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Shabaab tries to assassinate US diplomat
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
14:31 3 20:08 Frank G [12]
12:09 3 16:48 Dron66046 [8]
11:43 1 13:09 Abu Uluque [3]
11:36 12 22:38 Silentbrick [5]
10:47 0 [4]
10:10 0 [2]
09:01 4 14:49 Mercutio [4] 
08:36 5 13:54 Mullah Richard [3]
08:17 7 14:07 USN, Ret. [8]
07:19 3 12:12 g(r)omgoru [5]
04:18 13 19:45 Frank G [10]
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02:14 4 12:05 Mullah Richard [11] 
02:12 2 09:37 g(r)omgoru [4]
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00:32 2 16:38 Lex [8]
00:21 28 20:51 Lex [6]
00:00 6 14:11 USN, Ret. [7]
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00:00 1 09:36 g(r)omgoru [4] 
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00:00 1 07:14 Mercutio [7]
00:00 3 12:51 Woodrow [1]
00:00 6 10:32 Dron66046 [1]
00:00 2 14:01 Mullah Richard [6]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
16 Camp Pendleton-based Marines arrested following human smuggling investigation
[10 News] 16 Marines have been arrested for their alleged involvement in various illegal activities ranging from human smuggling to drug-related offenses, according to USMC officials.

The unidentified Marines served in support of the Southwest Border Support mission, Marine officials said.

"Information gained from a previous human smuggling investigation precipitated the arrests," said Maj. Kendra Motz, 1st Marine Division Communication Strategy Operations Director.
"C'mon man, it's easy money, and everyone's doing it"
An additional eight Marines were taken aside to be questioned on their involvement in alleged drug offenses unrelated to Thursday's arrests, Motz said.

Those arrested were taken into custody during a Battalion formation at Camp Pendleton by 1st Marine Division worked alongside the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, officials said.

Border Patrol agents arrested Lance Cpls. Byron Darnell Law II and David Javier Salazar-Quintero on July 3 near the Tecate Port of Entry, according to a federal complaint .

Both men are charged with smuggling "for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain," the complaint said.
$$$$$
In the complaint, agents reported seeing three undocumented immigrants getting into the pair's vehicle on Interstate 8 on the morning of July 3. The vehicle was pulled over a short time later and all five occupants were arrested.

The immigrants, according to the complaint, told agents that they paid $8,000 to have Law and Salazar-Quintero take them north
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 14:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kendra Motz, 1st Marine Division Communication Strategy Operations Director glorified PR wing in camo ?

The Corps need some strategic downsizing.

...On July 3, Salazar again allegedly coordinated between Law and a spotter to set up a rendezvous near the Jacumba Hot Springs exit on Interstate 8. They eventually met up with three illegal immigrants who entered Law’s vehicle before the traffic stop...More


You have to admire the adherence to BAMCIS, though.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 17:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Do you think they carefully vetted those they snuck in, to ensure they were connected to neither terrorists nor criminals of any sort? Me neither.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 19:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Nope :-(
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 20:08 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China "Hong Kong" police ban 'anti-triad' protest
Speaking of the black hand . . . .
[Yahoo] Hong Kong police on Thursday banned a planned protest against suspected triad gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators, ratcheting up tensions ahead of what is expected to be another weekend of anti-government rallies.

Protest organisers have vowed to go ahead with their march despite the police denying their request.

Public anger has been raging since last Sunday when a gang of men in white t-shirts, armed with poles and batons, set upon anti-government protesters in a station and on a train, sending at least 45 people to hospital.

Police have been heavily criticised for being too slow to respond to the violence, fueling accusations of collusion or turning a blind eye to the pro-government mob -- allegations the force have denied.

Activists had planned to hold a protest on Saturday in the rural town of Yuen Long where the brazen assaults took place.

But in a rare move, Hong Kong police issued a letter of objection saying they feared reprisal attacks against villagers from protesters.

"Anyone who comes out to march, they would be violating the law," acting regional police commander Tsang Ching-fo told reporters.

Protest organisers vowed to push ahead, raising the likelihood of fresh clashes between demonstrators and police.

"I personally will march," said activist Max Chung, who had applied for police permission, adding he was seeking legal advice.

Social messaging channels used to organise the largely leaderless movement quickly filled up with vows from people to join in.

Some suggested holding a "shopping spree" in Yuen Long. Others suggested, sarcastically, it could be a location to mourn the death on Wednesday of notorious Chinese communist hardliner Li Peng, noting that religious gatherings do not need police permission.

After the police announcement, an AFP reporter saw around a dozen young people in a military supplies surplus store buying protective clothing and vowing to attend.

"We will go regardless," one young man said.

The South China Morning Post said the last time police rejected a protest request was in 2014.

- GRAVES VANDALISED -
Yuen Long is in the New Territories, the rural region bordering China where many villagers are staunchly pro-Beijing.

Three days ago the Yuen Long grave of the parents of Junius Ho was vandalised. An ardent pro-Beijing lawmaker, Ho was seen shaking hands with the white-shirted men before Sunday's attack. He also threatened a pro-democracy lawmaker in an online video earlier this week.

The region also has a long reputation for hosting triads. Police on Thursday said 12 people have so far been arrested for Sunday's violence, nine of who have known triad links.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history after millions of demonstrators took to the streets -- and sporadic violent confrontations between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.

The demonstrations were triggered by a controversial bill which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China but have evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms.

On top of Saturday's rally, activists are planning to protest inside Hong Kong's airport arrival gates on Friday and hold a series of marches on Sunday.

The international finance hub has experienced seven weekends in a row of largely peaceful mass rallies followed by violent clashes, an unprecedented challenge to Beijing's authority since its 1997 handover.

Beijing has labelled the protests as "extreme illegal violence", but has left it to the city's semi-autonomous government to deal with the situation.

City leader Carrie Lam has shown no sign of backing down beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill.

On Wednesday China issued a stark reminder that its army could be deployed in Hong Kong if city authorities requested support in maintaining "public order", something local authorities have said they have no intention of doing.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 12:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  This is a fascist tactic. You let goons attack citizen protesters. Then show up late and proclaim that you fear reprisals on the section the goons were from, and that from now, "anybody doing anything we don't like will be arrested !"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 13:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Dron, would it be okay to point out the similarity in Portland, Seattle, etc. handling of "anti-fa"?
Posted by: AlanC || 07/25/2019 15:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Exactly what I was thinking, Alan.

It has it's uses in the right hands, of course. Every mob is a weapon. And weapons are only as evil as the wielders. I don't think there are hands right enough for such a weapon, though.

We do it ourselves all the time in India. However for other reasons. Let the vermilion and opium fanatics run wild with tridents and swords, burning and rioting through muslim communities. Then send in the constabulary next day to "set things right." The only people you'll round up the next day will be the ones shouting against the atrocity with indignation, the victims themselves.

Antifa is just another mercenary mob controlled by the DNC, and receives the same kind of support from Dem ancillaries in the federal govt. It is probably what the cops did in Oregon. Arrest the right-wingers and 'fail to identify' masked persons.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 16:48 Comments || Top||


Britain
'I'll make Britain great again', PM Johnson says, echoing Trump
LONDON (Reuters) - Boris Johnson promised on Thursday that Brexit would make Britain the greatest place on earth, echoing the patriotic rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump in a debut speech as prime minister before parliament.



Johnson, who was hailed by the U.S. president as Britain's Trump
Really ?
has promised to strike a new Brexit divorce deal with the European Union and to energise the world's fifth largest economy after what he casts as the gloom of Theresa May's premiership.

On entering Downing Street on Wednesday, Johnson set the United Kingdom up for a showdown with the EU by vowing to negotiate a new divorce deal and threatening that if the bloc refused then he would leave without a deal on Oct. 31.
Though the promises are sounding too great from here, let's see where this goes. I hope for the sake of the British people I'm wrong.
"Our mission is to deliver Brexit on the 31st of October for the purpose of uniting and re-energising our great United Kingdom and making this country the greatest place on earth," Johnson told parliament in his first speech as prime minister.

He said he was not being hyperbolic
When someone has to mention that along the promises, it's usually not a good sign. Just sayin'...
as the United Kingdom could be most prosperous economy in Europe by 2050, a feat that would mean drawing far ahead of France and then overtaking Germany.
Head to Reuters for the whole thing.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 11:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Might depend on how much resistance he gets from Britain's Deep State.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 13:09 Comments || Top||


Government
Breaking : Barr Reinstates Death Penalty. 5 Overdue Departures Already Scheduled.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 11:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 14:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Mods - sorry for dup post - please clean up after me...
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 14:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Now, about that suggestion box in Barr's office....
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 14:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Cleaned up, with thanks.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 15:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Had no problem with Timothy McVeigh. Rather quick too. Wonder why? I guess you need to be of a particular group to get justice rather than experience delay, delay, delay.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 15:29 Comments || Top||

#6  The Death Penalty is the proven answer to problem recidivism.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/25/2019 15:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Hillary is not available for comment.
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 07/25/2019 17:00 Comments || Top||

#8  How about Nidal Hasan,the Fort Hood shooter? He should be next.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 07/25/2019 17:10 Comments || Top||

#9  Yes, Rambler. Great question. Bastardo Nidal Hassan is unfortunately the convict of a yet more deliberative machine.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 17:23 Comments || Top||

#10  Nodal Hassan should be parked in a wheelchair at Ft. Bragg and left overnight. I'm sure we will happily never worry about him again.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 07/25/2019 20:59 Comments || Top||

#11  Why take Hasan all the way from Ft Leavenworth to Ft. Bragg. I think Ft Hood is closer. Just drop him off there.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 07/25/2019 22:22 Comments || Top||

#12  I think the guys at Fort Bragg might be a little more..inventive than the ones at Fort Hood.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 07/25/2019 22:38 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Tunisian President Exits Life
[Twitter]
Posted by: 3dc || 07/25/2019 10:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukraine's Constitutional Court Upholds Law Equating Communism To Nazism
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 10:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Shabaab tries to assassinate US diplomat
More clarification on the earlier post
[Threat Matrix/LWJ] A suicide bombing in Mogadishu today was an assassination attempt on the UN Special Envoy to Somalia, an American diplomat, according to Shabaab.

Several people were killed or wounded when a Shabaab suicide bomber walked into the Mogadishu mayor's office and detonated his explosives. Somali officials were meeting with the UN Special Envoy to Somalia, James Swan, prior to the attack.

According to the Associated Press, however, Swan and many others had left the building just minutes before the suicide bomber arrived. Other Somali officials were not as lucky, including Mogadishu's mayor, who was reportedly rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

In a brief statement released on its Shahada News Telegram channel, Shabaab made it clear that the bombing was an assassination attempt on Swan.

"The UN Special Envoy James Swan, an American, survived an assassination attempt and many government officials were killed and wounded, including Mogadishu's mayor, after targeting them in an explosion," Shabaab's statement said.

It was not immediately clear how the bomber managed to broach the mayor's office
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 09:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)

#1  Get Ilhan to condemn it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  She'll say his inherent American-ness invited the assault. In fact, she's probably related to Ahmed Umar. Or was briefly married to him. Or both !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  unlike under Obama there will be swift repisals quickly
Posted by: chris || 07/25/2019 12:18 Comments || Top||

#4  From another article - "Swan, who arrived in Somalia on June 25"

... 30 days... sounds like he PO'd somebody.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 14:49 Comments || Top||


Government
Study: Home-delivered meals could save money for Medicare
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Medicare could save $1.57 for every dollar spent delivering free healthy meals to frail seniors after a hospitalization, according to a new study that comes as lawmakers look to restrain costs by promoting patients’ well-being.

The report Thursday from the Bipartisan Policy Center addresses ways that Medicare can do a better job coordinating care for chronically ill patients, who account for most of the program’s $650 billion annual cost. There’s a growing recognition that practical services like meal delivery can make a difference helping older people avoid health flare-ups that can send them to the hospital .

"If you were going to offer meals to every Medicare beneficiary, it would be cost-prohibitive," said Katherine Hayes, health policy director for the center. "By targeting it to a very, very sick group of people is how we were able to show there could be savings."

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees Medicare, said lawmakers recognize the value of providing additional support services for patients and he’d be interested in expanding such benefits for seniors in traditional Medicare.

The Bipartisan Policy Center asked health policy consultant Ananya Health Innovations to analyze the potential impact of a narrowly tailored meal benefit for Medicare.

Using 2016 billing data that reflected actual cases, the consultant focused on patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis. Patients had to have two or more such conditions, along with limitations doing daily tasks such as bathing, cooking or getting dressed. Most were 75 or older. Some were living alone.

The study found more than 575,000 patients with about 1 million hospital stays. Using other established research as a guide, the consultant estimated that providing seven days of healthy meals could avoid nearly 10,000 return trips to the hospital resulting in admission.

Medicare would have had to spend about $101 million a year to provide meals, but it would have avoided more than $158 million in bills from return trips to the hospital. The net savings would be about $57 million.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 08:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Transfer savings to MOW ?

Trump administration moves to tighten food stamp rules
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 8:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Replace foodstamps with this. Deliver them pre-made Government Approved™ prepared meals that are frozen and can be reheated in a microwave. If its good enough for Medicare and the frail or sick, its good enough for the Foodstamps people.

Just contract it out to local airline kitchens, or companies like SODEXCO, or local/regional companies that provide food services to nursing homes and hospitals.

Conservatives will like the savings and making sure the food stamps arent trade or diverted to improper use, progressives will love enforcing their nutritional standards on the poor for their own good.

Win Win.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 07/25/2019 12:01 Comments || Top||

#3  And before someone says something about it, Yes I realize that making foodstamps recipients eat the equivalent of school lunches is evil.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 07/25/2019 12:03 Comments || Top||

#4  If you get hungry enough, you'll eat anything.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Medicare could save $1.57 for every dollar spent..

Math, and language, be hard
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/25/2019 13:54 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Hundreds of US returnees dumped in Mexico's Monterrey
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ‐ The bus carrying dozens of Central Americans from the Texas border arrived in this northern Mexican city late at night and pulled up next to the station. Men and women disembarked with children in their arms or staggering sleepily by their sides, looked around fearfully and wondered what to do.

They had thought they were being taken to a shelter where they could live, look for work and go to school. Instead they found themselves in a bustling metropolis of over 4 million, dropped off on a street across from sleazy nightclubs and cabarets with signs advertising for "dancers."

The Associated Press witnessed multiple such busloads in recent days carrying at least 450 Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans from Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, to Monterrey, where they are left to fend for themselves with no support on housing, work or schooling for children, who appear to make up about half the group.

Mexico has received some 20,000 asylum seekers returned to await U.S. immigration court dates under the program colloquially known as "remain in Mexico." But there had been no sign of such large-scale moving of people away from the border before now, after the program expanded to Nuevo Laredo in violence- and cartel-plagued Tamaulipas, a state where the U.S. State Department warns against all travel due to kidnappings and other crime.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 08:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They had thought they were being taken to a shelter where they could live, look for work and go to school.

Downgrade from ambitions of gilded gang limos and congressional seats. Yeah, they can live and eat and sleep in Mexico. Which is yet more than they ran away from.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 9:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Not having a Plan-B, the downside.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Life is a bitch
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe if knowledge of this gets back to the home country, people will be disinclined to come here. I've thought for a long time that enforcement would have an effect.
Posted by: Fester Spolump5700 || 07/25/2019 10:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Monterrey has become a drug distribution center. These folks will find work packing back across the border, their second attempt.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/25/2019 12:09 Comments || Top||

#6  These folks will find work packing back across the border, their second attempt.

...dropped off on a street across from sleazy nightclubs and cabarets with signs advertising for "dancers."


Or they could teach their kids to dance.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Wadda shame, and here I stand with my Giveashit broke and in the shop......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 07/25/2019 14:07 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Poll: Israelis Find the Security Establishment "Too Timid"
[DanielPipes]
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 07/25/2019 07:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No shit. Every country's majority will say the same thing.

It's true not just for the Israeli security establishment but every home/domestic/law department everywhere. Except maybe States that don't subscribe wisely so to the great modernist "ethic of arbitrary humanism."

It's why I say democracy is a con. You can't claim to be democracies without carrying out the will of the majority. Blood ! I voted for blood ! Governments the world over are too politically correct and deliberative, they give too much weight to considerations of 'humanism' and 'sanctity of life' and 'rights'.

Law enforcement (higher) bureaucracies have no clear standards, just a bunch of hypocritical, ambivalent and amorphous guidelines for preserving the enemy's right to co-exist and leaving conditions more or less as they are. There is an unstated shying away from aggressiveness and the stress is on devising strategies to rather alter oneself. Security agencies and military is used in order to make the enemy 'realize the wrongness of their actions' or the futility of continuing the fight. This is not called fighting for what's rightfully yours. It's like even you aren't convinced yet.

The enemies of society on the other hand, are unbound by these timid conventions. Their gloves are always off.

Terms like 'combat this menace', 'dealing with', 'strict action', etc need to be replaced with 'neutralize', 'liquidate' and 'terminated'. What the world needs is more kill orders and renditions, mysterious suicides and state sponsored drive-bys.

'Everything is right until it's wrong. You'll know when it's wrong.' - Hemingway, I think.

Why can't the duvdevan be diversified into hit-squads that strike tagged targets within the Paleo quarters and scatter ? Or outside talent, proxies of Arab and mixed decent be used to eliminate larger numbers ? IEDs be used to make their UN donated civilian infrastructure harmful to Paleo lives ? Of course the military can do it, maybe even itching to, but will the legislatures let them ?

The same goes for India, Myanmar, China, the Philippines, even the US and all EU countries who have realized who their enemies are but find themselves at a loss for measures against their rising tide and ferocity. All democracies, all helpless because of self-neutered policies of reformist law enforcement and faux-humanist conventions of accommodation and appeasement.

'You can tame the four-footed beast by making it respect you. For the beast who walks upright, you must become what he fears.' - Some ancient wise guy.


I'm raving, I know...huff... huff...huff... !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Daniel Pipes is always worth reading in full.

Dron64066, the Israelis have been out almost every night arresting Palestinians and Arab Israelis either for plotting attacks or for having attacked, which is why the number of knife and car attacks, bombings, and shootings have dropped so significantly since the start of the current effort. Yes, some of them do it for street cred or to get the PA to pay money to their families — or are attempting suicide by IDF — but even so, it is certainly a step in the right direction. And, after having spent their hothead years locked up, many have become ready to settle down with a wife and a job, not continue causing trouble.

As for the rest of your rant, it seems to me that the current trend of electing more conservative governments shows that the common folk of much of the world are heading in your direction.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 10:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Timing is everything Dron66046 - currently the only workable solution is politically infeasible.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 12:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Mueller Refused To Deny His Team Leaked Roger Stone's FBI Raid To CNN
[The Federalist] Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller refused to deny that his team leaked details to CNN regarding an FBI raid on former Trump advisor Roger Stone’s home.

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) asked Mueller directly during the former special counsel’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee whether the office tipped off CNN of the incoming raid on Stone’s Florida residence in February.

"Are you aware of anyone on your team having given advanced knowledge of the raid on Roger Stone’s home to any person or the press including CNN?" Stewart asked.

"I’m not going to speak to that," Mueller responded.

Mueller’s answer comes amid scrutiny over how CNN, which was the only news organization to stake out Stone’s home for his arrest, knew that there was going to be a raid on the political consultant’s home in Fort Lauderdale.

In April, the FBI refused a records request from The Federalist for emails with CNN on the day of the raid, raising further suspicion that a government official leaked the anticipated raid to the cable news network.

CNN has repeatedly denied that they were given special information in advance of the raid.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 04:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The poor dear probably has lost the memory of Mr. Stone, let alone any raid on him, if his team even bothered to inform him of it at the time.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Since Mueller was the only Republican (even if in name only) involved in the Special Counsel investigation, and it appears he may not have been mentally competent, the whole cluster f*** makes sense.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Muller joins the ranks of doddering old fools and Deep State puppets.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 9:08 Comments || Top||

#4  I wonder if some people in Boston are gloating now.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Last night's news show polled Dallas viewers, during the show - after Mueller's testimony, is it time to move on, or time to impeach Trump? 58% said, "move on". 3,000 respondents.

I suspect many were from the Blue Island of Dallas. I am also sure Hillary voted to impeach - twice.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/25/2019 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  I can understand a private person taking the fifth when asked a question in court. I do not understand how a person acting as a government official can do the same.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 10:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Compelling Mueller to testify was a last ditch, long shot gamble. Democrats had to know that Republicans would ask this type of question but the threw the dice anyway because they're desperate. They may try again to revive the Russian collusion hoax but it looks kaput to me.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:30 Comments || Top||

#8  They're not done, Abu. Not by a long shot.

They're like heroin addicts looking for a fix.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/25/2019 14:00 Comments || Top||

#9  McCabe (former FBI Dep dir) is saying Trump has to be impeached, now more than ever. Dems got 95 votes last time (including 4 Reps) and I am sure they could now get twice that, after the Mueller fiasco. Just a few more and it will go to the Senate to die.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 16:05 Comments || Top||

#10 
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 19:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Mueller Refused To Deny His Team Leaked Roger Stone's FBI Raid To CNN

SOP - no one comments about an ongoing legal investigation (of the leak)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 19:26 Comments || Top||

#12  You never talk about fight club.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/25/2019 19:43 Comments || Top||

#13  #9 - Glen, after this last debacle, I don't think they actually pick up votes, even on the Dem side. It was embarrassing, and he would have to be a material witness if they did it. Dead
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 19:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Three bombings rock Afghanistan's Kabul, killing a dozen people
[Aljazeera] Three explosions have rocked Afghanistan's capital Kabul, killing a total of at least 12 people and wounding dozens of others, according to officials.

The first blast targeted a bus carrying government employees in eastern Kabul at about 8:10am (03:40 GMT) on Thursday, killing at least five people and injuring 10 others, according to a spokesman for the interior ministry.

"First a magnetic bomb pasted to a minibus exploded, then a suicide bomber blew himself near the bus attack site and the third blast happened when a car was blown up by unknown militants," Nasrat Rahimi said.

The bus belonged to the ministry of mines and petroleum, Rahimi said, warning the death toll could rise.

The second suicide explosion killed at least seven people and wounding 20 others, officials said. There were no fatalities in the third blast, according to the interior ministry.

A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for one of the bombings in Kabul, but denied involvement in the other two attacks.

The armed group has continued to launch daily assaults, mainly targeting security forces, even while holding negotiations with the United States aimed at ending the 18-year war.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 04:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Forces Assad Supporters Out Of Checkpoint
Curious...
[Jpost] The Iranian Revolutionary Guard forced National Defense Forces (NDF) that support Bashir al-Assad's government to leave a military checkpoint in al-Mayadin east of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria amid tensions between the two parties, according to al-Arabiya.

Sources said that the Revolutionary Guard took over the checkpoint and deployed their forces there in place of the NDF. The takeover of the checkpoint occurred as parts of the NDF defected and joined the Revolutionary Guards.

The NDF filed a complaint with the leadership of Assad forces in the town, but they refused to intervene in the issue.

The Revolutionary Guards are attempting to convince people in Deir al-Zour to join them or the dozens of militias they have established in the area by offering attractive salaries, according to Al Arabiya.
With what money? Apparently the sanctions need to be tightened
A report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in February said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has made efforts to entrench its presence in the Syrian town al-Mayadin, west of the strategically important Albukamal border crossing between Iraq and Syria, and just west of the Euphrates River.

The report described how members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards "took over the al-Nurain Mosque and houses around it on Korniche Street in the city, where they prevented civilians, members of regime forces, and NDF from entering or passing through the area, without orders from the command forces located in al-Mayadin."

Al-Mayadin is located along Highway 4, which is the only road leading out of the Albukamal border crossing, which is currently controlled by the IRGC and its allies.

From al-Mayadin, Route 4 reaches Deir al-Zor, where it connects to the M20 highway, which heads west in the direction of Damascus, or toward al-Qusayr and the Lebanese border.

"That is, the specific example of al-Mayadin shows the means by which Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
seeks to maintain exclusive control along vital nodes in Syria, for the passage of personnel and matériel, in the direction of its allies in Leb or its enemies in Israel, according to the needs of the moment," wrote Jonathan Spyer in a Jerusalem Post analysis in February.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 02:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Trouble in Paradise, boys?
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The end of pretense.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Al-Mayadin is located along Highway 4, which is the only road leading out of the Albukamal border crossing, which is currently controlled by the IRGC and its allies.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 9:42 Comments || Top||

#4  "Somebody's gotta go back and get a sh*tload of dimes!"
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/25/2019 12:05 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian Journalist Tells How Hamas Brings Kids To Front Line To Die
[Jpost] A Paleostinian journalist has described in detail how Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, operatives take children in buses to protest against Israel on the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
border.

In a new documentary released by TPS, the journalist, whose face is blurred and his voice distorted for security reasons, says he has witnessed Hamas operatives taking chairs and sitting nearby the fence eating seeds and watching people die.

"They bring children to the playgrounds and let them play and then encourage them to do whatever they can to get close to the fence," the journalist told TPS.

The documentary focuses on the March of Return riots, which started in March of last year. Some 2,200 terror-related incidents have been reported since the start of the riots - a combination of gunfire, bomb and molotov cocktail attacks.

One IDF soldier has been killed and several more maimed. By Paleostinian estimates, more than 200 people have been killed, including children.

"The goal is to bias the general public opinion because the general public opinion is that the kids are safe," the journalist told TPS. "They [Hamas] exploit this to claim that Israel is killing our children."
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 02:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Since Hell is getting overcrowded we'll be opening an 8th Circle__Iblis
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Dead Palestinians = $$$
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:37 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Neoprene factory in Reserve, Louisiana may be responsible for 50% higher cancer rates
[Guardian] Residents in the town of Reserve, Louisiana have been diagnosed with cancer at "highly unusual" rates, according to a new academic study, which is set to further embolden local residents in their fight against toxic emissions from a nearby chemical factory.

The report, released Wednesday by the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR), provides residents with the most detailed and comprehensive evidence to date that they are at an especially pronounced risk of cancer and other negative health effects due to toxic chemicals in the air.

Reserve is the focus of a year-long Guardian series, Cancer Town, chronicling the fight for clean air in the predominantly black town, as well as other communities in the area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, often referred to as Cancer Alley due to a concentration of toxic pollution from petrochemical factories.

The toxic emissions in Reserve, a town in St John the Baptist parish, primarily come from the Pontchartrain Works facility, the only place in America to manufacture the synthetic rubber neoprene. The US government considers chloroprene, the primary constituent of neoprene, as likely to be carcinogenic to humans.

Related: Chicago Tribune - More than half a million Americans exposed to toxic air pollution face cancer risks above EPA guidelines. Check the Tribune’s interactive map to see if you might be one of them.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 01:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Federal Judge REFUSES to block new Trump restriction on asylum
[AP via Right Scoop] A federal judge says the Trump administration can enforce its new restrictions on asylum for people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border while lawsuits challenging the policy play out.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington has refused to grant a temporary restraining order. Another hearing on a similar suit is scheduled later Wednesday in California.

Kelly says the immigrant advocacy groups that sued didn’t prove that their work would be "irreparably harmed" if the policy went into effect.

The proposal prevents most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they passed through another country first.

Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 01:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was re-shopped at lightspeed and another fed judge issued an injunction against the administration's position.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/25/2019 10:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Again, if I was Trump I would ignore the second judge's ruling.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 12:36 Comments || Top||

#3  ...with a public statement to SCOTUS to clean their own house of this game of conflicting judicial dictates. With a warning that if they don't, then he'll choose the one to follow.

SCOTUS has the authority in their own branch to direct which region has jurisdiction on subjects like this.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 15:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I think this refusal to block was a sub-panel of the court and the reversal was the same court but the full panel, so no conflict of dictates.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 16:07 Comments || Top||


'I'm Still Sharp As A Tack,' Insists Mueller Moments Before Taking Phone Call On A Banana
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Robert Mueller was being criticized for seemingly answering questions slowly, not recalling key details of his investigation, and appearing to be confused throughout his testimony Wednesday.

After a brief recess, Mueller insisted he was entirely lucid.

"I hear a few murmurs out there that I've lost it," he said. "Well, I haven't lost it. I've still got it. In fact, I'm still sharp as a tack."

Before testimony could resume, however, Mueller interrupted the proceedings, appearing to reach for his cell phone. "I really have to take this," he said apologetically as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a banana. "Yeah, go for Bob."

Mueller proceeded to have what appeared to be a five-minute conversation on the fruit as bewildered congresspeople looked on. "Well, tell them I don't want to be there this Friday. Matlock's on, you know that. You know I don't go out when Matlock is on." He shrugged apologetically at those in the room, mouthing "sorry."

"Look, if the consulate has a problem with that, tell them they can call me themselves," he concluded, slamming the banana back down on the table.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 01:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:


Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigns amid leaked chat scandal
[Washington Examiner] The embattled governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló announced he is resigning amid protests calling for him to leave office. Rosselló came under fire after more than 900 pages of chats between the governor and other Puerto Rico officials were leaked, revealing a pattern of incendiary language that took place over several years.

Rosselló's resignation is effective Aug. 2, he announced on a video message just before midnight Wednesday evening.

"My only North Star has been the well-being of my island," Rosselló said in Spanish. "What I wish most is peace and progress for my people."

Celebrations broke out on the streets of San Juan after people heard the announcement. "Ricky, te botamos!" the revelers cheered, which translates to "Ricky, we threw you out!"
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 00:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Must be a Democrat - corrupt as hell but a potty mouth gets him tossed.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Will he be succeeded by San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who is arguably even more incompetent and corrupt?
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, so Trump was right after all. PR is run by mendacious thieving clowns who can't be trusted with billions in federal disaster aid $$$$.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#4  #2 - She did, however, manage to get a t-shirt professionally silkscreened in the midst of a hurricane's devastation
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 11:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Presidential Seal Doctored With Symbols Of Russia And Golf



[Guardian] As Donald Trump addressed a rightwing crowd
Can't expect more respect from the WaPo
in Washington on Tuesday, the audience roared in support ‐ but it was a doctored onscreen display that ultimately took center stage.

At a student summit hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA, the president stood before what looks, to the casual observer, very much like the US presidential seal. A thorough
and gleeful, I imagine
examination by the Washington Post, however, reveals some odd tweaks to the image.

First, the eagle has not one but two heads ‐ making it look a lot like Russia's coat of arms. And instead of holding arrows, as the bird does in the US seal, it's holding golf clubs.

In other words, a proud presidential symbol was apparently reworked to shame Trump over two of the biggest targets of anti-Trump criticism ‐ Russian involvement in the 2016 election and excessive golfing ‐ and it was displayed behind the president for all to see.

How this happened remains a mystery.
Maybe for denialists and entrenched traitors
The Post spoke with a White House representative who said officials hadn't seen the image in advance. A spokesperson for Turning Point USA, meanwhile, told the paper he was stumped as to the origins of the image, characterizing it as "a last-minute A/V mistake"
the photons in the light did it
"I can't figure out who did it yet," the spokesman said, adding that he didn't know where the image had come from.

Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, said Trump aides should have kept a closer eye on things. "Someone is going to be getting in trouble," he told the Post, "but they got one heck of a good laugh out of it."

Obviously there are White House staffers in league with democrat and antifa type traitors, obstructionists/hecklers/saboteurs that need to be weeded out. Obama appointees and people with no respect for national emblems or icons, closet leftists. Try this in any other country, and you'd be in jail, your family jobless, penniless, tax and property records gone and roving bands of thugs eagerly awaiting your release. There is no way that the staff is clueless about this mockery.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 00:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Public response should be humor. Private response should leave participants quite unhappy.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 1:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Other side has the yucks.
Our side has the power.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 16:38 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Jeffrey Epstein Attacked in Jail, Faking It To Go Home, Rather Die ?
[Miami Herald] Jeffrey Epstein, the Palm Beach millionaire who was arrested earlier this month on child sex-trafficking charges, was found injured in his New York jail cell Wednesday, News 4 New York reported.

The station said Epstein, 66, was found in the fetal position and had marks on his neck, citing sources close to the investigation. The station said it may have been a possible suicide attempt, quoting sources.
Rantburg is always right.
Last Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman in New York ordered the accused serial sexual predator to remain incarcerated at the Manhattan Correctional Center. Berman, who listened to testimony from two women who said they had been abused by Epstein as teenagers, said Epstein was a danger to young girls.

Epstein's attorneys had requested that Berman let him stay in his Upper East Side Manhattan mansion. They offered to use his personal fortune as collateral to guarantee his bail, and promised to pay for his own private security force to keep him essentially imprisoned in his own home.
Or have his cell modified so he can at least avail of a well-stocked minibar ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 00:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...The Clintons send their regards.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 07/25/2019 4:17 Comments || Top||

#2  I need to get my eyes checked. I read this as "...Epstein, 66, was found in the rectal position..."
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/25/2019 4:18 Comments || Top||

#3  SCFI, that day is coming too I'll bet. Wait till he meets Bubba, the cop-killing clown from 9 South Wing with an addiction to Big Penis medication.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I expect him to die soon. He has too much dirt on too many powerful people.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 8:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Ref #4: Yes, it was likely a failed attempt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 8:30 Comments || Top||

#6  "Donna Hillary is unhappy."?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh Shit. Just missed it.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 10:56 Comments || Top||

#8  Probably something about the mossad or Epstein being a juice.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 10:57 Comments || Top||

#9  If it was anything but Epstein, I would have put money on "neocons" and "My God, what have I done?".
Got nuthin.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/25/2019 11:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Lulz, Steve
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 11:27 Comments || Top||

#11  I dunno cuz I never been but I heard that other inmates don't like child molesters. I guess that kinda crime is even too low down for the usual thieves, murderers and rapists.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 11:52 Comments || Top||

#12  The predator discover what its like to be the prey. Karma.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/25/2019 12:13 Comments || Top||

#13  Goddamn ! The mod's a whack-a-mole champion !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 14:08 Comments || Top||

#14  Mr. McCoy is still in timeout for being an ass after only one day of being good last time. So he has taught us not to trust his good behaviour, and will have to bear the consequences.

Here is the deal, Herb: every time you announce that Rantburgers are evil, you will get an ever longer time out to enable you to find websites that better match your sensitivities. This is not a left-right thing (which you don’t actually care about, but assume that we will take the insult in the spirit in which it was intended), but the fact that you are both monomaniacal and boring on the subject.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 14:16 Comments || Top||

#15  Is it evil not to feel sorry for a child molester?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 14:47 Comments || Top||

#16  5 wrist-slaps on one article - H, the new champ
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||

#17  Goddamn ! The mod's a whack-a-mole champion !

Yeah. And you should see what she can do to eyebrows.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 15:26 Comments || Top||

#18  Why is the Man of Mystery itching to get home by whatever means?
Could it be that there's some crucial evidence stashed away that he's at pains to bury?
Photographic evidence of powerful figures with children?
Which powerful figures?
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 15:42 Comments || Top||

#19  The deleted comment was "Put him in a padded cell. Don't let him kill himself. He's far too valuable."
That part of Herb's commentary is a reasonable contribution, preserved here so you can spam cop the rest.
Done. It isn’t the individual comment anymore, but that he keeps pushing to see what he can get away with after being good for a little while. I don’t have the energy to play stupid games.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 16:00 Comments || Top||

#20  But... valuable how ? You think if he rats out a list of 'dignitaries' from federal agencies to the DoJ and DoD (which I'm sure will have enjoyed his wares)apart from politicians on both sides, any one of them will be indicted or even suffer a drop in vote counts ?

He's about as valuable as Hoover's data on MLK. But that's just my opinion. I may be wrong.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 16:27 Comments || Top||

#21  Dron, it's ultimately about the money. They'll nail him on s.t. like money laundering.
My bet's on the Clinton Foundation and its donors - Giustra et al
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 16:33 Comments || Top||

#22  "Marks on his neck" sounds like a suicide gesture. Occam's razor says the smug bastage is running a scam to get his facility or cell changed.

Maybe someone was sending a sub-lethal message but I vote that it's a scam.
Posted by: The peanut gallery || 07/25/2019 17:51 Comments || Top||

#23  To me, fetal position and marks on his neck suggest strangulation, and not self inflicted. Stick him in solitary, and video the hell out of his cell. No less than three guards can approach at a time, and make it a battle stations event each time. Someone is trying to kill him.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/25/2019 18:28 Comments || Top||

#24  I suspect bought guards.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/25/2019 18:30 Comments || Top||

#25  No death switch? A priori set up so that if he dies or there is a serious botched attempt, information is flooded on the net of those 'important' people.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 19:22 Comments || Top||

#26  Bought guards makes the most sense.
Epstein moves in big money circles. Those figures all have extensive operations in Manhattan.
A very high likelihood that these big money people have probably crossed paths since 2001 with Manhattan DAs and law enforcement and the Clintons. They can easily influence some prison guards in Manhattan with a few thousands.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 20:02 Comments || Top||

#27  P2K, I like that but we have no input here. Even Coulter says supermax for protection, but I don’t know enough about high end prisons to say yea/nay and no one would care. I want him brought to trial, cards will fall where they may, but justice dammit not private execution. And I’m out, this just sucks.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/25/2019 20:44 Comments || Top||

#28  Yes, it sucks.
Yea verily to that. Bastards.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 20:51 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Airstrikes kill 13 militants including ISIS-K terrorists in various provinces
[KhaamaPress] The security forces conducted Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in various provinces in the past 24 hours killing at least 13 bandidos gunnies including ISIS Khurasan terrorists.

The informed military sources said Wednesday that airstrikes killed 4 Talibs in Ab-e Kamarie district of Badghis.

The sources further added that a similar airstrike killed 1 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
Death Eater in Ghormach district of Badghis.

Furthermore, the security forces conducted an airstrike in Qaisar district of Faryab and killed 1 Taliban Death Eater.

The source also added that another airstrike in Giro district of Gahzni province killed 3 Talibs and a similar raid killed 2 others in Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province.

The security forces also conducted an airstrike in Sherzad district of Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province which killed 2 ISIS Khurasan Death Eaters.

The anti-government armed bandidos gunnies have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Politix
Bernie Sanders campaign hit with unfair labor practices federal complaint
[Bloomberg via American Thinker] Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign has been hit with an unfair labor practice complaint alleging illegal employee interrogation and retaliation against staffers.

The July 19 complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, filed by an unnamed individual in Indiana, was posted to the agency's website late July 22. It comes as tense negotiations between the Sanders campaign and the union representing staffers recently boiled over publicly. The Washington Post reported July 23 that unionized organizers for the campaign had won a pay raise and reached a compromise to reduce the hours of some workers.

A copy of the charge has not yet been made public, but the agency's July 22 docket lists five potential violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The charge also alleges that the campaign unlawfully discharged an employee, modified a labor contract, and engaged in illegal discipline.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He has said many times that he thinks bread lines are a good thing for everyone else. Didn't they know this before they took the "job"?
Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 07/25/2019 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a socialist oligarchy thing.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Why is it I want to smile over this. Two hard lessons here. First Bernie is exposed for the double standard of his socialist ideals. But more importantly is the workers that support his socialist plans are learning some hard truths about the socialist elites...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/25/2019 12:07 Comments || Top||


Tulsi Gabbard: Kamala Harris 'not qualified' to be president
[USATODAY] Saying she "lacks the temperament" to be president, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard slammed Democratic presidential primary opponent Sen. Kámala Harris
Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others...
as not qualified to be the nation's next commander in chief.

"Kamala Harris is not qualified to serve as commander in chief and I can say this from a personal perspective as a soldier," Gabbard said during an interview on Fox Sports Radio posted online Tuesday. "She's got no background or experience in foreign policy and she lacks the temperament that is necessary for commander in chief."

Harris experienced a bump in polling following the first 2020 Democratic primary debate after her powerful exchange with frontrunner Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
...When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'...
. Harris called out the former vice president for opposing federally mandated busing to integrate schools while he was in Congress.

Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tulsi is correct; unfortunately, neither is she.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, I dunno. She wouldn't be the first whore we've had in the White House.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Nor the first 'not qualified.'
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 16:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi rapid response forces arrest four Islamic State militants in Baghdad
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi rapid response forces announced on Wednesday the capture of four Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bandidos gunnies in Baghdad.

The arrests were made in al Tarmiyah district in Baghdad as part of a military operation, which was launched earlier this week to cleanse Iraq’s northern provinces from Islamic State terrorists.

The four IS bandidos gunnies were arrested in line with article no. 4 of the anti-terrorism law.

The second phase of the "Will of Victory" operation was launched on Sunday with an aim to attain security and stability in the desert area between Nineveh, Salahuddin and Anbar provinces on the Iraqi-Syrian border, in addition to preventing IS remains from sneaking into that region or even using it as a stronghold for their terrorist acts.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Afghanistan
Taliban commander Qari Kefayat among 19 killed, wounded in North of Afghanistan
[KhaamaPress] The security forces killed 8 Talibs including a commander of the group during the operations in northern Balkh and Jawzjan provinces.

The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said the security forces conducted an operation with the support of the Air Forces in Asiab Khan area of Chamtal district in Balkh.

The statement further added that the security forces killed 7 Talibs during the operation and maimed 9 others.

Furthermore, the security forces clashed with Talibs in Mangjik disrtict of Jawzjan killing a Taliban
...Arabic for students...
commander Qari Kefayat.

The 209th Shaheen Corps also added that the security forces maimed 2 other bandidos bandidos krazed killers during the same clash.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Badakhshan: Keran Wa Manjan District Falls To Taliban
[ToloNews] The Keran Wa Manjan district in the northern province of Badakhshan has fallen to the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
after reinforcements were not sent to local forces, the district police chief Abdul Wali Hussaini along with his 40 soldiers fled to Nuristan Province, sources said Wednesday.

According to the source dozen of public uprising forces have surrendered to the Taliban.

Nuristan police said that it is expected that the police chief for Keran Wa Manjan Abdul Wali Hussaini along with his 40 soldiers will arrive in Parun on Wednesday.

The district police chief for Keran Wa Manjan Abdul Wali Hussaini after two days of contact with TOLOnews criticized government forces for not sending reinforcements to the district.

Keran Wa Manjan shares borders with Nuristan, Panjshir and Takhar provinces.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Home Front: Culture Wars
Forget reading and math - Carranza wants focus on racial privilege, activism
[NYPOST] City kids are struggling with basic math and English ‐ but a new Department of Education curricular initiative focuses instead on racial privilege and activism, The Post has learned.

Pushed by Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, the "Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education" program will require schools to "identify and interrupt policies and practices that center historically advantaged social/cultural groups and lead to predictable outcomes of success or failure for historically marginalized students."

"The simplistic narrative that is being peddled is white privilege," said Maud Maron, president of Community Education Council 2.

"What’s confounding about this proposal is that it doesn’t acknowledge the successes of students doing well in New York City public schools and instead identifies it as problematic white privilege," she added,

Maron, who is running for the City Council in lower Manhattan, added, "They also have to deal with the inconvenient fact that somehow, low-income Asian students are outperforming all other groups in a system they argue historically and currently centers whiteness."

The DOE directive further states that classroom activities should "foster critical consciousness about historical and contemporary forms of bias oppression" and that schools should now "promote student agency to end societal inequities."

In an interview with education news website Chalkbeat earlier this month, outgoing Deputy Chancellor Phil Weinberg said that CR-SE "has been the biggest system-wide change that we’re seeing right now."

Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What happens when you get a city full of unemployed political activist?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:20 Comments || Top||

#2  interrupt policies ...lead to predictable outcomes of success or failure for historically marginalized students

Like giving 'F's for good performance, zero attention disdain wherever possible to white students, and straight 'A's to retards and delinquents selling crack in the toilets and threatening teachers with rape and violence.

somehow, low-income Asian students are outperforming all other groups in a system

Asian man's burden. Study hardest and end up owning everything you can. Die unfulfilled but rich, respected but uninvited to parties.

schools should now "promote student agency to end societal inequities.

Make racial police teams. Have black kids forcibly appropriate Andy's color pencils and give them to Keshawn. Prepare Andy for 'the Manifesto'.

American society will have to be saved from these mad bastards, or they will cripple generations of skilled labor and destroy futures of innocent children.

Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 12:50 Comments || Top||

#3  ...she'd be safe (where else) in Texas.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 15:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Riddle me this, race-mongers: How does it happen that poor Asians vastly outperform middle- and upper middle-class Hispanics and AA's?

Can you say, culture of the home?
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 16:29 Comments || Top||

#5  More like this, and Asians are going to move toward Trump in 2020.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 16:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Like giving 'F's for good performance, zero attention disdain wherever possible to white students, and straight 'A's to retards and delinquents selling crack in the toilets and threatening teachers with rape and violence.

Didn't they kind of try this once with the sub-par home loans? Worked out really well IIRC.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 18:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Combat airdrop by Afghan Air Force helps Commandos maintain pressure on Taliban in Badghis
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force conducted airdrops during an operation in Badghis province helping the Afghan Commandos to continue to their clearance operations against Talibs.

The Special Operations Corps in a statement said the Afghan Air Force conducted the airdrop in the restive Bala Murghab district.

The statement further added that the Air Force airdropped necessary supplies to the Special Forces which helped them to continue to their clearance operations and suppress Talibs in Bala Murghab.

The Afghan Air Force conducted their first emergency combat airdrop mission bringing ammunition to Afghan National Police and citizens fighting the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
in Badakshan province on June 1 2018.

With guidance from Train, Advise and Assist Command-Air advisors, the Afghan Air Force began training on airdrop capabilities in October 2016, and conducted their first mission airdrops in July 2017.

This comes as efforts are underway to further bolsters the capabilities of the Afghan armed forces in the fight against the terror groups. As a result, Pentagon awarded $209.9 million contract to a U.S.-based firm to support the C-130H fleet of the Afghan Air Force.

The NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
-led Train, Advise, Assist Mission officials had earlier said that the alliance would step up efforts to triple the size of the Afghan Air Force by 2023.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Subsaharan
West Africa piracy threatens regional trade plans: Ghana minister
[AlAhram] Piracy in the waters off West Africa threatens plans to bolster regional trade, Ghana's defence minister warned Wednesday, as navy chiefs discussed efforts to secure the troubled waters.

The Gulf of Guinea is the most dangerous stretch of sea for pirate attacks in the world, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
Good to know.
The IMB said 62 seafarers were taken hostage or kidnapped in the area in the first half of 2019, accounting for 73 percent of kidnappings and 92 percent of hostage-takings at sea worldwide.

Earlier this month a group of ten Ottoman Turkish sailors were kidnapped by alleged pirates off the coast of Nigeria.

"The threats to maritime security and safety transcend borders and have the propensity to affect international trade hence a threat to one coastal nation is a threat to all nations; coastal or landlocked," Ghana's minister for defence Dominic Nitiwul told a major maritime conference in Accra.

"The sea is the super highway for global trade and Africa's quest for a Continental Free Trade Area cannot be successful without a secured maritime domain."

The two-day gathering in the Ghanaian capital -- which included a delegation from the US navy -- also focused on illegal fishing, oil thefts, and human and drug trafficking.

"Today piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea continue to pose a significant threat to regional and international shipping," Ghana's navy head Seth Amoama said.

"Threats including illegal oil bunkering, kidnapping for ransom, illegal fishing and drug trafficking are common across our oceans, transnational crimes not only threaten national peace and stability they also come at great cost to the economies."

African nations this month officially launched a landmark trade agreement, hailed as a historic step towards bolstering commerce across the continent.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Pirates


-Land of the Free
What Caused the Coming Boeing Bailout?
[MattStoller] For the bulk of the 20th century, Boeing made miracles. Its engineers designed the B-52 in a weekend, bet the company on the 707, and built the 747 despite deep observer skepticism. The 737 started coming off the assembly line in 1967, and it was such a good design it was still the company's top moneymaker thirty years later.

How did Boeing make miracles in civilian aircraft? In short, the the civilian engineers were in charge. And it fell apart because the company, due to a merger, killed its engineering-first culture.

WHAT HAPPENED?
In 1993, Clinton's Deputy Secretary of Defense, Bill Perry, called defense contractor CEOs to a dinner, nicknamed "the last supper." He told them to merge with each other so as, in the classic excuse used by monopolists, to find efficiencies in their businesses. The rationale was that post-Cold War era military spending reductions demanded a leaner defense base. In reality, Perry had been a long-time mergers and acquisitions investment banker working with industry ally Norm Augustine, the eventual CEO of Lockheed Martin.
Clinton saving military dollars. Who would have suspected?
Perry was so aggressive about encouraging mergers that he put together an accounting scheme to have the Pentagon itself pay merger costs, which resulted in a bevy of consolidation among contractors and subcontractors. In 1997, Boeing, with both a commercial and military division, ended up buying McDonnell Douglas, a major aerospace company and competitor. With this purchase, the airline market radically consolidated.

Unlike Boeing, McDonnell Douglas was run by financiers rather than engineers. And though Boeing was the buyer, McDonnell Douglas executives somehow took power in what analysts started calling a "reverse takeover." The joke in Seattle was, "McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing's money."

The merger sparked a war between the engineers and the bean-counters; as one analyst put it, "Some of the board of directors would rather have spent money on a walk-in humidor for shareholders than on a new plane."

Bad procurement is one reason (aside from more and more high-ranking military officials going into defense contracting work) why military products are often poor quality or deficient. For instance, the incredibly expensive joint strike fighter F-35 is a mess, and the Navy's most expensive aircraft carrier, costing $13 billion, was recently delivered without critical elevators to lift bombs into fighter jets. Much of this dynamic exists because of a lack of competition in contracting for major systems, a practice enhanced by the consolidation Perry pushed in the early 1990s. Monopolies don't have to produce good quality products, and often don't.
See also - Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
In defense production, subcontractors were chosen to influence specific Senators and Congressmen; in civilian production, Boeing started moving production to different countries in return for airline purchases from the national airlines.

Engineers immediately recognized this offshoring as a disaster in the making. In 2001, a senior Boeing engineer named L. Hart Smith published a paper criticizing the business strategy behind offshoring production, noting that vital engineering tasks were being done in ways that seemed less costly but would end up destroying the company. He was quickly proved right.
737Max root cause explained at the link.
Posted by: Bobby || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  737Max root cause explained at the link.

Yet another Engineers vs Bean Counters story
Posted by: SteveS || 07/25/2019 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  A proof that the bean counters took over Boeing is in the fact that Boeing headquarter moved to Chicago but left the engineering in western Washington.

I knew that something like this would happen once I heard that management moved to Chicago.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/25/2019 4:03 Comments || Top||

#3  More woes.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/25/2019 8:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Boeing had a clear miss on the 737, agreed. But to hack like this on the company is just bull. Politics driving defense companies to team is a disaster, and a horrible call by out defense department. Boeing is still very mush an engineering company, They produce the finest and safest aircraft in the world, always have. And for the bean counters, 30 months ago Boeing stock was at $130.00 and now its at $350., even with the entire fleet of 737s on the ground. I challenge anyone to name a company that would not be going under with such an event in their face. As for the offshore argument, he blends commercial with defense, and double speaks. The reason he claims they team is to influence congressmen as work will hit their district. So how does that work in defense if they are outsourcing out of the US, it don't. Its the commercial that does, and for a number of reasons. The first being offset requirements, an complicated and pain in the ass issue of forced investing in the nation that spends the billions on aircraft. Boeing has a lot of faults, if the author wants to point them out, get it right, otherwise its just crap.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 07/25/2019 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  49 Pan, you'll have to admit that Boeing screwed up big time with the 737 Max program.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/25/2019 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Prediction: when all is said and done, the dust fully settled, some poor schmuck of a junior engineer or a near-retirement production management type will take the fall for this debacle and the top level guys will quietly scurry off to some deep hidey-hole. There have already been a couple of 'reassignments.'
COupled with the 767 FOD desiater, and cutting qa types, the Whole Damn Red Barn Bill built is falling down
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 07/25/2019 14:11 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Sudan military says it thwarts coup attempt, arrests senior officers
[AlAhram] Sudan's military said on Wednesday that it has thwarted a coup attempt and arrested an unspecified number of senior officers in connection with the plot, state news agency SUNA said.

The military "revealed a coup attempt involving General Hashim Abdel Mottalib Ahmed, head of the joint chiefs of staff, and a number of high-ranking officers from the armed forces and the National Intelligence and Security Service, along with leaders of the Islamic Movement and the National Congress Party", SUNA said.

"They have been detained and investigations with them are going on so that they can be tried."

"The failed coup attempt's goal was to abort the people's glorious revolution and to return the former National Congress regime to power, and to disrupt the path before the expected political solution that aims to establish a civilian state," SUNA cited the military as saying.

The attempted putsch happened as the military council and an alliance of protest and opposition groups work to finalise a power-sharing deal for a three-year transition towards elections, a process that has repeatedly stalled.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Afghanistan
Police Chief Admits Existence Of Ghost Soldiers In Zabul
[ToloNews] Zabul Police Chief said that more than 90 percent of ghost soldiers have been identified.

The police chief of Zabul, Sayed Meraj Sadat, says that at least 500 ghost soldiers have been identified in the province in recent months as part of a campaign to bring reforms to the structure of Afghan National Police.

Sadat said the process of identifying ghost soldiers is underway.

"We succeeded to recognize those who were not on duty and were appointed based on relations and paid while they did not exist on duty," Sadat said.

He warned that those who were found guilty will face the music.

"Those who were accused of corruption have left [the province] but those who wanted to change, have given a commitment, and this process continues," he added.

Zabul Police Chief said that more than 90 percent of ghost soldiers have been identified in the province.

Zabul tribal elders welcomed the move by the police chief.

"Ghost soldiers were one of the main reasons for insecurity in Zabul because they were replacing Zabul police and the province was faced with lack of soldiers," said Jalaluddin, a tribal elder.

"The problems of police structure will be resolved by identifying of ghost soldiers and it will help improve security in Zabul," a tribal elder from Zabul, Ismail Zabuli, said.

Last year, Ghazni Police Chief Farid Mashall reported that up to 1,100 ghost soldiers exist in the structure of the National Police in the province.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea fires short-range missiles in latest provocation
[IsraelTimes] North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
fired two short-range missiles into the sea on Thursday, complicating efforts to resume stalled nuclear talks with Washington and signalling its anger over planned US-South Korea joint military exercises.

It was the North’s first missile test since an impromptu meeting between US President Donald Trump
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  fired two short-range missiles into the sea

The equivalent of waving about a .22 snub-nose and firing into the carpets, the sofa, the curtains and yelling, "Fucking, fucketty fuck !"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 2:14 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
No good reason to send people farther than the moon
[HOUSTONCHRONICLE] In which Mr Ludd enumerates all (or at least some) of the reasons for not remaining earth-bound and breathing each other's emissions.
Only readable to subscribers of the Houston paper
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  2019 - No good reason to send people farther than the moon

1419 - No good reason to send people farther than the Azores
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  About that Chicxulub impact....
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#3  #1 Columbus was a dope.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  China Is Swiftly Becoming A Space Superpower
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 10:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I see a very good reason to send this guy into the sun.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 10:14 Comments || Top||

#6  The article may be paid or fan promotion of Elon Musk. Although it's partly correct, everyone already knows it I'm sure.

Funny aside: The idea of overcoming the limitations of the human body reminds me of a Buddhist parable about a traveler who builds a raft to cross a river. The wise traveler abandons the raft once he’s across because the tool has done its job That traveler probably became the first Dalai Lama. So clever Tibet pun
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 10:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Jihadists launch new attack on Aleppo city
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels have launched a new attack on Aleppo, today, targeting the western districts of the city. According to a report from the city, the jihadists fired several artillery shells towards the New Aleppo District. No casualties have been reported.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Iran hints at swap with UK in bid to reduce tensions
[FOXNEWS] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said his country might be willing to release a U.K.-flagged ship if Britannia releases an Iranian oil tanker that the British Royal Navy seized earlier this month.

His remarks could create an opening to reduce tensions in the region just as Boris Johnson replaces Theresa May as Britannia’s prime minister.

Rouhani insisted Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
does not want tensions to escalate and the U.K. would receive a "proportional response from Iran" if it returned the seized vessel.

"We do not seek the continuation of tension with some Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an countries," Rouhani said in comments carried on his website. "Should they be committed to international frameworks and give up their wrong actions, including what they did in Gibraltar, they will receive a proportional response from Iran."

Britannia this week announced plans to develop and deploy a Europe-led "maritime protection mission" to safeguard shipping in the area after Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. Any quid pro quo move to swap seized vessels would fall upon the U.K.'s newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  We got caught so we'll pirate some random ship and hold them hostage. Easy-peasy.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Giuliani shreds de Blasio over videos of NYPD officers doused with water: ‘He’s a disgrace’
[FOXNEWS]

Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New York, New York. A nation unto itself. On one side you have the Trumps, Guiliani, etc, etc. On the other hand you have Nader, De Blasio, etc. etc.. Pass the popcorn, sit back and watch a show that only they know how to play.

Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 07/25/2019 0:24 Comments || Top||

#2  New Yorker City dwellers getting it good and hard for what they voted for. Moscow Caracas on the Hudson.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Such a shame. New York was actually becoming a normal, safe, clean and pleasant place to live under Giuliani and Bloomberg. Two decades of extraordinary improvement, thrown out the window by this disgusting fool.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Warren Wilhelm, Jr.: "It wasn't me, it was that De Blasio fella!"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 11:16 Comments || Top||


Britain
'The Time Has Come To Act': BoJo Takes The Helm As U.K. Prime Minister
[NPR.ORG] Boris Johnson, the polarizing and showboating politician who led the campaign for Britannia to leave the EU in 2016, is now officially in charge of ushering the country through that fraught and difficult divorce. With Theresa May's exit, Johnson took office as prime minister Wednesday.

"There are pessimists at home and abroad who think after three years of indecision that this country has become a prisoner to the old arguments of 2016, and in this home of democracy we are incapable of honoring a democratic mandate," Johnson said, standing outside the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street in London.

"I am standing before you today to tell you, the British people, that those critics are wrong," he added in the consistently optimistic address. "The people who bet against Britannia are going to lose their shirts."

Johnson said he has every faith that the U.K. would succeed in obtaining a "better deal" from the EU, adding that "the time has come to act ‐ to take decisions, to give strong leadership, and to change this country for the better."

His predecessor resigned in May after failing to deliver Brexit, a process that's been fraught with massive obstacles both domestically and in EU negotiations in Brussels.

Johnson, who rose to fame as a newspaper correspondent whose dispatches from Brussels railed against the EU, has previously served as mayor of London. He served as May's foreign secretary but quit over disagreements about her handling of Brexit.

Before speaking to the public, Johnson had a private meeting at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II, in an official ceremony where he took office. He now becomes the 14th prime minister to serve during the queen's reign.

6 top UK ministers resign as Johnson takes office
The first step in clearing out the British deep state.
[IsraelTimes] New Prime Minister Boris Johnson seems to be clearing out top ministers, firing several members of former leader Theresa May’s cabinet.

So far, May’s secretaries in defense, business, education, transport, local government and international trade have all announced they are leaving government. That comes hours after Treasury chief Philip Hammond, Justice Secretary David Gauke, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart and May’s de-facto deputy, David Lidington, resigned.

Some of those leaving had said they would rather go than serve under Johnson, who wants to leave the Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an Union even if no Brexit agreement is in place to ease the transition. Johnson insists the country will leave the EU by Oct. 31 ‐ "do or die."

Jeremy Hunt leaves job as UK foreign secretary

[IsraelTimes] Jeremy Hunt says he’s leaving the job of foreign secretary as new Prime Minister Boris Johnson sweeps into office with a fresh team at the top.

Hunt’s position had been closely watched. He had challenged Johnson for the job of Conservative leader, and says he wanted to stay on as foreign secretary. But Hunt says Johnson offered another role.

Hunt tweeted that “after 9 yrs in Cabinet & over 300 cab mtgs now is the time to return 2 backbenches from where PM will have my full support.”

British PM Johnson names Sajid Javid as finance minister

[IsraelTimes] British Prime Minister Boris Johnson names former interior minister Sajid Javid to take over from Philip Hammond as finance minister in his first cabinet appointment, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.

Javid, a former banker from a modest background, was a contender for the premiership but endorsed Johnson when he failed to get enough support from fellow Conservative MPs.

Johnson names Brexit hardliner Dominic Raab new UK foreign minister

[IsraelTimes] Newly installed Prime Minister Boris Johnson names Brexit hardliner Dominic Raab to be Britain’s foreign secretary, the government said in a statement.

Raab, 45, who was also named as Johnson’s effective deputy, resigned as Brexit minister in Theresa May’s government last year saying the divorce deal she struck with Brussels offered too many compromises.

Congratulations rolled in from all over the world, of course, but the Turks are particularly excited. From Al Ahram:
Turkey celebrated incoming British prime minister Boris Johnson's Turkish heritage on Wednesday, with politicians and media proclaiming that the "Ottoman grandson" could strengthen ties between two countries on Europe's fringes.

The former London mayor is the great-grandson of the Ottoman Empire's last interior minister, Ali Kemal, and his ancestry has been a source of pride for many Turks.

Despite his sometimes disparaging remarks about Turkey, including a crude limerick about President Tayyip Erdogan and demands in 2016 that Britain veto Turkey's accession to the European Union, Johnson is affectionately referred to as "Boris the Turk" by some Turkish media.

"Ottoman grandson becomes prime minister," read a front-page headline of the opposition newspaper Sozcu. "For England, a prime minister with roots in Cankiri," it said, referring to Kemal's home province in central Turkey.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, our president has better hair.....or at least, better trained.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  He needs to shave back of his head.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Gujranwala court extends Hafiz Saeed's judicial remand for 14 days
The usual routine is to give them house arrest and then quietly spring them in six months or so.
[DAWN] A court in Gujranwala on Wednesday extended the judicial remand of Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed for 14 days.

Special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) judge Syed Ali Imran ordered the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) to complete its investigation and present a formal chalan in court on August 7. The court said that Saeed should also be presented in court on Aug 7.

Ahead of the JuD chief's appearance, strict security arrangements were made inside and outside the court premises with Anti-Riot Police, Dolphin Force and Elite Force personnel as well as police officials being deployed.

Following his arrest on July 17, Saeed had been sent to jail on seven-day judicial remand.

He had been arrested in connection with a terrorism financing case while on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala.

Six suspects ‐ Saeed, Mohammad Ali of Malikwal, Abdul Ghaffar of Okara, Hafiz Masood of Johar Town (Lahore), Ameer Hamza of Al Faisal Town and Malik Zafar Iqbal of Sheikhupura ‐ were nominated in the FIR registered against them on July 1 on a complaint of the CTD.

On July 3, the top 13 leaders of the banned JuD, including Saeed and Naib Emir Abdul Rehman Makki, were booked in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

The CTD, which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, declared that the JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organizations and trusts, including al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


The Grand Turk
6,000 migrants arrested in Istanbul crackdown
[Rudaw] A crackdown on unregistered migrants colonists in Istanbul has seen 6,000 arrests including Syrians in the past two weeks, the interior minister said Wednesday.

There has been concern in recent days over reports that hundreds of Syrian refugees have been sent back to Syria, after being forced to sign consent forms in Ottoman Turkish that they do not understand.

Ottoman Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu denied the claims.

"We have been carrying out an operation since July 12... We have caught 6,122 people in Istanbul, including 2,600 Afghans," Soylu told TV station NTV.

He said Syrians were part of the group, without giving numbers.

"When we catch Syrians who are not registered, we send them to refugee camps," he said, citing a camp in the Ottoman Turkish border province of Hatay.

However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
he said some Syrians were "voluntarily" choosing to go back to their home country, to areas where fighting has abated.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor...
has more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees -- the highest number in the world.

Most have "temporary protection" permits but these restrict them to the province in which they were registered. The current crackdown is aimed at those who live in Istanbul without a permit to stay in the city.

A coalition of Syrian NGOs said Monday that more than 600 Syrians -- mostly with protection permits issued in other provinces -- were arrested in Istanbul last week and deported back to Syria, rather than to their assigned provinces.

The crackdown is orchestrated by the Istanbul governor's office, which is controlled by the central government in Ankara.

It follows the defeat of President His Enormity, 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. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
's AKP party in the Istanbul party, with some arguing that the large presence of refugees in the city had hurt the ruling party's popularity.

The governor's office says there are 547,000 Syrians registered in the city.

A survey published this month by Kadir Has University in Istanbul showed growing hostility towards them, rising from 54.5 percent of respondents in 2017 to 67.7 percent in 2019.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  How do you say AOC in Turkish?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Cilgin sikik fahise ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 10:50 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 'I am very much alive'
[CNN] Sometimes I suspect she's not dead yet. Then she stops moving and her eyes stare sightlessly. She begins to smell, that peculiar odor.

Then she says something, or worse, she writes an opinion...
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Python-esque
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  er, I meant, worthy of Monty Python
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 0:25 Comments || Top||

#3  'I am very much alive'

...but not buying green bananas.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 0:37 Comments || Top||

#4  There is a difference between very much alive and mostly alive.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/25/2019 0:54 Comments || Top||

#5  In fact, she has plans to go visit Erdogan.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 1:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Do we have a dentist on the team? I can't tell if that's a row of upper teeth, or upper and lower teeth interlocking crocodile style.
Posted by: Beau || 07/25/2019 5:44 Comments || Top||

#7  If you have to volunteer that information, then there is apparently some evidence to the contrary.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Beep boop, "I am very much alive!"

I've seen this 80s movie before
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 8:31 Comments || Top||

#9  Entirely too much slack in the yoga pants.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 9:10 Comments || Top||

#10  Alan Greenspan has really let himself go
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 9:20 Comments || Top||

#11  Translation "I may pass during the next Presidential term so vote Democrat to ensure a Woke replacement."
Posted by: ruprecht || 07/25/2019 10:36 Comments || Top||

#12  Timing right after the impeachment plans melted down is probably not a surprise.
Posted by: ruprecht || 07/25/2019 10:39 Comments || Top||

#13  Just like Gerald Ford
Posted by: Lowspark || 07/25/2019 10:58 Comments || Top||

#14  I think she plans to haunt the 2nd floor chambers for superannuation.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 11:14 Comments || Top||

#15  She doesn't fool me
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 07/25/2019 11:29 Comments || Top||

#16  Certainly past her prime but she still knows how to vote progressive.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 11:54 Comments || Top||

#17  Just like mueller the hired flunkies are doing the heavy destruction.
Posted by: Airandee || 07/25/2019 12:07 Comments || Top||

#18  Ref #17:. I'll go out on a limb and say Mueller was instructed whom to hire.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 12:11 Comments || Top||

#19  Weekend at Bernies, and no I'm not talking about the socialists you young whelps.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 07/25/2019 12:20 Comments || Top||

#20  Bad Taxidermist, Makeup Artist deserves an Oscar.
Posted by: magpie || 07/25/2019 17:10 Comments || Top||


Iraq
ISIS militants clash with Hashd al-Shaabi in Shingal
[Rudaw] Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) snuffies clashed with Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF) forces in the Shingal village of Bab al-Khan on Wednesday, in another alarming sign of ISIS resurgence in Iraq.

Islamic State snuffies attacked Bab al-Khan village and clashed with both the predominantly Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi and Sunni tribal Hashd al-Ashairy paramilitias near Shingal’s cement factory, deputy governor of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
province Sirwan Rozhbayani told Rudaw English on Wednesday.

In a follow-up operation after the attack, five ISIS snuffies were killed by the Iraqi security forces and Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias in the mountains around Shingal, confirmed a Wednesday tweet by Iraqi Security Media Cell front man Yehia Rasool.

ISIS snuffies stormed Yezidi communities in Iraq’s Shingal region in 2014, when the group was at the height of its power and its self-styled caliphate spanned a third of both Syria and Iraq.

When ISIS moved to take the eastern Shingal village Bab al-Khan, its residents fled.

The village, along with others in its vicinity, has remained unpopulated, with thousands of Yezidis still living in IDP camps across the Kurdistan Region. A lack of security, jobs, and basic services has prevented many of the estimated 200,000 displaced from returning home.

Reluctance to return has been confounded by uncertainty around security in the area, due to the presence of different militias and forces in the area claimed by both the Iraqi federal government and Kurdistan Regional Government.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Politix
Mueller Says He Is ‘Not Familiar’ With Fusion GPS, The Firm Behind The Steele Dossier
[DAILYCALLER]

And courtesy of Angaiting Thising6508:
Twitter Reacts To Mueller Claim He's 'Not Familiar' with Fusion GPS

[PJMedia] You'd have to be living under a rock to not know what Fusion GPS is. But, if you're Robert Mueller, who ran a two-year $25 million investigation into Russian collusion, apparently you have no idea.

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH): "When you talk about the firm that produced the Steele [dossier], the name of the firm that produced that was Fusion GPS. Is that correct?"

Robert Mueller: "I'm not familiar ... with that"

Chabot: "It's not a trick question. It was Fusion GPS" pic.twitter.com/4WA0lhKc3x
‐ Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 24, 2019

Robert Mueller says he didn’t clear ‘problematic’ Trump in stuttering hearings that fail to deliver knockout punch

[NYDAILYNEWS] A stone-faced Robert Mueller testified before Congress on Wednesday that President Trump could very well be criminally prosecuted once he’s out of office and slammed the president’s “problematic” cheerleading of Russian interference in American elections.

In six hours of stilted and at times stuttering testimony before two House committees, the square-jawed former special counsel recounted that his team of investigators unearthed plenty of evidence that the president tried to obstruct his 22-month probe of Russia’s pro-Trump meddling in the 2016 election.

“The president was not exculpated,” Mueller declared near the start of his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

Asked if he had exonerated Trump as the president has repeatedly claimed, Mueller bluntly replied: “No.”

Mueller also offered the shocking suggestion that Trump could be indicted for obstruction of justice when he’s no longer president. “Yes,” he said, adding it would be up to future federal prosecutors to decide.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The smartest thing a man can do some times is to play stupid. Why should he say Yes??? Works for Hillary and Bill "I do not know that woman" or "I have never been to that island". Truth. What is the meaning of truth, right?

Leave the heavy lifting of the burden of the proof to your enemies. Capisce??
Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 07/25/2019 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Wait. You thought he was going to get up there and say "Yes, the CIA set up the leads and documents for us, but all we managed to do was trim off a couple of guys at the edge?"
Remember, they rehearsed that show yesterday. If they thought it was going to be a debacle, they would have called it off.
Posted by: ed in texas || 07/25/2019 5:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Smokescreen - he's building a case for insanity by reason of dementia for when they actually start to investigate the attempted coup against the elected government.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Numbers 1, 2 & 3, all quite plausible.

"Yes, the CIA set up the leads and documents for us, but all we managed to do was trim off a couple of guys at the edge?"

We continue to hear nothing from Brennan, Clapper, Comey, or Obama.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 8:02 Comments || Top||

#5  "You have to take one for the team, Bob."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Remember, they rehearsed that show yesterday. If they thought it was going to be a debacle, they would have called it off.

A reasonable hypothesis, but I wonder... Mueller is about 75. Maybe they rehearsed so hard because this is really important dammit and we have to get it right, and just wore him out. The bits I saw of the hearing cast doubt on the whole sorry mess.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/25/2019 10:15 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm going with 3. Not only does the dodering old man provide cover for slow answers (run out the clock) but it provides a nice I don't remember option which is better than pleading the fifth. Also it makes anyone that pushes the issue look bad for attacking Grampa despite the damage Grampa willing did for three years.

Seemed to respond quicker when the Dems where asking questions, that's all I know.
Posted by: ruprecht || 07/25/2019 10:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Does he know who changes his adult diapers.
Posted by: Woodrow || 07/25/2019 13:00 Comments || Top||

#9  He's probably got enough money he doesn't need to worry about ever working again. Too bad he won't get to enjoy it since he's going to have to pretend he's lost it.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 16:09 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Rutger Hauer, ‘Blade Runner’ Co-Star, Dies at 75
[VARIETY] "It's time to die."
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There were some of his later roles where he gave a dry, understated humor to his acting roles. Will miss him...
Posted by: magpie || 07/25/2019 1:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Aah, shoot.

Loved the guy. The kind of machismo lacking in today's metrosexual 'tough guys'. One memorable later role was in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 1:59 Comments || Top||

#3 

Rutger Hauer and Blade Runner - "30 years ago I saw the future"

Posted by: Woodrow || 07/25/2019 12:51 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bombardment kills 18 civilians in northwest Syria — monitor
[IsraelTimes] Bombardment by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally kills 18 civilians including five children in northwest Syria Wednesday, a monitor says, in the latest violence to hit the opposition bastion.

Among these, 10 civilians including three children, all from the same family, were killed in Russian air strikes near the town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Iraq
The Shady Connections of a Retired U.S. General Who Made It Rain in Iraq
[Daily Beast] Lieutenant General Frank Helmick was a decorated U.S. Army officer. In 2004, he led the raid that killed the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s murderous sons, Uday and Qusay. Later, Helmick commanded NATO’s training mission in Iraq, then spent a year as Deputy Commanding Officer of all American forces in the country.

But in December 2011, the U.S. military withdrew from Iraq. A few months later, after 36 years in the Army, Helmick retired, too. At the ceremony, then-CIA Director David Petraeus called him an "exceptional officer."

Since then, Helmick’s actions have won him fewer accolades. By the end of 2012, he was back in Iraq. The war had privatized and Helmick privatized with it.

After the American withdrawal, Iraq had a gold rush. Billions of dollars of leftover U.S. military equipment was free for the taking and huge contracts were available as the country struggled to rebuild. Helmick used his contacts to take advantage of this. He joined a military contractor that struck deals with Iraqi oligarchs who are steeped in corruption and have at least superficial ties to some notorious Iranian operatives.

Some might say that’s just the price of doing business in Iraq over the last few years, but that doesn’t make the business any less ugly.

In late 2012, Helmick became Vice President of SOS International LLC (SOSi). At that time, SOSi was a small family-owned company focused on translation and training, and Helmick, as the saying goes, was a rainmaker.

A retired general joining a military contracting company isn’t unusual. But many former high-ranking officials cash out simply by joining the board of a large company, earning tens of thousands to attend meetings and lobby old friends. Helmick, for his part, took a more hands-on role than his retired peers, overseeing SOSi’s "Mission Solutions Group" and managing the company’s Iraq work.

His qualifications were obvious. As one former SOSi employee told us, "Helmick was hired specifically for his contacts in Iraq."
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Daily Beast - The American version of Al Guardian.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:13 Comments || Top||

#2 
Posted by: 3dc || 07/25/2019 15:06 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Erdogan Death Rumors
[LauraLoomer] Much more on the implications of the Erdogan heart attack rumours we discussed a few days ago.
Posted by: Gratch Glavitch1011 || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Naw, they're just teasing.....
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Might be. See who crawls out of the woodwork to try to take his place.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 9:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, I can hope he has departed.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/25/2019 10:50 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Pakistan-Funded Hospital Inaugurated In Logar
It behooves an army with a country that plans to use another country as its safe fallback position — in case losing the war becomes a serious possibility — to ensure that the fallback country has all the necessities for comfortable living when the time comes.
[ToloNews] Public Health Minister said work on construction of the hospital was started ten years ago.

Afghan Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz sand Pakistain’s Ambassador to Kabul Zahid Nasrullah Khan and Pakistain’s Minister for States and Frontier Regions Shehryar Khan Afridi on Wednesday inaugurated a hospital in Pashtun-infested Logar Province.

The Nayeb Amanullah Kha Pashtun-infested Logari Hospital is a 100-bed health facility supported by Pakistain is the second hospital built by the neighboring country for Afghans.

The first hospital which is a 200-bed health facility was inaugurated in Kabul in April.

Pakistain’s embassy said in a statement that $18 million was invested in the hospital in Pashtun-infested Logar.

The public health minister said the hospital will provide healthcare services to the residents of Pashtun-infested Logar and its neighboring provinces.

"The foundation for this hospital was laid ten years ago and work on its construction was stopped due to some problems, but it was built as a result of the National Unity Government’s efforts and today it was inaugurated," Feroz said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Yellow Wolf clutched at his chest and fell from his horse...
Afridi said Pakistain Prime Minister is interested to extend all possible assistance to the Afghan people to facilitate their travel to Pakistain and also to promote trade between the two nations.

He said Pakistain will train 440 Afghan doctors and allied medical staff that has been requested by the Afghan government.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Down Under
3 Sunni Muslims imprisoned for firebombing Australian Shiite mosque
[IsraelTimes] Men sentenced to between 16 and 22 years behind bars; they also scrawled pro-Islamic State messages on Melbourne shrine.

Three Sunni Moslem men were sentenced on Wednesday to prison terms of 16 and 22 years on convictions including engaging in a terror act by burning down a Shiite mosque in the Australian city of Melbourne three years ago.
Melbourne is a hotbed of jihadis and crime — the Minneapolis of Australia, only with a less homogenous population of miscreants except in the most important characteristic.
A Victoria state Supreme Court jury convicted Abdullah Chaarani, 28, Ahmed Mohammed, 26, and Hatim Moukhaiber, 31, in May over the Molotov cocktailing of the Imam Ali Islamic Center in December 2016. No one was injured.
We had their conviction here.
Mohammed and Moukhaiber had both denied any involvement. Chaarani admitted his role, but argued he had been part of an act of protest, advocacy or dissent, but not terrorism.
An interesting argument, clearly made independently of any reference to a standard English language dictionary.
They each faced a potential sentence of life in prison.

Chaarani and Mohammed were also found guilty of attempting to commit a terror act over a failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to burn the mosque down two weeks earlier.

The words "Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
" were also spray painted on the exterior of the building.

Mohammed and Chaarani had previously been convicted of planning a terrorist attack on central Melbourne locations including the Federation Square restaurant and nightclub precinct, St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral and Flinders Street train station on Christmas Day in 2016.
We have the story of that arrest here. Messrs. Chaarani and Mohammed, along with their friend Hamza Abbas, are named therein. If today’s third gentleman was involved, he went unmentioned for reasons that no doubt made sense at the time.
They were among five men found guilty in November last year after the plot was foiled by police who listened to their plans and watched their reconnaissance at Federation Square. The five have yet to be sentenced on those convictions.

The latest trial heard evidence that after the first failed attempt to destroy the mosque, Mohammed and Chaarani returned with Moukhaiber in December with a 20-liter (5.3-gallon) container of gasoline and two car tires to keep the blaze going.

Their goal was to "strike a blow against, and terrorize, Shiite Moslems," Justice Andrew Tinney said Wednesday as he sentenced the trio for their "callous, cowardly and vindictive" crimes.

Mohammed and Chaarani were imprisoned for 22 years for carrying out the act of terror and for their earlier attempt.

The pair, who are still awaiting sentencing for the Christmas Day plot, must serve at least 17 years before they’re eligible for parole. Moukhaiber must serve at least 12 years of a 16-year prison term before he becomes eligible for parole.

Tinney said the men had sought to advance the cause of the Islamic State group. The three men laughed and chatted among themselves as the judge took more than two hours to deliver his sentencing remarks.

Moukhaiber whooped and danced after being led from the courtroom by security.
How very odd.
The men smiled and waved at a number of supporters in court.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  And here I thought it was White (spit) Supremacists.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:36 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
No Islamic State link to Sri Lanka Easter attacks, investigator says
Define something carefully enough, and all the scary possibilities will be excluded, no matter how real they might be.
[IsraelTimes] Sri Lanka’s Easter attacks that killed 258 people were carried out by local Islamists who drew inspiration from but were not linked to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group, according to a top investigator.

Ravi Seneviratne, the head of the Criminal Investigations Department, says the jacket wallahs who targeted three churches and three hotels had no direct link to the foreign jihadi group.

"They followed the IS ideology, but our investigations have not shown any link between them," Seneviratne tells a parliamentary panel probing security and intelligence lapses leading to the April 21 bombings.

He notes that remnants in the local group identified as National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) had persuaded IS to claim the attack two days after the deadly events in Sri Lanka.

NTJ leader Zahran Hashim had made a video with his fellow suicide bombers pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi. The video was released by the IS two days later.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) had persuaded IS to claim the attack

Trying to insult the intelligence of their citizens, they make themselves look like idiots. They can even rule out Indian intervention this time. The hell with 'em.

Also, 'drawing inspiration from' is the same as working for, in this case. More newspeak ideas for dimwit islamophiles.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 3:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Cause Islam is Religion of Peace?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 9:39 Comments || Top||

#3  ...about that thingy.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 9:43 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Colorado State: Don’t Use the Word ‘America’ Because It’s Not ‘Inclusive’
[NATIONALREVIEW] Colorado State University’s Inclusive Language Guide instructs students "to avoid" using the words "America" and "American," because doing so "erases other cultures."
Better to call ourselves Unitedstatesians or perhaps merely Imperialists.
"The Americas encompass a lot more than the United States," the guide states. "There is South America, Central America, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean just to name a few of 42 countries in total."
I blame it on de Tocqueville. "Democracy in America" didn't address the striving masses of Peru.
"That’s why the word ’americano’ in Spanish can refer to anything on the American continent. Yet, when we talk about ’Americans’ in the United States, we’re usually just referring to people from the United States. This erases other cultures and depicts the United States as the dominant American country."
Where do we Unitedstatesians get off referring to Canadians, and Mexicans, and Guatamalans?
The guide advises students to use the words "U.S. citizen" or "person from the U.S." instead of "American."
And they shouldn't use the word "Coloradan," either. What if somebody's from Wyoming? From Utah? If he's from Manitoba his/her/its head will explode.
Some of the other words and phrases deemed not inclusive by the guide include the words "male" and "female" (because this "refers to biological sex and not gender," and "we very rarely need to identify or know a person’s biological sex and more often are referring to gender"),
"Gender" relies on dress, hair, and self-identification, rather than on characteristics of the pee-pee, which is considered irrelevant, whether on display or not, as it is with distressing frequency...
"cake walk" (because it apparently has origins in "the racism of 19th century minstrel shows"),
It was a silly dance, performed internationally by whites as well. If black people ever discover the Chicken Dance nobody in Europe will ever be able to get married again. You should also be careful about using a jig saw or having a fling. Never, ever, under any circumstances, eat Eskimo Pie.
"freshman" (because it "excludes women and non-binary gender identities"),
Use "fresh people."
"Hispanic" ("because of its origins in colonialization and the implication that to be Hispanic or Latinx/Latine/Latino, one needs to be Spanish-speaking"),
Yet somehow they're always brown. Go figure. And no goddamned sombreros! Ever!
"hold down the fort" (because "the U.S. the historical connotation refers to guarding against Native American ’intruders’ and feeds into the stereotype of ’savages’"),
No fort, you know, ever actually needed held down against Apaches or Commanches or Sioux, not even against Croatans or Mingos or Powhattans. Nope. Never. Bernard Cornwell wrote a novel called The Fort in which the Brits were holding the fort (pardon my English!) against the Americans Unitedstatesians Colonists, including Paul Revere. Yeah, that one. Hardly a man/woman/non-binary is still alive, who remembers that night in '75... Actually none of them.
"no can do" (because it was "[o]riginally a way to mock Chinese people"),
"So long" is forbidden, too. It comes from Malay "Salang," which is the local form of "Salaam," which is cognate with "Shalom," which is Hebrew, thus Zionist. I heard "no can do" lots of times in Vietnam. Sometimes I still say "ching ching" when something is true; I got that in Thailand. And I occasionally even say "same-o same-o (onaji desu)" in the same context younger folk use "same-old same-old." But I'm a polyglot, so my poor old head's swimming with interesting phrasing.
"peanut gallery" (because it "names a section in theaters, usually the cheapest and worst, where many Black people sat during the era of Vaudeville”),
Vaudeville? How about the kiddie gallery on the Howdy Doody Show?
“straight” (because it “implies that anyone LGBT is ‘crooked’ or not normal”),
Or if you're military, it means that your pants are creased, your bunk made, your gig line straight, and your brass polished. How militaristic.
“food coma” (because it “directly alludes to the stereotype of laziness associated with African-Americans”),
Never heard the term. Sounds like an overdose of carbohydrates, doesn't it?
and “war” or “battle,” when used any way other than to describe a literal war or battle (because “they evoke very real tragedy that can be problematic for survivors of war or Veterans”).
For instance a War on Language? Thought shapes action. Language shapes thought.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "The Americas encompass a lot more than the United States," the guide states. "There is South America, Central America, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean just to name a few of 42 countries in total."

Yes but only one has America as part of the name. This argument is stupid and always has been. United States of Mexico is known as Mexico, Federative Republic of Brazil is known as Brazi, United States of America is known as America. It's pretty simple really if you aren't a self-hating idiot.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/25/2019 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  The root of all evil is...

Government Student loans that can not be repaid are the only things that keeps the inflated salaries of the tenured afloat. In return they overly paid academia must pump out stupid kids who believe in leftist ideology that has overtaken the federal government. You are not American, male, female, you are nothing but a slave of the masters on the left. The only thing missing are the chains.
Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 07/25/2019 0:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Orwell was a Word War veteran.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 2:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Then they'll be relieved if no more of that nasty United States of America currency makes it to their campus, I'm sure.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/25/2019 7:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Colorado is not inclusive enough! Must change it to something like Dip-S#!+ or Idiot or Moron. Besides Colorado is a Spanish word for red and is therefore cultural appropriation.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/25/2019 9:53 Comments || Top||

#6  Minds Destroyed By The Internet
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 10:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe not, but dumbass is fully inclusive so I'll apply that to you dumbasses.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 10:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Where's the logic of someone who's already certain they are better than me wanting to be "included" in my cohort?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/25/2019 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  A lot of words serve dual purposes. Take the word dumb. It can mean unable to speak or it can mean stupid. So if I say this Inclusive Language Guide is dumb, everybody knows what I mean.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:12 Comments || Top||

#10  You would expect academics at a major American university to understand the concept of context. It's all about the context, dumbass.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Don't call it Colorado, a name given to it by the evil white Spanish invaders explorers. All Western Civ BAD! (do I need to put a /sarc on that?)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 19:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Never, ever, under any circumstances, eat Eskimo Pie.

Translation of Inuit ballad:
"If ancestral wisdom be valid,
It seems that the tarts
Of more southerly parts
Are surpassingly torrid, not gelid!"
Posted by: Titus Peacock7962 || 07/25/2019 20:19 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Shin Bet says it thwarted Iranian operation to recruit Israeli assets
[IsraelTimes] Operative said to use fake Facebook profiles to contact potential spies in Israel, West Bank and Gazoo, with goal of gathering intel on strategic sites, carrying out terror attacks.

Israel has busted an Iranian intelligence network that tried to recruit spies in Israel, the West Bank and the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, the Shin Bet security service said in a statement Wednesday.

The network was operated from Syria by an operative called "Abu Jihad," who worked to recruit Israeli intelligence assets through a series of fake profiles on Facebook and other social media sites, the agency said. Afterwards, the contact would be maintained via instant messaging apps.

Abu Jihad, who received orders from Tehran, was tasked with gathering information on Israel Defense Forces bases, cop shoppes, individuals, hospitals and other possible targets for a potential Iranian terror attack.

According to the Shin Bet, the Iranians managed to recruit at least one person to provide information and try to carry out attacks against military and civilian Israeli targets.

The security agency said the vast majority of the attempts to reach out on Facebook were ignored by Israelis because the fake profiles set up by Abu Jihad and his associates appeared suspicious.

It added that recruiting assets via social media is a common practice among terror groups, and that similar tactics have recently been employed by Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, and Hezbollah.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon issues arrest warrant for Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi
[ALMASDARNEWS] Leb has issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, the son of the late Libyan President Muammar al-Qadaffy, for the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr during his trip to Libya in 1978.

According to the National News Agency of Leb, Judge Zaher Hamadeh issued the arrest warrant for Qadaffy and nine other Libyan nationals over the disappearance of the Lebanese religious leader and his two associates, Sheikh Mohammad Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddine.

The National News Agency noted that the Libyan Foreign Ministry in the National Reconciliation Government had repeatedly refused to properly inform the said defendants, who had been informed as well as the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The brother of Saif al-Islam, Hannibal, is also in the custody of the Lebanese authorities and has remained so since his kidnapping from Syria.

The Lebanese authorities have accused the government of the late Colonel Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
of abducting and murdering Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions.

Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Cyber
US imposes record $5b. fine, restrictions on Facebook in privacy probe
[IsraelTimes] US regulators formalize a record $5 billion fine on Facebook for privacy violations in a settlement requiring the world’s biggest social network to "submit to new restrictions and a modified corporate structure."

The Federal Trade Commission says the penalty is the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers’ privacy and one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the US government for any violation.

"Despite repeated promises to its billions of users worldwide that they could control how their personal information is shared, Facebook undermined consumers’ choices," FTC Chairman Joe Simons says in a statement after the split decision by the agency, with two members saying the penalty was insufficient.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Slap on the hand.

Ever think about removing protection from law suits for the CEO and board members who operate in 'reckless disregard'?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 8:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Break them up. Force them to divest Instagram and WhatsApp - two acquisitions that never should have been permitted.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 10:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
One Coalition Service Member Killed In Kabul
[ToloNews] A Coalition service member died on Wednesday due to wounds he sustained after an bomb hit their vehicle in Kabul earlier in the day, the Resolute Support Mission said in a statement.

The statement said that due to NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure....
policy, RS does not disclose further details about the Coalition member.

The Ministry of Defense of Croatia meanwhile said the earth-shattering kaboom targeted Croatian soldiers in Kabul in which three soldiers have been injured of whom one soldier has sustained life-threatening injuries.

"Unfortunately, the attack on Croatian soldiers in Kabul, Afghanistan, occurred early in the morning. According to the latest information, we have three injured soldiers, one of whom has severe head injuries and life-threatening. The other three suffer harder injuries," the Croatian Defense Minister Damir Krstičević said in a statement.

He said the other two soldiers had injuries of their arms and legs and that was easier.

The attack happened in the east of Kabul and according to eyewitnesses, the attacker was a jacket wallah riding a cycle of violence.

Taliban
...Arabic for students...
has grabbed credit for the attack.
An Nahar adds:
Croatia has about 100 troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of NATO's US-led Resolute Support mission, where coalition soldiers are helping train and advise local partners.

Croatian General Kresimir Tuskan said the troops had been working as part of a British-led special operations advisory group.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the blast had come from a car bomb.

The Taliban, who often exaggerate or misrepresent claims, said one of its "martyrdom" attackers had killed or wounded a "large number" of CIA officers by detonating a car packed with explosives.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Home Front: Politix
Rep. Omar calls audience member's question 'appalling'
[CNN] Rep. Ilhan Omar
...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She is apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side...
(D-MN) pushed back on an audience member's "appalling" question about female genital mutilation at the Muslim Caucus Education Collective's 2019 Conference.
Ask her how many pubic lips she has left.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Her district is 67.36% white, 16% black, with a high average income...
Posted by: Angairong Flavigum3253 || 07/25/2019 3:51 Comments || Top||

#2  If they don't vote for Danielle Stella this time, they deserve all the home invasions, beatdowns and racial violence they'll get.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Danielle Stella, a Minneapolis special education teacher

Will there be much of a change, for her, if she's elected?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/25/2019 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, even better then. She's just what they need.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 12:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Sounds like the voters in that district are all in need of a special ed teacher.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/25/2019 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Rep. Omar calls audience member's question 'appalling'

One way to not answer a question, I guess.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 17:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Rep. Omar calls audience member's question 'appalling'

So are you "Religion's culture and practices", but here we are
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 19:06 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China warns of war in case of move toward Taiwan independence
BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned on Wednesday it was ready for war if there was any move toward Taiwan’s independence, accusing the United States of undermining global stability and denouncing its arms sales to the self-ruled island.

This month, the United States approved sales of weapons requested by Taiwan, including tanks and Stinger missiles, estimated to be worth $2.2 billion.

China responded by saying it would impose sanctions on U.S. firms involved in any deals.

Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a news briefing on a defense white paper, the first like it in several years to outline the military’s strategic concerns, that China would make its greatest effort for peaceful reunification with Taiwan.

"However, we must firmly point out that seeking Taiwan independence is a dead end," Wu said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Taiwan's been independent for 70 years; what China means is they don't want interference with their annexation plans.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 1:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Why not? They suck so bad with Hong Kong, they have to send troops there too.

They sucks Satans Balls.
Posted by: newc || 07/25/2019 3:24 Comments || Top||

#3  If you jump into a barrel of scorpions with a baseball bat, you'll win sooner later. Maybe. Have fun.
Posted by: Beau || 07/25/2019 5:37 Comments || Top||

#4  I want to see someone call China's bluff some day. Taiwan is not Tibet or Nepal. They're also not the sort who enter a conflict with an intent to "manage expectations" rather than fight. They'll go down fighting. Xi is so stupid these days he might even start a war, only to retreat later. Yet it will cause extreme overheads for both parties.


It would be inadvisable for America to be caught up in any big brother intervention, apart from supplying the weapons, pressure from the UNSC and sanctions on China. By the middle of Trump's second term as Prez I suspect, the conditions will be very different.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 7:54 Comments || Top||

#5  China keeps blustering with Taiwan, but they will never conquer the island until they get their transport ability built up. They would have to launch a D-Day level operation and would need to get 1.5 million men on the beaches in two weeks at most.

They can't even manage 150,000 and a couple hundred tanks currently.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 8:35 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Man nominated in attempted murder case killed in successful murder case at Lahore district kachehri
[DAWN] A man was rubbed out on Wednesday on the premises of district kachehri in Lahore after he had arrived for a hearing of an attempted murder case.

The suspected shooter was arrested by the police from the scene of the murder. The victim was nominated in a case pertaining to attempted murder that was registered in 2016. According to police, the man was murdered due to personal enmity, by a man with whom he was involved in a legal battle.

The incident took place in the vicinity of the Civil Lines cop shoppe. So far, the police have not lodged a first information report. A report has been submitted in the Lahore High Court's registrar's office by a senior civil judge of the criminal division of the district courts.

According to the report, the incident was the "result of security lapse on the part of law enforcement agency (police)". The report says that the suspect had shot the victim five to six times after which the latter was shifted to the hospital in a critical state. He later departed this vale of tears, it added.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The mullah fuzz let go of the dead body and immediately nabbed the new guy.

"Finally ! A real murderer, Abdul."
"Our first big catch, Lateef !"

They simply turned around and took the new guy back into court, where the overworked judge was hearing the 26th murder case of the day.

"Wait up, Justice Chowdhary !"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 1:44 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Mueller's Labored Performance Was a Departure From His Once-Fabled Stamina
watch the shoveling behind the shit-show parade hearings today. "How dare you pick on this impaired man?
[NY Times] WASHINGTON — Soon after the special counsel’s office opened in 2017, some aides noticed that Robert S. Mueller III kept noticeably shorter hours than he had as F.B.I. director, when he showed up at the bureau daily at 6 a.m. and often worked nights.

He seemed to cede substantial responsibility to his top deputies, including Aaron Zebley, who managed day-to-day operations and often reported on the investigation’s progress up the chain in the Justice Department. As negotiations with President Trump’s lawyers about interviewing him dragged on, for example, Mr. Mueller took part less and less, according to people familiar with how the office worked.
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe The Slimes is working up to a theory his advancing dementia clouded the investigation. So it needs to be redone, obviously!
Posted by: Bobby || 07/25/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  No, they're anticipating and trying to counter the obvious truth, which is that Hillary's people led by Andrew Weissman drove the clown car.
"Aaron Zebley" is a nobody. Weissman is a major swamp creature. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, etc.
Posted by: Lex || 07/25/2019 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  He delivered the best long stall in modern political history over a weak cover story for massive malfeasance and sedition by the deep state and Brennan. Once Barr showed up, the scam was played out and exit stage right. If you didn’t want to ever,ever be asked to testify again in the eternal dog and pony show that is the Pelosi House, what would you do differently than this splendid display of thespian genius?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 07/25/2019 11:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Seem to recall a mafia Don who played the dementia card to throw off the feds for a long time.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 15:34 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey, US begin work on joint ‘safe zone’ in northern Syria: defense ministry
Continuing discussions continue.
[Rudaw] Joint work has begun between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
and the United States to establish a long planned "safe zone" on Turkey’s southern border with Syria, the Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry (MSB) said Tuesday, following two days of talks with a visited US delegation.

US special envoy to Syria James Jeffrey arrived in Ankara this week to meet with Ottoman Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and other brass hats.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Afghanistan
Taliban militants suffer heavy casualties in Special Forces raid in Uruzgan
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces inflicted heavy casualties on Talibs during an operation in Uruzgan province.

The Special Operations Corps in a statement said the Special Forces conducted the operation in the vicinity of Dehrawood district.

The statement further added that the Special Forces killed 15 Talibs during the operation.

Furthermore, the Special Operations Corps said the Special Forces maimed 14 other hard boyz during the same raid.

The Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
group has not commented regarding the operation so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Suicide attack kills six at Mogadishu government HQ: Official
[AlAhram] A suicide kaboom at municipal government headquarters in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday killed six people including district commissioners and local government chiefs, the country's information minister said.

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist murderous Moslem group al-Shabaab
...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them...
, which aims to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed government, grabbed credit for the bombing, the latest of many such attacks.

"We conducted a successful operation in Mogadishu this afternoon. The target was the newly appointed U.N. envoy to Somalia and other senior enemy members. Some of them were eliminated, others maimed," al-Shabaab front man Abdiasis Abu Musab said in a statement sent to Rooters.

Six people were maimed in the "terrorist act" including the mayor of Mogadishu, Information Minister Mohammed Abdi Hayir told news hounds. The U.N. envoy, American James Swan, had paid a visit to the mayor earlier on Wednesday, according to the Twitter feed of the U.N. assistance mission in Somalia.

"A jacket wallah walked into the meeting hall and blew up himself," said Mohammed Abdullahi, a relative of one of the victims, told Rooters.

The area was filled with ambulances after the blast, shopkeeper Mohammed Osman said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Home Front: Politix
Puerto Rico Legislature to begin impeachment process against Gov. Ricardo Rossell
[NBCNEWS] The Puerto Rican Legislature is ready to initiate an impeachment process against embattled Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

The news on Wednesday came after three attorneys commissioned by the president of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives, Carlos Méndez Núñez, found five offenses that constitute grounds for impeachment, according to Telemundo and other news outlets.

Rosselló's public affairs secretary, Anthony Maceira, issued a statement reacting to rumors about the governor's possible resignation.

"Rosselló hasn't resigned and is presently in Puerto Rico," the statement read. "We reiterate that any official communication will be shared with the media."

The news follows the island's largest protest in recent history calling for Rosselló's ouster over scandals involving leaked private chats as well as corruption investigations and arrests.

Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to this. Rosselló has resigned effectively as of Aug 2nd.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/25/2019 4:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Gives him a couple days to, ahem, 'tidy up the office'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 07/25/2019 14:01 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Dad pleads guilty to paying $250K to get son into USC as fake volleyball recruit
[USATODAY] Jeffrey Bizzack, a business executive from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to paying $250,000 to get his son admitted to the University of Southern California as a fake volleyball recruit.

He's now the 23rd defendant to admit guilt out of 51 charged in the sweeping "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal. The other 28 are preparing for trial.

Bizzack, of Solana Beach, California, appeared before U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock, who approved a plea agreement between Bizzack and federal prosecutors reached last month.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, and he's also agreed to cooperate with federal Sherlocks.

Prosecutors say Bizzack paid $200,000 to college consultant Rick Singer, the criminal mastermind of the cheating and recruitment bribery scheme, and $50,000 to USC.

Bizzack, 59, is the co-founder of Outerknown, a clothing store and fashion company, and a past business partner of heralded surfer Kelly Slater, whose Kelly Slater Wave Company builds wave pools. Bizzack is also the former president and vice chairman of the company ServiceSource.

Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So when was he caught ? At the inter-school trials ?

"You said your son could play. We already made bets. WTF is this ?"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 13:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Best Volleyball Blocks Ever with Scott Sterling
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 13:36 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi soldier wounded in sniper attack by Islamic State in Diyala
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An Iraqi soldier was maimed Wednesday in a sniper attack by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bad boy group in the eastern province of Diyala, a security source said.

Speaking to the Arabic-language Alghad Press website, the source said that "an Islamic State sniper shot up a solider, south of Canaan district, leaving him maimed."

The soldier, according to the source, was moved to a nearby hospital suffering from severe wounds.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Afghanistan
11 Taliban militants killed, large caches of weapons, munitions destroyed in Special Forces raids
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces killed 11 Talibs and destroyed large caches of weapons, munitions and explosives in the past 24 hours.

The military officials said Wednesday that the Special Forces killed 11 Talibs during a raid in Sharan district of Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
province.

The officials further added that the Special Forces also destroyed a weapons cache during the raid.

Furthermore, the officials said the Special Forces conducted a raid in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
and detained 4 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters.

The officials also added that Special Forces destroyed 68.2 kg Homemade Explosives, 1 IED and a large IED making cache during the same raid.

Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the congregants were being herded into the paddy wagon...
the Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province and destroyed 91 kg Homemade Explosives, 26 Grenades, 2 Rockets, 25 Mortars, 22 IEDs and a large weapons cache.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Actress Bella Thorne just came out as pansexual: ‘Doesn’t have to be a girl or a guy’
Really, dear, nobody cares, so long as no children are involved and all the participants are willing.
[LGBTQNATION] Actress Bella Thorne came out as pansexual in an interview with Nightline.
"I had a torrid affair with a lamp"
Thorne, 21, has acted in a number of films and TV series, and she is perhaps best known for playing Cece Jones on the Disney Channel’s Shake It Up.

In 2016, she came out as bisexual on Twitter. But now she says that she’s pan.
but not 49Pan
“I realized recently I’m actually pansexual and I didn’t know that,” Thorne said during the interview. “Somebody explained to me really thoroughly what that is and I am pan.”
My pet antelope has already called for a date.
Posted by: Fred || 07/25/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Look at me, look at me, look at me" Bella Thorne every month or so.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 07/25/2019 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I’m actually pansexual and I didn’t know that

"Until I realized that... duhh, almost everything could be kissed, nuzzled against, licked or accommodated in one's nether regions. Which is all ♫ it takes ♪ for loooove!"
Posted by: Dron66046 || 07/25/2019 1:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, it was explained to her - got it.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 07/25/2019 1:40 Comments || Top||

#4  No, TW, animals should also be protected from the likes of her.
Posted by: Glenmore || 07/25/2019 1:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Who is she?

Just another person I've never heard of proudly proclaiming to the public that she is mentally ill.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 07/25/2019 4:11 Comments || Top||

#6  "Animal, vegetable or
mineral -- I'll do anything to anything."


The 1980s are calling, they want their edgy, comical villains back.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 07/25/2019 7:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Gee, she looks just like this blow up doll I...um...never mind.
Posted by: Mercutio || 07/25/2019 7:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Vibrator, phallus, and hands (oh my).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/25/2019 7:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Who?
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/25/2019 8:29 Comments || Top||

#10  It's better than hearing Bella Abzug (D-Fugly) make this statement.
Posted by: Raj || 07/25/2019 8:39 Comments || Top||

#11  Dang It Raj! I WAS drinking coffee..now I seem to be exhaling it.
Posted by: Warthog || 07/25/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Right up there with the jihadi lawyer from years ago that represented the blind imams. I wonder if she told him she was a supermodel.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 9:23 Comments || Top||

#13  "I had a torrid affair with a lamp"

Next time try it plugged in.
Posted by: gorb || 07/25/2019 9:25 Comments || Top||

#14  I suspect Bella Thorne and Miley Cyrus make these kind of statements until the day they get married to a member of the opposite sex and declare that they found true love, it just happened to be hetrosexual but if it was a lamp that would have been nice as well.
Posted by: ruprecht || 07/25/2019 10:35 Comments || Top||

#15  Holding hands over my eyes while trying to plug both ears... "No, Bella, I really, really don't want to know anything about your ... lifestyle !"
Posted by: magpie || 07/25/2019 18:00 Comments || Top||

#16  #13 - "But LED. It was shocking how much electricity we had between us"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/25/2019 19:09 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
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5Islamic State
3Commies
2al-Shabaab (AQ)
2Govt of Iran
2Sublime Porte
2al-Nusra
1Govt of Sudan
1Hamas
1Arab Spring
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Moslem Colonists
1Pirates
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Pakistan

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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
Thu 2019-07-25
  Shabaab tries to assassinate US diplomat
Wed 2019-07-24
  Libya government forces say repel Haftar attack on Tripoli
Tue 2019-07-23
  Iraq arrests Islamic State cell, including Baghdadi aide, in Nineveh
Mon 2019-07-22
  Iran claims to catch 17 CIA spies, sentences some to death
Sun 2019-07-21
  Kurdistan: Killer of senior Turkish diplomat arrested
Sat 2019-07-20
  Saudi King approves additional deployment of US troops
Fri 2019-07-19
  'HOSTILE ACT' Iran seizes British oil tanker in the Gulf with 23 crew on board days after clash with Royal Navy
Thu 2019-07-18
  Iran seizes foreign tanker with 12 crew accused of smuggling oil
Wed 2019-07-17
  Pakistani police arrest Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed (again)
Tue 2019-07-16
  United Arab Emirates oil tanker vanishes after drifting into Iranian waters
Mon 2019-07-15
  Car bomb and all-night hotel siege kill 26 in Somalia's Kismayo
Sun 2019-07-14
  African Migrants Turned Church Into Base to Deal Heroin
Sat 2019-07-13
  Kismayo attack: 26 dead as gunmen storm Somali hotel
Fri 2019-07-12
  Labor Sec. Alex Acosta Resigns Amid Pall of Jeffrey Epstein Investigation
Thu 2019-07-11
  Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats tried, failed to seize British oil tanker in Persian Gulf

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