[American Thinker] It had to happen. As we suspected would happen.
The caravan migrants, still cooling their heels out of sight of tourists in an isolated redoubt of Tijuana, in line awaiting for their U.S. asylum claims to be adjudicated, have finally turned on their rabidly left-wing organizers, namely, Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
The Associated Press has a pretty good report about the scope of the migrant disgust:
Thousands are now in Tijuana on the U.S. border, where they are likely to be camped for months or longer with no easy way to get into the United States, creating what is fast becoming a humanitarian crisis in this overwhelmed city.
Many blame Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, made up of about 40 U.S. and Mexican activists.
Critics, including former allies and some of the migrants themselves, say Pueblo Sin Fronteras downplayed the dangers of such treks, especially for families and small children, and misled the participants about how long they would have to wait on the Mexican side to apply for asylum.
They were Chavistas, and as Chavistas, they were offering up the big goody-style free-stuff packages, except that they wanted Uncle Sam, not Hugo's oil money, to pay for them. When that fell through and the migrants ran into a U.S. president with a serious interest in border laws meaning what they said they mean, they got left high and dry, as stiffed on the promises as Venezuela's fleeing refugees are. The goody pot never materialized, though it might for some of them as they wait their turns in line. With 90% of the migrant caravan composed of military- and gang-aged young men, don't hold your breath.
What's more, the migrants are not only angry at the Pueblo Sin Fronteras for its false promises of easy entry at the U.S. border, encouraging that (and AP does not let them off the hook, either it clearly pins the sponsorship role this group played, naming thing after thing that they did to prove it) they are also angry that the mysteriously funded NGO apparently discouraged them from taking Mexico up on its generous offer of school, jobs and legal status in Mexico's near-to-home southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, where labor shortages abound and jobs are there to be filled, all in a similar culture to Central America's nations. Migrants could get a leg up pretty quickly with neither enhanced education nor a language change necessary in those places and crime is not bad there, either, either by Mexican state comparisons, or especially, as compared to Central America. The Mexican offer really was generous and according to AP, they seem to have run up against an expiration date, courtesy of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, whose project, of course, really has been political.
We know the migrants have turned on the organizers because suddenly, they are nowhere to be found in Tijuana. Some are still talking for the cameras, but the Tijuana mayor says he wants them behind bars for their crummy little stunt (which has cost Tijuana a lot of money) and Pueblo Sin Fronteras itself says it no longer wants to sponsor any more caravans. Good riddance. But, not to celebrate or anything, they say they will pursue their open-borders agenda by other means, which will probably be left-wing lawyers in the states.
The fact remains, though, that their name stinks among the migrant community, and word among that group has a way of getting around. The reverberations should be strong for that, while questions are more than necessary here about who funds them - that's a question that shouldn't go away. But for now, nice to see at least some of their caravan pawns and camera-fodder moms-and-kids getting angry. Frankly, after that particular stunt, they have a right to be.
[The Hill] President Trump said Monday that Saudi Arabia, rather than the U.S., will "spend the necessary money" to help rebuild Syria.
Trump, who made the comment in a tweet, added that it's "nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors" instead of the U.S.
"Saudi Arabia has now agreed to spend the necessary money needed to help rebuild Syria, instead of the United States. See? Isn’t it nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors rather than a Great Country, the U.S., that is 5000 miles away," he tweeted. "Thanks to Saudi A!"
#2
I think a "gentleman's" agreement has been reached. SA will take care of the Islamic ME, but if Iran so much as seriously threaten you, its dust. I think its one both parties can work with.
#4
I think SA realizes that if it wasn't for Trump right now, they'd be twisting in the wind over the Kashogghi thing, and they need to be directly in control of their own local arrangements going forward, as there will eventually be an SJW president who will betray them in a heartbeat.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 14:11
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#5
Well it's about fucking time.
I swear, the best thing Trump has done is to prove that these things are possible, and were possible all along.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/24/2018 15:15
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#6
Saudi boys doing the dying while fighting with newly bought American hardware.
[Breitbart] Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice published an op-ed Sunday in the New York Times in which she declares that President Donald Trump "does more to undermine American national security than any foreign adversary."
More dangerous than the Islamic terrorists who carried out the Benghazi attack, about which she lied to the world, blaming a YouTube video; more dangerous than the so-called "Islamic state," which she let take root after her boss, President Barack Obama, called them the "J.V. team"; more dangerous than Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which took over Crimea on her watch; more dangerous than Iran, with which she and her boss concluded a failed nuclear deal.
Rice wrote that Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria ‐ a conflict that the Obama administration allowed to drag on even after dictator Bashar al-Assad crossed Obama’s "red line" and gassed his own people ‐ represented "[c]utting and running," and she said that the departure of Secretary of Defense left the administration unstable (emphasis added):
#4
BTW Susan when did you and Obama get Constitutional authority for your foreign adventure in Syria. Yeah, right, who needs no stink'n Constitution. So, who's the greater threat to 'America'? /rhet question
Always with the Freudian Projection.
#6
Why is she not saying this dribble from prison?
It would be fun to see her in an orange jumpsuit on 60 Minutes saying "The b*tch (Swillary) set me up..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 16:25
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#7
Rice was there at every step of the way. She'd be SecState right now if Hildebeast was POTUS.
A colleague of mine sums it well;
I believe it is very important to give credit where credit is due.
-President Barack Obama created the conditions for ISIS to flourish in 2010 and 2011, when he essentially stopped talking to Maliki, and then ordered the sudden drawdown in IZ (which caught DoD completely by surprise).
-President Barack Obama armed ISIS when his administration flooded Syria with hundreds of tons of light, medium, and heavy weapons (with John Brennan taking a major role in shifting those weapons from Libya to Syria).
-President Barack Obama then avoided targeting ISIS because of his fantasy unicorn force of amazingly moderate freedom fighters that was supposedly prevalent and mixed in among ISIS. Obama repeatedly denied ISIS was a problem, even as ISIS took over a vast swath of territory.
I am not a big fan of President Trump. That said, President Trump cleaned up the mess he inherited from Barack Obama. DJT did so without constantly blaming BHO for creating the mess (BHO blamed GWB for everything bad that happened from 2009-2017).
DJT has demonstrated a willingness to develop situations, as opposed to allowing situations to develop. That shows leadership and willingness to take decisive action. That is a marked departure from the Obama Admin's "Leading From Behind" policies. That makes some folks uncomfortable, because some folks don't understand that failure to make a decision is still making a decision, albeit a bad one.
Barack Obama's foreign policy will continue to fester and cause issues that DJT will have to clean up. BHO's ill-advised actions created problems with no good solution, but DJT is playing the hand he was dealt.
So...in all seriousness, if you have an issue with how President Trump acts, and you didn't have an issue with how President Obama acted, you have an infantile view of foreign policy. Stick to Instagram pictures of cupcakes and Facebook updates from Justin Bieber.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/24/2018 18:21
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BEIRUT (AP) ‐ Turkish-backed Syrian fighters are preparing to deploy in eastern Syria alongside Turkish troops once American forces withdraw, a spokesman said Monday, adding that his forces have begun massing on the front line of a town held by Kurdish-led forces.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the withdrawal from Syria will be slow and coordinated with Turkey, without providing a timetable. Turkey said the two countries are coordinating to ensure there is no "authority vacuum" once the U.S. troops leave.
A Kurdish-led force captured much of northern and eastern Syria from the Islamic State group with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. Turkey views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists because of their links to a Kurdish insurgent group inside Turkey.
Youssef Hammoud, of the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, said their fighters and weapons have been deploying on the front line with Manbij, a Kurdish-administered town in northern Syria where U.S. troops are based.
On Monday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Turkey-backed Syrian forces had moved closer to Manbij, equipped with heavy weapons and armored vehicles.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/24/2018
08:13 ||
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#1
Manbij is about 20miles WEST of the Euphrates.
Informally, the US, about a year ago, told all parties that it would not support Kurdish troops west of the Euphrates
of course the Kurds probably don't need US or anyone else's support to deal with the "Turkish backed Syrian fighters'; dealing with the Turkish army proper would, as several commenters have noted, would be a mess for both the Kurds and the Turks
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/24/2018 12:13
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#2
The Deep State is under attack. Anything Trump does will be met with condemnation.
[WFB] 112-year-old Richard Overton persevered for another year after falling victim to the worst humanity has to offer and, in turn, being sustained by the best it can muster.
Overton is now a two-time Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year honoree. He was first awarded the title back in 2014 at the tender age of 108 for his embodiment of everything great about America. The cigar-smoking whiskey-drinking gun-wielding World War II veteran has spent his golden years taking shots with governors and being recognized by presidents.
He's been generous with life advice over the years.
"Whiskey's a good medicine," he told Fox News in 2014. "It keeps your muscles tender."
He likes tommy guns, his M1 Garand, and army-issue shotguns but he says he has a special fondness for his revolver.
"I lay one of those things right there by my bed when I go to sleep," Overton said while showing off his gun collection to a film crew in 2015. "That's my friend."
In 2016, he told filmmakers about how whiskey, cigars, Ford trucks, cats, church, family, and friends make him happy and keep him going. That film was featured in a short film festival hosted by National Geographic.
[Herald] The Star Trek actor, 87, suggested a portion of the complaints made against men were driven by women bearing a grudge.
The #MeToo movement has its origins in 2006 when activist Tarana Burke first coined the phrase. It went viral in 2017 following a tweet by the actress Alyssa Milano in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
It has since become an all-encompassing name for the movement against sexual harassment and discrimination.
However Shatner, immortalised for his portrayal of Captain James T Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, believes it is being exploited by women with scores to settle.
Replying to a fan on Twitter, Shatner said: "My issue is that women use me too as a weapon when they don’t get an autograph, when they don’t get their way, etc & the circus that ensues is comical and sad. aka hysterical."
1610s, "characteristic of hysteria," the nervous disease originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus; literally "of the womb," from Latin hystericus "of the womb," from Greek hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb," from PIE *udtero-, variant of *udero- "abdomen, womb, stomach" (see uterus).
#3
There is some hysteria, but some grifters have weaponized the #MeToo movement as the latest Kavanaugh hearings show. All that happens with most movements, that doesn't mean the core of the movement is false.
#4
doesn't mean the core of the movement is false
True in a limited way. Now & then I meet a sincere person, but I meet far more hypocrites and circus performers. "Everybody lies" - Dr. House
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
12/24/2018 14:46
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#8
James Kirk, paraphrased: "But the instinct can be fought. We're men beings with a million savage years of being blamed for the behavior of the worst among us, but we can stop it. We can admit that we're horndogs, but we're not going to grope women today. That's all it takes. Knowing that we won't grope today."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 17:55
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#9
Well said, M. Murcek.
a fair number of "hysterical outbursts" from female patients have been among the most sincere things I have ever heard.
Sincere is not the same as true or correct, Anguper Hupomosing9418. Like that witness against Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, whose little adventure turned out to have happened with another boy, and anyway she started it.
[Townhall] One of the most disgusting things to come out of the Obama administration was "Operation Fast and Furious," where members of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed illegal gun sales to go through ‐ commonly referred to as "gun walking" ‐ in order to track buyers and sellers they believed were connected to the Mexican drug cartels. Nearly 2,000 firearms were sold and were eventually found throughout the United States and Mexico. Two of them were used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
According to the New York Daily News, Brooklyn prosecutors are doing everything in their power to keep any questions relating to "Fast and Furious" from being mentioned during witness testimony. In fact, they're asking a federal judge to block defense attorneys from asking questions relating to the highly-publicized botched campaign.
"The defense strategy is transparent. Given the substantial number of articles that have been written about the Operation, many of which criticize the government’s handling of the movement of weapons from the United States into Mexico, the defense is attempting to use the well-known operation to place the government on trial," United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a letter to the court. "While the government will seek to introduce at trial seized weapons that had been identified by ATF agents within the scope of the Operation, any details about the Operation itself are completely irrelevant to the issues at trial under Rule 401 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and should be excluded on those grounds alone."
Judge Brian Cogan has yet to rule on the request.
According to witness testimony from former trafficker Tirso Martinez Sanchez, he ran El Chapo's train operation from 2000 to 2003 and made roughly $20 million. During that time, trains would pull into special warehouses in Mexico. Workers would fill hidden compartments with kilos of cocaine and then add oil to the train to throw off bomb-sniffing dogs at the border. This technique also discouraged border patrol agents from conducting physical searches.
Sanchez estimated that between 30 and 50 tons of cocaine, with a value of upwards of $800 million, was smuggled into the United States. Between seven to eight shipments a day made their way on the train lines to New York City.
The trains would drop off the smuggled drugs at a warehouse in New Jersey. Trucks would then come to transport the drugs to various distribution locations between Queens and Brooklyn.
#1
Yeah, it's be a shame if Holder was called to testify and wound up in contempt of US District Court as opposed to contempt of Congress (hehe)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 10:21
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#2
No sense tipping over El Chapo - Klingon working arrangement rocks. If El Chapo doesn't say anything, the foreign accounts will not be disturbed. He'd want it that way.
Nothing shall tarnish the image of the first entitlement president.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is up and working as she recuperates from cancer surgery.
A spokeswoman for the court, Kathy Arberg, also says that Ginsburg remained in New York at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Sunday. No information has been released on when Ginsburg might return home.
Ginsburg underwent surgery Friday to remove two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors say there is no evidence of any remaining disease.
Now 85, the justice has been treated for cancer two other times. Last month she cracked three ribs in a fall at the court.
The court next meets on Jan. 7. Despite her health problems, Ginsburg has never missed arguments.
[JP] recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found a significant jump in Hamas’ popularity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Most strikingly, the survey found that if presidential elections were held today, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas were to square off, the former would win with 49 percent of the vote (up from 45% three month ago) compared to the latter’s 42% (down from 47% three months ago).
With respect to parliamentary elections, the poll, which surveyed 1,270 Palestinians across both territories, revealed that Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah faction are nearly deadlocked with the former projected to receive 35% of the vote (down from 36% three months ago) compared to the latter’s 34% (up from 27% three months ago).
"It’s been a long-known fact that Hamas is incredibly popular in the West Bank," former Israeli parliamentarian Dr. Einat Wilf, conveyed to The Media Line. "No elections are being held for a reason: The outcome is certain. It’s been a reigning assumption since my time in the Knesset [Israeli parliament] that Hamas will win an election, if one were to take place.
"The only thing keeping Hamas from taking over the West Bank, whether by elections or by force, is Israel," she stressed.
Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom, a Senior Fellow at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, contended to The Media Line that the rise in Hamas’ popularity is "mostly because of the failure of the government in Ramallah and a [resulting] drop in Palestinian support for Abbas, and not because of anything Hamas has done."
This mirrors the poll’s findings, with a majority of Palestinians (53%) holding negative views of the PA. When asked to identify the party responsible for the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, respondents placed the brunt of the blame (43%) on the PA and Abbas, with whom 65% of Palestinians are dissatisfied.
"There is a myriad of reasons for this," Brom explained, "some due to his style of leadership and quasi-authoritarian regime in the West Bank, in addition to his treatment of Gaza as PA-imposed sanctions have greatly worsened the enclave’s socio-economic situation.
[SA Today] A rescue team had to suspend its descent to recover workers who remain blocked in a mine in the Russian city of Solikamsk, the Perm Territory, while being just 10 meters (33 feet) away from their probable location due to high temperature and smoke, the commander of a paramilitary rescue squad said Saturday.
"During the fifth descent, mine rescuers ‐ due to temperature and gas conditions ‐ could not move to the canopy, where people are presumably located, being just 10 meters away," Alexey Pestov said.
Later, the rescues began the sixth attempt to recover the miners, spokeswoman for the Perm Territory’s government Daria Levchenko told Sputnik.
According to Levchenko, little hope has been left of the possibility that the miners would be found alive.
[National Review] My weekend column was about Syria, a topic that is raging because President Trump is pulling out, and because this seems to have been the last straw for General Jim Mattis, who resigned as secretary of defense.
I’ve been discussing this on Twitter and find myself on the other side of people with whom I normally agree ‐ no surprise since, in my column, I am in disagreement with David French, with whom I am normally in lockstep on these kinds of issues.
And no surprise, then, that I am very sympathetic to the denunciations of President Trump for the impulsiveness of the pull-out. There is a lot to be said for this. As I observed in the column, it is especially shameful if the president decided to pull out in response to a threat from Turkey’s Islamist despot, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Even though I was against intervention in Syria, and even though I think it was playing with fire to ally with the Kurds under the circumstances (more on that in a moment), I would rather the president seek an authorization for use of military force (AUMF) to protect the Kurds than leave them to Erdogan’s tender mercies. I don’t think we should be in Syria, but I’d support it in order to show the world that we don’t let those who bleed with us get pushed around, much less annihilated.
On that subject, I’d note that the president is not the only one in this system who may seek an AUMF or a declaration of war. This is a power the Constitution vests in Congress.
While I have my differences from time to time, I like Senators Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Tom Cotton, as well as some others who are complaining about the president’s rashness. But I object to the cynical game they are playing. They well know that their diva routine for the media is not the option the Constitution gives them. They could, at any time, have proposed an AUMF that would legitimize combat operations against whoever they believe are our enemies in Syria ‐ not just those who would ravage the Kurds, but those they keep saying (with great persuasive force, by the way) are our geopolitical enemies: Assad’s regime, Iran, and Russia. They still could. If they were right, it would be a great way to show how wrong Trump is.
But, of course, they won’t do that. They haven’t done it up to this point because they know Americans are broadly opposed to war against these enemies in Syria at this time. If they had been able to get the equivalent of a declaration of war from the people’s representatives, that would have meant the Syrian expedition had the backing of the public. You need that in a democratic republic to fight wars effectively. Having skipped this essential step, they naturally find it easier to complain about how Trump is mucking things up than to concede that the public did not want troops in Syria in the first place.
This, I must say, is what riles me. I understand the anger my friends are feeling now, but I don’t understand why they don’t get the anger I felt, and feel, over the fact that this intervention commenced without congressional authorization. A number of us argued that the intervention was not only lawless but reckless: We were going into a powder keg in which it was very likely we would end up in combat not just with ISIS (which may barely be covered by the rickety 17-year-old AUMF that covers al-Qaeda) but with Russia, Iran, and Syria ‐ as, in fact, has happened, albeit on a (so far) minimal scale.
#1
The whole thing is pure globalism. We have no interests in Syria. Why did we ever get involved? We allied with al Nusra for fucks sake.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/24/2018 5:40
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#2
Well, there was Bath House Barry's risible "red line." There was McSsssschtain, who never missed an opportunity to bomb if he could help it. And plenty of others, all comfortably in the rear-view mirror now...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 7:58
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[Townhall] Ever since conservatives rallied around a GoFundMe campaign to fund the border wall, Democrats have tried to figure out stop it in its tracks. Currently, the campaign has raised more than $16 million of its 1 billion goal.
Now, Democrats are attempting to pass legislation that would block the federal government from accepting the citizen-raised funds.
Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Wednesday introduced House Resolution 7332, which would "prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, and for other purposes."
Currently, there are four co-sponsors: Reps. Karen Bass (D-CA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX).
The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee.
#3
Seems the only way "citizen-raised funds" not collected through the tax system can be equated with "taxpayer funds" is if any money you personally possess is defined as "taxpayer funds" because you also payed taxes.
I can see Justice Roberts grinning vacantly and nodding affirmative...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 8:44
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#4
An empty gesture. It will be DOA in the Senate and White House.
#5
There ought to be plenty of money for a wall. Find the $6bin Hillary (ahem) lost at State, the money missing from the Haiti earthquake relief fund, the tax money that should have come from running a for-profit CF, $14 billion seized from El Chapo's drug dealing (as recommended by Cruz.) There are most likely plenty of other such bake sales that would build a secure wall and border. What was saved from the new USMC agreement? How about the money saved by asking NATO to cough up? How about the money that would come from maintaining troops and weapons in Syria and Afghanistan? The closed down grab-a$$ congressional fund--another $15mil.
Congress is just diddling around to try to make us think they do something useful.
#6
There is a real logistical and legal issue with citizen crowdsource funding for this. Any donations, contributions, etc. to the government has to be made to the department of the treasury. Any funds done so go into the "General Usage" pool and the money can be spent on anything.
There would have to be a separate law and system set up for the government to use those funds directly for a wall.
#7
Won’t bringing home our troops from Syria free up some funds? Not to mention other areas where the president has quietly reduced spending — a million here, a million there...
#8
Trump should just create a 1933 mile by 1000 ft US military base on the southern border. All funds needed for appropriate base protection would them come out of the DoD budget.
[American Thinker] Defense secretaries come and go. President Obama had four of them in eight years, who had some unkind things to say about his leadership or lack of it. There was no talk of chaos or of the only adult in the room leaving.
Suddenly, the media are in a meltdown after "Mad Dog" Mattis announced his departure from the Cabinet after President Trump announced our departure from Syria:
Foreign Policy Pentagon reporter Lara Seligman wrote the press corp [sic] is contemplating suicide over Mattis' resignation, "I think I speak for all national security reporters tonight when I say I'm about ready to jump off a cliff. But at least I already wrote the "who will replace Mattis" story two months (only two months?????) ago[."]
Democrats who won't defend our southern border and who slept as Obama drew red lines with vanishing ink worry about an ISIS Obama created by a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq regaining strength and reforming in Syria and Iraq. The general Obama fired is suddenly a man of principle whose leadership was indispensable:
#1
...Keep this in mind too - 151 Democrats in the House voted against the waiver required to make Mattis SECDEF. And now they're hollering about how the military can't run without him...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/24/2018 4:16
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#2
Did the Media Care When Obama Fired General Mattis?
In a word "No" except for now. They so dislike Trump (except for when he was a Dem) and so unhinged about HRC losing that anything he does becomes a target.
[Wash Examiner] You want to know what’s going on in British politics at the moment? Frankly, cousins, it’s a bloody shambles.
I would use stronger words, but American newspapers are more fastidious than their British counterparts when it comes to profanities.
Overseas commentators look wonderingly at the chaos. What has happened, they ask, often with a hint of schadenfreude if they’re from Europe, to a nation that used to be famously level-headed? Have British politicians lost their minds? Are Brits experiencing some sort of collective nervous collapse?
Mental health metaphors are rarely helpful in politics. We are not witnessing a moment of communal psychosis. What we’re seeing has an altogether simpler and more prosaic explanation, and it’s this: When members of Parliament decided to allow a referendum on European Union membership, it never occurred to them that people might disregard their advice and vote to leave.
When the result came in, the establishment felt the rejection keenly. They refused to interpret it as a vote for more democracy or for a more global trade policy. Rather, they saw it as a rejection of everything that they ‐ that is, the elites ‐ had built up over decades. In company boardrooms and university common rooms and parliamentary committee rooms and civil service briefing rooms, there was a sense of injured disbelief.
Rather than accept the verdict, a number of politicians, officials, and cartel business leaders immediately set to work to overturn it. Part of their strategy was to delegitimize the result ("Leavers lied! Leavers cheated! Leavers took Russian cash!"), but the bigger part was to ensure that no equitable exit deal could be struck. And, in that aim, they have succeeded.
[PJ] Now that Donald Trump has signaled the departure of U.S. troops from Syria--to the consternation of many who were urging him to do it in the first place, no surprise--it's a perfect moment to ease some worries and do something overdue literally for decades: officially recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Given the behavior of Syria's horrendous dictator Bashar Assad--gassing women and children while destroying nearly his entire nation to "save" it and creating a refugee crisis that is turning Europe into the ghost of itself, not to mention allying with the homicidal terrorist maniacs in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah and, of course, Russia--the Israelis would have to be completely insane to give up the Golan.
Not even a nuclear bomb on Tel Aviv would get them to leave so Syria can once again rain artillery over northern Israel as they did for decades. Everybody knows that, but few in this country or Europe want to say it out loud. Some claim that would endanger the so-called peace process that hasn't moved in those same decades. Of course, the opposite is true. Only by an accurate and honest assessment of the situation could there ever be a peace process.
Meanwhile, the only people being decent to the Syrians are, ironically, the Israelis. For years now during their endless civil war IDF soldiers have been sneaking across the border to bring thousands of wounded Syrians to Israeli hospitals for treatment, then quietly returning them to their home country. Can you imagine the reverse? I can't. (By the way, this is not a new story. The Israelis have been rescuing Arab citizens from the violence in their countries since, at least, the seventies.
[Townhall] Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has passed the ethics test, according to the Department of Justice. Following an investigation, Whitaker has the green light to oversee the Robert Mueller Russia investigation.
Democrats won't be happy. They still have several issues with Trump's temporary appointment of Whitaker, including his apparent inexperience. They've also accused Trump of circumventing Congress with the appointment, demanding that Whitaker sit before a Senate committee before taking on the responsibility of acting AG. Critics also note how he often Whitaker has publicly criticized the probe he's now overseeing. Yet, following an ethics probe there's no need for him to recuse himself, the DOJ announced Thursday.
Now that Whitaker has been cleared, he'll begin receiving regular briefs on the investigation.
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was criticized and insulted by President Trump after he recused himself from the Russia probe because some members of Congress were concerned by statements he made in his confirmation hearing and the fact that he was a surrogate for Trump's presidential campaign.
N’DJAMENA (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he deeply regretted U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
In an abrupt policy shift, Trump announced on Wednesday that Washington would withdraw the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, upending a pillar of American policy in the Middle East and alarming U.S. allies.
"I very deeply regret the decision made on Syria," Macron said during a news conference in Chad.
"To be allies is to fight shoulder to shoulder. It’s the most important thing for a head of state and head of the military," he said. "An ally should be dependable."
Macron stressed the importance of the work of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which has captured large parts of northern and eastern Syria from Islamic State.
"I call on everyone ... not to forget what we owe them," he said.
U.S. officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been defeated.
#6
I am with Herb McCoy; Why is the deep state interested in Syria? Posted by Vortigern Elmusotle
Northrup Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, the Klingons, Foggy Bottom, shi* disturbing, global conflict and chaos are their product lines.
Be a hero to your kids, grandkids, and all sorts of significant others: click on the Santa tracker to watch as Santa Claus delivers presents all over the world
#2
And to you, Angusoger Black3374, and to all Rantburgers both visible and lurking. If Santa consults me, your name will be on the Nice list in big letters.
[DAWN] In some of Quetta's suburbs, 40 to 65 per cent of children aged between six months and five years are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. This was revealed by a nutrition officer from Unicef, Dr Faisal, while talking to DawnNewsTV on Sunday.
"The worst areas are Quetta's Panjpai tehsil and Kahan in terms of undernourishment," he said.
Unicef and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... government's health department conducted a joint screening in Quetta, Pishin and Killa Abdullah districts of the province. Over 2,500 teams were formed to screen children from December 5 to 8, according to Dr Sher Ahmed Satakzai, the provincial coordinator for Balochistan's lady health workers programme.
World Health Organisation principles dictate that an emergency be declared when the number of malnourished children reaches 15pc, Dr Faisal said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
So in "the land of the pure (BS)" hungry chilluns is Allan's will...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/24/2018 17:40
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[PRESSTV] US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has reignited his feud with Senator "Little" Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), saying he "badmouths me for wanting to bring our young people safely back home."
Trump claimed on Sunday that Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is retiring because his poll numbers "tanked" because he failed to obtain his endorsement.
"Senator Bob Corker just stated that, 'I’m so priveledged [sic] to serve in the Senate for twelve years, and that’s what I told the people of our state that’s what I’d do, serve for two terms,' " Trump tweeted. "But that is Not True - wanted to run but poll numbers TANKED when I wouldn’t endorse him."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
"But that is Not True - wanted to run but poll numbers TANKED when I wouldn’t endorse him."
That's our Donny Boy - performing political surgery with a switchblade.
#7
Bob was two classes ahead of me in high school. I actually had a couple of nice dates with his younger sister. Even then, he was political: football team captain, (I know, a midget!) student council president, etc. He was an okay Mayor in Chattanooga TN. But when he went to DC, he went native very quickly. People in TN suspect he has the steel plate installed in his head.
#8
Steel plate in his head? SO thats where it is, certainly there no steel in his spine.
I am SO glad Corker is out of the Senate in 10 days, along with Flake and McCain. And his replacement is a lot more conservative than he is. Of course, that is not a very high bar.
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12/24/2018 14:12
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Senator Marsha Blackburn will be a good replacement for Corker.
[RADIOSHABELLE] The African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Peace and Security Council have now approved a new plan of operations in Somalia that will enable peacekeepers to start liberating regions that are still held by Al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia... Known as the Concept of Operations (ConOps), the blueprint will enable the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) to start with Middle Jubba region to flush out al-Shabaab remnants at the beginning of 2019.
The operations will be carried out jointly with the Jubbaland State Forces and the Somali National Army. The ConOps was approved by the Council on November 30 and will guide Amisom operations until 2021.
Middle Jubba, which borders Gedo, Bay, Lower Shabelle and the Indian Ocean ‐ is the only region entirely controlled by Al-Shabaab, which has been driven out of most parts of the country.
According to Amisom spokesperson Col Richard Omwega, ConOps is part of the implementation of the Somalia Transition Plan, which involves reconfiguring the forces into new sectors in preparation for a conditional handover of security responsibility to Somalia security forces.
"Opening and securing of main supply routes in the country in a priority. It also addresses the capacity building of Somali citizens and stabilization programmes to enhance and sustain peace and security as the country readies for a general election in 2020," said Col Omwega.
The document will have to be approved by the AU and senior defense officials of troop-contributing countries ‐ Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Æthiopia, and Djibouti ‐ before it is operationalized.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... an ’anti-Semitic dictator’ in Tel Aviv on Sunday, as the two leaders’ verbal spat continued.
"I was just exposed to the daily trolling of the anti-Semitic dictator [Ottoman Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan. He has an obsession with Israel. He knows what a moral army is and he knows what true democracy is, as opposed to an army that slaughters women and kiddies in Kurdish villages," the Israeli leader said.
Netanyahu went on to say that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... is turning into a dictatorship "from day to day," and quipped "but there is also improvement ‐ Erdogan used to attack me every two hours and now it’s every six hours."
The heated exchanges reportedly started on Saturday, when Erdogan levelled attacks at Israel while speaking at a youth conference in Ankara, saying Jews not only kicked men but also women and kiddies.
Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Erdogan’s spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin had also backed the Ottoman Turkish leaders’ statements in tweets posted early Saturday, which prompted Netanyahu to respond.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Does Erdogan really think being called an anti-Semite is an insult?
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is planning to block The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... ’s attempt to expand deep into the Euphrates River Valley, a military source told al-Masdar News this afternoon.
According to the source in Damascus, the Syrian government is currently negotiating with the Syrian Democratic Council in order to potentially install military checkpoints inside their areas in northern and eastern Syria.
The source said that should the Syrian Democratic Council refuse and the Ottoman Turkish military pushes to the Deir Ezzor provincial border, they will make every attempt to block their path to this Syrian governorate near the Iraqi border.
Turkey has already made it clear that they are going to target all the areas controlled by the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria, despite the Syrian government’s disapproval.
With the U.S. planning to leave Syria in the next three months, Turkey is planning to rid the Syrian border of all groups allied with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The Ottoman Turkish military also has a similar operation planned in northern Iraq; however, this offensive has not been approved by the Iraqi government.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Chief of Staff for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Gadi Eizenkot, said on Sunday that Israel would continue their operations against Hezbollah and Iran inside Syria, I24News reported.
Referring to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, Eizenkot said that this will not have much of an affect on their operations, adding that this has been blown out of proportionate.
Eizenkot said that much of the Israeli campaign against Iran and Hezbollah has been quietly carried out by their forces.
"The [Israeli] campaign against Iran and Hezbollah is largely hidden from the public eye," he said.
"Israel is operating and will continue to operate against Iranian entrenchment in Syria," the outgoing Israeli army head said. "Iran’s efforts to establish a military infrastructure in Syria have been the IDF’s top concern for the past four years."
"Iran’s vision was to build a force of about 100,000 fighters with integrated land, sea, and intelligence capabilities and to build a line of outposts in the Golan Heights," Eizenkot said. Israel "has worked continuously and has thwarted Iran’s efforts, in an entirely independent Israeli operation against a whole gamut of actors."
Posted by: Fred ||
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And it was only Friday that President Sultan Erdogan I “the much beloved” said he would hold off invading Syrian Kurdish territory as payoff for American troops being summarily pulled out. How sad that this quick little bit of hudna-ending puts Turkish commandos face to unexpected face with Saudi heavy weaponry. But really, this is exactly the kind of wrong-footing to be expected when one has purged one’s ranks of one’s best military minds at all levels. They must be howling with laughter in the prison cells.
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... is sending reinforcements to its border with Syria, Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported on Sunday, adding that some 100 vehicles including mounted pickup trucks and weaponry had made their way to the area.
The heightened military activity comes days after President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would postpone a planned military operation on Kurdish YPG militia east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria following the United States’ decision to withdraw from Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the reinforcements were sent to the front line with Manbij, where US troops have been based. The Ottoman Turkish IHA news agency reports that a convoy of Ottoman Turkish troops was sent into Syria overnight.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Libya and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... agreed on Saturday to open an urgent joint investigation into a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey and was seized at a port near 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... this week, the UN-backed Libyan government said.
The government released the statement following talks in Tripoli between Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The statement quoted Cavusoglu as saying Ankara rejected such actions "which do not represent the policy or approach of the Ottoman Turkish state".
The weapons were seized by customs on Tuesday in Khoms port, just over 100 km (62 miles) east of Tripoli.
The consignment sent from Turkey contained 3,000 Ottoman Turkish-made pistols, as well as some other pistols, hunting rifles and ammunition, Benghazi’s Benina airport customs services said on their official Facebook account.
A day earlier a cargo of 2.5 million Ottoman Turkish-made bullets was seized at the same port, the same source said.
The UN mission in Libya has condemned the shipment of arms to Libya as "extremely disconcerting."
The UN last June extended an arms embargo on Libya for another year.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Diyala (IraqiNews.com) – Three Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike by the Iraqi Air Force in northeastern Diyala, a well-placed provincial official said on Sunday.
Sadeq al-Husseini, the head of the Security Committee in Diyala Provincial Council, told Arabic-language Baghdad Today news website that Iraqi warplanes launched on Saturday night a specific operation in the depth of Kelal valley, 90km northeast of Baqubah, killing three Islamic State militants.
The airstrike, according to al-Husseini, “also destroyed three tunnels, where the Islamic State militants were hiding.”
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[PRESSTV] A bigwig of the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, says Paleostinians will continue the Great March of Return rallies until the end of the Israeli siege on the Gazoo Strip.
Mahmoud al-Zahar "'Ol Warty Nose"
a co-founder of Hamas and a member of its leadership in the Gazoo Strip, made the remarks in a Sunday interview with Iran’s al-Alam News Network in Tehran.
He said the anti-occupation rallies, known as the "Great March of Return," have produced important results, and will not be stopped before the Israeli regime’s siege on the enclave is lifted.
Tensions have been running high near the fence separating Gazoo from the occupied territories since March 30, which marked the start of the protests.
Paleostinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.
The festivities in Gazoo reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington's relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
More than 220 Paleostinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others maimed in the renewed Gazoofestivities, according to the latest figures released by the Gazoo Health Ministry.
Gazoo has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.
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Samarra (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi paramilitary forces killed on Sunday two Islamic State militants and wounded three others during a security operation in northern Samarra.
“A security force from the 313th brigade of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) targeted terrorist hotbeds of Islamic State group at the village of Khorasan in Mutaibija, north of Samarra, today, killing two terrorists and wounding three others,” Almaalomah news website quoted the media office of al-Hashd al-Shaabi as saying in a statement.
“The troops also destroyed two hotbeds, where the Islamic State militants were hiding,” the statement read, adding that the security operation is still ongoing to purge the whole region from IS militants.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[DAWN] At least two workers of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) were rubbed out in an armed attack by several pillion riders on the party’s office in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Rizvia Society on Sunday night, police said.
Around one dozen gunnies riding six cycle of violences opened indiscriminate fire on the PSP town office in Usmania Colony and fled, said Rizvia Society Station House Office Nawaz Brohi.
As a result, two persons were killed and two others sustained injuries, the officer added. He confirmed that all four victims belonged to the PSP.
The dear departed were identified as Azhar Rehmat, 35, and Naeem Ramzan, 40. The injured were identified as Fahad Akhtar, 30, and Yasir, 35.
According to police, the condition of the injured is also critical.
The dead and injured were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
A heavy contingent of police and Rangers reached the site of the attack and started an investigation, DawnNewsTV reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish military has sent another large convoy to the Syrian border this weekend, local rebel activists reported via social media on Sunday.
According to the reports, the Ottoman Turkish military sent a big armored convoy towards the Syrian border-town of Kobane (var. ’Ayn al-’Arab).
The army dispatched a new convoy of armored vehicles along with a large number of police forces from different parts of the country to the border town of Elbili in Kilis province.
In the meantime, Anadolu reported that the new convoy will reinvigorate the Ottoman Turkish troops deployed at borders with Syria.
Prior to the deployment of these troops, another large Ottoman Turkish convoy was sent to the Syrian border for the upcoming military operation east of the Euphrates.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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[ConservativeTreehouse] BLUF: General Counsel Boente, hired by Christopher Wray, ultimately concurred with Mueller and Rosenstein’s decision thereby blocking any internal investigative efforts under the auspices of protecting the integrity of the ongoing Mueller probe.
A bureaucratic catch-22.
As a result of team Mueller’s moves, multiple people including John Carlin, Mary McCord, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Carter Page and any other inside official with knowledge of the FISA application and downstream issue, is off-limits for DOJ-OIG questioning.
This decision was stunningly ironic considering that Dana Boente was the ultimate arbiter inside the internal debate. Remember, Boente was "acting AG" after Sally Yates was fired.
#1
There are those who say Huber is MII (Missing In Inaction). Not sure what Horowitz is doing at this time. Haven't seen much justice coming out of Justice.
Looks more and more like Mueller was installed to be the last regime's gatekeeper and act as a goalie. Dump the Mueller probe as a waste of time and money. The probe itself is standing in the way of justice for past misdeeds and crimes--obstruction of justice?
#2
As a result of team Mueller’s moves, multiple people including John Carlin, Mary McCord, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Carter Page and any other inside official with knowledge of the FISA application and downstream issue, is off-limits for DOJ-OIG questioning.
[IsraelTimes] Army working to determine if suspects crossed 1974 ceasefire line for intelligence-gathering purposes; no Israeli injuries reported
IDF soldiers shot up a group of button men who crossed the 1974 ceasefire line in the Golan Heights and were approaching Israel’s border fence from Syria, the army said Sunday night.
No Israeli injuries were reported in the incident and the IDF was working to determine whether the unidentified individuals had been on an intelligence-gathering operation.
Continued on Page 49
[DW] The 18-year-old has been detained for allegedly being an 'IS' recruiter. The young man was also accused of promoting the killing of coppers on social media.
An 18-year-old German was jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in Hamburg on charges of supporting the "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) terrorist group, city police said on Sunday. The man was allegedly using social media to find recruits and promote violence against coppers.
After collecting enough evidence of suspicious online activities, prosecutors were able to secure a search warrant, allowing Sherlocks to comb through his apartment in the Bramfeld area of the northern port city.
Authorities confirmed they had found further evidence at his apartment, but declined to comment on its exact contents.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Saudi Coalition troops scored a big advance inside the northern region of Yemen, today, after a fierce battle with the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... forces.
According to pro-government activists, the Saudi Coalition and their allies managed to capture the strategic Dahwan Mountain in the Sirwah District of Marib this morning.
The Saudi Coalition and their allies were able to fracture the Houthi lines in the Sirwah District, paving the way for their big advance this week.
The Saudi Coalition claimed that their troops also tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! several employees of the pro-Houthi Masirah TV channel ‐ their whereabouts are unknown.
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[PRESSTV] Israeli forces on Sunday placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! Paleostinian Agriculture Minister Sufian Sultan, as he was heading to the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) from Ramallah, the center of the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli regime’s forces stopped the minister’s car and forced him out of it at gunpoint while deliberately assaulting him, before proceeding to thoroughly search his vehicle. Forces also seized the car’s alarm system, the ministry of agriculture said in a statement.
The ministry condemned Israel’s move against the minister, noting that such a measure violates the international humanitarian law and is part of Israel’s escalated attacks against the Paleostinian people.
Various Paleostinian cities and towns in the West Bank, especially Ramallah, al-Bireh, and Jerusalem al-Quds have been scene to festivities between Paleostinian people and Zionist military forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
The paleos have agriculture? Who knew?
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/24/2018 20:53
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*Snicker* Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that conversation! D’you suppose discussion of the Saudi and Emirati units replacing the Americans in the Syrian base is covered under other subjects below, dear Reader?
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... says he held another conversation with Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... about the removal of US troops from Syria and other subjects.
"We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. We also discussed heavily expanded Trade," Trump says in a tweet.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[CBS] After 111 hours stranded underground, three people who went missing in a West Virginia coalmine are now recovering in a hospital after rescuers located them on Wednesday. A fourth person who emerged from the mine on Monday helped find the other three.
According to police, the group went into the mine to steal copper wiring and could face criminal charges. One of the searchers told CBS News' Chip Reid the rescue mission could cost as much as $1 million.
Emergency workers raced around the clock for four days to find Cody Beverly, Erica Treadway, and Kayla Williams, searching deep into the Whitesville, West Virginia, mine while the percentages on their oxygen detection gauges neared deadly levels.
Entering the mine ‐ which had been inactive for two years ‐ was not easy. Rescuers had to remove water at one entrance and bulldozed a new road outside the other. They used fans to help pump in air. Four thousand feet underground in the mine, rescuers said they reached Treadway first at 6 p.m. then Williams and Beverly 30 minutes later. All three walked out on their own.
Friends and family were jubilant during the reunion Wednesday night
[ToloNews] A report by the BBC shows that Taliban ...Arabic for students... annually earns more than $1.5 billion from drug dealing, illegal mining, collecting electricity bills and financial support from a number of countries.
The report said that this year Taliban’s financial resources and the money they get from these resources have increased against previous years.
According to the report, from 2015 onwards, it was mostly estimated that Taliban yearly were earning around $400 million.
"This war is a war from outside. Today, you know, that the bandidosDeath Eaters are supported from many sources such as drugs, drug smugglings, access to customs and support from different countries," said Dadullah Qane, deputy head of the National United Party of Afghanistan.
The report says Taliban yearly earns from $100 million to $400 million from drugs and taxes; $50 million from mines extractions and $500 million from Iran, Pakistain, Russia and gulf countries which are the biggest supporters of Taliban.
A number of military affairs analysts said the intelligence and investigative departments have failed to detect the income sources of the Taliban and prevent the group from receiving the money.
"If this is correct, then it means that fighting the Taliban will become difficult for the countries," said Hussain Talash, a political affairs analyst.
"Our intelligence and investigative departments are very weak. They cannot detect the weaponry and financial resources of the Taliban," said Miagul Khalid, a military affairs analyst.
Taliban has rejected details of the report about their incomes.
[PhilStar] Two teens claiming to be Islamic State terrorists who had balked at bombing targets in central Mindanao during the holidays surrendered to Cotabato City mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi on Sunday. She presented the pair to reporters in the presence of top police and military officials. The two are still minors, their parents said.
The two initially claimed links with the Dawlah Islamiyah, also known as the Maute terror group based in Lanao del Sur, and the Ansa’r Kilafah Philippines, or AKP, operating in Sarangani province and in General Santos City. Both groups are using the black IS flag as banner.
Officials told reporters the parents of the two alleged terrorists decided to turn them over to the city government out of fear of the mayor's iron-fisted policy in maintaining law and order. The teens were said to have undergone training in the fabrication of improvised explosive devices in the seaside Palimbang town in Sultan Kudarat province.
Personnel of the 1st Marine Brigade killed seven terrorists in Barangay Butril in Palimbang in 2015 in a raid that led to the fall of an AKP camp there where IEDs, firearms and a black IS flag were recovered.
Army intelligence sources said the pair also confessed to links with the now detained TJ Macabalang, one of the alleged plotters of the September 2, 2016 IED attack in Davao City that left 17 people dead and hurt more than 60 others. Macabalang and two accomplices, Wendel Apostol Facturan and Musali Mustapha, were arrested in Cotabato City more than a month later.
Posted by: ryuge ||
12/24/2018
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[AlAhram] A Cairo Court of Cassation has accepted an appeal by the head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie and 36 others, decreasing their prison sentences in the so-called ‘Beni Suef violence’ case.
The court reduced Badie’s sentence from life imprisonment to 10 years.
The remaining defendants had their sentences reduced from 15 years to three years.
Sunday's court verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
Whew! Finally, this trial is over. Only ninety-two eleventy more trials to go.
The trial had a total of 93 defendants, 56 of whom were tried in absentia.
The verdicts of life imprisonment and 15 years were handed down in September 2017.
The case dates back to the deadly violence that took place in Beni Suef governorate in Upper Egypt in August 2013 after security forces dispersed two Cairo sit-ins protesting the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The defendants were charged with torching a police station and a nun’s school in Beni Suef. They were also charged with inciting violence, vandalising public facilities, belonging to an outlawed group and the possession of weapons and ammunition.
The defendants in the case include leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and former parliamentarians, including Nihad El-Qasim Abdel-Wahhab, secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party in Beni Suef, Sayyed Heikal, Khalid Syed Naji, former members of the Shura Council, and Abdel-Rahman Shukri, a former member of the People's Assembly.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[DW] They do not believe in God and want a life free from religious restrictions: They are atheist asylum-seekers. Not only are they threatened and sometimes killed in their homeland ‐ even in Germany they face danger because of their renunciation of the Islamic faith.
Atheists are still a minority around the world. According to the Global Index of Religion and Atheism, a Gallup survey conducted in 2012, 13 percent of the world's population identifies as atheist. In Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and the United States, that figure is 5 percent, in Germany 15 percent and in China 47 percent.
The plight of atheist asylum-seekers gets little attention in German refugee policy. According to a statement by the country's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), "Origin from a particular country or a particular reason for fleeing, such as religious affiliation or atheism, does not automatically lead to a protection status."
Atheist Refugee Relief's Dittmar Steiner is convinced this will change. "The number of people affected is increasing," he says. "A year ago it was two to three requests a week ‐ now it is between seven and nine a day."
[DailyCaller] As 2018 comes to a close, it’s time to review the year’s worst cases of media misquotes, misleading narratives, major corrections and straight-up fake news.
While last year’s fake reporting largely occurred during the media’s relentless pursuit to prove Russian collusion, this year’s list is much more varied. However, some themes emerged: stories about then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the U.S. border were routinely flagged for misinformation.
Without further ado, here is the list of 2018’s worst examples of fake news: Hit the link.
[IsraelTimes] Peter Cherif, also known as Abu Hamza, was a prominent member of al-Qaeda who fled La Belle France in 2011 and has been designated a terrorist by the US government.
The French jihadist Peter Cherif, tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in Djibouti on December 16, was placed in jug when he arrived in La Belle France on Sunday morning, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner and the Gay Paree Public Prosecutor’s Office announced.
Cherif, also known as Abu Hamza, is believed by Sherlocks to have been close to brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, perpetrators of the attack against the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... satirical newspaper in January 2015 that left 11 people dead.
After the attack, Cherif "fled French justice," but must now "answer for his actions," Castaner tweeted, praising the "effectiveness" of La Belle France’s security services.
The 36-year-old Frenchie was arrested in Djibouti on December 16. According to the Djibouti presidency, he arrived in the country by sea via the coastal town of Obock from Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and was carrying false identity documents.
He was quickly handed to La Belle France, boarding an Air La Belle France flight for Gay Paree on Saturday at around 10:20 p.m. handcuffed in the back of the plane and under police escort, according to an AFP photographer.
"Peter Cherif was arrested at [Gay Paree’s Roissy Airport] and taken into custody as part of a preliminary investigation opened by the Gay Paree prosecutor’s office in May 2017" on charges of terrorism and criminal conspiracy, Gay Paree’s counterterrorism prosecutors said Sunday.
The investigation of Cherif is being carried out by La Belle France’s General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI). Under French law, Cherif can be held on the terror charges for up to 96 hours before he must be brought before a judge to have his remand extended.
According to officials, Cherif was an al-Qaeda operative in Yemen and was a close friend of the Kouachi brothers. He is suspected of providing logistical support to the terrorists, and helping to organize the attack.
Arrested for the first time in Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... Iraq, in late 2004 while fighting in the ranks of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Cherif was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Baghdad, then beat feet from an Iraqi prison in March 2007 and fled to Syria.
Later extradited to La Belle France, he was incarcerated there for 18 months. He disappeared in March 2011, the last day of his trial in Gay Paree, when he fled to Yemen. He has been designated by both French and US authorities as a terrorist.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Joel Fedd was arrested after he moved into a $500k home bought by a family
Fedd and his nephew posted footage of them walking around the house claiming the owned the land because they were 'Moorish American'
Fedd said he had a right to the property because he was an indigenous Moor and announced that 'we are taking the land back!'
He moved into the house during the week, changed the locks on the doors and put signs on the window saying: 'Do not trespass'
Fedd, 33, was later arrested by police and charged with criminal trespass
WHO ARE 'INDIGENOUS MOORS'?
The Moorish sovereign citizens political movement emerged in the mid-1990s on the East Coast based off the teachings of the Moorish Science Temple, a religious sect dating back to 1913.
MST’s founder Noble Drew Ali taught that black ’Moors’ were America’s original inhabitants and were therefore entitled to self-governing status.
He believed that all African Americans were descendants of the Moabites and are therefore Moorish.
Some Islamic historians believe that the Moors and Moslem groups reached the Americas before Christopher Columbus.
Moorish sovereigns believe this entitles them to claim immunity from federal, state, and local laws and can sometimes cite God’s law or common law over constitutional authority.
They come into conflict with federal and state authorities over their refusal to obey laws and government regulations.
Wikipedia has a fascinating article about the Moorish Science Temple movement, from which the Indigenous Moors and the Nation of Islam are both heretical spinoffs.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
Criminals and thugs with religious trappings. Kind of like IS/Daesh but not as brutal - yet.
Posted by: John Smith ||
12/24/2018 5:55
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#4
One of my accounting professors used to have a realty company. He said when they started, they would follow all the legal was to deal with squatters which was expensive and time consuming and they'd always cause a lot of damage before leaving.
Fed up, he discovered the best way was Hired Goons. If he showed up with a pair of lumbering teamsters and just told them "Get out....now." They left with no fuss and no trouble. Way cheaper.
#6
If one claims a different sovereignty that doesn't mean you are immune to laws, that means you can appeal to that other sovereignty for help when you break laws. Since their other sovereignty is fictional a disreputable nation could literally do anything they wanted to these fools until with no legitimate government to complain about it.
[DW] The migrants colonists, including two children, were picked up at around 5am just a few kilometers off the French port of Boulogne. Authorities spotted the boat sailing with its lights off, making an unusual trajectory.
A boat carrying 16 migrants colonists was intercepted off the northern French port town of Boulogne-sur-Mer on Sunday as it made its way towards Britannia, French media reported.
The local coastguard was deployed after a stolen fishing vessel named Sainte-Catherine aroused suspicion close to the entrance of the port before dawn, La Belle Franceinfo radio said.
In a statement, the maritime agency for the English Channel and the North Sea said the vessel had been "sailing with all lights off, was not answering radio calls and making an unusual trajectory."
BOAT BOARDED BY AUTHORITIES
The boat, containing 14 adults and two children, was found a few minutes later 11 kilometers (7 miles) off the French coast. Authorities boarded the vessel and steered it back to the port.
After a few hours, the passengers were handed to the local border police.
FOCUS ON CALAIS
Northern La Belle France, and in particular the port of Calais, has been a longtime stopping point for thousands of migrants colonists seeking to reach Britannia.
As many as 8,000 migrants colonists from North Africa and the Middle East lived in the makeshift Calais jungle encampment until it was cleared in October 2016.
Although most of the migrants colonists were moved to formal French reception centers, hundreds of people remain in the area, living smaller ad-hoc camps along the northern French coast.
INCREASE IN BOAT TRIPS Moslem colonists Migrants also arrive in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... through other means. Britannia, for instance, has noted an increase in Iranians trying to enter the country illegally after Serbia offered visa-free travel to Iranian nationals. Some of them made onward journeys through Europe to northern La Belle France and then by boat to the UK.
Although most migrants colonists attempt to make the journey by ferry or Eurotunnel hidden in trucks, there have been a growing number of migrant crossings over the English Channel over the last few months.
Some of them make the journey in dinghies, despite strong currents, cold waters, and the Channel being the world's busiest shipping lane.
UK INTERCEPTIONS
UK government figures show that more than 135 migrants colonists have successfully crossed from La Belle France in small boats since November 2.
On December 12, eleven people were picked up in a dinghy off the English port town of Dover.
A few days later, 10 men were rescued from a boat off the French coast; many of them suffering from "severe hypothermia."
French and British authorities have stepped up patrols along their respective coastlines.
[NationalReview] The near-destruction of ISIS in a matter of months (losing 99 percent of its landed caliphate), the restoration of sound defense budgeting, a reestablished sense of deterrence, and stable recalibration with allies were the signature achievements of James Mattis. And it seems a mistake not to have him finish a four-year stint at Defense.
No doubt continued U.S. deployments in both Afghanistan and Syria loomed large in Trump's sudden decision to leave the latter even if it would cause Mattis's departure, as well as the sense that as 2020 looms he wants MAGA orthodoxy throughout the cabinet.
The abrupt pulling of U.S. troops out of Syria is likely a mistake ‐ given that for the size (about 2,000 troops on the ground) and cost of the deployment (few casualties), we were keeping ISIS moribund, somewhat checking Iran as well as Russia, and protecting the Kurds and what was left of the democratic Syria resistance. True, Syria was a mess, unlike a relatively stable Iraq in late 2011 (see the comments of Vice President Biden and President Obama), when the U.S. likewise abruptly left and opened the door for ISIS. Yet Syria's future now is either going to be much more of a mess or soon a calmer colony of Russia and Iran.
No doubt the U.S. will likewise be reexamining the soon to be 18-year-long slog in Afghanistan.
The problem with all these deployments as they transitioned from emergency interventions to near-permanent stationing was that grand strategists never clearly articulated to the public how such investments kept the U.S. far safer and how long such basing would be necessary, especially in terms of costs to benefits. Both arguments in theory could be made (cf. South Korea), but the public at least never was assured by a series of Afghan deadlines, surges, redirects, recalibrations, withdrawals, and radical changes in command, tactics, and strategies, or by a Syrian tragedy of false red lines, lies about the elimination of poison gas, invitations to the Russians to adjudicate U.N.-enforced WMD compliance and with it entrance back into the Middle East after a 40-year hiatus, ISIS as "jayvees," the role of NATO "ally" Turkey, and prior restrictive lawfare tactics, etc. Ditto the Clinton "We came, we saw, he [Khadafi] died" misadventure in Libya, ending in Benghazi.
The irony is that under Mattis, we were finally getting to a smaller but deadlier footprint abroad and, at least in Syria, fulfilling Trump's "Bomb the sh** out of ISIS" promise in the sense of more rubble/less trouble realism. Trump's base is neither pro-isolationist nor pro–nation-building interventionism, which leaves something in the middle like "Don't tread on me" Jacksonian realism that his generals seemed to be enacting.
With the Mattis departure ends the Kelly/Mattis/McMaster troika of generals, who in retrospect served the administration ‐ and the country ‐ honorably and effectively in difficult times.
[PRESSTV] A high-ranking member of the Yemeni Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... Ansarullah movement has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of attempts to scupper agreements recently reached between warring sides during the latest round of UN-sponsored peace negotiations in Sweden.
Addressing representatives of various Yemeni political parties in the capital Sana’a on Sunday evening, Secretary-General of Ansarullah political bureau, Fadhel Abutaleb said the Abu Dhabi regime is trying to torpedo the accords by means of its mercenaries, mainly Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh ‐ a Yemeni military commander and the nephew of the late Yemeni president former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... He described the agreements reached during peace talks as a victory for the Yemeni people, stressing that the triumph was scored through the steadfastness of people from all walks of society over the countries involved in the ongoing military aggression on Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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[PRESSTV] The United States is planning to add Ukraine into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ) as part of its plan to encircle Russia, an American political analyst says.
Keith Preston, director of the Attackthesystem.com, made the remarks while discussing Washington’s decision to provide an additional $10 million in military aid to Ukraine.
Announcing the decision on Friday, the US State Department said the money would be used to boost its naval capability, after Russia seized three Ukrainian navy ships off the coast of Crimea in the Sea of Azov last month.
The Sea of Azov is a strategic ocean route linked to the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch where Russia has built a bridge to link the Crimean Peninsula with the mainland.
Tensions escalated earlier this year after Ukraine detained two Russian ships for port calls on Crimea, which rejoined Russia in a 2014 referendum.
The move prompted Russia to increase patrols off its Azov coast to guarantee free navigation by Russian ships.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
From Attackthesystem.com. It must be serious !!! /sarc.
[Yahoo] Russia said on Saturday that the scrapping of a Cold War era nuclear pact may lead to an arms race and direct confrontation between several global regions, after a proposal by Moscow was rejected in a United Nations vote.
Moscow had put forward a resolution in support of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which bans Moscow and Washington from stationing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe.
Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that the UN had failed to vote in favor of the proposal.
"A new blow has been dealt on the global architecture of security and stability. Now, with the collapse of the INF treaty, several global regions could be plunged into the arms race or even into a direct confrontation," it said.
Washington has threatened to pull out of the accord, saying Moscow failed to comply with it.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of raising the risk of nuclear war by threatening to spurn the key arms control treaty and refusing to hold talks about another pact that expires soon. And while we are distracted by a Government "Shutdown," The Great Russian Collusion®, Strippers and Playmates and Bears (Oh my!), Schumer, etal, may be risking Capital that makes $5B ("The Wall of Ineffectiveness, Costliness and Immorality") look like the ashen remains of chicken seed chaff.
Better to spend your money on getting the Euros to really really p*** off the Americans as to pull their expensive military welfare from the continent. Shouldn't take too much effort.
[IsraelTimes] Abbas’s troops said to arrest 44 on suspicion of attempting to deal away 740 acres in East Jerusalem and West Bank, with three sentenced to hard labor.
The Paleostinian Authority’s security forces announced Sunday that it had "foiled" the sale of roughly 3,000 dunams (741 acres) throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Jews.
The PASF statement, posted on its Facebook page, said a large-scale operation to prevent the land sales resulted in the arrests of 44 Paleostinians, who had been attempting to sell property near the cities of East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Qalqiliya, and Salfit.
Three of the suspects have already been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, the statement said.
The Ynet news site reported that among the incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... was East Jerusalem resident Issam Akel.
The Jerusalem resident had been sought by the PA over his involvement in the sale of a home in the Moslem Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City to Jews.
The PA government formed a committee to investigate the sale of the home in the Old City, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah tweeted on October 9.
Paleostinian law considers attempting to sell or selling land to Israeli Jews a punishable offense.
According to the law, possible punishments for trying to sell or selling land to Israeli Jews include different degrees of hard labor and execution.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the law requires that PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... approve any death sentence, and he has not signed off on any executions since 2006.
Last month, Israel twice detained Adnan Ghaith, the PA governor of Jerusalem, for his reported connection to Akel’s arrest.
The Sunday PASF statement did not specify whether the three sentenced to 15 years of hard labor were the same as the two men given an identical punishment last month.
Then, the PA High Judicial Council’s website announced the sentencing of "F.A.E. and A. Kh. M. from Kafr Thulth in the Qalqilya Governorate for the crime of leaking land to the enemy."
Separately, in early November, the body of Ala’a Qirsh, one of six Paleostinians who died in a major road accident in the Jordan Valley, was barred from being buried in a Moslem cemetery in Jerusalem over allegations that he had sold property to Israeli Jews, an official in the Jerusalem Waqf told The Times of Israel.
The PASF statement called on Paleostinians to "exercise caution" in handling their property to prevent the transfer of land "to the occupation."
[KhaamaPress] The government of Iran is funding the construction of a faculty in Kabul University dedicated mainly to the studies of ’Persian Language’, it has been reported.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in this regarding between Cultural attaché at the Iranian embassy in Kabul Mohammadreza Maleki and the Chancellor of Kabul University and Adviser Minister to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. on Higher Education Hamidullah Farooqi.
The construction of the faculty of Persian Language and Literature is planned to start from March 2019, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.
The source further added that during the signing ceremony, the Iranian cultural attaché donated 2,300 textbook titles to Kabul University, stressing that the cooperation will continue in the future.
The books are related to studies on humanities, anthropology, literature, social sciences, economics, management, and computers, the report stated.
Earlier in November, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that his country will make its utmost efforts to help the Afghan government to successfully hold peace talks in the country.
"The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran has always supported peace talks in Afghanistan under the guidance and partnership of the Afghan government and it will use all its capacities to help the Afghan government along this path," Zarif was quoted as saying in Fars News Agency as saying during a meeting with former Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ...One of the more egregious mistakes of the post 9-11 era... in Tehran.
#1
I've been trying to see what/if the differences between Afghan Persian / Dari and Iranian Persian / Farsi are, if any. Rumi d. 1273 in Turkey wrote in Dari but most historians confuse this with Farsi. Some of the meanings in his writings are confused by translators who use Farsi. Pronunciations can be quite different.
An example of the confusion:
Dari plays an important role in Afghan society. It is one of the national languages of the country and is used by roughly 50% of the population. In addition, it represents the primary means of communication between speakers of different languages in Afghanistan. Dari is currently taught in Afghani schools, heard on national radio, and has enjoyed a long and prestigious literary tradition. The current status of Dari in countries where it does not enjoy national status, on the other hand, is less stable. In Iran, for instance, Dari is neither written nor taught in schools and is considered an endangered language. Iranians are gradually giving up Dari to speak/learn Persian, the official language of Iran.
source
The U. of Nebraska before 9/11 offered courses in Dari. To the best of my knowledge, there are no courses in Dari available to the general public taught in the USA at this time.
#2
No doubt the Iranians consider Dari to be the equvalent of a hillbilly dialect, Anguper Hupomosing9418, just as the Dutch view Flemish, the French view the various dialects of the Walloons, the Swiss-French, and Montreal, and the Germans all their regional dialects, Yoddish, and the lovely but barbarous effusions of Switzerland and Austria.
#4
Dari Pashtun and Farsi are all closely related from the same (Persian) roots.
Like Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish from the same germanic roots.
And Iran's money will be funneled through contracts with someone administrator's "uncle" or "cousin", so everyone gets a cut of the action, just like all outside money anyplace in Hajiville, Ashcanistan.
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
12/24/2018 10:37
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#5
Yiddish. PIMF!!
This conversation is one of the reasons I adore this place.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan National Defense and Security Force have foiled a plot by anti-government armed bully boyz to detonate a bridge in eastern Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a repution for great wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
After that it was mostly notable for the production of dirt, rocks, and holy men. province of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the security forces discovered and defused four improvised bombs planted under a bridge in Qaraghai district of the province.
The statement further added that the landmines were discovered and defused by the Special Forces Unit of the Afghan National Police.
The anti-government armed bully boyz including Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have not commented regarding the report so far.
Laghman is among the relatively calm provinces in East of Afghanistan where fewer reports regarding terrorist related incidents emerge from.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the anti-government armed bully boyz including Taliban have been attempting their foothold and insurgency in this province.
Earlier, reports had also emerged that the ISIS bully boyz are also attempting to expand their foothold in this province from the neighboring Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
[CNN Philippines] A most wanted Abu Sayyaf militant who has been at large for 17 years was arrested on December 20 in joint police operations in Binondo, Manila. The rebel was identified as Sudais Asmad, alias “Abu Nas” who was among those responsible for the kidnapping of 15 employees of Golden Harvest Plantation in Basilan in June 2001.
The police report also linked Asmad to Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, one the leaders behind the the deadly battle of Marawi last year. Asmad was also said to be among Abu Sayyaf militants in Basilan who were supposed to augment rebel forces in Marawi City.
A previously nabbed Abu Sayyaf insurgent also identified Asmad as the group’s recruiter in Luzon, whose job was guised as a “Balik Islam,” or an Islam conversion initiative.
“He is in Manila purportedly to receive financial support from sympathisers of the Dawlah Islamiya and unknown missions,” the police report said.
Posted by: ryuge ||
12/24/2018
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[AnNahar] French President Emmanuel Macron called for "order" on Sunday after a sixth weekend of "yellow vest" anti-government protests marked by dwindling participation and a violent attack on police in Gay Paree.
Speaking during a visit to the central African state of Chad where he was visiting French troops serving in a counter-terrorism force Macron said: "There must be order now, calm and harmony. Our country needs it."
"It needs harmony, unity, sincere commitment to strong collective causes and we must heal the divisions," said the 41-year-old centrist, who has struggled to tamp down the anger of the working poor in smalltown and rural La Belle France over falling spending power and policies seen as tilted towards the rich.
Continued on Page 49
[PRESSTV] Paleostinian Authority chief the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... is resorting to the oddest tactics, accusing Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, of being directly funded by the Israeli premier after dissolving the Paleostinian parliament.
In a speech in Ramallah Saturday, Abbas claimed that PM Benjamin Netanyahu was providing Hamas with the money with which it funded attacks against Israelis.
"Netanyahu personally takes money and gives it to Hamas. What does that mean? [Hamas] sends weapons, equipment and funds here," Abbas claimed.
Israel has blamed Hamas for a recent increase in the West Bank attacks during which three Israelis, including two soldiers, were rubbed out.
The attacks have reinforced the patriotic image of Hamas in the West Bank which is controlled by the Paleostinian Authority.
A public opinion poll released on Tuesday showed that Abbas would lose to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... if elections were held today.
The poll conducted by prominent pollster Khalil Shikaki showed that Haniyeh would win with 49 percent to Abbas’ 42 percent.
Abbas's term was meant to expire in 2009, but he has remained in office in the absence of elections.
Shikaki linked the results to what is perceived as a Hamas win in its latest confrontation with Israel and frustration with Abbas’s government.
The survey found that the majority of Paleostinians (53 percent) have negative views about the Paleostinian Authority and that 43 percent of them hold Abbas responsible for the deteriorating conditions in the Gazoo Strip.
Abbas has sought to pressure Hamas in recent months by reducing salaries in the Gazoo Strip, which is under an Israeli blockade, among other moves.
His administration has opposed recent arrangements that have seen Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... provide millions of euros in aid for salaries and fuel in the Gazoo Strip, bypassing the Paleostinian Authority.
Abbas is apparently left seething. On Saturday, Abbas announced his intention to dissolve the Paleostinian parliament which is controlled by Hamas following a landslide victory in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
Abbas is apparently left seething.
The Paleo Natural State
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/24/2018 10:24
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[DAWN] The Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Food Authority (PFA) on Saturday declared 47 brands of ice cream and frozen desserts unfit for human consumption.
The authority has released the sample results of 156 brands of ice cream and frozen desserts and 47 of them failed to meet the standards of Punjab Pure Food Regulations. The samples were collected in September 2018.
PFA Director General Muhammad Usman said: "The list of the sample results is available on the website (www.pfa.gop.pk) and anybody can download it."
The PFA also ordered to stop the production of all those brands that failed to meet the standards in lab test. The authority would again collect samples for laboratory test after ensuring proper reforms.
According to schedule, ice cream, juice nectar (drink), fruits-made beverages, edible ghee and oil products will be checked four times in a year. Tap water of Wasa, carbonated beverages, meat-made items, sauce, squash, fruits and vegetables (canned) will be checked twice a year. Apart from this, vinegar, pickles and malted beverages will be checked once a year.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... the PFA’s vigilance cell and meat safety teams closed four beef shops and seized 1,300kg meat of emaciated and ill animals in different areas of the city.The teams seized 450kg meat from Hajveri Beef Shop, 400kg from Jillani Beef Shop, 300kg from Numan Beef Shop and 150kg from Shahzad Beef Shop. All the [confiscated] stuff was sent to Punjab Agriculture and Meat Company for disposal.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/24/2018
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#1
Back in my 70s stint in Italy, the commissary stocked Finish butter and Austrian milk and ice cream because the 'local' stuff couldn't pass inspection. Our beef came from Yugoslavia for the same reason.
Venezuela’s navy on Saturday "intercepted" a ship exploring for oil on behalf of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) in Guyanese waters, neighboring Guyana’s foreign ministry said in a statement, in the latest incident in a century-old border dispute. A series of offshore oil discoveries in recent years have given Guyana the potential to become one of Latin America’s largest producers. In OPEC member Venezuela, by contrast, crude output has tumbled to its lowest levels in nearly 70 years amid an economic crisis.
The Ramform Tethys vessel, which belongs to Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and was conducting seismic survey work on behalf of Exxon, stopped exploration and turned east after being approached by the Venezuelan navy, PGS spokesman Bard Stenberg said in a statement.
"Guyana rejects this illegal, aggressive and hostile act," Guyana’s foreign ministry said in a late Saturday statement, adding that the move "demonstrates the real threat to Guyana’s economic development by its western neighbor" and "violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country."
The ministry added that it would report the incident to the United Nations and send formal communication to Venezuela’s government. It said it would inform the governments of the various homelands of the 70 crew members aboard the vessel, flagged by the Bahamas, of the "threat to their safety."
An Exxon spokeswoman said seismic explorations in the western portion of Guyana’s Stabroek Block "have been paused until they can be safely continued," and that the vessel was operating in Guyana’s exclusive economic zone.
Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russian fighter jets land in Crimea amid tensions
Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro has previously criticized Guyana’s decision to allow oil exploration to go ahead in the waters off the shore of the Essequibo region, a sparsely populated and dense jungle area equivalent to around two-thirds of Guyanese territory that Venezuela also claims.
Guyana says Caracas agreed to relinquish the area after a ruling by an international tribunal in 1899, but Venezuela later backtracked on that decision. The United Nations earlier this year referred the dispute to the International Court of Justice, a move welcomed by Georgetown but criticized by Caracas.
The dispute has heated up in recent years as Exxon has announced the discovery of more than 4 billion barrels of oil off the shore of Guyana, an English-speaking nation of 750,000 with no history of oil production.
The latest incident comes less than a day after Guyana’s parliament toppled the current government in a no-confidence vote, paving the way for elections in three months.
#4
Russia needs to do something to keep the price of oil elevated, and if it costs Venezuelan lives, well, their self-determination is mainly fictional right now anyway.
#5
Venezuala has "territorial claims" on a large chunk of Guyana...Guayana Esequiba. This bleeds over into offshore claims. The inhabitants of Guayana have every reason to be nervous about their neighbor.
Posted because some of you may know the players, and therefore have thoughts on whether this is meaningful beyond local politics.
[KhaamaPress] President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. has appointed the former Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid as the acting minister of defense.
The Office of the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Palace in a statement confirmed the appointment of Mr. Khalid as the new minister of defense.
The statement further added that President Ghani has approved the appointment of Asadullah Khalid as the new acting minister of defense as per the Article#13 and Clause#64 of the National Constitution of Afghanistan.
In a separate statement, the Office of the Chief of Staff said the former Intelligence Chief Amrullah Saleh has been appointed as the new acting minister of interior.
Asadullah Khalid will replace Gen. Tariq Shah Bahrami while Amrullah Saleh will replace Wais Ahmad Barmak who were serving as the ministers of defense and interior before the latest appointments announced in the leadership of the two ministries today.
The latest appointments have been announced at a time when the U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... is mulling a reduction in troops level as the Afghan national defense and security forces are facing a resurgent Taliban ...Arabic for students... in some of the key provinces of the country.
[KhaamaPress] At least four forces of Evil were killed in a dronezap in western Farah province of Afghanistan, the Afghan Military in the West said late on Saturday.
According to a statement released y 207th Zafar Corps of the Afghan Military in the West, the dronezap was carried out in the vicinity of Bakwa district.
The statement further added that four forces of Evil were killed in the Arclight airstrike and vehicle, a PKM machine gun, a sniper rifle, and 3 Ak-47 rifles were destroyed.
The 207th Zafar Corps also added that three forces of Evil were killed during a separate operation in Nawbahar Village of Posht-e-Rod district.
The anti-government armed hard boy groups including Taliban ...Arabic for students... have not commented regarding the killing of the forces of Evil so far.
Farah is among the relatively volatile provinces in West of Afghanistan where the Talibs are actively operating and often carry out terrorist related activities against the government and security forces.
[ToloNews] The US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... Forces Commander in Afghanistan Gen. Scott Miller in a meeting with Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. governor on Sunday assured that they will continue to support the Afghan forces even if they get an order about troop withdrawal ‐ an issue which Miller says is rumors by "newspapers".
Continued on Page 49
[IraqiNews] The Syrian army foiled on Sunday an attempt by terrorist groups to infiltrate and attack military posts in Hama northern countryside.
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Syrian army units last night conducted concentrated strikes against positions of terrorist groups affiliated to the so-called "Turkistan Party" in the villages of al-Mashik, Tal Waset and al-Ziyara in the northern countryside of Hama in retaliation to their repeated attacks.
An untold number of bad boyz were potted in the strikes and others were maimed, SANA said, adding that the troops also destroyed dens and fortified positions and a number of launchers which the turbans had been using in their attacks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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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.
[American Thinker] It had to happen. As we suspected would happen.
[Breitbart] Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice published an op-ed Sunday in the New York Times in which she declares that President Donald Trump "does more to undermine American national security than any foreign adversary."
[Townhall] One of the most disgusting things to come out of the Obama administration was "Operation Fast and Furious," where members of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed illegal gun sales to go through ‐ commonly referred to as "gun walking" ‐ in order to track buyers and sellers they believed were connected to the Mexican drug cartels. Nearly 2,000 firearms were sold and were eventually found throughout the United States and Mexico. Two of them were used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. 
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is up and working as she recuperates from cancer surgery.
an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia...
... 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...
Samarra (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi paramilitary forces killed on Sunday two Islamic State militants and wounded three others during a security operation in northern Samarra.
[IsraelTimes] Army working to determine if suspects crossed 1974 ceasefire line for intelligence-gathering purposes; no Israeli injuries reported
[DW] The 18-year-old has been detained for allegedly being an 'IS' recruiter. The young man was also accused of promoting the killing of 
[ToloNews] A report by the BBC shows that 
[PhilStar] Two teens claiming to be Islamic State terrorists who had balked at bombing targets in central Mindanao during the holidays surrendered to Cotabato City mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi on Sunday. She presented the pair to reporters in the presence of top police and military officials. The two are still minors, their parents said.
[DW] They do not believe in God and want a life free from religious restrictions: They are atheist asylum-seekers. Not only are they threatened and sometimes killed in their homeland ‐ even in Germany they face danger because of their renunciation of the Islamic faith.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
... 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[PRESSTV] The United States is planning to add Ukraine into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for 
[CNN Philippines] A most wanted Abu Sayyaf militant who has been at large for 17 years was arrested on December 20 in joint police operations in Binondo, Manila. The rebel was identified as Sudais Asmad, alias “Abu Nas” who was among those responsible for the kidnapping of 15 employees of Golden Harvest Plantation in Basilan in June 2001.
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[DAWN] The
