[SA People] A former Zimbabwean resident, Barbara Anne Langridge, now living in Cape Town, South Africa, has posted a heartfelt and heartbreaking account of losing her home and her country. It’s a video that is touching not only Zimbabweans, but South Africans too... Watch below.
[Human Events] Hey, Republicans! Did you enjoy Election Night last week? Get ready for a lot more nights like that as immigration turns every last corner of the country blue.
When Ed Gillespie lost in Virginia, liberals crowed about how they’re winning the war of ideas. The country has thoroughly, emphatically rejected Trumpism!
Republicans, being idiots, played along, arguing only about whether Gillespie’s problem was that he didn’t embrace Trump enough or embraced him too much.
Gillespie’s campaign was fine. No cleverer arguments, community outreach or perfectly timed mailings would have changed the result. Contrary to The New York Times’ celebratory article in last Sunday’s magazine, "How the ’Resistance’ Helped Democrats Dominate Virginia," it wasn’t Democratic operative Kathryn Sorenson’s savvy use of Facebook, Google and Eventbrites that carried the day. "The Resistance" didn’t win.
What happened was: Democrats brought in new voters. In 1970, only one out of every 100 Virginians was foreign-born. By 2012, one in nine Virginians was foreign-born.
The foreign-born vote overwhelmingly, by about 80 percent, for Democrats. They always have and they always will ‐ especially now that our immigration policies aggressively discriminate in favor of the poorest, least-educated, most unskilled people on Earth. They arrive in need of a LOT of government services.
#1
The Republicans and Ed Gillespie were content with the outcome of the election. The Virginia GOP showed their true colors when they threw Ken Cuchenilli under the bus and failed to support him in a much closer election.
#3
Got to make up for all those prenatal Donks that have been aborted for the past couple of decades. Embrace the natural selection process guys, don't seek a man-made solution.
#5
Yeah, and all women HAVE to vote for Hilly. It's the far left entrenched Mandarins in N VA for the most part. If Trump would only start moving agencies to MD. The Peoples' Republic of Maryland is a total loss and sure wouldn't, Hell couldn't be any more ruined by more socialists and Virginia could perhaps get back to normal.
[Townhall] Too many Americans have become like the spoiled trust fund kids running the family business. Grandpa built it and knew it top to bottom. Dad learned from him and kept it going. Now they’re taking over and unfortunately, they never really bothered to learn the ins and outs of how the company works. They just look at it as a place where they can have a fancy title and get money to finance their lifestyle.
Many Americans don’t know why this country is so successful, don’t understand the long-term ramifications of the things they advocate politically and don’t get how lucky we are.
Knowledgeable conservatives know better. We know that we are fortunate enough to live in what Reagan called a "shining city on a hill" and that eternal flame that sets us apart from other nations can easily dim. Americans should consider that many of the things they take for granted are not necessarily so.
You see, far too many of us take it for granted that....
1) ....We can not only refuse to teach patriotism to our kids, but teach our kids in schools that our country is a horrible place and it won’t produce people who are disloyal to our nation.
2) ....Black and Hispanic Americans can be incessantly encouraged to create and nurture racial grudges, white people can constantly be put down, degraded and seemingly discriminated against via programs like Affirmative Action.
3) ...We can accuse a man of rape if the woman he has sex with has been drinking, weirdly demand verbal consent for every stage of a make-out session and accuse a man of sexual harassment if a woman claims he grabbed her butt 30 years ago, but it won’t have any ramifications for male/female relationships. Only 12 more to go at the link.
[Yellow Hammer] The circumstances of U.S. Border Patrol agent Rogelio Martinez’s death this week remain murkier than the Rio Grande River.
Agent Martinez succumbed to critical head injuries early Sunday morning. An unnamed partner, who came to Martinez’s aid after he radioed for help from a remote area of the Big Bend sector in Texas, also suffered serious wounds. Whether by deliberate ambush or accident, one of our border enforcers is dead and the other hospitalized.
This much is clear: Dumb sensors + depleted forces = deadly border disorder.
Agent Martinez had ventured out alone to check on a ground sensor to determine who or what had set it off. He confirmed to his colleagues that human activity had activated the alarm before he died.
Here’s the scandal: Our federal government has been squandering billions of dollars on inferior border technology for years. It’s a monumental waste of taxpayer funds and a dangerous redistribution of wealth to crony contractors, whose ineffective pet projects are putting our men and women on the front lines at risk.
Nearly 14,000 ground sensors have been littered along the southern border over the past several decades ‐ some dating back to the Vietnam War era. Untold numbers have simply been buried and lost by federal workers who failed to record where they put them. Twelve years ago, a Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s report found that agents couldn’t determine the cause of 62 percent of the sensor alerts because they were "unable to respond to the dispatch, or it took the agent too long to get to the sensor location." Emphasis added.
#1
Agent Martinez had ventured out alone to check on a ground sensor to determine who or what had set it off. He confirmed to his colleagues that human activity had activated the alarm before he died.
Technology to blame is it? Appears the Ground Surveillance Sensor did it's job. The real cock-up that's not covered by the Gov't or MSM; going out 'alone' to investigate a sensor activation.
#3
ROE, Doo.
Dumb tremblers get set off by passing cattle, coyotes(4 leg), rocks set in motion by desert cooling, moonlight parties and rocking pickups or harmonics from nearby passing semis when the ground humidity conditions are right. In especially difficult terrain, incursion probability charts rank the causes above ahead of people.
Investigating Agent Martinez may have wandered off to answer Nature's call and stumbled into a passing group which then swarmed his 'unnamed partner'. Rocks are plentiful and the sound of a gunshot travels far. In the end apparently the transgressors went on their way.
Possibly this is true. Possibly Turkey is trying to force President Trump’s hand, thinking that their heritage of Byzantine plotting gives them an innate advantage in negotiations. Possibly Turkey is wrong.
[AlAhram] President Donald Trump has informed Ankara that the US will no longer supply weapons to the Syrian Kurdish militia fighting Islamic State (IS) militants, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday.
Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday
"Mr Trump said he gave a clear order and that after this, weapons would not be supplied to the YPG, essentially he said this nonsense should have been ended earlier," Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference in Ankara.
The YPG is the Peoples' Protection Units Kurdish militia in Syria, which the US has seen as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS.
"Naturally, we welcomed these statements," said Cavusoglu, adding: "Of course we want to see this put into practice."
There was no immediate comment from the US side regarding the content of the telephone call between the two leaders.
Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained since the administration of former President Barack Obama over its support for the YPG and the failure to extradite Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen blamed for ordering last year's coup bid.
Bilateral ties are at further risk of fraying over a scheduled trial in New York of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, both accused of defying US sanctions on Iran.
The trial is expected to start early next month but there are fears over possible fines against one or more Turkish banks in the event of a guilty verdict.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/25/2017
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#1
2017/11/25 @ 02:30
Turkey's call for the US not to support our allies in the region sounds like democrats constant call for Republicans to one-sidedly disarm and to concede on their national interests.
If it is true Trump agreed not to supply arms to the Kurds what was Turkey's threat or what did Trump get in return for the concession.
Why should only the US not support its ally in the region.
The only group that helped protect the non-muslims from the terrorists in the region were the Kurds at risk of there own lives.
Turkey, Iran and Russia arms their allies in the region and thereby exercise great influence.
None of these countries have been our allies.
These countries just met in Soche to decide the fate of the region apart from the US.
Our secretary of state has not exercised any American influence in the region.
Turkey is holding innocent Americans as hostages.
Turkey did not do a thing about ISIS.
Turkey only attacked our allies, the Kurds, as they were helping the US to defeat ISIS as if Turkey was saying ISIS was OK but the Kurds are not.
So in other words Turkey, which is in alliance with Russia which is in alliance with Iran, is telling the US to butt out of the region.
The US failed to support Kurdistan in the independence referendum and left it volnerable to the surounding powers of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, the Shiites and Russia.
The best protection against Muslim domination and a Shia crescent is to support a free and democratic Kurdistan.
Our goal should be to get Iran, Turkey, Russia, Hezbollah and the Shiite groups out of other countries.
I hope Harriri is able to kick Hezbollah of his country and out of the region.
My view is the Kurds are not the problem, but part of the solution.
The Kurds know how to fight back unlike other victims of Muslims.
When the US pulled out of Iraq all these foreign operatives came into the power vacuum.
Somehow the US must prevent any axis of evil from taking over.
The US is not providing any leadership or influence right now and will pay a price later.
Somehow the US must continue to fight terrorism and not allow any to dig in and to take over.
Now that ISIS is waning the Shia and other powers are taking over and we have no answer.
#3
Either Trump is an idiot, or Turkey is lying. People in DC who keep telling me they are far smarter than me have lost their asses betting on the former. I have a feeling it is the latter.
Arm the Kurds in Kurdistan Iraq quite lavishly, and turn a blind eye when they wind up across a border that the Kurds do not recognize.
Consequences. What odds Hamas, the Moslem Brotherhood in Gaza, somehow aided and abetted Friday’s attack on that Sufi mosque?
[AlAhram] Egypt has delayed the opening of the Egypt-Gazoo Rafah border crossing due to security concerns after a North Sinai attack on a mosque killed more than 200 people, MENA state news agency said on Friday, citing the Paleostinian embassy in Cairo.
The border was to reopen for three days to allow travel from both sides, the agency said.
[AlAhram] Russia's military forces in Syria are likely to be "substantially" reduced and a drawdown could begin before the end of the year, the head of the Russian general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said on Thursday.
Is that the calendar year, the fiscal year, the Muslim year, or something else?
[PRESSTV] Spain's Supreme Court has decided to take charge of the cases of all deposed Catalan leaders, maintaining that they were interrelated in the bid for independence Madrid says is illegal.
The separatist leaders, who were axed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on October 27 after the Catalan parliament declared unilateral independence, are charged with rebellion, sedition and accusations such as misappropriation of the public funds.
The Supreme Court stated on Friday that the leaders of the independence movement including separatists in the regional parliament, government and independence associations were connected in the rebellious move and needed to be tried by the same court.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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#1
Give us a lecture on human rights, why don't you EUropeans?
[DAWN] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and war crimes, on Thursday asked Russia’s 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 protect his country from the United States.
Speaking during his first visit to Russia as president, Bashir also said he wanted to ramp up military ties and praised Moscow’s military campaign in Syria.
"We have been dreaming about this visit for a long time," the Sudanese president told Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Putin said that Russia was keen to intensify economic ties including in agriculture and energy.
"There are prospects not only in the hydrocarbon sphere but also in energy," Putin said. "There are many prospects of cooperation."
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11/25/2017
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[Al Jazeera] Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... 's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has called on the international community to unite against groups like 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 Thani told the audience at the Westminster Counterterrorism Conference in London on Thursday that "it is time for the international community to say enough is enough".
The event organised by the prestigious Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) brought together former and current counterterror officials and other experts in the field.
According to Al Thani, Qatar is resolutely committed to ending extremism of all kinds and since 2004 had taken "aggressive" steps to cut the flow of finance to groups that have been designated terrorist organizations.
"Qatar wants constantly to seek new collective approaches to the global threat of terrorism in a changing world," he said, before condemning neighbouring rulers in the region who had used terrorism as an excuse to persecute opponents.
'Impulsive leadership'
Al Thani told Al Jazeera that the "impulsive leadership" of 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... was behind its attempts to isolate Qatar and for the crisis in Leb, whose Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. had purportedly been forced to resign by the Saudis.
"I must emphasise the role of the rule of law and due process, because one of the main reasons terrorism flourishes is the absence of justice," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman told the conference.
"We should not allow governments to disrespect the rule of law and due process and use terrorism as an excuse for persecuting their political opponents."
Dr Mutlaq Majed Al Qahtani, Qatar's special envoy for counterterrorism, said no country was immune to what is now a global problem, making partnerships essential in the battle against extremism.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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#1
"Squirrel!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2017 10:16
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Former CIA acting director says the threat the opioid crisis poses extends beyond public health: it is a national security threat.
Carfentanil, a synthetic opioid, is highly toxic. The drug is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and 5,000 times more potent than heroin. Only 20 micrograms, roughly the size of a grain of salt, can be fatal. Recently drug dealers have learned to cut carfentanil into the heroin they sell to increase the "high" and to increase profits, since carfentanyl is much cheaper than heroin.
The drug is largely produced in China by thousands of small chemical firms and shipped either through Mexico and Canada to the United States or directly through the mail system, often after an order is placed online. It is also produced by drug cartels in Mexico (with key ingredients imported from China).
In June 2016, Canadian Mounties seized one kilogram of carfentanil. The agent was sent via mail from China to an address in Canada, and it was hidden in a package labeled printer accessories. It was the largest seizure of carfentanil to date. Canadian authorities said this amount was enough to kill the entire population of Canada.
Carfentanil is a perfect weapon of mass destruction. It is readily available in large quantities. It comes in several forms ‐ including tablets, powder, and spray. It can be absorbed through the skin or by inhalation. It acts and kills quickly.
Peter Ostrovsky, a senior official of the Immigration and Customs Service, said last fall, "Could it be weaponized? Yeah, it could be weaponized." In short, a single terrorist attack using carfentanil could kill thousands of Americans.
There has been little or no public discussion of this obvious risk, beyond the toll exacted from day to day in the "opoid crisis".
For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
According to Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin, in his Live Journal blog and quoting Lugansk rebel Lt. Colonel Markov, three Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Story updated. Also, the rebels did take at least one prisoner. The sources I used did not mention prisoners. By Chris Covert
A total of three, and as many as eight Ukrainian soldiers were killed in an attempt to attack Russian backed rebel positions in northeastern Lugansk, according to a variety of Russian and Ukrainian language news reports.
According to an official statement posted on the Lugansk government website, a total of 15 effectives, two small squads from the Ukrainian 58th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, attempted to infiltrate south from their base at Krymskoye towards the settlement of Frunze.
Their action would have required them to cross Highway P66, which has been contested since the winter of 2015.
According to the report, the probe ran into a minefield, where three Ukrainian soldiers died and another four were wounded. When the tactical commander decided to withdraw, an attack using mortars and heavy machine guns was initiated to cover their retreat.
The Russian sponsored website Russkaya Vesna, quoting battalion commander Alexei Markov, reported that the probe made it as far as the northern verge of P66 when it hit the minefield. Markov also was quoted in the Russkaya Vesna article saying the engagement range was about 40 meters.
The Russkaya Vesna report quoted Markov saying that a total of four Ukrainians were killed and another three were wounded in the attack. Rebel forces reported two wounded.
Alexei Markov is commander of the "Ghost Battalion", whose area of responsibility includes defense of P66. The "Ghost Battalion" is headquartered at Stakhanov-Alchevsk.
A newer report from the official Lugansk website said that the Ukrainians continue firing weapons in the direction of Frunze, Kalinovka, and at Zheloye using the main guns of BMP-2s, 120mm and 82mm mortars, RPGs and grenade launchers.
According to the Russian language Ukraine news website lb.ua, a total of five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four were wounded in the encounter. The report said that the fighting went on for eight hours, presumably through the night.
In southeastern Ukraine the weather is cold and snowy.
Donetsk
According to a Friday morning report which appeared on the official government website of Donetsk, Dokuchaevsk was hit again by Ukrainian artillery. A residential building was damaged in the Thursday mid-afternoon attack.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraine by clicking here.
[Libya Herald] The Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ) ‐ 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... , UAE, Egypt and Bahrain ‐ has added another Libyan to their list of alleged terrorists, plus an organization which has three prominent Libyans among its members. Altogether, 11 new individuals and the two organizations have been put on the list.
The Libyan named on the ATQ update is Salem al-Jaber, a radical imam who supported the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council but fled back to his native Misrata some time ago. A member of the Sharia Research Council at Sadek al-Gharani’s Dar al-Ifta in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , he is also involved with the Benghazi Defence Brigades’ Boshra news agency, itself already on the terror list.
Banned by Qadaffy from preaching, he now has a Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... i residency permit and is said to be involved in a number of Qatari organizations, although he remains based in Misrata.
Also on the list now is the Qatar-based World Union of Moslem Scholars, headed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Life on Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... . Among its leading members are Ali Salabi, seen as the real leader of the Moslem Brüderbund in Libya and already on the list, as well as Salem al-Sheikhi and Wanis al-Mabrouk al-Fasi, both from eastern Libya.
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[PRESSTV] Former US Secretary of State Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... has voiced concern about the dangers linked to artificial intelligence, including the US government's use of programs designed for espionage for recording "everything we know and everything we say and everything we write."
In a report published by The Verge on Thursday, Clinton said America is "totally unprepared" for the economic and societal effects of artificial intelligence.
The former secretary of state said the world was "racing headfirst into a new era of artificial intelligence" that would affect "how we live, how we think, [and] how we relate to each other."
"A lot of really smart people, you know, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, a lot of really smart people are sounding an alarm that we’re not hearing. And their alarm is artificial intelligence is not our friend," she stated.
She said the greatest danger loomed in two specific areas: spying and automation.
First, artificial intelligence will be spying on everybody, recording "everything we know and everything we say and everything we write," she said.
Secondly, artificial intelligence will lead to job automation and that will replace humans.
"What are we going to do when we get driverless cars?" she asked. "It sounds like a great idea. And how many millions of people, truck drivers and parcel delivery people and cab drivers and even Uber drivers, what do we do with the millions of people who will no longer have a job? We are totally unprepared for that."
Clinton didn’t discuss any details of specific policies she would like to see enacted, but said the government needed to act quickly to address the issue. "We can’t put the genie back in the bottle."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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#1
A perfect example of the symptoms of being powerful, rich and BatSh.. crazy.
#8
Stopped Clock is in effect. Thing is, she's pretty much correct with some of this.
Mainly because she cribbed from a lot of people far better versed in it and far more intelligent.
Russia has floated out the first advanced variant of the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) Project 955A Borei II-class ("North Wind"), or Dolgorukiy-class.
The Borei II-class (also designated Borei-A) boomer Knyaz Vladimir (Prince Vladimir) was launched during a float out ceremony at the Sevmash Shipyards in Severodvinsk in northern Russia on November 17. The ceremony was attended by the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Korolyov, and other senior naval officers and high ranking defense industry officials.
The new boomer was laid down in July 2012 and is expected to be delivered to the Russian Navy next year. Once commissioned, it will be Russia’s most advanced SSBN ever to conduct nuclear deterrence patrols. Next to improved maneuverability and purportedly improved stealth capabilities, the Borei II-class SSBN will carry a heavier nuclear payload (See: "Russia Will Start Constructing New Ballistic Missile Submarine in December"):
In comparison to the Borei-class, Borei II[A]-class submarines are fitted with four additional missile tubes, boast smaller hulls and cons, and feature improved acoustics and lower sound levels, next to a number of other technical improvements.
Both variants of Borei-class subs will be armed with Bulava (RSM-56) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The Borei-class will be capable of carrying up to 16 Bulava ICBMs, whereas the improved Borei II-class can carry up to 20 ballistic missiles.
The improved variant of the Borei-class will be capable of launching 96-200 hypersonic, independently maneuverable warheads, yielding 100-150 kilotons apiece.
Russia plans to build a total of eight Borei-class SSBNs ‐ three Borei-class and five improved Borei II-class boats ‐ by 2o25. The date was recently confirmed by Admiral Korolyov, although delays are to be expected. For example, the construction of the Knyaz Vladimir began with a two-year delay due to contract disputes between the Russian Ministry of Defense and Sevmash Shipyards.
"Three Borei-class SSBNs have been commissioned to date with one submarine, the Yuri Dolgoruky, serving with the Northern Fleet and the remaining two ‐ Alexander Nevsky and Vladimir Monomakh ‐ deployed with Russia’s increasingly more active Pacific Fleet," I reported in June.
In his remarks on November 17, Korolyov also mentioned Russia’s intention develop a more advanced variant of the Borei-class in addition to a separate class of next-generation nuclear powered submarines.
"The development and the construction of the series of Project Borei-A strategic missile-carrying underwater cruisers and the eventual development of Project Borei-B submarines with the subsequent construction of fifth-generation nuclear-powered subs are prompted by the provisions of Russia’s naval doctrine and aimed at fulfilling the task of maintaining the armament and equipment of the groupings of strategic submarines in the Pacific and Northern Fleets at a high level," the admiral said, according to TASS news agency.
Work on the Borei B-class has allegedly already started. The new class of fifth-generation nuclear-powered subs (dubbed Husky-class) will reportedly come in three variants (SSN, SSG, and SSBN) and is expected to replace Project 971 Akula-class SSNs beginning in the 2030s. As I reported in July, the Rubin Central Design Bureau, which also designed and developed the Borei-class, has finished preliminary design work of new conventional fifth-generation submarine code named Project Kalina. The new sub will be based on the Project 677 Lada-class diesel-electric attack submarine.
Pistol ammunition prices were steady. Rifle ammunition prices were mostly steady.
Prices for used pistols were lower. Prices for used rifles were mostly lower.
New Lows:
None
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9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
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.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
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Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .53 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (7 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .85 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .85 per round (From Last Week: +.03 Each
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds (12 Max Boxes): Red River Reloading, Federal, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.36 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Wholesale Hunter, Federal, Brass Casing, JSP, 2.36 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Ammomen, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017))
#4
As a shooter, I like badanov's insightful commentary as well. Missed it today. Oh well, I will just have to live without it until the next time or pen a piece myself.
The only thing I was going to write was an informal range report:
I hadn't been shooting in nearly a year, so I went Tuesday to a private range. I won't bitch about the changes made since I was last there, but the owner did give a FOG discount, which was helpful.
#7
An attempt to move the TWIG archives to my blogs failed due to an insurmountable technical problem. I will be forced to move all ~40 TWIGs manually, and that will take time.
As an aside the changes in prices are almost breathtaking since the summer of 2013, when TWIG first was began.
It’s been that long? I’d lost track. I’ve definitely shocked a few people by being able to discuss ammunition pricing trends, even if the data tables are beyond me. But baseball statistics are beyond me, too, so that isn’t surprising.
[DAWN] Addressing a sermon at Lahore's Jamia Masjid Al Qadsia a day after walking free, Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) leader Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... said on Friday that he is "fighting for the freedom of Pakistain and Kashmire."
The JuD chief claimed that he had been sent to his room for fighting for the rights of Kashmiris and suggested that the country's leaders are making decisions under external pressure.
"If the leaders of the Pakistain start making their own decisions, they will no longer face external pressure," the leader of the proscribed group said.
The JuD chief said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... was ousted because he had betrayed the people of Kashmire. He further alleged that India is involved in terrorist activities in Pakistain.
"Peace cannot be established in Pakistain if Lions of Islam such as Kulbashan Jadhav continue to enter the country," Saeed said, referring to the Indian spy who was sentenced to death by a Pak military court in April on charges of espionage and terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
[DAWN] Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... 's navy confirmed on Thursday that an unusual noise heard in the Atlantic near the last known position of a missing submarine appeared to be an kaboom, dashing the last hopes of finding the vessel's 44 crew members alive.
Relatives of the missing sailors reacted with grief and anger to the news after holding out hope since the sub was reported overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 17, two days after the kaboom.
"An anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event consistent with an kaboom," occurred shortly after the submarine's last communication, navy front man Captain Enrique Balbi told a news conference in Buenos Aires.
After days of false hopes, some of the relatives said the navy had withheld information about the sub and lied to them over the past week.
"I feel cheated," said Itati Leguizamon, whose husband German Suarez was a sonar operator on the ARA San Juan.
"They did not tell us they died. But they tell us they are three thousand meters (9,800 feet) deep," added Leguizamon as other family members shouted angrily around her.
"They lied to us," said Leguizamon, a lawyer.
A sobbing Jessica Gopar, whose husband was an electrician aboard the San Juan, said "they just told us that the submarine went kaboom!."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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#1
Rest in Peace. 3,000 meters is (usually) well below crush depth.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/25/2017 8:52
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#2
And how did they hear the 'kaboom'? Monitoring devices spread over the ocean floor maybe? Who would do that?
#3
Most military ships are equipped with at least passive sonar. It's interesting what one hear in the ocean.
From Wikipedia: Passive sonar listens without transmitting. It is often employed in military settings, although it is also used in science applications, e.g., detecting fish for presence/absence studies in various aquatic environments - see also passive acoustics and passive radar. In the very broadest usage, this term can encompass virtually any analytical technique involving remotely generated sound, though it is usually restricted to techniques applied in an aquatic environment.
#4
Supposedly Trump said 45 aboard - just a mistake or does he know something he wasn't supposed to say, like was the sub placing or retrieving someone? Conspiracy theorists want to know.
In addition to passive sonar, there are seismic sensors as well as sensors to monitor underground testing. In the Kursk accident, if memory serves, the impact of the boat hitting the bottom was picked up by geologists.
#6
...One disturbing story I've heard (from submariners and a naval engineer) is that the sub's batteries had apparently not been changed out in nine years (budget constraints, ya know) and would only take a small trickle charge while recharging. The skipper got annoyed because it was taking so long and ran the charging plant flat out. The batteries then overheated and caught fire. To make matters worse, the overcharge created excess hydrogen that would have caused the explosion. And to really make it bad, there is a strong possibility that the platinum catalysts used to dissipate the hydrogen buildup may not have been installed due to...budget constraints.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/25/2017 15:37
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[DAWN] Two "terrorists" from banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations were apprehended by the Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations.... (FC) Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... during an intelligence-based operation (IBO), an Inter-Services Public Relations blurb said on Friday.
The IBOs, part of Operation Raddul Fasaad, were carried out in Uch, Dera Bugti, Gulistan and Dera Murad Jamali areas.
The FC also recovered improvised bombs (IED), grenades, ammunition as well as 46 kilogrammes of explosives.
In a separate operation, forces found a cycle of violence rigged with IEDs in Dera Murad Jamali. The explosives were defused by security personnel.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army
[DAWN] Eager to win the war, the Trump administration has introduced a new weapon in Afghanistan, the F-22 stealth fighter, US military publications reported this week.
It was Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... forces, who reported on Monday that the US Air Force had used F-22 fighter jets to target drug labs that generate revenue for the Talibs.
While the mainstream media focused on the campaign to destroy Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... ’s revenue sources, military publications ‐ Defensetech, Navy Times and others ‐ pointed out that F-22 were stealth fighters and this was the first time that the US had used this state of the art technology in Afghanistan.
The F-22s were joined by B-52 Stratofortresses and Afghan A-29 Super Tucanos to conduct an expanded strike mission ‐ called the new offensive campaign, the reports added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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#1
Yep, gotta log some airtime otherwise they can't justify the follow on maintenance contracts.
[DAWN] Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen will be driven from power like President Mugabe in Zim-bob-we, veteran opposition chief Sam Rainsy said on Thursday, adding that Western states should impose targeted sanctions after his party was dissolved.
The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was banned at the government’s request last week, deepening Hun Sen’s fight with Western donors who accuse him of demolishing democracy in the country he has ruled for over 32 years.
Rainsy resigned in February from the party, saying he feared it would be banned if he did not. Defamation convictions that he calls politically motivated drove him to flee Cambodia for La Belle France in 2015.
"Cambodia is at a tipping point. The people are fed up with Hun Sen and what is happening in Zim-bob-we is inspiring," Rainsy said in the interview.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Amir Taheri
[ARABNEWS] The Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... holds an emergency meeting on Leb. La Belle France and the US agree to work together to contain Hezbollah. Russia indicates support for compromise. Iran’s official government invites everyone to "joint diplomatic efforts" while the unofficial government promises fire and brimstone for those who try to curb Hezbollah.
[Libya Observer] The Presidential Council (PC) has reiterated that the Libyan Attorney General's Office and the concerned authorities have started probing the CNN report about slave auctions in Libya.
"Slavery and human trafficking are inhuman and a crime against humanity." The PC said in a statement on Thursday.
It added that if the media reports were proven true, all the individuals involved in the crime will be punished.
The PC urged all the local and international parties to cooperate with the Libyan Attorney General's Office and provide the needed information that can help unveil the truth about "this horrendous crime that is foreign to Libyan society and is done secretly by smuggling gangs and organized crimes' networks."
"The international community should not just feel sorry for such crimes but should also take some action against them no matter where the crimes took place, knowing that such crimes exist in different African and European countries." The statement adds.
The PC also added that over a million African workers used to work in Libya and the number decreased due to the current crisis in the country to tens of thousands who work legally in Libya.
"We are the victim of this illegal immigration crisis and not the source. Libya doesn't hold the key to ending the crisis, so the international community should help the country stop migrants colonists flow at the southern borders and develop the detention centers of those migrants colonists in the country or tackle the issues of the source countries so the migrants colonists can stop taking the risk." The statement further explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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[PRESSTV] Iran has lashed out at Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s crown prince for making "injudicious and cheap" remarks against the Islamic Theocratic Republic, saying his statements have no credit in the international community.
"The adventurist Saudi crown prince should take into account the inevitable fate of infamous dictators in the region," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday.
No one in the world and the international community gives credit to "the immature, injudicious and cheap" remarks and conduct of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he added.
The Iranian spokesperson emphasized that the Saudi crown prince’s mistakes, the latest of which was the scandal of interference in Leb’s internal affairs, have even troubled traditional Saudi allies.
Qassemi strongly urged bin Salman to bear in mind the inevitable fate of infamous dictators in the region in recent years now that he seeks to follow in their footsteps and pursue their path.
In an interview with The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... published on Thursday, the Saudi crown prince said Riyadh prefers a confrontational approach to "appeasement" in dealing with Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Bangkok Post] A member of a police squad providing protection for teachers was killed and another injured by a bomb blast in Yala province on Tuesday morning.
The bomb went off on a road in Bannang Sata district. It was planted under a traffic sign and was set off when the police security team arrived at the spot. Two NCOs riding on a motocycle at the front of the patrol bore the brunt of the blast.
Police investigators found debris, including electronic circuitry, and about 50 spent M16 cartridges were scattered over the area. Police said the improvised bomb weighed about 30kg and was detonated by radio.
Authorities believe the attack was aimed at creating unrest.
[ARABNEWS] Iraqi forces said on Friday that ISIS fighters are withdrawing deep into the desert to escape an offensive now in its second day aimed at finally defeating them.
The hard boyz have already been driven out of all of the towns they once held but Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he will not proclaim victory until they have been cleared from the western desert bordering Syria.
The Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary force said its fighters had taken control of 77 villages and hamlets since the launch of the offensive on Thursday morning.
It said five hard boyz had been killed south of the ancient desert city of Hatra but otherwise ISIS had put up little resistance.
The Hashed said that its fighters overran an airfield in the same area, where they discovered underground warehouses used by the myrmidons.
Air support for the offensive, which also involves the army and federal police, has so far been provided exclusively by the Iraqi air force.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
However, yesterday, it was reported that Daesh blew up and shot up 235 Sufis at a mosque in the Sinai for not being Muslim enough. Daesh does not seem to be done in as reported by Iran. As for retreating into the desert, what are they? "Flash mobs" available on call?
[PRESSTV] Former US Secretary of State Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... , who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... , has once again placed the blame on her Republican rival for the defeat, claiming that the billionaire businessman "encouraged Russian hackers" to cyberattack the US and find compromising information in order to disrupt her campaign.
Clinton made the comments in an interview with MSNBC, accusing Trump of supporting Russian hackers who "attacked the very heart of US democracy," and also warning about a looming "threat" from Moscow.
When asked about the controversy around her use of a private email server during her tenure as the secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, Clinton said that she wished "the government had had as high a level of security as there was on the server I used."
"There is no doubt that our government servers at the time I was serving as secretary of state were compromised," she noted. "And there is at least insofar as we know no evidence that my private server was."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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[ARABNEWS] At least 235 people were killed and 109 injured in a terrorist attack on a mosque in North Sinai, which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi vowed to respond to with "brute force."
The Egyptian Air Force targeted the vehicles of the attackers during their escape and killed at least 15 gunnies suspected of carrying out the assault.
In the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt’s modern history, holy warriors targeted worshippers during their Friday prayers at al-Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, about 40 kilometers from al-Arish city in North Sinai. Militants set off a bomb and opened fire on worshippers inside the mosque and those trying to escape. The holy warriors then escaped using 4WD cars.
The Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis terrorist group have pledged allegiance to the IS group and have previously executed Soliman Harraz, a Sufi sheikh on November 2016; two Sufi shrines in Mazar village were also targeted with explosives.
"The area is known for the existence of Sufi Muslim groups, and it does not have an intensive security presence as it is outside of Arish and far from the traditional areas that host those militant groups," Mohamed Hamad, son of a tribal sheikh, told Ahram Online.
Hamad added that the long distance between Al-Rawda village, Bir Al-Abed city and Ismailia delayed the arrival of the ambulances, while the targeting of the ambulances increased the number of victims.
#1
Mohammed Juma, an expert at the Arab and Regional studies Unit at al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, believes that it is more likely the attack was carried out by ISIS group, because there are no terrorist organizations in Egypt which hold views allowing the targeting of such a place with an intensive civilian presence except ISIS.
"Unless Copts are available, then it's game on, Insh'allah"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2017 8:53
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[PRESSTV] Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani says the United States is the root cause of terrorism in the Middle East, warning of new US plots after the collapse of ISIS terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
The US created ISIS and Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... in cooperation with holy warriors in the region, Larijani said in an interview with the Ottoman Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, TRT, on Friday.
The US intends to create concern among regional countries about their relations with Iran, he said. Now that ISIS has been eliminated, Washington seeks new plots and claims that Tehran is a threat to the region.
"This is while we have never attacked any country and it is the US that has constantly threatened countries," the top Iranian parliamentarian pointed out.
Backed by popular groups and Iranian military advisors, armed forces in Iraq and Syria have managed to flush ISISgunnies out of their last strongholds in both countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Al Jazeera] A suicide kaboomer on a cycle of violence has struck the vehicle of a senior police official in the northwestern Pak city of 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. , killing him and his guard, according to police.
Ashraf Noor, an additional inspector general of police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, was on his way to work when the attack occurred on Friday morning.
Local police official Zaman Khan said three others were maimed in the kaboom, which sent a plume of dark smoke rising above Peshawar's Hayatabad area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The attack was a latest in a series of attacks against the country's police services.
Earlier in November, bigwig Hamid Shakil was killed in a roadside kabooming that targeted his vehicle in the southwestern city of Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: TTP
[American Thinker] "To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." That’s the beginning of a famous bible verse. It’s a litany of life’s times and wonders that are dropped in our laps; weeping, laughing, dancing, healing.
The last line purposely changes tone and says, "a time for war".
Like it or not, this is that time.
Civil War.
It’s here. Now. Thankfully this is not yet the blood in the streets kind of war, but war it is. It’s a war for the soul of this country, it’s a war that will affect everyone; none will escape having to deal with it directly, or indirectly.
How did we get here? It’s complicated. But one thing for sure: what’s not complicated is who started this war, why, and who it is with. During our lives, it was started by the hard left, and it’s a war to achieve power for them, for them to change the entire workings of our country. They want to remake every institution they can, with themselves in control of as much as possible. Power to them, belongs in the hands of their brilliant ideas, and their overwhelming moral superiority. They believe this war is necessary in order to root out the injustice inherent in our country’s institutions and its tawdry citizenry.
The war in its current form began in the sixties. It was envisioned by the radicals in the SDS days, spurred by the luminaries of the Frankfurt School, furthered by the activities of Herbert Marcuse, Howard Zinn, Bill Ayers, and the leftist academic institutions we send our children to. They have taken over institution after institution in a long, calculated preparation for this war.
#1
And you're doing it all wrong. It's not a fight against ideology - which is endlessly mutable. It's a fight against second rate people who want first rate jobs and found a simple gimmick to get them - just make outrageous demands and mob anyone who dares to disagree and funnel all quality positions to ideologically sound (agreeable) comrades. See The New Class for details.
[PRESSTV] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... has not ruled out possible contact with Bashir al-Assad, signaling a break with his long-held opposition to the Syrian president’s role in the Arab country’s future.
"The political doors are always open until the last minute," Erdogan said when asked about a possible contact or cooperation with Assad.
Erdogan’s comments were reported by Hurriyet newspaper and other Ottoman Turkish media on Friday, made on board his plane returning from a trilateral meeting with Russia and Iran to promote a peaceful settlement in Syria.
Even though Russia and Iran have backed Assad's government since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011 and Turkey has supported his foes, the three countries have teamed up to help mediate a peace settlement.
Ankara has toned down its anti-Assad rhetoric, and the climbdown was clear during the trilateral meeting with Russia and Iran in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday.
Turkey made clear its "reservations" about Assad having any future role in Syria, Mahir Unal, the front man of the Justice and Development Party, told news hounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[DAWN] Islamabad's district administration's latest "final warning" to protesters camped out at the Faizabad Interchange, lapsed without much ado midnight on Friday as reports made rounds that the government would now initiate action after 7.30am on Saturday morning in case the protesters refused to relent.
The extension in the deadline was made reportedly at the request of negotiators trying to achieve a breakthrough in talks with the agitators.
In an earlier notification, issued by the district magistrate on Friday evening, the protesters had been ordered to disperse by midnight.
In the missive, the district magistrate had noted that for two weeks the protesters have "illegally occupied" the Faizabad Bridge, which connects Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The notification recalled that the participants had been asked to disperse thrice before but to no avail.
"If the participants do not vacate the area by midnight, an operation will be launched against them," the District Magistrate had warned.
All shops, hotels and bus stands had been shut and all routes leading to the area were sealed to curtail collateral damage.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... DawnNews reported a little after the deadline passed that any action had reportedly been put off till 7.30am on Saturday after negotiators sought more time for a breakthrough with the protesters.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] An emergency meeting of the newly-reconstituted Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has been called on November 29 to discuss the protest sit-in at Islamabad's Faizabad Interchange, the CII announced on Friday.
In the meeting, religious holy mans and legal experts will be called to participate in a discussion on the matter of the amendment made to the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat oath in the Elections Act 2017, among other issues, a CII spokesperson said. The oath requires a candidate for office to swear he believes Mohammad to be the very last prophet and that he's not an Ahmadi. That would also leave out Christians, Hindoos, Buddhists, and Farsis.
CII President Dr Qibla Ayaz will be presiding over the meeting, he said; adding that the meeting will "thoroughly" review the issue of the amendment of the oath.
Dr Ayaz has said that the parliament has already resolved the issue in an appropriate manner.
Asserting that the issue of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat is a matter of faith for each and every Moslem, he said that all the political and religious parties seem to have acted according to the aspirations of the nation and the lapse in the law has already been removed.
He said that a recent amendment to the law has also closed the door of any ambiguity in connection with the law on Khatm-e-Nabuwwat.
The CCI is a statutory body with a minimum of eight and a maximum of 20 members, including one woman, whose function is to advise parliament on whether laws are in consonance with Islamic injunctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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[DAWN] Hours after Zim-bob-we’s Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... was forced out after 37 years in power, Uganda’s president, another former guerilla in office for more than three decades, was tweeting about pay raises for civil servants and bright prospects for his army tank crews.
Supporters of long-serving African leaders dismiss parallels with Zim-bob-we, where Mugabe’s former deputy - sacked during a power struggle with Mugabe’s wife - is about to take power with military and public backing.
But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s tweets, which come amid rising anger at the 73-year-old’s attempts to prolong his rule, suggest he is looking south and wondering about his own fate.
"Now that the economic situation in Uganda is improving, the government will be able to look into raising of salaries of soldiers, public servants, health workers and teachers and also deal with institutional housing," Museveni tweeted on Wednesday.
It was unclear what improvement he meant. Uganda’s faltering economy is growing too slowly to absorb a booming population of 37 million. The number of citizens spending less than a dollar a day has surged to 27 percent, the statistics office reported in September, up from 20 percent five years ago.
Museveni’s office was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!" on the tweets, but John Baptist Nambeshe, a ruling party politician who opposes the president’s attempts to have an age limit on his post lifted, said there was no coincidence.
"The timing couldn’t have been coincidental. It was to underscore his might, that probably the military is still solidly behind him, unlike in Zim-bob-we," Nambeshe told Rooters.
Museveni may not be alone.
Several African leaders have faced popular opposition in recent years, from Togo, where thousands protested this autumn, to Gabon, where riots broke out last year after President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a disputed vote.
Mugabe’s fall has raised hopes among opposition politicians that other long-serving leaders will fall, but also stoked fears that those who replace them may be no better.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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[Hurriyet Daily News] The outrage ignited by the recent 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... drill scandal in Norway has sparked a debate on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s membership in the Transatlantic alliance, compounding the latent anti-Western and anti-American sentiment.
In retrospect, Turkey has always had a love-hate relationship with the West. Since the late Ottoman Empire, Western civilization has functioned both as a model for modernization and an object of cultural contempt due to its perceived moral decay. Western interference in the late Ottoman era, as well as the bitter experiences during Turkey’s War of Independence, solidified the idea that the West was a rival bloc that was eager to partition Turkey at the first opportunity. This suspicion toward the Western world ‐ also known as the Sèvres Syndrome ‐ has continued to haunt Ottoman Turkish policymakers while nurturing periodic anti-Western sentiment.
Turkey is now experiencing one of those rare periods in which its relations with both Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and the United States have reached a nadir. In the past, whenever there was tension with one, Turkey would move closer to the other so as to maintain balance and prevent a total rupture in ties with the West in line with a Westward-leaning foreign policy that has constituted one of the main pillars of Ottoman Turkish political culture since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Today, that orientation is no longer a given. Particularly since the failed July 2016 coup attempt, the government has accused the West of engaging in a plot against Turkey to bring down President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... . This perception has poisoned ties with the West and pushed Turkey to seek alternative partnerships. Truth be told, the oblivion of Westerners with regard to Turkey’s security concerns has not made life easier for the alliance either.
The West’s ambivalence on freedom and democracy, which amounts to safeguarding Gulenists ... the Turkish version of the Boogie Man, who set fire to the Turkish Reichsstag... , believed to have orchestrated the coup attempt, and outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members, has deeply undermined Turkey’s trust.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... the government’s efforts to frame its crackdown on the press, academia and civil society as necessary to combat terror have failed to convince anyone beyond Turkey’s borders.
While Ottoman Turkish intellectuals have been debating whether or not NATO serves Turkey’s security interests in the wake of the NATO drill scandal, allies have also been questioning Turkey’s democratic credentials to qualify as a member.
NATO is first and foremost a collective defense organization. Since the end of the Cold War, the body has been struggling to find a new mission, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 helped the Atlantic alliance in this regard. Moreover, the institution’s efficiency in confronting today’s complex threats is being queried. Still, Turkey’s NATO membership not only provides a security umbrella but also an anchor to the West. Questioning Turkey’s membership creates a security risk on the alliance’s eastern and southern flanks, while Turkey’s possible departure from NATO would disrupt Ankara’s Western identity as well.
The latest drill incident might have been cooked up by the Gulenists, as claimed by many. But what if the initial plan is to sever Turkey’s ties with the West before ‐ ominously ‐ isolating Turkey politically and economically?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
The West’s ambivalence on freedom and democracy, which amounts to safeguarding Gulenists, believed to have orchestrated the coup attempt, and outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members, has deeply undermined Turkey’s trust
Holy non sequitur, Batman! This must have sounded more convincing in the original Newspeak.
[Dhaka Tribune] Taking his oath of office, the 75-year-old former security chief known as ‘The Crocodile’ vowed to uphold the constitution of the former British colony
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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#1
I believe him, the military did not topple the regime, it restored the corrupt old guard into power.
[Dhaka Tribune] It has been three months since the recent refugee crisis started in Bangladesh, as an unprecedented number of displaced Rohingyas began a mass exodus from northern Rakhine state, following a campaign of terror perpetrated by the Myanmar Army.
To get an in-depth view of the current state of the refugee crisis, a Dhaka Tribune correspondent visited the Rohingya camps located in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district.
More than a hundred Rohingya men and women, who fled Myanmar after August 25 this year, were asked their opinion about returning to their homeland.
A majority of the refugees stated that they are ready to go home only if the Myanmar government ensures their basic human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... and ethnic identity.
Kalimuddin, 30, who left his home village in Maungdaw Township day after Eid-ul-Azha [August 27], became emotional while describing the life he had in Myanmar.
"I took my wife and five children, and fled the oppression of Myanmar army and Moghs. We made a life here at Jamtoli Camp but we miss our homeland dearly," he said.
Kalimuddin firmly added that Myanmar is his country and he wants to go back but the Rohingya people’s civic rights must be ensured first.
Mohib Ullah, a sexagenarian hailing from Chindiprang area of Buthidaung, said: "Bangladesh is not our country and we are Rohingya not Bangali. We are Myanmar nationals and we have the right live in Rakhine despite Myanmar government’s repeated claims that we do not belong there.
"We just want to preserve our ethnic identity and our rights," he added.
Anwar Hossain, who arrived in the camp from Bolibazar area under Maungdaw Township, echoed the same.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
#1
And our principal human right is treating Infidels as good Muslims ought?
[Libya Observer] ICC wanted killer, Mahmud al-Werrfalli, has unveiled a plot by Dignity Operation big shots to assassinate him, but he asserted that no one in Benghazi can cause harm to him.
In another leaked telephone call with Chief of Dignity Operation’s Control and Judicial Authority, Oun al-Furjani, al-Werrfalli claimed that a meeting had been held in Nawagaya district, some 15 km southwest of Benghazi, between son of Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... - Beligasem, Presidential Council member Fathi al-Mijibri, Allam Fallah, and Mowafik Mughrebi to discuss his fate.
"You telephoned those four people during that meeting from La Belle France and you assured them that you will assassinate me when you summon me to the General Command", al-Werrfalli angrily confronted Oun during the leaked phone call.
When asked by Oun about the source of his accusation, al-Werrfalli disclosed that he obtains telephone tapping devices and that all telephone calls are recorded.
"Assassinating me wouldn’t be easy", he shouted at Oun, threatening him that if they caused any harm to him; all Benghazi people will turn against them.
Al-Werrfalli also lashed out at Dignity Operation spokesperson, Ahmed al-Mismari, and Assistant Deputy Minister for Human Rights Affairs at the Ministry of Justice of eastern government, Sahir Banoun, for labelling him as war criminal, threatening to deal with them at the appropriate time.
He also disclosed that he had been killing the "Khawarij" before the start of Dignity Operation in 2014, and that he is committing this murder to get closer to Allah.
This is the second part of a 14-minute leaked phone call between both men.
In the first leak, al-Werrfalli ranted about al-Oun and "the General Command" for not treating the maimedsnuffies and paying off millions of debts owed by Saiqa to lenders.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[RADIOSHABELLE] Six suspected Somali pirates have been transferred to the Seychelles following their arrest for attacks earlier this month off southern Somalia, a Seychelles prisons official said.
The suspects arrived Thursday morning at the port of Victoria, capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago nation, said Raymond St Ange, acting commissioner of Montagne Posee prison.
The six were nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the Italian navy, deployed as part of the European anti-piracy operation Atlanta, after being spotted by a military helicopter while attacking a container ship and a fishing vessel on November 17 and 18.
The men were transferred to the Seychelles under an agreement with the EU. "The agreement allows us to prosecute cases of piracy, but the prosecution will depend on the evidence presented to the attorney general," St Ange said.
Recent Attacks
There have been several attempted hijackings in recent months, a worrying sign of a possible resurgence of Somali piracy which had declined from its 2011 peak as navy patrols were stepped up.
The years-long scourge disrupted international shipping and led to the kidnapping for ransom of many hundreds of seafarers.
While warships and armed guards have reduced the number of attacks, they have done nothing to address the root causes of piracy, which lie in Somalia’s decades of state failure, poverty and lack of economic opportunity.
The last similar transfer of suspects to the Seychelles was in 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
While warships and armed guards have reduced the number of attacks, they have done nothing to address the root causes of piracy
#2
Some pirate skinnys hanging from yardarms might send a message
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2017 10:13
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#3
The Yardarm: A Rhyming Analysis ;-)X
"Muh rights!" cry the isms and viruses.
"Ain't nice being tied...
And I've never been tried...
And religion and laws is all... piracist!"
[Gateway Pundit] William E. Staehle, a practicing attorney for 42-years, penned an op-ed in defense of Alabama GOP Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore for Yellowhammer News. Who is Staehle? He served with Judge Moore in Vietnam between 1971-72, where he "knew him to be an altogether honorable, decent, respectable, and patriotic commander and soldier."
William E. Staehle writes in Yellowhammer News:
He and I were captains and company commanders in the 504th Military Police Battalion, stationed at the base camp called Camp Land, just west of Danang.
I knew him well in my first four months in-country before I was re-assigned within the battalion to another location. During that time, I grew to admire him.
While in Vietnam, there came a time when another officer invited Roy and me to go with him into town after duty hours for a couple of beers. That officer had just returned from an assignment in Quang Tri Province north of Danang, and we were interested to learn of his experiences.
When we arrived at the place and went inside, it was clear to Roy and me that he had taken us to a brothel. That officer appeared to know people there, as he was greeted by one or two young women in provocative attire.
The place was plush. There were other American servicemen there. Alcohol was being served. There were plenty of very attractive young women clearly eager for an intimate time.
In less time than it took any of the women to approach us, Roy turned to me and said words to this effect, "We shouldn’t be here. I am leaving."
We told the officer who had brought us that we wanted to leave. He told us to take his jeep and that he could get a ride back later, which he did. Roy and I drove back to camp together.
That evening, if I didn’t know it before, I knew then that with Roy Moore I was in the company of a man of great self-control, discipline, honor, and integrity.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Terrorist Khalid Nazem Diab is one of the most prominent figures classified by the anti-terror quartet in a new list, which includes two terrorist organizations and 11 individuals calssified as "elements supporting terrorism."
This is the third listing for Diab as a top global terrorist, after being included on the US lists and the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... since 2002.
Diab is one of the most prominent supporters of the terrorist organization Moslem Brüderbund and was placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! in Leb in 2013 for supporting terrorist groups in Syria.
The ruling regime in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... , a known supporter of terrorism, appointed Diab as the director of the Qatar Red Islamic Thingy’s International Relief and Development Department, despite his historically frenzied handling of international issues.
Observers noted that the Qatari regime places on its list of recruitment requirements that the applicant must be "good at lying, deceiving, and has murderous Moslem terrorist tendencies."
Diab, an American of Syrian descent, is a financier of the armed militias in Syria, and his terrorist activity now also encompasses Yemen, Mauritania, Iraq and Djibouti.
Recent events
Despite the Qatari Red Islamic Thingy’s description of the department as deriving its vision and scope of action from two basic principles - humanity and universality - with a slogan reading "Safe souls and protected dignity," observers have pointed out that recent events revealed that the director of this administration is one of the most dangerous hard boyz on the international lists.
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... , Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain have announced the addition of two entities and 11 individuals to their list of banned terrorists.
This is in light of the commitment of these countries to fight terrorism, to dry up its sources of funding, to combat murderous Moslem ideology, to work together to eradicate it, to immunize societies and to cooperate with the active partners in the fight against terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2017
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Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)
This clearly preceded the big mosque attack yesterday.
[AlAhram] Egypt’s army said on Friday it has killed two Death Eaters during a security campaign in central Sinai.
Armed Forces Spokesman Colonel Tamer El-Refaie said in a statement that the army’s third field forces also seized hideouts full of large amount of substances used to construct IEDs.
The forces also seized a truck carrying narcotics before it crossed one of the borders.
"This comes as the army’s third field forces continue to exert efforts to eliminate takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... elements and criminals," the statement read.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Washington has asked the government of leftist Nicolas Maduro for access to Venezuelan-American executives of U.S.-based refiner Citgo detained in Caracas this week, a State Department official said on Thursday.
Five of six Citgo [PDVSAC.UL] executives arrested on graft allegations are U.S. citizens, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. All six men are being held in the headquarters of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence department in Caracas, the country’s state prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday.
Socialist Maduro has said that the United States, his ideological foe, had requested the men be freed, but he vowed on Wednesday they would be tried as "corrupt, thieving traitors" for allegedly seeking to personally profit from a financial deal that was detrimental to the nation.
"The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela has asked that (Venezuelan) authorities grant consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees in Venezuela. We call on the (Venezuelan government) to do so immediately in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations," the State Department official said.
Relations between Caracas and Washington have long been tense. They have further soured under President Donald Trump since his administration imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials including Maduro, and economic sanctions that have impeded the OPEC nation’s access to international banks.
U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum Corp (Citgo) is a Venezuelan-owned refiner and marketer of oil and petrochemical products and the arrests come amid a wider anti-corruption sweep in Venezuela’s oil industry. Around 50 managers at state oil company PDVSA have been arrested since August.
Sources in the energy sector say the arrests owe more to Maduro’s move to sideline rivals and increase his control of money-making companies as the country struggles in a devastating recession.
The political opposition says PDVSA is rife with corruption, and a congressional investigation concluded that at least $11 billion went "missing" between 2004 and 2014.
"The legacy of socialism: To have destroyed PDVSA and the oil industry and turned it into a den of corruption and nepotism," opposition lawmaker Jose Guerra said on Twitter.
"They need to blame someone and some ’gringos’ are ideal," Guerra later told Reuters.
The arrests rid Citgo of much of its top brass and have instilled fear throughout Venezuela’s oil industry, snarling up decision making, sources close to PDVSA have told Reuters.
The arrests also come at a highly delicate time for Venezuela, which was declared in selective default this month after some late payments. But as Venezuela is making efforts to pay, bondholders of some of the world’s highest yielding debt have so far been tolerant of the delays.
Anomalous Sources submitted another article on this story, and commented:
It is the past 8 years that tempted Maduro to do this; it is going to be an interesting test for Mr. Trump.
Citgo’s President Jose Pereira and five senior executives were arrested earlier this week at an event in Caracas.
Five of these have are US citizens holding dual US/Venezuelan citizenship. The sixth, Pereira, has a permanent residency permit for the United States.
The latest weekly report by the Energy Information Administration revealed that Venezuelan crude oil exports to the U.S. had fallen to 462,000 bpd last week, from 732,000 bpd in the previous week. The four-week average for the period ending on November 17 was 530,000 bpd, significantly lower than the average a year earlier, which stood at 753,000 bpd.
#2
Corruption is rampant in Venezuela and the corrupt ones are trying to cover the losses from theft reported while staying in power by a shakedown of the U.S. via a ransom scheme?
#6
Citgo is the brand carried here by 7-11. I would boycott 7-11 but too many good people earn a living there. Maybe 7-11 has started purchasing oil from other companies. Any other ideas?
[Salon via Weasel Zippers] This is your mind on tofu turkey and kale.
Are you sick of Republicans? Or just right-wingers in general? Do you want to send a message to Washington that you aren’t going to buy into their racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic and classist nonsense for one second longer?
Then do the very thing that Donald Trump unintentionally encouraged in a recent tweet: Encourage Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2020!
Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!
‐ Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2017
I’m sure this is the part where the Clinton-haters ‐ be they Trumpers, Bernie Bros or anything in between ‐ will say something to the effect of, "Of course he wants her to run again. That’s the only way he’ll get re-elected!"
Slow your roll there. Clinton’s poll numbers aren’t too good right now (OK, they’re downright atrocious), but there are still four great reasons to consider choosing her as the Democratic nominee in 2020. Even better, all but one of them has to do with an emotion that has no place in this season (which is why I absolutely had to write this article for Thanksgiving weekend): Spite. Delicious, nutritious spite.
1. Hillary Clinton is the Winston Churchill to Vladimir Putin’s Adolf Hitler.
I agree with the basic principle of Godwin’s Law: The first person to invoke Hitler in a political debate should normally lose. The exception, of course, has to be when someone has genuine Hitler-like qualities. A foreign despot who has invaded neighboring countries and has a right-wing nationalist agenda is about as Nazi-like as you can get.
This is where Clinton offers a quality that no politician in America can beat. While Republicans are trying to tar her with a bogus scandal connecting her to Russia (and anyone who believes Clinton did something wrong in the Uranium One deal lacks credibility on all matters political), the reality is that no candidate can be better described as Russia’s nemesis than Clinton. Putin has always hated Clinton because of his innate sexism, which has manifested in his policies, and she certainly didn’t endear herself to him by publicly criticizing Russian corruption in 2011. As the ample connections between the Trump campaign and Russia or its water-carriers like WikiLeaks clearly demonstrate, the one person we know we can trust more than anyone is the candidate who Putin very obviously did not want to see as America’s president.
#4
This is a frappen cruel joke. Right? She's always been the dumbest, laziest, most corrupt, evil candidate in our history. Ladies, please don't be blinded by your womyness thing. She would be a worse Potus than a candidate.
#6
The part that takes this article from the realm of "really stupid" to the realm of "no sentient life form could possibly have had this thought" is the comparison of HRC to WSC "(Hillary Clinton is the Winston Churchill...")
We shall steal on the beaches, we shall steal on the landing grounds at Tuzla, we shall steal in the fields and in the streets, we shall steal in the hills; we shall never surrender, unless, of course, an amount north of $100 million should happen to appear in an offshore account of our choosing...
Posted by: Matt ||
11/25/2017 10:51
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#7
Problem is that Hillary behaved like a deer caught in the headlights in any crises.
She made really bad decisions just to show she is in charge, when in fact, she was in over her head and had no clue what to do.
There is a basic premise behind reporting .vs. editorializing -- one is allegedly unbiased, although we all have our personal prejudices while the other is labeled opinion (it's found on the opinion page and is disclosed as such.)
Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, it is now clear, in order to effect a public lobbying strategy much larger than that which Hastings "organized" and led to a five times increase in his firm's stock price revolving around net neutrality.
That latter event occurred after ISPs, properly recognizing that he was effectively driving semi trucks over the roads built for cars and refusing to pay higher fuel taxes and license plate fees for same, or, if you prefer, opening up a 2" water connection to a 6" main and demanding not to be charged by the gallon, resulting in you having no water pressure, started pushing back and demanding that Netflix cover the outsized costs being imposed on said ISPs to prevent service-quality collapses to everyone, including those who didn't want his service.
Continued on Page 49
#2
Ummm what about Kindle? It's done the world a big favour by breaking the big 5's near monopoly on books and given talented writers opportunities that didn't exist before.
Wanna put Jeffy in his place and make him sweat? Offer better sevice and product variety than he does.
#3
There is a basic premise behind reporting .vs. editorializing -- one is allegedly unbiased, although we all have our personal prejudices while the other is labeled opinion (it's found on the opinion page and is disclosed as such.)
Personal wish rather than reality. Thus the rise of the internet and continued collapse of MSM. It's not that the internet provides 'unbias reporting' as much as alternative opinion.
This is illegal under 100+ year old anti-trust law which says that any attempt to monopolize trade is a felony.
Really? Ma Bell operated a monopoly for pretty much of that hundred years, never faced a felony indictment. Rather it ultimately faced a regulatory breakup into 'Baby Bells'. However, what finally opened the market was technology not criminal prosecution.
Writer is more than dishonest on that general statement.
#5
Between all the stuff coming from China and Amazon, Main Street USA has all but disappeared along with good jobs. In addition Amazon-owned WAPO is running cover. Clowns in America money went into Bezoz WAPO purchase.
#7
Monopolies are not illegal. It’s using monopoly power to gain unfair competitive advantage that’s illegal. For instance, “tying”, which is using the monopoly power to gain advantage in another market. Or by predatory pricing. Amazon does all those things, but they will argue that they are not a monopoly in any market, because they have several major competitors. They are certainly not a monopoly like Microsoft was.
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.
[Human Events] Hey, Republicans! Did you enjoy Election Night last week? Get ready for a lot more nights like that as immigration turns every last corner of the country blue.
...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...
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary ![]("https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/nintchdbpict000255334138.jpg")
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
[Bangkok Post] A member of a police squad providing protection for teachers was killed and another injured by a bomb blast in Yala province on Tuesday morning. 
[ARABNEWS] Iraqi forces said on Friday that 
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
...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.
... 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
... the Turkish version of the Boogie Man, who set fire to the Turkish Reichsstag...
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
Somali pirates
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
CARACAS (Reuters) - Washington has asked the government of leftist Nicolas Maduro for access to Venezuelan-American executives of U.S.-based refiner Citgo detained in Caracas this week, a State Department official said on Thursday.
[Salon via Weasel Zippers] This is your mind on tofu turkey and kale.
