of Iranian oil, including China, Greece, India, Italia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, were initially granted waivers to allow them time to find alternatives.

The US scrapped these waivers in April, but continued to renew Iraq’s special exemption.

Tensions with Iran have since escalated further, with the US withdrawing all non-essential staff from its missions in Baghdad and Erbil and deploying an aircraft carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf, citing an unspecified Iranian threat.

In a possible act of provocation, unknown actors fired a rocket into Baghdad’s Green Zone on Sunday, which fell less than a mile from the sprawling US embassy compound.

Asked about the incident, Hood said: "No one as far as I know has grabbed credit for that rocket. So, I can’t really tell you what they were aiming at or what their goal was."

Authorities believe the rocket was fired from the east of the city, where Iran-backed militias maintain a strong presence.

Eager to characterize the rocket attack as an isolated incident, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi told news hounds in his weekly presser Tuesday night that Iraq wishes to mediate between Washington and Tehran.

"We will send delegations within the coming days to the different capitals of the countries involved, especially Tehran and Washington, to attempt to push for de-escalation and reach agreements, because all sides say they don’t want war, rather to negotiate," Abdul-Mahdi said.

However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
Hood said he was not aware of any Iraqi mediation, and declined Baghdad’s involvement.

"We always welcome the opportunity to consult with our friends in the Iraqi government. The exchange of views especially in an environment of heightened tension is critical," said Hood.

"I’m not aware of an offer by the Iraqi government to mediate formally between Iran and the United States, and it’s something that we do not particularly need at this moment.

"We know how to communicate with the Iranians and we hope that they can come to the negotiating table as soon as possible so that we can work out our differences diplomatically," he added.

Tehran has ruled out negotiation with Washington until the economic pressure is lifted.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Ninevah and Mosul clearance continues: 5 farmers encounter leftover turban bomb, another mass grave turned up, innocent kaboomed, 4 ISIS MilAffairs members tied up


Two Iraqi farmers killed in bomb blast in Nineveh

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) – Two Iraqi farmers were killed and three others wounded in a bomb explosion in Nineveh province, a security source said as the country still witnesses almost daily bomb attacks despite the defeat of Islamic State terrorists.

Speaking to Al-Ahd News, the source said that an explosive charge went off today afternoon at an agricultural land in Tal Afar district, west of Mosul, leaving two farmers dead and three others wounded.

“The bomb was placed by Islamic State militants during their capture of Mosul city,” added the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mass grave of Islamic State victims found in Iraq’s Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) — Iraqi security forces found on Tuesday a new mass grave of Islamic State victims in Mosul city, which once hosted the group’s self-proclaimed “caliphate”.

A security source told the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) that a mass grave containing remains of 37 people was found in Ayn al-Tamr city in western Mosul.

“Most of the bodies are of Iraqi women, who were executed by the hardline Sunni group during its capture of Mosul,” the source said.

“The bodies were moved to the forensic medicine department in Mosul,” the source added.

As Iraqi troops recaptured areas held by Islamic State militants since 2014, they have regularly run into mass graves of civilians and security agents executed by the militants for fleeing the group’s havens or collaborating with security forces.

Bomb blast kills Iraqi civilian in Mosul city

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) – An Iraqi civilian was killed Wednesday in a bomb explosion in Mosul city, the latest in a series of terrorist attacks targeting citizens across Iraq since the crushing defeat of the Islamic State militant group in 2017.

A security source told Dijlah TV news channel that a roadside bomb went off in al-Shoura district in southern Mosul, leaving an Iraqi civilian dead.

“The security forces cordoned off the blast scene and carried the body into the forensic medicine department,” added the source.

Security forces capture 4 Diwan al-Jund members east of Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews) Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced, on Thursday, capturing four members of the Islamic State’s Diwan al-Jund,
... the soldiers department that managed ISIS military affairs back when they had a caliphate of their very own...
east of Mosul.

“Karama Police Directorate, backed by Anti-Terrorism forces captured four members of Diwan al-Jund in the Islamic State group,” Spokesman for the ministry, General Saad Maan, said in a press statement.

Maan added that the operation was conducted based on judicial arrest warrants. Furthermore, he pointed out that the ongoing cooperation with the citizens helped in the success of the operation.

The apprehended terrorists were members of the so-called IS Diwan al-Jund, during the IS era in Mosul, Maan explained. The criminals were arrested in Hayy al-Teseen area, east of Mosul.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Europe
Iraqi biker gang targeted by pre-dawn raids across western Germany
[Rudaw] An Iraqi biker gang has been targeted in a pre-dawn "mega-raid" by German police across eleven cities on Wednesday, as part of a wider German police crackdown on Middle Eastern "criminal clans" in the country.

Eight hundred coppers were involved in the operation, raiding 49 properties in North-Rhine Westphalia, northwestern Germany with suspected associations with the Iraqi biker group al-Salam 313, reported German daily Die Bild.

The raids, focused on the Cologne
...the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth populated city in Germany....
area and the Ruhr Valley, had undergone months of planning.

The gang is suspected to be in violation of the War Weapons Control Act and to have taken part in human trafficking, counterfeiting and drug-related offences, according to Bild.

During the searches, counterfeit money, drugs, computers, cell phones and data carriers were confiscated.

Arrests were not a central aim of the raids; just one arrest was made in the city of Essen, according to North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul. "The action is about finding evidence", police front man Christoph Wickhorst said.

Reul told journalists that the seized evidence must be examined to determine whether more arrests would be made.

Al-Salam means peace in Arabic, while 313 bears religious connotations, as Shiite Moslems believe that the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, regarded as a messiah-esque figure, will return to earth with 313 companions.

North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW)’s state interior ministry confirmed to German press outlet Deutsche Welle that it suspects that funds acquired from illegal activity in Germany have been funneled to militias in Iraq.

The group is suspected of having close ties to the Mahdi Army, a militia aligned with the Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
. Both the Mahdi Army and al-Salam 313 bear the same white dove insignia.

In a promotional video for the group published in 2017, the group shunned sectarianism and insisted that their members are of "all shades and shapes". They renounce the title of gang or mafia, instead calling themselves an "organization".
...which makes it all ok, of course.
Wednesday’s coordinated raids form part of a long-running, nationwide German police crackdown on Middle Eastern ’criminal clans’.
Well done, German police.
According to DW, the NRW’s Criminal Police Office noted in a 2018 report that in recent months Ottoman Turkish, Kurdish and Lebanese clans have been ousted by their counterparts of Iraqi and Syrian descent.

There are worries that the prominence and notoriety of these clans and the resulting raids against them may contribute to Germany’s existing racial tensions, particularly with regards to the hundreds of thousands of refugees Germany has taken in recent years.

Related: Photos of Sadr’s motorbike militia in Europe. And from Deutsche Welle:
The gang is suspected of having committed a variety of crimes ranging from illegal weapons trading, people smuggling, passport forgery, and drug distribution. Police have identified 34 suspects, who are mainly of Iraqi and Syrian descent.

Prior to the raid, DW had independently researched the group in connection to claims of its criminal dealings and threats on fellow Iraqi emigres. DW spoke, under conditions of anonymity, to one Iraqi national living in Germany, who said that the group had sent her death threats for leading a Western lifestyle. The person said she knew of other exiled Iraqis in Europe who also report having been intimidated by Al-Salam-313.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Angela's Angels.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 6:07 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey!! Tater's makin' that white power sign!!!!

That must mean he's a bad guy, right?
Posted by: AlanC || 05/24/2019 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  What is this so called "white power sign"? People talk about it, but I've never seen a clear example of it.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/24/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||

#5  People talk about it, but I've never seen a clear example of it.

Sometime back, the wacky pranksters at 4chan released a meme into the wild saying the "okay" hand sign was secretly a white power sign. The moronic SJW contingent of the Left swallowed it hook, line & sinker.
Posted by: Ebbusoter Phomort9156 || 05/24/2019 12:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Ahh thanks EP9156. In South America, that same hand sign also means "assh**l!"
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/24/2019 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  See, this is the kind of action that's just going to make more bikers.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/24/2019 14:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Muslims on motorcycles? That is cultural appropriation and must be condemned.
Posted by: Creling Pelosi3622 || 05/24/2019 21:10 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Fifty children saved as international paedophile ring busted
[BBC] Fifty children have been rescued and nine people arrested after an Interpol investigation into an international paedophile ring.

The arrests were made in Thailand, Australia and the US and more are expected, Interpol said.

The investigation began in 2017 and focused on a hidden "dark web" site with 63,000 users worldwide.

Police believe 100 more children have suffered abuse and are working to identify them.

Operation Blackwrist was launched by Interpol after it detected images showing 11 boys aged under 13 being abused on a site where people can use encrypted software to maintain secrecy.

The dark net is an internet area beyond the reach of mainstream search engines.

The US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) department traced the IP address of the website, which was hosting photos and videos of abuse.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 00:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There's no wholesale without retail.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 05/24/2019 6:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Paedophilia seems linked to homosexuality, unless these were for women (which i doubt)
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 8:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I read a very interesting book on this called Child Hunters. It is a book of case studies over the life of and psychologist. Each case study is tragic, with horrific endings for the kids. To Bright Pebbles point, its a bit more complicated and the levels of abuse on young girls (under 8 years old) is actually higher than boys. It cut through stereotypes and I took two things from it. First not all abused kids become monsters, but all monsters were abused kids, the psychosis is learned-not born. Second, once an abused kid grows up and becomes a monster, it is not reversible, nothing can cure it. Pedophilia has a lot in common with an abusive person, its a learned behavior.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 05/24/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Did they check in Rotherham?
Posted by: Cromert || 05/24/2019 23:30 Comments || Top||


POTUS orders intel agencies to cooperate with Barr probe into 'spying' on 2016 campaign
[The Hill] President Trump has ordered U.S. intelligence officials to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr's investigation into "surveillance activities" directed at the president's 2016 campaign, the White House said Thursday.

Trump also gave Barr "full and complete authority" to declassify information related to the investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The notice comes as Barr is conducting a review of what he has described as "spying" on members of the Trump campaign during the investigation into Russian interference.

Sanders said Trump had directed the intelligence community to "quickly and fully" cooperate with the investigation at Barr's own request.

"Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions," Sanders said.

Barr told senators last month that he was reviewing the "genesis and conduct" of intelligence collection on members of the Trump campaign during the period of the 2016 election, saying he believed the campaign was spied on.

Barr’s use of the term triggered massive protest from Democrats, who viewed it as legitimizing a conspiracy theory.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump to replace James Comey, seemed to distance himself from Barr’s use of the term earlier this month when he told a Senate panel that he wouldn’t use the term "spying" to describe government investigations.

Trump and Republicans, who have long alleged the Russia investigation was started by FBI agents biased against the president, have heralded Barr’s decision to look into the origins of the investigation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LOL as if the intelligence community takes orders from the president! Laughable! They rule themselves and we answer to them, not the other way around.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  No they don't but that's illegal. A legitimate executive order places them in a position where they can be booted for 'not complying'. He could very well start kicking out people for even failing to respond to queries and calls by Barr.

At least in theory. Trump is really flexing his muscles, has been for quite a while. He could get the dems to agree on everything that benefits the US commerce wise because half of the left don't understand it, and the other half (the older ones) were secretly cheering him.

His main fight is with the deep state, the Left-appointees, corrupt intel officers and an activist judiciary.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 2:16 Comments || Top||

#3  As if they view the law as an impediment. They're answerable to a higher cause than our silly Constitution. It is their destiny to usher in a new era of world peace by way of making endless war, and any obstacles in their way they are the carping of mindless children.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 3:18 Comments || Top||

#4  A lot of work over the holiday weekend destroying evidence will be heard in the swamp.
Posted by: Airandee || 05/24/2019 6:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Ref #2: His main fight is with the deep state, the Left-appointees, corrupt intel officers and an activist judiciary.

"Deep state" meaning... all of the above to include many feckless politicians of both parties.

Herb's comments harken back to the Eisenhower era and his warning with regard to the "Military Industrial Complex". Strange isn't it, we've not had a former General Officer as POTUS since Eisenhower, nearly 70 years. They all seem to stumble along the way. Strange, very strange.


Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 6:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Probably because an Eisenhower of today would appear as a Putin to some people ? That wouldn't be acceptable to even Republicans.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 6:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Declassification Letter.

I wonder why the Department of State (Hillary's old stomping grounds) wasn't included in the distribution of the declassification order?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Scratch the last comment. The DOS is included.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Eisenhower also warned against a "scientific-technological elite"
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 9:18 Comments || Top||

#10  #9 True, but that's gone straight down the memory hole.
Posted by: Matt || 05/24/2019 9:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Inclusion of Energy and Treasury is...interesting.
Posted by: Chineting Grolunter7254 || 05/24/2019 11:49 Comments || Top||

#12  Hire the Inspector Generals that Obama emasculated fired and give them authority to terminate anybody obstructing. They should have a good idea where all the skeletons are buried.
Posted by: magpie || 05/24/2019 14:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Reconciled rebels seize Syrian military intel base in western Daraa
[ALMASDARNEWS] Several reconciled rebel fighters attacked a Syrian military intelligence base in the western countryside of the Dara’a Governorate on Thursday.

According to a source in Daraa, the reconciled rebels attacked the Syrian military intelligence base in the town of Jillin. These former Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) fighters then took over the entire base and took the officers inside hostage.

The source said the reconciled rebels demanded the release of the former Free Syrian Army commander, Haytham al-Hariri, who was placed in durance vile
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
by the Syrian military intelligence.
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Traffic violation incident: Case against warden, 18 others for ‘standing up to’ influential person
[DAWN] Police on Wednesday started the paperwork but haven't done much else against a traffic warden who refused to withdraw an FIR against a ruling party MPA’s supporter.

The Ghulam Mohammadabad police registered the case at the behest of the MPA to browbeat the warden and force him to go for reconciliation. Eighteen other people including three coppers who tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
the supporter of the MPA have also been booked on charges of threatening a family with dire consequences.

Submitting an application, Azhar Mushtaq (a brother of Adnan) said 17 gunnies including warden Muhammad Asif and four coppers entered his house and threatened his family with dire consequences. Mushtaq said police entered his house to settle score of an incident in which his brother Akhtar had exchanged harsh words with Asif.

Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the warden when he refused to withdraw the case against Adnan and Zeeshan. The case was registered under sections 147, 149, 186, 353 and 506 of PPC on May 15.

In his application, the warden said he had stopped Zeeshan for driving his cycle of violence without helmet and impounded the vehicle for not having any document. He said Adnan, the employer of Zeeshan, also came there and questioned him for the action and also roughed him up with the help of his accomplices.

Traffic coppers said they had informed the police higher-ups that Gulberg circle DSP Usman Warraich was obliging the MPA and had started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the warden. They said the case had been instituted on false grounds as during the interrogation on Tuesday, the applicant failed to prove his claim that coppers entered his house.

The DSP asked the warden to submit his reply in writing so that the matter could be closed. However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
the DSP instead of ensuring justice, started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the warden.

The officials requested Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and IGP Arif Nawaz to look into the issue and ensure justice for the warden.

"Now the police officials are trying to convince us that the case has been instituted against the warden and the coppers so that a challan
... list of charges ...
against the supporters of the MPA could be submitted rather than leaving any room for reconciliation," says a traffic police official.

The DSP did not respond to the message this correspondent forwarded to seek his version.

Regional Police Officer Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said he would look into the issue.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Europe
How the copyright directive changed my view of the EU: Confessions of a hurt ‐ but not defeated ‐ Europeanist
[Medium] Long read, but here's the short version:

The events that led to the approval of the copyright directive highlight some big issues in how the EU currently works.

* Credibility. The European Commission commissioned a report and kept it secret because it concluded that "the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyright infringements".

* Evidence-based policy. The Commission ignored another report commissioned by the Parliament that found "nearly universal criticism" by European academics against the introduction of extra copyright for news sites.

* Technical expertise. The rapporteur of the directive for the European Parliament said that "a Google image search for "memes" displays a bunch of memes, so [parody] can be recognized [by AI-based upload filters]".

* No consideration for experts and activists. Criticism and massive protests were dismissed as manipulated by tech giants such as Google and Facebook. This attitude was not limited to representatives in EU institutions, but also journalists.

* France and Germany misused their influence to push for an ideological, non evidence-based, freedom-threatening reform.

* Conclusion. As a convinced Europeanist, the writer felt betrayed. In his opinion, this means we need to vote for radical pan-European parties that want to change Europe with radical and ambitious proposals based both on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and on scientific evidence.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Increasing Copyright (and every other kind of) rent-seeking is the backbone of the neo-feudalist's plan
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 5:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The conclusion the writer reached was to further spiral down into radical Pan-Europeanism ?

Hurt but not defeated, yeah. Sort of like a smoker starts smoking more cigs when diagnosed with cancer.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 6:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Hurt but butt hurt
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/24/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||


Hungary PM Orbán: "Europe is for Europeans, and needs leaders to defend it", "migration should be stopped, not organised"
[VOE] In the radio program "Good Morning, Hungary", Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that a strong message must be sent to Brussels in the EU elections: "we want change, and a Europe that protects its borders on land and at sea".

He also said that "we want to see leaders in Brussels who don’t want to organize migration, but who want to stop it".

The Prime Minister added that there is a "liberal mafia" ‐ including politicians, journalists and analysts ‐ who are "flush with money", and are working to convince the world that there is nothing that can be done to stop migration.

But, he said, when it turns out that there is indeed something that can be done ‐ when Hungary stops migration on land, Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini does the same at sea and US president Donald Trump decides to build a wall ‐ then these opponents of migration "start to be treated as hate figures".

Mr. Orbán stated that "the EU elections are about accepting or breaking free" from the way of thinking that such pro-migration people "are trying to force onto us", he stressed, adding that Europe needs leaders to defend it, because Europe is the home of Europeans and Hungary is the home of Hungarians.

He said that the majority of Hungarians "feel a chill run down their spines" when they hear so many European politicians saying that migration is good, but that it should be better organised than it is today.

Asked whether there is any candidate for the post of President of the European Commission that he would support after having withdrawn his backing from Manfred Weber, Mr. Orbán said, "there will be, after the election".

He said that two days after the election negotiations will begin for the selection of future European leaders, and "We’ll see how much support has been received by which political figures in which countries".
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  He's got a point.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/24/2019 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Hungary should have thought of that before joining a mishmash of diversity loving countries with its capital in Brussels.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 13:18 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Trump says willing to consider sending more troops to counter Iran
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
said on Thursday that he was willing to consider sending more US troops to the Middle East to counter Iran.

He said he doubted that the US needs to send additional troops, as he prepared to meet Pentagon officials to discuss it later in the day.

US military leaders have discussed sending some 5,000 troops to the region with tensions running high with Iran. Trump, asked by news hounds about the plan, said he did not think they would be needed, but that he was willing to consider it.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India-Pakistan
Policemen arrested over girl’s murder
[DAWN] Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
intervened on Wednesday over the murder and gang-rape of a 10-year-old girl, expressing his displeasure over delay in the arrest of the police official who had refused to register a case, sources told Dawn

The prime minister ordered the suspension of the sub-divisional police officer of Shahzad Town and removal of the superintendent of police (rural zone), sources in police and the capital administration said.

Police high-ups immediately sprung into action, arresting the station house officer of Shahzad Town cop shoppe and the investigation officer in the case. The arrests were made in the night and after that the two police officials were shifted to the cop shoppe and detained there.

An official of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) office confirmed the arrest and suspensions.

Prime Minister Khan also asked the IGP and the DIG Operation to submit a report about the crime.

Earlier, Inter Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor took to Twitter to express outrage over the incident.

"Brutal murder of innocent Farishta is highly condemnable," he wrote. "Those responsible must be brought to justice. Army is ready to provide any support in this regard. We must rise and join to protect our future generations from vile and despicable elements who prey on vulnerable children."

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Not surprisingly, just reading the headline alone, I knew it was in Pakistan.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/24/2019 13:10 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Two air strikes kill 14 Afghan civilians
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Two air strikes have killed 14 civilians in Afghanistan in recent days, the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
said Thursday, as the US intensifies its air war across the country.

According to the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), five women and seven children were among the 14 civilians killed in Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province in the south on May 20, and Kunar province
... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country.....
in the east on May 22.

"Civilian casualty toll from Arclight airstrikes in Afghanistan continues to rise," UNAMA said on Twitter.

"Parties must respect international obligations to protect civilians from harm."

While the Afghan military does have a fledgling air force, most strikes are led or supported by American air power. US Forces Afghanistan declined to comment.

According to US Air Force Central Command, the US dropped 7,362 bombs in Afghanistan in 2018, the highest number since at least 2010.

In April, UNAMA published a report saying Afghan civilians are for the first time being killed in greater numbers by US and pro-government forces than by the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
and other krazed killer groups.

During the first three months of 2019, international and pro-government forces were responsible for the deaths of 305 civilians, whereas krazed killer groups killed 227 people, UNAMA said.

The development comes as the US steps up its air campaign in Afghanistan while pushing for a peace deal with the Taliban, who now control or influence more parts of the country than at any time since they were ousted in 2001.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  This is how we create more terrorists. Every one of these innocents had relatives, and these relatives are now outraged at America's murders.

How would you feel if some foreign government killed your family? Say, Spahn? Well we know already, rage and demands for justice. Hmm, maybe Afghans feel the same?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Every one of these innocents had relatives, and these relatives are now outraged at America's murders.

Are you sure those were not human shields protecting someone very not innocent, Mr. McCoy? For that matter, are you quite, quite certain that on even days these particular innocents were were not official members of whichever jihadi organization or even just a local warlord’s band rigns over that articular corner of Pashtunistan, while on odd days they went back to being “civilians”?

And finally, the odds are very, very good that those people and their friends and relations already hated us for being unsubmitted unbelievers, needing no prompting from contingent occurrences to reject adoration of Western principles of rule of civil law government chosen by the consent of the governed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 1:08 Comments || Top||

#3  i bet they would welcoe you with open arms herb
Posted by: chris || 05/24/2019 7:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Afghanistan has civilians, who knew?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Who was that black mayor that pretty much fire bombed several blocks of Philadelphia back in the 1970's or 80's?
Posted by: DooDahMan || 05/24/2019 7:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Who was that black mayor that pretty much fire bombed several blocks of Philadelphia back in the 1970's or 80's?

MOVE

Mayor Frank Rizzo
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Herb - always willing to further enemy propaganda and believe the worst of America. *spit*

TW in #2 is absolutely correct to assume they were either NOT civilians (til they were dead) or human shields.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 8:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Every news report about fighty stuff nowadays seems to include stats for civilians, women and children as calculated by the UN or some local NGO. I find these numbers totally believable, he said trying to make that serious face.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 9:10 Comments || Top||

#9  I am always reminded that right after 9/11, some muzzist luminary said "there are no civilians..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/24/2019 9:29 Comments || Top||

#10  In some cases they have been known to take a few out of the mortuary and throw them in with the dead.
Posted by: gorb || 05/24/2019 9:37 Comments || Top||

#11  How.do they tell the terrorists from the civilians? Not to mention the human shields (willing or unwilling).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/24/2019 9:49 Comments || Top||

#12  "Are you sure those were not human shields protecting someone very not innocent"

Prove that they were.

"believe the worst of America. *spit*"

I'm a proud American who loves America, never gets tired of saluting the flag, and my heart swells with pride when I see the Constitution. But we have some seriously evil people in charge of our political establishment in DC. They don't consider themselves "American", they think Americans are deplorable. They are willing to use torture. They are willing to murder innocents. Are these not the same reasons we condemn terrorists?

End the wars. Stop getting our soldiers killed for no reason. Bring the boys home to a big parade and thank them all.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 10:36 Comments || Top||

#13  if they got blowed up, it was the will of Allan
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 05/24/2019 11:13 Comments || Top||

#14  Don't tickle the troll.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 11:15 Comments || Top||

#15  The use of human shields by jihadis has long and often been reported, Mr. McCoy. A few examples from our archives:

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=537260

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=536763
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 11:46 Comments || Top||

#16  Sorry — Fred’s anti-spam code does not allow a long list of links in a single comment. The above two links were from March of this year. These two take us back to last November out of the first 100 articles that the search for the term “human shield” yielded.

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=534119

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=527484
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 11:57 Comments || Top||

#17  I trust the source and reporting of this about as much as I trust Chinese construction companies.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 12:08 Comments || Top||

#18  I’m trying to give a variety of countries, news sources, and guilty parties from the recent and early ends of the Rantburg archives.

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=62298

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=50712
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 12:12 Comments || Top||

#19  Actually, I'm with Herb on this one. End the war!

What we should have done is just bomb the shit out of the Taliban to the point where they will think twice about attacking America again.

We could have used the money on Americans instead, perhaps even (gasp) pay down the national debit!

Give up on nation building, if the Afghan government haven't gotten control by now, they never will. They get the government they desire, we just need to make sure they do not harbor anyone that will do harm to America.

We've given them enough money and tools to keep order in their country. Time for us to withdraw and let them swim or sink.

Frankly, I for one am tire of getting involved in other people messes and wasting money on them. Just bomb the shit out of them.. For those who are whining about the women and kids, well it's on them, not us.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/24/2019 12:20 Comments || Top||

#20  I said prove they are *in this case*. The fact that you're so easily able to pull up so many cases of the DC establishment killing innocents is horrifying.

So we should kill innocents anyway? What do we call those who kill innocents in the pursuit of others? Villains. Evildoers. Criminals.

The bloodlust of the establishment - in which I include the corporate press - cannot be overstated. It's horrific.

Remember when the media questioned Trump's fitness for office during the debates? He's going to get pissed off at some tweet from China and press the nuclear button? Now they're angry he won't START wars. Invade Venezuela, invade Iran. NOT getting us into another war is being used as a slight against him. By the same people who regarded that as a problem when he was a nominee. The same press that faked us into the Spanish-American War is still around. The same press can't wait to get us into another war.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 12:22 Comments || Top||

#21  Did you read the links, Mr. McCoy? Some of those examples had nothing to do with us. What we’re dealing with is the fact that non-Western cultures do not accept the limitations on wartime behaviours that in the West became the Geneva Conventions. These limitations include not using civilians as human shields. But the Geneva Conventions also point out that those who use civilians as human shields are the ones responsible for what happens to them, not those who have to go through them to get to the enemy.

The villains, the evildoers, the criminals are those who hide behind innocents in the belief that it cleverly allows them to attack with impunity. We are not the ones doing that. Sadly, in the end the only way to protect future generations of innocents in such a culture is to go through the current ones to get the villains/evildoers/criminals, teaching them the hardest way that such behaviour simply does not work.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 13:05 Comments || Top||

#22  The Geneva Conventions have nothing to do with anything, only apply to those who sign them, and they were routinely violated by the Allies during WWII.

We're at war because Islamists killed innocents to achieve their aims.

We're achieving (actually failing to achieve) our aims by killing innocents.

At what point do you say, "My God, what have I done?" When do you wake up?

The fact that you were able to clog the spam filter with stories of murdering innocents makes me want to vomit. We've been doing this for 17 years. It doesn't work. If it was going to work, it would have worked by now. Your assertion that we're teaching them is false. They haven't "learned" a thing. All we're doing is murdering innocent people who never did anything to us.

"What have I done? Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night, become a dog on the run?
Have I fallen so far, and is the hour so late,
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate?"
— Jean Valjean after robbing a priest who had just given him shelter, Les Misérables
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 14:12 Comments || Top||

#23 
What do we call those who kill innocents in the pursuit of others?


What do we call those who let villains get away with murder by hiding behind civilians?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/24/2019 14:25 Comments || Top||

#24  When you fight evil with evil, evil always wins.

You really think the USA is on the side of evil? Jesus Christ, how did you people lose your way? This is worse than I ever expected. I never, ever, IN MY LIFE expected to be arguing with - right wingers, of all people - about the idea that it's OK to murder innocent people.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 14:41 Comments || Top||

#25  murder murder murdering murdering murder

"He's good!" gums a weary old whittler
To his cousin, the two-fingered fiddler.
"Yessir," chirps a third,
"That's the second best word
To throw fuel on a fire, besides 'Hitler!'"
Posted by: Ebbase Ebbease5214 || 05/24/2019 15:43 Comments || Top||

#26  Herb's panties are always in twist when he can accuse America. Never when defending corrupt and inhumane opponents
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 19:51 Comments || Top||

#27  I suppose the discussion might be interesting if he ever had anything to contribute other than a tantrum every time.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 20:51 Comments || Top||

#28  We're at war because Islamists killed innocents to achieve their aims.

Huh? Jihadis have been killing innocents for over a millennium on their way to world conquest for the glory of Allah and the increased wealth of His soldiers. They’ve been killing Jewish civilians in Israel since before it was a country. America only started taking the thing seriously when Al Qaeda successfully staged major attacks on targets in our homeland on 9/11, including the Pentagon; we almost completely ignored the related 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, other than to jail a few members of the conspiracy, just as we did little about the attack on the USS Cole and so many others.

I find your sudden lofty moralizing puzzling, Mr. McCoy. You’ve been here a while, and even now you play nicely with others on other pages of this site. The tone here, other than from you, has not changed as long as I’ve been hanging out here, so why are you suddenly so shocked?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 21:19 Comments || Top||

#29  Posts by Herb McCoy

Why do you come here Herb? Virtually no one here shares your viewpoint, and changing their mind isn’t in the cards.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Clavith3514 || 05/24/2019 21:24 Comments || Top||

#30  I agree with Herb that long, pointless wars are a waste of people, time and treasure. If you are going to fight, fight to win. Don't treat it as a make-work project for sociology majors. Don't try to make it nice. Like the man said, war is cruelty, you cannot refine it.

Part of the problem is we are still geared up for fighting near-peer enemies and have not quite figured out strategy and tactics for fighting asymmetric, distributed war.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 23:09 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq weighs captives’ rights against fear of new ISIS
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi farmer Shaker Salih says he feared ISIS, but feared its defeat even more. His problem is persuading people to believe that he did not support the Death Eaters.

When Iraqi forces drove ISIS from his home town in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, Salih left with the bad boy group. He then stayed as long he could.

"We thought militias would kill us for living under ISIS, so we fled," said Salih, 49, referring to the paramilitaries that helped defeat ISIS. "That’s why we stayed with ISIS. We were used to them and knew what to do to survive."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Militants attack Hama Airport in retaliation for Russian, Syrian strikes
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels in the Idlib countryside attacked the Hama Military Airport this evening following a powerful assault by the Russian and Syrian air forces.

According to a report from the area, the jihadist rebels attempted to bomb the Hama Airport using their attack drones. The report said the Syrian military managed to foil the assault before the drones could bomb the base.

This latest drone attack marks the second time in the last 24 hours that the jihadists have attempted to bomb the Hama Military Airport.

Footage filmed overnight from Wednesday to Thursday appears to show Syrian Army air defence systems intercepting what Syrian state media reported was a drone near Hama airport.

Flashes of anti-aircraft fire can be seen lighting up the night sky, as kabooms boom in the distance.
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Home Front: Politix
Trump walks out of meeting with Congress leaders, demands end to Russia probes
[DAWN] President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
abruptly stalked out of a meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday with a flat declaration he would no longer work with Democrats unless they drop all investigations in the aftermath of the special counsel’s Trump-Russia report.

Democrats said the walkout seemed scripted. House Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House, It's not her fault when they lose, but it is when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... momentss...
called it all "very, very, very strange" and said she was praying for Trump and the nation.

After turning and leaving the three-minute non-meeting with the Democratic leaders, scheduled for a discussion of US infrastructure problems, Trump strode to the Rose Garden where aides had gathered news hounds and TV cameras for his demand that Congress drop its investigations that are increasingly leading to talk of what he called the "i-word" ‐ impeachment.

Trump assailed Pelosi in particular for her comment earlier in the morning on Capitol Hill that she believed the president was engaged in a "cover up" of the Russia probe.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the Dems were to work with Trump on an infrastructure proposal

which would, if it was completed, probably result in lots and lots and lots of earmarks for expensive projects
Posted by: lord garth || 05/24/2019 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Donald Trump falls for Nancy Pelosi's trap
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  These are the times I think about Oliver Cromwell's dissolution of the Long Parliament in 1653. His speech is interesting:

Speech
It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

In the name of God, go!

Oliver Cromwell - April 20, 1653





Of course this is now and that was then and there are really not parallels here.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Cromwell speech.

Cromwell had a grand funeral. When power changed after his death, his body was dug up, hung, and decapitated.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 8:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, but he had the good sense to leave the North American colonies alone something those who took power after him failed to do. That and setting his country up for 'good luck' by permitting the resettlement of Jews and the first synagogue.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/24/2019 10:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Cromwell was a Puritan, starchy and stiff. We too, get a Congress of baboons in D.C. every now and then. At times one wishes they could all be tossed.

In my lifetime, I've never seen the likes of what happened with the DS cabal's attempt to take down DJT. The corruption cannot go uncleaned up and unprosecuted. Otherwise, we will be back where we were headed; a banana republic with no rule of law.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/24/2019 13:42 Comments || Top||

#7  his body was dug up, hung, and decapitated

Omission of the vocative comma ("Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place") is not easily forgiven.
Posted by: Flineter Gonque1626 || 05/24/2019 14:21 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Anti-Widodo protests in Jakarta leave six dead
[DAWN] At least six people were killed as Indonesia’s capital erupted in violence when police clashed with protesters opposed to the re-election of President Joko Widodo.

Police sirens blared as fresh skirmishes broke out on Wednesday evening with thousands of protesters chanting and waving Indonesian flags in the heart of the capital.

Some hurled stones and fireworks at riot police who lined up behind a razor wire barricade near the election supervisory agency building.

Earlier, dozens were tossed in the clink
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
and parts of Jakarta were littered with debris and burned-out cars, as the violence triggered security advisories from the US and Australian embassies.

Authorities also restricted access to some social media in a bid to stop rumours and fake news from spreading online.

National police chief Tito Karnavian said six people had died, but denied authorities had fired live rounds on protesters, and called for calm. "Some had gunshot wounds, some had blunt force wounds but we still need to clarify this," he told news hounds.

Jakarta’s Governor Anies Baswedan said on Wednesday morning that about 200 people had been injured.

The violence came after Indonesia’s election commission on Tuesday confirmed Widodo had beaten retired military General Prabowo Subianto for the presidency in a poll held on April 17.

Subianto has said he would challenge the results in court ‐ as he did, unsuccessfully, against Widodo in 2014 ‐ but also warned his claims of widespread cheating could spark street protests.

That was borne out early on Wednesday as protesters set market stalls and cars on fire while hurling fireworks and rocks at security personnel clad in riot gear and holding shields, a news hound on the scene said.

Authorities blamed the violence on paid "provocateurs", citing money-filled envelopes found on some of the 257 demonstrators who had been arrested.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
US legislators ask govt to help ease Pakistan crisis
[DAWN] US politicians have urged the Trump administration to help Pakistain overcome the current economic crisis while asking Islamabad to focus its attention on creating more opportunities for its people.

At the annual bipartisan Iftar of the Pak American Political Action Committee (PAKPAC) on Tuesday evening, the politicians also advised the Trump administration not to go to war with Iran as it would destabilise the entire region.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
...the clownish U.S. Representative-for-life for Texas's 18th congressional district, serving since 1995. The district includes most of inner-city Houston. She is noted for her lack of tact and intellect. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and almost its epitome...
, the founder chairperson of the Pakistain caucus in the US Congress, while highlighting the need to revive the once close relationship between the United States and Pakistain, emphasised the need to help Pakistain overcome the current economic crisis.

"We should do whatever we can to ensure that there’s an improvement in the lives of Pak people," she said. The Pak government, she said, should also focus on providing "education and development opportunities" to its people.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa Horn
Puntland And Galmudug States Continue Talks In Galkayo
[RADIOSHABELLE] Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
and Galmudug
...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth...
states of Somalia have jointly agreed to cooperate on security following a high-level meeting in Galkayo on Wednesday.

The leaders of the Puntland and Galmudug state, Said Abdullahi Dani and Ahmed Duale Gelle have held talks in northern part Galkayo town.

According to the communique issued late Wednesday, the leaders discussed wide ranges issues affecting both states.

Among the issues discussed is security, means to resolve recently festivities in villages on the border of the states and politics.

The two leaders agreed to work on enhancing both states and collaborate against challenges facing the states.

Both sides accepted the completion and implementation of security agreements which previously inked by the states.

The communique called for immediate mediation of rival clans in the villages on the border.

A joint ministerial committee from both sides to work on security and political issues will be formed, according to the communique.

Galkayo is divided into two zones, where the northern portion forms part of Puntland state, while its southern part is governed by the Galmudug administration.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Somali Regional Forces Foil Suicide Attack
[RADIOSHABELLE] The suicide kaboom was aborted in Guri-El town in Galgadud region in Somalia on Thursday.

A middle-aged man strapped with boom jackets posing as a poet was tossed in the clink
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
by Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama forces before he attempted to detonates his explosives.

According to sources the man wanted to take the microphone saying he wants to eulogies ASWJ leaders.

He was wearing a boom jacket and was wrestled to the ground, detained by the security forces in as he tried to blow himself up at a parade to commemorate Sufi fighters who died fighting al-Shabaab
... the personification of Somali state failure...
He was heading towards VIPs when intercepted by guards.

More than ten people were killed and scores others were maimed following suicide car kaboom in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Wednesday

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Iraq
Anbar antics: 60 US mil vehicles arrive at base, big turban tied up


Dozens of U.S. military vehicles arrive in western Iraq: source

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Dozens of U.S. military vehicles have arrived in the American military base in Iraq’s western Anbar province, a security source was quoted saying by local media.

A convoy of more than 60 military vehicles arrived Monday at Ain al-Assad airbase in al-Baghdadi region, Iraqi Kurdish website BasNews quoted the source saying, adding that the convoy was escorted by tight ground security and an air cover.

Reinforcements have been on the rise at the airbase recently, the source said.

Tensions have risen recently between Washington and Iran as the U.S. administration sent bombers and aircraft carriers to the Middle East to counter what it described as potential threats against U.S interests from Iran. Tehran responded with warnings that it was ready to counter American threats.

The uneasy atmosphere prompted a number of Western countries to announce withdrawal of some of their military or civilian workers in Iraq.

Estimates put the number of U.S. troops at Ain al-Assad at 5000.

Iraqi intelligence arrest senior Islamic State leader in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi military intelligence services arrested on Wednesday a senior Islamic State leader in the western province of Anbar.

The Iraqi Military Intelligence Directorate, in a statement, said that its troops “arrested Abu Anas al-Samarei, the military adviser of an Islamic State commander, who was responsible for collecting weapons from citizens, who serve in the Iraqi security apparatus.”

Samarei, according to the statement, was arrested during a military operation in Annah district of Anbar.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Salahuddin province proceedings: 3 turbans toes up, mil op killed 11 turbans, and much more


Iraqi troops kill 3 Islamic State fighters in Salahuddin

Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) – Three Islamic State militants were killed Monday during a military operation in Salahuddin province, north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Safaa al-Saadi, the commander of Salahuddin Operations at al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), said that the pro-government fighters, backed by security forces, launched a military operation to hunt for Islamic State remnants in Salahuddin province.

The troops killed three Islamic State terrorists during the operation, al-Saadi said, adding that the operation will go on “until all planned targets are totally secured.”

Iraqi forces announce outcome of military operation in Salahuddin

Salahuddin (IraqiNews) Security Media Cell announced, on Tuesday, the outcome of the military operation against the Islamic State group in Salahuddin.

“Salahuddin Operations Command, backed by the province’s police forces and Salahuddin Axis Command, carried out a military operation to cleanse the island of Salahaddin of the remnant of the Islamic State group, and impose security and stability,” the cell pointed out in a press statement.

The statement added that the outcome of the operation is notable, where it resulted in the killing of 11 terrorists, discovering 13 hideouts and 16 explosive belts.

The security forces also destroyed two booby-trapped vehicles and three tunnels, in addition to finding two explosive’s labs and 11 tanks (2 for water and 9 for fuel).

Furthermore, they found a number of shielding plates, grenades, a hand grenade, 2 motorcycles, a gas cooker, two RAMs with different capacities, a cell phone and 6 vessels contain explosive materials.

Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran stores more oil on land and at sea as exports slump
Oooooh, targets!
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran’s oil storage on land and at sea is on the rise as US sanctions on exports bite and Tehran battles to keep its ageing fields operational and crude flowing, according to data and industry sources.

Washington announced in May the end of sanctions waivers for foreign countries importing Iranian oil, hitting Tehran’s biggest source of income.

With creaking infrastructure and an ageing fleet of ships due to increasing isolation from much of the world, Iran will need to park unsold stocks of oil until it can find buyers.

It is vital for Tehran to keep oil flowing as any disruption would damage its future activities due to the high costs and complexities of restarting production.

Data from Kayrros, a company which tracks oil flows, showed onshore storage in Iran was 46.1 million barrels, from total capacity of 73 million barrels, its highest since mid January.

Iranian oil exports fell in May to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) or lower, more than half the level seen in April, according to tanker data and industry sources.

Data based on AIS tracking by shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic showed 16 Iranian tankers, holding some 20 million barrels, were estimated to be used for floating storage after being stationary between two to four weeks.

Ten of those tankers with nearly 11 million barrels had been stationary for four weeks.

This compared with 12 Iranian tankers holding at least 13 million barrels of oil in March, which had been stationary from two to four weeks, MarineTraffic data showed.

Sources told Rooters in March that Iran was looking to bolster its fleet through discreet purchases of second hand tankers after discussions for new ships stalled, leaving Tehran with fewer options.

While Iran could try and charter tankers from the international market, the growing dragnet of sanctions, lack of insurance and financing mean few shipping companies would want to breach the restrictions imposed by Washington given fears of heavy fines or being cut off from the US financial system.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Jihadists beat back Syrian Army’s attempted advance in northeast Latakia
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) launched a new attack to advance in the northeastern countryside of the Latakia Governorate on Thursday.

Led by their 4th Division troops, the Syrian Arab Army stormed the southwestern axis of Kabani in a bid to enter this strategic mountaintop town in the Jabal al-Akrad region of northeast Latakia.

However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
the Syrian Army’s attempted advance would once again be foiled by the jihadist groups, including Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
and the Turkestan Islamic Party.

The Syrian Arab Army reported seven casualties during the attack.

Since the start of May, the Syrian Arab Army has repeatedly stormed this area in a bid to seal off the Latakia Governorate from the jihadist rebels. Thus far, all of their attempts have been repelled by the jihadist rebels.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  If the Syrians didn't have air cover I can understand the repeated failures (although why no air cover is a good question).

But if they had air cover and still failed to take this territory, it shows the Syrian army is pretty hollow.
Posted by: lord garth || 05/24/2019 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  lord garth, Strategy Page addresses that here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 19:14 Comments || Top||


Iran allegedly transfers S-300 system to Persian Gulf amid tensions with US
[ALMASDARNEWS] A video has emerged on social media allegedly showing Iranian vehicles transporting its S-300 air defence systems and other military equipment to the coastal city of Asaluyeh in the southern province of Bushehr ‐ an area along the Persian Gulf.

The country’s military has yet to confirm or deny the redeployment of the anti-missile systems.

The purported development comes amid simmering tensions with the United States, which has recently dispatched the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Gulf to send a message to Tehran.

Senior Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that the Islamic Theocratic Republic doesn’t seek war with the US, but will continue to resist its pressure.

The country’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told CNN that Washington was playing a "very, very dangerous game" by boosting its military presence in the region.

"Having all these military assets in a small waterway is in and of itself prone to accident, particularly when you have people who are interested in accidents. So extreme prudence is required and the United States is playing a very, very dangerous game", he said.

Relations between Iran and the US were exacerbated by Washington’s unilateral pull-out from the 2015 nuclear agreement and reintroduction of all anti-Tehran sanctions.

On 8 May 2019 ‐ exactly a year after the US withdrawal ‐ Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran would partially suspend its obligations under the deal, having given the five remaining signatories ‐ La Belle France, Russia, the UK, Germany, and China ‐ a 60-day deadline to take measures towards ensuring Tehran’s interests in the face of US penalties.
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Afghanistan
Security forces kill Taliban’s suicide attacks planner in Kapisa province
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan cops have killed a senior Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
leader who was involved in planning and facilitating suicide kabooms in North-eastern Kapisa province.

A front man for the Ministry of Interior Nasrat Rahimi said the security forces killed Mullah Abdul Basir, a senior Taliban leader who was involved in planning suicide attacks in Kapisa.

Rahimi further added that the security forces conducted the operation in Nejrab district on Tuesday.

According to Rahimi, the security forces also killed five other Lions of Islam during the same operation.

The anti-government armed Lions of Islam including Taliban have not commented regarding the operation so far.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
US Military Targets ISIS-Somalia In Fifth Airstrike Since April
[RADIOSHABELLE] The US targeted ISIS fighters in Somalia for the fifth time since mid-April, killing two snuffies in an Arclight airstrike Wednesday, US Africa Command said in a statement.

"Our efforts to locate and eradicate ISIS leaders who control a range of activities ‐ from operations to financing and communications ‐ is hitting at the heart of the organization and disrupting their ability to continue their terrorist activities," Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, the director of intelligence of US Africa Command, said in a statement Thursday.

The recent series of strikes against ISIS-Somalia have taken place in the Golis Mountains, located in the northern part of the country.

US Africa Command said in April that a strike in the same area killed the organization’s second in command.

There have been 37 US airstrikes in Somalia so far this year, mostly targeting the al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
, compared to 47 strikes in all of 2018.

The US estimates that ISIS-Somalia commands about 150 fighters, making it one of the smaller affiliates of the terror group. The Pentagon has about 500 to 600 personnel in Somalia, where they primarily advise local troops battling al-Shabaab.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Cycle of borrowing
[DAWN] THE PTI government is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. When they procrastinated on signing up with the International Monetary Fund, there was unanimous condemnation, and their star finance minister was sent home. Now that they have signed up to the programme, there is widespread condemnation of having sold out to the IMF that has also been dubbed by some as the ’new East India Company’.

Politics in this country, assisted by the media, seems to have become a game of pulling everyone and everything down, without putting forward any solution. There is unabated government bashing, which is likely to culminate in the demand to send the current set of rulers packing. The replacements for the post of finance minister, the State Bank governor, and the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue are all being presented as demons and agents of the West and the IMF.

Why is it escaping the critics that this is not the first time that we are begging from the IMF? In fact, it is reportedly the 21st time. Why is it escaping them that this is not the first time that we have imported finance ministers and governors of the State Bank? Going to the IMF and having Shaukat Aziz, Moeen Qureshi, Shamshad Akhtar and their ilk is quite routine. Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five...
was trying to be different by having a ’local’ finance minister and getting help from friends such as Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, the UAE and China to avoid going to the IMF. But he was hounded several times a day for eight months, until he finally succumbed.

With all this howling going on, no one wants to point out the elephant in the room: the fact that we as a nation and as individuals are living beyond our means. If you have been to a government office in Pakistain (including the offices of military officials), is it in any way less opulent than a government office in the West? At the top level, while the chancellor of Germany will herself get her visiting counterpart a cup of coffee, liveried waiters will do that for our visitors in Islamabad.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  With all this howling going on, no one wants to point out the elephant in the room: the fact that we as a nation and as individuals are living beyond our means.

Wow, just like student loans!
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Politics in this country, assisted by the media, seems to have become a game of pulling everyone and everything down, without putting forward any solution.

Perhaps a universal truth?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/24/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||


Employer throws hot water on minor maid in Sheikhupura
[DAWN] SHEIKHUPURA: A 10-year-old housemaid sustained critical burn injuries after her employer allegedly threw hot water on her in the Ferozwala locality on Wednesday.

Zain, daughter of labourer Karamat, was employed at the house of businessman Babu Javed. His wife allegedly threw hot water on Zain for some mistake. She suffered serious burn injuries.

Later, the employer family left her at the doorstep of her parents’ and fled.

Karamat got her admitted to a nearby hospital and reported the matter to the Ferozwala police. Later, the aggrieved family members protested against the apathy of the businessman and blocked traffic on GT Road.

The police official assured the family members that a stern action would be taken against the suspects.

Also, a health department team, headed by District Health Officer Mian Riaz, launched an operation against quacks in and around the city on Wednesday.

In this connection, the team sealed six clinics of quacks and got registered cases against them under the drug act.

Mr Riaz said the quackery business in the district would be eliminated.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “Want a refund, never took her out of the box.”
Posted by: KBK || 05/24/2019 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  "I was just giving it a wash !"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 2:35 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran will not surrender even if it is bombed, says Rouhani
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that Tehran will not surrender to US pressure and will not give up on its goals even if it is bombed, as tension rises between the Islamic Theocratic Republic and the United States.

Rouhani was quoted by state news agency IRNA as telling a ceremony in commemoration of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s: "We need resistance, so our enemies know if they bomb our land, and if our children are martyred, maimed or jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
, we will not give up on our goals for the independence of our country and our pride."
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  That's what the Japanese said.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 8:37 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Hokay.


Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/24/2019 17:30 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi Air Defense destroys drone launched by Houthis on Najran
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Arab Coalition’s spokesperson said on Thursday that the Saudi Air Defense intercepted a drone carrying explosives that was launched by Houthis in an attempt to target Najran
a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province and a favored target of Houthirocket forces....
airport.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki said that Houthis deliberately target dignitaries, civilians, and civil facilities systematically, warning the Iran-backed militia not to continue targeting, otherwise, there will be a strong response.

United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over reports on the attack, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

"The Secretary-General is alarmed by reports of a second consecutive drone attack on an airport in Najran, for which the Houthis have grabbed credit. He condemns these attacks, as well as any attack targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, which violate international humanitarian law," Dujarric said.

Guterres called on all parties to the conflict in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
to remain calm, avoid further escalation of the tensions, and engage in constructive negotiations with UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths to achieve the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Europe
Animal rights activists score win at Barcelona zoo
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Animal rights activists in Barcelona are celebrating a victory after the Spanish city ordered its municipal zoo to restrict the reproduction of captive animals unless their young are destined to be reintroduced into the wild.

Barcelona’s town council voted on May 3 to modify the zoo’s bylaws to include a rule by which any of its breeding programs will be stopped unless there is a plan to eventually release the offspring into nature.

"We want zoos to stop breeding animals that do not respond to an environmental strategy, breeding them just so they can be in front or inside a cage," said activist Leonardo Anselmi, who coordinates ZOO XXI, the animal rights group that successfully pushed for the new mandate.

The mandate was passed along with a new strategic plan for the zoo crafted by its staff that will task a committee of scientists and ethical experts with one year to determine a conservation plan for each of the 300 different species housed at the zoo. Those resulting plans will have to be implemented within three years. Any animals the committee thinks should leave the zoo will, in theory, be reintroduced into the wild or relocated at other zoos or sanctuaries.

The bylaw says it is adopting a stance of "compassionate conservation" that sees "animals are beings deserving our respect."

The goal is to convert the zoo, which was built inside a park in the city center in 1892, into a center focused on education and research, and a refuge for animals that can no longer survive in liberty. Currently the zoo hosts several animals in this condition, including elephants, tortoises and Pedro, a 45-year-old rhinoceros who eats baguettes for breakfast.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, no sex for the elephants.

Yeah, activists score.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 14:47 Comments || Top||

#2  I went to the animal fair;
The birds and the bees were bare.
Planned Parenthood was doing much good
Aborting the babies there.
Doc Monkey, he got drunk
And sucked up the elephant's trunk;
The creature, displeased, ungratefully sneezed
And that was the end of the monk.
Posted by: Alistaire Panda4723 || 05/24/2019 16:30 Comments || Top||

#3  If they restrict animals breeding for zoos, more animals will be captured from the wild. Unexpected consequences are so often predictable.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 18:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan to get Saudi oil on credit as of July
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Pakistani official says the much-anticipated Saudi oil will start flowing to Islamabad as of July, with payments deferred for three years.

Abdul Hafeez Shaikh says the buy-now-pay-later deal with the kingdom, reached last October, will enable Pakistan to overcome a balance of payment crisis.

Shaikh is Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser on finance and economic affairs.

Shaikh took to Twitter on Wednesday night, thanking Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for “activating the deferred payment for petroleum products” of $275 million per month.

The value amounts to $3.2 billion per year.

The crown prince visited Pakistan in February.

Saudi Arabia is a leading supplier of oil to Pakistan, which earlier this month reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $6 billion bailout.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran, US tension is a ‘clash of wills’, says Guards commander
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The standoff between Iran and the United States is a "clash of wills", a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday, suggesting any enemy "adventurism" would meet a crushing response, Fars news agency reported.

Tensions have spiked between the two countries after Washington sent more military forces to the Middle East in a show of force against what US officials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests in the region.

"The confrontation and face-off of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran and the malicious government of America is the arena for a clash of wills," Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri said.

He pointed to a battle during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war where Iran was victorious and said the outcome could be a message that Iran will have a "hard, crushing and obliterating response" for any enemy "adventurism".

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
tweeted: "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!"

Trump restored US sanctions on Iran last year and tightened them this month, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil or face sanctions of their own.

Trump wants Iran to come to the negotiating table to reach a new deal with more curbs on its nuclear and missile programs.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Home Front: WoT
US charges WikiLeaks founder with publishing classified info
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US filed new charges on Thursday against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, accusing him of placing the United States at risk of "serious harm" by publishing thousands of secret and classified documents, including the names of confidential sources for American armed forces.

In an 18-count, superseding indictment, Justice Department prosecutors allege that Assange directed former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning
...formerly Bradley Manning before he decided to become a girl. He, or she or whatever it was, was a misfit Army intel analyst who decided to leak all the secrets he could lay hands on. Sentenced to 35 years in Leavenworth, he was sprung on an Obamapardon in 2017....
in one of the largest compromises of classified information in US history.

The case presents immediate questions about media freedom, including whether the Justice Department is charging Assange for actions - such as soliciting and publishing classified information - that ordinarily journalists do as a matter of course. Department officials said on Thursday they believe Assange strayed far outside First Amendment protections.

The new Espionage Act charges go far beyond an initial indictment against Assange made public last month that accused him of conspiring with Manning to crack a defense computer password.

Wikileaks caused particular harm by publishing the names of people who helped American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and US diplomats around the world.

The new indictment says Assange conspired with Manning to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents, including State Department cables and reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors say his actions "risked serious harm" to the United States.

Assange, 47, is in jug in London after being evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy in April. The US is seeking his extradition.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hillary of the bathroom server is still free however
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:15 Comments || Top||

#2  When will The NY Times and Washington Post be charged?
Posted by: Airandee || 05/24/2019 15:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two more polio cases reported from KP
[DAWN] Two more polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
cases have been reported from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, taking the tally for the current year to 19.

Almost five months of the year have passed, but the number of polio cases found in KP has reached eight which is equal to the cases reported in the province in 2016.

Only two cases last year and one in 2017 were reported from KP.

The recent cases have been reported from Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...
and Bannu.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Chinese engineer accused of pushing worker into furnace in Sahianwala
[DAWN] FAISALABAD: Sahianwala police took a Chinese engineer into custody on charges of pushing a worker into a furnace following a row at a factory in industrial area here on Wednesday.

The worker has been hospitalised with 40 per cent burns.

Following the alleged incident, Chinese engineers and workers exchanged words. The workers staged a protest demonstration against the Chinese engineers and demanded registration of a case against the suspect.

The workers also called police demanding arrest of the suspect. Otherwise, they threatened to go on strike for an indefinite period.

Some of the agitating workers told news hounds that behaviour of the Chinese nationals working at the factory was harsh towards them. They complained that nobody listened to their complaints against the foreigners who were given protocol by police and other government officials.

They alleged that following exchange of words, the Chinese engineer deliberately pushed a worker, Shehroz, into a three-foot deep furnace. He was immediately rescued by some of his colleagues working nearby. Shehroz, who suffered burns, was shifted to hospital.

They said now the police were trying to hush-up the issue and pressurising by pressing Shehroz for giving statement that he had accidentally fallen into the furnace.

Madina Division SP Tahir Maqsood said the incident occurred at a battery manufacturing unit where reportedly a worker and his Chinese supervisor exchanged words after remote control of a machine went missing.

He said the workers were alleging that the supervisor pushed their colleague into a furnace intentionally, while the foreigner claimed that it was an accident. The worker, according to doctors, suffered 40 per cent burns, he added.

The SP said the matter was being probed into and would be decided on merit.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  now the police were trying to hush-up the issue and pressurizing by pressing Shehroz for giving statement that he had accidentally fallen into the furnace.

Ha ! Looks like 70 years of independence was it for Pakistain.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 05/24/2019 2:25 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: Omorong Black8889 || 05/24/2019 10:18 Comments || Top||

#3  A nation full of "one child families" makes a lot of spoiled kids with poor social skills. Things like pushing folks from the 3rd world into furnaces when they upset you...
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Obviously a hot head.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 05/24/2019 19:33 Comments || Top||


FIR filed against PTM's Gulalai Ismail for allegedly inciting violence, defaming state
[DAWN] Islamabad police on Wednesday filed a case against Gulalai Ismail ‐ a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) ‐ for allegedly defaming state institutions, creating unrest and inciting violence.

The first information report (FIR) lodged against the PTM leader mentions sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc) and 124-A (sedition) of the Pakistain Penal Code, as well as sections 6/7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997.

According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, Ismail purportedly incited law-abiding citizens to commit treason and violence, while addressing a protest demonstration against the brutal rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl named Farishta.

The FIR accuses Ismail of delivering hate speech, inciting ethnic sentiments against the state and Pakistain Army, and causing a sense of fear and terror among people.

PTM is a rights-based alliance that, besides calling for the de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement in the latter, has insisted on an end to the practices of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, and for their practitioners to be held to account within a truth and reconciliation framework.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Europe
Germany’s Bosch fined $100 million over diesel scandal
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] German prosecutors have fined auto parts and technology company Bosch 90 million euros over its role in the diesel emissions scandal that erupted at Volkswagen in 2015.

Prosecutors in Stuttgart said Wednesday that the company, formally called Robert Bosch GmbH, was fined for a negligent violation of supervisory obligations, and that the company had decided not to appeal.

Bosch delivered millions of engine control systems that were installed on various manufacturers’ cars starting in 2008 and whose software, in prosecutors’ words, "contained in part prohibited strategies" - leading to cars emitting more nitrogen oxide than permitted by regulators.

However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
prosecutors said they believe that "the initiative to integrate and shape the prohibited strategies came from employees of the auto manufacturers."

They said that the fine does not affect ongoing criminal probes of Bosch employees. The bulk of the fine - 88 million euros - stems from profits on the sales of the parts, with the remaining 2 million euros covering the misdemeanor itself.

Prosecutors said that they took account of Bosch managers’ full and constructive cooperation with Sherlocks since 2015.

Bosch agreed to a $327.5 million civil settlement in the United States for supplying emissions software to Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles that enabled cheating on diesel emissions tests.

The diesel emissions scandal has cost Volkswagen itself billions of euros.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Theyly botched it.
Posted by: gorb || 05/24/2019 2:24 Comments || Top||

#2  That's an interesting application of product liability - fine a company for the sale of a product that was misused by someone else.
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 6:43 Comments || Top||

#3  See 'Gun Control' advocates here in the states, Raj.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/24/2019 8:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Exactly.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/24/2019 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Raj, the article did mention that Bosch supplied some of the software that enabled the 'cheat mode'.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/24/2019 13:07 Comments || Top||


Juncker lashes out on eve of European elections.
Reluctantly linking to CNN because they have the raw video of his interview. Click through for all of it.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has lashed out at "stupid nationalists" on the eve of European elections in which euroskeptic politicians are expected to make gains in the European Parliament.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, the outgoing president said he was only too aware of the threat that nationalist politicians pose to European solidarity, which Juncker called the "main objective of the EU."

Some polls project that populists may become the most powerful group in the parliament following this week's elections in all 28 EU nations, resulting in a lasting impact on the future of the bloc and the continent at large. "These populist, nationalists, stupid nationalists, they are in love with their own countries," Juncker told CNN in his Brussels office.

"They don't like those coming from far away, I like those coming from far away ... we have to act in solidarity with those who are in a worse situation than we are in," he said.
You don't build a wall because you hate the people outside. You build a wall because you love the people inside.

Druncker obviously does not love his own people. Instead he considers them The Other, like most of the Left.

The former prime minister of Luxembourg, who has served as European Commission President since 2014, said he remained sad at the UK's decision to leave the EU, but now wants to see the Brexit process come to an end: "We have to stop this process because it's harming the general atmosphere in Europe. It's harming growth perspectives worldwide."
"It's harming me and the people I care about while helping The Other."
Juncker said he doesn't operate in the business of hate: "Many people hate me, but I don't hate anybody. If you hate someone you cannot work with them."
And then his lips fell off.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Was he shitfaced on his favorite Merlot when he said it?
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Time for Nationalists to run a sustainable non-balkanised Europe as a grouping for the People's of Europe and solely encompassing the interests they share.

Have a system to share information making getting a Visa for permission to travel to another country simple and as inexpensive as possible.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#3  I like those coming from far away, unless they are...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:18 Comments || Top||

#4  and as inexpensive as possible.

Where's the graft in that, BP?? Don't forget your priorities.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/24/2019 8:00 Comments || Top||

#5  These populist, nationalists, stupid nationalists, they are in love with their own countries," Juncker told CNN in his Brussels office.

Juncker makes it clear the EUSSR is about hating the countries and peoples of Europe.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/24/2019 10:32 Comments || Top||


#7  I bet it's gonna be all kinds of fun when Nigel Farage takes his seat in the European Parliament...although, hopefully he won't be there very long.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/24/2019 11:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Farage is already in the European Parliament. He has been for 20 years.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4525/NIGEL_FARAGE/home

Did we not know this? There is tons of footage of him out there bashing the EU on their own turf.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 12:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Mr. Farage has appeared regularly in our archives since 2008.

European Commission President Juncker is lashing out because his side is losing the argument, poor man, and soon he will find himself looking for other outlets for his creative energies.

You don't build a wall because you hate the people outside. You build a wall because you love the people inside.

This is true of you, President Trump, and the Hungarians, Herb. But not exactly true of the Communists ruling East Germany or the Nazis fencing round their concentration camps, once upon a time, I raise the point because you’ve been tending toward over-broad statements lately.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 19:05 Comments || Top||

#10  OK, if you're pretending not to know the difference between a wall to keep people out and a wall to keep people in? One makes good neighbors, the other is a prison. Honestly there should be two different words for this in English.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 19:10 Comments || Top||

#11  Duplicate posts deleted as requested.

I am pretending nothing, my dear Mr. McCoy. I am at the moment mourning the fact that my neighbour’s very large tree fell over and damaged his fence, which until now has done double duty: picturesquely demarcating the border between our properties and forcing the deer to go around my little bit of wild-ish woods, even as the equally picturesque fence belonging to the neighbour on my other side has declined in a key spot to remain vertical for reasons of its own. I anticipate hordes of deer descending on my hosta and various native plants that have been spreading nicely, attacked until now only by a single family of rabbit parents, whose offspring annually emigrate to greener pastures.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 19:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Consider rebuilding with the skulls of innocents you advocated killing. Water the soil with their blood and make sure to get it all over your hands. Don't wash afterwards, it won't come off anyway.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/24/2019 19:52 Comments || Top||

#13  You've already done it with your handwringing over innocents held as human shields. Happy? You are as culpable at their non-liberation
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 19:57 Comments || Top||

#14  Consider rebuilding with the skulls of innocents you advocated killing. Water the soil with their blood and make sure to get it all over your hands.

What an interesting version of “Thank you for publishing my article and fixing my posting error when I asked you to,” Mr. McCoy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 20:11 Comments || Top||

#15  Consider rebuilding with the skulls of innocents you advocated killing. Water the soil with their blood and make sure to get it all over your hands.

Actually, blood seems to be an ingredient in a lot of deer repellents. Herbivores don't seem to like it. (My mum was engaged in constant chemical war against critters determined to eat her flowers and she tried a number of them)

I have no idea if this would work on jihadis.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 20:21 Comments || Top||

#16  You give him unearned courtesy and best take on his bullshit, TW. I don't
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 20:32 Comments || Top||

#17  I anticipate hordes of deer descending on my hosta and various native plants that have been spreading nicely...

Try taking up bow hunting TW. The venison will be nice and think of the leather goods.
Posted by: Tyranysaurus Clavith3514 || 05/24/2019 21:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India has ended Iranian oil imports
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] India has ended all imports of oil from Iran, its ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday, becoming the latest country to grudgingly comply with threatened US sanctions.

India had already sharply decreased its imports from Iran and bought one million tons of crude in April, the last month before Washington stepped up its pressure campaign against Tehran and ended all exemptions to sanctions, Ambassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.

"That’s it. After that we haven’t imported any," Shringla told news hounds during a briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election victory.

Shringla said that energy-hungry India has also ended all imports from Venezuela because it considered itself a partner of the United States -- but said the shift had caused pain at home, with Iran formerly supplying 10 percent of India’s oil needs.

Calling Iran "an extended neighbor" of India with longstanding cultural links, Shringla declined to say if New Delhi shared President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s concerns about Tehran.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Afghanistan
Criminal kingpin and his three comrades shot dead in Kabul
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The police forces killed a criminal kingpin and his three comrades during an encounter in Kabul earlier this evening.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) in a statement said the police forces killed Enayat Qochi, the leader of one of the most dangerous criminal networks in Kabul during an encounter in Paghman district.

The statement further added that the police forces killed three comrades of Qochi during the same encounter.

The police forces also tossed in the slammer
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
four other comrades of Qochi during the encounter, MoI added.

The police forces launched an operation in pursuit of Qochi and his men after they stole a Toyota Hilux Vehicle from 4th district of Kabul city, MoI said.

According MoI, the clash between Qochi, his men and police forces broke out after the police forces traced them in Paghman district.

The Ministry of Interior also added that Qochi and his men had engaged in armed festivities with the police forces on numerous occasions in the past.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Diyala dead dudes: 2 kabooms defused, another kills seven Shiite paramilitaries. a third gets a garage, Kanaan city mortared


Iraqi security defuse two explosive charges in Diyala

Diyala (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi security forces on Sunday defused two explosive charges in Diyala province as the country still faces growing bomb threats probably by the dormant Islamic State cells.

“The security forces were able to find two plastic containers full of the explosive TNT during a search operation in Diyala,” Alghad Press quoted the Diyala police directorate as saying in a press statement.

The two explosive charges were remotely detonated, with no casualties reported, the statement read.

Bomb explosion kills seven PMF personnel in Diyala

Diyala (Iraqinews.com) – Seven personnel of the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed Sunday when a bomb hit their patrol in Diyala province.

“A bus carrying personnel of the 20th brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces was hit by a roadside bomb in eastern Diyala, leaving seven fighters killed,” Alsumaria News quoted the Shia-led paramilitary force as saying in a press statement.

“The explosion also left 26 other fighters wounded,” the statement read, adding that the terrorist attack will not affect their determination to eliminate remnants of the Islamic State militant group.

2 bombs explode inside Muqdadiyah Police Chief’s garage in Diyala

Diyala (IraqiNews) A security source informed, on Tuesday, that two bombs exploded inside the garage of Muqdadiyah Police Chief’s house, in Diyala Province. No casualties were reported.

The source said in a press statement that two explosive devices, emplaced inside the garage of Muqdadiyah Police Chief’s house, in Sariha area, exploded.

No human losses were reported, the source added on condition of anonymity.

The city has a mixed population, with Arabs forming the majority. Other inhabitants are the Kurds and Turkomans. In 1960s and 1970s, the Shia Kurds constituted the majority of the city’s population, followed by the Shia Turkomans.

13 mortar shells fall on Kanaan City in Diyala Province

Diyala (IraqiNews) The Security Media Cell announced, on Thursday, that 13 mortar shells fell, south of Kanaan City, in Diyala Province. It also indicated that a woman was injured due to the attack.

The Cell said in a press statement, “Security forces from Diyala Operations Command are searching for the perpetrators who fired the shells.”

The initial information revealed that the shells that fell on Kanaan city injured a woman, the statement added.

Earlier this year, the Islamic State group launched a number of attacks in Diyala Province. The attacks stirred concerns among the local population in the province.

However, tribal officials in the province vowed to stand with security forces in routing the group’s remnants.

it is noteworthy that the terror attacks were concentrated in areas in al-Waqf basin, Abu Saida and Khanaqin, including Mukhaisa, Abu Khanazeer, Abu Karma, Jalabi and Shaykhi.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Research article explains how Turkey uses pan-Islamism as a solution for failure
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has used Islam to legitimize itself as the leader of the Moslem world since the Ottoman Empire’s decline, writes Saud al-Sarhan, secretary-general of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, in an article titled "Erdogan and the Last Quest for the Greenmantle."

The article, published by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) at King’s College London, argues that Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
evokes a pan-Islamic rhetoric "in an attempt to increase the appeal of Turkey’s political stances to Moslem populations across the world" ‐ a tactic which Sarhan links to "political arms of various terrorist groups."

The Ottomans similarly exploited pan-Islamism, but "only once their days of conquering lands had been checked by Europeans," Sarhan writes.

In the early 20th century, Christians made up more than a third of the Ottoman Empire’s population ‐ only to become reduced to less than a fifth after the empire started losing European lands, which Sarhan presents as a major reason for the easy spread of pan-Islamic thought.

The Ottoman ruling elite "sought to adopt pan-Islamist positions in order to reverse the deteriorating state of their empire," the article argues, offering as evidence the campaign that the Ottomans carried out to urge the world’s Moslems to be loyal to them instead of their local rulers shortly before the First World War.

These campaigns failed, which Sarhan attributes to the rejection of Turkification policies by Arabs and Moslems outside the empire, in a major negative turning point in pan-Islamic thought.

According to Sarhan’s research, after the abolition of the empire, pan-Islamic thought was revived through groups such as the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt, the Caliphate League in India, and the Moslem World Congress in Pakistain.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the groups did not flourish until secular Arab nationalist regimes failed to solve the "Paleostinian problem" in 1967 and the Soviet Union collapsed, which resulted in a decline in support for Soviet-aligned secular governments in various parts of the Arab world.

This enabled pan-Islamic parties to gain power in places such as Iran (Khomeinism), Iraq (Dawa Party), Gazoo (Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",) and Egypt (the Moslem Brüderbund’s Freedom and Justice Party).

History repeated itself, according to Sarhan, when Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to qualify Turkey for membership in the EU, causing him to turn, once again, to a more pan-Islamic position to secure a major place for Turkey on the world stage.

Sarhan also explains that Turkey even uses pan-Islamism to incentivize Arabs and Moslems to invest in the country and save its economy. He gives the examples of a former Kuwaiti MP and a Moslem Brüderbund sympathizer journalist, both of whom urged people to invest in Turkey on the basis that it is a Moslem nation.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Arabia
Houthi kamikaze drone strikes Najran Airport in southern Saudi Arabia
[ALMASDARNEWS] For the third day in a row, the Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
forces have attacked Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
’s Najran
a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province and a favored target of Houthirocket forces....
Regional Airport in the southern region of the kingdom.

According to the official media wing of the Houthi forces, their K-2 suicide drone targeted the Saudi military’s Patriot Missile System. The Houthi forces claimed the attack was successful.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Houthi forces launched a similar attack using their assault drones; these strikes targeted Saudi military hangars and arms depots, the group said in a statement.

The Houthi forces have recently gone on the offensive in several parts of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
and southern Saudi Arabia. These offensives have paid off for the Houthi forces, as they have managed to retake several areas while also pushing south towards the pro-government stronghold of Aden.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


India-Pakistan
Fazl asks supporters to get ready for ‘big’ demo in capital
[DAWN] Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
, chief of his own faction of the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...the political wing of the Pak Taliban...
(JUI-F) and head of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), has directed his party workers to start preparations for a "big" anti-government "protest demonstration" to be held in Islamabad soon, invi­ting other parties to join it.

The JUI-F chief, who was authorised by the country’s major opposition parties on May 19 to convene a multi-party conference (MPC) after Eid to devise a joint strategy for launching a "decisive movement" for restoration of "real democracy" in the country, issued these directives through a video message on Wednesday.

In his nearly five-minute message, the Maulana said their already planned "million marches" in Quetta and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
would be held after Eidul Fitr as per the schedule.

The JUI-F chief, whose party had initially decided to boycott the parliament after the last year’s general elections, has been pressing the other opposition parties to launch a decisive movement to dislodge the government, but he has so far failed to get a positive response from them, mainly from the PPP and the PML-N.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea calls Biden ‘fool of low IQ’ over Kim criticism
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] North Korea has labeled Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
a "fool of low IQ" and an "imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being" after the Democratic presidential hopeful during a recent speech called North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
a tyrant.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday accused Biden of insulting the country’s supreme leadership and committing an "intolerable and serious politically-motivated provocation" against the North.

Biden during a campaign launch in Philadelphia on Saturday accused President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
of cozying up to "dictators and tyrants" like Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
.

Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Fool of Low IQ?

Well I certainly can't think of anything nicer to say about creepy uncle Joe.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/24/2019 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  IMO, "Fools of high I.Q." are a lot more dangerous.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn... I might have to steal that one. Thanks North Korea!
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/24/2019 16:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Pernicious and obsequious retard was already taken
Posted by: Frank G || 05/24/2019 19:55 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
First 60 StarLink comm sats deployed in 1 launch by SpaceX
[NASASpaceFlight] Falcon 9 launches first Starlink mission – heaviest payload launch by SpaceX to date
Satellites massed 14,000 kgs total payload and deployment hardware came to 18,000kg - a huge launch and with the first stage still recovered.
The much-awaited and heralded launch of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellite constellation launched on Thursday. With the twice-flown Falcon 9 rocket on SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, SpaceX deployed the first batch of 60 Starlink satellites. The launch was slightly delayed due to unacceptable Upper Level Winds scrubbed the first launch attempt. Then, a week ago, a requirement to update the Starlink software delayed the launch into next week. However, the latest attempt launched without issue at the opening of the window at 10:30 pm Eastern.

Starlink satellite configuration:

A flat and compact design that is “significantly more scalable and capable than its first experimental iteration”, noted SpaceX in the mission’s press kit.

In all, each Starlink satellite is equipped with multiple high-throughput antennas, a single solar array, and (crucially) Hall thrusters powered by krypton – all designed to bring low-latency, high-throughput internet services to every part of the world.

The Hall thrusters will allow each Starlink to independently maintain its orbit, adjust its position, and de-orbit at the end of its operational life.

Orbital position, navigation, and precision pointing for each Starlink is enabled in part by a Startracker system that is built upon the same Startracker used by the cargo and crew Dragon spacecrafts developed by SpaceX.

More impressively, the Startracker system will allow each Starlink to independently track on-orbit debris and autonomously fire its Hall thrusters to avoid debris.

At the end of their lives, this current round of Starlinks will mostly burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, with only 5% of each Starlink surviving atmospheric reentry.

Subsequent generations of Starlinks already under construction will be completely disposable, with 100% of the craft burning up in the atmosphere at the end of its lifetime.

Importantly, while this is the first batch of operational Starlinks to be launched, SpaceX does expect to encounter some issues as the satellites are deployed and brought into operational use.

This is part of SpaceX’s overall philosophy of “design, fly, iterate, fly again” which has served the company well in its development of critical capabilities that just a few years ago were deemed “impossible” or “unfeasible” by the larger spaceflight community.
Eventually more than 12000 of these StarLink sats will surround the Earth.

Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The first phase of the Starlink deployment plan will see 1,584 satellites in 550 km orbits inclined 53° to the equator and spread out across 40 different orbital planes of 66 Starlinks per plane.

Based on this plan, it will take 24 Falcon 9 launches of 60 satellites to complete the first phase of Starlink deployment.

The 550 km orbital shell, as it is known, is the middle of three orbital shells planned for the overall Starlink constellation.

SpaceX currently plans to build out the 550 km shell first, and then move on to deployment of the other two orbital altitude locations.

In addition to the 550 km deployments, a 340 km shell will eventually comprise of 7,518 Starlinks while the 1,200 km orbital location will host 2,841 Starlinks
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Now *this* is more like the 21st century I was expecting.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/24/2019 15:01 Comments || Top||

#3  What happens when other countries or corporations decide to put their 12000 little satelites and they start bumping into each other? I can see my ISP saying they're waiting on another rocket launch to get my internet fixed.
Posted by: jpal || 05/24/2019 15:44 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Emir of Al-Qaeda allied Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, Zakir Musa, has been officially killed







Wikipedia on the group
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (Urdu: انصار غزوات ال ہند‎) is a militant organization and Al-Qaeda cell in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab led by Zakir Rashid Bhat aka Zakir Musa.[1][2][3][4] In July 2017, the Global Islamic Media Front claimed that Zakir Musa had been named the head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.[5][6][7] On 7 December 2017 the group released a statement that condemned United States President Donald Trump's deceleration of moving the United States embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.[8] On 25 December 2017, in a video of a Kashmiri militant declaring allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and declaring a new ISIL Province in Kashmir the fighter called on Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind to ally with or give allegiance to ISIL and wage Jihad in Kashmir against the Indian government.[9]In February 2018, the group released a video of Zakir Musa calling on Indian Muslims to attack Indian army patrols and checkpoints as well as companies interested in investing in India.[10][11] In April 2018, the group published material that encouraged Muslims across India and Kashmir to carryout lone wolf attacks.[12]

Kashmir Patriot: J&K Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind loses its commander, Curfew imposed in Kashmir
Srinagar: Panic gripped Kashmir valley Thursday evening as the news of AGH commander Zakir Moosa being trapped in an encounter started doing rounds on social media.

Earlier, SOG of Jammu and Kashmir Police, 42nd battalion of Rashtriya Rifles and troops from CRPF laid a cordon in Dadsara village of Tral in South Kashmir.

As the forces came closer to the target house and asked the two hiding militants to surrender a barrage of UBGL grenades was launched over them and the encounter ensued.

In the exchange of fire two militants affiliated with Ansar Ghazwatul Hind including its founder and chief Zakir Moosa were killed.

As the reports of Zakir being gunned down spread on social media, the authorities decided to snap down the internet services in most of the areas of the valley. Authorities also decided to impose curfew throughout the valley on Friday.

Reports from Tral suggested that the whole area has been sealed and the houses in the village of Dadasara have been deployed with large contingents of armed forces.

Clashed in the vicinity are being reported amid sounds of gunshots. (CNS)


Times of India March 14, 2018: Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind is attracting jihadis from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen beyond J&K.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent

#1  I like it.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/24/2019 21:27 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
For Gaza grooms, crippling debt overshadows marital bliss
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Two years ago, Gazoo resident Saleh Abu Serdanah took out a small loan in order to get married and start a family. These days, the 31-year-old construction worker is on the run, hiding from police in a tiny rental apartment and unable to repay the money he borrowed.

Abu Serdanah is among hundreds of young men who have turned to Gazoo’s small industry of wedding lenders for help, only to fall onto hard times because of crushing debt and lack of jobs in the impoverished Paleostinian territory. Many have been forced to renegotiate their debts, and others have gone into hiding. Some have even ended up in jail.

"I have never been into a cop shoppe and have never made trouble. Now I’m like a runaway crook," Abu Serdanah said.

Wedding lenders have filled an important need in Gazoo’s conservative society, where young men and women are typically expected to marry in their late teens or early 20s. Facing a nearly 60% unemployment rate, many young Gazook men have been forced to put off their dreams of marriage because they cannot afford it.

Over a decade ago, a number of wealthy people launched charities to help young couples to pay for their weddings and settle post-marriage debts. The initiative was promoted through ceremonial mass weddings that thrived after Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gazoo after the Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, holy warrior group took power in 2007.

These charitable efforts, which still continue, paved the way for a profitable private industry to emerge, offering more substantial packages that included things like bridal dresses, invitations, bedroom furniture and meals for guests.

Allured by the idea, Abu Serdanah signed up for an offer of $2,500 through Farha Project, one of those companies, in 2017. He acknowledges that he would never have been able to marry without Farha. The November 2017 wedding included a bachelor’s party with a live band and a separate women’s ceremony the following day. The company threw in invitations, catering for 60 people and a suit and dress for the couple.

Abu Serdanah agreed to repay the money in monthly payments over two years, but managed to pay only for five months. Today, he regrets his decision.

"I was committed to paying on time for a while, but things have changed and made me unable to," said Abu Serdanah, sitting on a mat outside the apartment he shares with his wife as a candle faintly lit the dark stairway. "There is no work, so where should I get money from?"
To make a long story short, he borrowed from loan sharks, doesn't have the dough to pay it back. He could be thrown into debtor's prison or the mob could break his knees or both. This is all the fault of Zionists, who're blockading Gaza. Yadda yadda yadda.
Posted by: Fred || 05/24/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Where plenty of openings in Qassam industry
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/24/2019 7:14 Comments || Top||

#2  "I was committed to paying on time for a while, but things have changed and made me unable to," said Abu Serdanah, sitting on a mat outside the apartment he shares with his wife as a candle faintly lit the dark stairway.

Look at the bright side, Abu - you have a very small carbon footprint.
Posted by: Raj || 05/24/2019 9:39 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
9Govt of Iran
7Govt of Pakistan
7Islamic State
4Moslem Colonists
2Taliban
2al-Nusra
2Commies
2Houthis
1al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent
1Govt of Syria
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1al-Shabaab (AQ)
1Sublime Porte
1Hamas

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2019-05-24
  Emir of Al-Qaeda allied Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, Zakir Musa, has been officially killed
Thu 2019-05-23
  Algeria Army Chief Says Has ‘No Political’ Ambition
Wed 2019-05-22
   'American Taliban' released
Tue 2019-05-21
  8-10 Somali Teens Armed With Hammers Attack Bystanders at East Bank Rail Station in MN
Mon 2019-05-20
  Houthi's launch IRBM at Mecca!
Sun 2019-05-19
  Islamic State in West Africa Forming ‘Jihadist Proto-State’ in Nigeria
Sat 2019-05-18
  Drone strike kills notorious ISIS leader and his fighters in East of Afghanistan
Fri 2019-05-17
  Fighting grips Hodeidah port, complicates peace moves
Thu 2019-05-16
  F-16 with live ordinance crashes in Riverside CA.
Wed 2019-05-15
  Iranian ballistic missile platforms in Basra city directed towards the Gulf, Exxon evacuating, German mil. trainers evacuating
Tue 2019-05-14
  The Latest: Norwegian Tanker's Hull Punctured off UAE Coast
Mon 2019-05-13
  Gunmen kill six during Catholic mass in Burkina Faso
Sun 2019-05-12
  Security guard killed as terrorists storm Pearl Continental Hotel in Gwadar: ISPR
Sat 2019-05-11
  B-52s in Al Udeid AB Qatar
Fri 2019-05-10
  U.S. revokes citizenship of Portland mosque's imam for ties to ObL

Better than the average link...



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