Three different species shrank noticeably about 54 million years ago when the planet suddenly heated up. One of them ‐ an early, compact horse ‐ got 14 percent smaller, going from about 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms) to 14.6 pounds (6.6 kilograms), according to an analysis of fossil teeth in Wednesday's journal Science Advances. I suppose it'll never occur to most people than man did not cause that particular change of the climate, and USA Today ain't a gonna tell 'em, either.
"These guys were probably about the size of maybe a dog, then they dwarfed," said D'Ambrosia. "They may have gone down to the size of a cat." But wait! There's more!
Previous studies have documented a similar shrinking of mammals, including another early horse ancestor, during an earlier warming about 56 million years ago. Scientists and farmers have also long tracked animals, such as cows, that shrink and give less milk during hotter stretches.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/18/2017
15:32 ||
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#1
Many species of megafauna (e.g. Titanoboa) could only exist when the world was much warmer.
#2
Yes, Earth's getting hotter than Hades,
All thanks to AC and Mercedes.
Bail out of big boats
And start stockpiling oats
Cuz the future is crazy horse ladies.
h/t Instapundit
The U.S. shale cowboys are back on their horses and leading a strong recovery in the oil patch that is not expected to falter even as WTI prices dropped last week below $50 per barrel for the first time in more than two months.
With lessons learned from the oil price crash and budgets streamlined and focused on the most prolific shale plays, U.S. drillers are giving OPEC a hard time by raising output and hedging future production. Meanwhile, the cartel members are trying to cut supply and fix the price of oil at such a range that would allow them to reap higher oil revenues, but not allow the shale patch to recover too much too fast.
Two and a half months into the supply-cut deal, it looks like OPEC is losing the campaign to prop up oil prices. The drop in prices that began last week saw them retreating to almost exactly the same level as on November 30 ‐ just below $52/barrel for Brent - when the OPEC deal was announced, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Wednesday.
At the same time, reduced breakeven prices in many shale plays and forward locking-in of production is allowing the companies currently drilling in the U.S. to turn in profits even at a price of oil at $40 a barrel.
#1
The first go round required purchasing the fracking trucks, etc.. With plenty to go around now, maintenance and operations costs is manageable at lower barrel prices.
#4
Besides what Nero White commented on in new fracking conditions this time around, we have a President that encourages this type of enterprise and development. With this one-two punch, OPEC gets up against the ropes, having to dig into their financial assets to maintain the status quo for their rubes.
It is very good news. And as far as the ME oil ticks going back to Bedouins again, that will be difficult because their aquifer left over from the Pleistocene and many springs and oases have dried up from the lowered water table.
It's a good day today, folks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/18/2017 16:56
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#5
If the world is a better place to live in 20 years, a large part of the credit will have to go to fracking.
#7
I haven't read recent stuff on fracking and earthquakes, but the early stuff was pretty good - and fracking of the rock - pumping a slurry of liquid and proppant at high pressure to generate and propagate a fracture from a well out into the reservoir rock - creates 'earthquakes' far too small to feel, or even detect without very sensitive instruments. However, if the induced fracture intersects an existing fault that is close to the stress needed for it to slip, the pulse of pressure from the frac could trigger a quake, one that would probably have occurred naturally in a geologically short time. I am not aware of any evidence of such actually having happened, but I admit I am not current. There are a class of similar earthquakes that have been documented, though it was not the frac pulse but the far larger volumes of produced water being pumped into disposal wells that triggered them. The disposal wells may be handling water from fracked wells (documented case near FW airport), or any other wells (seem likely in several recent OK quakes), or even industrial process waste water.
#1
Very humble and straight forward man. A great monologue of his personal history and his view of his role during WW2 and what he felt after the end of the war with his personal experiences.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/18/2017 17:08
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Canada's border authorities detained more Mexicans in the first 67 days of 2017 than they did annually in any of the three previous years, according to statistics obtained by Reuters.
The spike comes immediately after Canada's federal government lifted its visa requirement for Mexican citizens in December. But "Trudeau is soooo dreamy!"
Many Mexicans looking north have shifted their focus from the United States to Canada as President Donald Trump vows to crack down on America's undocumented immigrants, about half of whom are Mexican. On Friday, Reuters reported, immigration judges were reassigned to 12 U.S. cities to speed up deportation.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it detained 444 Mexican nationals between Jan. 1 and March 8, compared with 410 for all of 2016, 351 for 2015, and 399 for 2014.
The CBSA can detain foreign nationals if it is believed they pose a danger to the public, if their identity is unclear or if they are deemed unlikely to appear for removal or for a proceeding. ya don't say
The number of Mexicans turned back at the airport has risen, too – to 313 in January, more than any January since 2012 and more than the annual totals for 2012, 2013 and 2014.
With the visa requirement lifted, all that Mexicans need to come to Canada is an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA), obtainable online in a matter of minutes. But they cannot work without a work permit, and the eTA does not guarantee entry.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2017
12:16 ||
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#1
"The president said the US must be paid more for providing defense"
This is not how NATO works, and U.S. troops are not paid mercenaries.
I agree that Germany will have to do more (and it will) but that's not the way to go about it.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/18/2017 17:34
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#2
Respectfully EC, the US provides things that Germany simply can't, even in a 10 year time frame. Heavy lift capability for one, logistical supply for another, even heavy armor divisions. Germany, like much of the rest of the EU, has emasculated their militariy over the past 30 years. With a declining birth rate and an increasing demand for social services by an aging population, how do you turn that around?
#5
I can both sympathize with Germany but also be annoyed that they made their damn bed. The problems are of a long time in the making and won't be quickly turned around.
I'm afraid that this is a time when everyone has to throw all the cards on the table and start a fresh game. There's no going back and trying to fix the root causes. It's time to cut the cords to the past and figure out how to move on from where we are.
Figuring out, and agreeing, to a direction and goal maybe impossible which will mean a whole new alignment of alliances.
#6
Why should America risk nuclear immolation over first world countries that succor on military welfare? By the 80s the combined GDP and population of Western Europe exceed the US. If you are unwilling to commit to defend yourselves, its time to take your place in history. America failed to learned the lessons of the Byzantines who exhausted their resources trying to reconstruction the old Roman Empire.
#7
I have a son in the Bundeswehr who served in Afghanistan. This is commitment, too, not just the token 2% for NATO (which actually should be spent on Germany's own military).
The 2% are a formulated goal, but no legal obligation.
U.S. troops are (mostly) no longer in Germany to defend Germany, but because it's the best place to be for a lot of reasons.
If Germany wanted it could leave NATO, and get off scot-free if U.S. troops relocate to Poland. Quite a cynical approach, of course.
There's a lot of posturing right now. I guess we'll just sit that one out.
Btw German defense minister is actually pushing for more military spending.
I'm wary of Russia but no, Russian tanks breaking through the Fulda Gap won't happen.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/18/2017 18:25
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#8
The 2% goal actually is a thing of the past. NATO members should rather strive for efficiency. Much money and manpower is lost by maintaining separate national armies.
I'm rather thinking of smart, lean, tech-driven, highly efficient professional units. Future conflicts will not look like those that were wargamed in the 1980s
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/18/2017 18:37
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#9
EC - good on your son and his service!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2017 19:17
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#10
We've prechambered the hell out of the Fulda Gap and there is nothing going to come through there without serious casualties. Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd plus a couple of coils of detcord can make the gap unpassable...without using any tactical nukes either.
[Feral Jundi] Wow, this is cool. A big thanks to one of my readers for sending me this. The reason I wanted to post this here on the blog is because we are now going to see private companies, competing in the skies with the US Air Force for Top Gun style aggressor support training. So private pilots will be flying in company owned ’fighter jets’, simulating air to air combat against the most advanced military air force on the planet. That is significant.
For one, it is just crazy to see the kinds of aircraft that these companies will be flying. Most are a mix of eastern bloc stuff, that is cost effective. But there is some other stuff that is pretty advanced. Did you know that DA Defense is actually gearing up to buy F 16’s? lol
I believe out of all the companies listed below, Draken International has the most privately owned jet aircraft. They were also the ones that were a part of the initial test at Nellis AFB for this concept. With this coming contract, I expect to see the numbers of aircraft increase for all of these companies.
I did not see how much this contract would be worth, but I expect it to be pretty sizable. We will see how it goes and I will make the edit when I hear of more info on this. Claire Lee Chennault’s ghost is looking on with profound interest and envy. ‐Matt
Draken International website here.
Discovery Air Defence Service website here.
Airborne Tactical Advantage Company website here.
#4
Still cheaper than having USAF fly Red Air. The contract pilots are flying 3rd and soon 4th gen aircraft (including foreign) that are cheaper to operate. In addition, as the US converts to 5th gen aircraft, finding enough older aircraft in the US inventory will become increasingly difficult.
#5
In addition, as the US converts to 5th gen aircraft, finding enough older aircraft in the US inventory will become increasingly difficult.
This is the real money line here. The USAF and USN simply will not be able to afford to keep single-point logistics open forever for their Red Air units flying F-16s. (The F-5s held on as long as they did because so much of the rest of the world flew them that parts and support were reasonably cheap)
There will almost certainly be a small F-35 Aggressor flight at Nellis, and it is my understanding that F-22 units have already quietly started flying as aggressors on a TDY basis both at Nellis and...other places. But the days of the Aggressors as a permanent unit are numbered. At least though they won't go out because of petty politics (see also Merill McPeak).
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/18/2017 8:56
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#6
I know a guy who can get you a couple of M-29s or a Sukhoi or two in pretty good shape with spare engines pretty cheap.
[France24]. Security forces at Gay Paree' Orly airport on Saturday rubbed out a man who took a weapon from a soldier, the interior ministry said, adding that nobody else was hurt in the incident.
Witnesses said the airport was evacuated following the shooting at around 8:30am (0730GMT).
"A man took a weapon from a soldier then hid in a shop in the airport before being rubbed out by security forces," an interior ministry front man told AFP.
He said no one was maimed in the incident.
Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux is due to visit the facility, which is in Gay Paree' southern outskirts, the front man added.
"We had queued up to check in for the Tel Aviv flight when we heard three or four shots nearby," witness Franck Lecam said.
"The whole airport has been evacuated," the 54-year-old said, confirming what an airport worker, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , had said earlier.
"We are all outside the airport, about 200 metres from the entrance," Lecam said.
"There are coppers, emergency workers and soldiers everywhere in all directions. A security official told us that it happened near gates 37-38 where Turkish Airlines flights were scheduled."
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2017 9:30
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#2
You beat me to the post, Frank -- I was just checking in before working up the information. Our miscreant has had a busy morning before he got himself killed. From your article:
o Convicted criminal Zied B., 39, was shot dead at the airport's south terminal
o Less than two hours earlier he had shot at three police officers after being stopped for speeding
o Authorities believe he was radicalised in prison, and his father and brother have been arrested
o Witnesses recounted hearing 'four or five' shots, and the airport was evacuated
And not included in the highlights but in the text of the article, the Tunisian-Frenchman abandoned the car in which he was stopped, leaving his identification papers in it, to highjack another which he abandoned at the airport -- though possibly he would have returned to it had he not been summarily executed by French soldiers.
So much for the idea of easing the elevated national security status, releasing all those patrolling soldiers to their normal duties. No doubt updates will show he was being guided from Raqqa via Telegram, and that someone supplied him with weapons and training in their use.
Curious to me as to how radical preacher/teachers can be drone zapped in sovereign nations but uncontrolled hate mongers in prisons are allowed to motivate clustered threshold personalities unabated.
#5
It's arse to cold wall if you're Tommy,
But if you're Islamic, not pommy,
Your mums'll raise pranksters
On dole, as your gangsters
And you all jihad someplace balmy.
[WAPO] Luisa Fortin sometimes sits up at night, wondering what her clients are eating. She is the SNAP Outreach Coordinator for the Chattanooga Food Bank -- but lately she has done less outreaching.
Her families, working immigrants in northwest Georgia, are spooked by the political climate, Fortin said. Increasingly, she’s being asked to explain how food stamps may impact immigration status, if not to outright cancel family food benefits.
Since mid-January, five of Fortin’s families have withdrawn from the SNAP program. One, the single mother of three citizen daughters, had fled to Georgia to escape an abusive husband. Another, two green-card holders with four young children, were thinking of taking on third jobs to compensate for the lost benefits. These families represent a small fraction of Fortin's caseload -- she estimates she has signed 200 immigrant families up for SNAP over the past six months -- but based on the calls she gets from other clients, she fears more cancellations are imminent.
"I get calls from concerned parents all the time: ’should I take my kids out of the program?’" Fortin said. "They’re risking hunger out of fear ... and my heart just breaks for them."
#14
Ditching food stamps and they bail out? Just watch the exodus if the government starts collecting taxes from them and their employers. Couple that with employer verification of work status and those Americans living near the border will be endangered from getting trampled as the illegals head out.
A sad story, followed in case there turn out to be colonist elements afer all.
[AnNahar] A second person was being held Friday over a shooting at a French school where a heavily armed teenager opened fire, slightly wounding three fellow pupils and a teacher, a judicial source said.
The suspect is a brother of a friend of the 16-year-old attacker, the source said, asking not to be identified by name. The friend is still being sought by police.
The shooter, who was described by Sherlocks as unstable and obsessed with guns, surrendered to police after Thursday's attack in the southeastern town of Grasse.
Armed with a rifle, two handguns and grenades he caused panic at Alexis de Tocqueville high school, firing several shots.
A source close to the investigation said Friday that the weapons belonged to his parents and grandfather.
Described as a loner who had difficult relations with some fellow pupils, he had shown a fascination with violence and U.S. school massacres, including the 1999 Columbine killings.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into attempted murder.
The head teacher, who was shot in the shoulder after intervening to protect a group of pupils, was praised as a hero for having prevented a more serious attack.
In all, 14 people were maimed, most of them hurt in a stampede triggered by the shooting.
[Ynet] A jacket wallah injured two Bangladeshi coppers on Friday when he attacked a base being built for the police anti-terrorist unit, officials said.
Local media quoting the BBC Bangla service said 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.... had grabbed credit for the rare attack on Bangladesh's security services.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/18/2017
06:37 ||
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[AnNahar] The Military Court on Friday charged 18 people, most of them Syrians, with transferring more than $19 million from Leb to 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.... jihadist group, a judicial source said.
Fifteen Syrians, one Paleostinian and two others were accused of "belonging to ISIS (IS), creating a money smuggling network and transferring money out of Leb for IS' benefit," the source said.
The network had "transferred $19,300,000 to IS in Syria and Iraq from 2014 until now."
The suspects were referred to a military investigator for further questioning, the source added.
Lebanese security forces in early March raided currency exchange offices and money transfer companies on suspicion they had sent huge sums of money to IS.
The judicial source said the accused "rented currency exchange offices from Lebanese nationals at very attractive prices and began transferring money to IS in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Iraq, and Syria."
"Each transfer was valued between $10,000 and $100,000... Most of the money would eventually reach IS' stronghold in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in Iraq, or in Raqa, Aleppo, Palmyra, or Qalamun in Syria," he said.
While money to IS in Iraq was transferred directly, the wires to Syria always went through Turkey first.
Leb has been heavily impacted by the war in neighboring Syria since it erupted in March 2011.
Security forces have on several occasions incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! suspected IS members, including in February when two men were detained on suspicion of planning an attack in central Beirut.
Leb's central bank imposes strict rules on financial institutions intended to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing, including caps on the amount that can be transferred overseas without additional supporting paperwork.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/18/2017
06:37 ||
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#1
Somebody forgot to pay their bribes, kickback, fees, taxes.
[Ynet] Moroccan authorities said on Friday they had locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! 15 people suspected of ties with 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.... in the latest raid officials say targetted Death Eater networks.
The suspects had been active in Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangiers, and Agadir, among other cities, and were involved in inciting or threatening to carry out attacks, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by MAP state news agency.
"Certain individuals arrested acquired knowledge in making explosives and were in the process of acquiring material to make explosive charges to carry out terrorist operations targeting sensitive locations," the statement said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/18/2017
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[Liberty Alliance] Senator Tom Carper of Delaware and twenty-three Senate Democrats are planning on unveiling a new piece of proposed legislation that will render President Trump’s border wall plans futile.
The new bill will specifically target Trump’s rhetoric on "immigration enforcement improvements." Carper released the following statement on Thursday regarding the bill:
"Spending billions of taxpayer dollars to wall off the remainder of the border is an exorbitantly expensive and an ineffective substitute for a smart, layered approach to border security. [Trump] should work with Congress and build open progress made over the past several years to improve security along our border."
In January, Trump initiated an executive order to start "immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border." His order included more enforced deportations, establishment of new detention facilities, and granting equipment enhancements to Customs and Border Protection agents.
The Democrats’ proposed legislation would attempt to undermine all these facets. However, it is unlikely the bill will see the light of day; the Democrats would need to acquire at least 12 Republican votes to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote procedural barrier.
#1
Legislation is meaningless and unnecessary with a republican majority. All the libtard dems have to do is find sympathetic federal judges like Derrick K. Watson in Hawaii and Maryland's Theodore D. Chuang. Game over.
The border wall and immigration are little more than sideshows. The main battle area and major judicial fiat will involve funding for 'Planned Parenthood' and Roe vs. Wade. We are a nation divided and nearing an Emancipation Proclamation crossroads.
#4
Senator Tom Carper of Delaware and twenty-three Senate Democrats are planning on unveiling a new piece of proposed legislation that will render President Trump’s border wall plans futile.
And when the revolution comes in earnest, it is my hope these 24 are remembered for not giving a damn about their country's security.
[Washington Examiner] The military's investigation into the sharing of nude photos of female service members has expanded to include a number of gay pornography websites that exist with photos of men in military uniforms taking part in sex acts, according to a new report.
The Pentagon, USA Today reported on Friday, has created a joint military task force to handle the growing issue, which has expanded from just the Marine Corps to the Navy, Army, Coast Guard and Air Force. Part of that investigation will include determining whether the men in uniforms are actual service members or just in costume. If the individual is on active-duty, that person could be found in violation of military law.
The probe will also look into whether the men involved consented to the images being shared on the Tumblr porn sites, the report said.
[Reuters] The U.S. Justice Department is developing plans to temporarily reassign immigration judges from around the country to 12 cities to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants who have been charged with crimes, according to two administration officials.
How many judges will be reassigned and when they will be sent is still under review, according to the officials, but the Justice Department has begun soliciting volunteers for deployment.
The targeted cities are New York; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; San Francisco; Baltimore, Bloomington, Minnesota; El Paso, Texas; Harlingen, Texas; Imperial, California; Omaha, Nebraska and Phoenix, Arizona. They were chosen because they are cities which have high populations of illegal immigrants with criminal charges, the officials said.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review, which administers immigration courts, confirmed that the cities have been identified as likely recipients of reassigned immigration judges, but did not elaborate on the planning.
The plan to intensify deportations is in line with a vow made frequently by President Donald Trump on the campaign trail last year to deport more illegal immigrants involved in crime.
The Department of Homeland Security asked for the judges' reshuffle, an unusual move given that immigration courts are administered by the Department of Justice. A Homeland Security spokeswoman declined to comment on any plan that has not yet been finalized.
Under an executive order signed by Trump in January, illegal immigrants with pending criminal cases are regarded as priorities for deportation whether they have been found guilty or not.
That is a departure from former President Barack Obama's policy, which prioritized deportations only of those convicted of serious crimes.
#2
I recommend Fairbanks, AK. Average winter low temperatures range from −15 to −25 °. The average first and last hard freeze are September 9 and May 15.
[Right Scoop] Donna Brazile says she will "forever regret" that she STOLE QUESTIONS from CNN and GAVE THEM TO HILLARY CLINTON during the debate, something that was revealed in one of the Wikileaks stolen emails.
I KNEW SHE WAS GUILTY when I saw the interview with Megyn Kelly after the news broke ‐ the foul, wretched, disgusting democrat actually tried to HIDE BEHIND THE BIBLE when avoiding Megyn’s questions!!!
I was thoroughly disgusted at the time, and I’m still disgusted now.
#4
Anyone think Perez or Ellison have any different kind of integrity at the DNC? this is what passes for leadership for democrats now, seditious socialist apparatchiks who will do anything to win back power. I hope Sessions has the stones to do what is needed ....
#5
CNN must bear some of the guilt. They knew she was a Democrat party apparatchik when they hired her so what did they expect? Same goes for George Stephanopolous at ABC. How can they present themselves as impartial and objective news organizations when their staffs are composed of Democrat party apparatchiks?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/18/2017 12:47
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#6
Admits guilt!?! Not exactly. Brazile offers what some lawyers call 'regret without remorse'. Presumably she is looking for steady employment and has hired the Clinton's PR folks.
#7
and yet no one is talking about the real focus of what this should be about, who gives a rip about Brazile, it's Hillary not admitting that she RECEIVED these questions.
what scum of the earth
Posted by: Jan ||
03/18/2017 16:59
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[LI] President Trump unveiled his new federal budget proposal this week, leaving big government lovers in full on meltdown mode.
One of the programs on the chopping block is Meals on Wheels by way of a Community Development Block Grant.
Despite numerous reports to the contrary, Meals on Wheels is not wholly federally funded:
"Meals on Wheels, a program that supports the delivery of meals to seniors who cannot afford food or cannot prepare it, started in Australia and has been in the United States since 1954. The program serves 2.4 million seniors every year and does get funding from the Community Development Block Grant program.
But the situation is complicated and saying that the budget eliminates the Meals on Wheels program is factually incorrect. According to the Meals on Wheels annual IRS filing for 2015 (it isn’t a government program), approximately 3.3% of its funding comes from government sources.
Golly. I had no idea. They'll save more just by not having to do the paperwork necessary to keep the government happy.
Most is from corporate and foundation grants, with individual contributions the second-largest source. Government grants are actually the fifth-largest source of revenue.
If its portions of block grants were eliminated, the program wouldn’t suddenly disappear. However, the organization says that it already cannot keep up with growing demand from seniors who need help. In addition, Meals on Wheels passes funding down to 5,000 local groups that provide food, and they additionally might be affected by the funding cut."
#2
Once again hysteria reigns supreme and the progressives take full advantage of it. Look for vids of granny going over the cliff without her happy meal. Is there any Federal program that can't stand some paring down and efficiencies? Meals on Wheels gets about 3% from Federal funding; the rest from corporations, foundations and individual donations. In addition to the CDBG program, Trump has proposed 17.9% cuts in the Department of Health and Human Services and that will trickle down through its programs but its impact on Meals on Wheels is uncertain at this time. The CDBG program has administrative costs of upwards of 25%. Another criticism is that the program is not sufficiently focused on combatting poverty. Meals on Wheels is a community-based program and has an active volunteer program for delivering meals seniors; some efficiencies are gained from that.
While Hillary was SOS, some $6 billion was lost. Where's the outrage over that? What about the money going to Iran in the Obama/Kerry shifty deal? Trump is right, he was left a mess to clean up.
#4
Just reducing the size of programs by removing redundant administrators and duplication will be a cost saving. Enroll MoW'ers in the Federal food stamp program, relieve the states of their individual program burdens. Centralized administration means standardized auditing of program effectiveness and 'some' truth in number traceability.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and two others were injured on Friday when a bomb blast hit a district south of Baghdad, police sources were quoted saying.
The device was placed near a cattle market in Suwaib, south of the Iraqi capital, the sources said.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Islamic State militants have said
they had been responsible for several bloody explosions and attacks that hit the capital in the past months, leaving casualties among civilians and security troops and stoking criticisms against the province’s local officials.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) says violence in the country left nearly 392 dead and 613 injured, excluding security members, during February. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 120 deaths and 300 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count.
Some observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses. They are concerned that the group could, however, shift to a guerilla-style war and lone wolf attacks after the recapture of Mosul. Google Map at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
03/18/2017
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At least one civilian was killed and one police officer from PD11 wounded during a clash between police and unknown armed men in Kabul on Friday.
The incident happened on Friday at about 12 noon local time after gunmen, fleeing from police, opened fire on a police ranger.
The police had been chasing the suspected criminals through Khairkhana at the time.
Kabul police said there had been three suspects involved, all with criminal backgrounds.
A gunfight between police and the suspects broke out – resulting in damage to civilian cars in the area.
One eye witness, Ghulam Safdar, said he had been driving in his car with his children when the gunmen’s vehicle collided with his car.
“I heard gun fire and then stopped my car at the side of the road. When the car (driven by the armed men) got to me they could not go anywhere and crashed their vehicle into my vehicle to try to get past,” Safdar said.
He said the gunmen then started shooting at civiliams.
One person was killed.
“When the vehicle arrived here (armed men vehicle), they opened fire on people,” said Aidi Mohammad, a shopkeeper in the area.
“We hid in the shops until the firing stopped. When we came out of the shop, we saw that a man was lying on the ground,” said Mohammad Zia, another shopkeeper.
The three suspects fled the scene.
Kabul residents have meanwhile called on the new Kabul police chief to put an end to such incidents.
ADEN: A Houthi missile attack Friday killed 26 members of pro-government forces in a camp east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, hospital officials in the town of Al-Maarib said.
The news agency of the internationally recognized government said the attack took place during Friday prayers in Al-Maarib province, eastern Yemen.
The death toll is expected to rise, it said. A loyalist military source said the attack targeted the mosque at Kofel camp.
Lt. Gen. Ali Mohsen Saleh Al-Ahmar, Yemeni vice president, condemned the “heinous terrorist crime” targeting the mosque.
“It reveals the true face of the coup who violated the sanctity of mosques,” the official said in a statement to the Yemen News Agency.
“The militia’s coup perpetrated in this incident a double crime. They bombed the mosque and then re-targeted the medics who were trying to provide aid to the victims.”
The attack was carried out with Katyusha-type rockets, said an army official in Al-Maarib.
A rebel-controlled news agency said the Houthis had carried out the attack. It said the main weapon used was the Zelzal-1 Iranian-made missile and it was followed by artillery fire.
“Dozens of bodies of burned soldiers were evacuated from the site,” it said, without mentioning that a mosque had been hit.
Pro-government forces have retaken large parts of Al-Maarib province from Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the March 2015 launch of a Saudi-led intervention in favor of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The commander of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said on Friday that a US-backed assault to drive ISIS from its de-facto capital Raqqa would begin at the start of April and the YPG would be taking part, despite fierce opposition from neighboring Turkey.
A spokesman for the US Pentagon, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, said no decision had been made yet on the Raqqa offensive, which is part of a two pronged attempt to dismantle the caliphate declared by ISIS in parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.
US-backed forces, including the YPG, are closing in on Raqqa city.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump said he wants to accelerate efforts to crush the hardline militants, who are under siege by US-backed Iraqi forces in the much larger city of Mosul.
The comments by YPG commander Sipan Hemo to Reuters were the first indication of a date of an attack.
H“Regarding the decision to liberate Raqqa and storm it, the matter is decided and at the start of the month of April the military operation will begin,” Hemo said.
“We believe that liberating Raqqa will not take more than a number weeks,” he added.
Ankara has been pressing the United States to drop its military alliance with the Syrian Kurdish group, which it views as part of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has been fighting an insurgency for three decades in Turkey.
The role of the YPG is a major point of contention between the United States and its NATO ally Turkey, which wants Washington to draw instead on Syrian Arab rebel groups backed by Ankara for the final assault on Raqqa.
Hemo said YPG forces would storm Raqqa alongside Arab fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). “Of the total force for storming Raqqa, 25 percent are YPG, who are set apart in their combat experience and high-level command skills directing battles in cities,” he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told broadcaster Haberturk in an interview late on Thursday that parts of the US military favored incorporating the YPG into the assault force because of its earlier successes on the ground.
“But we also see that there are different stances within the US administration. Right now, they do not have a clear stance on this. They are going through a transition period,” he said, adding: “The talks are ongoing.”
The Pentagon has said that Arab fighters account for about 75 percent of the SDF alliance fighting to isolate Raqqa.
Source: Reuters & Agencies
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
The YPG should pay close attention to the hard lessons being learned by the IA in Mosul...as should we. Car bombs used as guided missiles, localized counter attacks, all directed by IS ops guys using sUAS video...and they even drop mortar sized bombs with weaponized versions of those.
The Manbij Military Council (MMC) on Friday confirmed that they have arrested five members of the Northern Sun Battalion who were accused of torturing an ISIS member in a video, which was shared on social media.
Both MMC and Northern Sun Battalion operate as part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The five fighters were referred to the Manbij military court.
“In a video recording shared on the social media, a group from the Northern Sun Battalion is seen torturing a Daesh (ISIS) member who has previously tried to plant mines,” the Manbij Military Council said.
“Gangs previously planted mines near areas like El-Heja, Til Codan and nearby villages in the region [northern Syria] and 9 members of the Manbij Military Council had lost their lives in mine explosions. It seems that the Northern Sun Battalion members have acted against the ISIS prisoner upon these incidents,” the council added.
“As the General Command of the Manbij Military Council, we are committed to laws of war. We condemn this incident which is contrary to our military morals. We are announcing that the group in question has been referred to the Manbij Military Court for trial,” the council concluded.
This is not the first time the Kurdish-led SDF forces put fighters on trial for violating international law.
In January 2016, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) –a leading SDF member– stripped four YPG fighters from its membership for damaging civilian property in al-Hawl town in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah Governorate.
“Following interrogations and an investigation, they have been stripped of YPG membership and sent to court to be tried in accordance with the law,” the YPG said in a statement at the time.
Furthermore, the Manbij Military Council on Friday released several civilians who were suspected of supporting ISIS after intervention of tribal leaders, and who promised not to make mistakes again or deal with ISIS.
Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg | Source: ARA News
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#1
probation is warranted
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2017 11:31
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#2
Were they detained for torturing him or detained for not doing it correctly, i.e., not painful enough...OR did he survive the interrogation?
I need more specificity to make a moral judgment.
If it is ISIS, because of what they do to people, torture should be as painful and disfiguring as possible.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly blasted the Riyadh government for continuing attacks on Yemeni civilians.
“Saudi Arabia has fueled the flames of regional insecurity by fueling the flame of war Yemen and supporting the terrorist groups in Syria,” Qassemi said on Friday.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman reiterated that Saudi Arabia should learn that its petrodollars cannot buy security for that country and paving the way for foreign interference (as Saudi Arabia is doing) in the region will only increase the insecurity in the Middle East.
In relevant remarks last week, the Iranian foreign ministry strongly deplored the Saudi air attacks on a busy market in al-Hudayda province in Yemen which killed and wounded several innocent civilians.
Qassemi expressed sympathy with family members of the victims, and extended Iran’s condolences to them.
“Intensified attacks against the residential areas and civilian targets and prevention of access to the international organizations and responsible institutions to carry out relief missions is violation of basic humanitarian principles and regulations,” he said.
Qassemi called on the UN and other international organizations to adopt necessary actions to protect the health and security of civilians, specially women and children.
The Saudi warplanes raided last Friday a popular market in Khawkha governorate in Yemen’s Hudayda province, claiming 16 lives and injuring 10 others, according to the initial tolls.
Four air raids on various areas in Yemen’s Nahm city were also launched by the Saudi warplanes.
Saudi Arabia launched its bombing campaign against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to restore power to fugitive President Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
Hadi stepped down in January 2015 and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
The Monarchy’s attacks have so far claimed the lives of at least 13,100 civilians, mostly women and children.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Pro-Iraqi government paramilitary forces killed 23 Islamic State members on Friday during an offensive in Samarra, Salahuddin, as the troops continue securing areas recaptured from the extremist group in the province.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said they killed seven IS fighters and wounded 16 others on the dawn of Friday in an offensive at Jalam Samarra region.
Areas between Salahuddin and neighboring provinces have seen an increase in attacks by IS on security and PMU deployments since the government launched a major campaign in October to retake Mosul, Islamic State’s biggest fastness in Iraq. Al-Hashd has actively engaged with government forces in securing recaptured areas and searching for dormant IS cells in Salahuddin and other provinces.
Observers believe attacks by Islamic State fighters on provinces outside Mosul aim at distracting security focus on the city and to offset losses the group has been sustaining there.
Generals from the Iraqi forces and from the allied U.S.-led international alliance have stressed that Islamic State began to weaken, with many several senior leaders killed or escaped, the group isolated inside Mosul and deprived of its supply routes from Syria.
It is expected that the Iraqi government, once done with the campaign in Mosul, will move on towards smaller IS pockets in Kirkuk, Anbar and Salahuddin. Google Map at the link
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The Afghan national army soldiers suffered casualties in an explosion triggered by a car bomb in southeastern Khost province of Afghanistan.
As Everett Dirksen once said, "a deader here, a deader there, pretty soon you're talking some real deaders."
According to the local security officials, the incident took place earlier today in the vicinity of Yaqoobi and Sabari district.
A spokesman for the 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) Fazal Khuda confirmed the incident. He said a suicide bomber was looking to target a military base in the area but was identified and shot by the security forces of a check post located in the area.
Fazal Khuda further added that one Afghan soldier lost his life and seven others were wounded in the attack. According to Fazal Khuda, at least three militants were also killed in the attack.
Khost has been among the relatively calm provinces during the recent years but the anti-government armed militant groups have been attempting to expand their insurgency in this province.
This comes as a group of insurgents attempted to carry out an attack on a military air base in Khost province but the attack was repulsed by the security forces. Local officials said a number of insurgents armed with light weapons and grenades attempted to break into the base but were identified and at least one of them was shot dead.
[IsraelTimes] Another Paleostinian reported to be seriously maimed in incident north of Hebron, while attempting to attack Israeli drivers.
A 16-year-old teen was killed by IDF fire near the refugee camp of Al Aroub, north of Hebron,
...Hebron is Hamas Central in the West Bank, so a Hamas connection can reasonably be assumed...
Paleostinian sources said Friday. The Israeli military said it fired at assailants throwing petrol bombs at Israeli drivers.
According to the sources, the Paleostinian was hit in his chest and evacuated to hospital at death's door, where he died. Another Paleostinian was seriously hurt in the incident but his condition was defined as stable.
The army said soldiers shot up assailants throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli drivers near the Al Aroub refugee camp and that one of them was hit, but a spokeswoman could not confirm he had died.
"In response to that immediate threat forces fired toward the suspects and a hit was identified," she told AFP.
The Paleostinian health ministry named the dead youth as Murad Yussef Abu Ghazi, 16, and said he was shot in the chest.
Paleostinian security officials said Abu Ghazi was rubbed out during festivities with soldiers in which another youth was seriously maimed by army fire.
[Rush] We are on the verge of a genuine constitutional crisis because of the Ninth Circuit court of Appeals opening the door for this Hawaii Obama-appointed judge to deny Trump’s travel ban the second time going, and I want to get into detail as to what this really means and what the left is really doing here.
It’s not a legal dispute. This is, as I said yesterday, is a silent coup that is taking place that I’m sure has been strategized since before Trump was inaugurated. But the profound, devastating possibilities that result from this in terms of a president losing all constitutional -- do you realize with this judge’s ruling, I’ll tell you where this is going.
Let’s say that Donald Trump decides at any time in the near future that he needs to deploy troops, and so he does, and so a leftist activist goes to a court, shops and finds a judge, like the guy in Hawaii, and claims that Trump said during the campaign that he was gonna do X Y, or Z, whatever, and the deployment of troops is not really for the stated purpose, and the judge could shut it down!
This judge’s ruling has -- if the guy’s not stopped, if the Supreme Court doesn’t overturn this, or if Trump doesn’t just ignore it like Andrew Jackson did, then we’re getting to the point where the president, because of the judiciary, will have totally lost constitutional authority to defend the country because of this little ruling in Hawaii that was made possible by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And it’s all about this idiotic notion that a presidential candidate on the campaign trial making statements is the equivalent of an inaugurated president stating policy.
#1
The most basic, most idiotic notion here is that the US courts should think they have anything legitimate whatsoever to say or do in the execution (executive, get it?) of US foreign policy.
We didn't choose these black robed bozos to do that, and it's far past time to do something about them.
#2
Tangentially related: today the bust of former US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roget B. Taney will be removed from the grounds of the Frederick MD City Hall in preparation for its relocation to a nearby cemetery. Taney wrote the infamous Dred Scott USSC decision, which was a major element leading up to the Civil War.
I doubt that Ryan has the votes to impeach this Hawaiian judge, and given the Republican squishes as well as Democratic joy over the injunction, there are certainly not enough votes in the Senate to convict; but there are some Democrats who find the Courts’ interference in the political game rather alarming.
#8
Federal judges are making up law according to their personal beliefs, whims, political party and "cult of personality". Without strict interpretation and adherence to our Constitution it is easy to lose our way.
#9
Trump may get his Andrew Jackson moment sooner than thought:
"John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2017 11:48
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#10
If you want to hear a federal judge bitch up a storm, ask him whether the General Services Administration is treating him well. Not only does the judiciary not control an armored division, it basically can't buy a pencil sharpener without the cooperation and $$$ of the GSA. The GSA is clearly part of the executive branch. So instead of thinking about difficult projects like impeachment, think in terms of how Judge X's next request to the GSA is going to be handled. "Your law clerk's computer just crashed? We'll get someone out there right away -- here, I'll pencil you in for April 2025. We need to take care of all the starving immigrant children first. You're OK with that, aren't you?"
#12
Verge? We've had a judicial aristocracy for generations. Should have noticed back in the 80's with the Bork nomination. That's when they all should have been limited to 16 year terms.
#13
There are 124 judicial vacancies with one pending out of 890 authorized judgeships. According to the American Constitution Society:
If any Senator objects to unanimous consent, then a cloture motion must be filed in order to end debate and move to a vote. Cloture motions for judicial and executive nominations require 51 votes to pass. If 51 Senators support cloture, the full Senate will vote on the nomination, with a majority required for confirmation. If fewer than 51 Senators support cloture, debate continues and a confirmation vote cannot occur. This is known as a filibuster. Prior to the November 2013 Senate rules change, all cloture motions required 60 votes to pass. Now, only cloture motions for legislation and nominees to the Supreme Court require 60 votes. Once the Senate holds a confirmation vote, with a majority voting to confirm, the nominee becomes a Federal Judge. It would be good to fill these ASAP.
Congress has the power of the purse and Trump has veto power over pet projects going to Schumer's state should he be too much the obstructionist in these appointments.
The Saudi-led coalition committed a new massacre in Yemen overnight on Thursday, killing and injuring dozens of Somali immigrants near al-Hudaydah.
Al-Massirah Yemeni television reported that the Saudi-led warplanes targeted a boat carrying dozens of Somali immigrants off al-Hudaydah in Yemen.
44 people were martyred, while 29 others were injured, al-Massirah said.
Yemen has been under an aggression by Saudi-led coalition since March 2015. The brutal aggression has killed and injured tens of thousands of Yemenis, the vast majority of them were civilians.
Yemen ports and airports have been also under a blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition, which also includes UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.
[USA Today] J.C. Penney on Friday released a list of 138 department stores it plans to close as part of a previously announced plan to shrink its footprint as it grapples with industry challenges.
The company had estimated that it would close 130 to 140 locations. Most stores will begin liquidation sales April 17 and close in June.
The retailer said Friday that the closures would displace 5,000 workers. Some will receive transfer opportunities and some will not.
Penney will continue to operate nearly 900 stores.
"It became apparent to us that our footprint was too large," Penney CEO Marvin Ellison told investors in February, and the closures will "allow us to raise the overall brand standard of J.C. Penney" and invest in remaining stores.
The move followed similar store-closure announcements by Macy's and Sears.
#1
Way too many brick and mortar stores to survive in a digital Amazon age. Sears should have absolutely ruled but they were exiting catalog sales right as Amazon entered - and what is Amazon except a giant online catalog, which Sears already had? Of course Amazon had no sales tax to collect, giving them an 8% advantage - makes one wonder why.
The rocketry force in Yemeni army and popular committees launched a ballistic missile onto the Saudi oil firm of Aramco in Jizan, according to local military sources, which added that the rocket hit its target accurately.
The Yemeni army and popular committees strike the Saudi-led forces in Maarib with Zelzal 1 rockets, killing or injuring 60 mercenaries.
[IsraelTimes] Rima Khalaf quits after Sec.-Gen. rejects document accusing Jewish state of ’racially dominating’ the Paleostinians; Israeli envoy: Her departure was ’long overdue’.
The head of a Leb-based United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... agency that promotes development in Arab countries resigned Friday, after the body she led was ordered by the UN secretary-general to remove from its website a controversial report that charged Israel has established an "apartheid regime" guilty of "racial domination" over the Palestinians. They'll all be ordering 'Apartheid for Dummies' manuals from Amazon before this Palestinian unpleasantness is finished.
Rima Khalaf, a Jordanian who served as executive secretary of the Beirut-based Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), announced her resignation at a hastily arranged presser in the Lebanese capital.
She said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s insistence that the document be removed from the agency’s website led her to quit.
"The secretary general asked me yesterday morning to withdraw (the report). I asked him to rethink his decision, he insisted, so I submitted my resignation from the UN," Khalaf said.
"We expected of course that Israel and its allies would put huge pressure on the secretary general of the UN so that he would disavow the report, and that they would ask him to withdraw it," Khalaf, who had also served as an under-secretary-general to Guterres, added.
The report was no longer available on ESCWA’s website as of Friday afternoon.
Guterres accepted Khalaf’s resignation. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric explained to media in New York that "The secretary-general cannot accept that an under-secretary-general or any other senior UN official that reports to him would authorize the publication under the UN name, under the UN logo, without consulting the competent departments and even himself," according to Rooters.
The document, published earlier this week by ESCWA, which comprises 18 Arab countries, drew swift and vociferous criticism from US and Israeli officials. "The United States is outraged by the report," US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley ...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... said in a statement. She went on to demand the report be withdrawn.
Its authors concluded that "Israel has established an apartheid regime that systematically institutionalizes racial oppression and domination of the Paleostinian people as a whole."
Khalaf has long been criticized by Israeli officials for her perceived anti-Israel positions.
UN chief Guterres distanced himself from the report on Wednesday, and then requested its removal from ESCWA’s website.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon welcomed the developments, saying Guterres’s move was "an important step in stopping discrimination against Israel."
In a statement, Danon said "Anti-Israel activists do not belong in the UN. It is time to put an end to practice in which UN officials use their position to advance their anti-Israel agenda."
He added that "Over the years Khalaf has worked to harm Israel and advocate for the BDS movement. Her removal from the UN is long overdue."
US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley, who had demanded the report’s withdrawal Wednesday, said in a statement: "When someone issues a false and defamatory report in the name of the US, it is appropriate that the person resign. UN agencies must do a better job of eliminating false and biased work, and I applaud the secretary-general’s decision to distance his good office from it."
The report was compiled by Richard Falk, a Princeton professor emeritus with a long track record of vehemently anti-Israel rhetoric who previously was the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Paleostine, and by Virginia Tilley, an American political scientist who authored the book "The One-State Solution" in 2005.
Haley described Falk as "a man who has repeatedly made biased and deeply offensive comments about Israel and espoused ridiculous conspiracy theories."
#1
"The secretary-general cannot accept that an under-secretary-general or any other senior UN official that reports to him would authorize the publication under the UN name, under the UN logo, without consulting the competent departments and even himself"
Nothing personal, Khalaf baby - it's just business. And the business needs money. If you'd put this little report of yours up, say, last year at this time, it'd been no problem. Surely you understand....
#3
Now if we could just find a way to inculcate this ethic in society.
I would be happy if merely all scientists lived it, instead of only some of them. The easiest way is to require duplication by the lead scientist's group of key experiments referenced in the publication. The extra cost would be offset by a severe reduction in junk science being published, not to mention done.... and a drastic pruning of references.
[TheLocal.fr] Police in Paris have launched an investigation after two men, a father and his son, were found with their throats slit in the French capital. Another son has been arrested in connection with the murders and has since been transferred to a secure psychiatric unit, reports say.
A man was arrested in Paris on Friday suspected of slitting the throats of his father and brother at the entrance to a building in the capital's trendy 11th district, police sources told AFP.
The sources, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the reason for the attack was being investigated.
The two men died at the scene despite efforts by paramedics to save them.
Some witnesses said the suspect made remarks "linked to radical Islam" but the police urged caution, saying the killer's motives were unknown.
Newspaper Le Figaro cited a police source who said the knifeman shouted "Allahu Akbar" ('God is greatest', in Arabic).
The attacked happened outside a building on Rue de Montreuil in the east of the French capital near Place de la Nation (see map below).
A resident of the high-rise building in the city's 11th district said he heard a man "crying for help" at around 11am.
"I looked out the window and saw a man lying on the ground. There was a lot of blood.
"There was another man standing beside him, dressed in a white djellaba (loose-fitting tunic worn by some Muslims). He fell to his knees and prayed until the police came to take him away," 21-year-old Thomas told AFP.
Unfortunately, jihad is a ready made guide for the mad to latch onto, and most of the time it is the immediate household that suffers.
At least six terrorists were killed during a search operation in the Michini area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday, said the spokesperson for the Frontier Corps.
“FC personnel carried out a search operation in the Mosal Kor area of Michini,” said the paramilitary force spokesperson.
The spokesperson claimed that terrorists opened fire on security forces and during an exchange of fire six terrorists were killed.
The paramilitary force also said a large cache of arms and explosive were recovered.
Earlier today, the Inter-Services Public Relations said that two personnel of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) laid down their lives as militants from across the Pakistan-Afghan border attempted to attack a checkpost in Khyber Agency.
SYRIA: The US said it carried out an air strike in Syria against an Al-Qaeda meeting but denied deliberately targeting a mosque where a monitor said on Friday 46 people were killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of the dead in the Thursday evening raid on Al-Jineh, in the northern province of Aleppo, were civilians.
The US-led coalition has been bombing jihadist groups in war-torn Syria since 2014, with hundreds of civilians unintentionally killed in the country and in neighboring Iraq.
“We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target — which was where the meeting took place — is about 50 feet (15 meters) from a mosque that is still standing,” said Col. John J. Thomas, spokesman for US Central Command.
According to a Centcom statement: “US forces conducted an air strike on an Al-Qaeda in Syria meeting location March 16 in Idlib, Syria, killing several terrorists.”
The Centcom spokesman later clarified that the precise location of the strike was unclear — but that it was the same one widely reported to have hit the village mosque in Al-Jineh, in Aleppo province.
“We are going to look into any allegations of civilian casualties in relation to this strike,” he added.
An AFP correspondent saw rescue workers in white helmets working under spotlights with picks and shovels late on Thursday to dig people out of the rubble.
Much of the mosque, identified by a black placard outside as a mosque, had been flattened.
The empty prayer hall was covered in debris, and rescue workers stepped through it carefully, deliberating how to break down a wall to search for more survivors.
Rescuers had earlier left the wreckage site but were forced to double back when they heard moaning coming from the rubble.
“More than 100 people were wounded,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said on Thursday, adding that many were still trapped under the collapsed mosque in the village of Al-Jineh, just over 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of Aleppo.
The village is held by Islamist groups, but the Observatory said no jihadist factions are present.
Abu Muhammed, a village resident, told AFP that he “heard powerful explosions when the mosque was hit. It was right after prayers at a time when there are usually religious lessons for men in it.
“I saw 15 bodies and lots of body parts in the debris when I arrived. We couldn’t even recognize some of the bodies,” he added.
More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict with anti-government protests six years ago.
A cease-fire between government forces and non-jihadist rebel groups was brokered by rebel backer Turkey and regime ally Russia in December, but violence has continued.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.
But the skies over Aleppo province are busy, with Syrian regime and Russian warplanes as well as US-led coalition aircraft carrying out strikes.
Russia began a military intervention in Syria in September 2015, and in the past has dismissed allegations of civilian deaths in its strikes.
The US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group said earlier this month that its raids in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians since 2014.
#8
If you are targeting religious nut cases isn't it reasonable to consider religious sites they congregate at targets?
We're at war with ISLAM. Some day we will say it openly. When that day comes, if our "leadership" really wants to win the gloves will come off and we'll target mosques.
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] The police in Borno have confirmed that two officers were killed by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... , but said the victims were not officials of the Borno Police Command.
The Borno command said none of its personnel were killed during the Wednesday night attack on military formations in Magumeri village of Borno.
The spokesperson of the Borno State Police Command, Victor Isuku, explained his command’s stance in a statement on Friday.
"The attention of Borno state police command has been drawn to a news report over the attack by boko haram murderous Moslems at Magumeri town, in Magumeri LGA of Borno state on 15th March, 2017", said Mr. Isuku, a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
"According to the report, a police Sergeant. Aliru Aliyu was killed, while Sergeant Ayeni Lawrence was injured when the murderous Moslems attacked Magumeri cop shoppe.
"For avoidance of doubt, and to put records straight, the command wishes to state that the fallen police Sergeant Aliru Aliyu, the injured Sergeant Ayeni Lawrence, and one Corporal Zachariah Mohammed who was initially reported missing in action, but later found dead, are all personnel of 16 PMF Squadron Abeokuta on Counter Insurgency Special Duty in the state.
"They are also among the over 500 police personnel deployed to Operation Lafiya Dole. They were briefed and deployed by the military to Nigerian Army Base at Magumeri town
He explained that the casualty recorded by the police was as a result of the attack on the military base in Magumeri and not on Magumeri cop shoppe as wrongly reported.
Boko Haram gunnies had on Wednesday night staged their very first attack on Magumeri targeting security locations in the dusty agrarian community.
The military said the attack was repelled but blamed it on the villagers’ connivance with Boko Haram.
Details on casualty remained sketchy, even as the Borno State Deputy Governor, Usman Durkwa, who visited the attacked village of Thursday said the casualty on the side of the security operatives was under reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
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A suicide bomber targeted the home of Zahir Haqqani, Director of Haj and Religious Affairs for eastern Nangarhar province, on Friday afternoon, killing Haqqani's brother, eye witnesses reported.
The attack took place in Hajarat village of Surkh Rod district. Two other suicide bombers were also reportedly arrested.
Reports also indicate that a number of people have been wounded but details have not yet been released.
[Ynet] After Israeli jets strike targets in Syria, anti-aircraft missiles are sent from Syria to hit the Israeli jets; Israel manages to strike down Syrian missiles without casualties or damage.
IDF reported on Friday that it has shot down one of numerous anti-aircraft missiles launched Thursday night by Syria at Israeli F-15 fighter jets that had hit designated targets within Syria. Israeli Arrow anti-aircraft missiles were used to intercept a Syrian S-200 missile and protect its jets. Syria, in the meantime, described the Israeli strike in Syria as a "blatant Israeli act of aggression."
The Israeli Military reported that its planes struck several targets in Syria, and were back in Israeli-controlled airspace when the Syrian missiles were launched at its jets.
Missile sirens had sounded in Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank at 02:43am, with two witnesses hearing an kaboom a few minutes later. The IAF's interception of the Syrian anti-aircrafts missiles, in addition to the resulting sirens, prompted the IDF to issue a response acknowledging the its strikes in Syria. Normally, Israel does not divulge information about such operations. This is the forst time the IDF confirmed the operational use of its Arrow ground-to-air missiles.
The Syrian Army responded to the strike by saying, "This blatant Israeli act of aggression came as part of the Zionist enemy’s persistence with supporting ISIS terrorist gangs and in a desperate attempt to raise their deteriorating morale and divert attention away from the victories which Syrian Arab Army is making in the face of the terrorist organizations."
The Israeli Military said in its own statement that one of the anti-aircraft missiles launched against its planes had been intercepted, adding that all IDF jets had returned to Israel unharmed. The blast from the interception was heard as far away as Jerusalem, dozens of miles from the site. No casualties or damage were reported.
"Overnight IAF (Israeli Air Force) aircraft targeted several targets in Syria. Several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria following the mission and IDF (Israel Defence Force) Aerial Defence Systems intercepted one of the missiles," the military said in its statement.
Arab media reported that Israel had targeted a delivery of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in its Arclight airstrike. Syria responded to the Israeli strikes with its its own missile attack, with the Syrian Army stating that it used S-200 anti-aircraft missiles against the Israeli jets.
Israel has carried out dozens of strikes to prevent weapons smuggling to the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is fighting rebels alongside the Syrian army.
Prior to the release of the IDF's statement, sources in Jordan were reported that an S-200 anti-aircraft missile fell Thursday night in the northern area of Irbid, following which security forces surrounded the area of descent. It is still unclear whether the object was the remnants of the missile intercepted by Israel, part of the IAF missile, or another object.
Iran has been Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's staunchest backer and has provided militia fighters to help him. Israel is concerned Hezbollah, with which it fought a war in 2006, is trying to obtain sophisticated weapons it could use against Israel.
Following the night's events, the air space above the Golan Heights was closed to flights.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... to discuss what he charged were Iran's attempts to establish a permanent military foothold in Syria.
[IsraelTimes] Netanyahu says Israel will continue to target weapons convoys to Hezbollah: ’Our policy is very consistent ...and everyone needs to take this into account. Everyone.'
[ArabNews] SYRIA: The Syrian army said Friday it shot down an Israeli plane and hit a second one as they were carrying out pre-dawn strikes near the famed desert city of Palmyra.
“Our air defense engaged them and shot down one warplane over occupied territory, hit another one, and forced the rest to flee,” the army said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA. Syrians say they fired on Israeli warbirds
[AnNahar] Rebel factions, including al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate the Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... Front, issued rare denials of any involvement in twin suicide kabooms that killed 32 people in Damascus on Wednesday.
The Tahrir al-Sham alliance, which is dominated by Fateh al-Sham, said it "denies any link to the Damascus kabooms".
"Our goals are confined to security branches and military barracks of the criminal regime and its allies," it said in a statement published on Telegram late Wednesday.
Fateh al-Sham had earlier grabbed credit for twin bombings which killed 74 people on Saturday, most of them Iraqi pilgrims who had travelled to the Syrian capital to visit Shiite shrines.
It also grabbed credit for bombings that killed 42 people in Syria's third city Homs last month.
Wednesday's attacks targeted a Damascus courthouse, where 32 people were killed and 100 maimed, and a restaurant in the west of the capital, where 25 people were maimed.
There has been no claim of responsibility.
The bombings drew condemnation from Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... which described them as "criminal terrorist blasts."
It accused the government of provocation, an allegation also levelled by another Islamist rebel group, Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... (Army of Islam), which said the attacks had been "staged".
"The regime of (Bashar al-) Assad achieved two central goals: tarnishing the revolution with the stain of terrorism... and creating sectarian tensions within a united people," the group said.
The attacks came as the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... prepares to convene a new round of peace negotiations between the government and the opposition in Geneva next Thursday.
Rebel delegates stayed away from parallel talks which wrapped up in the Kazakh capital Astana on Wednesday.
[AlAhram] A senior figure in Bulgaria's Turkish community lashed out Friday at President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , in a further escalation of a spat ahead of elections in the EU country and a referendum in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... In a rare outburst, Ahmed Dogan, the long-serving former leader of the main party representing the Turkish minority, said that the Turkish referendum on creating an executive presidency was "madness".
"On April 16 neighbouring Turkey will hold a referendum to turn Kemal (Ataturk's) Republic of Turkey into a sultanate," the 62-year-old said in a statement.
Bulgaria is home to a 700,000-strong ethnic Turkish minority, a legacy of the Ottoman empire.
Turkey, its neighbour, is home to more than 200,000 ethnic Turks with Bulgarian passports who left Bulgaria during the communist era.
Around a third of them are expected to vote in Bulgaria's election on March 26.
Sofia has accused Ankara in recent weeks of meddling in its election, summoning Turkey's ambassador and recalling its own envoy from Turkey for consultations.
You could properly accuse Turkey of meddling in Bulgarian elections for the last several centuries, except that Bulgaria hasn't had elections that long...
Turkey's envoy openly backed Dost, a new party that split from Dogan's Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) in 2016, which is the third biggest in parliament.
Ognyan Gerdzhikov, Bulgaria's interim prime minister, on Friday acknowledged there was a problem.
"There is a certain amount of tension linked to one of the political parties that receives backing from the Turkish side but we are taking measures to stop that," Gerdzhikov said.
It is still unclear how many votes Dost, which unlike the MRF openly backs Erdogan, will garner on March 26 but experts believe it will fail to pass the four-percent threshold to enter parliament.
A wider row is meanwhile raging between Turkey and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ahead of the referendum, with a number of countries preventing Turkish ministers from attending referendum rallies.
An angry response by Ankara has seen German and Dutch politicians called "Nazis" and Turkey threaten to scupper a 2016 deal with the EU preventing migrants colonists entering the bloc.
This could be a major problem for Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, since it shares a 270-kilometre (165-mile) border with Turkey.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/18/2017
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Federal Police command said Friday its forces recaptured some areas near central Mosul’s Old City, hours after operations were reported to have slowed down due to bad weather.
The Federal Police said forces took over Pasha Mosque, Bab al-Sarai market and al-Adalah street, all inside the Old City and near Grand Nuri Mosque, where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-baghdadi declared the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq in 2014.
Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat said in a statement that forces continued to advance against the strategic district from several directions. “Federal Police and Rapid Response forces, stationed near the Old Bridge along the (Tigris) river and on the outskirts of Bab al-Bid, resumed their military operations today,” said Jawdat.
He said the advances were backed by drones, rocket launchers and aerial bombardment on the extremist group’s locations in Ras al-Khour, Bab al-Bid and al-Hadbaa regions in the Old City.
Iraqi generals view the recapture of the densely-populated and -structured Old City as essential for victory over IS in western Mosul, where operations launched in February to achieve an eventual collapse of the group’s self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”.
Government forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting.
Progress has slowed down over the past two days in central Mosul due to bad weather and the area’s narrow alleyways which made it difficult for military vehicles to go through. Google map at the link
A commander said Friday that Iraqi forces have gained ground from ISIL terrorists inside the Old City of Mosul, an area that could see some of the toughest fighting of the battle for the northern metropolis.
Iraqi forces launched an operation on February 19 to retake the west side of Mosul — the most populous area still held by the ISIL group — and have retaken several neighborhoods.
But the pace of their advance has periodically slowed because of bad weather that has hampered air support.
The Old City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to have stayed on under ISIL rule, is a warren of narrow streets that restricts the use of large armored vehicles.
“Federal police and Rapid Response units imposed their complete control over the Al-Basha Mosque… and the Bab al-Saray market in the Old City,” federal police Lieutenant General Raed Shakir Jawdat, the commander of the federal police, said in a statement.
Iraqi forces launched the operation to recapture Mosul — the ISIL’s last major urban bastion in the country — in October, retaking its east side before setting their sites on the smaller but more densely populated west.
Source: AFP
Posted by: badanov ||
03/18/2017
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[IsraelTimes] A German court on Wednesday sentences members of a neo-Nazi group to up to five years in prison for forming a “terror organization” that planned to attack a home for asylum seekers. The four — three men and a 24-year-old woman identified as Denise Vanessa G. — were arrested in May 2015, two days before they planned to strike at the migrant shelter in the eastern state of Saxony.
Known as the “Old School Society,” their choice of weapon was modified “pyrotechnic explosives, particularly in the form of fire and nail bombs,” which they were planning to hurl into a refugee home, the prosecutor had said.
The ringleader Andreas H., 58, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison while his second-in-command Marcus W., 41, got five years. The group’s “spokesman” Olaf G., 31, was given three years while the only woman obtained three years and 10 months.
[Ynet] Federal prosecutors say they have charged a 23-year-old German man with membership in a terrorist organization for joining the Islamic State group in Syria. In a statement Thursday, prosecutors said Anil O. traveled to Syria in August 2015 with the intention of working as a medic for the group.
Prosecutors said O., whose last name wasn't published due to German privacy law, soon became disillusioned with IS after seeing how it treated fellow Muslims. They said he tried several times to flee IS-held territory, succeeding in January. He returned to Germany in September last year and was arrested at Duesseldorf airport.
Germany to test software that can tell if asylum seekers are genuine by analysing their VOICE to find out if they are really from the country they claim to be from
17/03/17
Authorities have expressed concern that some asylum-seekers from Arab countries are claiming to be from Syria in hopes of increasing their chances of staying in Germany.
EU Border Control Accuses NGOs of Providing Shuttle Service for African Migrants
18 March
In a remarkably blunt analysis of the massive migration from North Africa to Italy in 2016, the European Frontex agency has denounced human traffickers’ exploitation of NGOs to efficiently transport African migrants from Libya to Italy.
Turkish Minister: ‘Send 15,000 Migrants a Month to Europe to Shock Them’
17 March
Turkey’s Foreign Minister has suggested directing tens of thousands of migrants to the European Union (EU) as a form of retaliation for European leaders blocking his government holding Islamism rallies in their countries.
That sure sounds like an act of war to me...
Turkey’s Erdogan Tells EU to ‘Forget About’ Migrant Deal After Dutch Row
16 March
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Thursday to scrap a deal with the European Union to readmit migrants who have crossed illegally into Europe, amid a standoff with European nations over their reluctance to allow Turkish ministers to hold campaign rallies in their countries.
EU Says 1.2 Million Sought Asylum in Bloc Last Year
16 March
The European Union’s statistical agency says more than 1.2 million people applied for asylum in the bloc last year, mostly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis.
EU Says 1.2 Million Sought Asylum in Bloc Last Year
16 March
The European Union’s statistical agency says more than 1.2 million people applied for asylum in the bloc last year, mostly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis.
Migrant Crime and Violence Soars in German States
14 March
Authorities in two German states have expressed concern over official figures showing a huge rise in migrant crime, with the number of violent attacks having almost doubled in 2016.
Merkel Warned Support Being ‘Destroyed’ by Failure to Deport 500,000 Asylum Seekers
14 March
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been warned public support is being “destroyed” by the fact her government has so far failed to deport half a million rejected asylum seekers.
Claim: Merkel Let Migrants in Only to Avoid Televised Border Clashes
13 March
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on the brink of closing the border at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, but changed her mind because she feared clashes with border police would look bad on television, a book has claimed.
Hungary: 94 Migrants in Detention Launch Hunger
13 March
Hungary’s immigration and asylum office says 94 of 102 asylum-seekers detained in a closed reception center have launched a hunger strike, demanding to be set free.
[FoxNews] An admitted Al Qaeda fighter was convicted on Thursday of federal terrorism charges for participating in a fierce firefight in Afghanistan that left two U.S. servicemen dead.
A jury in federal court in Brooklyn deliberated for about two hours Thursday before convicting Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Harun.
"As demonstrated by this case, the United States will be tireless in its efforts to hold Al Qaeda members accountable when they target American citizens serving their country abroad," Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Rohde said in a statement.
Harun, 46, was extradited from Italy to the United State in 2012. Prosecutors told jurors that while in Italian custody, he confessed that he threw a grenade and shot at an American military unit in a 2003 ambush that killed Army Pvt. Jerod Dennis, of Antlers, Oklahoma, and Air Force Airman Ray Losano, of Del Rio, Texas.
While on the run, Harun later masterminded a failed plot to bomb a U.S. embassy in Nigeria, the government said. He was under the direct supervision of Al Qaeda higher-ups, including some still held at Guantanamo Bay, it said.
"The defendant is a man who made terrorism his life story," Assistant U.S. Attorney Melody Wells said in closing arguments on Thursday. "He made a career out of violent jihad."
The Saudi-born defendant who claims Niger citizenship had insisted he was a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than a civilian court prosecution. He refused to attend his trial, and his lawyers took the usual step of not giving a closing argument and focusing on post-trial motions challenging a conviction.
Harun faces a possible life term at sentencing on June 22.
Chelsea Clinton, whose only real work experience was a brief stint as a consultant at McKinsey, was just named to the board of directors of the travel company Expedia:
As near as I can tell, her only demonstrated competence is in genetics.
#12
As swampwater rippled and bubbled,
Two blobs on a lilypad wobbled.
Their floppings redoubled!
A snapper was troubled
To contemplate Hillary Hubbelled.
#13
Ain't Pugsley a little too bubbly,
For mugging so bug-eyed and Hubbelly?
This limerick's best severed
Lest I be discovered
Plugged trebly by nobody's Webley.
According to the translation, the weapon used likely was the VSS Vintorez rifle, a short range carbine with an integrated suppressor, typically used by Slavic militaries' special forces. The rifle itself fires a 9mm round from a necked up 7.62x39mm AK cartridge. I have watched videos of the rifle in action and it is very quiet; you can only hear the action as the rifle is being fired.
The article said that the shot was fired at close range. The Vintorez has a maximum effective range of 400 meters. The shot was fired about 30 degrees from the axis of the DShK's barrel.
Finally, if you want to be "California compliant", you can always acquire the "Cockroach of Weapons."
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Prices for pistol ammunition were mixed. Prices for rifle ammunition were mostly steady.
Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mostly higher.
New Lows:
Arizona: 30-30 Winchester Lever Action: Winchester Model 94: $350
Arizona: .40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic): Glock 22: $250
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo Valley, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo Valley, Own Brand, Brass Casing, FMJ, Reloads .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 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: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (8 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 (8 Weeks))
.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammunition Depot, HSM Cowboy Action, RNFP, Brass Casing, Reloads .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: Hyperion Munitions, Own Brand, RN, Brass casing, Reloads .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Supply, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (8 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 (8 Weeks)
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo King, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .54 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Prvi Partizan, Brass Case, SP, .95 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Hornady Whitetail, Brass Case, SP, 1.04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks))
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Selway Armory, Prvi Partizan, Brass Case, JSP, 2.38 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Case, FMJ, 2.40 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (9 Weeks)
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammomen, Federal, RNL, .06 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Ammomen, Federal Champion, RNL, .05 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
Did you hear about last weekend when 911 calls were put on hold for up to 45 minutes in the city of Dallas? 911 systems are run by the big city anti-gun liberal politicians and Democrats.
(The average response time of a 911 call is 23 minutes. The response time of a .357 time is 1400 feet per second.)
#2
911 systems are run by the big city anti-gun liberal politicians and Democrats.
WADR One Eyed, unless contracted 911 dispatch facilities are law enforcement entities and by function operated apolitically. Typically, the people that "run" them are also LE usually around a Sargent's level. Unlike many of their superiors they tend not to be liberal nor anti-gun.
Now, your sentiments regarding relying on 911 to save your bacon in a crisis situation couldn't be more spot-on.
#3
The SKS is a very good weapon, still, while you can't spray and pray like the AK or the M-6, like the old G3, it is accurate and extremely reliable in combat and not completely dependent upon diligent cleaning...much like the dear departed M-1.
A class struggle is emerging in Euro-American society.
Geert Wilders, the nationalist candidate for prime minister of the Netherlands, lost the election on March 15. This has brought comfort to those who opposed him and his views on immigration and immigrants. It is odd that they should be comforted. Ten years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that someone of his views would have won any seats in parliament. The fact that his party is now the second largest in the Netherlands, rather than an irrelevancy, should be a mark of how greatly the Netherlands – and Euro-American civilization – has changed, and an indication that this change is not temporary.
#1
Jy maai wat jy saai (You reap wat you sow). Yes of course, the deniers are all racists. The libtards will be begging for instructions on implementing apartheid soon. If not, their culture is finished. Simple as that.
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... leader, Abubakar Shekau ... the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fire by the Caliph and refused to step down ... , has appeared in a new video, refuting recent claims of attacks by Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ian President Paul Biya, while threatening world leaders.
The 27-minute footage, sent to PREMIUM TIMES by a journalist with known contact to Boko Haram, also showed Mr. Shekau thanking his followers.
Mr. Shekau displayed identity cards, arms, ammunition and other equipment purportedly seized from the Cameroonian Army.
Mr. Shekau also ordered his fighters to remain steadfast, adding that the sect will not back down until Sharia is established in Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Mali.
The video comes three days after the sect released a video claiming to have killed some three men allegedly working for government.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2017
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
#1
Abubakar Shekau. I knew his grandfather Studa. Fine chap.
A Syrian army unit targeted fortifications and infiltration points of ISIL terrorists in the surroundings of Liwa al-Ta’min in Deir Ezzor.
SANA reporter in the province said two car bombs for the terrorists were destroyed as a result of the operations.
The reporter added that the army’s artillery destroyed fortifications and gatherings of terrorists and a vehicle equipped with a 23 mm machine gun in the neighborhoods of al-Matar al-Qadim, al-Hamidiyeh and the central park.
Meanwhile, Deir Ezzor Airport garrison foils infiltration attempts by ISIL terrorists in the surroundings of the airport and managed, backed by the Air Force and the Artillery, to destroy 8 vehicles equipped with machineguns and two car bombs at the fence of Liwa al-Ta’min and two other car bombs in the direction of al-Maamel area. Scores of terrorists were killed.
An army unit foiled infiltration attempts by ISIL terrorist groups in the surroundings of Regiment 137 on the southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzor city, killing 10 terrorists, destroying a vehicle equipped with a 23 mm machine gun.
A boat that was transporting terrorists who were trying to infiltrate from the direction of the river in al-Bugeiliyeh/Open Heart Hospital area was targeted by the army. The boat was directly hit and all terrorists on board it were killed.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
03/18/2017
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday said he ordered all armed herdsmen out of Benue State because they engaged in killing citizens with provocation.
He said it was his duty as a governor to take the decision in order to ensure the safety of lives and property of the citizens of the state.
Mr. Ortom spoke with State House correspondents shortly after he came out of a meeting of the National Economic Council NEC, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He however, said unarmed herdsmen and those who do not engage in violence also need protection.
Mr. Ortom had on Monday given Fulani herdsmen in Tombo-Mbalagh, Buruku Local Government Area of the state, a two-day ultimatum to leave the area.
He gave the order in Tombo-Mbalagh during a visit to ascertain the damage allegedly inflicted on the community by herdsmen over the weekend.
"I ordered armed herdsmen out of my state. They are not friendly to my people. They are killing them and I cannot tolerate that," the governor said.
"My job as the governor is to provide security for lives and property. I cannot watch seeing people being killed unprovoked. It is not right."
Mr. Ortom said the only thing citizens of the state are engaged in is farming. He however, said "when you go to their farmlands and destroy their crops and then when they complain, you kill them. That will never be acceptable. I will not fold my hands to watch this happen."
He said his order is for coppers to arrest all arms-bearing herdsmen.
He also recalled that an amnesty programme he launched earlier enabled him to "disarm the criminal elements in my society because I believe in the rule of law and due process.
"Without the rule of law, there is no way we can govern. A stronger person will come and take over the affairs of the state from where ever you are. And so, we must abide by the rule of law," he said.
Mr. Ortom said apart from fighting corruption, governments at all levels must be ready to fight impunity as well.
He said impunity was worse than corruption.
"Another thing is impunity, it is worse than corruption. So, while we are fighting corruption, we must also fight impunity. This is not right.
"Those armed herdsmen, are they above the law? So, the coppers must track, arrest and prosecute them according to the law.
"I have told my people that as farmers, they have no business carrying arms. And so, I will protect them as long as I am governor is my state," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2017
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Top|| File under: Fulani Herdsmen (Boko Haram)
#1
1) "when you go to their farmlands and destroy their crops and then when they complain, you kill them. That will never be acceptable.
2)"I have told my people that as farmers, they have no business carrying arms. And so, I will protect them as long as I am governor is my state," he said.
Your failure at protecting them is why they carry arms. Democrat Pols in Africa?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2017 11:39
Comments ||
Top||
#2
He's a member of the All Progressives Congress*
* Consultative member in the Socialist International.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Three different species shrank noticeably about 54 million years ago when the planet suddenly heated up. One of them ‐ an early, compact horse ‐ got 14 percent smaller, going from about 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms) to 14.6 pounds (6.6 kilograms), according to an analysis of fossil teeth in Wednesday's journal Science Advances.
Canada's border authorities detained more Mexicans in the first 67 days of 2017 than they did annually in any of the three previous years, according to statistics obtained by Reuters.
[France24]. Security forces at 
[WAPO] Luisa Fortin sometimes sits up at night, wondering what her clients are eating. She is the SNAP Outreach Coordinator for the Chattanooga Food Bank -- but lately she has done less outreaching.
[Liberty Alliance] Senator Tom Carper of Delaware and twenty-three Senate Democrats are planning on unveiling a new piece of proposed legislation that will render President Trump’s border wall plans futile.
[Washington Examiner] The military's investigation into the sharing of nude photos of female service members has expanded to include a number of gay pornography websites that exist with photos of men in military uniforms taking part in sex acts, according to a new report.
[Reuters] The U.S. Justice Department is developing plans to temporarily reassign immigration judges from around the country to 12 cities to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants who have been charged with crimes, according to two administration officials.
Behold the Obama 
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] The police in Borno have confirmed that two officers were killed by 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
Chelsea Clinton, whose only real work experience was a brief stint as a consultant at McKinsey, was just named to the board of directors of the travel company Expedia:
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] 
