Hmmmmmmmm.
A House IT aide working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, was arrested Tuesday on bank fraud charges while trying to leave the country.
Fox News reported that Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles International Airport. Awan, an IT staffer who has worked for many House Democrats and is currently employed by Wasserman Schultz, was allegedly at the center of a scheme that involved double-charging the House for IT equipment, and may also have exposed House information online, according to Fox.
Awan and his family have reportedly worked for House Democrats for years. He declared bankruptcy in 2012, but has made millions of dollars on the House payroll over at least a decade of work for various members, according to a Politico report.
In March, a group of House Democrats fired Awan and one other staffer over their alleged involvement in the scheme and the looming criminal investigation. However, Fox News reported Tuesday that Wasserman Schultz still has Awan on her staff's payroll despite him being barred from accessing the House's computer system since February.
At the time, Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) both defended Awan.
"As of right now, I don't see a smoking gun," Meeks told Politico in March. "I have seen no evidence that they were doing anything that was nefarious."
"He needs to have a hearing. Due process is very simple. You don't fire someone until you talk to them," Fudge added
A spokesman for Wasserman Schultz's office told Politico in March that Awan worked for the staff in an "advisory" role "providing advice on technology issues."
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2017
18:31 ||
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ZeroHedge has more, including the 30 Donks that had Awans on their taxpayer-funded payrolls
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2017 18:53
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#2
Southwest Asians have been in US tech for a long time.
#4
arrested Tuesday on bank fraud charges? When are they going to roll up Debbie? As an aside, Little Miss Debbie and the DNC are being sued by Bernie supporters for something in excess of $5mil in civil court for fraud. See Jampac. BTW, the process server for this suit ended up dead.
President Donald Trump has reportedly sidelined the State Department and entrusted White House staffers with making the potential case for withholding certification of Iran at the next 90-day review of the nuclear deal, Foreign Policy reported.
According to the report, the president made the decision after his "contentious meeting" with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week.
Via Newsmax:
"The president assigned White House staffers with the task of preparing for the possibility of decertification for the 90-day review period that ends in October -- a task he had previously given to Secretary Tillerson and the State Department," an unnamed source told FP.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
07/25/2017
18:30 ||
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#1
Foreign Policy is publishing based on anonymous leaks now? Call me when someone reputable uses two proper named sources like they are taught at the Columbia School of Journalism.
h/t Instapundit
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta says state lawmakers should work to eliminate unnecessary state licenses.
Speaking Friday to state lawmakers gathered in Denver for the annual American Legislative Exchange Council's conference, Acosta called for repealing licensing laws that exist solely to block competition or create a privileged class within the workforce. While only one job out of 20 required a government-issued permission slip in the 1950s, today about a quarter of all jobs in America are subject to licensing. Acosta said that's "part of a nationwide trend where we regulate, and regulate, and regulate" at the expense of individual workers and the economy as a whole.
#1
Electricians, Plumbers, Carpenters, and the like.
If one can pass the written tests and maybe a practical test, that should do it. Four years of next to impossible to get apprenticeship should be eliminated as it's an old hold over union rule that's no longer needed.
We have a serious shortage of skilled trade people because they cannot get an apprenticeship, but is otherwise fully qualified to do the job. We have inspectors to make sure the job is done right.
#2
Seeking, all three trades you mention have installation procedures and serious safety protocols that one does not learn overnight, in 90 days or even in 3 years. The 'mechanics' of a specific type of install might be readily learned, but learning the wide variety of construction types, applicable codes and how to actually do things without injuring or killing yourself (or someone else) take a bit longer.
Technology changes, too. When apprenticeships were shorter, technology overtook the existing training and today's longer educational periods were warranted.
Today's electrician has to know about photovoltaics, communications systems (including fiber optic), HVAC and Building Automation control networks, working with voltages up through 35kV and even how to work with 'Knob & Tube' wiring in old buildings (which is still a legal system, by the way - you just can't install 'new').
Today's plumber has to know about boilers, pumps, heat-reclaim systems, civil utilities, gas piping, various hydronic heating schemes, along with rural septic systems and your kitchen faucet.
Today's Carpenter (unless 'rough-only') has to know about all the various structural requirements and building/roof insulation systems. The ones that do the finish 'Trim' work have to be not only accurate, but also innovative in making what the customer wants actually fit into the available space.
Inspectors for the above trades, and most try to be diligent, are usually in a time crunch to get on to the next site so may not look at everything on a granular level. They have to trust that the tradesperson is performing quality work. By the professional installer having the trade license, a level of confidence in the finished product can be assumed by the inspector. They're not there to tell you how to correct your errors, that's not their job. They'll just make you rip it out and start again. Since they did find one problem, they'll be really critical for the rest of the installation.
And they'll be back again and again until it's all done correctly. You won't get your occupancy certificate and the 're-inspection' fees can get pretty steep.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/25/2017 17:43
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Dang, it's late in the day and I'll like to respond to this.
But I'll try for that tomorrow. I'll save this article.
h/t Istapundit
[CampusRform] Bret Weinstein, the Evergreen State College professor who was driven from campus by a mob of students earlier this year, is preparing to file a $3.8 million claim against the public institution.
The claim accuses Evergreen State of "fostering a racially hostile work and retaliatory environment" by encouraging the student protests that forced Weinstein to flee campus for his own safety.
The students were upset with Weinstein for objecting to a "Day of Absence" event that called for white students and faculty to leave campus for a day of diversity programming.
h/t Instapundit
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down Washington, DC's latest attempt to limit residents' right to carry guns in public.
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held in a 2‐1 decision that public carrying of firearms is a "core" Second Amendment right, and that the District's regulations amounted to a "total ban" on exercising that right. The ruling breaks with several federal appeals courts that upheld similar regulations in other states.
[FrontPageMagazine] The Solomon family was massacred Friday night as they celebrated Shabbat and the birth of their newest grandson in their home. They were massacred by a 19 year old jihadist who posted an explanation of his imminent act of barbarous murder against his Jewish neighbors on Facebook less that two hours before he stormed their home in Neve Tzuf.
The murderer used the same language as his"moderate" "pro-peace" "legitimate" leader, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas who said that Jews pollute the Temple Mount with our "filthy feet."
Ironically and appallingly, just last week the US State Department published a report blaming Israel for Palestinian terrorism and claiming that the PLO-led, and US-funded Palestinian Authority doesn't incite terrorism and violence and hatred.
The State Department also opposes the Taylor Force bill which if passed -- along the lines passed in the House of Representatives, (the Senate bill is an insult to our intelligence), would end US taxpayer subsidization of Palestinian terrorism to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year.
The State Department -- Tillerson included, apparently, doesn't see anything wrong with the fact that the PA uses more than $300 million every year to pay people like the murderer who butchered the Solomons and their families.
Having murdered the Solomons in their home, this terrorist is guaranteed a lifetime salary and pension for his family that ensure them all an upper middle class economic status -- courtesy of US taxpayers via the "moderate" PA, PLO, Abbas, terror machine. Please don't accuse USDS of Antisemitism - they're equally willing to subsidize murder of Americans (and an occasional Australian) via their refugee program.
#1
Shut down the whole section as unregistered lobbyists for foreign powers. That's their argument for lynching Trump, right? Lots of contacts. Let's see how they like the game.
#2
I believe one of Secretary Tillerson's little projects is to comb through planned donations to see which go to friends, which to enemies, and which actually accomplish something useful, with an eye toward dropping the second category altogether, and that portion of the first not also in the third set.
[American Thinker] Two words describe the Russian collusion accusations and investigation of President Trump: Sham and injustice. Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor, knows it. Rod Rosenstein, the Obama holdover Deputy Attorney General who appointed Mueller, knows it. Jeff Sessions, a decent man and attorney general who recused himself, knows it.
The Democrats know it. The left knows it. The mainstream media knows it. DC-owned and spine-free Republicans know it. Paul Ryan knows it.
Everybody knows it. But everyday Americans should really know this: the farce continues because powerful establishment interests are invested in destroying Donald Trump and his presidency.
That’s why the president should fire Mueller. It’s why Jeff Sessions needs to unrecuse himself. The president should shelve special prosecutions during his presidency. The law permits him to do so. Let U.S. district attorneys earn their keep.
Note "...Trump and his presidency," not "Trump’s presidency," because the witch-hunting and attempted railroading of the president is every bit as much about destroying the man. Trump leads a counterrevolution, a rising up of Heartland Americans -- Americans everywhere with Heartland blood coursing through their veins. His leadership transcends office. He poses an existential threat to interests and people deeply invested in a worldview or ways that practically benefits them somehow. The presidency is a powerful means, to be sure, and denying its powers to Trump -- somehow -- is critical to reasserting the establishment’s control.
Yes, it’s that seedy. And, yes, it crosses the aisle, as they say in DC.
One’s tempted to say that the Putin-Trump collusion tinfoil hat gambit is the pinnacle of years of efforts to criminalize politics. You remember the Scooter Libby and Tom Delay railroads? But here, in the narrowest sense, there aren’t any politics to criminalize. Russian collusion is pure fiction, utter disinformation. The scheme here is to criminalize fiction; to give legal license to Mueller’s investigation based on fraudulent accusations.
There won’t be an impeachment of the president and/or prosecutions of anyone around him for colluding with the Russians. No such thing occurred. If impeachment and/or prosecutions happen, it will be for "gotcha" technicalities when under oath. That’s how the feds sandbagged Scooter Libby. Or because Mueller’s far-ranging investigations found other unrelated grounds to get Trump.
China and India, two nuclear-armed powers with a combined population of 2.7 billion, have been in an "eyeball-to-eyeball" military stand-off over territory in Bhutan, a kingdom in a remote area of the Himalayas, since mid-June. The flare-up, one of the most serious since China won a border war in 1962, comes as the two rising powers jostle for regional influence. The current dispute is near a three-way junction between Bhutan, China's Tibet and India's Sikkim. Much more at link
Moved to P.3: Non-WoT because it's one of those other situations, not related to the excitements of 9/11.
--tw at 7:45 p.m. EDT
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance ||
07/25/2017
12:40 ||
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Could get ugly really quick.
Hope cooler heads prevail.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/25/2017 17:00
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[ZeroHedge] In the most vocal opposition to president Donald Trump yet, former CIA Director John Brennan said that if the White House tries to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, government officials should refuse to follow the president orders, as they would be - in his view - "inconsistent" with the duties of the executive branch.
"I think it's the obligation of some executive branch officials to refuse to carry that out. I would just hope that this is not going to be a partisan issue. That Republicans, Democrats are going to see that the future of this government is at stake and something needs to be done for the good of the future," Brennan told CNN's Wolf Blitzer at the Aspen Security Forum, effectively calling for a coup against the president should Trump give the order to fire Mueller.
Brennan appeared alongside his former colleague, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and both men who served in the Obama administration, told Blitzer they have total confidence in Mueller. "Absolutely. It was an inspired choice- they don't come any better, " Brennan said adding that "If Mueller is fired, I hope our elected reps will stand up and say enough is enough." Some have responded with questions where Brennan's devotion to the Constitution was in the aftermath of the events in Benghazi. More at link
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance ||
07/25/2017
12:33 ||
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government officials should refuse to follow the president orders
#2
Some have responded with questions where Brennan's devotion to the Constitution was in the aftermath of the events in Benghazi
Quite obviously a rhetorical question.
se·di·tion
səˈdiSH(ə)n/Submit
noun - conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.
synonyms: rabble-rousing, incitement to rebel, subversion, troublemaking, provocation; rebellion, insurrection, mutiny, insurgence, civil disorder. "the on-campus protestors were charged with sedition"
The Senate Judiciary Committee is questioning whether the Democratic National Committee violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by working with Ukrainian government officials to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year.
In a letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley pointed to a report published by Politico in January laying out DNC official Alexandra Chalupa’s collaboration with Ukrainian politicians to compile research on Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman.
Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American activist who is no longer affiliated with the DNC, was paid $70,000 as a consultant for the party during the 2016 presidential cycle. She was paid $412,000 between 2004 and last year.
Republicans have recently latched onto the Politico expose as evidence of a double standard in the reporting about the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney who allegedly promised to provide opposition research on Hillary Clinton.
Trump critics have responded by pointing out that Ukraine is not an adversary of the U.S., as is Russia. The Ukrainian effort also appears to be far less sophisticated than the Kremlin’s efforts to hack Democrats’ emails and disseminate them through several websites. The DNC-Ukraine collaboration also did not directly involve the Clinton campaign.
The DNC-Ukraine collaboration also did not directly involve the Clinton campaign. I wouldn't be so quick to retire this horse to the pasture.
Even some Democrats, including California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, acknowledged earlier this month that DNC collusion with the Ukrainian government was "problematic."
Nevertheless, Grassley says that Chalupa’s and the DNC’s activities could be a violation of FARA, which requires agents of foreign governments to disclose their activities.
The anti-Trump effort "appear[s] to be exactly the type of activity Congress intended to reach with FARA," Grassley wrote to Rosenstein, who would be the point-man on the issue because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters related to campaign meddling.
The Politico piece largely flew under the media radar when it was first reported, partially because it was published just after BuzzFeed News published a dossier of salacious and uncorroborated allegations about Trump campaign collusion with the Kremlin.
According to the report, the DNC encouraged Chalupa to meet with staffers at the Ukrainian embassy in order to "arrange an interview in which [Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko] might discuss Manafort’s ties" to Viktor Yanukovych, Poroshenko’s predecessor and an ally of Vladimir Putin’s.
In March, Chalupa met with Ukrainian Amb. Valeriy Chaly and one of his aides. The aide, Oksana Shulyar, reportedly shared her concerns regarding Manafort with Chalupa.
Politico also reported that a Ukrainian embassy official claimed that he was instructed by Shulyar to help Chalupa research Trump and Manafort.
In May, Chalupa contacted DNC communications director Luis Miranda, revealing that she had invited investigative reporter Michael Isikoff to an event at the Library of Congress. Two days earlier, Isikoff reported on a $26 million telecom deal between Manafort and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
It is unclear if Isikoff received the tip off for the investigation from Chalupa or the Ukrainians.
The DNC has attempted to distance the organization from Chalupa, saying that she was an events coordinator and undertook the research efforts on her own initiative. But Grassley is likely to bring up the arrangement on Wednesday, when the Judiciary Committee holds a hearing to discuss shortcomings in FARA.
Witnesses invited to the hearing include Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, Adam Hickey, the DOJ official in charge of FARA, and Bill Priestap, assistant FBI director in charge of the Counterintelligence Division.
In his letter, Grassley is asking Rosenstein whether the DOJ has inquired with Chalupa about registering under FARA. He is also questioning whether DOJ is investigating what he says is the Ukrainian government’s "intervention in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of the Clinton campaign." Can the real investigation be started and the Democrat--MSM generated fake Trump collusion meme be put to rest?
#1
Trump critics have responded by pointing out that Ukraine is not an adversary of the U.S., as is Russia.
*Cough* Israel *Cough* J-Street *Cough* Remember the paranoid antisemitic whispers about Jewish Israeli contacts... It is only nefarious when the (R)'s do it, I guess.
CPRC has just issued our newest annual report on the number of concealed handgun permits in the US. A copy of the report is available for download here. Some updated numbers are shown at the bottom of this post. Past reports can be viewed here. Part of the executive summary is shown here:
During President Obama’s administration, the number of concealed handgun permits soared to over 16.36 million ‐ a 256% increase since 2007. Unlike surveys that may be affected by people’s unwillingness to answer some personal questions, concealed handgun permit data is the only really "hard data" that we have on gun ownership across the United States. Among the findings of our report:
Last year, the number of permit holders grew by a record 1.83 million. This is more than the previous record increase of 1.73 million, set just the year before. Each of the last four years that we have been recording this data has set a new record. Despite expectations that permits were primarily driven by fears of Democratic presidencies, the growth in permits has continued at a similar pace after the November 2016 election.
6.53% of American adults have permits. Outside the restrictive states of California and New York, about 8% of the adult population has a permit.
[BGR] NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity continues to perform some amazing feats despite being long overdue for its expected retirement. The rover, having ventured to a somewhat mysterious site that researchers call Perseverance Valley, has been doing its best to help its handlers decipher exactly how the valley formed. Now, to help show both NASA scientists and the rest of the world a better view of what the landscape looks like, the rover shot a series of panoramic photos that, when stitched together, give you a better feeling of what it would look like to be standing on the Martian landscape yourself.
Looking like just as much of a barren wasteland as it truly is, the planet appears completely lifeless and brutal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a lot of fun to look at. With two massive crests, a windswept plain littered with rocks and boulders, and the planet’s signature orangish hue, it’s a glorious reminder of just how different Mars is from Earth, despite being so close.
[WND] We’ve often heard the familiar refrain after an Islamic terror attack ‐ terrorism is a "perversion" of Islam, and Muslims who commit acts of terror are not truly following the faith.
However, the man who infiltrated the Council on American-Islamic Relations for six months begs to differ.
"We have to accept reality, Sean, and reality is that all these jihadi groups all over the planet tell us why they are fighting," Chris Gaubatz told Sean Hannity during an appearance on the latter’s radio show.
"It’s interesting to me that all these groups, whether it’s Islamic State, al-Qaida, the Taliban, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, the Muslim Brotherhood, fill in the blank ‐ how is it that they’re all getting their version of Islam wrong in the exact same way?"
Gaubatz, vice president of Understanding the Threat, marvels that so many American leaders remain reluctant to admit jihadists are fighting for Allah, with the ultimate goal of imposing the legal system sanctioned in the Quran.
"It’s 15 years after 9/11 and we still have not identified the enemy ‐ who they are, why they’re fighting, even though the enemy tells us that they’re Muslims waging jihad, and the blueprint for their doctrine, the reason that they’re fighting is the Shariah, to establish the Shariah all over the planet," Gaubatz said.
Gaubatz has witnessed the inner workings of one of America’s largest Muslim organizations firsthand, having posed as a convert to Islam to gain a CAIR internship. He remained undercover for six months, gaining the trust of CAIR’s inner sanctum and collecting more than 12,000 pages of documents and hundreds of hours of video. He exposed CAIR’s role as a Muslim Brotherhood front group in supporting the international jihad movement against the United States.
The full story of his amazing undercover operation was told in the book "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America."
h/t Instapundit
Trump must eventually fire Robert Mueller, a partisan tool carrying water for his Establishment pals as he oversees an utterly corrupt "investigation" where the only person we actually know committed any wrongdoing is his bestest buddy Jim Comey. But Trump can’t just lash out and do it, though it is well within his political and moral right to do so. No, he’s got to do it cleverly, with cunning, in a way that shows the American people exactly why Mueller’s witch hunt is a flaming dumpster fire of conflicts of interest and contempt for the right of normal Americans to have a say in their own governance.
#4
He has to do it so the American people will see and understand why ending this idiocy is so absolutely necessary to preserve our Republic despite the mainstream media’s best effort to hide the truth.
The people who elected Trump are already there. Sessions seems like a nice guy but a guy who has been in the swamp for some 20 years. He seems like a guy who cannot go after people who are crooked who he has worked with for a long time.
Sessions has to go as he is a "Lynch pin (pun intended) preventing clean out of various left-over criminal cabals. Because he has recused himself, he has neutered himself and cannot do his job. He is unwilling to stir things up, but unlike Lynch and Holder not totally corrupted.
IMO, there is widespread support in flyover land for Trump to dump the Clinton orchestrated Mueller investigation trying to gin up a crime. If Mueller were really interested in justice, he would be going after the Clintons, Obama and the rest of the cabal. That is not going to happen. I don't happen to believe he is an disinterested, unbiased, above reproach, Boy Scout investigator. The Clinton/Comey-organized Trump lynch gang has to go.
[Guardian] Adan Lara Vega said he was told the $5,500 he was being charged to be smuggled into the United States would include an air-conditioned truck ride.
Instead, the 27-year-old Mexican laborer climbed with his friends into a pitch-black, metal tractor-trailer compartment that lacked ventilation ‐ a deadly oven that would claim 10 lives.
"After an hour I heard crying ‐ people crying and asking for water. I, too, was sweating and people were despairing," Lara Vega told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview Monday from his bed in a San Antonio hospital. "That’s when I lost consciousness."
By the time he regained it Sunday, he was in the hospital.
He told the AP that it all started when he climbed aboard the tractor-trailer in the border city of Laredo, Texas, with six friends from the state of Aguascalientes after the group waited nearly two weeks in a safe house.
#4
$5,500 is a lot of money for someone from Central America.
What the media censors out, is how much this is an organised criminal activity, where those who get to the USA, or Europe for that matter, end up indebted to criminal gangs, and thus forced into criminality.
As I have said before, the solution is a combination of harsh penalties to anyone who hires an illegal, and temporary work permits which employers pay in the region of a few thousand dollars per annum for.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2017 9:33
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The question which no one has asked yet is how that truck got through the Border patrols secondary check point outside Laredo (normally 60 miles inside the border)? Down here in McAllen we have a secondary check (choke) point in Falfurrias loaded with a menagerie of sensors and cell phone jammers. The Border Patrol should have images and intercepts linking the human traffickers to the shipment.
Posted by: Joe of the Jungle ||
07/25/2017 9:56
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Ones and twos through and around the secondary check-point, with the rendezvous area beyond?
[The Hill] President Trump and his advisers are floating possible replacements for Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- and the list includes Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), The Washington Post reports.
Cruz and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) are reportedly among the candidates Trump’s team is considering to replace Sessions, though Giuliani said earlier in the day that he's not being considered.
Trump has repeatedly said that he is disappointed by Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the probe into ties between the Trump administration and Russia, saying in an interview last week that he would have never hired Sessions if he knew he would recuse himself.
Trump also slammed Sessions in a tweet Monday morning, asking why our "beleaguered A.G." wasn’t investigating ties between Hillary Clinton and Russia.
Giuliani denied reports that he was up for Sessions’s spot earlier Monday and defended the attorney general’s decision to pull himself from the probe, saying it was "the right decision."
Trump associates are viewing a possible Sessions ousting as a step toward firing special counsel Robert Mueller, according to the Post. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to his post and has said he would not fire him, but a new attorney general would have the power to do so.
Trump left the option open to fire Mueller in an interview with The New York Times last week.
Cruz and Trump sparred often on the campaign trail when both were seeking the GOP nomination for president.
#1
Given the way Trump whales away at his subordinates, I'm seriously doubtful that Cruz (or anyone able) will step up. It's one thing for Trump to smack his enemies around. It's another for him to do so to his direct reports. He's not an absolute dictator. He can't make them serve on pain of death.
The Apprentice is a TV show where nobodies are recruited with a chance to become big shots. The people in line for cabinet positions are already big shots. Trump can't humiliate his people and expect men of substance to step up. He needs to zip his trap about his guys, and focus his wrath on the Democrats.
#4
They need to save Cruz for a Supreme Court vacancy that has to be coming. Would other Senators vote for him? How many do you think would like to get him out of the Senate?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/25/2017 18:55
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[Daily Caller] America’s colleges and universities have finally stopped their practice of annually gouging students with price increases for tuition, fees and room and board -- to the accumulated tune of a growth rate of 400 percent in the last three decades.
Labor Department statistics collected by The Wall Street Journal show that aggregate tuition increases in 2017 rose 1.9 percent in 2017. This figure accords with the overall rate of U.S. inflation.
From 1990 to 2016, college tuition costs had increased at an average rate of 6 percent annually, which was more than twice the overall inflation rate for the same period.
This year’s steep decline in college cost increases has many causes.
One cause of the decline is the decision by Congress to stop raising the maximum amount of federally-subsidized student loans which college students can borrow to finance their educations. Congress has not increased this maximum amount since 2008, the Journal notes.
[AlMasdar] Head of the Main Operational Department of the Russian General Staff Sergei Rudskoi stated that several new de-escalation zones were set to be fully introduced in the future, speaking from a press briefing at the Russian Defence Ministry, in Moscow, Monday.
Rudskoi said that the boundaries of in the zones "to the north of the city of Homs and in the region of East Ghouta" had been defined during the consultations, with the specifications of the a similar zones in Idlib province underway.
He added that in July alone, "Over 2,000 murderous Moslems were neutralised as well as about 20 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, more than 40 pickup trucks with large-calibre machine and anti-aircraft guns were destroyed."
Commenting on the Syrian government forces progress, Rudskoi noted that SAA "took control over the Syrian-Jordanian border in the provinces of Essaouira and Damascus," adding that "6,500 square kilometres of territory to the east of the ez Zelaf have been cleared of bad boys."
[FoxNews] ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been "dismantled," with tens of thousands of its jihadist fighters dead, but a promising lead on its leader "went dead" after a media leak, according to a key U.S. military official.
"We have absolutely dismantled his network," Gen. Tony Thomas, speaking of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, said at the Aspen Security Forum. "I mean everyone who worked for him initially is dead or gone. Everybody who stepped to the plate the next time [is] dead or gone. Down through a network where we have killed, in a conservative estimate, 60,000 to 70,000 of his followers, his army."
In a wide-ranging interview moderated by Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Thomas, who leads the Special Operations Command, said his team was "particularly close" to Baghdadi after the 2015 raid that killed ISIS oil minister Abu Sayyaf. That raid also netted his wife, who provided a wealth of actionable information.
Posted by: Captain Slavick9664 ||
07/25/2017
00:00 ||
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#1
The headline gave me an image of Baghdadi leaving the ISIS bigwig meeting to take a leak minutes before the Hellfire missile hit.
[AlMasdar] The U.S. military has supplied the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with "commercial-off-the-shelf quadcopter style systems," a Coalition spokesperson told Grasswire News Agency reported on Sunday.
"The US-led Coalition has supplied commercial drones to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a spokesperson told Grasswire in a Sunday, July 23 email," the news site claimed.
"These types of systems are effective in local reconnaissance and aide in the targeting of ISIS fighters and the protection of non-combatants," the Coalition spokesperson told Grasswire.
Kurdish forces have used reconnaissance drones in the past, including at the battle of Kobani in early 2015; however, this is the first time that the U.S. has supplied their forces with high-tech equipment like the quadcopter.
[Al Jazeera] UN's Middle East envoy has said a solution is needed by Friday to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound crisis in Jerusalem, which threatens to have "potential catastrophic costs well beyond the walls of the Old City".
"It is extremely important that a solution to the current crisis be found by Friday," Nickolay Mladenov told news hounds on Monday after briefing the UN Security Council behind closed doors.
"The dangers on the ground will escalate if we go through another cycle of Friday prayer without a resolution to this current crisis."
The dangers on the ground won't significantly escalate for the Israelis, but only for for those Muslim-Israelis and Muslim-Palestinians who insist on having temper tantrums.
Also on Monday, the UK's ambassador to the UN has called on "all parties to denounce violence".
That statement was an utter waste of expelled carbon dioxide.
Matthew Rycroft told news hounds at the UN headquarters in New York City that it was important that the whole Security Council "stands together to do what we can to help bring peace to the Middle East".
The Middle East Quartet ... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy.... of Russia, US, EU and the UN in a statement encouraged Israel and Jordan to work together for de-escalation, noting the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom as recognised in its peace treaty with Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2017
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[NYPOST] A Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, teen livestreamed a deadly car crash on Instagram and then filmed her mortally maimed sister in the aftermath.
Obdulia Sanchez, 18, was filming herself Friday while allegedly driving under the influence on a California highway with two 14-year-old girls in the back seat, according to KSFN-TV.
The camera suddenly shakes frantically as the girls scream. When the film begins again, a bloody scene unfolds.
"Jacqueline, please wake up," Obdulia says while trying to shake 14-year-old Jacqueline Sanchez.
"I f--king killed my sister, OK? I know I’m going to jail for life. I understand that. I don’t f--king care, though. I’m sorry, baby. I’m gonna hold it down."
The California Highway Patrol said Obdulia was under the influence when the car rolled over into a barbed-wire fence before coming to rest in a field.
Jacqueline was sitting in the back of the car without a seat belt and was killed when she was ejected from the vehicle.
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[IsraelTimes] Decision reportedly made before Sunday’s Amman embassy stabbing; Istanbul has seen a number of recent anti-Israel protests.
An unnamed diplomatic source told the Walla news site that the decision to order officials at the embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul to work from home was made prior to an attack Sunday at the Israeli Embassy in Jordan, during which an Israeli security guard rubbed out two Jordanians after being attacked by one of them with a screwdriver, leading to a diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has been one of most vocal critics of the metal detectors, with a government front man saying last week that placing them was a "crime against humanity."
President Recep Tayip Erdogan condemned the new security measures and denounced the "excessive use of force" by Israeli security forces during violent festivities with demonstrators in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Ties between Israel and Turkey, former close allies, deteriorated sharply a few years into the rise of Erdogan’s Islamic-focused movement to power in 2003, and ruptured following the May 2010 IDF raid on a Ottoman Turkish vessel seeking to break Israel’s military blockade of the Gazoo Strip, in which 10 Turks were killed.
Despite steps toward a detente in recent years, the relationship remains chilly.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/25/2017
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[Hot Air] In the wake of O.J. Simpson’s parole last week, CBS News has a story today titled "Who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman?" Curiously, the story doesn’t attempt to answer that question. Instead, the entire premise of the story is that the investigation into the murders is officially still open in Los Angeles:
CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan reports the case is still an open investigation for the Los Angeles Police Department.
A reported 13.5 million people tuned into Simpson’s parole hearing last week. That’s far fewer than the estimated 150 million people who watched his 1995 acquittal.
Still, it shows the O.J. obsession lives on, as well as the debate over who killed Nicole Brown and Goldman.
Does that mean this is really still a debate? One law professor tells CBS that the ’open designation, "may simply mean that because O.J. was acquitted, and they’ve never found another murderer, there’s no reason to shut it down." In other words, if it means anything it’s probably only that there are no other good suspects. And yet, CBS closes the piece by suggesting that the passage of time could make it hard to find the real killer:
#5
Does the civil suit verdict have a claim on future earnings this many years later? I would love to see this POS impoverished and forced to live a meager lifestyle while suffering the opinion of folks around him once he can't be a cash cow to them!
#7
Ignoring for a moment the racially motivated injustice, it's worth noting that Nicole Simpson was a horrible human being who not only broke up OJ's first marriage, but cheated on him with both men and women.
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07/25/2017 14:37
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#8
RJ, if we start killing horrible human beings - where will it end?
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A prominent leader of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... group has been killed during the air and ground operations in northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan.
According to the local security officials, Mawlavi Shahidullah was killed during the operations conducted late on Saturday night. "Holyman Allah's Martyr?" How appropriate.
A front man for the 20th Pamir Division in Northeastern parts of the country Nazar Mohammad Ghiasi said the operations were conducted in Kunduz city, Qala-e-Zal, and Khanabad districts.
He said at least 17 Taliban turbans were killed during the operations and 15 others were maimed.
Ghiasi further added that Mawlavi Shahidullah was one of the prominent leaders of the Taliban in Kunduz province who had a major role in the destructive activities.
The Taliban turbans group has not commented regarding the report so far.
Kunduz is among the relatively volatile provinces in northern Afghanistan where the Taliban turbans are actively operating in its various districts and often carry out insurgency activities.
The Afghan cops are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations in various restive districts of Kunduz, including the strategic Kunduz city as the Taliban turbans are attempting to expand their insurgency in this key province.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2017
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[Historynet] In the history of the U.S. Navy only seven men have earned all of the "Big Three" valor awards: Medal of Honor, Navy Cross and Silver Star Medal. Six were World War II officers, including one aviator and four submarine commanders. The seventh was enlisted sailor James Elliott "Willy" Williams in Vietnam.
In 1947, Williams, a 16-year-old from Fort Mill, South Carolina, enlisted in the Navy with a fraudulent birth certificate. His first 19 years in the Navy included service aboard the destroyer USS Douglas H. Fox during the Korean War and tours on a variety of naval vessels from 1953 to 1965.
In May 1966 Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Williams was assigned to River Squadron 5 in South Vietnam to command Patrol Boat, River 105. The approximately 30-foot fiberglass boat usually carried a four-man crew who patrolled inland waterways to prevent the Viet Cong from using them to transport troops and supplies.
On July 1 Williams led a patrol that came under fire from a Viet Cong sampan. His deft maneuvers and accurate fire killed five VC and resulted in capture of the enemy boat, earning Williams a Bronze Star Medal with a "V" for valor. Twenty-two days later the capture of another sampan brought Williams a second Bronze Star for valor. Less than a month later, he received a Silver Star and his first Purple Heart.
[AnNahar] Staff from one of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's most respected opposition newspapers on Monday rejected as absurd "terror" charges against them on the first day of a trial which has intensified alarm over press freedom under President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... The 17 defendants from the Cumhuriyet daily were detained from October last year and a dozen of them have now spent more than eight months in jail without being convicted of any crime.
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Eight Islamic State militants were killed as the Shia-led paramilitary troops thwarted two separate attacks against the Iraqi-Syrian borders.
In a statement on Monday, the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) quoted Ahmed Nasrallah, deputy commander of the 13th brigade, said “troops repelled on Monday two separate attacks for IS against villages on the Iraqi-Syrian borders. The militants launched attacks after they attempted infiltration, which left eight members killed and four vehicles destroyed.”
On Saturday, PMUs repulsed an IS attack near the borders, leaving ten militants killed.
In May, Hadi al-Amiri, head of Badr Organization, which works under the umbrella of the PMUs said troops reached to Iraqi-Syrian borders.
The target behind expanding the control of borders, according to PMUs officials, is to prevent infiltration of of IS militants from Syria to Iraq.
Previously, the troops liberated the remaining villages in the vicinity of Qairawan, a main Islamic State bastion which links between Tal Afar town and the Syrian borders, and Baaj, after the troops announced full liberation of Qairawan.
PMUs, an alliance of more than 60 mostly Shia militias, are recognized by the government as a national force under the Prime Minister’s command.
Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has recently vowed to keep the PMUs for several years and announced increase of their budget to raise the fighters’ wages.
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[DW] Angela Merkel is coming under renewed fire over her refugee policies as Germany's election battleground heats up. Left-wing rival Martin Schulz has added his voice to long-standing criticism from the right.
For months, Social Democratic (SPD) candidate Martin Schulz has been trying - and failing - to find an issue to eat away at conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... 's popularity. In conversation with the Sunday edition of Germany's Bild newspaper, Schulz took aim at what is perhaps Merkel's Achilles heel: her policy toward migrants colonists from Moslem countries.
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[Ynet] After visit by Shin Bet director to the Jordanian capital and a phone call between Netanyahu and King Abdullah, diplomatic staff returns to Israel, including guard who rubbed out two Jordanians after he was attacked by one of them.
The diplomatic staff of Israel's embassy to Jordan, including a security guard who rubbed out two Jordanians after he was attacked by one of them, returned to Israel on Monday night, bringing a 28-hour-long crisis to an end.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to both Ambassador Einat Shalin and the security guard upon their return to Israel through the Allenby Bridge crossing, asked how they were and welcomed them home.
The Prime Minister's Office said the return of the Israeli diplomatic staff was made possible thanks to a close cooperation between Israel and Jordan.
Jordanian authorities, meanwhile, announced they have completed the investigation into the incident.
According to a statement by Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate (GID), while two people began work to install furniture, an argument broke out between one of them--the son of the furniture shop owner--and an Israeli embassy employee who lives in the apartment.
The argument, according to the GID, was over a delay in completing the work at the time agreed upon, and took place while the landlord and the building's security guard were present.
At the heat of the argument, according to the Jordanians, the son of the furniture shop owner attacked the Israeli diplomat, who was maimed, and the latter responded by opening fire at the worker, wounding him and the landlord who was nearby. The two were rushed to the hospital but both gave up the ghost.
And so face was saved where it needed to be, a very good thing, indeed.
While the Jordanians agreed to allow the rest of the diplomatic staff to leave the embassy, they insisted the guard remains for questioning. The diplomatic staff refused to leave without the guard.
Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman flew to the Jordanian capital on Monday morning to investigate the incident and speak to the guard. Argaman, accompanied by Jordanian Sherlocks, conducted a reconstruction of events. He then returned in the late afternoon to brief the prime minister.
[AlMasdar] A large aid convoy arrived jihadist-held northern Homs, Sunday, following an agreement between the government and latter to allow for UN and Red Crescent vehicles to enter this besieged area.
The aid convoy consisted of 22 trucks filled with supplies that were intended for the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham controlled towns of Al-Ghanto, Ta’er Maaleh, and Al-Dar Al-Kabeera.
This aid convoy entered northern Homs just days after talks began between the rebel forces and Russia regarding a potential de-escalation zone in the Al-Rastan and Al-Houla plains.
[AlMasdar] A new deescalation zone is expected to be announced soon in the northern countryside of the Homs Governorate, a military source told Al-Masdsar News on Sunday night.
According to the source, the deescalation zone will cover the entire Al-Rastan and Al-Houla plains of northern Homs.
Similar to the agreements in the East Ghouta and southern Syria, the deescalation zone requires all parties in the area to adhere to a strict ceasefire.
In addition to a ceasefire, the Russian reconciliation teams in the area will attempt to broker a deal that will reopen the vital Homs-Hama Highway so that commerce can once again resume in this region.
The Homs-Hama Highway has been closed for more than four years now and still remains cutoff by the jihadist factions in the Al-Rastan Plain.
[AlMasdar] A powerful kaboomdestroyed the al-Zira’a Roundabout in Idlib City, Sunday, killing many Lions of Islam from the al-Qaeda linked Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham rebel faction.
According to opposition activists via social media, a boom-mobileing targeted a large gathering of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham fighters in Idlib City, causing several casualties in the process.
The opposition activists claimed that at least 13 HTS fighters were killed and another 30 were maimed, including several civilians.
This latest boom-mobileing comes just days after jihadist infighting led to the death of at least 50 Lions of Islam in the Idlib Governorate.
[NYPOST] An angry pregnant wife has attacked her cheating husband’s mistress by allegedly forcing red-hot chili peppers into her vagina. And she held still for that?
Vietnamese media reports Ly Chanel, 23, had noticed her husband had begun disappearing for hours on end. Umm... "Chanel" isn't Vietnamese. Was the husband French or something? Or maybe it's an alias?
They’d only been married seven months. And she was already bearing his first child. Quick worker, huh?
Earlier this week, she followed Chien Keo, 24, to what turned out to be a motel rendezvous in the Thai Nguyen province in Vietnam. Chien's name sounds Chinese. Thai Nguyen province is just north of Hanoi.
Three-months pregnant Ly interrupted the pair and stuffed chilies into the mistress’s vagina while her three female friends held her down on a motel bed. Musta really caught her by surprise if there were only three of them.
The pictures of the incident have shocked internet readers across Asia. Dear Lordy, they took pictures?
And their malevolent message backfired. Furious followers wanted to know why she punished the mistress so severely but ignored her wayward husband. They accused Ly of being cruel. Couldn't fit chilis in there?
Ly responded before shutting down her Facebook page: “How can he care for us if he cheats with another girl? A woman who destroys the family? Women can forgive easily but they can never forget. Jealousy is painful. She will know this.” I'll bet she'll think about it every time she sits down.
“There are people who hate me now, but life is like that, you cannot please everyone.”
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[Libya Observer] The Chief of the Presidential Guard, Najmi al-Nakowa, has announced a ban on entering Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... with light and heavy weapons, saying all unlicensed weapons will be collected by the relevant authorities in Tripoli, Libyan News Agency (LANA) in Tripoli reported.
The decision came in an expanded security meeting of the Joint Operations Room in Mitiga Airbase in Tripoli with many military and security officials from west Libya present.
LANA reported that al-Nakowa urged all Arab and foreign embassies to come back to Tripoli and resume work as the capital is stable and secure, stressing this security must be used in the right way.
The commander of the Joint Operations Room, Colonel Abdelbasit Marwan, said that he discussed in the meeting the security procedures and the troubles that are getting in the way of stability in the capital, LANA added.
LANA also reported the meeting organizers as saying that meeting wanted to touch upon the services and issues related to Libyans and the security of Tripoli, in addition to the activation of the cop shoppes in the city.
Tripoli military zone commander, Belqasim Mohammed, al-Nakowa, and the Tripoli Security Department Director, Salah al-Samowi, as well as general intelligence, investigations apparatuses, and the security preparations committee chief Abdelrahman al-Tawell were all present in the meeting, besides other Libyan army officers from the western region.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[SHABELLENEWS] A heavy battle between Al shabaab Death Eaters and Somali government forces backed by Kenyan defense forces broke out in the outskirts of Bardere district in Gedo region.
The fighting erupted after Al shabaab has targeted KDF convoy with a land mine kaboom at Fahfahdhun village, while transporting supplies to a military camp in Tarako area.
After the kaboom on Kenyan military, Al shabaab launched an ambush against Somali government forces in the area, triggering a fierce shootout that left soldiers and Death Eaters dead.
Shukri Abdullahi Hussein, a senior Somali military commander in the region said several government soldiers sustained a slight wounds in the attack, and continued their duties.
Al shabaab grabbed credit for the attack, through a statement published on its affiliated websites, saying they killed Kenya soldiers, and burnt down armored vehicles.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The ISIS faceless myrmidons have executed three of their comrades in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, the local government officials said.
The incident has taken place in the vicinity of Qosh Tapa district of Jawzjan where the faceless myrmidons loyal to ISIS terrorist group are actively operating.
Provincial governor’s front man Mohammad Reza Ghafoori confirmed the incident and said the faceless myrmidons were apparently executed after they were accused of having links with the government.
He said the dead bodies of the slain faceless myrmidons were recovered from Alamlek village in Qosh Tapa district.
The anti-government armed myrmidon groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
The security situation in Jawzjan province has started to deteriorate during the recent years with the rampant insurgency led both the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... and ISIS myrmidons.
The ISIS faceless myrmidons executed at least three civilians in this province nearly four months ago, accusing them of supporting the government.
At least 52 farmers were kidnapped by the faceless myrmidons believed to having links with the ISIS terrorist group in mid-February this year.
At least six employees of the International Committee of Red Thingy were also rubbed out by faceless myrmidons in this province during the same month.
Local officials said the ICRC employees were rubbed out by ISIS loyalists and at least two of them were kidnapped.
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[Libya Observer] al-Bunyan al-Marsous Operation has mobilized forces in Sirte and is preparing to repel a large scale and imminent attack from ISIS holy warriors, front man of the Ministry of Defense, Brigadier General Mohammed al-Ghosari, has declared.
Al-Bunyan al-Marsous forces have reinforced their presence in the city, which has been placed on high security alert, in anticipation of the attack.
Al-Bunyan al-Marsous Operation has also deployed an armed convoy of 20 vehicles in al-Sabah district, west of Sirte, and set up checkpoints at all entrances of the city, he added.
Al-Ghosari indicated that a large number of ISIS hard boyz were able to regroup and are mobilizing forces to launch attacks on Sirte from both the south and east side of the city.
Earlier, Chief of Military Intelligence of the Central Region, Ismail Shukri, said that ISIS runaways are moving freely in southern Sirte where Dignity Operation forces are positioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... police on Monday recovered a maiden, allegedly employed as a house maid, from television anchor Gharida Farooqi's home in Lahore on the orders of a sessions court.
The girl's father, Mohammad Munir, had moved the court for the recovery of his daughter, alleging that the girl was being held captive against her and her family's will.
Before the recovery was made, sound recordings of three phone calls -- allegedly between Farooqi and a woman named Shazia -- had circulated widely on social media.
In the recorded exchange, Shazia accused Farooqi of torturing the girl and refusing her an opportunity to meet with her parents. Both allegations were denied strongly by the woman presumed to be Farooqi, who asked for proof of her wrongdoing.
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[SHABELLENEWS] A Somali official says Jubbaland forces have killed four Al shabaab members in the border town of Beled-Hawo on Monday, July 24.
The holy warriors, including an elderly man were executed by Jubbaland soldiers in the outside Beled-Hawo after they were taken out from a prison in the town, to the official said.
The executed Al shabaab members were held for killing a local elder in the past.
Jubbaland state is yet to comment on the mass murder, however, it comes as the region’s leader Ahmed Madobe is expected to pay a visit to Gedo province, southwest of Somalia.
Al shabaab has been battling Somali and Kenyan forces in the region for almost 6 years in the region, since KDF crossed into the country in mid 2011, to fight the holy warriors.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... holy warriors group grabbed credit behind the deadly bombing in Kabul city that left at least 24 civilians dead.
The group’s front man Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement claimed that the attack carried out by a jacket wallah targeted two vehicles carrying intelligence operatives.
Mujahid also claimed that 37 intelligence operatives were killed in the attack but the security officials in Kabul are saying that only non-combatants were killed in the attack.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said at least 24 non-combatants were killed and 42 others were maimed in the attack, rejecting the claims by the Taliban that the security personnel were targeted.
The attack by the Taliban comes days after a new report was released regarding the civilian casualties in Afghanistan, attributing the majority of civilian casualties to the armed holy warriors activities between January and June.
The new report by United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) highlights that 40 per cent of all civilian casualties during the six-month period were killed or injured by anti-government forces using improvised bombs (IEDs), such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices, which were responsible for the deaths of 596 civilians and injured 1,483.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The leader of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... has said the recent deadly attacks were planned outside the country.
Apparently gesturing towards the recent bombings in Kabul city, Hekmatyar made the remarks during a meeting with a group of the youths in his residence.
He said the foreigners are seeking their personal interests with the persistent violence and war in the country, insisting that the recent bombings were planned outside the country and no Afghan or a Moslem would carry out such attacks.
Hekmatyar further added that the Afghan people will never carry out attacks inside the mosques or on funeral ceremonies.
The remarks by Hekmatyar came as more than 150 people were killed in a deadly bombing near the embassy of Germany in Kabul late in May and a coordinated suicide kaboom targeted a funeral ceremony few days later that also left nearly one hundred people dead or maimed.
No group or individual has so far grabbed credit behind the attacks.
The Afghan officials are saying that the Haqqani terrorist network based in Pakistain plotted and carried out the attack although the leader of the network in a voice message said today that the group has no role in the incident.
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[ZEROHEDGE] Forensic studies of "Russian hacking" into Democratic National Committee computers last year reveal that on July 5, 2016, data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers, and then doctored to incriminate Russia.
After examining metadata from the "Guccifer 2.0" July 5, 2016 intrusion into the DNC server, independent cyber Sherlocks have concluded that an insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device, and that "telltale signs" implicating Russia were then inserted.
Key among the findings of the independent forensic investigations is the conclusion that the DNC data was copied onto a storage device at a speed that far exceeds an Internet capability for a remote hack. Of equal importance, the forensics show that the copying and doctoring were performed on the East coast of the U.S. Thus far, mainstream media have ignored the findings of these independent studies [see here and here].
Independent analyst Skip Folden, a retired IBM Program Manager for Information Technology US, who examined the recent forensic findings, is a co-author of this Memorandum. He has drafted a more detailed technical report titled "Cyber-Forensic Investigation of ’Russian Hack’ and Missing Intelligence Community Disclaimers," and sent it to the offices of the Special Counsel and the Attorney General. VIPS member William Binney, a former Technical Director at the National Security Agency, and other senior NSA "alumni" in VIPS attest to the professionalism of the independent forensic findings.
The recent forensic studies fill in a critical gap. Why the FBI neglected to perform any independent forensics on the original "Guccifer 2.0" material remains a mystery ‐ as does the lack of any sign that the "hand-picked analysts" from the FBI, CIA, and NSA, who wrote the "Intelligence Community Assessment" dated January 6, 2017, gave any attention to forensics.
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#2
After examining metadata from the "Guccifer 2.0" July 5, 2016 intrusion into the DNC server, independent cyber Sherlocks have concluded that an insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device, and that "telltale signs" implicating Russia were then inserted.
Further confirming an internal Intelligence Community and 'Deep State' deception campaign.
#4
It certainly would be to Russia's benefit to spread the idea that it wasn't them, and even more to their pleasure to watch the infighting that results when enough people believe it.
#7
Further confirming an internal Intelligence Community and 'Deep State' deception campaign.
Posted by Besoeker
Couple that with all the other agencies practicing deception that lean and vote left.
#4 It certainly would be to Russia's benefit to spread the idea that it wasn't them, and even more to their pleasure to watch the infighting that results when enough people believe it. Posted by: trailing wife.
Russia as well as China, Iran, NK and others who have an agenda counter to that of the U.S.. Being able to depend upon an intelligence community that is not playing internal political games and is doing its job is absolutely essential.
If you have the MSM on your side you don't have to be competent. Baraq proved that for us. Please note the source here is Zerohedge. If that's the only outlet that will run with this information the public at large will never see or hear of it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/25/2017 10:03
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#10
independent cyber Sherlocks have concluded that an insider copied DNC data onto an external storage device, and that "telltale signs" implicating Russia were then inserted.
So why couldn't our governmental cyber sleuths come up with this?
#11
Could it be that the Hillary campaign and the DNC had no interest in having anyone really delve into this because of the huge can of worms that would be opened?
Yes they would, they've proven it times and times again!
From Besoeker in a comment yesterday:
CIA has historically a bad record of their support turning around to bit us in the ass. They think short term, rarely long term.
Well documented:
Support for Castro in Cuban Revolution, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam Tet Offensive, The Yom Kippur War, Iranian Revolution, Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Collapse of the Soviet Union, Indian Nuclear test, Pakistani Nuclear test, Iraqi invasion, 9/11 attacks, Hasenfus C-123 shoot down and Gun running in Nicaragua & El Salvador, Suicide attack by Dr. Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi at FOB Chapman, AFG. Obama documents clean up at State Department Passport Office, Betrayal of Jailed Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi in 'made for TeeVee' Bin Laden take down.
Probables:
Benghazi, The Nidal Hassan and Anwar al-Awlaki caper, The traveling Tsarnaev brothers, GITMO Catch and Release program, Sergeant Bergdahl prisoner exchange, pallets of USD and Swiss Frncs to Iran via unmarked planes, Access of Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
#13
So why couldn't our governmental cyber sleuths come up with this?
It's possible. It's also possible that the adulteration occurred after the data breach had been discovered (and dealt with) and the external storage device recovered.
#14
Pappy, the recovery of the external storage device from whom? This does tie into the Seth Rich story and the curious details of the hospital treatment, crime scene omissions (lack of witness interviews at the bar, video tape search) and the odd lack of further investigation enthusiasm, almost as if someone thought it was a rock no one wanted turned over and the enormous mess under it demanding actions of great consequence?
#18
What I mean Seeking: CIA may be a bunch of frat boys playing I spy (with real peoples lives), but they do have access to best programming talent in USA.
#19
What I mean Seeking: CIA may be a bunch of frat boys playing I spy (with real peoples lives), but they do have access to best programming talent in USA.
Really, I'm thinking it's NSA, NASA, Various non-spy agencies that has the best programming expertise. Oh wait, you said "have access". yes if you have or throw enough money you can get access to the best. Right now I get the impression that the CIA has some of the best kiddie script users around.
Mossad OTOH do have some of the best, Heck, even the CIA go to them from what I understand when they need something that works!
The U.S. intelligence community—which includes the CIA—failed to predict in advance the Egyptian-Syrian attack on Israel. A U.S. intelligence report as late as October 4 still stated that "We continue to believe that an outbreak of major Arab–Israeli hostilities remains unlikely for the immediate future".[290] However, one U.S. government source that was able to predict the approaching war was Roger Merrick, an analyst working for the INR (Intelligence and Research section in the State Department), but his conclusions were ignored at the time, and the report he had written to that effect was only rediscovered by U.S. government archive officials in 2013.
[CHICAGO.SUNTIMES] Six men were killed and at least 35 other people were maimed in shootings across reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... between Friday night and Monday morning.
The most recent deaths were the latest of 364 people fatally shot in the city this year, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. In all, more than 2,075 people have been shot since the start of the year.
The weekend’s latest fatal shooting happened about 9 p.m. Sunday in the South Side Back of the Yards neighborhood. Damijwan Bonds, 18, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs in the 5400 block of South Damen, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He showed up at Holy Cross Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He's dead, Jim! at 9:59 p.m. Bonds lived about three blocks away from the shooting. The circumstances of the incident weren’t immediately known as Area Central detectives conducted a homicide investigation.
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Someone at the Burg pointed out this site and it has become a go-to site for Chicago mayhem. Chicago scorecard.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The enlightenment movement cancelled a demonstration due for Kabul today hours before a deadly suicide kaboom rocked Kabul city, leaving scores of people dead or maimed.
Presidential front man Shah Hussain Murtazawi informed regarding the cancellation of the demonstration while briefing news hounds today.
He said President Ghani has thanked the movement for their decision to cancel the protests and demonstrations.
Murtawazi further added that a technical commission will be formed to assess the demands of the protesters.
The demonstration by enlightenment movement was apparently planned to mark the anniversary of the deadly attack last year that left nearly 90 people dead and hundreds more maimed.
This comes as a suicide attack rocked the west of Kabul city earlier this morning, the area where the demonstrations were supposed to kick off from.
According to the security officials, at least 24 people were killed and 42 others were maimed in the attack for which the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group grabbed credit for.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... reports indicate that the corpse count has further climbed and has reached to 36 people while numerous others have sustained injuries in the attack.
I have read through the entire article (as have you, dear Reader, as we meet here at the bottom), and I still have no idea what this enlightenment movement is.
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This sounds like an organized crime hit.
Article corrected to indicate that Edmond Sahakyan was wounded,
not killed.
Two men are dead and four others were wounded in a shooting in the Ukrainian city of Dneipropetrovsk, according to Russian language news accounts.
Russkaya Vesna reported that among the dead was an unidentified Ukrainian army officer who was formerly posted to the Ukrainian theater of operations in Donetsk/Lugansk area. One of the wounded, identified as Edmond Sahakyan, also had served with the Ukrainian Army in southeastern Ukraine.
The shooting took place after two groups of men began arguing at the Hookah House cafe on Ulytsa Gargarin. Apparently it was then that two cars, one of them described as white in color, were driven to the scene. Armed men stepped out with AK-74 rifles and started firing.
The report said the six victims were armed with pistols, but that the guns were not loaded. The shooters with the rifles got their shots off before the other five could load their weapons magazines and return fire.
Witnesses at the scene said in total 10 shots were fired. One of the rifles, an AK-74 underfolder rifle was left at the scene by one of the shooters.
[DAWN] The Government of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... has uncovered eight 'ghost' schools employing 15 'ghost' teachers in Tehsil Zehri of Khuzdar district, DawnNews reported on Monday.
The provincial government has initiated a crackdown against ghost schools and teachers in Balochistan after media reports highlighted the issue.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri had ordered the probe after reports that there were over 1,500 ghost schools and teachers across the province. "I have started action against ghost schools in my own district", Zehri said in a statement.
Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner Sohailur Rahman visited the area on Monday and visited the ghost schools. The school premises had been turned into stores and livestock could be seen tethered inside the buildings.
The salaries being paid out to the teachers, as well as the funds allocated to the schools, will be stopped, the deputy commissioner said.
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#1
One of my mother's first employers tried something vaguely similar to this during the first year of Social Security. He had about 8 women working for him waiting on tables at his restaurant. When Social Security numbers were issued, he got one number for the whole group, yet made 8 sets of deductions from their pay. Mother learned about this from her next employer.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave containing relics of sixty persons, most of whom were for security personnel, was found in a liberated region in the western side of Mosul city, BasNews reported on Monday.
“Security personnel found a mass grave of Islamic State victims including relics of sixty persons, forty-four of whom were security agents of Nineveh police,” Cap. Ahmed al-Obaidi said.
“There were signs of torture on the bodies, which seemed to have been shot in the heads,” Obaidi said adding that the grave was found in a land at al-Midan region in the Old City, while security troops were combing the area.
Several mass graves were found in areas that were controlled by Islamic State since the Iraqi government, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition, launched a major security offensive in October 2016 to recapture the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s largest stronghold in Iraq.
Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) A prominent Islamic State doctor was executed under mysterious circumstances, while all his family members were arrested, a local source from Nineveh province was quoted saying on Monday.
“The group announced through its media arm the execution of abu Youssef al-Masry, a prominent doctor, who came from Syria two years ago along with his family to Tal Afar town, west of Mosul, where he settled and founded centers for treating IS injured members,” an anonymous source told AlSumaria News.
Al-Masry, according to the source, “disappeared a week ago under mysterious circumstances before the group’s news agency annnounced his execution without providing further details.”
“The group ran into Masry’s house and arrested all of his family members and transferred them to unknown destination,” the source added indicating growing internal executions among the group members over the past few weeks, which shows the confusion among the militants in the town.
On Sunday, news reports said the group carried out emergency evacuations over the night at many of its main headquarters in the town over growing doubts on the people’s cooperation with security services. Other reports indicated huge explosion that occurred at a field clinic, where IS injured militants are treated in the town, which urged the group to block the main roads.
Tal Afar is one of the important strongholds still held by IS in Nineveh since August 2014.
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Raqqa (Syria News) Ten members of the Syrian Democratic Forces had been killed, on Monday, in a car bomb blast, south of Raqqa, a source told Qasioun News.
The source said in a statement that ten members of the Syrian Democratic Forces were killed in a booby-trapped vehicle explosion in Hishan Ibn Abdelalek neighborhood, south of the city of Raqqa.
Furthermore, the Islamic State-held “Amaq” agency claimed via its official Twitter account the responsibility for the car bomb blast, reporting that a suicide bomber who was driving a booby-trapped vehicle blew up himself near a gathering of Syrian Democratic Forces members in the area.
Yesterday, Islamic State group launched a violent attack on the headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces in Abu al-Hays Street, east of Raqqa, killing six members of the SDF and an unidentified number of IS members.
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[AlAhram] Germany said the The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... had informed it on Monday that it had dropped accusations of "terrorism" funding against major German companies amid a raging dispute between the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... partners.
As relations between Berlin and Ankara plumbed new depths, a front man for the German interior ministry said his Ottoman Turkish counterpart had contacted him about the allegations levelled against nearly 700 German firms including giants Daimler and BASF.
The front man, Tobias Plate, said Berlin had been told that the list of companies with Ottoman Turkish operations being investigated for "financing of terrorism" lodged with Interpol in May had been withdrawn, saying the suspicion had been based on a "communication problem".
The Ottoman Turkish interior minister "assured us that the Ottoman Turkish authorities were not investigating companies on the list in Turkey or in Germany," he said.
German newspaper Die Zeit reported last week that Turkey had handed Germany a list of 68 companies and individuals suspected of links to terror due to alleged contacts with the group of the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , who is blamed for Turkey's failed coup last year. Gulen denies the charge.
Die Zeit said the companies probed ranged from industrial behemoths to a stall selling doner kebab in the west of Germany.
Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... on Friday denied the claims, saying the reports were "black propaganda" aimed at pressurising German companies not to invest in Turkey.
"You have no power to darken Turkey," Erdogan said.
Ottoman Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had also dismissed the report as "entirely a lie" and urged Berlin to solve an escalating crisis through dialogue.
A spokeswoman for the German economy ministry, Tanja Alemany, said Monday that despite the "clarification" of the issue, it would "take a while before German companies can win back confidence" in Turkey as a place to do business.
Ankara's overture to Berlin came amid severe tensions between the NATO allies over arrests of German citizens.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had said on Thursday that Berlin would review state guarantees for foreign investment in Turkey and urge businesses against putting their money in the country.
The German foreign ministry also warned it could no longer guarantee its citizens' safety in Turkey, in a move sure to impact Turkey's crucial tourism industry.
The latest crisis was precipitated by the order of a Ottoman Turkish court to remand in jug six human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activists detained on an island off Istanbul including Amnesia Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser and Berlin-based activist Peter Steudtner.
But Berlin was already furious over the jailing in February of Deniz Yucel, Turkey correspondent for Die Welt newspaper, who Erdogan has personally denounced as a "terror agent".
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the suspicion had been based on a "communication problem"
Apparently the deutschmark talks louder than Turkish bluster.
[IsraelTimes] IDF troops detained a Paleostinian man armed with a knife who broke into Israel from southern Gazoo on Monday night, the army said.
The man was picked up "next to the point where he crossed" into Israel, the military said.
He was handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.
An army spokesperson said that while the man was caught in possession of a knife, it was not immediately clear whether he intended to carry out a terror attack in Israel.
There have been past cases of Paleostinians crossing into Israel from Gazoo expecting to get caught simply to leave the poverty-stricken, Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-ruled coastal enclave.
[MCCLATCHYDC] He/She/It/They/Xie/Shplk's a transgender woman and an experienced journalist who sings in a metal band in her spare time.
He has sponsored some of the most socially conservative legislation in Virginia in the past 25 years, including a measure this year that would have restricted the bathrooms transgender people can use.
Democrat Danica Roem is challenging Republican Bob Marshall for his northern Virginia seat in the state House of Delegates. With such stark differences between the candidates, the race is expected to draw in big money and is seen by some as a referendum on rights for gay and transgender people.
Roem would be the first openly transgender candidate to win and serve in a state legislature, according to the Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports him/her/it/them/xneg/shplnk and calls Marshall "the most anti-LGBTQ member of the Virginia state legislature."
"Danica Roem is a leader in a national movement of trans candidates who are determined to become a voice for their community in the halls of power," said Aisha Moodie-Mills, president and CEO of the organization.
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Yeah, so a Nancy-boy or a Butch-girl got elected by a sympathetic peer group. If I gotta go I'm gonna use what's available.
[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of a convict who was handed the death sentence by a military court.
The accused, Mohammad Akbar, was convicted of murdering two soldiers in 2009. He had challenged the military court verdict in 2016.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, after staying the convict's execution, issued notices to the attorney general and the petitioner's counsel.
At the time of his arrest, five kilogrammes of explosives were also found from Akbar, whose appeal against the death sentence was dismissed by the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. High Court.
The convict's counsel contended before the SC that the military court did not take legal provisions into consideration while handing down the punishment, adding that his client was not given the opportunity to defend himself.
The Supreme Court subsequently stayed the implementation of the execution order after suspending the military court's verdict. The hearing of the case was adjourned for an indefinite period.
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Love the Jewish tourist money, but Jordan is Judenfrei and intends to stay that way.
[IsraelTimes] Warning to visitors at Aaron’s Tomb comes as tensions between countries skyrocket over stabbing at Israeli Embassy
Jordanian police on threatened a group of Israeli tourists that they would risk being tossed in the calaboose Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! if they prayed anywhere in the country, an Israeli official said Monday.
The tourists were in Jordan to visit the Tomb of Aaron, the biblical high priest and brother of Moses, who tradition holds is buried on Mount Hor, near Petra, at a site known locally as Jabal Haroun.
"It emerged that they were not allowed [to show] any religious symbols," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel. He said the incident occurred either Sunday or Monday.
One of the tourists, Rabbi Menashe Zelicha of Bnei Brak, said the coppers told his group that "in all of Jordan it is forbidden for Jews to pray."
"We are not allowed to pray in the morning, no tefillin, no prayer shawls, nothing ‐ we cannot pray, even in the hotel, even inside our room," Zelicha told the Kol Chai radio station. "Policemen came into the hotel and were shouting and went wild, saying that in a minute they would take us out of Jordan if we made even a tiny squeak. They told us, ’Whoever prays will be taken to jail.'"
Zelicha said that when his group went through the border crossing, authorities "began checking the suitcase and checking everything. They refused to let us bring in books. They removed the prayer shawls, the tefillin; they removed one person’s tzitzit.
"One guy had on him a driving written test booklet, they took it. They took people’s skullcaps. People were left with only their shirt and trousers."
Israeli diplomats stationed in Jordan asked the tourists to "lower their profile and to listen to instructions from the police," Nahshon said.
The Israelis were also advised to leave the country sooner than they had planned, given the tense situation in Israel and the West Bank in the wake of a July 14 shooting attack at the Temple Mount, as well as the stabbing attack on an Israeli security guard and death of two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy compound in Jordan on Sunday.
Jordanian authorities did not respond to requests to comment on the report, but a diplomat said Jordanian officials warning Jewish pilgrims to keep a low profile was not uncommon. In the past, Israelis have complained that border officials prevented them from crossing with tefillin and prayer shawls.
[IsraelTimes] Terrorist tried repeatedly to swipe at Shlomi Madar, who says he was saved by a countertop he installed after a drunk customer pulled a knife on him That graphic can only be characterized as torture.
A selfie stick. An umbrella. A guitar. Nunchucks, and now, a pizza platter.
Shlomi Madar added the heavy wooden saucer to the growing list of obscure objects used to subdue (or just slow down) murderous Moslems over the past two years, when he went after a stabber outside his pizzeria in Petah Tikva, outside Tel Aviv, late Monday morning.
"I heard screams coming from the shwarma shop two stores down and I immediately understood what was happening," Madar, 24, told The Times of Israel Monday, hours after the incident.
Just feet away, a 21-year-old Paleostinian from Qalqilya stabbed an Arab bus driver whom he apparently mistook for a Jew. Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri classified the crime as nationalist -- code for a terror attack.
An employee at the shwarma shop described the early minutes of the incident to the Ynet news site. "A man came in and ordered shwarma. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his behavior. Afterward an Egged driver who eats with us regularly came in. He placed his order and went over to the refrigerator to take a soft drink. As I was preparing his order another driver came in and I suddenly heard him shout, ’Terror attack, terror attack!’"
After gashing the neck of his first victim, the assailant continued toward Pizza Nepolita. "When he ran in front of my shop and I saw the knife, I quickly swung down the counter-top so he couldn’t get to me," said Madar, who was alone in the restaurant at the time.
The attacker tried three times to swipe at him, but Madar dodged each attempt and the knife only nicked the wooden countertop. "At that point, I picked up the pizza platter and slammed it into his nose as hard as I could. He fell backward, dropped the knife and started running away."
Madar said he ran after the stabber, who was tackled a block away by two pedestrians who had been waiting at a traffic light.
But Madar, from nearby Rosh Ha’ayin, said he wasn’t convinced the attack had ended, and he ran back to the pizza parlor to see if there was a second attacker. "Thankfully, the event was over and nobody else got hurt," he said.
The lone victim was treated by Magen David Adom paramedics and evacuated to Petah Tikva’s Rabin Medical Center with moderate to severe injuries.
The Shin Bet domestic security agency said the attacker, whose name was not immediately cleared for publication, had served in an Israeli prison between 2015 and 2016, for violent activity against Israel.
According to reports, the assailant told police Sherlocks that he had carried out the attack in response to Israel’s actions at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem. "I did it for al-Aqsa," he reportedly said.
For his part, Madar recognized how lucky he was to have survived the attack. "Had it not been for the counter-top, I don’t know if I would still be here," he said.
Ironically, Madar said, he had the surface installed less than two months ago, after a drunk customer, unwilling to pay for his meal, pulled a knife on him. "While I didn’t need to use a pizza platter, that guy’s fate was similar to today’s terrorist," he said, smiling.
[Al Jazeera] The Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has questioned Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's accusation of Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... funding terrorism while the Kingdom itself continues to carry out "terrorism that is killing people in Yemen".
The conflict in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... has escalated dramatically since March 2015, when the Saudi-led forces launched a military operation against the rebels.
Since the conflict began, more than 10,000 people have been killed and millions have been driven from their homes.
"We don't talk about government terrorism such as the Saudi-led coalition that is killing people in Yemen," HRW's Kenneth Roth said at the Freedom of Expression, Facing up to the Threat conference in Qatar's capital Doha on Monday.
"I am not aware of Qatar financing terrorist groups, but I am aware of the long-term Saudi promotion of an extreme version of Islam that is often adopted by terrorist groups."
Yemen is also facing a health crisis, with the charity Oxfam reporting 360,000 suspected cases of cholera in the three months since the outbreak started in April.
On June 5, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing "extremism" and fostering ties with their Shia rival Iran. Qatar denies the claims.
The four countries imposed an air, sea and land blockade on Qatar last month.
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#1
"We don't talk about government terrorism such as the Saudi-led coalition that is killing people in Yemen," HRW's Kenneth Roth said at the Freedom of Expression, Facing up to the Threat conference in Qatar's capital Doha on Monday.
#5
...at the Freedom of Expression, Facing up to the Threat conference in Qatar's capital Doha on Monday.
The Saudis didn't offer enough bribe financial incentives and got outbid?
[AlMasdar] Today rocket artillery detachments of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) wiped out a large ISIS command center in southern Deir Ezzor Governorate.
The command center had been identified by SAA tactical surveillance drone as a target in the area of Al-Madjaneh to the southeast of Hamimah. Once the base was considered to be an operational asset of the terrorist group, SAA heavy rocket artillery detachments were given coordinates.
The SAA employed large-ordinance, Elephant rocket-like rocket systems against the target, scoring multiple direct hits against the command center.
According to military sources exclusive to Al-Masdar News, the complex was occupied by dozens of ISIS fighters including several field commanders who oversaw the terrorist group’s operations against the SAA in the area. Furthermore, the command center was noted to have possessed modern telecommunication assets and that it served as a fully-fledged operations room for ISIS.
With the command center in question now put out of commission, the ability of ISIS forces to coordinate their defense of the southernmost provincial border region between Homs and Deir Ezzor will likely decline.
The natural consequence of this is that the SAA’s offensive operations against the jihadist faction in the area will now become significantly easier.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Armed Forces carry on a full-scale military operation to reach the eastern city of Deir Ezzor amid intensifying battles against the Islamic State.
Led by the SAA’s elite Tiger Forces, the government troops Al Salam Alaykum town located to the Sabkhawi, which was recaptured 2 days ago.
The striking advance made by the Syrian Army comes amid massive ISIS collapse, where jihadists retreat to their bastions along the western bank of the Euphrates.
Meanwhile, government forces, led by the 5th Legion, took over new points and hilltops en route to ISIS stronghold of al-Sukhnah in the Syrian Desert.
[AlMasdar] Scores of ISIS jihadists have been killed and injured as the Syrian and Russian fighter jets bombed their positions in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
According to a military source, more than 30 airstrikes hit gatherings and outposts for the terror group in Al-Kannamat , Al-Hamidyah districts, the southern outskirts of Deir Ezzor airbase, the surrounding of Al-Ta`meen brigade base, as well as al-Jafrh water crossing north of the city’s airbase, which is extensively used by ISIS to transport their manpower and equipment.
The airstrikes killed at least 20 militants and wounded scores others, and destroyed 2 bulldozers and 3 pickup vehicles, according to the same source.
Meanwhile, the Syrian troops continue to advance along the western bank of the Euphrates in bid to reach the embattled city of Deir Ezzor.
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SANAA, Yemen: Yemen’s president has sacked a governor who was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for his ties with Al-Qaeda.
The presidential decree by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was issued on Sunday. Hadi removed the governor of the central province of Al-Bayda, Nayef Al-Qaysi, and named Salah Al-Rassass as his replacement.
Bayda is a known Al-Qaeda hotbed, and where the US had carried out airstrikes and raids in the past years hunting the group’s operatives.
Al-Qaysi was classified by the US as a “specially designated global terrorist” over allegations that he financed the group.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen affiliate is known, has long been seen as the global network’s most dangerous branch, and has been implicated in a number of attempted attacks on the US homeland.
Separately on Monday, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made a rare visit to the front lines in Yemen, taking a road to reach the besieged western of Taiz.
The visit by Peter Maurer aims to provide the ICRC with a firsthand look at Yemen’s raging cholera epidemic and the humanitarian disaster amid the civil war. Maurer already visited the southern port city of Aden and will be ending his trip in Sanaa.
The executive directors of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are also in Yemen to urge for humanitarian aid.
The $2.1 billion humanitarian appeal for Yemen is only 33 percent funded, and the response to the cholera epidemic requires an additional $250 million, of which just $47 million has been received, according to the UN.
Hundreds of thousands of Taiz residents have been caught across fire and residents use donkeys to carry smuggled goods and basic necessities on unpaved roads in and out of the city.
Since April, a cholera epidemic has ravaged the country with around 400,000 suspected cases and over 1,800 deaths. The rainy season underway threatens to worsen the situation and the numbers of cholera cases are expected to double by the end of the year, according to ICRC.
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[SHABELLENEWS] Iraqi envoy to Kenya Dr Zaid Noori has advised regional countries to keep sharing intelligence and logistical support in order to defeat Al shabaab.
Dr Noori, whose country has wedged a perennial war against terrorist groups, argued that Kenya and its allies can learn from Iraq’s way of fighting terrorists, as the country battles al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... "A lasting solution would come from all countries eliminating terrorist cells and the predisposing conditions such as poverty and unemployment in their territories," he told the Sunday Nation.
"We want an international collation to block gunnies from obtaining money, arms and ammunition by closing their funding resources."
Kenya is currently battling al-Shabaab hard boyz hiding in Boni Forest, Lamu County, from where they have launched a series of deadly attacks.
And while the attacks here appeared to be in guerrilla format, the envoy argued several factors often contribute to the rise in terror attacks.
Speaking on their experience and lessons in combating terrorism, the diplomat says the anti-terror can very well be the "third world war".
In Iraq, just like in Kenya, the insurgence being carried out by 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.... group has largely been fuelled by what he called a "false religious ideology".
He said that security authorities should focus on sensitising members of the public against bogus religious beliefs being propagated by terrorists.
"We are telling them (the public) that this is not religion and that there is no such thing as a killer in paradise. Islam has been there for thousands of years, but Isis came only four, or five years ago," he said.
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#1
Islam has been there for thousands of years, but Isis came only four, or five years ago
Apparently the envoy forgot about the Gates of Vienna, Moorish Spain, the Barbary Coast, the Moro Insurrection, the rise of the Iranian Theocracy...
[DAWN] At least 26 people, including nine coppers, were killed while 58 others were maimed in a bombing attack near the Arfa Karim IT Tower on Lahore's Ferozepur Road on Monday afternoon.
Lahore's DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf said that the blast, which occurred at around 3:55pm, was a "suicide kaboom" and that "police were the target". The Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain (TTP) grabbed credit, stating that a "suicide attacker" had used a cycle of violence bomb to target police officials.
A CTD spokesperson confirmed that nine coppers were killed in the blast. The injured included at least six coppers.
Rescue 1122 teams shifted the injured to nearby hospitals, where an emergency had been imposed.
Punjab government spokesperson Malik Mohammad Ahmed said the attack had occurred at an old vegetable market in the Kot Lakhpat neighbourhood in Lahore. The area is a busy locality and the office of the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... chief minister is located nearby.
Senior police officer Haider Ashraf said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted police guarding a demolition site at Kot Lakhpat's vegetable market on the outskirts of Lahore.
Ashraf said it was believed earlier that the bomb was in a car, but it was later discovered that the vehicle belonged to a police officer, among the eight officers killed.
He said many of 54 wounded are policemen and several bystanders were wounded by the impact of the powerful blast. Ashraf added that near the blast site a high rise building houses important information technology offices but the apparent target was the police gathering.
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Just when you thought things could not get any crazier:
[PuffingtonHost] A transgender artist released a powerful photo Gotta' hit the link for this one!
last week in an attempt to broaden the cultural understanding of the different types of people who experience menstruation.
Cass Clemmer, who uses they/them pronouns, posted the photo of himself/herself/itself/shplxself/themself on Instagram on July 12, depicting them free-bleeding while holding up a sign that reads "Periods are not just for women #BleedingWhileTrans." If you're a woman dressed up as a guy, maybe you're still a girl.
The photo was accompanied by a poem the artist wrote for a spoken word event at a menstrual health conference last summer. "I popped a tampon
into the air.
It fell to earth,
I'm not sure where..."
Clemmer, who works as a menstrual health activist, Obviously a highy trained medical perfessional.
told HuffPost that they decided to stage the photo after the backlash to The Adventures of Toni the Tampon: A Period Coloring Book a coloring book they created to introduce kids of all genders to the human experience of menstruation. "Kids of all 57 genders."
"I remember sharing for the first time with a friend of mine that I wasn’t able to wear my binder that day because I was on my period and my boobs had swelled up so much that it made it hard to breathe," Clemmer told HuffPost. I coulda gone to my grave without ever achieving that knowledge... but it does seem to indicate that there's still only one gender that requires monthly trips to the drug store...
"We had been friends for awhile and she’s a feminist activist, but when I realized that not even she had considered what it was like for people like me to experience bleeding on a (ir)regular basis I knew that I had to go public with my story to help shift the mindset around tying periods to womanhood and femininity. Not all people who menstruate are women, and not all women menstruate." The second statement is true... It continues, if you can take it.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
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There is a gender that requires weekly trips to the beer store.
#3
The most objective, judgement free definition of Delusional is an individual who cannot and/or will not reconcile themselves to physical reality. Further, any, A-N-Y sentient adult with so much as a memory of humanity would try and help the delusional get back to some form of zero point. Only an a$$hole would attempt to over turn existing reality to humor the delusional, or nut as they were once more commonly known.
Five minute video at the link of men in spiffy camouflage uniforms shooting a variety of weapons from the personal to the driven. Those of you with knowledge of such things will no doubt find it interesting.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Hezbollah launched a massive offensive along the western slope of the Qalamoun Mountains this past week, targeting the last positions of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham and the Islamic State (ISIL) in the Faleeta Barrens.
Within hours of launching this attack, the Syrian Arab Army and Hezbollah managed to capture several points, including the large hilltop of Tal Burkan, which overlooks the Lebanese border.
On Sunday, the Syrian Arab Army and Hezbollah continued their advance in the Faleeta Barrens, capturing the entire area after a fierce battle with the exhausted Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham militants.
The video footage above show the Syrian Army and Hezbollah seizing the Faleeta Barrens on Sunday, securing the Lebanese border with Syria’s Rif Dimashq Governorate.
While the operations on the Syrian side are concluding, the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah still have a ways to go before the ‘Arsal Barrens can be official declared free of terrorists in the Beqa’a Governorate of Lebanon.
[AlMasdar] Hezbollah has secured a major advance against terrorists of the Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group in the Arsal, western Qalamoun border region between Syria and Lebanon.
The advance was achieved today with Hezbollah forces overrunning the jihadist group’s positions in the canyon areas of Wadi Ma’rouf, Wadi Kuhail, Wadi Za’rour, Wadi al-Daqayek and Wadi al-Dam.
Not long after this advance was confirmed, Hezbollah’s regional operations room released a statement saying the battle against HTS was almost over and that they called on the terrorist group’s fighters to surrender themselves and save their own lives.
The statement emphasized that Hezbollah would guarantee the safety of surrendered HTS fighters and would grant them evacuation to Idlib Governorate in northern Syria if the militants so chose.
As of the present time, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah are all engaged in a bilateral, multi-factional operation against HTS aimed at clearing the final terrorist-occupied stretch of border between Syria and Lebanon.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 40 forces of Evil affiliated with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group’s offshoot, ISIS Khurasan, were killed during the operations in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government media office in a statement said the forces of Evil were killed or maimed during the ground operations and Arclight airstrikes in Haska Mina district.
The statement further added that 25 forces of Evil including their three commanders were killed and 15 others were maimed.
The forces of Evil were killed after they launched an attack on the Afghan forces during a clearance operation in Miaji Baba area of Haska Mina district, the statement said, adding that the Afghan forces were busy in clearance operations in Rod Khana, Char Wazi, Dand Khana, Mariz and Miajji Baba areas when the festivities started.
According to the local officials, the festivities started after the ISIS forces of Evil engaged the security forces from the residential houses where they had taken shelter.
The operations were conducted with the support of the airpower, the provincial government said, adding that the local residents and security personnel did not suffer any casualties during the festivities.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
Both the Afghan and US forces conducted regular strikes against the loyalists of the terror group in this province.
The increased raids, usually involving dronezaps, by the US forces followed a broader role granted by the B.O. regime earlier last year.
The broader role was granted amid concerns that the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to expand foothold in the country and turn the eastern Nangarhar province into a regional operational hub for its fighters.
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[NYPOST] Rudy Giuliani said Monday afternoon he’s not trying to get Jeff Sessions’ job -- and that the attorney general made the right decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
"I thought it was the correct decision under the Justice Department regulations," the former mayor told The Post. "I thought he consulted with the ethics counsel and he made the right decision. I have told the president that."
Giuliani’s comments contradict fake news a report Monday morning claiming President Trump is considering dumping Sessions and replacing him with the former Big Apple mayor -- and depart from Trump’s own condemnation of Sessions’ recusal.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Rudi has represented a bunch of corporate and foreign interests in the past few years. Some of them are pretty sketchy. It is not illegal but it wouldn't look good in a confirmation hearing.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/25/2017 1:24
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What is needed is a junkyard dog for AG; someone with good experience but not with tentacles from the swamp dragging them down. Someone with no ties to the Clintons and Obama, i.e. someone who is clean.
[Al Jazeera] China has demanded that India pull back its troops from a contested region high in the Himalayas, warning New Delhi not "to push your luck" amid a festering border dispute.
According to Indian officials, about 300 soldiers from either side face each other about 150 metres apart on the Doklam plateau, an area also claimed by India's ally Bhutan.
The standoff began in June when Chinese troops started building a road onto the plateau towards India's border.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The Chinese may soon be facing Indian troops armed with Israeli weapons including some area denial missiles.
[Al Jazeera] The Maldivian army has locked down the country's parliament after the opposition vowed to move ahead with a vote against a key ally of President Abdulla Yameen.
Politicians defied the ban on Monday, fighting off riot police and scaling metre-high walls to enter the parliament compound.
The opposition was hoping to hold a vote to impeach Speaker Abdulla Maseeh, whom they accuse of ignoring allegations of corruption and rights abuses, before the lockdown came into effect.
They had secured enough support from government defectors to begin impeachment proceedings earlier this month.
But the ruling party dismissed the motion after Yameen announced that four of the defectors had lost their parliamentary seats.
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Rocketry Force in Yemeni army and popular committees announced the start of “Beyond Riyadh” stage, after targeting the refineries of Yanbu oil province in Saudi Arabia with long-range ballistic missile (BurkanH2).
The rocketry force confirmed in a statement on Sunday that the refineries in Saudi Arabia have become a military target and demanded that foreign companies should pack their bags and leave.
“Oil refineries have become a military target. Our advice to foreign companies working for the alliance to pack their bags and leave.”
It pointed out that the targeting of Yanbu refineries comes in response to the slaughter of prisoners by the forces loyal to the Saudi-led coalition in the directorate of western Taiz, warning the coalition against compromising the dignity of prisoners.
It stressed that its operations will “continue to escalate in response to continued aggression and siege,” according to the text of the statement.
[AnNahar] The UN accused Australia Monday of backtracking on a deal to relax its strong stance on asylum-seekers and resettle some refugees now held in overseas detention on home soil.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had agreed last November to help relocate the boatpeople to the United States on the basis that Canberra would accept some of them who have links to Australia.
"We agreed to do so on the clear understanding that vulnerable refugees with close family ties in Australia would ultimately be allowed to settle there," commissioner Filippo Grandi said in a statement.
"UNHCR has recently been informed by Australia that it refuses to accept even these refugees."
He added that they, along with the others in camps on the neighbouring nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea, had been told their only option was to stay where they were or be transferred to Cambodia or the United States.
Australia sends anyone who tries to enter by boat without a visa to remote detention facilities on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.Even those subsequently found to be genuine refugees are barred from settling in Australia.
The immigration department said Monday this had long been the case.
"The position of the coalition government has been clear and consistent: those transferred to regional processing centres will never settle in Australia," said a spokesperson.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton reinforced this on Sunday.
"No, people will not be coming to Australia. I have said that consistently, the prime minister has said it consistently, as did prime minister (Tony) Abbott at the time," he told Sky News.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull struck a pact with former US president Barack Obama Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back... to resettle some refugees in the camps in America.
President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has grudgingly agreed to honour what he has called a "dumb deal", although it remains unclear how many Washington will accept.
More than 1,000 remain offshore and Canberra's stance means "some with serious medical conditions, or who have undergone traumatic experiences, including sexual violence, cannot receive the support of their close family members residing in Australia", the UN said.
"To avoid prolonging their ordeal, UNHCR has no other choice but to endorse the relocation of all refugees on Papua New Guinea and Nauru to the United States, even those with close family members in Australia," Grandi added.
Rights groups, who have long accused the government of failing to uphold its international obligations, called on Canberra to honour the deal it had allegedly struck with the UN.
"The right thing to do, the humane thing to do, would be to immediately bring those trapped in Nauru and Manus Island to Australia to be reunited with their family members here," said Amnesia Amnesty International refugee coordinator Graham Thom.
#1
"We agreed to do so on the clear understanding that vulnerable refugees with close family ties in Australia would ultimately be allowed to settle there," commissioner Filippo Grandi said in a statement.
I have heard that the climate is nice in your native Italy ... why not volunteer Italy?
[AlAhram] At least eight people are dead afterexploding trollop female suicide bombers attacked two displaced persons camps in northeastern Nigeria's main city, a civilian self-defense group said Monday. It was the first major attack on a displaced persons camp in Maiduguri, the birthplace of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... bad boy insurgency.
The attack started late Sunday night and left another 15 people maimed, front man Bello Danbatta with the Civilian-JTF group told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The Nigeria-based bad boy group Boko Haram often targets the city with suicide bombers and increasingly has been using female ones. Nigeria's government late last year declared the group "crushed" but dozens of such attacks have been carried out this year.
The latest bombings occurred a few days after Nigeria's army chief of staff issued a 40-day deadline for troops to flush out Boko Haram's leader and finish off the bad boy group.
Danbatta said one bomber sneaked into the Dalori camp and detonated, and two other attackers went kaboom! on or near the camp's perimeter fence. Another bomber detonated early Monday morning.
Thousands of people continue to shelter in camps after being forced from their homes by Boko Haram. The bad boy group's eight-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people, kidnapped thousands of others, spilled into neighboring countries and created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.
Nigeria is moving closer to famine, with more than 5 million people expected to face "crisis, emergency and famine conditions" by the end of August as the lean season continues, the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement Monday. The unrest has disrupted farming and access to markets in the region.
[Libya Observer] An IS-styled video was published on Sunday on social media showing the notorious Captain at the Special Force of Dignity Operation, Mahmoud al-Werfalli, conducting a summary execution of about 20 captives in Benghazi.
Al-Werfalli appears in the video standing on the side with about 20 men in orange suits blindfoldedly sitting on the ground on their knees awaiting gunshots by the firing squad.
One group of shooters followed the other in massacring the captives by opening fire on them at point blank range, the video shows.
Blood-thirsty al-Werfalli, who is accustomed to mass murdering captives and prisoners, mentioned in the video that the execution took place on July 17 - less than a week ago.
The date of the video is twice as shocking knowing that it nearly coincided with the call of the UN spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, on the eastern forces of Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... to probe summary executions committed by al-Werfalli against detainees, prisoners and captives.
Throssell demanded al-Werfalli be suspended from his post as part of Haftar's killing squad, but instead, he appeared today massing up captives kneeling down before he ordered a group of protégés to execute them.
Al-Werfalli has been featuring in many execution IS-styled videos lately clearly showing himself in action, killing captives at point blank range.
In May, Benghazi Security Directorate accused al-Wirfalli’s rogue groups for the killing of police officer Captain Musa al-Mijibri, which forced him to announce a fake resignation. Later he was promoted by Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled army from captain to major.
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[INDYSTAR] Forget pajamas and cartoons. For Halle Pino, Ida Kay and Blair St. Clair, Saturday morning meant story time for a room of young kids — and dress-up story time at that.
The occasion? Drag Queen Storytime at the Indianapolis Central Library. The trio read tales with superhero themes to the kids who sprawled out on the floor, in the seats and on parents' laps in Clowes Auditorium.
On the program were "Ten Rules of Being a Superhero," "Princess Super Kitty," "My Mom Has X-ray Vision" and crafts that included mask-making and coloring. The trio took turns reading the books, sprinkling color commentary throughout that appealed to the few dozen kids and adults.
To keep up engagement, the trio asked questions, including "What did you learn about being a superhero?" and, in reference to superheroes' need to snack, "Do you like cookies?"
The latter seemed to be the most popular topic among the youngest audience members.
The mission of Drag Queen Storytime is to promote literacy, diversity and artistic expression, said Stephen Lane, a library activity guide who plans programs for kids. "I want kids to experience just the fun of being around drag queens, the creativity, their style, their expression of their individuality," Lane said. I've been around drag queens twice in my life. When I was just a young fellow, studying Vietnamese, I went to a club in San Francisco call Finocchio's. You either know or can find out what the name means in Italian. I had some fairly trendy friends at the time -- this was in 1966. At that age I wanted to be fairly trendy too. I'm afraid the entertainers made my skin crawl. A little later (1982) I went a hee-hee-larious joint in Spain. I think it was call Tio Pepe's or something like that. He made my skin crawl too. I guess they didn't get to me young enough.
The event shows kids that it's OK to be different — it's what makes you special, Pino said. Why's it mandatory to be different? You can be different if you're remarkably ugly or if you have a hare lip or you're deaf or blind. Having a club foot or being a dwarf makes you different. Being a drooling idiot or a lightning calculator or genius -- you're different. I can't see that being different, even unique, is either a good thing or a bad thing. It's my opinion that dressing up like a girl if you're male or a guy if you're a girl is a pretty cheap (and reversible) path to being different, and by this time with nothing unique about it.
"When we put on drag, that is a superhero costume because it is an extension of our existing personality," Pino said. "It allows us to do something greater than ourselves by being faces in the community and by being voices in the community." Put on a Superman costume and leap over a tall building in a single bound. Lemme know how that works out for you.
Saturday's event was the second of its kind at the library, Lane said, and he would like to organize more in the future. He worked with the Indy Bag Ladies, an HIV and AIDS fundraising organization, and Open for Service, an organization that supports businesses promoting diversity, to program the first Drag Queen Storytime to coincide with the Circle City IN Pride festival in June. I suppose there's still a good supply of little kids to corrupt.
Lane saw a news story about Drag Queen Story Hour — which takes place San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York — posted to a friend's Facebook page and thought a similar event would be a good fit for Indianapolis.
June's event drew about 100 people, activity guide Shelby Phelps said. For Stephanie Galbreath, Drag Queen Storytime offered something that captured her daughters Sariah, 4, and September, 1.
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I've done a a few story times with SilkyGurl, a real dawg and a real girl. Sadly she can't read very well, but does enjoy working the crowd, especially at the school fair food court.
#2
Put on a Superman costume and leap over a tall building in a single bound. Lemme know how that works out for you.
Put on costume. Get a running start! Jump on trampoline! "Smack!" "Ow!"
(A couple weeks later, on release from hospital.)
"Sir, here's my final report on my leaping effort, I'm sorry to say it was a failure." "I have to go wash my blood and skin off the side of the building!"
[IsraelTimes] Jewish Voice for Peace delegation told Israeli government had ordered airline not to let them on board
It's their country -- they can choose who gets to visit.
Five members of an interfaith delegation to Israel were prevented from boarding their flight from Washington, D.C., reportedly due to their activism on behalf of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The Jewish Voice for Peace organization said in a statement Monday that the delegation tried to check into its Lufthansa flight at Dulles International Airport, only to be told that the Israeli government had ordered the airline not to let the five passengers aboard.
In March, the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, amended the Law of Entry to prevent leaders of the BDS movement from being allowed into Israel. The amendment applies to organizations that take consistent and significant action against Israel through BDS, as well as the leadership and senior activists of those groups.
Lufthansa front man Tal Muscal confirmed that the delegation members were not allowed to fly per the Israeli government’s request. Lufthansa was not made aware of the reason for the order.
Muscal said the airline must obey government requests like these to block passengers from boarding flights.
"We don’t know who these people are," Muscal told JTA. "We have no information as to why the Israeli government does not want them to enter. We simply have to abide by the rules and regulations of every country in which we operate."
See? Other countries do it, too.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the incident.
Three of the activists were from JVP, including a rabbi. The other two delegation members prevented from boarding the flight were Rick Ufford Chase of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship in Rockland County, New York, and Shakeel Syed, a national board member with American Moslems for Paleostine in Los Angeles.
The other 18 participants with the Interfaith Network for Justice in Paleostine delegation arrived Monday morning in Israel and were allowed to enter after several hours of detention and questioning, according to JVP.
JVP states on its website that it supports boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
"Israel denied me the ability to travel there because of my work for justice for Paleostinians, even though I’m Jewish and a rabbi," Rabbi Alissa Wise said in the JVP statement. "I’m heartbroken and outraged. This is yet another demonstration that democracy and tolerance in Israel only extends to those who fall in line with its increasingly repressive policies against Paleostinians.
Some people are idiots because of their training, others despite it. Dear Alissa falls into the despite camp.
Syed said in the statement that he had his boarding pass in hand when "the Lufthansa representative informed me that they had a direct order from ’Israeli immigration authorities’ to not allow us to board the plane. Furthermore, they refused to even show us the Israeli order."
JVP said it is believed to be the first time that the amendment has been enforced before passengers boarded their flights to Israel and the first time that Israel has denied entry to Jews, including a rabbi, for their support of BDS.
Following the passage of the Entry Law amendment, several groups that promote BDS planned to organize delegations to come to Israel and test the boundaries of the amendment.
Testing has now been completed, but y'all feel free to keep trying. Each baby has to drop peas from its high chair until comes to understand that gravity is a constant.
An anti-BDS bill making its way through Congress would expand existing law that bans boycotts imposed by foreign governments to include those imposed by international organizations like the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
That'll make life amusing, though possibly not for dear Alissa....
The Word of Faith Fellowship used its two church branches in Brazil to siphon a steady flow of young laborers who came on tourist and student visas to its 35-acre compound in rural Spindale, North Carolina. The Brazilians often spoke little English when they arrived and many had their passports seized. "We're made to get up early, make the kids' breakfast, cook, do their beds, pick up their laundry," said Rebeca Melo, a former Word of Faith Fellowship member. AP
When Andre Oliveira answered the call to leave his Word of Faith Fellowship congregation in Brazil to move to the mother church in North Carolina at the age of 18, his passport and money were confiscated by church leaders ‐ for safekeeping, he said he was told.
Trapped in a foreign land, he said he was forced to work 15 hours a day, usually for no pay, first cleaning warehouses for the evangelical church and later working at businesses owned by the sect's senior ministers. Any violation of the rules risked the wrath of church leaders, he said, ranging from beatings to shaming from the pulpit.
An Associated Press investigation has found that Word of Faith Fellowship used its two church branches in Brazil to siphon a steady flow of young laborers who came on tourist and student visas to its 35-acre compound in rural Spindale. The Brazilians often spoke little English when they arrived and many had their passports seized.
"They kept us as slaves," Oliveira told the AP. "How can you do that to people ‐ claim you love them and then beat them in the name of God?"
Under U.S. law, visitors on tourist visas are prohibited from performing work for which people normally would be compensated. Those on student visas are allowed some work, under circumstances that were not met at Word of Faith Fellowship, the AP found.
In 2014, three former congregants told an assistant U.S. attorney that the Brazilians were being forced to work without pay, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by the AP.
Jill Rose, now the U.S. attorney in Charlotte, promised she would "take a fresh look at it," according to the recording. But the former members said she never responded when they repeatedly tried to contact her in the months after the meeting.
Riyadh – Qatar’s support of Yemen’s Houthi rebels has “revealed the truth of the ties that have existed for some time now between the two sides,” analysts told Asharq Al-Awsat.
They said that Qatar’s negative approach, not only harms the Gulf Cooperation Council and its national security, but it is tantamount to “military and security suicide after it already committed suicide on the political and media levels.”
The analysts noted that Doha played a negative and harmful role through its support of the Houthis with the coordination of Iran. It then persuaded the military branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to ally itself with the Houthis in order to target Saudi Arabia.
President of the Washington DC-based Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC), Salman al-Ansari, stated that trusted intelligence information revealed that Qatar joined operation Decisive Storm in order to provide Houthis with the coordinates of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition. This consequently led to several martyrs from among the Saudi and Emirati ranks of the alliance in Yemen.
Doha also sought to join the alliance to serve the Yemeni Gathering for Reform, which is affiliated with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood, added al-Ansari.
Qatar’s recognition of the legitimacy of the Houthis and possible opening of an office for them in Doha “will be military and security suicide,” he added.
“This development will turn Qatar into a country that goes against international consensus and a clear violator of United Nations Security Council resolutions 2216, 2201, 2342 and 2140, which all prohibit providing support to the rebels in Yemen,” he continued.
Saudi political analyst Dr. Khalid Batrafi said: “Qatar’s ties with the Houthis exist and they are strong. It is better that they are out in the open than being under the table, because you can better follow and confront actions that are done in the open.”
Yemeni political analyst Dr. Najib Ghallab stated: “Had it not been for Qatar’s backing of the Houthis, the extremist group would have been destroyed a long time ago.”
“Qatar sough to support the Houthis just when they were on the brink of dying. The Arab Coalition could have destroyed them had Qatar not interfered through an agreement with Iran,” he explained.
“This intervention saved the Houthi movement,” he stressed.
It even struck an agreement that saw Houthi prisoners freed from jail. Each former detainee was given a rifle and 10,000 Qatari riyals. These individuals stormed Sana’a in 2014 and they are the actual leaders of the coup, Ghallab remarked.
Furthermore, he noted that several Yemenis rejected Qatar’s mediation, “but strangely enough, it managed to convince the Muslim Brotherhood’s military and political wings that were combating the Houthis that reconciliation with it was important because a conspiracy is being spun around them.”
“I believe that Qatar had its own clear agenda of targeting Saudi Arabia through this reconciliation and its ongoing support for the Houthis is linked to Iran’s revolutionary goals,” he added.
I guess it's over. Now the Palestinians will have to find another justification for their temper tantrums.
[IsraelTimes] Israel ministers overnight Tuesday decided that the metal detectors set up outside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem -- in the wake of a terror attack at the holy site in which two Israeli coppers were killed -- would be removed, and replaced with security measures based on "advanced technologies."
The Prime Minister’s Office said the security cabinet "accepted the recommendation of all of the security bodies to incorporate security measures based on advanced technologies (’smart checks’) and other measures instead of metal detectors in order to ensure the security of visitors and worshippers in the Old City and on the Temple Mount."
Israeli media reported earlier Monday that high-resolution cameras capable of detecting hidden objects would be the alternative.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the implementation of the plan would take up to six months and that a budget of up to NIS 100 million was allocated for the measures, based on a plan to be presented by the Public Security Ministry.
The government said police units would meanwhile be reinforced in and around the site as necessary to ensure security. Earlier Monday News Agency that Dare Not be Named footage showed heavy machinery and workers heading to the entrance of the site.
As word spread of the decision, a few hundred Paleostinians gathered to celebrate at Lions Gate, near an entrance to the Temple Mount. One person set off a firework, prompting Israeli police to raid and disperse them using sound grenades. Israeli media reported festivities between the Paleostinians and police.
The cabinet decision came hours after Israel and Jordan ended a diplomatic stand-off over the return of Israeli embassy staff from Amman following an attack Sunday at the mission in which two Jordanian nationals were killed, including an assailant.
The cabinet decision to remove the metal detectors came shortly after Israel and Jordan came to an agreement regarding the safe return of an Israeli security guard injured in a stabbing attack at the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday.
In a statement Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... for "directing [senior adviser and son-in-law] Jared Kushner and dispatching Jason Greenblatt to help with our efforts to bring the Israeli embassy staff home quickly. I thank King Abdullah [II] as well for our close cooperation."
Greenblatt had arrived in Israel earlier for talks over the crisis.
The guard and other Israeli embassy staff, including the ambassador, Einat Schlein, crossed from Jordan back into Israel late Monday.
In the hours before the embassy staff returned, Netanyahu spoke by phone with the Jordanian monarch who reportedly demanded the removal on the metal detectors at the Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and is administered by a Jordanian-controlled Islamic trust.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces have arrested three Islamic State (IS) elements in northern Diyala, a security source was quoted by Almaalomah news website.
“Local police, in cooperation with a citizen, managed to capture three elements belonging to the IS terror group in Muqdadiyah, Diyala province, where they were hiding in a house with modern communications devices,” the source said.
“Investigations with the arrested elements are ongoing in a security center in Diyala,” he added.
IS holds pivotal regions that link between each of Diyala, Salahuddin and Kirkuk, posing threats to the liberated regions.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Two Peshmerga fighters were injured on Monday as an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded near their patrol in western Diyala, Alsumaria News reported.
“An IED, planted on a side of an agriculture road, exploded near a security patrol in western Diyala, leaving two Peshmerga fighters wounded,” the source said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source added that security forces opened an inquiry into the incident.
Early today, Iraqi security forces have arrested three (IS) elements in northern Diyala, news reports mentioned.
Attacks launched by Islamic State militants against security troops, the pro-government forces and civilians surged over the past few weeks in northeast of Diyala.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) An elderly woman died late Sunday and three others, including a child, were wounded when celebratory gunshots went wrong during a wedding in Diyala.
One attendant of a wedding in Sawaed district fired salutation shots in the air, but lost control over his Klashinkov, causing the disaster.
A local source in Beldrouz region, where the incident took place, told Alsumaria News on Monday that the aging lady died at hospital, while two young men and a little girl were wounded. The shooter was arrested and referred to interrogators, according to the source.
Shooting in the air has for long been a celebratory ritual during weddings and even funerals in Iraq and other neighboring countries. The practice has ended dramatically in many incidents.
“Shooting during weddings has been common in Beldrouz, but no casualties were recorded before among civilians. This might be the first incident in years,” said the source.
Amer al-Kilani, a member of Diyala province council, told Alsumaria News that intensive shootings increased remarkably over the past years, urging a “community action” to end the phenomenon.
Jassem Karim, a civil society activist, told the network that the ritual is more common at rural areas. “Tribes should play a role to address that phenomenon,” he said., adding that the latest incident stirred a public outcry.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/25/2017
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#1
“Shooting during weddings has been common in Beldrouz
Abha-A Saudi soldier has died from his injuries after a landmine exploded near his patrol unit near the border region of Asir province.
Major General Mansour al-Turki, the security spokesman at the Interior Ministry, said the incident took place at 7 am local time on Sunday during a routine operation of a border patrol unit at the Maseel border post in Asir, according to SPA.
“A landmine exploded, resulting in the death of soldier Ati bin Mardad al-Jadaani,” Turki said.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Security forces have freed a kidnapped child from Mosul and arrested the abductor, the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) announced on Monday according to Alsumaria News.
The BOC said that the abductor was the wife of an Islamic State (IS) leader in northern Baghdad.
Investigations revealed that the child was a resident of Nineveh province west of Mosul, and that his whole family had been killed by IS militants.
“A wife of an IS leader abducted the child to involve him in suicide operations,” the BOC added.
Earlier, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in a local market in northern Baghdad, leaving two civilians wounded, a security source told Iraqi Media News Agency (IMNA).
Bombings and armed attacks are seen on almost a daily basis against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/25/2017
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[DAWN] Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday raised Pakistain's concerns over a "blame game perpetrated by some quarters in Afghanistan and US to undermine Pakistain's contributions" in the war against terrorism.
The concerns were shared in a meeting with the Commander, Resolute Support Mission (RSM) and United States Forces in Afghanistan, Gen John W. Nicholson.
"It is not a coincidence that this theme is being played at a time when a policy review is being undertaken in the US," Gen Bajwa told Gen Nicholson, according to a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
"Pakistain will continue to act positively despite provocations," he said.
The ISPR statement said that Gen Nicholson had appreciated the professionalism of the Pakistain Army and expressed his admiration for the resilience of the people of Pakistain.
The two generals also agreed on the need for "continuous engagement and coordination for peace and stability in the region," ISPR said.
The US Ambassador to Pakistain, David Hale, was also present in the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2017
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#1
to undermine Pakistain's contributions" in the war against terrorism.
[DonSurber] With a tip of the cap to Breitbart, Toobin went on the Situation Room on Wednesday. Brianna Keilar filled in for Wolf Blitzer. She hosted a panel of Toobin, Nia-Malika Henderson, Phil Mudd, and Rebecca Berg. They had this exchange:
KEILAR: Phil, this -- what do we take from this? So many people are paying attention, right, because of -- now it becomes this drama in a way that is beyond just folks who pay a lot of attention to politics.
MUDD: I think that's right. I think you have to step back in the emotion in Washington and look at facts. I want to pick up on what Rebecca said. If I read into what we're seeing on the cover of "People" magazine, I've got to start subscribing if I want to learn about what's happening in Washington.
Within weeks you have to fire your national security adviser. If you -- look at what the president said. The peace process, Arab-Israeli, is easy. Health care, who could have thought -- think this would be so hard? I've got to believe they're stepping in and saying this ain't a business deal; this is really tough.
And meanwhile, all of them have had to hire lawyers, because there's a federal investigation that could lead to indictments, and we're not even seven months in yet. I can't believe anybody looking at those facts, regardless of whether you like the family or not, says, "This is what we banked on, on inauguration day." No way.
BERG: Right.
KEILAR: But Jeffrey Toobin, he had a lot of support.
TOOBIN: He won, right? I mean, he won the presidency. We sit around here saying...
KEILAR: When I say a lot of support, I mean, he has some support that it can -- almost can't be eroded. He has support that can't be eroded, it seems.
TOOBIN: Yes, well, I don't know that it can't be eroded. I mean it has eroded somewhat.
But, you know, we sat around that table for a year saying, oh, Donald Trump, he can't say this, he can't say that, and this is a disaster. And he proved all of us wrong and he won the presidency. And who is to say that he's not going to win it again in three and a half years?
I just think, you know, all of us in the news media need to have a lot of humility about predicting anything about Donald Trump since we have a record -- and I don't mean everyone but certainly, I include myself -- a record of underestimating him. And, you know, we should keep that in mind.
KEILAR: It is a good lesson. We all should have more humility. Thank you so much, Jeffrey Toobin, Nia-Malika Henderson, Phil Mudd, and Rebecca Berg.
Oh no!
They are catching on.
But then Toobin's moment of clarity ended, and Keilar went back to faking the news.
...
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
07/25/2017
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#1
Very short attention span! Doubt they'll remember this conversation tomorrow as there's no anti-Trump statement for them to use.
[NATIONALREVIEW] The Merchants of Misery -- a.k.a., climate scientists -- are working overtime to shame you about all the pleasures you’re enjoying this summer and how your selfish indulgences will cause the planet’s demise.
Grilling your favorite cheeseburger? Glutton!
Packing up your brood for a drive to the lake house? Monster!
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/25/2017
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[8 views]
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#1
I already have technologies to remove CO2 from the air, they're called plants.
#2
If you are truly concerned about Global Warming, the best thing to do is kill yourself now. Your carbon will be returned to the atmosphere, but at least you will stop consuming resources and generating more CO2. Plus we won't have your idiot kids to deal with.
#6
"Continued high fossil-fuel emissions unarguably sentences young people to either a massive, implausible cleanup or growing deleterious climate impacts or both."
You left off the unarguable point of massively increasing taxes to fund the cleanup.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/25/2017 8:31
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#7
Save the trees, get rid of the corporate media.
#8
This is from Sweden, home of Pippi Laughingstock!
Little known fact, "dumb blonds" were originally from Sweden, which explain a lot. Including looking the other way while their country is being invaded!
[WVMETRONEWS] CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A home security camera captured the shocking incident Sunday morning of a woman set on fire in a Charleston neighborhood.
"We have shootings and things of that nature, but this level of depravity is just shocking to the conscience," said Charleston Police Chief of Detectives Lt. Steve Cooper.
Police haven’t released the video, but Cooper added it’s difficult to watch as the suspect walks up on the porch, douses the sleeping victim with gasoline, and lights her on fire.
"She was doused in accelerant and lit on fire by the suspect," said Cooper. "She runs off the porch, tearing her clothes off and trying to put the fire out. She’s just completely engulfed in flames."
The woman, identified as Rachelle Jarrett, 44, of Charleston was asleep on the porch of the abandoned home on Randolph Street on Charleston’s west side. The suspect is unknown to police, but they have been able to get a good image of him from the security footage and hope it will lead to his identity and eventual arrest.
"The night before, he checked into the Union Mission homeless shelter," Cooper said. "We have video surveillance of him there from the night before. He left the homeless shelter and within just a short period of time, he was down on Randolph Street setting this woman on fire."
The suspect used a false name when he checked into the shelter. The victim is at death's door at the burn unit of Cabell-Huntington Hospital.
The incident happened around 6 a.m. Sunday morning. The suspect is also believed to have tried to set a second fire in the neighborhood in a similar manner, but was chased away by property owners. He’s being actively sought by police today.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AlMasdar] Russian airpower in Syria has pummeled terrorists, mercenaries and other types of gunnies to the effect of almost 6,000 strikes over the last two months according the Sergey Rudskoy, the chief of the Main Operations Directorate of Russia’s General Staff.
Rudskoy specifically stated that the Russian Aerospace Forces (RuAF) had conducted 2,010 sorties over Syria and delivered some 5,850 Arclight airstrikes against the military assets of "gunnies".
Furthermore, the general staff chief highlighted that Russian airpower had struck a range of operational and strategic targets belonging to various gangs who fight against pro-government forces including command bases, communication hubs, weapons and ammunition depots and training camps.
The very nature of the targets hit by RuAF strikes, as far as Rudskoy names them, demonstrates the emphasis Russia places on interdiction and strategic missions, as opposed to just tactical airpower, over Syria in support of pro-government forces.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Seven persons, including policemen, were killed and injured in a blast caused by a booby-trapped vehicle in western Mosul, a police source said on Monday.
“A parked booby-trapped vehicle exploded in Bab Sinjar market, targeting security troops and civilians, leaving four civilians killed and three others, including two policemen, wounded,” Col. Hussein Emad told BasNews.
Security troops, according to Emad, “conducted investigations on the blasts and arrested several persons at the blast spot.”
Despite declaring victory over IS, the group have reportedly carried out attacks against security forces over the past few days.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/25/2017
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[BBC] The new US special representative for Ukraine says Washington is actively reviewing whether to send weapons to help those fighting against Russian-backed rebels.
Kurt Volker told the BBC that arming Ukrainian government forces could change Moscow's approach.
He said he did not think the move would be provocative.
Last week, the US State Department urged both sides to observe the fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
"Defensive weapons, ones that would allow Ukraine to defend itself, and to take out tanks for example, would actually to help" to stop Russia threatening Ukraine, Mr Volker said in a BBC interview.
"I'm not again predicting where we go on this, that's a matter for further discussion and decision, but I think that argument that it would be provocative to Russia or emboldening of Ukraine is just getting it backwards," he added.
He said success in establishing peace in eastern Ukraine would require what he called a new strategic dialogue with Russia.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) carried out a large number of airstrikes over several Islamist-held suburbs in eastern Damascus, Monday, hitting a multitude of targets in the process.
Flying the nearby Homs Governorate, the Syrian Air Force began the day by targeting Faylaq Al-Rahman’s positions in Jobar, Zamalka, and ‘Ayn Tarma.
According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian jets were targeting the main supply lines for the Islamist rebels, while also attempting to weaken their resolve before the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) launches their ground assault.
In the coming days, the Syrian Arab Army is expected to kick-off their second phase of the ‘Ayn Tarma offensive, as they look to fully expel Faylaq Al-Rahman from this strategic suburb in east Damascus.
[AlMasdar] The elite 42nd Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division is preparing to launch the second phase of the government’s east Damascus offensive, a source told Al-Masdar this afternoon.
The 42nd Brigade, also known as the Ghiath Forces, were initially set to deploy to the nearby Jobar front; however, after discussions with the army’s high command, their unit was sent to the ‘Ayn Tarma triangle.
According to a military source, the Syrian Army is set to launch another powerful attack in the ‘Ayn Tarma Triangle in the coming days, as they allow their air force to weaken the defenses of Faylaq Al-Rahman before they conduct their assault.
The main objective of the Syrian Army’s second phase will be to cutoff the highway that is used by the rebels to transport supplies between nearby suburbs.
[WSJ] BEIJING--China has been bolstering defenses along its 880-mile frontier with North Korea and realigning forces in surrounding regions to prepare for a potential crisis across their border, including the possibility of a U.S. military strike.
A review of official military and government websites and interviews with experts who have studied the preparations show that Beijing has implemented many of the changes in recent months after initiating them last year.
They coincide with repeated warnings by U.S. President Donald Trump that he is weighing military action to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, while exerting pressure on China to do more to rein in Pyongyang.
Recent Chinese measures include establishing a new border defense brigade, 24-hour video surveillance of the mountainous frontier backed by aerial drones, and bunkers to protect against nuclear and chemical blasts, according to the websites.
#2
A quick estimate from the internet shows that the Chinese Communist Party during its rather short history has already killed far more innocent Chinese than the current entire population of North Korea amounts to. You take it from there.
#3
#1 Wonder what Russia is doing on their border?
Posted by: Skidmark 2017-07-25 00:39
Pretty much the usual:
1: Assuring Vlad that everything is under control and that they have a contingency plan.
2: Not doing anything to actually implement the plan.
3: Panic and overreact when refugees suddenly do show up.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/25/2017 4:34
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Anbar (IraqiNews.com) An army officer was killed as an IED blast occurred while defusing the bomb in western Anbar, a military source from the province said.
“A bomb planted previously by Islamic State militants exploded on Monday while an officer from the seventh division, Cap. Maani al-Saadoun, was trying to defuse it at the desert south of Hit city,” a source, who preferred anonymity, told AlSumaria News.
The blast, according to the source, lead to the officer’s immediate death.
On Sunday, two policemen were killed, while a third was injured in a blast that took place at at al-Halabsa region, at the western entrance of Fallujah city.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/25/2017
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[AlMasdar] A large number of rebel fighters have defected from their factions 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.... (ISIS) in east Leb, Hezbollah media relations reported on Monday.
According to the Lebanese group’s official media wing, the rebel defections involved at least 30 fighters and one commander that was loyal to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is considered one of the largest rebel factions in Syria and arguably the most powerful group currently fighting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) across the country.
With the consolidation of Death Eater groups in eastern Leb, the battle for ’Arsal will likely intensify as the Islamic State grows stronger due to the defections.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/25/2017
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
China and India, two nuclear-armed powers with a combined population of 2.7 billion, have been in an "eyeball-to-eyeball" military stand-off over territory in Bhutan, a kingdom in a remote area of the Himalayas, since mid-June. The flare-up, one of the most serious since China won a border war in 1962, comes as the two rising powers jostle for regional influence. The current dispute is near a three-way junction between Bhutan, China's Tibet and India's Sikkim.
[ZeroHedge] In the most vocal opposition to president Donald Trump yet, former CIA Director John Brennan said that if the White House tries to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, government officials should refuse to follow the president orders, as they would be - in his view - "inconsistent" with the duties of the executive branch.
[WND] We’ve often heard the familiar refrain after an Islamic terror attack ‐ terrorism is a "perversion" of Islam, and Muslims who commit acts of terror are not truly following the faith.
[Guardian] Adan Lara Vega said he was told the $5,500 he was being charged to be smuggled into the United States would include an air-conditioned truck ride.
[Daily Caller] America’s colleges and universities have finally stopped their practice of annually gouging students with price increases for tuition, fees and room and board -- to the accumulated tune of a growth rate of 400 percent in the last three decades.
[FoxNews] ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been "dismantled," with tens of thousands of its jihadist fighters dead, but a promising lead on its leader "went dead" after a media leak, according to a key U.S. military official.
[Al Jazeera] UN's Middle East envoy has said a solution is needed by Friday to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound crisis in Jerusalem, which threatens to have "potential catastrophic costs well beyond the walls of the Old City".
[NYPOST] A 
[Hot Air] In the wake of O.J. Simpson’s parole last week, CBS News has a story today titled "Who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman?" Curiously, the story doesn’t attempt to answer that question. Instead, the entire premise of the story is that the investigation into the murders is officially still open in Los Angeles:
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A prominent leader of the 
[AnNahar] Staff from one of 
[DW] Angela Merkel is coming under renewed fire over her refugee policies as Germany's election battleground heats up. Left-wing rival Martin Schulz has added his voice to long-standing criticism from the right.
[NYPOST] An angry pregnant wife has attacked her cheating husband’s mistress by allegedly forcing red-hot chili peppers into her vagina.
[Libya Observer] The Chief of the Presidential Guard, Najmi al-Nakowa, has announced a ban on entering 
[SHABELLENEWS] A heavy battle between Al shabaab 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The ISIS 
[Libya Observer] al-Bunyan al-Marsous Operation has mobilized forces in Sirte and is preparing to repel a large scale and imminent attack from ISIS
[SHABELLENEWS] A Somali official says Jubbaland forces have killed four Al shabaab members in the border town of Beled-Hawo on Monday, July 24.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The 
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
[ZEROHEDGE] Forensic studies of "Russian hacking" into Democratic National Committee computers last year reveal that on July 5, 2016, data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers, and then doctored to incriminate Russia.
I think we know what to do to help Mr. Awan gain his freedom. 
[CHICAGO.SUNTIMES] Six men were killed and at least 35 other people were 
[IsraelTimes] Terrorist tried repeatedly to swipe at Shlomi Madar, who says he was saved by a countertop he installed after a drunk customer pulled a knife on him
[Al Jazeera] The Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has questioned 
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
[DAWN] At least 26 people, including nine 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 40 
[Al Jazeera] The Maldivian army has locked down the country's parliament after the opposition vowed to move ahead with a vote against a key ally of President Abdulla Yameen.
[AlAhram] At least eight people are dead after
[Libya Observer] An IS-styled video was published on Sunday on social media showing the notorious Captain at the Special Force of Dignity Operation, Mahmoud al-Werfalli, conducting a summary execution of about 20 captives in Benghazi.
[INDYSTAR] Forget pajamas and cartoons. For Halle Pino, Ida Kay and Blair St. Clair, Saturday morning meant story time for a room of young kids — and dress-up story time at that.
[NATIONALREVIEW] The Merchants of Misery -- a.k.a., climate scientists -- are working overtime to shame you about all the pleasures you’re enjoying this summer and how your selfish indulgences will cause the planet’s demise. 
[WVMETRONEWS] CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A home security camera captured the shocking incident Sunday morning of a woman set on fire in a Charleston neighborhood.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Seven persons, including policemen, were killed and injured in a blast caused by a booby-trapped vehicle in western Mosul, a police source said on Monday.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) carried out a large number of airstrikes over several Islamist-held suburbs in eastern Damascus, Monday, hitting a multitude of targets in the process.
