h/t Instapundit
A lack of diversity within the Trump administration is weakening national security and damaging U.S. credibility in the international community, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said today.
Cardin, who serves as ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, contrasted racial and gender diversity of the Obama administration with the Trump administration while speaking at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Citing Office of Management and Budget data on mid-level political jobs, Cardin noted that Trump has appointed 88 percent white individuals and 62 percent male. Obama, in comparison, appointed 67 percent white individuals and 47 percent male. But how many of Obama appointments could pass an Algebra test?
h/t Instapundit
A majority of whites say discrimination against them exists in America today, according to a poll released Tuesday from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
"If you apply for a job, they seem to give the blacks the first crack at it," said 68-year-old Tim Hershman of Akron, Ohio, "and, basically, you know, if you want any help from the government, if you're white, you don't get it. If you're black, you get it."
Hat tip: gCaptain. Check picture at link. Nice pic of ship's anchor fluke spearing a torpedo. Serious pucker factor.
A pretty scary situation in the southern England last Friday as a tanker pulled up an old test torpedo when it raised its anchor in Portland.
A diving unit was dispatched to the scene where they immediately evacuated the majority of the crew from the Maltese-flagged MT Skaw Provider. However, six crew members including the Master remained on board the vessel to respond in case it had detonated.
A photo of the torpedo shows that the old ordnance pierced by the fluke of the anchor after it had been dragged up from a depth of around a 15-meters.
The tanker was carrying approximately 1000 tonnes of fuel or oil, according to the Officer in Charge of the Portsmouth-based Southern Diving Unit, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Campbell.
"The fuel cargo was pumped into the aftermost possible tanks to reduce the effects of any explosion, and fire hoses were charged and ready to deploy if needed," said Campbell. "We directed the ship to use her other anchor to steady her, before lowering the fouled anchor, and the torpedo, to several metres below the waterline."
Royal Navy divers, who are Explosive Ordnance Device (EOD) Specialists, had to then approach the torpedo and remove it in a safe manner.
"EOD Operators are obliged to treat these items as ‘live' and hazardous until it can be disproved otherwise," said Lt Cdr Campbell. "The entire job was conducted in this way.
"Working parts inside the torpedo could be seen from where the anchor fluke had ruptured it. The entire bomb disposal team were professional and got on with the job in hand," Campbell said.
Once the torpedo was released, the team then took it to a safe area, lowered it to the seabed and destroyed it, the Royal Navy said.
The entire operation took about seven hours from start to finish, and the ship was released at around 5 p.m. on the same day.
"They were thoroughly relieved to be separated from their unwelcome burden," said Campbell.
The Royal Navy said the torpedo was a British made device believed to have come from a test range that existed for Portland until the 1980s and had so far remained undetected. "While they vary in the type of hazard they represent test torpedo can contain highly flammable propellant," the Royal Navy noted.
The 4,279 dwt Skaw Provider was built in 2005.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/25/2017
15:51 ||
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[Miami Herald] LOS ANGELES - A brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography, authorities said Wednesday.
The arrest of Bruce Paddock was confirmed by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation but not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Bruce Paddock is not considered a suspect in the Las Vegas shooting. The child porn case predated the Oct. 1 shooting, the official said. It wasn't immediately known if he has an attorney.
Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds more were wounded Oct. 1 at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel tower. Stephen Paddock was found dead.
Another brother, Eric Paddock, spoke to media following the shooting but Bruce Paddock did not.
The potential for this incident to become even uglier is certainly a possibility.
[Hot Air] Get ready for a spit-take moment from an interview with former Hillary Clinton spokesperson Brian Fallon on CNN. In attempting to set the context for the discussion of funding Fusion GPS and the "dossier" effort, host Poppy Harlow assumes that Fallon will confirm that Hillary herself knew nothing about the effort. Instead, Fallon says he has no idea whether that’s true, and that "she may have known" about the efforts to get Christopher Steele to use his foreign-intelligence contacts to dig up dirt on Donald Trump.
What the five year old story FAILS to mention is the trailer was under UAV observation for weeks prior to the Pathfinder INFIL and 'lets go have a look see'. Nobody in Kandahar thought to bring it to the attention of Albanian SOF in the area, the AFG Border Patrol who had 'host nation' jurisdiction, or the US Army Intelligence Brigade who's Area of Responsibility (AOR) encompassed the trailer site.
We'll just jump on a few helo's and show'em how this IED thing is done. 'Wars within wars.' We've got the UAV footage and 'you don't have a need to know.'
[ABCNews] A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned. Paddock removed the drive shortly after he shot himself in the back of the head
[WSJ] Mueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.
Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.
Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press‐how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly "connected" sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.
Continued on Page 49
[ABC] Two men were fatally shot early Wednesday morning on the campus of Grambling State University in northern Louisiana, authorities said.
The suspect fled the scene, according to the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Department, which said it doesn't believe the suspect was a GSU student. The suspect has not been apprehended.
Police said they believe there was an altercation in a dorm room on campus, which led up to the shooting in a courtyard outside.
Grambling State University Director of University Communications Will Sutton said the victims were Earl Andrews, a senior at GSU, and Monquiarious Caldwell, who was not a student. Both men were 23 years old and from Farmerville, Louisiana.
[Firstpost] Asked about Pakistan's harbouring of terrorists and its support of terrorism, Tillerson says, "In my discussions in Islamabad, we were frank to conclude that there are too many terrorist outfits that find a safe haven in Pakistan. We are putting in place a mechanism to deny these outfits the ability to launch attacks on other countries."
Posted by: Besoeker ||
10/25/2017
06:20 ||
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#1
No, we have no intention of returning Mr. Imran Awan just yet. We're concentrating on his bank fraud issues and will hopefully not have to explore his long-standing connections to your intelligence community.
BTW, did I mention we'd really like your support regarding the cross-border sanctuary issues ?
Excuse me, I've got a plane to catch for Delhi. Lots of strategic issues to discuss there. You know the deal. Please keep in touch.
Do you guys have any idea how long I've been waiting to use that headline? Do you?
[LawNewz] Another woman said Tuesday that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her. Mimi Haleyi, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, said he lured her to a SoHo loft in 2006, where he backed her into what seemed to be a children’s bedroom, and forcibly performed oral sex on her. She was on her period at the time, and he pulled out her tampon during the sexual assault, she said.
According to Haleyi, he asked her, "’Don’t you feel we’re so much closer to each other now?’ To which I replied, ’No.'"
#1
I think the author confuses cause and effect - first Harvey became poor & powerless, and then...
Mind you, he's getting what he deserves (not because of sex).
That's gonna piss off some social justice warriors and the jerkoffs at Deadspin - I can't wait!
[WeaselZipper] The Miami Dolphins have signed free agent quarterback David Fales to the roster.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the news Tuesday morning in a series of tweets.
Things are about to get lit on the internet. A white, free agent quarterback who has no career accomplishments, just got signed before Colin Kaepernick. People are going to flip, and it’s going to be so much fun to watch.
They’ll ignore the fact that Fales is familiar with the offense, that he cares such little about name recognition that nobody will care much and that he isn’t expected to even play. Most importantly, they’ll ignore the fact Miami has a strong Cuban population, and Kaepernick has praised deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Bringing him in would be a horrible business decision.
#1
In other Kaepernick non-hiring news, AZ Cardinals (starter Carson Palmer's arm is broken - probably done for the season) will go with 2 QB's for now.
[Think Progress] Tuesday night, as many Americans were preparing to go to bed, an evenly divided Senate voted to give broad lawsuit immunity to credit card companies, auto lenders, credit reporting companies like Equifax, and many other financial firms. The 50-50 tie in the Senate was broken by Vice President Mike Pence (R), and the House approved the lawsuit immunity measure. President Trump is expected to sign it.
The resolution passed by the Senate overrides a rule created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which prevents many financial firms from engaging in two abusive practices. The rule prohibited much of the financial industry from using "forced arbitration" agreements ‐ a common tactic where a company refuses to do business with consumers who will not sign away their right to sue the company in a real court.
Consumers who sign away their right to sue must resolve any disputes with the company in a privatized arbitration system that favors corporate parties.
Additionally, the CFPB rule prohibited credit card companies and many other financial firms from requiring consumers to sign away their right to bring class action lawsuits, a form of litigation that ensures that companies that charge certain illegal fees to consumers face a consequence for their actions.
The vote is a major victory for the banking industry. Every Senate Democrat voted to preserve the CFPB rule, as did Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and John Kennedy (R-LA). All other Republicans voted to reverse the CFPB rule.
Tuesday evening’s vote also effectively strips the CFPB of much of its authority to rein in abusive arbitration clauses. Under the Congressional Review Act, CFPB cannot issue a rule "in substantially the same form" to one that is approved by Congress.
It’s worth noting that the 50 senators who supported the CFPB rule represent well over 30 million more people than the 50 senators who voted to rescind it. But, in the Devil’s arithmetic that governs the United States Senate, the will of the people plays only a minor role in determining who controls the Senate.
#1
This is one of those rare instances where I have a problem both with a rule implemented by Lizzie Warren's wet dream creation (CFPB) and with the law designed to nullify it. Equifax, led by a broad whose major in college was a fucking music degree, allowed by one means or another the hacking of millions of our credit histories. This law may very well mean Equifax broad and her subordinates have just been granted immunity.
Not fucking good enough - this government, since somewhere in Bush II to now, has completely abandoned the concept of accountability. Federal workers at all levels can spy on us, audit us and harass us with impunity and not a fucking thing happens to any of them, and now major financial businesses have been granted immunity, probably a full two days after the ink has dried on the last round of major campaign donations to both sides of the aisle.
#2
The 50-50 tie in the Senate was broken by Vice President Mike Pence (R), and the House approved the lawsuit immunity measure. President Trump is expected to sign it.
???
Hard to believe that Trump and Pence would sell us out. I'm (ignorantly) guessing the CFPB is bad, but had what at first glance appear to be two reasonable rules. Is there something in the works to put these two rules back in play?
#4
Why would you not want to exercise some control over what you own? Banking, big pharma, insurance, agriculture, medical care, defense contracting, solar, coal, and the petroleum industry... all owned or controlled by the government. Manufacturing and industry were bequeathed to the Chinese years ago. Poor margins in manufacturing, very poor. With little or no notice, people can voluntarily cut back on what they buy.
Defense contracting is a very good investment. 'Endless Wars' will see to that.
Oh BTW, if you're planning on visiting Yellowstone next year, park admissions will soon be going up.
Budget deficits? Not a problem. Big government owns the company store. They have to buy from us regardless. They'll still get a pound of sugar, it will just cost a bit more due to taxes.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/25/2017 13:13
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#10
There are three branches of government. This bill blocks citizens from addressing grievances against banks via the Judicial branch of the government. Unconstitutional. Must be challenged and struck down by the Courts.
ThinkProgress is an American news website. It is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP Action), a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization.
How likely is it that what they write about a Republican project is both true and unslanted?
Here is a different take:
PENCE BREAKS TIE: Trial lawyers everywhere are crying into their copies of the New York Times today because, last night, the Senate voted 51-50, with the Veep casting the deciding vote, to disapprove of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Arbitration Rule. Dressed up as “protection” for the average joe, the rule was actually a disguised wealth transfer from average joes to those trial lawyers, who make millions from class action lawsuits where the class victim gets a few dollars or a worthless coupon. More on this, including my statement, here.
For the record, the GOP Senators defecting were Senator Kennedy of Louisiana and…well, I think you can guess the other one.
Selected excerpt:
[Daily Caller] According to The Post, the Clinton campaign and DNC paid Fusion through the end of Oct. 2016, just before the election. It is not entirely clear how much Fusion was paid for the project, but Federal Election Commission records show that the Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie a total of $5.6 million between June 2015 and Dec. 2016. The DNC has paid the firm $3.6 million since Nov. 2015.
[PJ] A top UK official told the BBC last week that ISIS terrorists from the UK returning from Syria and Iraq will not be prosecuted. Instead, the government will try to reintegrate them back into society because they were "naive" when they joined the genocidal terrorist group.
This came just two days after the chief of the UK's MI5 spy service gave a rare speech warning that the terrorism threat was higher than he had ever seen.
Maybe, just maybe, these two statements are related.
Just yesterday, one government minister suggested that the best way to deal with returning ISIS terrorists would be to kill them. And it has been just over a month since an Iraqi refugee attempted to detonate an IED on a London subway, injuring 30 -- a refugee who was already part of the UK's "deradicalization" program.
The "no prosecution" policy statement for ISIS terrorists was made by Max Hill, the UK government's new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. Hill told the BBC last Thursday:
Posted by: Besoeker ||
10/25/2017
00:27 ||
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#6
Anyone know where Max Hill and family live?
I'm sure a crowdfunded effort to buy his neighbour's houses and fill them with returning ISIS members would be a success.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/25/2017 7:51
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#8
I've always wondered about the legal justification for countries prosecuting someone over something that didn't happen in that country.
Evidently it's just me...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/25/2017 8:31
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#9
"Instead, the government will try to reintegrate them back into society because they were "naive" when they joined the genocidal terrorist group."
I don't think the jihadis are the ones who are being naive here.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/25/2017 10:46
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#10
"Just yesterday, one government minister suggested that the best way to deal with returning ISIS terrorists would be to kill them."
Not all is lost in the United Kingdom
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/25/2017 11:26
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Muhammed's Islam means submission, always has and always will. There is no such thing as "radicalized". This is pure Islam with some further twists. But make no mistake, this folks is Islam. Global terrorism.
The returning Jihadi animals will join their fellow Islamic fundamentalist. They will continue the Koranic "holy war" in the UK. And in the USA.
500 Muslim terrorist investigations in I think, London along. Not to mention in all 50 states.
Obummer let all the returning Somalians back into Minnesota. And the libs claim, fine we can deradicalized. Bullshit. That is akin to declaring Moohamhead's Islam, Quran, and example of Jihad is illegitimate. That ain't going to happen.
The Jihad fundamentalists should be banned from returning from out of country Muslim terrorism. For that matter their mosques should be razed. Islam is not a religion. It is a scam founded by a failed caravan thief, sex slaver and child rapist.
What I find exasperating is for the most part, pure ignorance of the life and teachings of Muhammad. Not to mention the almost complete ignorance of historical Islam and the Jihad wars.
That is a reflection on the "conservatives". The left refuses to learn. Not to mention excuses the pure evil recorded in the Quran and Hadiths.
A comparison would be to WWII and all of us refusing to know who and what Hitler and the Nazis were. F-ing insane. By the way Hitler simply followed Muhammad's life regarding killing all Jews he could not enslave.
A great pure mathematical-historical overview is "Why We Are Afraid, A 1,400 Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner". Bill Warner holds a PhD in physics and math, NC State University. If you are not well versed in the start of global Jihad, I can heartily recommend his talk.
For 95% of us, it is a disturbing eye opener and should not be missed.
#12
Anyone know where Max Hill and family live?
I'm sure a crowdfunded effort to buy his neighbour's houses and fill them with returning ISIS members would be a success.
Maybe Max and friends folded like a cheap lawn chair. Worried about being targeted by offended ISIS terrorists.
This American Spectator story has obviously been eclipsed by the revelation of the DNC funding the Trump dossier, but additional linkages of the two events might just be on the horizon.
#1
I've investigated a few crimes in my day ranging from a stolen lunch box (seriously) to a 8 month U/C op in foreign land to purchase 500 counterfeit US passports (we got 'em - Pakis no less).
This Fusion/Awan/Uranium 1 thing is a big poop sandwich. There's a long buffet line and I hope they all get seconds.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
10/25/2017 8:11
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[DAWN] Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Tuesday expressed concern over the statement made by United States (US) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Afghanistan a day earlier.
"His [Tillerson] tone and tenor are not acceptable," the Senate chairman declared. "His statement came one day before his visit to Pakistain. It seems like a viceroy told Tillerson what to say [on his visit]."
He also summoned Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif to appear before the Senate on Wednesday and inform about the "US demands". He said that the Parliament and Senate have been kept in the dark about the conditions that were laid down by the US.
He also suggested that Tillerson should read the resolutions and recommendations passed by the Parliament "so he knows what [Pakistain's] reaction is".
In a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday, Tillerson had said that Pakistain "needs to take a clear-eyed view of the situation that they are confronted with in terms of the number of terrorist organizations that find safe haven [in the country]".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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#1
I guess I can now support Tillerson - wasn't sure until this.
#2
"His [Tillerson] tone and tenor are not acceptable," the Senate chairman declared. "His statement came one day before his visit to Pakistain. It seems like a viceroy told Tillerson what to say [on his visit]."
IOW: "We're going to keep on doing what has worked all along because we think it will continue to work. And Donald Trump can blow me."
[DAILYCALLER] A University of Illinois math professor believes that algebra and geometry perpetuate "white privilege" because Greek terms give Caucasians unearned credit for the subject.
But that isn’t the professor’s only complaint. She also believes that evaluations for math proficiency perpetuates discrimination against minority students, if they do worse than their white counterparts.
Rochelle Gutierrez argues in a newly published math education book for teachers that they must be aware of the identity politics surrounding the subject of mathematics.
"On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness," she argues with complete sincerity, according to Campus Reform. "Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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#1
This 'white privilege' must be why I flunked calculus my freshman year at UNH.
#2
A pointless and derivative argument. Is there no limit to their stupidity?
As Barbie said, "Math is hard". But it's good exercise for your brain and you really can't be an educated person without a smattering of algebra and geometry.
Worth noting is that Gutierrez is a professor of Mathematics Education which is not the same as professor of Mathematics. Imputations that education courses are the weak sauce of the academic world are left as an exercise for the Reader.
#6
Mathematics is learned through 'critical thinking', something no longer taught, nor learned through experience, in the inner cities (or most public schools).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/25/2017 8:04
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#7
Is there no limit to their stupidity?
SteveS, the answer of course is NO, there is absolutely no limit to their stupidity.
#17
#10 This is a very dangerous reasoning if it catches on in liberal communities.
Posted by rjschwarz
Not only has it already caught on, this "white privilege" nonsense is widespread among academics and leftists generally and is well on its way to being (in their eyes, anyway) beyond question.
They absolutely refuse to accept the possibility that black lives are being destroyed by ghetto youth culture, with its violence, gangs, anti-white and anti-cop hatred, drugs, teenage pregnancy and absentee fathers; instead, they blame this thing they've concocted called "white privilege."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/25/2017 14:42
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#19
They absolutely refuse to accept the possibility that black lives are being destroyed by ghetto youth culture, with its violence, gangs, anti-white and anti-cop hatred, drugs, teenage pregnancy and absentee fathers; instead, they blame this thing they've concocted called "white privilege."
Obviously, for every white person that gives up their privilege, one person at a disadvantage will step up to fill to their rightful place and make the world a better place.
Posted by: Barbara ||
10/25/2017 21:47
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#23
Her student's love her too:
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1211409
"This professor is a disgrace to the teaching community. Pushes her own pathetic political views as opposed to focusing on objectively teaching the subject."
"Says things like: On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness, Things cannot be known objectively; they must be known subjectively. So you think gravity is a "white construct", or that if you just want it badly enough, your bridge will stand any load? Until 1+1 3, there are some truths that definitely aren't relative."
"Dr. G professes social justice as a constant practice, and stemming from the understanding of other's circumstances. She repeatedly holds us after class ends, making rude comments to the students who leave, including insulting a student who had to leave class to go to her job. She takes student suggestions but is condescending while practicing them"
"Rochelle basically turns lectures into discussion. Instead of taking the time to prepare a PowerPoint or basic points on that weeks readings that we had trouble with, she has the students lead a discussion and even has them be the ones to write on the board. She gets payed to have students do her work basically. A lot of readings and no clarity..."
#25
From deep in this Mexican's mandala,
A peep of awareness: "Nepantla!"
The lesion societal --
see Nezahualcoyotl --
Enlightens the pious panhandler.
[MIRROR.CO.UK] Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud also announced the kingdom would do more to tackle extremism today. Get a remote starter for your car.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh he said: "We want to go back to what we were, the moderate Islam that is open to the world, open to all the religions.
"We will not waste 30 years of our lives dealing with murderous Moslem ideas, we will destroy them today".
The conference, which runs until Thursday, aims to show how the country is opening itself up to the modern world and diversifying economically.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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#1
But only after IAF has it's field day with you.
#3
"We want to go back to what we were, the moderate Islam that is open to the world, open to all the religions."
When was that?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/25/2017 10:42
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#4
He knows radicals will be returning from the smoking ruins of ISIS and will be a serious problem for the Magic Kingdom which will be running short of oil revenue to buy them off.
Also its a good time to ingratiate with the west so the Princes have a place to retire.
#6
I'm willing to wait ans see what he does - disbanding the religious police would be a good marker. Even if he does produce, let's not think this is anything other than removing threats to his power.
Long run, it won't help. If every muslim in the world should suddenly become a peacenik, the breathing space would only be one generation as the new crop would read the source text and realize they should be killing infidels.
"Nah, why do you think we have 'allowed' women to drive alone?? They'll be standing in line to use the Royal Bentley ( at least until the FIRST explosion)."
[CBSNEWS] Sen. Jeff Flake ...Republican junior senator from Arizona, elected in 2012. Prior to that he was a U.S. Representative for twelve years... abruptly announced Tuesday he won't run for re-election after all in the 2018 midterm elections and will leave the Senate when his term ends in January 2019. He also delivered a blistering rebuke of President Trump's behavior.
The Arizona Republican announced on the Senate floor that he could "better serve my country and conscience" by dropping his re-election bid, "freeing myself of the political consideration that consumed far too much bandwidth," he said.
Flake issued a thinly-veiled take-down of President Trump, criticizing the "personal attacks," the "threats against principles, freedom and institutions" and "flagrant disregard for truth and decency." He argued that recklessness, outrageous and unhinged behavior have been excused as "telling it like it is, but he warned that when such behavior "emanates from the top of government," he said it's something else.
"It is dangerous to our democracy," Flake said. "Why didn't you speak up? What are we going to say?" he asked rhetorically. "Mr. President, I rise today to say, enough."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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#2
A happy day in Arizona. He was on track for a primary humiliation, so he pulled the plug. Good riddance. The downside is he's still there for another year plus.
#5
...TRANSLATION: His internal polls said he was gonna get creamed.
This is, what, the second or third GOP incumbent who's decided not to run? Methinks there's polling data out there the GOP wing of the Unified Ruling Party (TM) doesn't want us to see.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/25/2017 6:32
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#6
Replace him with someone whose principles align with their employment contract AKA the constitution.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Donald Trump opened up with both barrels Tuesday on a Republican senator who spent the morning calling his foreign policy amateurish and dangerous
'Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts,' Trump tweeted
Corker has minced no words about his disdain for Trump's foreign policy, and said Tuesday that the president should stop 'kneecapping' Rex Tillerson
He insisted Trump should abandon his scattershot approach to the North Korea nuclear crisis and leave it 'to the professionals for a while'
Responding to Trump's tweets on Tuesday, Corker wrote on Twitter: 'Same untruths from an utterly untruthful president. #AlertTheDaycareStaff'
Corker 'couldn't get re-elected in the Great State of Tennessee,' Trump tweeted, despite Corker's 2012 re-election victory with 65 per cent of the vote
Corker fired back on CNN: 'Much of what he says is untrue. ... I don't know why he lowers himself to such a low, low standard'
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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[Al Jazeera] Thousands of of foreign ISIS supporters have returned to their home countries after leaving Syria and Iraq over the past two years, a US-based security analysis group has said.
At least 5,600 people from 33 countries left ISIS-held areas in that period, with numbers increasing as the group began to suffer territorial losses, the Soufan Center said in a report published on Tuesday.
The figure, based on official government records, included women and kiddies, Jeffrey Ringel, a director at the Soufan Center, told Al Jazeera.
More than 40,000 foreigners from 100 countries joined ISIS before and after the group declared the establishment of a "caliphate" in 2014 after seizing large swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq.
Thousands have been killed on the battlefield as Syrian and Iraqi forces captured major strongholds and urban centers, leaving ISIS only in control of a sliver of land along the Euphrates on the Syria and Iraq border.
ISIS's self-proclaimed capital in Syria, Raqqa, fell to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces earlier this month. In June, Iraqi forces ousted the group's fighters from djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Iraq's second-biggest city.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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#1
Good. I hope the streets of Europe run blood - the way the streets of Israel did while the preached at us about "not letting terrorism stop Peace".
[Al Jazeera] Two British activists could face jail terms of up to 10 years after attempting to "disarm" BAE fighter jets heading to 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... , where they would have been used to support the kingdom's ongoing bombing campaign in Yemen.
Sam Walton, a Quaker activist, and Daniel Woodhouse, a Methodist minister, were enjugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in January after breaking into a BAE Systems airbase in Warton, Lancashire, with hammers and crowbars as they tried to "prevent a war crime" in the Arabian Peninsula state.
The pair managed to get beyond fences, closed doors and CCTV camera at the site, which they claim was housing 13 fighter jets scheduled to be sent to Saudi Arabia.
"We brought a hammer and a crowbar and were intending on disarming the jets by hammering their noses, which houses the radars, as well as the side panels and the cockpits," Walton told Al Jazeera.
"We got within five feet of them ... but as we started to go at a door with our crowbars, we alerted security, and they found us."
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[Al Jazeera] Paleostinians in the UK have welcomed Jeremy Corbyn's decision not to attend events organised by a pro-Israel group celebrating the Balfour Declaration centenary.
For supporters of the Zionist cause, the declaration marks the first milestone leading to the creation of Israel in 1948.
The declaration was contained in a letter dated November 2, 1917, to leading English Zionist Lord Walter Rothschild from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, promising British help in creating a "national home" for the Jewish people in Paleostine.
The letter conditioned British assistance so that there be no "prejudice" against the rights of existing non-Jewish populations living in the area.
After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during the first world war, the UK became the dominant power in the region and established Mandate rule in Paleostine.
A long-term critic of Israel's occupation of Paleostinian land, the leader of the opposition Labour Party has not yet explained his reasons for not attending "About Balfour 100" - a series of country-wide events in October and November marking the occasion including lectures, dinners, film screenings, and Jewish religious services.
November 2 marks 100 years since the declaration.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Both in Daraa city and the provincial countryside around it, bomb liquidations have taken place today killing and wounding rebels from every bad boy faction.
In the city of Daraa, two Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... fighters were killed when an improvised bomb blew up their position inside the district of al-Ballad.
Meanwhile in Daraa province’s eastern countryside, Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Hanifah al-Ansari was critically maimed along with three other fighters belonging to his bodyguard detail when a roadside kaboom detonated near his car on the road to the town of Maliha al-Gharbiyah.
As usual, the perpetrator(s) of these attacks remains unknown leaving nothing but speculation as to whether the liquidations are linked to infighting or are the deed of pro-government spies.
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[Al Jazeera] Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... was never officially asked to become a goodwill ambassador for the World Health Organization (WHO), his front man has claimed, adding Zim-bob-we's president would have turned down the role anyway.
The UN's health agency on Sunday said it was reversing a decision to appoint Zim-bob-we's 93-year-old leader to the largely ceremonial post to help in the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa.
The move came after widespread criticism by WHO member states and human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... groups who noted that the health system in Zim-bob-we has suffered from severe challenges under Mugabe's decades-long leadership.
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#1
Comes as no surprise. Robert has always been a very humble and private man.
[PRESSTV] Kenyan police have clashed with protesters in the capital Nairobi as calls increase on the country’s Supreme Court to delay a controversial rerun of presidential election, which is slated for October 26.
Police officials said on Tuesday that they fired tear gas to disperse a small group of people who were protesting in downtown Nairobi.
The officials said the confrontation, which occurred amid bustling traffic, was not serious and that coppers fired blanks. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... clouds of tear gas forced some city workers and passers-by to hurry away from the area.
There was no report of potential casualties. Rights group say some 67 people have been rubbed out by police forces since the results of the August 8 presidential election were declared. President Uhuru Kenyatta won that vote but Kenya’s Supreme Court annulled the results over irregularities in the electronic vote process. Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who had challenged the original vote, has called on his followers to boycott a rerun set for Thursday, saying irregularities still persist and people who helped the government tamper with the results have not been sacked from the election watchdog.
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[PRESSTV] French President Emmanuel Macron has declined to publicly criticize the rights record of his Egyptian counterpart amid a visit by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to the Elysee Palace.
Macron said at a presser with Sisi in the French capital, Gay Paree, on Tuesday that he was not in the business of giving "lessons."
"We do not give lessons without taking account of the context."
The French president also voiced support for Egypt's "fight against violent religious fundamentalism."
Macron, however, said combating extremism "should be carried out with the respect of the rule of law and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... Macron's aides earlier said he had raised cases of detained activists in private during the two-hour talks with the Egyptian head of state.
The two countries marked Sisi's visit to Gay Paree with the signature of several agreements on transport, energy and cultural cooperation.
Egypt is a major buyer of French military equipment with orders worth more than 5.8 billion dollars since 2015 including for 24 Rafale fighter jets.
International rights organizations have repeatedly accused the former head of the armed forces and current President Sisi of repressive policies that stifle dissent in the media and politics, as well as the use of torture by security forces.
On Monday, Human Rights Watch urged President Macron to end La Belle France's "disgraceful policies of indulgence" toward Sisi.
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[PRESSTV] Iran has sentenced to death an individual found guilty of cooperating with Israel's Mossad spy agency and providing information to it, Tehran’s prosecutor Abbas Ja’afari Dolatabadi says.
He said on Tuesday that the spy passed intelligence to Mossad officers about the location and other details of 30 high-profile figures working on the country’s research, military and nuclear projects, including Iranian nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi and university professor Majid Shahriari, which led to their liquidation.
Professor Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the University of Tehran, was killed by an explosive-laden cycle of violence in the Iranian capital on January 12, 2010. The bombing took place near the professor's home in northern Tehran.
The late professor lost his life when the booby-trapped motorbike was blown off with a remote-controlled device.
Also on November 29, 2010, gunnies detonated bombs attached to the vehicles of university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi. Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi and his wife survived the attack with minor injuries.
Ja’afari Dolatabadi also said the suspect had had several meetings with more than eight Mossad officers and provided them with "sensitive information" about Iran's military sites and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran in return for money and residency in Sweden.
In August 2016, Iran confirmed that it has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of leaking the country’s top secret information to the United States.
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[PRESSTV] A top commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Sha’abi) has called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq after the elimination of ISISTakfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorists.
"To the US secretary of state, your military forces must prepare now to get out of our homeland Iraq immediately and without delay once the ISIS elimination excuse is over," Qais al-Khaz’ali, the secretary general of the League of Righteous, an Iraqi gang fighting ISIS as part of Hashd al-Sha’abi, wrote on his Twitter page.
The statement came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a Sunday joint presser with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh that Iran and all other countries currently helping Iraq in its fight against the ISIS terrorist group needed to leave the Arab country now that the battle was drawing to a close.
A day later, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's media office criticized Tillerson’s meddlesome comments, saying, "No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters."
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#1
No one has the right to meddle in Iraq's affairs until you're being taken over, need our troops to die helping your sorry asses. Nation building my ass, we should have took their shithole country over took your fucking oil and kept our boot on your heads until we go every damn drop you worthless shits.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Iraqi army’s press service has refuted claims about festivities with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces near the northwestern town of Rabia near the Syrian border.
"The reports about festivities between Hashd Shaabi units and the Peshmerga forces near the village of Mahmoudiya of the Rabia district do not correspond with reality," the press service said in a statement quoted by the Iraqi NRT broadcaster.
Hemin Hawrami, a senior assistant to Iraqi Kurdistan’s President Masoud Barzani stated earlier in the day, "This morning in Mahmudia near Rabiaa, PMF attacked peshemrge [Peshmerga] forces. Peshemrge repelled the attack and pushed PMF back in to Rabiaa."
Later in the day, the Kurdish official accused the Iraqi forces of furher boosting military buildup along the line of contact with Iraqi Kurdistan and vowed that the region would mobilize all its resources for defense in case of an attack. Baghdad hasn’t commented on the claims so far.
The statements came just a day after Erbil had demanded an "immediate" withdrawal of Iraqi troops from the Kurdistan region’s territory.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish Army, alongside their allies from the Euphrates Shield, launched a fresh attack against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northwestern Aleppo last night, the pro-YPG ANF News reported.
"Stationed in Seman Fortress, the invading Ottoman Turkish army and affiliated gangs are launching an attack on Iska village of Efrîn’s Sherawa district," the ANF report claimed.
"Fighters of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) and Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) are retaliating the attack and festivities continue in the mentioned area," they concluded.
While it is not clear whether or not actual firefights took place, the Ottoman Turkish Army has had a history of shelling the Afrin Canton and harassing the YPG forces in this region.
Prior to the reported attack, the Ottoman Turkish Army was said to have sent a large number of reinforcements from Gaziantep to the western countryside of the Aleppo Governorate.
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[DAWN] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... said that forcibly converting Hindu girls to Islam after abducting them had nothing to do with Islam, instead, "it was a wrongdoing".
He was addressing a religious ceremony of Hindu community held in connection with the religious festival of Diwali.
Khan further said that any circumstances that lead to creating unrest among religious minorities should be avoided, reported DawnNews.
"The bandidoshard boyz are mistaken that forcibly converting someone to Islam will bring them virtue," he maintained.
The PTI chief said that he would empower the weak segments of Sindh along with him.
He was of the view that injustices to the Hindu community in Pakistain should be brought to an end. The weak segments of the society were affected due to the challenged writ of the law in the country, he said.
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[DAWN] A five-year-old girl was allegedly raped and tortured by her teenage neighbour in Jacoboabad on Monday, police said.
District Superintendent Police Arbab Ali Soomro said that police had rushed to the site of an under-construction higher secondary school, located in Mubarakpur town in Jacobabad's Thull district, after receiving information that a five-year-old girl was lying there unconscious.
The police shifted the minor to Civil Hospital Jacobabad for medical treatment, DSP Soomro said. After receiving medical attention, the girl recorded her statement with the police at the hospital in her parent's presence, the DSP added.
The girl alleged that she was sexually assaulted by her 16-year-old neighbour. She added that the boy had tortured her when she resisted, causing severe injuries and torture marks on her face, the DSP added.
DSP Soomro said that under the directions of the senior superintendent police, multiple raids had been conducted and the accused was jugged Please don't kill me! . The teenager was then taken to an unknown place for further investigation which was currently underway.
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[DAWN] The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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 (PHC) on Tuesday directed the federal government to file a detailed reply in response to a petition seeking trial in a military court of Ehsanullah Ehsan ...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, now the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency... , former spokesperson of the banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) and Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain (TTP).
The court issued the direction after finding the government's response regarding Ehsan ‐ who turned himself in to security forces earlier this year and is currently in their custody ‐ inadequate.
Advocate Fazal Khan, the father of a student slain in the Peshawar Army Public School attack, had filed a writ petition in PHC, seeking the high court’s order for trial of Ehsan by a military court over different acts of terrorism, including the APS carnage.
On Tuesday, the federal government submitted a single line response to the court saying that investigation is currently underway regarding Ehsan's case.
The court expressed dissatisfaction on the government’s reply and asked the respondents to submit a detailed response regarding the case in the next hearing.
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[Dhaka Tribune] There has been a disturbing trend of murderous Moslem activity among Bangladeshi migrant workers overseas, and our counter-terrorism unit is struggling to understand why.
Singapore has so far deported over 50 Bangladeshis for their involvement in murderous Moslem activities.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... four New JMB trainers have been eluding capture since they were first identified on March 15.
When it comes to fighting terrorism, it seems that for every step forward, we take two steps back. The trainers that are still on the run are probably recruiting scores more along the way, and Golam Rabbani, the missing murderous Moslem deported from Malaysia is probably busy cooking up a plan to attack.
What is really perplexing is that our law enforcement and counter terrorism unit’s response to all this, or perhaps, the lack thereof.
One would expect those deported to be immediately incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! upon arrival, but apparently, two of the 15 Bangladeshis deported from Singapore this year were arrested almost 20 days after arriving in the country. And many others have not been arrested at all.
The level of oversight and lack of alertness among law enforcement is just not good enough.
Our law enforcement and intelligence agencies need to be one step ahead of the Death Eaters at all times, but it seems they are either incapable or completely overwhelmed.
Either way, they need intensive and extensive training in fighting terrorism.
At the same time, the government should devote more resources into investigating and countering the underlying forces which are drawing more and more people into the dark path of militancy.
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[PRESSTV] Lawmakers in the European Parliament have called for an external investigation into growing claims that the chamber has become a hotbed for sexual harassment.
The call for the external probe by five MEPs came on Tuesday following a report by the British newspaper Sunday Times, which said that female staffers working in the European chamber had been subject to widespread sex abuse by European politicians.
The five MPs also called on a special committee set up to investigate sexual harassment claims in the legislative body to help the alleged victims and bring those responsible for the tragedy to justice.
The Times newspaper cited serious allegations about MEPs committing harassment against female workers. It kept the names of the alleged perpetrators secret, although it did mention Yves Cochet, a former French environment minister and Green party MEP.
The report said the European Parliament had become a "hotbed of sex harassment," citing widespread instances of MEPs groping their assistants from behind or taking photos from them and sending them at night.
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[THECUT] Now that everybody's been rescued from the hurricanes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts, it's time to stop dragging knuckles and being cisgendered and admit that Harvey Weinstein is us.
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#1
“I wasn’t doing really terrible things, but I also wasn’t being the most ideal Stephen I could be,” he says.
[PRESSTV] The parliament in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan has announced that legislative and presidential elections that were delayed due the ongoing political stand-off with Baghdad would be held in eight months' time.
"The Kurdistan parliament decided... to postpone the parliamentary elections in the autonomous region by eight months," Bahzad Zebari, a Kurdish politician representing the Islamic Union of Kurdistan, said on Tuesday.
The politician did not elaborate on a new date for the elections, which had originally been set for November 1.
The vote was delayed over an escalating stand-off between Erbil and the central government in Baghdad.
Iraqi leaders have harshly criticized a decision last month by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to hold a referendum of independence in the region. They, along with neighbors Iran and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , say the move could further complicate security in Iraq and the entire Middle East. Sources in the Kurdish parliament said on Monday that political parties could not focus on introducing candidates for the elections and a postponement was inevitable.
More than 90 percent voted in favor of independence in the September 25 referendum. Baghdad says it will not allow secession.
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#1
That's a huge difference between Obama and Trump. Obama clearly did not give a flying fuck about free enterprise, whereas Trump knows it's the way back to national prosperity.
My second thought on this - the article states a $14 billion deal and 70K jobs created (I'm taking that second number with a huge grain of salt) and no mention on the number of planes to be delivered, but what still astounds me to this day - the two new Air Force Ones waiting in the wings, where Trump talked Boeing down $1 billion on the eventual price tag with essentially a single tweet and an hour long phone call.
Third thought - too bad nobody's concerned with the annual deficit - didn't we just ring up another $660 billion last fiscal year?
#2
and replacement $ to Boeing for the lost Iran deal
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10/25/2017 7:12
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#3
People on the left don't get it at all... Boeing employs 140,000 people with blue collar and higher jobs. They have hundreds of thousands of vendors that provide all the parts, thus touching millions of peoples income directly. Then you look at Boeing stock, its doing well, as it should. EVERY 401k in America has Boeing stock in it. Every single American that has a 401K is touched by this deal. Trump understanding this and helping has probably put more money in the American tax payers pockets than anything else he has done, or any other president in the last 15 years as well.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/25/2017 9:35
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#4
I think O did give a f-ck about free enterprise: he hated it.
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10/25/2017 10:00
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#5
...the man who said "you didn't build that" failed to explain where the government got its money to do anything.
[PHILADELPHIA.CBSLOCAL] According to a multinational experiment, researchers in England and the Netherlands found that consuming a small amount of alcohol made it easier for someone to speak in another language. The study followed 50 German students studying abroad in the Netherlands and had them communicate with a native person in Dutch. I hope they didn't spend too much money on a study validating what linguists and polyglots have known for years. Adults don't want to appear foolish when they speak, so they concentrate on things like grammar and proper intonation, instead of on communicating.
The researchers found that the students who had been given a dose of “Dutch courage” before the conversation scored better in the eyes of their Dutch partners. Although the drinkers themselves said they didn’t notice an improvement, their Dutch observers added that the drinkers’ pronunciation of their language was better compared to the students who had not been given alcohol.
“One possible mechanism could be the anxiety-reducing effect of alcohol,” Dr. Jessica Werthmann of Maastricht University said in a press release.
12-Year-Old Boy Survives After Being Struck By Lightning While Playing In Rain With Umbrella
The three colleges involved also added that alcohol’s ability to increase feelings of self-confidence could play a role in the improved language skills.
The research team cautioned that the benefits were limited to small amounts of alcohol and that getting fully drunk won’t turn a novice into an experienced speaker.
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#1
Didn't read the whole thing, but I wonder how much alcohol the Dutch "observers" consumed before the testing.
[PRESSTV] Russia has vetoed a United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Security Council resolution aimed at renewing a UN probe into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
On Tuesday, two other UNSC members ‐ Russia and Bolivia ‐ also voted against the mandate, while China and Kazakhstan abstained from voting on the US-prepared document.
During this week, the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) is set to present a report on the alleged chemical attack on the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun on April 4.
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[PRESSTV] The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has said that it will freeze the results of a recent vote for independence from Iraq.
Based on a statement released by the KRG on Tuesday, they also called for an immediate ceasefire and a cessation to all military operations in the northern region.
It also proposed open dialog with Baghdad based on the Iraqi constitution.
The announcement came shortly after the parliament in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan announced that legislative and presidential elections that were delayed due the ongoing political stand-off with Baghdad would be held in eight months.
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#3
Trump has obviously left foreign policy to the (left-wing) professionals. Corker and Flake certainly did. Let's hope neither is replaced by a Democrat.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Syrian Arab Army troops continue to discover untold numbers of weapons in the recently liberated city of al-Mayadeen. The weapons are of almost every type imaginable and appear to be in plentiful enough quantity to outfit an entire division.
In the words of the top commander for the Syrian Army’s elite Tiger Forces, Suheil al-Hassan, "we [the Syrian Army] will need no less than six days to remove all the items that IS Death Eaters left behind [in al-Mayadeen] before fleeing."
The general’s words are by no means far-fetched as some 10 days after liberating al-Mayadeen, Syrian troops in the city continue to discover new stockpiles of weapons.
Among the loot are assault rifles, medium and heavy machine guns, mortars and their ammunition, communication devices of various types, drones, heavy howitzers and dozens of armored personnel carriers and battle tanks.
Suheil al-Hassan has noted that some of the captured weapons belong to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... member state nations such as United States, United Kingdom and Belgium and include, for example, a 155 mm howitzer of British design.
The capture of these weapons represents one of the greatest war loots ever achieved by any side of the war in Syria and is rivaled in regional terms perhaps only 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.... ’s capture of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ’s arsenals in June 2014 ‐ some of those weapons now being in the hands of the Syrian Army following the al-Mayadeen campaign.
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[Al Jazeera] ISIS's Southeast Asian oblates may have failed at their first attempt to carve out territory here, but their defeat was by no means final.
With the Philippine government delaying a peace deal that would give a predominantly Moslem southern region more autonomy, experts, rebels and even officials warned of possible attacks from several gangs that have pledged allegiance 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS).
Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told Al Jazeera, "Radical groups emerged whenever there were failures in the grinding of the peace processor. Leaders with radical ideologies exploit the people's frustration at these failures."
The MILF fought decades with the government of the Christian-majority country, first for independence and then for autonomy. It broke away from the original Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1977 when the MNLF settled for autonomy after years of fighting for a separate state.
Now, the MILF is steps away from sealing a deal that will expand the autonomous region and give its government more substantial powers.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte promised to sign the deal into law after his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, failed to do so. However, ars longa, vita brevis... Duterte's allies in congress have not prioritised passing the measure.
"There is consistent prejudice against the Bangsamoro people," Ebrahim said, referring to the southwestern Mindanao region that is home to several Moslem ethnic groups collectively called "Moro".
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[DAILYCALLER] The opposition research firm behind the Trump dossier says that a House Intelligence Committee subpoena seeking its bank records has a good chance of "ruining" its business, as well as of putting its clients’ safety at risk.
The firm, Fusion GPS, also argued in a late-night court filing that the subpoena, issued earlier this month for TD Bank, will have a "chilling" effect on the First Amendment and privacy rights of it and its clients.
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#1
Fusion GPS Says Subpoena For Its Bank Records Will ‘Ruin’ Its Business, Endanger Its Clients
#3
Fusion GPS Says Subpoena For Its Bank Records Will ‘Ruin’ Its Business, Endanger Its Clients
Have you guys have heard of Joseph Schumpeter? The theory of 'creative destruction' and all that? With respect to you, my interest is in the 'destruction' part of it.
#5
Vastly different response from all the Trump people being open and totally cooperative in Muillers Russian investigation, regardless of 4am strong one armed home entry incident by Muellers thugs.
#6
The only "clients" in danger are the ones with knowledge of Clinton dirty dealing and a willingness to testify. So many suicides! So many deadly single car wrecks.
Bad for business as in all company officers go to gray bar inn.
[DAWN] US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Pakistain to deliver a tough message on the importance of fighting Death Eaters and driving them from hideouts on Pak territory.
Tillerson arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday, a day after traveling to Iraq and Afghanistan in conditions of strict secrecy. He met with Pakistain's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Foreign Minister Khwaja Mohammad Asif and the heads of the army and intelligence services.
Tillerson told Abbasi that Pakistain is "so important regionally to our joint goals of providing peace and security to the region and providing opportunity for greater economic relationship."
Abbasi said Pakistain is "committed in the war against terror."
"We have produced results and we are looking forward to moving ahead with the US and building a tremendous relationship," he said.
"The US can rest assured that we are strategic partners in the war against terror and that today Pakistain is fighting the largest war in the world against terror," Abbasi said.
"We appreciate the understandings that we agreed and we appreciate the engagement."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2017
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army has kicked-off a new offensive against jihadist holy warriors of the Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate) in northeast Hama province with the aim of reaching western Idlib province.
According to military sources, vanguard formations of the Syrian Army have commenced a major offensive action in that last few hours northwest of the garrison town of Ithriyah.
Reports say that the Syrian Army has so far liberated the town of Jibb Abyad and is shooting for the strategic Abu Duhur military airport in western Idlib province which was captured by rebel forces many years ago.
It appears that the Syrian Army is taking advantage of Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham’s commitment to fighting ISIS in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Myanmar has agreed to the repatriation of the Rohingyas to their homeland and implementation of the recommendations made by the final report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.
Dhaka and Naypyidaw ...generally translated as royal capital, seat of the king or abode of kings because the general in charge had a massive ego. It was founded in 2002 because Rangoon was worn out. Traditionally, Naypyidaw was used as a suffix to the names of royal capitals, such as Mandalay, which was called Yadanabon Naypyidaw in Burmese... will form a joint working group in this regard by November 30, reports BSS.
It said the decisions were taken at a home minister-level bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and Myanmar officials on security and law enforcement matters in Naypyidaw on Tuesday.
Apart from discussing cooperation and security and law enforcement issues, both sides also signed two Memorandums of Understandings during the meeting, BSS reported quoting a message from Home Ministry spokesperson Sharif Mahmood Apu sent from Naypyidaw.
One of them was on setting up a Border Liaison Office and the other on Security Cooperation and Dialogue, he said.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who flew to Myanmar on Monday, is leading a delegation to hold talks with the neighbouring country on a number of unresolved issues including the ongoing Rohingya crisis.
Sharif also said that the minister was scheduled to make a courtesy call on Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi at 10am (local time) on Wednesday.
The Bangladesh delegation is expected to return home on Wednesday ending their three-day visit.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... heads the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State that released the report on August 24, only one day before the Myanmar security forces’ crackdown was launched in response to attacks on several police outpost and an army base in Rakhine.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[RedState] I think my colleague Jen may have been a little premature in declaring Suddenly Kathy Griffin Isn’t So Annoying.
Kathy Griffin The Pride of Oak Brook, Illinois
is indeed so annoying.
She is on a stand-up comedy tour in Australia and she told the talk show The Project that Donald Trump is a Nazi.
"I am going to call him a moron and Nazi ... Americans are skittish about calling him a Nazi but he is one," Griffin told The Project on Tuesday night.
"There’s a Nazi in the Oval Office.
"He’s a big liar and everybody should get rid of him soon, not violently. Vote him out."
Like the words "racism" or "hate," the far left is robbing the word "Nazi" of all meaning. I think the nomination of Donald Trump by the GOP is possibly the biggest political blunder of my lifetime, but calling him a Nazi is ridiculous and only diminishes the real historical evil that was the Nazi party.
Going halfway around the world to call the President a Nazi is pretty cowardly to boot.
This is a woman who thought photographing herself holding the bloody severed head of a sitting President of the United States was a good idea that wouldn’t have any negative consequences. She acts as if she is surprised that Trump’s supporters attacked her on social media afterward.
People lost their jobs during the last administration just for wearing a mask that looked like Obama. Holding Trump’s severed head is distasteful in itself but also a crass mockery of islamofascist execution videos. If anyone deserves the title "moron" it’s someone who pulled that stunt and managed to be shocked at the backlash.
It’s very courageous and edgy to run down the POTUS on foreign soil. Everyone knows that the secret to good comedy is that it is based on a kernel of truth, and there are plenty of kernels available on which to build jokes about Trump, but Griffin lacks any sense of proportion and comes off like some psychotic Code Pink protester. She’s not funny.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
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#1
This is true - according to the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself), the Republicans nominate a Nazi for President every four years.
It will soon have been three weeks since the Las Vegas shooting massacre, but already the news cycle has moved on. All of the other issues that have been in the headlines—male sexual predation, Donald Trump’s (un)fitness for the presidency, the respective futures of the Iran nuclear agreement and the Affordable Care Act, and on and on—are undeniably important. Sez you
On the other hand, we know in our aching hearts that such carnage will happen again. At this point, it still counts as news when a man kills three people and wounds two others in Maryland, but such numbers do not make a ripple on the political scene. We know that something worse is coming—soon—but the ten percent of the population that does not want even minimal changes to our gun laws has once again silenced the other ninety percent.
As I wrote in a recent column, one of the persistent and puzzling aspects of the politics of guns in this country is the insistence by “gun rights” advocates on invoking the Second Amendment as a magical talisman, seeking to shut down all talk of gun control by asserting that such laws would violate the Constitution. An even tinier percentage and through the force of law, has imposed its will on the people. Your profession has not been brought to account.
That is not true, and it never was. As Michael Dorf reminds us in his most recent column on Verdict, the controlling Supreme Court opinion says that the Second Amendment only applies to firearms in “common use,” which means that many different types of guns could be banned outright (as machine guns are now). Back then, common usage would include cannons and the like. The idea that the government has the right to ban anything but itself is absurd on its face. Governments of all kinds exist because of a Mandate of Heaven in which people will commonly associate a common good as something to keep. Neil H. Buchanan's is the talk of the tyrant and being licensed by the state as a lawyer, he has a stake in protecting the one entity that is large enough to take everyone's rights away with the simple stroke of a pen.
Moreover, Dorf pointed out that the Supreme Court also held that “the Second Amendment protects a right of individuals to possess firearms in their homes for their personal use for self-defense.” That is, even the right of people to hold that limited category of weapons is limited to guns held in their homes to defend their homes and the people in them. Just like Mexico, with limitations determined by the government.
Substantial numbers of constitutional scholars (including Professor Dorf) believe that the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision was wrong even on that more limited holding, and I am among the dissenters as well. Even so, the Constitution has never been interpreted in a way that would give people the right to have firearms in their possession anywhere they want and for whatever reason they want.
That is why I wrote in my column that the Second Amendment is simply not relevant to the US gun debate. None of the proposals to limit gun purchases, to limit (or even ban) carrying weapons in public, to require background checks, to forbid gun ownership by domestic abusers, to limit magazine capacities, or any other proposal on the horizon even comes close to bumping up against the Second Amendment. It would be like a person on a bicycle being told that the speed limit is 75 miles per hour: possibly relevant in extreme circumstances, but almost never a plausible constraint. Agreed that the 2nd Amendment is irrelevant to the gun debate. The right to keep and bear arms is a God given right, not granted to government to determine who, where and when government would allow firearms. The only thing the Bill of Rights does is to set a limit on what the government is allowed by the people to do. So far, the government has greatly exceeded its own limitations, and is very close to losing its Mandate of Heaven.
That does not mean, of course, that gun control in the US will happen soon, or at all. Simply saying that the Constitution would not forbid gun control laws does not say that those laws will be enacted. Legislatures decide whether to pass laws within constitutional limits, but it is impossible under current circumstances to imagine even a Democratic-majority Congress passing anything more than bans on assault weapons and perhaps large-capacity magazines—and both of those would be heavy legislative lifts. To say the least. High crimes usually are "heavy lifts."
The more interesting question is whether it is simply too late to regulate guns, because the country is already awash in firearms, and because we now know that every mass shooting results in a surge of gun purchases by people who are convinced that Congress might suddenly ban guns. Also a lie. It is the truth if you watch government statistics. But my data suggests that the latest massacre has had a negligible effect on firearms ownership. If anything, the advent of Trump has sent firearms into the private market in large amounts, only to disappear, presumably by purchase. And it is not entirely out of order to suggest that those firearms will appear in firearms shops. All nicely regulated by the government
These facts raise two questions. First, does the already-enormous number of guns owned by Americans mean that we are doomed to live with gun violence forever, no matter what a future Congress might do? No idea.
Second, and more provocatively, does the concentration of guns in the hands of Donald Trump’s supporters raise any special concerns about attempts to impeach the president? Not with me, personally, it does.
The answers to these questions are “no” and “sort of, but those concerns should never cause Congress to refuse to pursue impeachment.
The Concentration of Gun Ownership in America
One of the more shocking statistics that has begun to show up in news reports about gun violence is that there are more guns in private hands in the United States than there are people. Put differently, the average person in this country owns more than one gun. Oh, noes. People own more than one item obtained through private means!
That fact might lead to the conclusion that gun control legislation would be too little too late, even if we passed much stronger laws than we are ever likely to pass. After all, if everyone currently has at least one gun and can hold it in their house for self-defense purposes, then the government could not do anything to reduce gun ownership.
If ever there were a case where computing an average tells a misleading story, however, this is it. It turns out that the number of gun-owning households has been declining for decades, even as total gun ownership has risen. More statistics.
This means that some people are heavily armed, whereas others have exercised their right not to keep and bear arms. As The Washington Post reported recently: “Just 3 percent of American adults own half of the nation’s firearms.” In fact, only 19 percent of American adults own the other half of the guns, while the remaining 78 percent do not own guns at all. The article notes that there is some disagreement among surveys about the precise numbers, but there is no question that gun owners are a distinct numerical minority in this country.
Why is that significant? First, it means that the surges in gun purchases that we see after a highly publicized shooting event must be a matter of current gun owners buying still more guns. Thinking that the government is going to be taken over by gun-hating lefties, they add to their arsenals. Gun hating lefties like the author.
Having a tiny number of people sitting on huge stockpiles of weapons is problematic in other ways, as I will discuss momentarily, but it has a significant upside. Put simply, there are people who currently do not own guns who might choose at some point to buy them to commit murder, or suicide, or for other illicit purposes, and serious gun control could stop them. The function of the government is custodial. Once it slips over into a preventative function, that is when civil rights become violated. The author should know better.
And I would be willing to bet that the main reason people become gun owners is because they want some protection the government has never nor will ever provide. People who want to commit a crime using a gun will find a way to obtain a firearm, stupid firearm laws notwithstanding.
Moreover, if a current gun owner commits a felony, federal law holds that (absent action by the home state of the offender), the offender may never again possess “any firearm or ammunition.” (Again, the Second Amendment is no barrier to this law.) No barrier because the law is yet another a gross violation of the 2nd Amendment.
So, if a person who currently holds a huge number of guns (the average being 17 guns for the 3 percent who own half the guns) actually uses one of those guns to commit a felony, that person must forfeit ownership of his guns.
In short, saying that there are already a large number of guns “in circulation” misstates the reality. A huge number of guns are sitting in clusters in a small number of houses and bunkers. Even if there were a surge of gun purchases in the face of a serious legislative effort to control guns, a large portion of that would be merely a matter of the most gun-loving people adding to their arsenals. Bunkers. Good one.
It is true that some number of current non-owners might become spooked by propaganda and decide to buy a gun, but even with that kind of propaganda already happening, three-fourths of the population has still not bought a gun. Keeping guns out of the hands of those who might later become tempted to buy a gun to maim or kill should be a high priority. That would include the government law enforcement and security forces, right? The Citizen Uprising Problem
When I wrote above that any surge in gun sales preceding the enactment of gun control would be “merely” gun-lovers buying more guns and ammunition, I was saying that such additional gun purchases would be highly unlikely to add to any of the problems with guns in this country. A person with 19 guns is no more nor less likely to commit suicide than someone with 17 guns, and he is also no more likely to rob a bank or commit a mass shooting than he was before he bought additional guns.
Even so, there is the possibility that the passage of serious (or even mild, given the absolutist atmosphere that gun activists have fomented) gun control legislation could cause these people to commit a very different kind of crime. In order to pass bans and everything on the tyrant's wishlist, you first must commit theft of private property. Then, in order to get those guns, you must commit murder. This is what the author wants for the entity that keeps his law licence on file, and gives him great power. He wants to openly conspire with government in creating a crime where none existed before. This is what tyrants and fascists do.
Although the Supreme Court has never credited the “citizen uprising” theory of the Second Amendment, there are plenty of people who think that their arsenals are a bulwark against a tyrannical government. How they think they would win against the weaponry of the modern military is anyone’s guess, of course, but that is beside the point here. Why would they credit something against which their asses would be on the line? Much easier to have security force do their dirty work, as every small tyrant such as the author suggests. Security forces follow orders.
Would it be likely that “the Second Amendment people,” as then-candidate Trump once described them, would take Trump’s implied advice and violently rebel against a Congress that was planning to pass meaningful gun regulations? Puleez. Get a hold of yourself. Fomenting yet another legal coup this time could well land you in prison, so for the love of all that's Holy, please stop it.
We do know that states including Connecticut and New York tightened their gun-control laws after the Sandy Hook massacre, yet there were no armed citizen militias marching on Hartford and Albany, battling against state police or the military. Even so, it is possible that a sufficiently frantic public-relations campaign by the NRA or others in response to national legislation could lead to some violence. Terrible examples, because as has been pointed out, resistance to firearms laws in those states has been both passive and massive. Any militias in those states, are training elsewhere. And they made a strategic decision not to take the security forces head on. The subtext for the author suggesting that local militias presupposes that resistance would be clean. One side takes all the losses while the other side, the government walks away clean with their mandate to govern intact. The bad news for the author is that those who oppose government overreach have already battled the government and have won, handily, by not obeying laws intended to set up the government sponsored one-two step of theft and murder, all nice and legal at the point of a pen.
That possibility would certainly provide cause for the members of any such rebellion to lose their rights to own guns. Before we even reached that point, however, there would be a real possibility of one or more armed standoffs around the country as self-styled patriots find themselves outmatched by real soldiers and trained officers. The "armed standoffs" the author effusively has referred to, ended up with not one shot fired. Moreover, after (by my count) six attempts to charge, try and convict those participants, government has resulted in repeated mistrials, and in acquittals. That alone, which the author helpfully has not mentioned, means that it is not just gun owners who will defy government actions, including firearms laws. It also means that because citizens obey firearms laws now doesn't mean they will continue doing so forever.
All of which means that anyone who wishes to tighten gun laws would be wise to take into account the possibility of armed resistance. That is not a reason not to proceed, but it is obviously true that the people who have the most guns are the ones who could cause the most problems. The Impeachment Question
As a related matter, what if Congress did not decide to pass gun control legislation, but it did decide to impeach Trump? Here, the concentration of gun ownership is doubly important, because not only do three percent of the people own half the guns, but those people are largely Trump’s most fervent supporters (in part because he has taken their side in the gun debate). For what high crime and misdemeanors?
In The New Yorker, Robin Wright recently described a “new civil war” that might be fought in the United States over the next few years. In a related Washington Post column, Richard Cohen described this as a war “not of armies marching across fields, but of civil unrest — a lot of angry people causing a lot of mayhem.”
Similarly, back at the 100-day mark of Trump’s presidency, I wrote a Verdict column in which I imagined what would have happened if Trump had lost in November 2016. I described “[a]rmed standoffs and brawls in Washington and other major cities” in that alternative universe. So far, the "[a]rmed standoffs and brawls" have been by the losers. You want to impeach Trump for the behavior of people who hate him?
The fact is that if such a thing is going to happen, the people who would choose to become violent are already well armed. That is not to say that even a sizable minority of gun owners would engage in violence, but it only takes a few scattered dozens of violent people in various places to make America a truly scary place. The author, like me, has been reading too much into Western Rifle Shooters Association.
Again, however, that is not a reason to allow them to use the threat of force to get their way. If this or the next Congress decides that Trump has committed impeachable offenses, then it should impeach him, convict him, and remove him from office. If this or the next Congress decides that enhanced gun control laws would be in the public interest, then it should enact such laws. "Congress has decided." Not "Trump has committed impeachable offenses." Way to expose your view of a Constitutional process. And I agree. Impeachment is for political crimes.
Again, we do know that there is a very small number of Americans who own a lot of weapons. We should proceed in full awareness of that fact, but that reality cannot become the worst kind of heckler’s veto, or we will have become a country governed by a fringe group of people who are willing to make threats and possibly commit acts of violence to replace the rule of law with rule by intimidation. Which is an apt description of what lawyers and security forces do. Please stop advocating theft and murder.
#1
I wonder how this guy would explain me. I've never owned a gun, nor have I even fired one. That said, I'd fight for my right to own a gun as hard as just about anyone reading this comment.
#6
Dude needs to go back to the Anbar Awakening. It wasn't till the locals decided it was in their own interest that the tide turned against the insurgency in Iraq even with all the might of the US deployed on site. Unless the 'enforcers' and their families are moved into secure cantonments, they're all compromised in enforcing the grabbers wet dreams. An insurgency is exactly what they'll get.
And notice that none of them ever address the real 'gun' violence is confined to recognizable specific communities. If you can broad brush whites* for slavery over a hundred years ago, why can't you address other communities for their actions today?
*of which so many arrived in the post-Civil War mass immigration of the late 19th Century.
#8
So lets says he is right. Only 10% own guns, we hide behind the 2nd to stop all gun legislation. The other 90% back down, why? The simple answer is they know once the USG starts to take down our rights the wont stop with guns. The people fear the USG more than they fear gun owners. Plain and simple.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/25/2017 9:29
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#9
Big, frickin' long, long ass article but I couldn't get past the second paragraph when he started talking about the ten percent versus the ninety percent. Where does he get those numbers? I wondered for a moment and then I stopped.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/25/2017 9:40
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#10
The people fear the USG more than they fear gun owners.
Exactly.
I never wanted a gun until Obama got into the White House. Now he's out of the White House and I don't want a gun anymore. It's a lot of money to spend and a lot to learn about something that I will most likely never use. I don't live in a rural area where I have to shoot rattlesnakes and I don't live in a high crime area where I have to worry about getting mugged. But if I wanted a gun, I'd want it and I wouldn't want some government weener telling me I couldn't have it.
What Happens When Very Few People Own Quite a Few Guns? Maybe one of them can lend me one of his until the trouble is over.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/25/2017 9:52
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#11
Liberals say that Cops (and now the government) are gun-happy fascists in one breath and then suggest the people disarm in the next.
Perhaps the inconsistency in their positions has something to do with their opinions not gaining traction.
"Thinking that the government is going to be taken over by gun-hating lefties, they add to their arsenals."
Followed by;
"How they think they would win against the weaponry of the modern military is anyone’s guess, of course, but that is beside the point here."
IOW, the government doesn't want to take your guns you paranoid freak. But if they wanted to there wouldn't be anything you could do to stop them.
Feel better now?
#13
Maybe one of them can lend me one of his until the trouble is over.
Abu, there are any number of us who would have been happy to do so if it was not for an epidemic of canoe overturnings when we were out on the river...
[ALMASDARNEWS] The international community should prevent murderous Moslems from moving to other countries after their defeat in Syria and Iraq, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday.
Lavrov said the sides discussed the situation in the Middle East and in the region in general, focusing on "stepping up efforts in the fight against international terrorism." "Now the key forefront of this battle is ongoing in Iraq and neighboring Syria," Lavrov said.
"The task of all participants of anti-terrorist steps is to defeat terrorist groups such as 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.... and Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... (outlawed in Russia) and minimize, if not nullify, their chances of moving to other regions of the globe," he said.
The initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... to create a global anti-terror coalition, based on mutual trust and without double standards, fully meets this task, Lavrov said.
"We support the efforts of the Iraqi government not only against terrorism, where serious success has been reached, but also in the context of normalizing the situation in the country through an inclusive dialogue of all ethnic and religious groups," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"I no longer trust the FBI to be an impartial arbitrator of legal vs illegal activity. The FBI is now a political operation with an agenda focused on protecting its senior members from the consequences of attempting to protect a criminal political class. It’s a shame; I have known and interacted with many FBI agents during my time in the Marine Corps and they were, to a man, dedicated, hard working professionals. But a fish rots from the head and there is clearly too much rot at work in the FBI.
The current level of interest in what happened to the SF team in Niger is as interesting as it is repugnant. The press and members of our ruling class are using it to score political points. The circumstances they are harping on are"
[Al Jazeera] ISIS has been accused of executing scores of people in a town it briefly held in central Syria before it was seized by Syrian government forces, according to a monitoring group and local activists.
Al-Qaryatayn town, which was captured 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) group in early October, was retaken by troops loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... on Saturday.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 128 people were killed by ISIS fighters in the three weeks before their withdrawal from the town in Homs province on Friday.
The non-combatants were killed on accusations of collaborating with the Syrian government, activists said.
Mohammed al-Homsi, a member of the Palmyra Coordination Committee, told Al Jazeera that a list containing the names of at least 90 people who were confirmed dead would be released soon.
"It is taking us a while because we want to double check the names of the people who were killed," al-Homsi said.
"Most of the casualties were men, but there are some children among them."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Syrian Army units operating in Deir Ezzor, backed by the army air force, regained control over a number of points inside Mahkan town, southeast of al-Mayadeen on the direction of al-Bukmal city in Deir Ezzor province.
SANA reporter said Tuesday that the army units intensified military operations in the surroundings of Khasham town advancing towards al-Tabiyeh village after inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorist groups in the area.
In Deir Ezzor city, army carried out intensive artillery and airstrikes on ISIL positions, centers and fortifications in the neighborhoods of al-Aredi, Kanamat, Khasarat, al-Ummal, al-Jbaileh, al-Hamidiyeh and al-Sheikh Yassin.
The army inflicted heavy losses upon ISIL terrorists in personnel and equipment, in addition to destroying their weapons and vehicles, according to the reporter.
In a relevant context, civil sources said that 18 detainees managed to escape one of ISIL prisons in the village of al-Jartha al-Sharqi, southeast of al-Mayadeen city.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Islamic State (ISIS) recently carried out a drone attack on a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ammo depot in the Deir Ezzor Governorate’s western countryside.
As a result of the drone attack, the Islamic State managed to destroy the entire Syrian Army ammo storage that was located at the municipal football stadium in Deir Ezzor’s Panorama area.
Video footage of the Islamic State was released by the terrorist group’s official media wing on Tuesday
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
They have been weaponizing drones for a couple years now, and are getting good at using them for recon, propaganda, and attack missions. Similar learning curve they had with the VBIED, and is a concern.
Video only really suggests poor munitions storage, but say for less than $500 an operative with a fairly concealable weapon has with little risk to himself destroyed a meterball's stadium worth of munitions.
Aden - Bassam al-Kadi
A car rigged with explosives and carrying five men pulled up to a military checkpoint in the Yemeni district of Mudiyah in Abyan, military officials said.
Armed with explosive belts, four attackers were killed by soldiers after they failed to blow themselves up in front of the security headquarters in Mudiyah, Officer Fawaz al-Shabhi said.
The fifth man, a suicide-bomber, then detonated his explosive in the vehicle outside the checkpoint, killing four soldiers and injuring around ten others from the Yemeni army.
"At first a suicide-bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near the headquarters of the Yemeni troops in Mudiyah district of Abyan province, making way for a number of attackers to start their assault," a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Shabhi meanwhile stressed that the security situation is under control in Mudiyah, and that the failed terrorist operation came in retaliation to heavy blows received by these groups in all districts of the governorate.
He said that the military operations will continue until all the areas and cities of Abyan are declared free of terrorist elements.
Military campaigns to combat terrorism in Abyan, backed by Arab coalition forces, were launched in late July and succeeded in defeating terrorists in Abyan, where 90 percent of the cities were under the control of Yemeni security forces.
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.
[Miami Herald] LOS ANGELES - A brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography, authorities said Wednesday.
[Hot Air] Get ready for a spit-take moment from an interview with former Hillary Clinton spokesperson Brian Fallon on CNN. In attempting to set the context for the discussion of funding Fusion GPS and the "dossier" effort, host Poppy Harlow assumes that Fallon will confirm that Hillary herself knew nothing about the effort. Instead, Fallon says he has no idea whether that’s true, and that "she may have known" about the efforts to get Christopher Steele to use his foreign-intelligence contacts to dig up dirt on Donald Trump.
[Firstpost] Asked about Pakistan's harbouring of terrorists and its support of terrorism, Tillerson says, "In my discussions in Islamabad, we were frank to conclude that there are too many terrorist outfits that find a safe haven in Pakistan. We are putting in place a mechanism to deny these outfits the ability to launch attacks on other countries."
[PJ] A top UK official told the BBC last week that ISIS terrorists from the UK returning from Syria and Iraq will not be prosecuted. Instead, the government will try to reintegrate them back into society because they were "naive" when they joined the genocidal terrorist group.
They have their returnees, we have murdering Mexican National López-Sánchez, and possibly tens of thousands just like him.
[DAWN] Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Tuesday expressed concern over the statement made by United States (US) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Afghanistan a day earlier.
[DAILYCALLER] A University of Illinois math professor believes that algebra and geometry perpetuate "white privilege" because Greek terms give Caucasians unearned credit for the subject.
[MIRROR.CO.UK] Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud also announced the kingdom would do more to tackle extremism today.
[CBSNEWS] Sen. 
[Al Jazeera] Thousands of of foreign 
[PRESSTV] French President Emmanuel Macron has declined to publicly criticize the rights record of his Egyptian counterpart amid a visit by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to the Elysee Palace.
[PRESSTV] Iran has sentenced to death an individual found guilty of cooperating with Israel's Mossad spy agency and providing information to it, Tehran’s prosecutor Abbas Ja’afari Dolatabadi says.
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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.
[PRESSTV] Lawmakers in the European Parliament have called for an external investigation into growing claims that the chamber has become a hotbed for sexual harassment.
[THECUT] 
[NBCWASHINGTON] 
[PHILADELPHIA.CBSLOCAL] According to a multinational experiment, researchers in England and the Netherlands found that consuming a small amount of alcohol made it easier for someone to speak in another language. The study followed 50 German students studying abroad in the Netherlands and had them communicate with a native person in Dutch.
[Al Jazeera] 
[LATIMES] 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[Al Jazeera] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
