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Iraq Forces Enter First West Mosul Neighborhood
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
16:58 3 19:45 DarthVader [336070]
16:18 15 22:56 anon1 [336092]
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Home Front: Politix
Tom Perez elected as first Latino leader of Democratic Party
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 16:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like the Dem Establishment had their way. I was more hoping for Mr. Ellison [damn].
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 02/25/2017 17:35 Comments || Top||

#2  He won't generate the fireworks Ellison would have, but, given obumble said Perez "is wicked smart," we should see more Dumby Wasserbag Shulz follies for sure...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 18:27 Comments || Top||

#3  As long as they keep being the party of Hollywood and DC, they will keep losing elections.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 19:45 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Flynn's replacement undermines Trump stand on facing the truth about "radical Islamic terror", says "terrorists are unIslamic"
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 16:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  this is deeply concerning. this overturns what many people voted for. We want to face the truth and deal with it honestly. This does not mean hating all muslims, this means taking steps against the theocrats, while supporting the secular. This means halting mass Muslim migration. This means training law enforcement in how to spot theocrats and treating political Islam in the same way we treated communism in the cold war. This means helping Muslim refugees in regional safe zones not bringing them here.

All this will go down the drain with another liar in office.
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 16:22 Comments || Top||

#2  McMasters has experience with this. When he took over the 3rd ACR in Iraq, he pacified the city of Tal Afar with a win hearts and minds, build up key areas of the city and kill the bad guys when they came out to play. His tactics were the ones Petreaus used for the surge later.

I don't think he is for mass mooslimb migration into our country, but he has had great success in the Middle East and I would be willing to hear him out on ideas to bring order to the Middle East.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 16:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Accepting the hearts&minds / popularity contest paradigm does have disturbing implications.

We will have to convince the general Muslim populace that we are better servants and executors of their will than the 'terrorists.'

I.e. we will have to submit to their judgement and thus to their will.

Also McMasters is explicitly rejecting a phrase from the President's inaugural address. This doesn't bode well.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 02/25/2017 17:25 Comments || Top||

#4  DarthVader that is exactly the strategy that failed.

Iraq failed because the US immediately put sharia in the constitution and bent over to Islam

If Iraq was ever going to succeed and become the key state beacon of freedom in the middle east between 2 theocracies then it needed to banish Islam from politics unequivocally

Islam needed to be out of government at all levels and out of the schools and universities, too.

And it needed to be enforced with a soldier on every corner not with "hearts and minds" crap. They needed to feel defeated and give up part of their culture as the Japanese did after WWII.

Do you think if they had done that, told the middle east that Iraq was now open to give equal rights to apostates, gay muslims, oppressed women, atheists, christians, zoroastrians, kurds and jews that anybody would have responded?

If they had empowered the secular and crushed out the theocrats would Iraq have worked?

they would have needed overwhelming force but yes I think they could have built a country that would have been a beacon of hope and we would not have seen the turn towards Islamism across the middle east since.

Your strategy is exactly why we failed.

it betrays a complete lack of understanding of the problem. You think it's a military problem of control

it's not

it's a cultural and religious problem.
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 17:45 Comments || Top||

#5  also it is complete lunacy to think that you from Western Civilisation are going to "win hearts and minds" from Islamic Civilisation cultures.

Are you completely bonkers?

They think they are superior to you because of Islam

All they were ever going to do was take what they could get from you then betray everything you worked for and throw it in the bin while they pick up their korans.

Because you ignored the Islamist theocrat problem and didn't enforce secularism.

We got exactly what we were always going to get with that lunatic 'hearts and minds' idea

if you are going to get a cultural change wherein people are forced to give up what they have been brainwashed since childhood to think is most sacred (the supremacy of islam and its interference in politics)

then you need a soldier on every corner for 15 years (a generation).

and going into that war without first ensuring that outcome could be achieved was stupid in the extreme.
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 17:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Good discussion.
McMaster's deviation with a personal opinion, as many others, is the problem.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 18:12 Comments || Top||

#7  anon1...
He did have a successful strategy and later it did work to keep some peace... until we pretty much let the Iranians and hard liners do whatever they wanted.

I would listen to what he had to say about it to bring about a more peaceful middle east.

However... that being said. My own personal opinion is that the root of islamic terrorism is the islamic text. While some countries, like Indonesia can be peaceful with their neighbors and the west, I do not think that we can bring vast numbers of mooslimbs into this country and retain the values we have as a liberal (classic Jeffersonian liberal) western nation.
While we may be able to produce stable and peaceful ME nations, there is no way in hell I want to see huge numbers of them here for much of the same reasons you laid out.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 19:43 Comments || Top||

#8  Of course, to fix the overall situation, Muslims have to convince each other that ISIS is unislamic. My guess is McMaster is triangulating that. Good luck....
Posted by: KBK || 02/25/2017 19:47 Comments || Top||

#9  He did have a successful strategy and later it did work to keep some peace... until we pretty much let the Iranians and hard liners do whatever they wanted.

He paid the Sunni Arabs off. When he stopped doing so (i.e after Uncle Sam left), they resumed their revolt. Nothing magical there. Petraeus was overrated.

The surge was ancient military principle re-asserting itself. Rumsfeld justified penny-packet deployments by saying more troops = more targets, which was eye-rollingly and uncharacteristically stupid for a really smart guy. In reality, more troops = more eyes and ordnance on target. Petraeus's ROE's led to more deaths than necessary, but the Iraqis were really all fought-out by then.

The ISIS thing was just a resurrection of Sunni Arab hopes based on the idea that they might not be able to beat Uncle Sam, but they could as hell kick Shiite Arab and Kurdish ass. If Obama had stayed the course (and Maliki had cooperated), there would have been no ISIS in Iraq, thanks to American air support.

But bottom line is that Petraeus was no genius, and by extension, neither is McMaster.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/25/2017 20:09 Comments || Top||

#10  If terrorism is so unislamic, then where are the masses of soldiers of true Islam to take them on? Where are the mass protests against them? They're doing their usual thing of following the strong horse. They're not against it like they would be if someone burns a holy Crayon, then they come out in droves.
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 20:58 Comments || Top||

#11  kbk has a point, but I'm with anon1 on this.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/25/2017 21:44 Comments || Top||

#12  and ZF
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/25/2017 21:45 Comments || Top||

#13  Darth Vader it is a failed strategy

complete failure

it does not matter in the scheme of this struggle whether or not tal afar had peace for a year or two with 'hearts and minds' because you lost the entire region to sectarian violence and the rise of islamism

the "peace" was temporary it was not permanent

you did not fix the problem in fact you made it worse because you allowed oxygen for the Islamists to organise by bending over to put sharia in the constitution in your effort to "win hearts and minds"

you actually lost the war by doing that
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 22:42 Comments || Top||

#14  KBK: Muslims are NEVER going to convince themselves that Islamic State are unislamic because they are literally implementing what is in the texts.

Al Azhar university, the foremost authority on Sunni Islam is UNABLE to declare Islamic State "unislamic" or "apostates" for exactly this reason. They can call them extreme, or literalist but they cannot declare them unislamic.

Al Azhar frequently issues fatwas against secularists declaring them unIslamic but there hasn't been one against Islamic State for that reason.

In the fatwa against them for burning the jordanian pilot to death in a cage, Al Azhar ruled that the perpetrators should themselves be punished by cutting off alternate arms and legs or crucifixion for the sin of "interfering with the dead body of a muslim" but they were unable to declare islamic State unislamic.
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 22:45 Comments || Top||

#15  Darth Vader; you are right about your idea that the root problem is in the text as well as in the interpretation, and your idea that mass muslim migration cannot be allowed or we will lose our civilisation to Islam

That is 100% correct.

The only way to deal with iraq is, once militarily defeated, to culturally defeat political islam by removing it from all levels of government, the military the civil service and the schools/universities. With zero tolerance. Not even a hijab.

In addition a register of approved preachers should have been set up with no unapproved preachers allowed to speak to any mosque in the country. And the approved list stocked with secular and reform muslims only

this did not happen. It would have required a full scale occupation and the political will on the home front to defeat and crush the ideology which was obviously absent.

The situation now is this:

1) we should bomb the crap out of Islamic State and then join forces with Russia to clear them out with ground troops

2) we should not rebuild anything this time, return them to the dark ages

3) we should set up refugee safe zones nearby and send the refugees there or to the arab world with not one Muslim to come to the West. There are 57 Islamic countries in the OIC. They will take them or they will sit where they are.

4) We should be immediately banning Muslim migration to all Western countries. those allowed in on a case-by-case basis thoroughly vetted to ensure they are secular and they should be made to sign an agreement to the principles of secular society which if they breach results in immediate annulment of their provisional visa. Not one is to be given permanent citizenship.

5) Any US Citizens that marry Muslim non-citizens will have to go to the Muslim host country. The Muslim spouse will not be given citizenship, only provisional visa as per above terms. Even if they become parents of anchor babies. The entire family will have to move abroad.

We LOST the battle. Iraq was the one chance to remake the Muslim world in a secular tolerant form that would be compatible with Western civilisation.

We lost. Now we have to circle the wagons to prevent Islamism from destroying Western Civilisation.

Clearly Trump was trying but he has been thwarted by the mistaken Bush generation that thinks it can say "islam is a religion of peace" and avoid this conflict.

You cannot.

You either keep it outside your country or you lose it.
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 22:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Department of Homeland Security Is Now Taking Bids to Build the Border Wall
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 10:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Invest in companies that pour concrete, people.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 || 02/25/2017 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Jersey barrier scaled up 700% with I beams extending far enough into the ground tp prevent even forced tip over. Razor wire on the top 2 feet.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 10:32 Comments || Top||

#3  No wall can do more than slow down those who wish to enter. Stopping them requires willingness to employ force - guns, mines, electric charge etc.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/25/2017 13:01 Comments || Top||

#4  True of the most highly motivated. The fat, the weak, the drunk, the drugged, the morally ill. A good wall will do.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 13:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Labor cheap. Just go by Home Depot in the morning...
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 02/25/2017 16:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Attack on Syrian security forces kills at least 40 in Homs
Al-RootersMilitants attacked two Syrian security offices in the western city of Homs on Saturday with guns and suicide bombers, killing at least 42 people including a senior officer, a war monitor said.

The attackers killed the head of military security and 29 others at one of its headquarters in the city and 12 more people at a branch of state security in attacks that began early in the morning, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Home of the Tiny Telescope™
Syrian state television reported that clashes had rocked the districts of al-Ghouta and al-Mohata, where the two targets were located, before three suicide bombers detonated their explosives at each place.

It said that the attacks had killed 32 people including General Hassan Daaboul, the head of the military security branch.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2017 09:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Who to root for? I know, both sides.
Posted by: Spike Sproing7930 || 02/25/2017 20:35 Comments || Top||

#2  that was WHISKEY MIKE. Sorry, new laptop.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/25/2017 20:50 Comments || Top||

#3  I agree, the more dead, the better
Posted by: chris || 02/25/2017 21:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
U. Michigan Students Demand No-Whites-Allowed Space for Social Justice Planning
[LI] Isn’t it interesting how whenever something like this happens, no one on the left sees it as racism?

"UMich students demand no-whites-allowed space to plot ’social justice’ activism A student activist group at the University of Michigan is demanding campus officials provide them with "a permanent designated space on central campus for Black students and students of color to organize and do social justice work." The demand is one of several lodged by "Students4Justice," who this month ratcheted up campus demonstrations to pressure administrators to cave, complaining in a newly launched petition that President Mark Schlissel has snubbed their demands. The clamor for a segregated space for students of color to organize social justice efforts comes even as the public university builds a $10 million center for black students and others in the center of campus. The new center is considered a "multicultural" one open to all students, but is under construction at the behest of a student group called Being Black at the University of Michigan, whose members complained that black students are marginalized because the original multicultural center they use is located on the outskirts of campus. In their demands, students explain why the new multicultural student center is not enough, "because we want a space solely dedicated to community organizing and social justice work specifically for people of color."

Voluntary, self-imposed apartheid. Who knew ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 05:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336090 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do they get their own water fountains and lunch counters? Special seating on the bus?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 7:35 Comments || Top||

#2  "Students4JusticePower"

[FIFY]

Let's see the weenie administrators cave while tripping over their white guilt mentality.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey, here's an idea. Let's use police and soldiers to keep the white kids out.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 02/25/2017 9:35 Comments || Top||

#4  White protests against this form of apartheid would most likely collapse these institutions and lead to a firing of many college administrators.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/25/2017 13:16 Comments || Top||

#5  How things change...

Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/25/2017 14:25 Comments || Top||

#6  "Us niggaz," sez Amos to Andy,
"Is pimps. We'll pull bitches with candy!"
"Yo cracka ass, Amos,
Is gonna be famous --
Dis Democrat hustle is dandy!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 21:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Disclaimer: I refer to the radio originals, not the wonderful black-cast TV version; Amos refers to himself and Andy (and probably Kingfish), not to the race in toto.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 22:10 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Flynn resigns after Mattis and Kelly repeatedly steal his lunch money
h/t IMAO
[Duffelblog] President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn has resigned his post amid constant bullying from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, sources confirmed.

The two retired Marine generals pushed the former intelligence chief repeatedly in the halls of The White House, and at least one stole Flynn’s lunch money on a daily basis.

In letter of resignation, Flynn mentioned that Mattis and Kelly would snap towels at him in the cabinet locker room while referring to his butt cheeks as "Boris and Natasha."

Though Flynn admitted that he gave Vice President Mike Pence and others "incomplete information" about his calls with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Flynn explained that he actually reached out to Ambassador Sergey Kislyak for lessons in the Russian martial art of sambo.

"I was just tired of those two jocks pushing me around," said Flynn in his letter. "They haven’t left me alone in nearly a month."

Flynn further complained Mattis once pinned him against a wall in the White House and told him that "integrity was like virginity," and Flynn was "likely going to give up both."

Likewise, Kelly was accused of pushing the national security adviser to tears during a national security briefing after detailing a racy encounter he allegedly had with a Russian mail-order bride that turned out to be Flynn’s mother.

"Those guys are just dicks," said Flynn. "I quit."

Both Mattis and Kelly were unavailable for comment as calls to their offices resulted in nothing but raucous laughter.

Bonus Story:

Army Welcomes First Openly Transgender Military Working Dogs


Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 05:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Huh, didn't get stuffed in a locker at recess?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  No "swirley" or it didn't happen.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 02/25/2017 13:56 Comments || Top||

#3  The little story about the transgender dog and the refusal of the Old Guard at Arlington Hall to let an "openly transgendered" mare pull the Presidential Caisson...

I'm sorry, I've been cleaning coffee off my computer and my desk for almost an hour...
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/25/2017 14:32 Comments || Top||

#4  flynn got it. His replacement is another idiot from the "nothing to do with islam let's win the hearts and mind" failure brigade.

ie: exactly the problem that people voted trump in to get rid of.

there is no clearer indication that Trump has not been able to succeed. It is obviously impossible for civilian elected governments to actually change US policy.
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 18:27 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Most scientists 'can't replicate studies by their peers'
h/t Instapundit
...From his lab at the University of Virginia's Centre for Open Science, immunologist Dr Tim Errington runs The Reproducibility Project, which attempted to repeat the findings reported in five landmark cancer studies.

"The idea here is to take a bunch of experiments and to try and do the exact same thing to see if we can get the same results."

You could be forgiven for thinking that should be easy. Experiments are supposed to be replicable.

The authors should have done it themselves before publication, and all you have to do is read the methods section in the paper and follow the instructions.
Sadly nothing, it seems, could be further from the truth.

After meticulous research involving painstaking attention to detail over several years (the project was launched in 2011), the team was able to confirm only two of the original studies' findings.
Long live collegiality and affirmative action!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 04:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Experiments are supposed to be replicable.

Oh, come on, that was in the racist homophobe white patriarchy Western Civilization model. In the era of the modern Soviet Man person, it's all about feelings not reason. If you feel it should have come out as you wanted, it does.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:21 Comments || Top||

#2  More proof that the so called "Science" peddled by the left is just garbage.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 10:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Experiments are supposed to be replicable.

You don't get grant money for replicating experiments.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/25/2017 12:10 Comments || Top||

#4  I suspect the replicability problem arises from drawing conclusions from small data variations and believing they are meaningful even though the variations are less than the level of uncertainty. We think we know more than we know.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/25/2017 13:04 Comments || Top||

#5  You mean there is now Fake Science?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/25/2017 13:14 Comments || Top||

#6  I suspect the main problem is medical doctors doing research who don't understand how to run a proper double blind experiment, and a few other things like confirmation bias.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/25/2017 14:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Think there may be a cross-field issue.

People might not be expert in all of the sub-sets of the project space and misinterpret what they're seeing.

I'm old enough to remember Cold Fusion. Turned out that the Chemists who did the original project didn't fully understand all the nuances of the particle physics that were involved. In that case science worked properly and all data and methods were made available to others to replicate the results..........
Posted by: AlanC || 02/25/2017 14:42 Comments || Top||

#8  AlanC, Cold Fusion is probably not a good example. F&P found a real phenomena, replicated dozens of times since. Their error was to attribute it to 'fusion' and not realize impurities in their Platinum was crucial to the experiment working. Which was why initial attempts at replication failed.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/25/2017 19:58 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
ISIS may develop regional power base in Northwest of Afghanistan: ISW
[Khaama Press] The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group may develop a regional power base in northwestern Afghanistan, the Institute for the Study of War has said in a report, citing the recent activities by the terror group northern parts of the country.
The institute particularly pointed towards the recent killing of ICRC workers and abduction of some of their workers in northern Jawzjan province.

According to ISW, the loyalists of the terror group may particularly use the opportunity provided to them with the absence of the Junbish-e-Millie fighters led by the Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum.
"ISIS’s expansion in the region comes as First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, who maintains significant influence in the North through his Junbish Militia, remains confined to his home surrounded by his militia in Kabul City following a scandal involving the alleged assault of former Jowzjan Provincial Governor Ahmad Eschi in November 2016 by his bodyguards," the US-based think tank said in a report. The report further added that "The lack of reported Junbish militia action to combat ISIS-linked militants in Northern Afghanistan may represent the absence of Junbish militias. Alternatively, Dostum may be sanctioning the expansion of ISIS in the region in order to demonstrate his significance to Afghan security in an attempt to relieve the political pressure to prosecute him for the alleged assault."

Meanwhile, the ANSF is currently undergoing a U.S.-led force regeneration process during their 2016-2017 winter campaign. The Afghan National Unity Government has historically relied on a joint force of ANSF units and Junbish militiamen to provide security in northwestern Afghanistan. The lessened presence of Dostum’s militia while the ANSF rests and refits units may be granting ISIS-linked militants increased freedom of movement in the region," the report added.

This comes as the Afghan officials have long been expressing concerns regarding the attempts being made by the ISIS loyalists to expand in northern parts of the country as they look to infiltrate further into the Central Asian States.null
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 01:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Culture Wars
Starbucks' 'Brand Perception' Takes A Massive Hit After Announcing Plans To Hire 10,000 Refugees
[Zero] About a month ago, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz decided to 'take a stand' in defiance of Trump's immigration executive order and penned a message to the world vowing, among other things, to hire 10,000 refugees over the next 5 years and "build bridges, not walls, with Mexico". Here are some excerpts from the politically charged message drafted by Schultz with "deep concern and a heavy heart":

Sorry Mr. Schultz. You've taken it a bit too far this time.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 01:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, their coffee is lousy.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 4:02 Comments || Top||

#2  ... Clearly, Mr Schultz knows nothing.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/25/2017 7:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe it's because liberal bots don't buy coffee?
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4  As part of their new "Build Bridges, Not Walls" campaign, CEO Schultz announced Starbucks' latest coffee blend, Arnhem Bridge.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/25/2017 10:18 Comments || Top||

#5  In my neck of the woods the morning lines at McDonalds and Duncan have gotten much longer.
Posted by: jvalentour || 02/25/2017 10:41 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't have time for your jerkoff politics, your jerkoff pretense, your jerkoff "baristas," or your jerkoff coffee.

Stay out of Malibu Lebowski!
Posted by: Regular joe || 02/25/2017 13:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Howard let's see, I'd like my coffee with...out an attitude please.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/25/2017 13:12 Comments || Top||

#8  "You need to buy our product, you ignorant, bigoted infidel!"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 13:14 Comments || Top||

#9  I must confess, even if it is over roasted, I like Starbucks. But coffee is one of the few things McDonalds does right. Coffee and the Egg McMuffin.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/25/2017 13:33 Comments || Top||

#10  "But coffee is one of the few things McDonalds does right."

Really? I cannot stand McDonald's coffee, it's too %*#$ hot! I have to wait a half hour or longer to get it to cool down enough so I can drink it.

Result, I can never find the time to wait to drink the coffee and still get to work on time, so I never buy it anymore.

Sorry Abu Uluque, I must respectfully disagree with you on this subject.

P.s. I make my own drip coffee at home, it's cheaper and taste better anyway.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 02/25/2017 15:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Really? I cannot stand McDonald's coffee, it's too %*#$ hot!

I thought they learned that lesson.
Posted by: Clusong Uloth8937 || 02/25/2017 18:15 Comments || Top||

#12  ^ oooops that was me.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 18:15 Comments || Top||

#13  Kinda wish I drank coffee so my boycott of Starbucks would have some effect.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/25/2017 19:05 Comments || Top||

#14  Lots of reasons to avoid Starbucks. Not sure this is one. The 'defiance' thing is stupid, but hiring refugees (presumably ones here legally) is not an odious thing to do.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/25/2017 19:34 Comments || Top||

#15  I read the Starbucks sales are off 50%. If that is true it couldn't happen to a nicer guy and I hope the franchisees sue him for their loss of business.
Posted by: Glaise Bumble7972 || 02/25/2017 20:09 Comments || Top||

#16  Seems everyone I've mentioned this Starbucks hiring 15000 refugees thing to has switched to other venues for their brew.

The boycott seems to resonate particularly with folks that don't like paying almost $3 for a large cup of coffee that you can make at home for about $0.25.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/25/2017 21:33 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Crime Increasing in California After 'Prison Reform'
[PJ] Out here on the Left Coast, it is beginning to dawn on people that when you release criminals from custody in the name of "prison reform," it is only the prisons themselves that are reformed. The criminals, those who are ushered out the prison gates into an unwary society, remain as un-reformed as ever.

For proof of this, I present as Exhibit A one Michael C. Mejia, age 26, who stands accused of murdering two people in Southern California, one of them a police officer. Police allege that on Monday morning Mejia killed his cousin, Roy Torres, in East Los Angeles and stole his car. Later, while driving the stolen car in Whittier, a suburb about 12 miles southeast of downtown L.A., Mejia rear-ended another car. When police responded to the report of a minor traffic accident, Mejia opened fire on them, killing Officer Keith Boyer and wounding Officer Patrick Hazell. Mejia was himself wounded in the gun battle but is expected to survive.

In recent years, California has enacted a series of reforms to its criminal justice system, the net effect of which has been the lowering of the state’s prison population. In 2011, the state legislature passed Assembly Bill 109, which brought about a so-called "realignment" in penal responsibilities, shifting some of them from the state to the counties. Since AB 109’s enactment, some felons who would have served time in state prisons are now housed in county jails. Also, some parolees who would have been under the supervision of state parole officers are now monitored by county probation departments. Mejia, about whom more later, was one such parolee.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 01:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, just the fact that the example killed a cop and wounded another says to me that the only reform he should have is transitioning from walking erect to becoming vertical plant/worm food.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The 'cause -> effect' perception is not found in Leftist culture.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  I guess reality doesn't get through the rose-colored glasses filter.
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Everyone involved in the Criminal Law system knew this would be the result. Californians just want to believe the happy talk from Brown. More will die unnecessarily in the future. These are dangerous felons!
Posted by: Sgt.D.T. || 02/25/2017 14:39 Comments || Top||

#5  More will die unnecessarily in the future.

But they will still vote democrat (some for the first time...) - and that is all that counts!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/25/2017 17:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Everyone involved in the Criminal Law system knew this would be the result.


I have a State of Californicate corrections officer who lives down the street from me that comes by for a chat once in awhile and is really great guy. He said while they were debating this thing in Sacramento that this was going to be the net result...said I needed to buy a large caliber handgun and practice.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/25/2017 21:37 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's Coptic Christians flee North Sinai, Church condemns attacks
[AlAhram] Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church issued a statement on Friday condemning "the repeated terrorist attacks targeting Egyptian Christians in North Sinai," which the Church says are aimed at harming national unity and the united front against terrorism.

On Thursday, Ahram Arabic news website reported the killing of a Christian Egyptian by unknown gunnies on the roof of his house in North Sinai's El-Arish, the eighth report attack on Copts in two weeks.

The Church has expressed its condolences over the attacks, stressing that it is in continuous contact with local officials as well as the bishop of North Sinai in order to provide support and contain the consequences of the attacks.

In the past few days, churches in Ismailia city have received Coptic families who escaped El-Arish for fear of being targeted.
The Times of Israel adds a good deal of flesh to those bare bones:
Suspected Islamic snuffies bumped off a Coptic Christian man and stabbed his daughter to death inside his home in northern Sinai, the seventh such killing in a month’s time in the restive region, officials and a Christian priest said Friday, prompting hundreds of Christians to flee from the area for fear of being targeted next.

The snuffies stormed the home of Kamel Youssef, a plumber, on Thursday and shot him to death in front of his wife and children in the town of el-Arish, said two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
because they were not authorized to talk to news hounds. Militants then kidnapped and stabbed his daughter before dumping her body near a cop shoppe, a priest in the city said. It wasn’t immediately possible to confirm his account.

A spate of killings by suspected snuffies have spread fears among the Coptic community in el-Arish as families left their homes after reportedly receiving threats on their cellphones.

A day before Youssef’s killings, snuffies killed a Coptic Christian man and burned his son alive, then dumped their bodies on a roadside in el-Arish. Three others Christians in Sinai were killed earlier, either in drive-by shooting or with snuffies storming their homes and shops.

The priest told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that he blamed lax security and that he himself has left the city for fear of being killed. He said that some 1,000 other Christians have also left.

"You feel like this is all meant to force us to leave our homes," he said. "We became like refugees."

Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population, have increasingly come under attack since the military’s overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. A top target of Islamic bandidos hard boyz throughout the years, the Christians heavily supported the army-chief-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and his security crackdown on Islamists since Morsi’s removal.

The priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said a total of 30 Christians -- including Coptic soldiers -- have been killed since then, including two priests.

Since then, there have been waves of Christian displacement. The first one was from the town of Rafah when the only church, The Holy Family, was looted, torched and destroyed in several Death Eater attacks. The church is built on the site where Christians believe the Holy Family first stopped to rest after crossing into Egypt. Subsequent waves followed Death Eaters’ threats in past years. According to the priest, less than 1,000 remain.

Since 2013, Islamic snuffies have carried out several suicide kabooms across Egypt, mainly against the police and the army. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
in December, an IS-affiliated jacket wallah went kaboom! inside a landmark Cairo church, killing around 30 worshippers, mostly women.

That attack marked a turn in the Sunni Death Eater group’s strategy as Christians became its top targets. The bandidos hard boyz have used Christians’ support for el-Sissi as a pretext to increase attacks against them
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 01:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Texas Gov. Wants to Criminally Prosecute Officials Who Adopt Sanctuary City Policies
[Free Beacon] Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said on Thursday that he is seeking to pass a law which would put government officials behind bars for enacting sanctuary city policies.

"Texas is going to come down hard on any city, any county, any public official that adopts a sanctuary city policy," Abbot said on "Fox and Friends."

He said the law would "impose real penalties," including fines up to $9 million per year and the "possibility of criminal penalties for public officials who adopt sanctuary city policies."

Abbott said he would pass an anti-sanctuary law in the coming months.

"Fox and Friends" co-host Steve Doocy asked Abbott to clarify whether a particular Texas county sheriff with allegedly lax immigration enforcement could be arrested under Abbott's new law.

Abbott confirmed that statement, and said officials, including sheriffs, could "wind up in jail, the place where they are releasing dangerous criminals from."
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 01:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  YES!!!
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 1:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Abbott confirmed that statement, and said officials, including sheriffs, could "wind up in jail, the place where they are releasing dangerous criminals from."
Posted by: Beldar Hupeper7710 || 02/25/2017 1:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Felony Perjury... Did you swear to uphold the law when sworn in (Y/N)? Case closed.
Posted by: magpie || 02/25/2017 2:20 Comments || Top||

#4  "When Adam delved, and Eve span - who was then the gentleman?"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 4:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Why, just remove their 'immunity of office' when they act in conflict with laws of the state and nation, under aiding and abetting. An illegal kills, assaults, rapes while given protection in a sanctuary city, allow the families to sue the officials who created the environment that attracted the perps. Win a couple of those and the problem will disappear over night.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Intrastate bullying.
Let's see suspension of interstate commerce.
Then we'll know he means it.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 9:44 Comments || Top||

#7  We need a federal law for states like California. I'd love to see Moonbeam surrounded by federal marshals doing the perp walk.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/25/2017 13:14 Comments || Top||

#8  I am curious, since they claim they are not required to enforce federal immigration laws, are they also immune from the enforcement of any federal law that isn't mirrored in their state of local jurisdiction? Surely there is some precedent for concurrent jurisdiction when a witness to direct violation of federal law (illegal alien status, or perhaps illegal documentation like fraudulent SS numbers, benefit/healthcare use)?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/25/2017 13:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Do we want to win? This is how we win
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/25/2017 16:36 Comments || Top||

#10  #4 "When Adam delved, and Eve span - who was then the gentleman?"

The hare saw a tomcat. "I'll grab it!"
She bare him (the hussy!) a cabbit.
If Bob wears a habit
And drags it in drabbit,
Then why can't a Bess be an abbot?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 21:48 Comments || Top||


Europe
France's Rehabs For Jihadis Deemed ‘A Total Fiasco'
[Daily Caller] France’s attempts to deradicalize jihadis have been a complete failure, a parliamentary report reveals.

The country moved to open 12 deradicalization facilities last fall where jihadis could go through a year-long personalized program. The centers, along with a number of other measures, have now been deemed a "total fiasco."
"It’s a total fiasco. Everything requires a total rethink," conservative senator Philippe Bas said Thursday. "Everything must be started from scratch."
The facilities were meant to help individuals who are "looking for a way out" by offering group activities and workshops on religion and the French Republic. The only center currently up and running costs more than $2.6 million per year without having a single tenant.
Related - France Launches first Rehab Facility for Jihadis (Video).
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 00:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here is my shocked face:

Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Have you tried the Vlad Tepes method? How about the Zanzibar approach?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 4:17 Comments || Top||

#3  g(r)om, given the circumstances I think Vlad is a better model but the Zanzibar approach doesn't seem to fit the French environment, Sweden on the other hand........
Posted by: AlanC || 02/25/2017 7:10 Comments || Top||

#4  offering group activities, midnight basketball soccer, and workshops on religion and the French Republic.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2017 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, don't forget the camel recreation park.
Huh, camel/carnel, never saw that before.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 18:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Witches Unite to Cast ‘Binding Spell' on Trump and Followers
[Breitbart] A group of witches is attempting to use black magic to neutralize U.S. President Donald Trump by casting a "binding spell" to prevent him from governing.
The "mass spell to bind Donald Trump" will be performed at midnight on every waning crescent moon beginning Friday, February 24, "until Donald Trump is removed from office," the group’s website states.

The mass ritual will allegedly be repeated again March 26, April 24, May 23, June 21 (the summer solstice), July 21, and August 19.

The spell also invokes evil on "those who abet" Trump, which would seem to appear to cover his staff and political nominees, and perhaps the millions who voted for him as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 00:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 3:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Inherited money means some people have way too much time on their hands. And far too little real knowledge.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/25/2017 3:54 Comments || Top||

#3  so stooopid

that they think it actually works is so primitive and stupid
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 5:00 Comments || Top||

#4  It seems to be working on me.

Wait, no. It was just gas.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/25/2017 7:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Thomas Newton to the courtesy phone.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Not Cotton Mather?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 9:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Looks like the spell cast on the anti-Trump faction has really taken effect.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/25/2017 10:10 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry, Trump and his followers made their saving throw.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 10:45 Comments || Top||

#9  They turned me into a newt!

Wait - I got better...
Posted by: Raj || 02/25/2017 12:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Buuuuuurrrrrrrnnnn the witch!
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 14:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Wait MM, does she float?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/25/2017 14:44 Comments || Top||

#12  grom that was a great bit of music, i loved the harp
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 16:49 Comments || Top||

#13  :-)
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 16:58 Comments || Top||

#14  He's an accomplished harpist anon1. He plays it with his toes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 17:29 Comments || Top||

#15  “I’m rubber and you are glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.”

That should be enough to take care of it.
Posted by: Flolung Unolutch1828 || 02/25/2017 20:35 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hezbollah Navy Frightens ‘Israel’
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] In addition to the huge rocketry arsenal, Hezbollah possesses major navy capabilities which represents a serious threat for the Zionist entity during any upcoming war, Israeli reports mentioned.

The reports added that Hezbollah can launch anti-ship missiles which are able to threaten not only the seashore oil platforms but also the trade ships which transport 90% of the entity’s goods.

Hezbollah navy can also use boats to attack the Paleostinian coast and the Zionist ships, according to the reports which noted that the part would use the navy power to control Galilee and carry out surprising attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Any estimates on how many minutes it would take Israel to completely annihilate this Hezbollah "navy"?
Posted by: Dave D. || 02/25/2017 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  'Israel' - Heh. Resistance by Punctuation™
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2017 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  "Minutes"? You meant "seconds"?

Looks like Baghdad Bob found a new job.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 02/25/2017 15:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Um... to get their from the Persian gulf they would either have to get Egypt to agree and use the canal, or go all around Africa.

And those anti-ship missiles are expensive. They have 10,000+ to knock out 90% of the shipping and oil platforms?

I mean I like some good old fashioned chest thumping we-are-so-fucking-awesome propaganda... but man this is bordering on a wank fantasy.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 19:51 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Five Ukrainian soldiers wounded in Donetsk fighting


Both sides in the civil war in southeastern Ukraine have stepped up fighting, resulting in five more wounded Ukrainian soldiers on Friday, according to Russian language news reports..

According to a news account in lb.ua, one Ukrainian soldier was killed in action on Thursday.

The news article reported that Russian backed militants fired mortar strikes on Ukrainian positions at Vodyaskoye, near Mariupol near the Sea of Azov. There also was a report of a rebel BMP-2 firing on Ukrainian positions at Shirokino.

Near Donetsk city, rebel forces fired mortar fire on Zaitsevo, which is north of Gorlovka, and on Troitskoye and Avdievka, which is south.

A separate news account in lb.ua said that work in the water filtration plant near Yasinovataya has stopped and personnel have been evacuated due to rebel fire. The plant serves both sides on the line, Ukrainian and rebel, including Avdievka and Krasnogorovka on the Ukrainian side, and in Donetsk city, Yasinovataya, Vasilevka and Spartak.

According to the report a projectile hit the plant, leading to the decision to stop work. In recent days the work at the plant has stopped due to power outages caused by mortar fire.

Rebels claim the plant was hit eight times with 122mm artillery, which was fired from Ukrainian occupied Avdievka and Kamenka, according to a news release from the Donetsk ministry of defense.

Rebel media reported that direct fire combat took place in a number of different areas along the line of contact. Among them was along the Svetodarsk arc, which is directly north of Logvinovo, where rebel forces have parts of a rifle company dug in.

Exchanges of mortars and small arms fire have been reported in Gorlovka, Spartak and at the Donetsk airport.

In Novoazovskiy, which is on the coast of the Sea of Azov, mortar fire and small arms combat have been reported
Posted by: badanov || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraqi warplanes strike Daesh positions in Syria
[AA.TR] Iraqi warplanes have struck a number of sites associated with the ISIS terrorist group inside Syrian territory, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Friday.

"We ordered our air force to strike terrorist targets in Husaybah [in Iraq’s western Anbar province] and in Abu Kamal inside Syria," al-Abadi said in a statement broadcast on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Located on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border, the city of Abu Kamal is in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.

According to al-Abadi, the targeted sites -- both in Iraq and Syria -- had served as "staging areas" for recent terrorist attacks in Baghdad.

"These sites were the staging areas for the recent terrorist bombings in the capital," the prime minister asserted.

Last week, ISIS grabbed credit for a massive boom-mobile that killed dozens of people in Baghdad’s eastern al-Bayaa district.

Iraqi warplanes had struck their targets "with great success", al-Abadi said without elaborating.

In a statement issued Friday morning, the Iraqi army’s Joint Operations Command confirmed that Iraqi F-16s had struck several ISIS targets inside Syrian territory.

It is the first time for Iraqi military aircraft to target ISIS positions outside of Iraq since the terrorist group overran vast swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria in mid-2014.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Terror Networks
ISIL Forcing Children, Disabled into Suicide Cars
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] ISIS Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
s are forcing children and disabled people into explosives-laden trucks and making them drive at Iraqi security forces in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, a general from the US-led coalition has said.

The barbaric tactic, coupled with other increasingly desperate battlefield measures, is a sign the ISIS group knows defeat is inevitable, officials say.

The holy warriors have used exploding trucks, known in military circles as VBIEDs -- vehicle-borne improvised bombs -- and pronounced "Vee-Bids," to devastating effect in numerous engagements during the Mosul offensive and elsewhere in Iraq.

Speaking to AFP and other news hounds in Baghdad this week, US Air Force Brigadier General Matt Isler said the ISIS group had adopted coercive new techniques in its use of suicide boom-mobiles because the Takfiris appear to be running out of willing drivers.

"We saw people being led to a VBIED, being put in (it) and being chained in the VBIED," he said.

"We’ve seen children put in VBIEDs as drivers, people that aren’t able to walk... I don’t know if they signed up for this service."

The coalition has often seen VBIEDs depart on missions, only for their drivers to veer off course and attempt to hide behind structures.

"We see a VBIED going to its attack, going off and hiding," Isler said.

We see a party going to find the AWOL VBIED driver, we see (IS) command and control trying to figure out where their VBIED driver’s gone, we’ve seen multiple VBIED drivers going AWOL."

The coalition first saw drivers being chained into trucks when Iraqi security forces approached the Tigris river as they cleared eastern Mosul, Isler said.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Culling the herd.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 17:59 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Erdogan Aide: Turkey Neither to Cooperate with Assad Nor to Move Him by Force
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Anakra is not going to cooperate with Damascus, neither it seeks to forcibly remove Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
from power, Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Turkish President Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
, told the RT broadcaster in an interview.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has repeatedly called for Assad departure as it supports terrorist group fighting the Syrian government.

"Turkey is not going to go into a confrontation and moving Assad by force. That is why Turkey, Russia and Iran are holding the Astana talks, so, here using force against Assad, I do not think, is on board," Cevik said.

According to Cevik, Turkey will never cooperate with Assad and this issue is out of question.

The second round of negotiations brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran on the Syrian crisis in Astana took place on February 15-16. The talks resulted in the agreement of the participants to set up a ceasefire monitoring group including Iran, Russia and Turkey, that would report to the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  An alternative approach to the usual Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 12:04 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen’s Saleh Threatens Saudi-led Coalition States with Unprecedented Missile Attacks
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Yemen’s Saleh Threatens Saudi-led Coalition States with Unprecedented Missile Attacks

Ex-President 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...
threatened states taking part in the Saudi-led coalition waging aggression on 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...
with unprecedented missile attacks.

During a meeting with his General People’s Congress party members, Saleh addressed Riyadh as saying: "You have seen just a little of or missiles, it’s just inconsiderable. We haven’t yet fired the long-range missiles."

Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Don Calamari's lawyer was getting even redder in the face...
the former president firmly denied any Iranian presence in Yemen, addressing Gulf Arab states as saying: "You have borders with Iran, go and settle your problems with Iran. Don’t settle them through killing Yemeni children and women."
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  Pop-corn, get your pop-corn here!!
Posted by: AlanC || 02/25/2017 7:14 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Top Philippine Drug war Critic Arrested, but Defiant
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The highest-profile critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war was incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
Friday on charges she said were meant to silence her, but she vowed to keep fighting the "sociopathic serial killer".

Speaking to journalists minutes before armed police in flak jackets detained her, Senator Leila de Lima insisted she was innocent of the drug trafficking charges that could see her tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
for life.

"It is my honor to be imprisoned for the things I am fighting for. Please pray for me," De Lima, 57, said outside her Senate office where she had sought temporary refuge overnight after an arrest warrant was issued Thursday.

"They will not be able to silence me and stop me from fighting for the truth and justice and against the daily killings and repression by the Duterte regime."

De Lima also recorded a polemical video just before her arrest as she called for ordinary Filipinos to show courage and oppose Duterte’s drug war, which has seen more than 6,500 people killed since he took office eight months ago.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Narcos


China-Japan-Koreas
Malaysia Warns N. Korea Envoy: Quit Lying or Face Expulsion
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Malaysia warned North Korea’s outspoken ambassador Friday he would be thrown out of the country if he continues to "spew lies" over the investigation into the liquidation of Kim Jong-Nam.

Malaysia Foreign Minister Anifah Aman lashed out at Kang Chol, the envoy of the Stalinist state, who has said "we cannot trust the investigation by the Malaysian police".

Kang has also claimed the probe is politically motivated and that Malaysia had conspired with South Korea to frame the North.

But Anifah cautioned Kang he should watch what he says.

"He must enjoy the confidence of the government of Malaysia," Anifah said.

"I hope he understands by what I mean by he must enjoy the confidence of the government of Malaysia."

Anifah added: "The ambassador has been informed of the process involved (in the police investigation) but he continues to be delusional and spew lies and accusations against the government of Malaysia."

A senior Malaysian government official said Kang had been shown a "yellow card", adding: "If he repeats the baseless allegations, he will be expelled."

Kang has already been summoned to the foreign ministry for a dressing down over the ongoing spat.

Anifah said friendly relations "must be reciprocated".

The two countries did have relatively warm ties, with some bilateral trade and citizens from both countries entitled to travel to the other under a unique reciprocal visa-free deal.

But relations have rapidly soured since the extraordinary murder of Kim Jong-Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13 by twin assassins armed with the nerve agent VX, listed by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Now that's a real threat.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Kim Jong Nom warns N Korea Envoy in Malaysia: Keep lying or face extinction
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:22 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Interpol refuses to issue red warrant against Altaf
[DAWN] Interpol has refused to issue a red warrant against MQM founder the increasingly roundedAltaf Hussain
..The head of MQM in Pakistain, who has lived in London and hasn't laid eyes on Pakistain since Caesar made corporal. Judging from the size of him,he may be a Hutt...
, saying it does not intervene in political and religious matters of a state.

A bigwig of the interior ministry told Dawn on condition of anonymity on Friday that Interpol had sought a clarification from the government over the request for issuance of the red warrant against Mr Hussain, besides asking for details of the sedition charges against him.

The official said the Interpol communication was being examined at the highest level and would be responded to over the next two weeks.

An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated to communicate information about crimes, criminals and threats from police in a member state or an authorised international entity to their counterparts around the world. The information disseminated via notices concerns individuals wanted for serious crimes, missing persons, unidentified bodies, possible threats, prison escapes and criminals’ modus operandi.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Lahore DHA blast was an 'accident' caused by cylinder explosion: Rana Sanaullah
[DAWN] 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....

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday that the blast in Lahore's DHA area a day earlier was not an act of terror but an "accident", as forensic samples collected from the site had shown that the blast was a cylinder kaboom.

Six samples collected from the building where the blast that killed 10 people took place did not contain traces of explosives, he told a news conference, quoting a forensics laboratory report.

"Yesterday's kaboom was an accident and not a terrorist or explosives blast," he said.

He said the collected samples had hinted at a gas leakage and shown presence of cylinders in the building.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Economy
Oil prices fall due to rising US crude inventories
World oil prices are declining Feb.24 after the report about the growing volume of US crude inventories over the last week.

The price of April futures for Brent crude oil has decreased by 0.71 percent to $56.18 per barrel as of 04:48 EST. The price of April futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil has dropped by 0.57 percent to $54.14 per barrel.

US crude stocks grew by 564,000 barrels over the week ending on Feb.17, according to the country’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). This is while analysts expected an increase of 3.5 million barrels. The commercial crude stocks in the US (excluding the strategic reserve) have increased by 9.5 million barrels or 1.9 percent and stood at 518.1 million barrels over the week ending Feb.10.

In its This Week in Petroleum Report, EIA said that the WTI price was $53.41 per barrel on February 17, or $0.43 below last week’s price but $23.82 above a year ago.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Welcome to free enterprise. Relatively unfettered free enterprise.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/25/2017 11:03 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
108 kilograms of heroin seized from bus in south Turkey
[AA.TR] Four suspects have been detained after more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of heroin were seized from a passenger bus in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's southern Adana province early Friday, according to a police official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to media, said police and Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department teams acted on a tip-off to stop the vehicle, which had departed from eastern Van province.

The 108 kilograms of heroin, as well as 120 cartons of contraband cigarettes, were found in packets in a hidden compartment in the lower part of an auxiliary seat.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  I guess the Oscars will have to be called off now!
Posted by: Crinegum Ulaigum2776 || 02/25/2017 7:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
ISIS militant shot dead before attacking Afghan forces in Nangarhar
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A holy warrior affiliated with the loyalists of 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....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group was killed before attacking the Afghan forces in eastern 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.

The provincial police commandment said the incident took place in Abdul Khel area of Achin district as the Afghan forces were busy checking the traffic in a check post.

The ISIS holy warrior attempted to open fire on the security forces after coming out of a vehicle but was rubbed out by the security forces, the local officials said.

The anti-government armed holy warrior groups including the loyalists of ISIS terrorist group have not commented regarding the report so far.

This comes as the Afghan forces are busy conducting the Shaheen-25 clearance operations to root out the presence of the loyalists of the terror group from the restive Nangarhar province.

The local officials said Thursday at least 18 foreign turbans belonging to ISIS terrorist group were killed in a series of air and ground operations in this province in the past 24 hours.

The operations against the terror group was launched amid concerns that attempts are being to turn the province into a regional operational base to expand their activities and insurgency in the country.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Someone a little slow on target uptake, maybe a little slow on the trigger?
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 02/25/2017 20:53 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Armed Robber Shot in Nether Regions by Armed Jogger
[Free Beacon] An armed robber was shot in the crotch while trying to rob a Texas man who was on a jog Wednesday.

"While it is still early in the investigation, detectives believe that the victim, a man in his 20s, was jogging to a local gym in the area," the Arlington Police Department said in a release. "The victim noticed a pickup truck that appeared to be following him and circle in front of him in a business parking lot. The victim reported that a suspect, later determined to be a juvenile, exited from the passenger side of the pickup and pointed a firearm at him while demanding his property."

That’s when police say the jogger pulled a gun from his backpack and opened fire on the armed robber. He hit the robber at least once somewhere in the crotch. Officials wouldn't say exactly where in the crotch the robber was hit.

"We are not going to get that specific on injuries," Christopher Cook, Arlington Police Department spokesman, told the Washington Free Beacon.

The robber then fled the scene in the pickup truck which police later recovered. A suspect was later arrested and transported to the hospital. He was treated for a gunshot wound and then transported to a juvenile detention facility.

The intended victim of the robbery has not been charged with a crime but his case will be reviewed by the local district attorney.

"The victim was not licensed to carry a CONCEALED handgun," Cook said. "Texas law does allow the openly carry of firearms. He was carrying the handgun in a backpack. Investigators have not charged the victim with an offense. It will be referred to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office."
The robber sounds like a Darwin Award winner.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like a successful sex change operation courtesy Smith and Wesson.
Posted by: Slusons Scourge of the Giants3454 || 02/25/2017 1:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Everyone say it with me!

"He won't have the balls to do that again!"
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 1:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Not getting this. Jogging with a backpack. Put in a lot of miles in my younger days. When Uncle had me carrying a backpack, it would throw off my balance, hence the airborne shuffle. Much preferred having nothing back there.
The perp has the jogger covered. The jogger is too quick for him, dropping his pack and digging around in it for the hand gun which he then retrieves, arms, and then shoots the guy.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/25/2017 6:44 Comments || Top||

#4  ..appears the Perp thought the dude was digging in his backpack for the Benjamins. Surprise.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 9:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe a fanny pack?
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Investigators have not charged the victim with an offense. It will be referred to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office."

yeah, you go right at 'em, Sparky. Elected office?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2017 9:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Will he be allowed to use the ladies' restroom from now on?
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/25/2017 10:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Well the bull queens ar the state pen will find him.... convienant.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/25/2017 10:38 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
FSA 'in control of all neighborhoods' in Syria’s Al-Bab
[AA.TR] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
-backed Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
forces have taken control of all neighborhoods in Syria’s al-Bab, Turkish military said Friday.

In a statement, the Turkish Chief of General Staff said a sweep operation was ongoing to clear the northern strategic town of mines and explosives planted by ISIS terrorists.

A total of 230 residential areas and 1,925 square kilometers of land have been freed from the ISIS terror group in northern Syria since the onset last August of the Turkey-backed military operation in the region, it added.

Operation Euphrates Shield aims to provide security, support U.S.-led coalition forces and eliminate the terrorist presence along Syria’s northern border with Turkey.

The operation, which began on Aug. 24, relies heavily on Free Syrian Army fighters backed by Turkish artillery and air supports.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Great White North
Canadian province passes anti-Islamophobia motion
[AA.TR] The province of Ontario passed an anti-Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
motion Thursday as a similar motion has run into opposition at the federal government level.

The motion put forth by Liberal Member of the Provincial Parliament Nathalie Des Rosiers sets the standard to "stand against all forms of hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance" and censures "a growing tide of anti-Moslem rhetoric and sentiments".

It also condemns all forms of Islamophobia, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.

The passage of the motion is important because more than one-third of Canada’s population of 35 million lives in Ontario, which also has the largest number of Moslem-Canadians (146,000] and includes Toronto, the province’s capital and the country’s largest city. Ottawa, Canada’s capital, is also in Ontario.

Des Rosiers put forth the motion in December after a number of anti-Islamphobia incidents occurred in the Ottawa-Vanier area she represents in parliament.

They included anti-Moslem graffiti and women spit on for wearing their hijabs -- the traditional head covering for women.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  All we have to do is blow the road and rail bridges at Nipigon and the rail bridge at Minaki and we can isolate Ontario from the west. That way we won't have to put up with that Ontariariario nonsense any more.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 02/25/2017 21:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh (and thanks for your indulgence).

O Canada, land of the maple,
Where Cain wasn't hateful to Abel,
Where syrupy justice --
What sap wouldn't trust us? --
Knows evil's a stale Yankee fable.

Meh.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 21:27 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Two Turkish soldiers killed in ISIL suicide attack in al-Bab
Two Turkish soldiers have been killed in an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide attack in Syria’s al-Bab, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Feb. 24.

Yıldırım said the suicide attack targeted Turkish soldiers who were conducting road checks at the entrance of al-Bab. Two soldiers were killed in the attack while there were also wounded soldiers, he said.

Yıldırım also added that clean-up works in al-Bab were continuing with the utmost caution to prevent casualties due to the presence of hand-made explosives and bomb set-ups in the city.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa North
Egypt officials: Christian killed in Sinai, sixth in a month
Snip. Duplicate.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)


Arabia
Bahrainis Continue Challenging Regime’s Oppressive Measures
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Led by Sayyed Abdullah al-Ghuraiffi, Bahrainis flocked for three days to the mourning ceremony of the martyr Abdullah al-Ajouz in Nuwaidrat south of Manama.

Sayyed al-Ghuraiffi embraced the martyr’s father and offered him deep condolences over the martyrdom of his 21-year-old son who, as hundreds of Bahraini youths, was dogged by the regime’s troops.

In the northern town of Diraz, the regime troops banned the main Shia Friday prayers, pushing the locals to protest and chant slogans against the authorities’ measures.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  "We'll protest as long as our Iranian puppeteers and paymasters say! Uh, I mean...death to oppression!"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/25/2017 9:40 Comments || Top||


Britain
Another blow to BDS in British universities
[Ynet] Second university cancels the events of the anti-Israel 'Apartheid Week' due to pressure from Friends of Israel and Britannia's change in definition for anti-Semitism.

The University of Central Lancashire and University College London in Britannia were forced to cancel the Israel Apartheid Week events, which were supposed to take place next week, following the intervention of Friends of Israel associations in the UK.

The cancellation of these events is part of the struggle against the Israel boycott movement on campuses.

The main reason for the cancellation is the fact that Britannia has recently adopted a new definition of anti-Semitism that also includes incitement against Jews in the form of the demonization of Israel.

University College London announced on Thursday that it had decided to cancel the Apartheid Week event, organized by the Association of Paleostinian Students due to the fact that the group did not follow standard procedures.

The organizers of the event posted on their Facebook page: "Friends, you've heard of the blockades and harassments by Israeli soldiers. It is much worse. Apartheid did not die with South Africa. It is thriving and has become a normalized part of the oppression of the Paleostinians by the State of Israel."

Earlier this week, the Friends of Israel in the British Academy convinced the University of Central Lancashire to cancel Apartheid Week because it goes against the government's new definition of what is considered anti-Semitic.

Foreign Ministry front man Emmanuel Nachshon said in response: "We are delighted that Britannia stands at the forefront of the struggle against the boycott and BDS movements. Britannia's vigorous activity should serve as an example to all enlightened countries in the world."

In past years, many universities in the UK and worldwide held such apartheid events, which would usually serve as a stage for incitement against Israel.

Last year, the events at University College London turned violent and Jewish students were forced to barricade themselves in the dorms after pro-Paleostinian students threatened them and wreaked havoc on campus.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Lashing out at a man who opened the door for me
[TheGuardian] It was July 2014, Nashville Tennessee. I was walking into a gas station for a bottle of water when the man behind me stepped up to open the door for me. With that act of kindness, something inside me snapped and I flew into a blind rage. I began screaming at him at the top of my lungs.

“No, you can not open this door for me! You wouldn’t have opened it two years ago, so you damn sure can’t open it now!” I scowled and stormed away, completely enraged.

It was the third time that week that a man had done something polite for me. First a man had bought me a drink at a concert, and then there was the nice man who had helped me scoop up my groceries after I dropped my bag, and now this man with the door.

Thinner, smoother, better: in the era of retouching, that’s what girls have to be.
And a psychopath.
I know all this might leave you wondering if I had had a rough week, or a fight with my boyfriend or was in a terrible mood that had prompted me to lose my temper like that. The truth is more complicated.
She's trying to spin her version.
Two years before this, in July 2012, I weighed 365lb, which roughly translates into 26 stone. I was enormous, and had been my entire life. I grew up an obese kid, was an obese teenager, an obese young adult, and by my mid-40s I had ballooned into a hugely obese adult.

But that summer I started a massive journey to lose 220lb, or almost 16 stone, over the course of four and a half years. As I sit here today, I’m literally a third of the body mass I used to be. I am an average-sized woman who wears a size medium pretty much across the board. And, I am happy to report, I am also a fairly happy, confident person.
And a psychopath.
But that day I had just begun experimenting with regular-sized clothes, and I was not confident. I was uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable with the attention my new body was receiving, I was uncomfortable about new social circles, and I was uncomfortable with the unexpected boost to my career.
There's always Haagen Dazs...
I was uncomfortable but I didn’t know why. Everything seemed to be going so well. I should have been happy, but I wasn’t. And it wasn’t until I saw that man’s hand reach for the handle of that door that I knew why – and it pissed me off.

The idea that the size of my trousers had had anything to do with simple politeness was heartbreaking to me.

I had been disregarded, overlooked and ignored because of my size for so long that I didn’t even realise it until people started being nice to me – until, in other words, I was “normal sized”. No one had ever done those things for me before.

He opened that door for me because I wasn’t physically offensive to him, and I knew. And it was in that moment that I realised how terrible we are as a society to people, based solely on their appearance. This realisation broke me. It broke me in a way that I’ve never been broken before. He certainly didn’t deserve my outburst, but in that moment I couldn’t help myself.
That's what a psychopath would do.
The idea that the size of my trousers had had anything to do with simple politeness was heartbreaking to me. Never mind men actually asking me on dates, career advances, better opportunities and much cheaper clothes (big girls get done over by the fashion world).

In every pair of trousers I have ever owned, I have been the exact same person; with the same thoughts, abilities, talents, intellect and heart. I didn’t just magically become smart, funny, talented and pretty when I could buy smaller jeans. I’ve been in here the whole time. But very few took the time to see me.
Maybe coz they suspected you were a psychopath before you lost all that weight.
More at the link

Later in the article, she admires her smaller ass. I'm not kidding...
Posted by: badanov || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I Open the Door for Everyone. If you do not want to walk through it, then don't. I will close it in your face.
Posted by: newc || 02/25/2017 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds like she is hangry; stop at Burger King and cheer up.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/25/2017 5:56 Comments || Top||

#3  So, what she's saying is that men will do nice things for women they find attractive? Well blow me down, this is a shocking state of affairs.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 || 02/25/2017 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  People are my business, and I’ve learned a lot about them over the years. I’ve learned that I’ve never met one that wasn’t stunning. No matter what they looked like or what they weighed. I’ve never seen a face or body that I couldn’t find beauty in or a person who didn’t possess compassion, humour and love.

Except, of course, for the poor schmuck you howled at for being polite. Maybe he was stunning enough to have opened the door when you weighed 465 pounds.

I don't open doors for females anymore, unless I get there first - same as for males. My favorite female (Mrs. Bobby) is fine with that.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/25/2017 8:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Older ladies (without Secret Service servants escorts) and women with children.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, two years ago, it wouldn't have mattered if someone had opened the door for her, she couldn't have gotten through until the doorway or she was greased up.
8-o
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 02/25/2017 9:30 Comments || Top||

#7  She's got it all wrong. I wouldn't hold the door for her before because I couldn't make it around her fast a$$ in time.
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:37 Comments || Top||

#8  But very few took the time to see me. And you think they OWED you that? The world don't owe you SQUAT.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/25/2017 10:12 Comments || Top||

#9  If only women could see the inner Mercedes in our Hondas.
Posted by: charger || 02/25/2017 10:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Eh.. it wasnt because of your size that guys avoided, and continue to avoid you...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/25/2017 10:45 Comments || Top||

#11  These various men are not mind readers and they cannot anticipate your hang ups. They were just being nice. A thank you will do fine. There is still a vestige of politeness and civility in the South. Write Miss Manners next time before flying off at the handle.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/25/2017 13:06 Comments || Top||

#12  Something tells me it's always "that time of the month" with her.
Posted by: Regular joe || 02/25/2017 13:07 Comments || Top||

#13  Strong enough to hate others anonymously not strong enough to acknowledge she hates herself.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 18:31 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Israeli Enemy Fortifies Ramta Hilltop Post in Southern Lebanon
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] An Israeli military force, equipped with a number of bulldozers and cranes, has been fortifying Ramta hilltop post which is located in the occupied tip of the bordering Southern Lebanese village of Shebaa farms, NNA field news hound said on Friday.

The enemy works site currently witnesses paving of circular roads surrounding the post, setting up of earthen barricades, setting up of iron fences, as well as installation of spying and controlling devices.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Africa Horn
Gunmen kidnap Three Aid workers in central Somalia
An officail says three Somali aid workers with Save the Children charity were ‘abducted’ by suspected Al shabaab gunmen near Beledweyne town, central Somalia on Thursday. Reports said the aid workers of the Save the Children charity have been kidnapped while delivering humanitarian assistance to drought-hit families at Hajub area near Beledweyne.

It is yet unclear the motive behind the abduction of the aid workers, but local residents point the finger of the blame on Al shabaab who banned the aid agencies in their strongholds.
Golly. Who'd point the finger at them?
Save the Children charity, however has yet to comment on the kidnapping of the three Somali aid workers in Hiiraan region of central Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Army Controls over New Areas in Homs Countryside, Kills More Terrorists in Daraa
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian Army units operating in the eastern countryside of Homs established control over new areas in the eastern part of al-Bayarat and in the direction of the strategic mountain of al-Hayal in the western countryside of Tadmur (Palmyra) city.

SANA news hound in Homs said that army units, in cooperation with supporting forces, destroyed the last gatherings of ISIS in the gas pipelines area to the east of al-Bayarat area.

To the south of al-Bayarat, army units continued their operations in the direction of the strategic mountain of al-Hayal, achieving large advance towards the western versants of the mountain, killing and injuring a number of bandidos bandidos Death Eaters while the rest of them fled away eastwards.

The news hound added that a number of ISIS bad boyz were potted during the army’s intensive operations to the north of al-Bayarat area in which army restored control over the Aviation Towers area.

The news hound pointed out that members of the army’s engineering units dismantled, during the past few hours, hundreds of mines and bombs that were planted earlier by ISIS bandidos bandidos Death Eaters before they got killed or fled away due to the army’s strikes.

He added that heavy smoke billowed from the direction of Jazal oil field as a result of burning a number of wells and pipelines in the area by ISIS.

Daraa

Army and Armed Forces units thwarted attacks launched by bandidos bandidos Death Eaters from al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front on al-Manshia neighborhood in Daraa al-Balad area in Daraa city, according to a military source.

The source added that army units inflicted heavy losses upon al-Nusra bandidos bandidos Death Eaters and destroyed a number of their vehicles and boom-mobiles.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, February 25th, 2017


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed Maryland's draconian ban on ARs to stand using the standard that ARs are weapons of war. Similar firearms laws in New York and Connecticut enacted in the wake of the 2013 Sandy Hook massacre have since been upheld. I have read a lot of silly commentary on Facebook, where those who disagree with the court's decision hope that Trump's Supreme Court nominee will be approved in time to overturn those decisions.

My reaction is: Do I need to remind you of just how many Supreme Court nominees have ruled against their Republican nominators, going back to the 1930s?

And I am reminded of the saying in Patriot blogs: You can't vote your way out of these problems.

In the early days of this column, as the laws in New York and Maryland were taking effect, I noticed that prices for firearms there were not terribly out of line with those in free market states. But as time went on, prices reflected a distortion taking place. I saw firearms being peddled for a fraction of their value, the ads likely posted by law enforcement agents.

The reason I quit monitoring California was because of price/value distortions caused by laws passed in presumption of individual rights.

The 4th Circuit decision will not affect markets in free states. The Gun Control Act of 1968 has seen to that. The sole exception could be in states that have free markets but are directly adjacent to states with severely restrictive firearms laws.

A video has been circulating about firearms headspace. I have discussed headspacing for the AK-74 before in the context of extraction failures. The data presented may be a bit much for most gun owners, but may be helpful to those who live in restrictive firearms markets to get used or homemade firearms back into working condition.

Finally, Ken Lane has made a presentation over a video of a young man who drags his AR out of his vehicle's trunk after he sees a man with a "Trump for President" bumper sticker. There is no punchline to the video, but Lane does present a fair amount of advice in context of dealing with a hostile element.

Loads

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Prices for pistol ammunition were mostly steady. Prices for rifle ammunition were mostly steady.

Prices for used pistols were lower across the board. Prices for used rifles were mixed.

strong>New Lows:<

Pennsylvania: 9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic): Taurus Millenium: $150

Pistol Ammunition

.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .23 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Own Brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Own Brand, Brass Casing, Reloads, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)

9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TPMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .14 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))

.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel casing, .24 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))

.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammunition Depot, HSM Cowboy Action, RNFP, Brass Casing, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: Hyperion Munitions, Own Brand, RN, Brass casing, Reloads .25 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each)

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)

.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Alamo Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .31 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)

7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo King, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))

.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .65 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .53 per round (From Last week: -.03 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks))

.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Vizards Guns and Ammo, Remington, Brass Case, SP, .93 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Hornady Whitetail, Brass Case, SP, 1.04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))

.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Federal, Brass Case, JSP, 2.30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Case, FMJ, 2.40 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Natchez Shooters Supply, Federal, RNL, .05 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Ammo2U, Federal Champion, RNL, .05 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $483 Last Week Avg: $471(+) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $468 (11 Weeks))
Arizona (131, 119): DPMS: $500 ($600 (7 Weeks), $500 (8 Weeks))
Texas (363, 343): Palmetto State Armory: $475 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (176, 194): Anderson Arms: $500 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (221, 225): Anderson Arms: $450 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $415 (11 Weeks))
Florida (470, 483): Mixed Build: $490 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $870 Last Week Avg: $895(-) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $820 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (30, 25): Armalite: $1,000 ($1,350 (2 Weeks)), $650 (7 Weeks))
Texas (119, 106): Bushmaster: $700 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $700 (30 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (44, 45): DPMS: $900 ($1,600 (15 Weeks), $700 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (69, 62): DPMS Oracle LR-308: $750 ($2,750 (1Q, 2016), $750 (2 Weeks))
Florida (81, 83): DPMS Oracle: $1,0000 ($1,950 (42 Weeks), $500 (3Q, 2015))

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $559 Last Week Avg: $525(+) ($668 (24 Weeks)), $450 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (27, 24): WASR 10/63: $650 ($650 (8 Weeks)), $500 (7 Weeks))
Texas (84, 82): IO: $620 ($800 (1Q, 2016, $350 (3Q, 2014))
Pennsylvania (48, 57): WASR-10: $550 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $375 (1Q, 2015))
Virginia (42, 48): IO: $525 ($700 (37 Weeks), $350 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (131, 122): CAI VZ58: $450 ($700 (51 Weeks), $300 (4Q, 2014))

30-30 Winchester Lever Action Average Price: $387 Last Week Avg: $360(+) ($495 (20 Weeks), $296 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (6, 6): Winchester 94: $500 ($500 (7 Weeks), $500 (8 Weeks))
Texas (14, 15): Marlin: $300 ($550 (1Q, 2015), $300 (1Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (13, 12): Marlin: $350 ($450 (1Q, 2015), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Virginia (16, 15): Marlin: $460 ($670 (40 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (23, 23): Marlin 336W: $325 ($500 (1Q, 2015), $250 (2Q, 2015))

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $430 Last Week Avg: $438(-) ($515 (29 Weeks)), $350 (4Q, 2015))
Arizona (93, 91): Tanfoglio 1911: $500 ($600 (4 Weeks), $400 (8 Weeks))
Texas (276, 263): Rock Island Armory: $500 ($600 (4Q, 2014), $300 (12 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (151, 158): Ruger SR1911: $350 ($575 (7 Weeks), $300 (2Q, 2015))
Virginia (154, 150): Iver Johnson: $500 ($600 (4 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Florida (334, 341): Llama 1911: $300 ($500 (1Q, 2016), $250 (1Q, 2015))

9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic) Average Price: $244 Last Week Avg: $280(-) ($358 (50 Weeks), $231 (8 Weeks))
Arizona (126, 123): Ruger P95: $300 ($320 (4 Weeks), $275 (8 Weeks))
Texas (362, 355): Smith & Wesson SD9VE: $225 ($355 (1Q, 2015), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (285, 298): Taurus Millenium: $150 ($350 (4Q 2014), $150 (CA:$195 (2 Weeks)))
Virginia (229, 256): Diamondback DB9FS: $299 ($425 (4Q, 2016), $189 (47 Weeks))
Florida (525, 553): Taurus Millenium G2: $250 ($400 (49 Weeks), $190 (29 Weeks))

.40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic) Average Price: $295 Last Week Avg: $322(-) ($399 (1Q, 2016), $262 (37 Weeks))
Arizona (36, 36): Kel Tec P.40: $350 ($500 (7 Weeks)), $300 (5 Weeks)
Texas (118, 121): Springfield XDM 40: $250 ($425 (4Q, 2014), ($210 (22 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (92, 89): Taurus PT740 : $200 ($450 (45 Weeks), $200 (25 Weeks))
Virginia (93, 98): Taurus 24/7 : $350 ($450 (2Q, 2015), $275 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (170, 155): Kahr CW40: $325 ($400 (1Q, 2015), $199 (4Q, 2015))

Used Gun of the Week: (South Carolina)
SigSauer P220 Elite Scorpion Chambered in .45 ACP
Posted by: badanov || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  $100 rebate on Glocks til 3/17.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Hit tip on the Scorpion. Plastic guns don't do much for me either.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 6:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 8 - Powers of Congress

Congress shall have the power...

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Militia Act of 1792 in summary -

Second Militia Act of 1792
Front page of a newspaper announcing the second Militia Act of 1792.

The second Act, passed May 8, 1792, provided for the organization of the state militias. It conscripted every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45 into a local militia company. (This was later expanded to all males, regardless of race, between the ages of 18 and 54 in 1862.)

Militia members, referred to as "every citizen, so enrolled and notified", "...shall within six months thereafter, provide himself..." with a musket, bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a cartridge box with 24 bullets, and a knapsack. Men owning rifles were required to provide a powder horn, ¼ pound of gunpowder, 20 rifle balls, a shooting pouch, and a knapsack.[5] Some occupations were exempt, such as congressmen, stagecoach drivers, and ferryboatmen.

The militias were divided into "divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, and companies" as the state legislatures would direct.[6] The provisions of the first Act governing the calling up of the militia by the president in case of invasion or obstruction to law enforcement were continued in the second act.[7] Court martial proceedings were authorized by the statute against militia members who disobeyed orders.[8]


In other words, the same weapon as the standing Army was to carry, aka A Military Grade weapon.

Same Militia today as -

10 U.S. Code § 311 - Militia: composition and classes

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia


If they can not get that through their little prejudicial minds to -

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

then they are totally unqualified to remain in the office they occupy.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Lifted from the comments at the embedded link:

So, I can't have a short barreled shotgun, because it has limited military purpose, but I can't have high capacity magazines because they have lots of military purpose. So which is it?

Nailed it.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/25/2017 9:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Weren't muskets considered weapons of war when the Second Amendment was enacted?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/25/2017 13:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Muskets were the weapon of war for the troops which were normally shot with buck and ball (one round ball that fit the bore and three buckshot) fired in a volley. The Kentucky or Pennsylvania rifle was the snipers rifle.
Posted by: Glaise Bumble7972 || 02/25/2017 20:22 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
U.S. Names Two Jihadist Leaders in Syria to Sanctions List
[AnNahar] The United States said Thursday it has added two big shots of the al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front in Syria to its sanctions blacklist.

Although the Treasury Department announcement identified the group as al-Nusra Front, the jihadist force changed its name last year to Fateh al-Sham
...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant...
Front, after supposedly breaking its ties with al-Qaeda.

The Treasury said Iyad Nazmi Salih Khalil was, as of a year ago, al-Nusra Front's (ANF) third-highest ranking person and its emir for coastal Syria.

Before that, he "empowered ANF's security and intelligence operatives responsible for liquidations, ran prisons notorious for torture, and encouraged the looting of vehicles and possessions of Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
members," the Treasury said in a statement.

The second man, Bassam Ahmad al-Hasri, is alleged to be a longstanding link between al-Nusra Front and al-Qaeda and is al-Nusra Front's emir in Dar'a.

"From overseeing krazed killer operations to developing al-Nusrah Front's strategy, these senior al-Nusrah Front leaders and al-Qaeda hard boyz are responsible for providing key support to the violent terrorist group," said John Smith, acting director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The sanctions, which follow similar U.N. actions against the pair, aim to freeze their assets, lock them out of the global financial system, and prevent them from travelling internationally.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Europe
Sweden, Nation of Open Arms, Debates Implications of Immigration
New York Times, so of course the opponents of open immigration to Sweden are racist, etc., etc. You know the story; it's here at the Burg in case you need it in your debates at dinner with your idiot nephew. Dreary reading for a Saturday morning.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Seems to me that the debate should have happened before the immigration was subsidized not after.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/25/2017 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  The Prince: "On the national level,
To track this Green Death is the devil,
But here in my castle
Of welfare, no hassle
Would dare interfere with our revel."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 20:31 Comments || Top||

#3  From Times Square, a sniff of hysteria:
Is something fermenting in Sverige?
Bad dirt. It's just tragic
That Muslims, like magic,
Are making a mess of their area.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 20:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Your nation's percentage of tumour
Is merely a matter of rumour.
Ignore doom-and-gloomers
And racist presumers
Impingeing upon your good humour!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/25/2017 20:40 Comments || Top||

#5  ZF: That is beyond impressive. About four minutes apart. I raise a Laphroaig to you.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 02/25/2017 21:00 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq Forces Enter First West Mosul Neighborhood
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Elite Iraqi forces on Friday entered a west djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
neighborhood for the first time since the start four months ago of an operation to retake the city, a commander said.

Sami al-Aridhi, a lieutenant general in the Counter-Terrorism Service, said his men had retaken a military base and a village southwest of Mosul and entered a residential neighborhood of the city.

"We have attacked and fully control Ghazlani base, we have also taken Tal al-Rayyan... and we’re attacking al-Maamun neighborhood," he told AFP.

Iraqi forces secured the east side of Mosul a month ago and on Sunday launched a fresh push on the west side of the Tigris River that divides the city.

They have since retaken several outlying villages and desert areas near the city. On Friday, commanders confirmed that government forces had full control of the airport that lies on the southern edge of the city.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


ISIL Attack Kills 15 Iraq Border Guards near Jordan
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] The ISIS Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
group carried out an attack on an Iraqi border guard position near Jordan on Friday, killing at least 15 guards, officials said.

"ISIS launched an attack with a suicide boom-mobile and gunnies on the 2nd border guard regiment near Trebil," an officer in the border guard told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

"The attack came from several directions and killed 15 border guards, including two officers," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
. Local officials confirmed the attack and corpse count.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Bangladesh
Hefazat makes good on protest threat, demands SC sculpture removal
[Dhaka Tribune] Hundreds of supporters of hardliner Hefajat-e-Islam
...a madrassa-based false nose and mustache of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, formed in 2010 to protest against secular education. In 2011 demonstrated violentyly against women's rights and in 2013 held large rallies demanding capital punishment of Shahbag Square protesters and banning women working outside the home...
staged protests on Friday in Dhaka, Chittagong and Narayanganj, calling for the statue of a Greek goddess installed at the Supreme Court to be destroyed or removed.

This is a part of their ongoing protest demanding the removal of the Lady Justice statue from the Supreme Court premises.

Earlier on February 14, they had submitted memorandums to the prime minister and the chief justice. They stated the "idol" was anti-Islamic and threatened to stage demonstrations and bring out processions if their demand went unheeded.

Hefajat-e-Islam activists chant slogans as they take part in a protest in Dhaka on February 24, 2017. Hundreds of supporters of the hardliner Islamist group staged protests on February 24 calling for the statue of a Greek goddess installed at the Supreme Court to be destroyed or removed. The sculpture of Themis, the blindfolded deity of justice and order, has ruffled feathers in the Moslem-majority nation since it was unveiled late last year on the premises of the country’s top court Photo: AFP

Court officials, however, defended the statue as "a symbol of justice." The image of Greek goddess Themis, depicted with her eyes shielded and holding the scales of justice, represents fairness, law and custom across the world.

The Dhaka procession began from Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.

Hundreds of Hefazat supporters rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud and wielded placards with phrases such as "Demolish the statue on the court premises and replace it with the Qur’an," states a report from AFP.

Hefazat’s Central Committee Joint Secretary General Junaid Al Habib said the "idol" had to be removed by any means.

In a country with a 92% Moslem population, people would not tolerate any "idol" in the country’s apex court premises, Habib added.

Conservative Bangladesh has seen increasing tension between hardliners and secularists in recent years: A spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners combined with a series of changes in school textbooks, which are overwhelmingly secular, to reflect Moslem traditions.

According to sources, several leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
, a BNP ally which has been absent from recent street demonstrations, and members of its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
are supportive of the recent radical Islamist moves to remove the Supreme Court statue of Lady Justice, avenge the persecution of Rohingya Moslems and make changes in school textbooks.

Sources also said all paper materials and information for these movements are supplied by Jamaat-Shibir to the other parties, including Hefazat.

Security has been increased in the area around Baitul Mukarram, according to local police official Rafiqul Islam.

He added that at least 1,000 people had joined the rally there and a similar rally had also been held at Chittagong.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Europe
Turkish diplomats ask for asylum in Germany
[DeutscheWelle] German authorities face at least 136 asylum requests from Turkish citizens bearing diplomatic passports, following the failed coup in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey. Berlin's response might worsen the already tense relations with Ankara.

Germany is still receiving asylum applications from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
over the July 2016 coup attempt, a research group of broadcasters WDR, NDR and the "Suddeutsche Zeitung" newspaper reported on Friday.

"The government is aware of 136 asylum applications filed by diplomatic passport holders from Turkey. They also include family members," German interior ministry said in response to a query from a Green party politician.

The report includes data from between August 2016 and January 2017. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
the officials did not specify how many of the asylum seekers were career diplomats or soldiers, in contrast to their family members who also hold diplomatic passports.

Pressure from Erdogan
Last month, news magazine "Der Spiegel" and public broadcaster ARD reported that dozens of Turkish officers applied for asylum for fear of being incarcerated
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
upon returning home.

In a subsequent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom...
, Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
urged Merkel to extradite the soldiers.

Foreign soldiers stationed in 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...
-bases are also entitled to a diplomatic passport.

Never-ending purge
On Friday, German public broadcaster ARD reported that "the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees apparently did not make a decision in any of the cases."

Accepting the asylum seekers would almost definitely trigger an embittered response from Ankara, which also reacted angrily in a similar dispute with Greece.

Turkey has launched a massive purge of state institutions and the military following the deadly coup attempt last summer. Around 100,000 people lost their jobs and tens of thousands were arrested during the crackdown.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Hasn't Germany taken enough Turks already?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/25/2017 13:38 Comments || Top||

#2  why is Turkey still in NATO????
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 17:57 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea Debunks twisted death conspiracies on Kim Jong Nam. English Subtitles
Whew! Well that's taken care of then. Nothing to see here, something something sea of fire.

Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  there was no sea of fire, i feel cheated

no orange juche either
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  But there was some support of the binary-agent theory.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/25/2017 8:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Add another country to the list of those that need to be annihilated by the Norks.
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  This from Auntie Beeb
Posted by: Bov Flimbers || 02/25/2017 16:08 Comments || Top||

#5  interesting from the bbc. Saw another one also at zerohedgehere

How was an indonesian woman earning $50 per week able to travel all over asia? age 25.

how is she living the high life?

and why did her and her accomplice go immediately to wash their hands?

If they didn't know what they were doing they'd be dead, too
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 17:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Ummm...there are ladies of that persuasion and age also accomplished in their duties that often are provided transport, sometimes continental in breadth. They also learn in their work to often wash their hands.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/25/2017 18:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
California senator removed from floor after criticizing late lawmaker Tom Hayden
The California Senate was thrown into chaos and anger on Thursday when a Republican member was forcibly removed from the floor for allegedly speaking out of turn during a session.

Republican colleagues say Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Garden Grove, was silenced by the Democratic majority when the Senate sergeant-at-arms escorted her from the chamber as Nguyen tried to criticize the late Democratic lawmaker Tom Hayden for his stance against the Vietnam War.

"I’m enraged at the violation to free speech, our Constitution and the precedent this sets," said Senate Republican Leader Jean Fuller, who asked the Senate Rules Committee to look into what happened and make sure there is no "retribution" against Nguyen for the incident.

Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee who represents a large Vietnamese community in Orange County, said she was shaken up and "quite upset" at being removed. Two days after the Senate memorialized Hayden, who traveled to North Vietnam with then-wife Jane Fonda in 1974, Nguyen said she wanted to offer "another historical perspective."

"He sided with the communist government that enslaved and killed millions of Vietnamese, including my family," Nguyen said. Without U.S. support for South Vietnam, "I wouldn’t be here today. I would be dead."

At an unrelated press conference later, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León said he was "greatly unsettled (by) what took place on the floor."

De León, a Los Angeles Democrat, agreed to the Rules Committee review and said he would talk to Nguyen and Fuller. But he added that the situation "could have easily been dealt with" if they had followed parliamentary procedure.

Nguyen attempted to make her comments during the adjourn-in-memory portion of the Senate floor session, when members typically offer tributes to constituents who have recently died. After first delivering her comments in Vietnamese, Nguyen was quickly cut off as she tried to repeat them in English.

"Members, today I recognize in memory the millions of Vietnamese and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who died in seeking for freedom and democracy," she said. "On Tuesday, you had an opportunity to honor Sen. Tom Hayden. With all due respect, I would like to offer this historical perspective ..."

Presiding Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, interrupted Nguyen and gave the floor to Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, who said Nguyen was out of order because she did not raise her objections during the Hayden tribute ceremony two days before. Nguyen continued to speak for several minutes, even as Lara repeatedly asked her to take a seat and then eventually ordered the sergeants to remove her.

"Sergeants, please remove Sen. Nguyen from the chamber," Lara said. "Have her removed immediately. Sergeants, please remove Sen. Nguyen, she is out of order."

Continues
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Removed from second communist regime ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  She Alinskyed them. Used their playbook. Got noticed. You go girl, speak Truth to Power!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise"
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 02/25/2017 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Tom's still dead. The communist ideology that was his religion is almost dead. His ex wife looks like death warmed over.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/25/2017 12:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Whatever the specifics of the Senate floor rules, she was removed because she criticized a Communist. Her country was conquered by Communists in Vietnam, with the help of Hayden and Fonda and the other traitors who took their side against Americans. Tom and Jane, as well as the California legislature, belong in the hottest part of Hell.
Posted by: Sgt.D.T. || 02/25/2017 15:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Another example of how the left does not like to hear the truth about their "good intentions"

I still seethe over Hanoi Jane and those pictures of her sitting at an AA gun. I still don't understand why she wasn't tossed in the slammer as soon as she got home.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/25/2017 21:40 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Report: US consulate translator detained in Turkey
[Ynet] Media reports say police have detained a Turkish employee of the US consulate in the southern city of Adana for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish rebels.

The Dogan news agency report said Thursday the man works as a translator for the consulate and is suspected of membership of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The group is considered a terror organization by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
and its allies, including the United States.

The report said police raided his home but could not find him there. Consulate officials later handed the man over to police, according to the report.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Bad news, Dogan it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  To your room, please.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/25/2017 12:06 Comments || Top||


Government
Irony Alert-Leaked memo from Foggy Bottom warns of dangers of leaks
[The Hill] A State Department memo spotlighting the threat of leaks by department employees was leaked to The Washington Post, the newspaper reported Friday.

The memo, which is authored by acting State Department legal adviser Richard Visek and intended for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, reportedly details Tillerson’s authority to protect certain privileged information and presents a case against leaks.

“When such information is leaked … it chills the willingness of senior government officials to seek robust and candid advice, which ultimately is to the detriment of informed policymaking and the reputation of the institution from which the leak emanated,” the Post quoted the memo as saying.

The leaks from within the State Department, the memo says, could potentially hinder department officials’ ability to participate in policy discussions, if concern mounts that information isn’t protected.

“If the Department is going to be able to influence policy deliberations, we need to have a reputation for engaging responsibly in those deliberations,” the memo reads.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

Nosey little bastard isn't he?
Posted by: Slusons Scourge of the Giants3454 || 02/25/2017 1:29 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Federal Prosecutors Question NYC Mayor Over Fundraising: Reports
[One America News Network] NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio met with federal prosecutors on Friday as part of their lengthy investigation into whether people involved in fundraising for his election campaign broke corruption laws, according to news reports.

De Blasio, a Democrat who faces reelection in November, has repeatedly said he and his campaign staff have done nothing wrong and that he was cooperating with prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan in their yearlong criminal investigation.

"We did everything right," he said in a television interview last month. "My team did everything right."

Prosecutors and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation questioned him on multiple topics, according to the New York Times.

The meeting took place at his lawyers’ office in Manhattan, and his black sport-utility vehicle was seen departing from the office garage about five hours after it arrived. News photographers briefly gave chase, but de Blasio did not emerge from the vehicle to speak with waiting reporters.

A spokesman for the mayor did not respond to questions on Friday.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s public corruption unit are looking at whether people who helped raise money for de Blasio’s 2013 election campaign and a non-profit organization that his advisers operated received favorable treatment from the mayor or his aides at City Hall, according to news reports.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, which typically does not discuss ongoing investigations, declined to comment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like Hillary wants to be mayor.
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  @1 Doubtful, I'm thinking her, Bill and others are the next target of US Attorney Bharara. I'm thinking Weiner gave Bharara lots of information in return for a plea deal on the sex charges and that investigators are busy running down all the leads & evidence they got from Bharara, who has a deserved reputation for putting NY politicians of both parties in jail.
Posted by: Chantry || 02/25/2017 19:04 Comments || Top||

#3  We can hope. I'll start now. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 02/25/2017 21:06 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghanistan finalizes law to criminalize Bacha Baazi
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government for the first time has finalized a law to criminalize the bullying and sexual abuse of children (Bacha Baazi).
Slender young dancing boys...
Officials in the ministry of justice of Afghanistan have said the draft law finalized by the government criminalizes the abuse of children.

A front man for the ministry of justice Aman Riazat told BBC’s Afghanistan service that the draft law has been approved by the cabinet of ministers.

He said the abuse of children has been criminalized in the draft law and the perpetrators will face prosecution by the government.

The latest step by the government to finalize the draft law prohibiting Bacha Baazi comes as numerous reports emerged during the recent years regarding the worsening situation of the children subjected to abuse and bullying.

The issue attracted attention of the global human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
activists as there are concerns regarding the health and mental condition of the victims of the stigma.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission also expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
s regarding the mental situation of the victims, saying the majority of the children kept as slave are repeatedly raped.

On the other hand, the international human rights activists are saying that in majority of cases the victims become perpetrators which help the stigma to further continue after they become adults and keep other children as their slaves.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
White House bars news outlets from press briefing
[AA.TR] The White House made the highly provocative move of barring major news outlets from a planned press briefing Friday, prompting protests from the media.

The Los Angeles Times, New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, CNN and Politico were denied entry to an informal press gaggle scheduled in place of the daily briefing because of the president's travel.

In response, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named and Time magazine boycotted the press briefing while the White House Correspondents Association, which heads the press corps, formally protested the White House's action.

Association president Jeff Mason said the group's board "will be discussing this further with White House staff".

Far-right nationalist news outlet Breitbart News was allowed in, along with other conservative outlets such as the Washington Times and One America News Network. ABC, CBS, the Wall Street Journal and others were also present.

The White House's actions comes just hours after 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...
took aim at the media, slamming "fake news" as he pledged to "do something about it".

The Trump administration has faced a number of scathing media reports, one of which prompted the ouster of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

His departure cemented the shortest term for such a high ranking official.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They should refer to 'major news media' as 'legacy media'.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/25/2017 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Find out who was a member of Journolist and ban them
Posted by: magpie || 02/25/2017 2:21 Comments || Top||

#3  The Los Angeles Times, New York Times

Regards from Ariel Sharon, scumvermin.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/25/2017 4:20 Comments || Top||

#4  They refused the nation national enquirer and Bernies gay free press too!! oh the shame of sliding down to your peers being gossip press.
Posted by: 49 pan || 02/25/2017 6:54 Comments || Top||

#5  You only need one agency of the Donk Party to attend the meetings. They always share on their coordinating website, distribution and mailing list anyway to speak with one narrative. Makes more room for others, the press room is really small.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/25/2017 8:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Big misunderstanding. Trump just excluded the NYT because the NYT won't permit a single person of color to join its board of directors. (OK, there's an Asian guy, but that's not really what we're talking about.) Nothing but racist one percenters.
Posted by: Matt || 02/25/2017 10:39 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Anti-immigrant protest in S. Africa turns violent
[AA.TR] Police in South Africa fired stun grenades and rubber bullets Friday to break up a standoff between anti-immigrant protesters and a group of foreign nationals in the capital Pretoria.

Ihsaan Haffejee, a photojournalist for Anadolu Agency, was hit twice in the back by rubber bullets as police attempted to disperse the crowd.

Live television images showed a group of protesters opposed to alleged illegal immigrants colonists gathering near shops belonging to foreign nationals whom they attempted to attack.

Foreign nationals armed with rocks, sticks and pipes then struck back, leading to a major standoff forcing police to intervene.

"I got hit twice in the back. I was taking photos of foreign nationals trying to beat someone,’’ Haffejee said by telephone from the scene in western Pretoria.

Protesters say they are opposed to high immigration in South Africa amid concerns over high unemployment despite the government allowing many foreigners to settle in South Africa.

Protest organizer, Makgoka Lekganyane, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the protest would be peaceful, but Friday’s gathering turned violent with reports of several shops being looted in parts of the city.

President Jacob Zuma on Friday pleaded with South Africans not to blame all criminal activities on foreigners and to stop the violence.

"Many citizens of other countries living in South Africa are law abiding and contribute to the economy of the country positively," he said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 02/25/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  zimbabweans and others flee down to south africa, and work as taxi drivers etc.

As far as I can see there are 5 basic tribes in south africa: zulu, nkosa, white (2 subgroups: english speaking and afrikaans) coloureds (mulatto, have more in common with whites than other groups depending) and indian (who will get on better with whites)

these tribes do not always get along, this is why johannesburg is draped in barbed wire, while neighbouring Namibia isn't.

black migrants coming down will be a threat to the existing black tribes when they take jobs as taxi drivers or try to sell trinkets at the side of the road, or move into the shanty towns.

not all migrants are colonists.

Muslim migrants to Europe are colonists because they bring their own ready-made political and legal system (sharia) that they think is superior, and immediately try to live separately according to its rules, then impose them on others.

migrants to south africa are usually looking for job opportunities or fleeing some sort of persecution. They are not looking to impose an alternate system.

they are not colonists just migrants

so if you call all migrants "colonists" you will muddy the waters and confuse people
Posted by: anon1 || 02/25/2017 16:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Protesters say they are opposed to high immigration in South Africa amid concerns over high unemployment despite because the government allowing many foreigners to settle in South Africa.

Fixed the word usage problem, but left the grammar issue in place, because life's too short.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/25/2017 19:57 Comments || Top||



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