• Crew is safe • Anomaly detected with Stage 2 aka Center Core Booster • Current Station crew planned to be on orbit until December • NASA evaluating options for completing upcoming spacewalks now that Hague is still on Earth
Folks, I am too pro-Spacex so filter my rage against NASA Shelby and Company as you please.
Today Soyuz with a US and Russian astronaut blew the hell up this AM AND NASA pushed SpaceX's manned capsule, already at the cape back 9 months, for NASA paperwork reasons.
Like the SOBs would rather launch astronauts on exploding USSR crap than use the SpaceX or Boeing capsules!
I even heard the argument that SpaceX has only done a few launches. It's done 68 flights and will pass the Atlas 5 (Lockheed/ULA) total count this year. It's a tested rocket and one with a first stage brought home safely 30 time to inspect and sometimes reuse. Nobody else on the planet has that knowledge of their first stages. SpaceX Statistics if you don't believe me here
Oh and the fricking air-force just gave development contracts to ULA, ATK and Blue Origin totally ignoring SpaceX (cheap and works).
The whole Space Part of the US government including Sen Shelby needs an enema!
Posted by: 3dc ||
10/11/2018
15:26 ||
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#1
This is the same situation we faced when the damned Shuttle was taken out of the picture. So again we are stuck on depending on the Russians and their tired iron. That needs to change after decades of BS the federal govt sitting on its hands.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/11/2018 15:57
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#2
Bit off topic; I let out loud a 'whadda bunch of goddamn bullshit' during one of the BOS @ NYY games when they were showing screenshots of the Enterprise.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/11/2018 16:36
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#4
They've been arguing for thirty years about the need to make the US dependent on Russia even while Russia becomes more and more incapable of having a working space program but they'll tell you Trump is guilty of collusion.
The Israeli Air Force decided to ground its fleet of F-35 fighter jets after the plane's first ever crash last month in North Carolina.
During the crash, the Marine Corps F-35B was completely destroyed. A post-crash investigation found that a faulty fuel pipe in the engine caused the crash, leading the US to ground all of it's F-35 planes until they can be given the once-over.
Following the crash, Israeli Air Force Commander Amikam Norkin decided to take extra precautions and test all of Israel's F-35 'Adir' fighter jets as well, despite the fact that Israel uses a different model than the US.
Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague are reported to be "in good condition", both Nasa and Russian media said.
Search and rescue teams are now en route to the landing site.
The rocket had taken off for the International Space Station (ISS) when it suffered a problem with its booster.
The crew had to return in "ballistic descent mode", Nasa tweeted, which it explained was "a sharper angle of landing compared to normal". Supposedly an 8g decelleration rate when that happens.
Don't feel like any editorial comments for now. I have to get to werk, the curse of the blogging class.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
10/11/2018
08:04 ||
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[WSJ] After narrowly dodging a corruption conviction, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez faces a re-election dogfight against former Celgene CEO Bob Hugin. The Senator is now lying to voters about his opponent’s business record the way he dissembled about his political corruption.
Democrats always treat a Republican candidate from business as if commerce is by definition criminal, and Mr. Hugin is no exception. The GOP Senate candidate joined the New Jersey-based biotech firm Celgene in 1999 in its infancy and rose to CEO in 2010. He helped grow Celgene into one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical companies.
Big pharma is a perennial target for politicians, and Mr. Menendez has been vilifying Mr. Hugin for ordinary business practices. Among other things, his ads charge that Mr. Hugin settled a lawsuit for $280 million "for hiding information about potentially fatal side effects" and "raised the cost of a cancer drug three times in one year." These distortions need to be corrected since the truth is that tens of thousands of patients have benefited from Celgene’s innovations.
Celgene’s biggest blockbusters have been Thalomid and Revlimid, which treat the rare blood cancer multiple myeloma and are based on the compound thalidomide. While thalidomide was found to cause birth defects in the 1950s, research in the 1990s suggested it could treat conditions including AIDS.
In 1998 FDA approved Celgene’s application of thalidomide to treat leprosy, which affects about 100 Americans each year. The following year the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that found thalidomide "had substantial antitumor activity in patients with advanced myeloma," which is incurable with conventional chemotherapy.
Celgene began to highlight thalidomide’s potential to treat multiple mylenoma before the FDA approved Thalomid and Revlimid in 2006. A former employee in 2010 sued Celgene for $40 billion under the False Claims Act for allegedly engaging in illegal off-label promoting, paying kickbacks to doctors and billing Medicare for the therapies.
Companies under FDA rules aren’t supposed to promote drugs for uses that haven’t been approved by the FDA, but some courts have ruled this restriction violates the First Amendment. Doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for unapproved indications, and Medicare will reimburse off-label cancer uses that are supported by clinical research.
Many doctors prescribed Celgene’s drugs for multiple myeloma because they were superior to existing therapies and caused fewer severe side effects. The Justice Department under Barack Obama decided not to intervene in the "qui tam" lawsuit, and a federal judge dismissed allegations of kickbacks. Celgene settled remaining claims last year for $280 million. Mr. Hugin’s job was to maximize value for shareholders, and settling dubious lawsuits is often a cost of doing business.
As for the accusation that Mr. Hugin gouged patients, the unfortunate reality is that curing cancer isn’t cheap. Between 2010 and 2017, the list price for a monthly dose of Revlimid doubled to about $18,000. Most patients pay far less out-of-pocket.
Generic manufacturers have complained that Celgene has used the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program as a pretext to withhold samples of Revlimid that could be used to develop and test alternatives. This common industry ploy can extend a patent life by years. But Revlimid’s patents don’t expire until 2027, and earlier this year it agreed to allow Natco Pharma to introduce a generic competitor in 2022.
With competition from CAR T-cell treatments on the horizon, Celgene may now be trying to maximize profits from Revlimid that are necessary to fund research and development into other treatments. Celgene has trials for more than 40 new drugs or indications in the pipeline. Earlier this year Celgene purchased the biotech startup Juno, which has been a CAR T-cell pioneer.
None of Celgene’s business practices are corrupt‐unlike Mr. Menendez’s machinations to procure visas for his doctor friend Salomon Melgen’s girlfriends. The Senator also intervened for the doctor with the Department of Health and Human Services in a Medicare billing dispute that involved reused vials of a macular degeneration drug that put patients at risk of infection.
Mr. Menendez escaped conviction thanks to the Supreme Court’s McDonnell ruling that made it harder for prosecutors to prove quid-pro-quo corruption. But the Senate Ethics Committee "severely" admonished him, and New Jersey voters now have an opportunity to oust a man who abused his power to help a campaign donor in favor of an entrepreneur who helped to save lives.
[PJ] The guy who gave Donald Trump his own town hall forum in early 2016 has had the worst, and most fun to watch from a schadenfreude perspective, case of buyer's remorse since late 2016.
Now he's got theories:
I will be the first to admit that one of the things I enjoy most about President Trump is that he isn't a career politician. Because of that, he may very well decide he is bored with the nonsense and not run in 2020, but he really does seem to enjoy this POTUS gig so far. The idea that he will just bail on the whole thing seems more like a feverish liberal (yes, Scarborough is a liberal now) fantasy.
The discussion in the video here is part of the still-ongoing, and quite ridiculous, breathless MSM speculation about the announced resignation of UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Haley openly stated that she is looking forward to returning to the private sector, which many in the left media immediately seized upon as code for "I'm running in 2020." At least one of the MSNBC panelists in the clip has enough sense to declare that idea is a non-starter. The rest, however, are coy, wandering into that "kinda/sorta/maybe" speculation that passes for political punditry these days.
As someone who has been professionally writing about and commenting on politics for a long time, I understand that punditry not only involves commenting on the issues of the day, but some opinion-based speculation as well. That speculation, however, has to be informed by some sort of reality. What most left media pundits do these days is spin tales based on their own fantasy world. In that world, Donald Trump should never have been president. This is why on any given day MSNBC or CNN is convinced that there is another game-changing event in the ridiculous Russia collusion investigation that will finally rid them of their bogey man. They are completely unaware that all of sane society recognized the investigation as garbage and moved on a very long time ago.
One thing that undoubtedly is confusing the MSM lefties about the Haley resignation is the very idea that someone would want to leave government work. To liberals, making a living off of the taxpayers is the highest and best calling for human beings. That's why they can say that someone making a hundred or more thousand a year (looking at you, Bernie Sanders) is engaged in "public service" and do it with a straight face. It is positively mystifying to them that anyone would ever want to leave that.
The most amusing thing (to me, anyway) about the speculation is that liberals are so desperate to get rid of President Trump that they are actually wishing Nikki Haley will run. She may very well be the most formidable non-Trump opponent they have looming on the horizon.
#8
Trump said he is running in 2020 in a Fox interview this a.m. I have been getting email solicitations from his 2020 campaign. Wishful thinking on the part of Scarborough.
#12
I do not think Trump will run for re-election, either. He's checked the block and will leave with a good economy (or, at the top and on its way down).
#13
wait til you see the Fed Judge appointments article from LI I posted for tomorrow - lasting impact for decades
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2018 20:52
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#14
From Frank's article: (SenateDems) agreed to the demand from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to confirm roughly the number of judges he could confirm between now and the election if he kept the Senate in continuously.
Vitamins? Lifting weights? Dunno what Mitch is doing lately, but I've got new-found respect for the guy.
McConnell is a weasel and only riding the Trump wave...I find Lindsey Graham's "turn-around" quite similar. I mean, Graham and Songbird McCain were quite the RINO pair for a while.
[Paris AFP via Breitbart] The world must drastically reduce its meat consumption in order to avoid devastating climate change, scientists said Wednesday in the most thorough study so far on how what we eat affects the environment.
As humanity grapples with tough choices to offset a rapidly heating planet, the research suggests that the Western world would need to slash its meat intake by 90 percent to avoid crippling Earth’s ability to sustain an anticipated 10 billion people by 2050.
Food production ‐ which produces damaging greenhouse gases from livestock, ruins enormous swathes of forests and uses unsustainable amounts of water ‐ is a major contributor to climate change.
A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature offers the most comprehensive look yet at just how bad intensive agriculture is for the planet.
Without a huge drawdown in the amount of meat consumed, its authors said, the food industry’s already vast impact on the environment could increase by as much as 90 percent by mid-century.
That coupled with a sharp projected rise in global population would devastate mankind’s ability to effectively feed itself ‐ and dash any realistic hope of curbing runaway global warming.
#3
"The world must drastically reduce its meat consumption in order to avoid devastating climate change, scientists said Wednesday in the most thorough study so far on how what we eat affects the environment."
Oh, good grief. FOAD, already...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/11/2018 8:24
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#4
But if we slash meat consumption there will be millions more cows left alive and farting to destroy the climate. Eat a steak, save the world!
#7
Tut-tut-TUT!! *Harrumpf!! How DARE those poor, ignorant Third-World Peons aspire to an extravagant First-World Lifestyle of eating meat! Uppity savages!
(/sarc, if it was needed...)
I liked it when the howling loonies started pounding on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court like Brett Kavanaugh was totally going to open them up and invite the freaks in to air their many stupid grievances over a hot cup of Too Damn Bad. I also liked it when Lindsey Graham dissed that silly shrieking harpy as he adjusted his tie and smirked. And I liked it when Jesse Kelly channeled Andrew Breitbart by heading down to the protest with a t-shirt that said "Hands Off My Uterus." I liked a lot of things about last week, and all of them involved liberal jerks being unhappy.
[Daily Caller] The retired British spy who authored a salacious dossier accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia is taking a veiled shot at the president following 18 months of silence.
Christopher Steele has not spoken publicly since March 2017, a couple of months after the publication of his infamous dossier. But the former MI6 officer issued his first comments in response to being named to Vanity Fair’s 2018 New Establishment List.
"In these strange and troubling times, it is hard to speak unpalatable truths to power, but I believe we all still have a duty to do so. I salute those on your list, and otherwise, who have had the courage to speak out over the last year, often at great personal cost," Steele wrote in an email to Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones, ABC News reported.
"At a time when governance is so distorted and one-sided, as I believe it currently is in the United States, the media has a key role to play in holding it accountable," Steele continued.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is the top pick on the list. Steele is No. 38.
Steele has rejected congressional requests to discuss his investigation of Trump. He has reportedly met with members of Mueller’s team.
Steele began investigating Trump in June 2016 after being hired by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was working for the Clinton campaign and DNC. Steele claimed in his 35-page report that the Russian government was blackmailing Trump with video of him engaged with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room in 2013.
#5
Steele didn't like Trump and was trying to make a buck from writing fiction. He was hired by the DNC and HRC with a few cut-outs in between. D'S operation. No wonder Steele doesn't want to come to this country.
[WSJ] WASHINGTON‐FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that the Bureau’s background investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had been limited in scope, but he added that it was consistent with previous such checks.
Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Mr. Wray distinguished a background check conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation from a criminal inquiry, and said that the bureau’s only authority to investigate Justice Kavanaugh came at the direction of the White House.
"Our supplemental update to the previous background investigation was limited in scope, and I think that is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways," Mr. Wray told senators in response to questions from Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California.
In a background investigation, "our only authority is as requested by the adjudicating agency, which in this case is the White House," Mr. Wray said.
The FBI conducted an initial background check of Justice Kavanaugh as a routine part of a Senate nomination after he was tapped in July as President Trump’s pick to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
The background check was then reopened after Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, came forward on Sept. 16 to allege that Justice Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, which he categorically denied.
Her accusation came as the Senate was considering whether to confirm him to a lifetime appointment as a Supreme Court justice. The allegations disrupted his confirmation process, delaying a final vote while the charges were investigated further.
The FBI’s renewed investigation found no corroborating information for the assault, which was alleged to have occurred in 1982 in suburban Maryland. But Democrats on Capitol Hill said it had been limited in scope and rife with political interference.
Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court in a 50-48 vote at the conclusion of the investigation, after winning the support of a handful senators. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the only Democrat to support him, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the sole Republican opposing him.
Dr. Ford wasn’t interviewed as part of the FBI’s renewed investigation, nor was Justice Kavanaugh. Some friends and acquaintances of Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh said they were willing to testify but weren’t contacted.
Mr. Trump said on Twitter that he wanted the FBI "to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion." Mr. Wray said that the FBI and the White House had been in contact throughout the process.
[LI] The Baltimore police officers who are suing State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for maliciously investigating and defaming them when she criminally charging them over the death of Freddie Gray while he was in police custody have appealed the 4th Circuit’s dismissal of their case to the US Supreme Court, according to the Baltimore Sun.
A copy of the officers’ petition for certiorari to the US Supreme Court is embedded at the bottom of this post. In addition, you can find my extensive coverage of the Freddie Gray cases over at Legal Insurrection by clicking here.
The Freddie Gray case isn’t technically a self-defense case, in that none of the officers raised the legal defense of self-defense in response to the criminal charges against them. Rather, their defense was that they simply used no unlawful force on Gray at all. As a result this case would not normally be the subject of coverage by Law of Self Defense.
This case is, however, akin to many high-profile self-defense cases in the news in recent years since it’s another example of very serious criminal charges, premised on a claimed unlawful use of force, in the absence of any actual evidence to support such charges.
[Daily Caller] Hurricane Michael hit Florida’s panhandle Wednesday afternoon and began pushing farther into the U.S., leaving buildings in shambles and homes under water.
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott requested that President Donald Trump issue a major disaster declaration following Michael’s impact to free up more federal resources for damaged Florida communities.
The following videos show Mexico Beach, Florida ‐ near where Hurricane Michael first made landfall. Experts expected the city to receive nine feet to 13 feet of storm surge from Michael. Water can be seen nearly level with the roofs of houses and other buildings. Islands of debris are floating through submerged parts of the city.
[Washington Examiner] The national security threats against the United States have changed dramatically even in the past two years, according to senior Trump administration officials.
Whereas homeland security and federal investigators used to focus on fighting terrorism abroad, FBI and Department of Homeland Security leaders told the Senate Wednesday that the fight has come home because the threats are now stateside as well as in cyberspace.
The top five areas of concern that keep senior officials awake at night fall into the categories of critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, terrorism, border security, and drones. China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are the countries with both the intent and capability to attack the U.S. in cyberspace.
"After 9/11, our strategy was to take the fight to enemies abroad so we did not have to fight them here at home," DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "Unfortunately, that is no longer the world we live in. Our enemies do not respect borders are not constrained by geography. Today’s threats exist in a borderless ‐ and increasingly digital ‐ world."
Today, the federal government’s biggest concerns are attacks on critical infrastructure, hacks into America’s private and public cyberspaces, and gaps in America’s physical borders. The issue of foreign and domestic terrorist attacks remain significant but a growing threat is the use of drones to surveil law enforcement and smuggle contraband.
Terrorists and nation-states could attack the U.S. through its critical infrastructure: banks, energy, telecommunications, and other industries. By disabling America’s power grid or shutting down financial institutions, business would be suspended and communication networks shut down.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/11/2018 7:16
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#2
Our enemies do not respect borders are not constrained by geography.
Why should they? Open borders and a fifth column in our anti-Western Civ elites make it all possible. That and trying to make war gentler kinder rather than going full Mongol as a deterrent to others thinking bad thoughts about us.
#3
Here are the top five national security threats to America
Wrong. The top 3 threats to US national security are the Democratic Party, the progressive propaganda machine (i.e., the MSM) that supports it, and the "education" system that does little anymore but indoctrinate fanatical young socialists.
The other five threats are ancillary.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/11/2018 8:31
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[Breitbart] WASHINGTON, DC ‐ The United States is facing an "escalating" threat from the use of civilian drones as weapons by the likes of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and MS-13, the FBI director cautioned on Wednesday.
In written testimony prepared for hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray declared:
The threat from Unmanned Aircraft Systems [UAS] in the U.S. is steadily escalating....While there has been no successful malicious use of UAS by terrorists in the United States to date, terrorist groups could easily export their battlefield experiences to use weaponized UAS outside the conflict zone. We have seen repeated and dedicated efforts to use UAS as weapons, not only by terrorist organizations, such as ISIS and Al Qa’ida, but also by transnational criminal organizations such as MS-13 and Mexican drug cartels, which may encourage [the] use of this technique in the U.S. to conduct attacks.
The FBI assesses that, given their retail availability, lack of verified identification requirement to procure, general ease of use, and prior use overseas, UAS will be used to facilitate an attack in the United States against a vulnerable target, such as a mass gathering.
According to the FBI, the MS-13 gang maintains a presence in at least 42 states in the District of Columbia and counts with the support of "about 6,000-10,000 members nationwide."
While describing shifts in the threat landscape more than 17 years after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen identified the use of civilian drones to advance nefarious activities as an example of emerging threats that are outpacing America’s defenses.
The DHS secretary, who appeared alongside FBI Director Christopher Wray at the hearing, told lawmakers via written testimony:
"Our supplemental update to the previous background investigation was limited in scope, and I think that is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways"
[Universal Hub] - WBZ reports a woman was dragged by the SUV that hit her on Kneeland Street around 1:40 a.m. to Columbia Road in Uphams Corner. A man was also hit, but not dragged.
Xiao Ying Zhou, 44, a massage therapist from Sandwich, will be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court today on two counts of leaving the scene of a collision causing personal injury, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office report. The female victim, 48, remains alive, the DA's office says.
[CBSLasAngeles]The typhus outbreak in Southern California has spread to a third city, and pet owners there have been surprised to hear of the uptick in the flea-borne disease.
At Uptown Dog Park in Long Beach, dog owners were shocked to hear about the outbreak in their area.
"Sounds crazy. I've never heard of it," Isael Torres said.
Long Beach has joined other major cities that have seen an increase of typhus cases this year.
Health officials said there have been nine cases in Downtown Los Angeles, 12 in Long Beach, 20 in Pasadena and 59 in Los Angeles County.
Authorities said flea-borne typhus only makes humans sick, not animals. Feral rats, possums and cats can carry the disease.
"I've seen raccoons, possums, and yeah, cats, and they're all just out and about," said pet owner Gary O'Callaghan.
A flea on one of those stray animals can jump on pets and then be transferred onto humans. End of the world coming. Film at 11.
The CDC has traced the recent outbreak of typhus in the city to an airline passenger traveling with a flea-infested capybara as a companion animal on a flight from Long Beach, CA. Mayor De Blasio has announced the creation of a task force to deliver flea powder to all residents of the five boroughs.
The CDC has traced the recent outbreak of typhus in the city to an airline passenger traveling with a flea-infested capybara as a companion animal on a flight from Long Beach, CA. Mayor De Blasio has announced the creation of a task force to deliver flea powder to all residents of the five boroughs create a third gender for birth certificates.
FTFY, because that's pretty much his default setting.;) (He actually did that this week, BTW)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/11/2018 18:07
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I’m having lunch with Michael Avenatti @MichaelAvenatti at the Vanity Fair Summit and he’s proposing a three-round mixed-martial arts fight with Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr for charity. No joke.
#11
And with the all of talk of political vioĺence and toppling leaders via false accusations, investors around the world are selling their stakes in the US stock market lïke crazy and it drops 900 points in two days.
Investors are smart people. They see serious red flags here and major public displays of dangerous a dangerous lack of civility now being condoned with no effective counter measures, that is going to get much worse. Listen to them.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this afternoon that the Russian-Ottoman Turkish agreement on Idlib is currently being fulfilled.
"The Russian-Ottoman Turkish agreement on Idlib is being fulfilled," Lavrov said.
Lavrov continued that the withdrawal of all murderous Moslems is a gradual process; however, they have already begun leaving the demilitarized zone.
The Russian Foreign Minister’s comments come just days after the Ottoman Turkish regime announced that the rebel forces were removing their heavy weapons from the demilitarized zone.
Despite the claims regarding the withdrawal of these rebel groups, the Ottoman Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) continues to launch attacks against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) from this demilitarized zone.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Lebanese Internal Security Forces managed to foil a terrorist attack that was going to be carried out by the so-called "Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... " (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) in the ’Akkar District this morning.
According to the statement released by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, their troops tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... the ISIS member while he planting an bomb along a road used by the army.
"Based on information about orders to [ISIS members] to carry out terrorist acts in the countries they reside in, and following observation and tracking operations, a special force from the Information Branch conducted a swift security operation and managed to apprehend A.D., born 2002, in Akkar," the ISF statement read.
They said that the arrest came shortly before the ISIS member was able to finish planting the bomb.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[Al Ahram] Two Afghan military officials were locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! for 20 years after a two-year trial for sharing state secrets with Pakistain, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The sentence highlights a long-standing belief between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistain that the other country does not adequately prevent cross-border myrmidon attacks.
Shah Mohammad and Nazirullah were placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in 2016 after travelling to Pakistain to hand over information to Pakistain's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. They pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." but eventually "confessed to their crime" before the military court in the eastern city of Jalalabad, officials said.
"Each of them has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the primary court," said Najiburrahman Nadim, a military prosecutor.
Nadim said the accused had shared secret information about attacks and kabooms.
Afghanistan’s Western-backed government has long accused Pakistain of harbouring Afghan Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... krazed killers, a charge that Islamabad denies.
Islamabad, in turn, accuses Afghanistan of not doing enough to eradicate Pak Talibs, many of whom are based in Afghanistan and mostly carry out attacks inside Pakistain.
A defence lawyer representing the two army officials rejected the court's verdict, which was delivered on Tuesday.
"My clients were beaten during the investigations and they were forced to confess. We don't accept the decision and we will appeal," said Toryalai Muqanen.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A Saudi national that served as a military commander of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham was reportedly assassinated in the Idlib province this week.
According to pro-opposition activists, Abu Yusef al-Jazrawi was assassinated this week, when unknown assailants opened fire on the jihadist commander inside the Idlib Governorate town of Ma’aratah.
Jazrawi was considered a security adviser to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani before he was assassinated.
His death came just hours after a Chechen commander from the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham jihadist organization was assassinated in the northwestern countryside of the Idlib Governorate.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Belgium has charged an Iranian diplomat and three other individuals with planning to bomb a meeting of an exiled Iranian opposition group in La Belle France in June, Belgian prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The diplomat, identified only by his given name as Assadollah, worked at the Iranian embassy in Vienna. He was tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in Germany on suspicion of planning an attack against the Gay Paree-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile.
On Tuesday, Germany transferred the diplomat to Belgium, where he was charged with preparing a terrorist attack, the state prosecutor said.
The other three alleged participants have also been charged in Belgium.
Two of them were arrested by Belgian police in June with 500 grams of TATP, an explosive that can be home-made from easily available chemicals, as well as a detonation device.
The fourth suspect was arrested in La Belle France and later transferred to Belgium.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[Al Ahram] Eight people died after a boat filled with migrants colonists sank off the western coast of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and another 25 were missing, the Ottoman Turkishcoasties said on Wednesday.
It was not clear where the boat was headed or where it left from. Hundreds of thousands of migrants colonists crossed the sea channel from Turkey to Greek territory in 2015 before Ankara curbed the flow under a deal it struck with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... .
The coasties said the boat sank off the coast of Turkey's Izmir province after water began leaking shortly after its departure. There were initially around 35 migrants colonists on the boat in total, the coasties said in a statement.
Search and rescue operations for the missing migrants colonists were continuing, the coasties added.
One helicopter, an aircraft and three boats were carrying out the operations off the coast of Izmir's Karaburun district, it said, adding that gendarme and security forces were also carrying out efforts on the ground.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Libyan coastguard fired shots at Italian fishing boats before seizing the vessels and detaining their crew, Italian media said Wednesday.
The boats, both from Mazara del Vallo in Sicily, came under fire some 29 nautical miles off the North African coast late Tuesday in an area that Libya insists is an exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the town’s mayor was quoted as saying.
Libyan officials boarded the boats and ordered the captains to head to the port of Ras Al Hilal, mayor Nicola Cristaldi said.
The vessels, with crews of six and seven respectively, were boarded "in waters that Libya unilaterally and illegitimately considers its own," Cristaldi said, adding that no one was hurt.
"The Libyans... opened fire on the crew... On defenceless and unarmed people," said Vincenzo Asaro, owner of one of the boats.
The Italian foreign office declined to comment.
Italia's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Wednesday said "the stabilization of Libya is a strategic priority for Italia and Europe," but made no direct reference to the fishing boat case.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
[ALMASDARNEWS] A video posted online by Sputnik, shows Syrian government forces flushing out the remaining terrorist fighters from the rocky Tulul al-Safa area.
The natural rocky fortifications created by the lava once belched by an ancient volcano and precipitation are ideal for guerrilla warfare. Because the terrain is off limits to vehicles, soldiers are scouring every rock, cave and underground tunnel where hard boyz might be hiding.
According to legend, Tulul as-Safa is exactly the place where the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah once stood before they were destroyed by fire and brimstone.
Indeed, archaeologists have found hundreds of human skeletons inside the huge basalt layers who were literally incinerated by a sudden volcanic eruption.
The Syrian Army has been fighting in the Suwayda Desert in an effort to liberate the area from ISIS terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish military continued their security operations across the country this week, arresting several people believed to be members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
According to a report from the Ottoman Turkish Interior Ministry, their military forces tossed in the calaboose ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... at least 158 suspected members of the PKK organization across the country.
The Ottoman Turkish Interior Ministry said that among the 158 arrested on October 9th was the provincial head of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Mehmet Serif Camci.
Among the provinces targeted by the Ottoman Turkish military this week were Batman, Diyarbakir, and Mardin.
This large scale security operation against the PKK comes just a week after the latter carried out a deadly attack that killed at least five Ottoman Turkish soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[All Africa] Authorities in Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... are appealing for calm after hundreds of youths marched through the streets of Yaounde, celebrating what they called the victory of their candidate, Maurice Kamtos, in Sunday's presidential election. No results have been released yet from the election, in which eight candidates challenged longtime President Paul Biya.
Hundreds of young people demonstrating in the streets of the capital sing songs urging President Paul Biya to step down. They sing that they believe their candidate, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party, won Sunday's presidential election.
The demonstration began after Kamto declared victory in the polls, without giving any election results.
The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement organized a news briefing that was broadcast live on state TV to counter the declaration made by Kamto.
Party Central Committee Secretary-General Jean Nkuete said Kamto exploited the naivete of the youths and sent them into the streets in an effort to win power at all costs.
Nkuete accused Kamto of breaking the law by announcing that he won the election.
"We express our surprise, our indignation and worry in the face of such irresponsible declaration that has no foundation. They are doing this in a bid to cause an uprising of the population to defend an imaginary victory," he said.
Kamto is not the only candidate claiming victory. Cabral Libii of the opposition Universe Party announced he is leading the vote count.
Opposition candidate Garga Haman of the Alliance for Democracy and Development says two candidates want to create social unrest to oust President Paul Biya, who has led Cameroon for 36 years.
"Those two candidates are in a hurry to go to Etoudi [to be president]. Not yet my dear friends, not yet. Let us wait for the decision of the constitutional council. There is no reason to go on to the streets. Do not exploit the mentality of the youths," he said.
Cameroon's electoral code states election results are proclaimed by the Constitutional Council 15 days after the polls. It forbids the early publication of results.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[An Nahar] A Bangladesh court Wednesday sentenced a top opposition leader to life in prison and sentenced 19 more people to death over a 2004 grenade attack on the current prime minister.
"We thank God for the verdict," prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain told news hounds after announcing that Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... , the self-exiled acting head of the country's main opposition party, was jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! for life while 19 others, including two former ministers, received the death penalty .
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) chief His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... has called on hundreds of followers to be executed for disloyalty to his terrorist organization.
Citing intelligence reports, Shafaq News stated that Baghdadi ordered 320 members of the terrorist group to be executed for disloyalty in Syria and Iraq.
The Shafaq News site said Baghdadi "issued an order to kill 320 of his followers for their betrayal of the so-called Islamic State and their recklessness, a matter which inflicted heavy losses on the group in both Iraq and Syria."
According to the sources, there are high-profile commanders on Baghdadi’s list, including Abu al-Baraa al-Ansari, Sief al-Din al-Iraqi, Abu Otham al-Tal Afari, Abu Iman al-Mowahed and Marawan Hadid al-Suri.
This execution order comes just a week after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out a large-scale assault on the Islamic State’s positions near the key border-city of Albukamal.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A high ranking jihadist commander was assassinated in the northwestern countryside of the Idlib Governorate this week, pro-opposition activists reported on Tuesday.
According to the pro-opposition activists, the Ottoman Turkish jihadist Mohammad Abu Islam was assassinated in front of his home in the town of Ahsem.
The reports claimed that Mohammad Abu Islam was assassinated by unknown assailants on Tuesday, when an unknown assailant shot the jihadist in the head.
Mohammad Abu Islam was a high ranking commander of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham before he was assassinated in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region of the Idlib Governorate.
No group has grabbed credit for this latest liquidation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... sent the U.S. authorities a grave warning regarding the Kurdish-led YPG’s increased military activity around the city of Manbij in northeastern Aleppo.
Citing Turkey’s National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, the Daily Sabah reported that Ankara has reached out to Washington regarding this violation in Manbij.
"The terror group must know that when the time and place comes, it will be buried in the trenches it has dug," Akar told the Anadolu Agency.
Akar claimed that the YPG has been digging trenches and building up their forces around Manbij, which is a violation of the U.S.-Ottoman Turkish agreement from June.
Over the last two weeks, the Ottoman Turkish military has been complaining about the increased YPG presence in Manbij, prompting them to reinforce the area in preparation for a new operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
"You been killing Kurds. We don't control 'em. What are ya gonna do?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2018 19:16
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[WASHINGTONTIMES] An LGBTQ commissioner of the Ohio University Student Senate Appropriations Commission was locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! Monday for allegedly sending herself fake hate messages.
Anna Ayers, a senior studying journalism, has been charged with three counts of making false alarms after campus police determined she posted the threats herself prior to reporting them.
Ms. Ayers told the Student Senate last week that she received an anonymous note in her office that "expressed extreme hatred ... because of who I am," Athens News reported Sunday. She said another message she received threatened her life because of her sexual orientation. She said she suspected the threats came "from within [the Senate]" and called on members to take immediate action.
"I have no interest in hearing from any of you that you are sorry that this happened, or that you can’t believe it happened at all," she said. "Instead, I want each of you to do everything you can make sure it doesn’t happen again."
The Student Senate responded by ending the open-space orientation of Student Senate offices in Baker Center and moving to replace the locks with electronic ID swipers, Athens News reported. It was unclear Wednesday whether the plan would move forward in light of Ms. Ayers’ arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
Ms. Ayers told the Student Senate last week that she received an anonymous note in her office that "expressed extreme hatred ... because of who I am,"
#5
Anna Ayers, a senior studying journalism, has been charged with three counts of making false alarms after campus police determined she posted the threats herself prior to reporting them.
it has a photo and also indicates that Ayers was in charge of Appropriations for the Student Senate
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/11/2018 6:02
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The Student Senate responded by ending the open-space orientation of Student Senate offices in Baker Center and moving to replace the locks with electronic ID swipers, Athens News reported. It was unclear Wednesday whether the plan would move forward in light of Ms. Ayers’ arrest.
Just because it didn't happen is no reason not to punish the innocent and Demand Change(TM).
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/11/2018 6:09
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#9
...And while we're at it, remember also that if the hate crimes aren't happening, then they need to be invented.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/11/2018 6:11
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Damn Raj, did you hit that one on the head. See the pic.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/11/2018 8:55
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[FOX8] Frontier Airlines said a woman had to be escorted off a flight bound for Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... Tuesday night due to a squirrel.
Frontier said a passenger boarded Flight 1612 in Orlando, saying the squirrel was an emotional support animal.
The airline said the passenger noted in her reservation that she was bringing an emotional support animal, but it was not indicated the animal was a squirrel.
Frontier said "rodents, including squirrels are not allowed" on its flights.
The passenger was advised of the policy and asked to get off the plane.
The airline said when she refused, Orlando police were called and requested everyone be deplaned so they could deal with the passenger.
Police eventually escorted her off the plane and took her to the main terminal.
The flight was set to be on its way to Cleveland later Tuesday evening.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
(Engage Bullwinkle voice) " Hey Rocky, wanna see me pull a rabbit outa my hat?" Woman and you offaplane?
[NBCNEWYORK] Three package bombs left on doorsteps in suburban Austin neighborhoods have killed two people and maimed two others in under two weeks in Texas' capital city, leaving Sherlocks searching for any possible motive.
Three package bombs left on doorsteps in suburban neighborhoods have went kaboom! in less than two weeks, killing two people, wounding two others and leaving Sherlocks vowing to look at any possible explanation for a motive.(Published Tuesday, March 13, 2018)
Police said the bombings in east Austin ‐ two on Monday and one on March 2 ‐ are likely linked. Investigators are looking into whether race was a factor, police said, because all the victims have been minorities. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... they backed off initial suggestions that hate crimes could be a core cause and are not ruling out any possibilities.
Austin Police announced on Tuesday a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. Texas Governor Greg Abbott had previously announced a $15,000 reward, bringing the total amount to $65,000.
The detonations prompted warnings from police departments across Texas, including Dallas Police, which published a bulletin urging people to be vigilant of unexpected package deliveries.
Austin Police say since the investigaton started, they have responded to 265 calls for suspicious packages at homes but all were deemed safe.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[PAGESIX] The sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein is in danger of crumbling after Manhattan prosecutors found an accuser’s written account of her encounter with the movie mogul that suggests it was consensual, multiple sources told The Post.
Lucia Evans has accused Weinstein of forcing her to perform oral sex on him inside his Tribeca office in 2004, when she was a 21-year-old college student and aspiring actress. She is one of three women whose allegations of sexual assault are being prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office.
But a prior employer of Evans turned over the personal writings she’d left on the company computer, which appear to contradict her grand jury testimony, a law enforcement source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
But, but, but... a woman would never lie about something like that....
#2
What nobody admits is that a lot of these women weren't forced, they did it willingly to get acting jobs.
Uma Thurman is one of them who took the deal. Weinstein kept his part of the bargain, too, he made her a star. Hollywood is lousy with beautiful women, they're a dime a dozen there. If one won't spread for a job, another will.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/11/2018 5:52
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You know Herb, given the reputation actors/actresses had in the old days, I doubt that this is a new problem.
[Al Ahram] The woman who led the global campaign to free Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... turbans is now running for president, saying she is fighting for "the soul" of Africa’s most populous nation.
Oby Ezekwesili is the most prominent woman to seek the presidency in Nigeria, where politics, as in many African nations, have long been dominated by men.
A former World Bank vice president, Ezekwesili also co-founded Transparency International, one of the world’s leading organizations against corruption ‐ a widespread problem in oil-rich Nigeria.
But she is perhaps most well-known for her vocal work in turning the world’s attention to Boko Haram’s Islamic Lion of Islam insurgency and its abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the community of Chibok in 2014.
The #BringBackOurGirls movement, supported by former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and others, put relentless pressure on Nigeria’s government to free the students.
Police broke up some of the campaign’s protests with violence. Finally, after a breakthrough in negotiations ‐ and, reportedly, millions of dollars paid to Boko Haram ‐ scores of the girls were freed last year.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to fight both Boko Haram and corruption when he took office in 2015, met with the freed schoolgirls while his government claimed a victory.
More than 100 of the Chibok schoolgirls have never returned, however, and a similar mass abduction occurred earlier this year in the community of Dapchi.
Almost all of those schoolgirls have been released, but the kidnapping exposed Nigeria’s difficulties in defeating the Lion of Islams.
Now Ezekwesili is challenging the 75-year-old Buhari on his campaign vows, drawing on personal experience on both fronts ahead of the February 2019 election.
A major challenge is the attitude toward female candidates in Nigeria, where many say women are fit only for the kitchen.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
#BringBackOurGirls activist runs for Nigeria’s presidency
You mean #Michellebeleavin?
[ALMASDARNEWS] The legal team of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran moved to reject US objections in its preliminary statements at a hearing regarding Iran’s frozen assets, which was held at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Wednesday.
Speaking of provisional measures imposed by the US on Iranian entities and companies, specifically its Central Bank [Bank Markazi], Iran’s lawyer Mohsen Mohebi said "the case we discussed this week does not concern the so-called nuclear-related sanctions."
"It is related to the treatment by different branches of the United States government through a range of legislative, executive, and in particular judicial measures," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Someone's Little Princess playing revolutionary.
[Vogue] I am going to try to write this calmly. I want to remain calm because I want to remain lucid. Also, if my hands are shaking with rage, I cannot type. So you'll have to give me a minute, as I work up to the bit about Molotov cocktails. I’ll get there, but first I have to talk about podcasts.
My podcast feed can be divvied up into two types of show: shows about politics and the news, and shows that I listen to in order to escape politics and the news. Of the latter, Karina Longworth’s Hollywood history, You Must Remember This is a favorite. I also like to dip into the BBC Radio 4 series In Our Time, where I can find out about cephalopods and hear eminent scholars discuss Middlemarch. There are some junkier podcasts, too, but I’ve found, over the past year or so, that the best way for me to eject myself from the crashing fighter jet of current events is to expand my mind. Learning allows me to see myself as part of the tapestry of earth and time, rather than someone stuck in a present that’s all too often dumbfoundingly horrifying. Thus did I dive into to the Revolutions podcast, Mike Duncan’s five year-old series exploring history’s great revolutions.
It was somewhere in the midst of Duncan’s season on the July Revolution, when the post-Bastille, post-Terror, post-Napoleonic Empire French terminated the Bourbon Restoration and got rid of the Bourbon monarchy once and for all, that I realized I wasn’t escaping current events; rather, I was understanding them. In 1829, King Charles X of France made the same epic error as had King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland 200 years earlier: Sick of the bitching of people who didn't 100 percent agree with their policies, both of these unpopular kings told the loudmouths to eff off and moved to consolidate power. In the case of King Charles X, that entailed suspending civil rights and denouncing anyone who complained as a hotheaded insurrectionary—actions that the king and his Royalist defenders spun as protective of France’s Charter of Government, the country’s sorta-kinda constitution. Nevertheless, elections did loom—and an energetic group of liberals had been organizing furiously, under the banner of a club called Help Yourself and Heaven Will Help You. Parrying Royalist efforts to disenfranchise voters and otherwise game the polls, the Help Yourself club fielded such a strong fleet of candidates, and mobilized so many fed-up French citizens, they swept the election. Whereupon the king and his enablers embarked on a Royalist coup. In a matter of weeks, France didn’t have a king anymore.
Maybe you see where I’m going with this? History rhymes, as they say, and if you listen to a few seasons of Revolutions, what you’ll discover is that the prerevolution rhyme scheme tends to go something like: People demand more rights and more economic equality/ The minority of people with the majority of the money and power get freaked out and respond by seizing even more money and power/ The people get very mad but at first they try to work within the system, like, they might storm the Bastille but even then they’re still basically cool with the king/ The rich, powerful minority make a big show of giving the masses the finger, pretty much to make the point that they're in charge, and they always will be/ Blammo, revolution.
If you’d asked me, before last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings with Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, where we were on the road to revolution, I’d have said we were somewhere around “the people are very mad but they’re working within the system.” As of today, I feel like the revolution could kick off any minute now, because with the vote to send Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the GOP (and Joe Manchin) have officially flipped us the bird. Executing a Constitutional obligation is not "flipping people the bird."
When I say “us,” I mean all of us. Not just women. Not just Democrats. Standing by Brett Kavanaugh—a historically disliked nominee, with crappy poll numbers (even before Dr. Ford came forward with a credible allegation that he’d sexually assaulted her in their teens) who walked right up to the line of perjuring himself in his Senate testimony and exposed himself as a both a jerk and a partisan hack—was, make no mistake about it, a display of power. A president who badly lost the popular vote, abetted by 51 Senators who represent a mere 44 percent of Americans, rammed through their nominee just to show us they could. Trump and McConnell could have easily jettisoned Kavanaugh in favor of an equally conservative replacement; instead, fearful of looking weak, they stuck with him, not in spite of all the protest but because of it. God forbid they seem to entertain the concerns of their constituents, because then those constituents might think they have a claim on how this country is run, and who for. The country is run by the people. The government is run by politicians. Big difference if you don't include that in your arguments. This princess' problem is that her political allies aren't running it all.
Ask yourself: For whom, right now, is this country being run?
Well before she was co-bylining New Yorker exposés with Ronan Farrow, Jane Mayer published the indispensable book Dark Money. Though it’s primarily a history of the Koch Brothers, the donor network they founded, and the inscrutable ways they funnel money to conservative candidates and causes, Dark Money digs deeper into the past, and presents for readers’ consideration “the Powell memo,” penned in 1971 by future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell. In the wake of the civil rights and women’s rights movements, with labor unions strong and the government expanding its oversight of business via environment regulations and consumer protections, corporate America, Powell wrote, was on its heels. What was required, he argued, was for “business,” writ large, to cultivate political power and use it “aggressively and with determination.” Before Powell circulated the memo, there were about 100 corporate lobbying offices in Washington, D.C.; by the mid-1980s, amid the ascendancy, under Ronald Reagan, of neoliberal economic doctrine, there were more than 1,200. Funny thing about money. The people still can donate to the political candidate of their choice. Because of the limits of means they can't dump millions into a campaign, but they can in small amounts. It's called Freedom.
The movement kick-started by the Powell memo was avowedly reactionary. Because most voters didn’t particularly like the idea of having their waterways polluted, or their banks given free reign to fleece them, and because mostly they did like the ideas FDR had presented in his New Deal–era “Second Bill of Rights” (proposing guarantees of health care, a good education, a decent home, and a job that paid enough to provide “adequate food and clothing and recreation”), the anti-tax, anti-regulation, pro-maximizing-shareholder-value corporate agenda required a certain savoir faire in order to take hold. It demanded the curtailment of unions, and with it labor’s ability to rally members’ votes. It necessitated aggressive—Powell’s word—furtherance of Nixon’s Southern strategy, not only ratcheting up white racial resentment all across the country, but also taking steps to keep black voters away from the polls. Religion and patriotism were drafted into the cause, in order to taper the expectations of women and queer people and immigrants that they were fully equal members of society. Poor folk—especially those of color—had to be warehoused in jails and rich folk had to be safeguarded their institutional sinecures. As long as the United States remained majority-white, and its representatives nearly uniformly straight and male, there was, periodically, a coalition that could be cobbled together which, as a whole, voted in support of declining investment in public infrastructure and increasingly regressive taxation. And so on. This is all right out of the Communist Manifesto, and the Democratic party platforms for the last 60 years. From my personal perspective, it had the basic flaw in relying on federal legislation and the courts to remedy matters. But the thing is what Princess Maya Singer lists aren't problems unless you have a deep and abiding love of big and ever expanding government.
But, despite the reactionaries’ best efforts, the future kept on coming.
Now, I’ll say this straightforwardly: Democrats were often complicit in kowtowing to corporate interests and the 0.001 percent. But all you need to do is look at the Republicans and Democrats in Congress to comprehend that one party is at least partially committed to principles of universalism, and the other not at all. More and more, the GOP is the party of the old, the white, the homophobic, and the rich, and, to a greatly disproportionate degree, the male. And as the country’s demographics have shifted away from that profile, and as, meanwhile, the lingering effects of the 2008 economic crash and America’s forever wars singe populations one would generally expect to be moderate in their views, the GOP and their dark money funders have had to tighten the screws on democracy. Hence, insane voter ID laws, changes to the census, norm-busting à la refusing to hold hearings on Obama’s judicial nominees. (Merrick Garland, cough.) OMG, I almost forgot to mention Citizens United! And the flip side to all this chipping away at people power, which is the vast expansion of the rights of the powerful. The writer is anti free speech, the cornerstone of freedom with her criticism of Citizens United.
No wonder we cling by our fingernails to the rights we do have. For some people it’s guns. Me, I bemoaned Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, for he had helped to preserve Roe and make gay marriage a reality. But let’s get real here. Kennedy voted to stop ballot-counting in Florida in 2000 and anoint George W. Bush president. He wrote the Citizens United opinion. In just his last session on the Supreme Court, he sided with the majority in Janus v. AFSCME, a decision that gutted public sector unions, and he forced a punt on a group of gerrymandering cases that submitted extreme redistricting to the scrutiny of the law. So, you know, ol’ Kennedy was a mixed bag where the rights of everyday citizens were concerned. Or he was, right up until the moment he delivered another Supreme Court seat to Donald Trump, and perhaps quietly proposed to our offender in chief that his former clerk, Brett Kavanaugh, would make a terrific nominee. In both those court cases Kennedy sided with the people.
Much of the recent discussion of Kavanaugh’s nomination has turned on the rights of women. And justly so. It’s an undigestible, poisonous irony that a man credibly accused of sexual assault—twice credibly, by my lights, and another time that, for the sake of rigor, I’ll give a pass—will sit on the highest court in the land and hear cases pertaining to the autonomy of women’s bodies. Indeed, given that he’ll be taking his seat on the Court alongside Clarence Thomas, credibly accused sexual harasser, and forming a reliable conservative majority with his seat-stealing former Georgetown Prep classmate Neil Gorsuch, I really wouldn’t be surprised if millions of American women spend the weekend Googling “how to make Molotov cocktails.” (See, I told you I’d get there.) I have yet to see any increasing reports on house fires yet, not ones where an accelerant was used. Your female allies may have Googled Mototov Cocktails, but they haven't started building them yet.
The problem is that no one, with an intrusive and expanding government we have now has autonomy over their body. Not even wimmin.
And make no mistake, women do start revolutions. As Mike Duncan elucidated, in my beloved Revolutions podcast, the French one only got started in earnest when thousands of furious Parisiennes marched on Versailles. The National Guard—the King’s army—met them along the way, and, hedging their bets, decided to see the ladies to the palace gates. Mass uprising: It works! (Sometimes.) I have a theory: Every Communist revolution at its base has been vigorously prosecuted by it biggest majority ethnic group. Liberals have been keeping minorities stirred up about revolution, but when it comes time to start the violence, it will be the ethnic minorities who will suffer the most. It is a dangerous game for liberals because once minorities figure out how things are being rigged, liberals such as this individual may well find herself swinging from a lamp post on the local Martin Luther King Street.
But this isn’t just about women. If I had to wager, I’d guess that Mitch McConnell, the architect of this whole nightmare, doesn’t care a whit about abortion, either way. Not in the depths of his shriveled heart. (Ditto Susan Collins.) What McConnell does care about is power. He genuinely believes in the concept of a ruling class, wherein boys’ club mediocrities like Brett Kavanaugh—Yale undergrad legacy admit, unexceptional student at Yale Law—get promoted and promoted and promoted until they’re in position for the rabble to petition them, mostly fruitlessly, for a soupçon more fairness. The word privilege comes from the Latin for “private law,” as in, the privileged are governed by their own set of norms, which don’t apply to the rest of us. And vice versa. Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was a lethal threat; 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh was “just a boy.” Privilege. Donald Trump glides to the presidency on a wave of unpaid taxes; Detroit residents get their homes possessed because of overdue water bills. Privilege. Pedigreed white men loudly feel sorry for themselves, tuning out the quavering voices of women forced to relive the worst days of their lives. Privilege. That’s what this whole fight was about—the culmination of a 30-year war to codify private law for the few. Kavanaugh, in accordance with nearly every GOP nominated SCOTUS justice will screw McConnell over worse than Stormy Daniels on a weekend bender. This is why I failed to see why all the fuss about Kavanaugh.
Other conservative Supreme Court nominees would have helped consolidate the privileged’s grip on power. But thanks to the firestorm around Kavanaugh, no other nominee could demonstrate so plainly to the American public that consolidating power is precisely what McConnell, and his fellow GOP senators, and their wealthy backers, intend to do. Well, history rhymes. They’ll have no one to blame but themselves if we riot. Hope for the writer's sake she can run faster than 2,800 feet per second. You'll surely need to get into shape.
#2
"Learning allows me to see myself as part of the tapestry of earth and time, rather than someone stuck in a present that’s all too often dumbfoundingly horrifying."
The only thing "horrifying" is the fact that people as crazy as you are allowed to vote, you dimwitted bitch.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/11/2018 8:39
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#3
So, I'm thinking she's not going to vote for Trump in 2020. Or shall we put her in the "undecided" category?
Posted by: Matt ||
10/11/2018 8:58
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#4
Better idea, easier and less likely to get you killed or sent to prison for life: Little Princess should move to another country and get on with its life.
#5
um... that's not what I took away from that season of the Revolutions podcast. (Highly recommended BTW.) There are very few parallels between the French revolution of 1829 and the Trump Administration. Now, the revolutions of 1848 where the liberals and radicals were violently crushed all over Europe? She should listen to the next season.
#9
etter idea, easier and less likely to get you killed or sent to prison for life: Little Princess should move to another country and get on with its life.
Posted by: rjschwarz
Problem with that is most countries require someone to actually be productive before they move there.
#10
All I can say is she needs to realize who he is talking about having a revolution against. Not the government, but the conservatives. They have far more veterans, and far more weaponry, and far more support from the police and armed forces. If she thinks her Antifa buddies can face down real armed opposition, she has a very bloody surprise coming, as do they.
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
10/11/2018 16:40
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[An Nahar] A mass grave containing 75 bodies has been found near the former jihadist bastion of Sirte in western Libya, an official said Wednesday.
Mohamad al-Amial, the coastal city's municipal council front man, told AFP the mass grave was uncovered in an agricultural area of al-Daheir, west of Sirte.
"Seventy-five decomposed bodies were recovered" in the presence of the public prosecutor, Sirte's security force and the Red Islamic Thingy, he said.
Amial said the find was made "a few days ago" and that the bodies were believed to be of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group members, although there was no confirmation.
IS jihadists overran Sirte, 600 kilometers (375 miles) east of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , in June 2015.
Forces of Libya's U.N.-backed unity government expelled IS from the coastal city in December 2016 after eight months of deadly combat. The group has since pulled back to desert outposts.
It grabbed credit for a suicide kaboom last month on the Tripoli headquarters of Libya's National Oil Corporation that killed two staffers as well as an assault in May on the country's electoral commission in which 14 people died.
IS took advantage of the anarchy in Libya after the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -backed overthrow and killing of longtime strongman 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... in 2011 to establish footholds in several parts of the country.
Since their defeat in Sirte, the jihadists have kept up the fight from rural areas of western Libya. In April, the Tripoli-based unity government launched a campaign to flush them out.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[Al Ahram] Two Kenyan teachers were killed when suspected al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... Death Eaters threw an bomb at a house at a school in Mandera county near the Somali border, police said.
Al-Shabaab grabbed credit for the attack overnight.
"Last night we killed two non-Moslem Kenyan teachers after we attacked their school in Arabow village of Mandera county", Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab’s military operations front man, told Rooters on Wednesday.
The teachers were killed in a fire caused by the kaboom in the attack at Arabia Boys Secondary School, police said on Twitter.
Police reservists guarding the school "engaged the attackers who then fled as more reinforcements were mobilised", police said.
The al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab aims to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam. They have intensified attacks in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia in 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
They were teaching knowledge, instead of the Koran. Why is blasphemy and unIslamic"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2018 19:12
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#4
Rained gently here all day yesterday. I spent the day burning downfall on the edge of the woods. I like to burn when it's wet (safety factor). A few concerned neighbors drove by. I guess they figured a plane had crashed... or something. Some gusty wind early this morning. The rain has stopped. Further south folks were not so fortunate.
#5
My family lives in Dothan, Alabama. It was hit pretty hard, too but not nearly as hard as the coast.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/11/2018 8:29
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#6
Michael is now down to tropical storm strength and moving so fast it will likely enter the Atlantic sometime about midnight eastern US time tonight.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/11/2018 8:35
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#7
Is it 3998 or 39998 fewer deaths than PR hurricane? Proof that Trump is rayciss!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/11/2018 15:37
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] On July 26, 2013, unidentified button men assassinated leftist Tunisian politician Mohammed Brahmi, who opposes the Tunisian Brotherhood Ennahda Movement. He was fatally shot in front of his house in Tunis. Few months before that, Chokri Belaid, the official in the Popular Front and who also opposed Ennahda and its government, was also killed.
Who assassinated the two politicians who oppose Ennahda?
Nothing is clear until now but the team defending the two victims dropped a political bombshell when it revealed that Ennahda has a "secret apparatus" that performs dark practices and that it’s the party which covered the killers and hid documents. This is of course according to the defense team’s statements.
The team defending Brahmi and Belaid confirmed in a presser that Ennahda Movement has a special organization that’s linked to political liquidations. The man who supervised the apparatus ‐ the defense team publicly stated his name ‐ possessed documents linked to the liquidation of Brahmi and Belaid.
The defense team confirmed that in December 2013 it found documents in the place where the apparatus’ supervisor lived, and who, by the way, is currently detained on accusations of manipulating with documents.
Commenting on these dangerous accusations, Sufian al-Sulaiti, a front man for Tunisia's counter-terrorism apparatus, said: "The prosecution is investigating the accusations made at the presser of the defense team of Brahmi and Belaid and about Ennahda Movement’s theft of files related to their liquidation."
We are waiting for the judiciary’s last word in this regard. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... what is important is that this behavior, i.e. acting in two different ways: apparent and vague, public and secret, soft and hard and elusive and frank, is a characteristic of the old Brotherhood traits as there are things that can be said to the "brothers" and things to be said to others.
It’s an old trait which source is religious preaching about the virtue of "secrecy" and which is a result of the political and partisan atmosphere in which the Brotherhood was born in the first half of the past century, and which was the era of secret movements and militias par excellence in Egypt, where there were the green and black shirts and the iron guard, and outside Egypt in Leb and Iraq. All this is imported from the political European culture especially Spain, Italia and of course Germany.
Hence, it’s not strange if this is the case with the Tunisian Ennahda Movement. As we said, the final word is for the Tunisian judiciary. We’re here just ending this shock which some kind people may feel.
In brief, there are always words said in public and other words said in private, there is always what’s evident and what’s hidden and what’s public and what’s secret. This is how they’ve been and this is how they will remain. Those shocked must save their shock for what’s worth it!
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
[ALMASDARNEWS] Russia has information on the attempts to re-deploy hard boyz from Syria’s Idlib to Iraq but these actions are being cut off, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said on Tuesday.
"There are the attempts of redeployment [of hard boyz from Idlib] to Iraq but they are being cut off. Iraq is dealing with that and it clearly does not need extra terrorists," the senior Russian diplomat told TASS.
At their September 17 meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russian and Ottoman Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... and 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... agreed to create a de-militarized zone in Idlib along the line of the engagement of the Syrian troops and the opposition.
Heavy weapons must be withdrawn from it while Russian and Ottoman Turkish military patrols will exercise control of that territory.
Idlib is the sole large region in Syria, which remains under the control of illegal armed formations.
In 2017, the northern de-escalation zone was established there to allow bully boyz with their families who had refused to reconcile with the authorities and voluntarily surrender their arms to move to that area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[APNEWS] Two Gulfstream jets carrying 15 Saudis landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport before dawn on the day last week that journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate and vanished. The men checked into hotels and left The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... later that night.
Ottoman Turkish media, which released surveillance camera video of the men on Wednesday, said they were members of an elite Saudi "liquidation squad," sent to kill Khashoggi, a Saudi critic.
Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... remained silent at the accusation as the images were seen around the world, raising pressure on the kingdom to explain what happened to the writer, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016.... .
Adding to the macabre mystery, a Ottoman Turkish official told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that one member of the team was an "autopsy expert."
Saudi Arabia has dismissed allegations it played a role in Khashoggi’s disappearance as "baseless," but it has offered no evidence to support its contention he left the consulate unharmed last week and vanished into Istanbul while his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside.
The video, shown on the state-run broadcaster TRT and others, did not offer definitive proof about Khashoggi’s fate. Ottoman Turkish officials have said that they fear the team killed him.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[All Africa] The National Humanitarian Development Report 2018, themed 'Achieving Human Development in North East Nigeria" notes the most effective way to deal with potential humanitarian and development crises is to "prevent them from occurring in the first place".
Launched by United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Development Programme and the Nigerian government, the report proposed that the root causes of the crisis should be addressed conclusively, rather than glossed over.
It recommends that "potential crisis triggers" and their root causes be tackled.
The "incessant and frequent farmers-herders conflict and associated violence and loss of lives in north central region of the country is one such "potential trigger" that should be conclusively addressed to halt any possible slide into a crisis situation, the report noted.
In addition, the report recommends a policy to delink state from religion and a bold encouragement of social justice on the basis of human equality rather than religious inclination or faith.
It says the coupling of state and religion tends to play "right into the hands of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... ideology that disparages Western education and blames it for all and any governmental shortcomings."
The report also calls for strengthening rule of law and promoting peace building.
"ABIDING INFLUENCE"
Overall, the report, focusing on Yobe, Adamawa and Borno, the three worst-affected states, underlies poverty, disenchantment as having playing into the historical and socio-cultural factors that facilitated the rise of Boko Haram.
Politics, religious ideology and governance deficit are also factors.
It cites the "abiding influence" of the Jihad associated with Usman Dan Fodio as a major factor accounting for the rise of Boko Haram.
Across the region, polygamous orientation of local populations led to phenomenal increase in population of especially young people that could not be properly catered for.
The huge population of idle and unemployed youth encouraged almajiri, which meant children are sent to distant places away from their biological parents in order to pursue Koranic education.
"This is a fodder that has partly fuelled the crisis, especially given that the almajiris live in extremely appalling conditions and hence spend their time begging for alms or else are readily available for recruitment into bad boy organistions such as the Boko Haram," the report notes.
OLD CASE
It is not the first time such recommendations have been made in attempts to get the humanitarian situation in the wake of the crisis under control.
But this is the first in three years it has been documented since international agencies began making similar recommendations.
Three years on, the report is expected to chart a new course.
"Three years ago, the forces of Evil controlled large parts of the north east; they don't anymore," the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told Daily Trust.
"Three years ago, eight million people were at the risk of famine; that's not the case anymore. There is a serious food security problem but it affects much small number of people.
Nearly two million people displaced have been able to go home. So we see progress in stabilizing the humanitarian situation. We also see a bad continuing situation but know because of the progress we have made, further progress is possible.
"We also know we need to address the underlying reasons why the insurgency was able to take hold, and that relates to the need to improve governance, provide opportunities, create jobs, provide education, health services and rebuild in the minds of the people of the north east the hope that the human spirit brings with it--the hope for a better future for themselves and their children."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Libyan National Army announced on Wednesday, that its forces nabbed Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Egyptian terrorist Safwat Zeidan, a member of al-Qaeda terrorist group and the bodyguard of terrorist Hisham al-Ashmawy, a former Egyptian special forces officer, who was also captured on Monday, in a sting operation in Derna city, east Libya.
Egyptian security officials consider Ashmawy the Emir of Ansar al-Islam and another bully boy group, al-Mourabitoun.
Both groups have ties with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the terrorist network’s North and West African affiliate.
While Safwat Zeidan is a leader in Derna council for the group affiliated to al-Qaeda and is concidered one of the most wanted by both the Libyan and Eyptian authorities for his links to bushwhackes in those countries which he beat feet from in 2013 to take shelter in a hideout in Derna.
The Libyan National Army (LNA) deployed in Derna is surrounding other wanted terrorists, among them the military and security leader of al-Qaeda in the north African nation, Abdulaziz Abdulhameed al-Jeebani, and the terrorist organization’s media spokesperson, Mohammad al-Mansouri al-Diska, in addition to the Mufti of the terrorist group, Abu Hafes al-Mauritani, who replaced the former slain mufti Omar Rifae Soroor who was killed last Jume.
The LNA is the dominant force in Libya’s east. A separate UN-backed government rules in the county’s west, while multiple gangs compete for power seven years after autocrat 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... was toppled.
The LNA published a picture of Ashmawy with blood on his face, being examined before having bandages applied. It also posted a photo appearing to show his Egyptian military identity card.
EGYPT CONFIRMS An Egyptian military source confirmed Ashmawy’s capture to Rooters, without giving further details.
Ashmawy has been convicted in absentia to death in Egypt for attacks in Egypt, including a 2014 raid in which 22 Egyptian military border guards were killed near the frontier with Libya.
The LNA declared that it had taken control of Derna in June from murderous Moslems and other opponents, though sporadic fighting has continued.
Egypt has close relations with the LNA, which is led by Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , and has in the past launched air strikes over Derna, saying it was targeting murderous Moslems linked to bully boy activity inside Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[NBCNEWYORK] Police and FBI agents searched a Hudson Valley home Wednesday after learning about a man who was allegedly building a bomb in order to blow himself up in Washington D.C., two law enforcement officials told News 4 New York.
Investigators said they were concerned the man, identified as Paul Rosenfeld, at the home on Slocum Avenue in Orangetown was in the process of acquiring bomb parts.
Officials tell News 4 Rosenfeld had no criminal history but had told a news hound in Pennsylvania he planned to blow himself up on the Washington Mall around Election Day because he was angry about the country's direction.
He had no plans to hurt anyone else, officials said. He is believed to be a lone actor not affiliated with any international terror group or ideology.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
He is believed to be a lone actor not affiliated with any international terror group or ideology.
#3
“draw attention to his political belief in ‘sortation.’” Sortation is an ancient Greek method of randomly selecting government officials.
Can't approve of his publicity methods, but could Sortation give us any worse than we have now? I've always thought that wanting an elected office was prima facie evidence that you were unfit for that office.
Posted by: Black Bart Lover of the Boskonians2478 ||
10/11/2018 4:00
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#5
I do appreciate the fact that he reached out to a journalist. No doubt thinking they were like minded and very supportive of the notion of blowing up something in Washington DC.
#7
"Sortition?" The guy might have a point about sortition (I didn't know about it before this or that there was a name for it). However, no need to get all blown-up about it. Just get a soapbox and try to sell your pet cause.
[NYPOST] A father in Michigan who found his 10-month-old daughter dead inside her crib coolly and callously told a police dispatcher 90 minutes after finding her that the girl was "dead as a doorknob," recordings show.
A prosecutor in Kent County played a recording of the call on Wednesday made by Seth Welch, 27, on Aug. 2 after finding his daughter, Mary, unresponsive inside their home in Solon Township, MLive.com reports.
"You know, just another day," Welch told a dispatcher when asked how he was doing after the girl’s death. "It is what it is."
Welch and his wife, Tatiana Fusari, were charged in August with felony murder and first-degree child abuse after an autopsy revealed the girl died from malnutrition and dehydration due to neglect by adult caregivers.
The girl weighed only 8 pounds when she was found. Police said in an affidavit that the couple admitted that their daughter had been underweight but appeared healthy. Welch and Fusari said they didn’t seek medical help because they didn’t trust doctors because they were previously reported to child welfare officials after they disagreed with a doctor’s recommendation for their 4-year-old daughter.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[An Nahar] The most notorious passport and currency forger in the Ein el-Hellhole Paleostinian refugee camp was tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! Wednesday in a special army operation.
"Following surveillance and follow-up, the Intelligence Directorate managed today to arrest Paleostinian runaway Hassan Nawfal, aka Hassan al-Hakim, and an accomplice," the army said in a statement.
It described the detainee as "one of the most notorious forgers of passports, identity cards and foreign and local currencies."
An investigation has since been launched under the supervision of the judiciary.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
I thought this was a Hogan's Heroes episode there for a second.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] I guess that the operation that shook Ahwaz, the capital of Khuzestan (Arabstan) Province in western Iran, targeting a military parade will be an important landmark in the already unhealthy relations between the Mullahs’ regime in Tehran and the Arab world.
To begin with, and from a humanitarian standpoint, I fully regret and condemn any loss of innocent lives, if there were civilian casualties. Some reports, in fact, have reported some civilian casualties among dozens of military dead and injured. My full sympathy goes to those innocent victims.
In the meantime, however, what the Iranian leadership has perpetrated and continue to perpetrate, both internally and in the neighboring countries; namely, Arab countries from the Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean and southward to the Strait of Bab El-Mandeb must not be overlooked.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Reports emerging from the northern Faryab province of Afghanistan suggest several honor killings have taken place in this province since the scandal videos of a local Mullah went viral on the internet recently.
The local officials in Faryab have said at least nine women have been killed the past three months amid concerns that the women who have appeared in the videos of Mullah Landay have either been killed or fearing their lives.
Sharifa Azimi, the provincial director of women’s affairs, has told The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... that nine women had been killed in the past three months as a result of gender-based violence, compared with four in the same period last year.
"We are concerned that honor killings will increase, that the women suspected of going to him will be killed," Ms. Azimi said.
Provincial governor Naqibullah Fayeq has also confirmed that several women have killed recently in what appears to be a sharp rise in honor killings.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... governor Fayeq has said he was not sure and wonders if the recent killings are related to the case of Mullah Landay.
This comes as several videos of Mullah Landay have been published and have gone viral on the internet, purportedly showing the Mullah exploiting the women and sexually abusing them.
In the meantime, efforts are underway for the arrest of Mullah Landay who is on the run and reports indicate that he has so far travelled to Mazar Sharif city, Kabul, and Nimroz provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under:
#1
An Afghan Bill Clinton
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/11/2018 19:47
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[BREITBART] CNN is being accused of racism after commentators Bakari Sellers and Tara Setmayer bashed rapper Kanye West over his support for Trump on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, going so far as to call him a "token negro."
"Kanye West is what happens when negroes don’t read," CNN commentator Bakari Sellers said, in reference to an old Chris Rock bit.
CNN’s Tara Setmayer went even further, calling Kanye West a "an attention whore like the president."
"He’s all of a sudden now the model spokesperson‐he’s the token Negro of the Trump Administration?" she also said.
Don Lemon laughed and giggled throughout the segment as the two commentators degraded Kanye West.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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Top|| File under:
#1
The local talk *Sports* radio show started riffing about how "Kanye West had gone down hill since..." in the middle of the sports talk show...no less. I changed stations.
#6
Their rules don't apply to themselves and they react with genuine confusion when you suggest that they do.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/11/2018 5:49
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#7
I keep telling ya'all, its Freudian Projection from the Left. Racism, sexism, et al are deep and rife in them. They think because it surrounds them, everyone else is just like them.
#11
They think because it surrounds them, everyone else is just like them.
Worse than that. Since they, the Left, are the Good Guys™ and the Right, "Nazis one and all" obviously, are the Bad Guys™ ... then whatever the Right must be infinitely worse than what they see in their own ranks.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... local commander who was in charge of a group of at least 50 turbans was killed in an Arclight airstrike in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the airstrike was carried out at around 12:20am on Wednesday.
The statement further added that the airstrike left at least seven turbans dead, including a Taliban Überstürmbannführer who was in charge of a group of at least 50 turbans.
According to 209th Shaheen Corps, the airstrike was carried out in the vicinity of Shakh area of Qaisar district.
The Taliban Überstürmbannführer killed in the airstrike has been identified as Mullah Daud Taimani, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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#1
Napalm would have gotten more.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/11/2018 8:50
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#2
It wasn't a schoolteacher leading a bunch of kiddies on a field trip?
#3
A Taliban demi-centurion
Once dallied who shoulda been hurryin':
Here, since his demise,
With his pupils he lies,
In the arms of a dead terpsichorean.
[South China Morning Post] US agents have arrested a top Beijing intelligence official for allegedly attempting to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation and other US aerospace companies after luring the suspect to Belgium in what the US Justice Department called “an unprecedented extradition”.
Xu Yanjun, who also uses the names Qu Hui and Zhang Hui, was extradited to the US on Tuesday with assistance from Belgian authorities for seeking “to steal trade secrets and other sensitive information from an American company that leads the way in aerospace”, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a Justice Department announcement on Wednesday.
Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), appeared in federal court in Cincinnati on Wednesday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. He could be given a prison sentence of up to 25 years in addition to fines if charged and convicted, the Justice Department said.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
10/11/2018
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#1
Why would the Chinese even need to? American companies hire 50,000 Chinese spies university graduates every year.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In the years following the 1979 revolution, there was a major shift in the economy, and Iran witnessed a gradual and extensive presence of the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC ) in this area.
This paramilitary institution began its economic foray after the end of the Iran-Iraq war and today it is responsible for a third of Iran’s GDP. Given the economic crisis that has occurred in recent months in Iran, the role of this institution in triggering mass protests against IRGC policies both domestically and abroad is undeniable.
Economic monopoly to the extent that no other private entity can compete, the massive $50 million embezzlement in the "Sepanir company", affiliated with IRGC, and the involvement of "The Mostazafan Foundation of Islamic Revolution", the financial sponsor of IRGC, in the embezzlement of 123 billion Tomans in the 1990’s is among the major financial crimes of this institution.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/11/2018
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[PJ] The guy who gave Donald Trump his own town hall forum in early 2016 has had the worst, and most fun to watch from a schadenfreude perspective, case of buyer's remorse since late 2016.
[Daily Caller] The retired British spy who authored a salacious dossier accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia is taking a veiled shot at the president following 18 months of silence.
[Breitbart] WASHINGTON, DC ‐ The United States is facing an "escalating" threat from the use of civilian drones as weapons by the likes of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and MS-13, the FBI director cautioned on Wednesday.
[CBSLasAngeles]The typhus outbreak in Southern California has spread to a third city, and pet owners there have been surprised to hear of the uptick in the flea-borne disease.
[An Nahar] A Bangladesh court Wednesday sentenced a top opposition leader to life in prison and sentenced 19 more people to death over a 2004 grenade attack on the current prime minister.
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
[FOX8] Frontier Airlines said a woman had to be escorted off a flight bound for 
[Al Ahram] The woman who led the global campaign to free Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by 
A former World Bank vice president, Ezekwesili also co-founded Transparency International, one of the world’s leading organizations against corruption ‐ a widespread problem in oil-rich Nigeria.
the personification of Somali state failure...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
... 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...
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016....
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
[NYPOST] A father in Michigan who found his 10-month-old daughter dead inside her crib coolly and callously told a police dispatcher 90 minutes after finding her that the girl was "dead as a doorknob," recordings show.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Reports emerging from the northern Faryab province of Afghanistan suggest several honor killings have taken place in this province since the scandal videos of a local Mullah went viral on the internet recently.
[BREITBART] CNN is being accused of racism after commentators Bakari Sellers and Tara Setmayer bashed rapper Kanye West over his support for Trump on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, going so far as to call him a "token negro."
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A 
