[Breitbart] It is January 1, 2018, which means law-abiding Californians can no longer buy ammunition out-of-state or possess an unregistered AR-15 with a bullet button accessory.
On December 13, 2017, Breitbart News reported that California’s war on guns was about to expand to a war on ammunition, and January 1 marks the day that the war on ammunition begins.
Currently, law-abiding Californians must buy their ammunition from a licensed in-state ammunition dealer. This means that Californians who buy ammunition online must have that ammo shipped to a licensed in-state dealer and pay that dealer a fee when picking up the ammo.
These controls immediately lessen the supply of ammunition, thereby driving up the price for those who demand it. Also, these controls set the stage for phase two of ammunition control, which will consist of requiring a point-of-sale background check for ammunition purchases starting January 1, 2019. The point-of-sale background check will also carry a processing fee, which will drive the price of ammunition even higher.
#3
USN, the last few times we crossed the Nevada border into California, we had to stop for an agricultural inspection. I wanted to ask what they would do if they saw cartons of ammunition (or drugs or some other contraband).
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01/01/2018 21:36
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President Trump ushered in the new year by blasting Pakistan for giving the US "nothing but lies & deceit" while harboring terrorists ‐ and calling for change in Iran, where 10 people were killed in protests.
"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," Trump said in his inaugural tweet of 2018.
"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif tweeted that his government was preparing a response that "will let the world know the truth."
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2018
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#1
For all his clumsiness and lack of diplomacy Trump may be the most honest President since Washington.
#6
Yep, in a Donk city in a Donk state, you do things to do business. Then one day....Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: Cause I'm now the biggest SOB in the valley.
#7
The Olde Worlde does like to think of Americans as ignorant, uncultured cowboys, so unlike their wise and erudite selves, who posss an ancient culture that gives its inheritors grace that parvenu Ami money simply cannot buy. It’s been a while since I mentioned the French philosopher-journalist Jean-Francois Revel’s Anti-Americanism, which sadly is not available in a Kindle version.
[Times of Israel] Newspaper says Washington and Jerusalem have overcome the differences that saw Americans tipping off Tehran about Israeli attempt to kill Qassem Soleimani 3 years ago Say WHAT?
US intelligence agencies have given Israel the green light to assassinate the senior Iranian responsible for coordinating military activity on behalf of the Islamic Republic in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida.
For the past 20 years or so, Qassem Soleimani has commanded the Quds Force- the branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards responsible for military and clandestine operations outside of the Islamic Republic.
Soleimani is a key figure in efforts to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad and to enable him to retake cities and towns from rebel groups during his country's ongoing civil war. He is also responsible for providing military aid to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza ‐ both of which are committed to the destruction of Israel ‐ as well as to Shia and Kurdish groups in Iraq.
Thursday's report by al-Jarida, which has been known to publish improbable-sounding stories about Israel, was widely picked up by Israeli media.
There was no immediate reaction to the report from Jerusalem or Washington.
Three years ago, Israel came close to assassinating Soleimani near Damascus, al-Jarida quoted unnamed source as saying, but the Americans tipped off the Iranians against the background of intense disagreement between Washington and Jerusalem.
That was during the Obama administration, which, according to reports at the time, was so focused on securing the 2015 Iran nuclear accord that it chose to overlook and even obstruct efforts to clamp down on Iranian-backed terror organizations.
It's not clear if the reported tip-off was related to efforts to secure the Iran deal. Yes. At ANY cost
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2018
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[The Wheeling Times Leader] WHEELING ‐ As a region flush with coal, oil and natural gas reserves beneath the ground’s surface, billions of dollars worth of investment continue flowing into northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio for mining, drilling, fracking, pipelining and processing.
As 2017 closes, the wait is on to see how the announcement by China Energy to spend $83.7 billion to build petrochemical plants and electricity generators in West Virginia will unfold in 2018 and beyond. The proposed PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker for Belmont County, meanwhile, a project with an estimated price tag of up to $6 billion, will eventually realize an affirmative or negative decision, as well.
Still, even before these "downstream" investments, new pipelines continue to be built, new wells are being drilled and fracked, and more coal continues to be shipped out of the region.
Drilling, Fracking and Pipelining
Virtually anywhere one goes in the Upper Ohio Valley, he or she will likely see signs of the oil and natural gas industry. Whether one sees rigs rising above the horizon in Belmont County, pipelines being installed in Marshall County, pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles parked at hotels in Ohio County, flaring at processing plants in Harrison County, or "sand can" trucks traveling between fracking operations along highways, the signs are clear.
Now, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Belmont County features more permitted horizontal wells than any of the state’s other 87 counties. For several years, Carroll County led the way with the most drilling operations.
According to industry leaders, one of the significant impediments to growth in recent years has been the lack of interstate pipeline infrastructure to transport natural gas to market. As 2017 draws to a close, this appears to be on its way to resolution. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given approval to multiple pipelines, including:
[American Thinker] Former Secretary of State (and Vietnam veteran) John Kerry and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice seem to be shuddering. And so is Ben Rhodes. Iran is having another freedom revolution, following the 2009 one the Obama administration flubbed, and they don't want President Trump to get his big bumbling hands on it. He might just ... mess it up.
Kerry emphasized that it was an "Iranian moment," meaning America's White House should say nothing.
With humility about how little we know about what's happening inside Iran, this much is clear: it's an Iranian moment and not anyone else's. But the rights of people to protest peacefully and voice their aspirations are universal and governments everywhere should respect that.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Five civilians were maimed in one of two kabooms that targeted coffee shops in Kirkuk city on Saturday, security source said.
Unidentified people attacked a coffee shop on al-Quds street in central Kirkuk using two IEDs, which left five civilians maimed, the source told Shafaq News.
A similar attack was launched using three bombs on Tese’in street in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... with no casualties reported, the source added.
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – About 950 displaced people have returned to their home regions in Al-Qa’im and Hit cities in Anbar province, a transport company said on Sunday.
“They all came from al-Habbaniyah and Kilo 48 camps via the company’s buses following coordination with the Ministry of Migration and Displacement,” Alghad Press quoted Chairman of the General Company for Transport of Passengers and Delegations Abduallah L. Bahedh as saying.
The company has secured 19 buses to bring the displaced people back home, he pointed out.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Five suicide attackers were killed in an operation by Iraqi troops in western Anbar, a commander announced on Sunday.
“Security troops launched an operation in al-Thayei’ region, southeast of Qaim,” Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mohammadi, commander of al-Jazeerah Operations, told AlSumaria News.
“The troops managed to kill five suicide attackers and explode a vehicle for the militants loaded with weapons,” he added.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Eleven Islamic State militants and an emir were killed in operations carried out by the Iraqi army in northeast of Diyala.
Speaking to AlSumaria News on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Mazhar al-Azzawi, commander of Dijla Operations, said, “cooperation between the command with al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) resulted in locating an IS hideout in north of Muqdadiyah in Diyala.”
“The hideout was shelled by army jets, leaving eleven militants killed,” he added.
Huge losses were inflicted on IS, according to Azzawi, due to shelling its havens and rest houses in several regions in Diyala.
In related news, the security committee of Diyala provincial council announced killing an IS emir in an operation in northeast of the province.
“IS lost a new emir in Neft Khana basin, northeast of Baquba, in an operation by army jets,” Sadeq al-Husseini, head of the committee, told AlSumaria News.
“Joint troops managed over the past 48 hours to eradicate three havens of IS in Wadi Thelab and Hawi al-Udhaim,” he added.
Diyala (Iraqinews.com) – Paramilitary troops killed on Sunday 13 Islamic State militants in a security campaign in northeastern Diyala, a military commander said.
“The Popular Mobilization Forces’ 24th brigade, backed by Iraqi warplanes, launched a wide-scale security campaign in northeastern Diyala, killing 13 IS militants, including four senior leaders with explosive belts,” the PMF’s 24th brigade commander Ziyad al-Tamimi told Alghad Press.
“The troops also destroyed five hotbeds and seized an arms depot for the terrorist group in Diyala,” he added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/01/2018
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Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) – Seventeen Islamic State militants were killed in a security campaign south of Nineveh, a police commander told Alsumaria News.
“Iraqi troops, backed by U.S.-led international coalition warplanes, have killed five Islamic State militants who were hiding inside an island in the Tigris River near Albu Saif area in southern Mosul,” Nineveh police chief Birg. Gen. Watheq al-Hamadani said on Sunday.
“After the attack, another 12 IS militants tried to escape but the U.S.-led coalition warplanes managed to kill all of them,” Hamadani said, adding that the clampdown was launched under the supervision of Nineveh Operations Commander Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jabouri.
Mosul (Iraqinews.com) – Sixty Islamic State militants were killed in a security campaign south of Mosul on Sunday, a security source said.
“The Iraqi army, police and Popular Mobilization Forces have been launching a wide-scale security campaign since Saturday evening, targeting Islamic State militants stationed in an island between al-Shumaisat and Albu Seif villages in southern Mosul, leaving 60 of them dead,” a source with the Nineveh Operations Command told Al-Arab newspaper.
“Dozens of IS militants were arrested while others fled the scene to Yaremja city,” the source said, adding that the clampdown was launched after receiving reports of a plan by IS militants to attack the eastern and southern parts of Mosul.
“Search is still underway for other IS militants,” the source concluded.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Relics of more than twenty security personnel were found in a mass grave in north of Mosul, a security source from Nineveh Operations Command said on Sunday.
“Security troops from the command ran into a mass grave composed of relics of 25 conscripts of local police, who were executed by Islamic State in al-Rashidiya region,” the source told Baghdad Today.
“The relics were recognized by the identity cards with them,” the source added.
The relics, according to the source, were recovered by security forces and extradited to forensic medicine department so their relatives would recognize them.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The pro-government paramilitary troops have repelled an Islamic State attack in west of Mosul, killing five militants, a military source said on Sunday.
“Troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Forces] managed to repulse an attack by IS, killing five members in Baaj, west of Mosul,” the source told Baghdad Today.
“Troops were deployed at borders of the town fearing further attacks,” the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/01/2018
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Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Thirteen non-combatants were killed and injured in an attack launched by 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.... bad boys, south of Salahuddin, the pro-government paramilitary troops said.
"IS members launched an attacked at midnight against civilians at al-Farhatiya region, north of Balad town, which left four killed and nine others maimed," the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said in a statement on Sunday.
The bad boys, according to the statement, used heavy weapons and bombs before withdrawing. "Security troops imposed control on the region after the confrontations."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/01/2018
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has rejected a request by Ottoman Turkish President over the border exits, a parliamentarian source said on Sunday.
Speaking to Baghdad Today on Sunday, the source said "Kurdistan Region’s premier, Nechirvan Barzani urged, during his recent visit to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , 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... to meditate and intervene to resolve the border exits issue."
Consequently, according to the source, "Erdogan submitted a proposal to Abadi to resolve the issue through joint administration between Baghdad and Erbil."
"Abadi refused and stressed necessity that the federal government imposes control on all border exits," the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/01/2018
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[St. Louis Post] HERRIN, Ill. • An American Legion post in Southern Illinois is getting ready to restore a 90-year-old statue honoring those who fought in World War I.
The Southern Illinoisan reports Herrin American Legion Post 645 received a $10,000 grant from Landmarks Illinois, a private not-for-profit historic preservation group.
The money will go toward restoration of Herrin's "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" monument, which was erected in 1927. Herrin is about 85 miles southeast of St. Louis.
The monument is one of 140 doughboy statues created by Ernest Moore "Dick" Viquesney.
Charles Parola, president of the Herrin Doughboy Committee. He says restoration will be scheduled for next year and cost about $30,000. The group has raised about $23,000.
The work will include stripping patina off the statue, fixing holes, reapplying the patina and applying wax to protect it.
#1
Unrelated, but if you thought Chicago had the market cornered on prohibition era bootlegging, here's a fascinating book on Williamson, County (Herrin, IL) and vicinity.
Army records show Birger enlisted in St. Louis on July 5, 1901 and was assigned to Company G of the newly formed 13th Cavalry Regiment, which was stationed in South Dakota. Birger was described as a good soldier and was honorably discharged on July 4, 1904 at Fort Mead, South Dakota.
Birger was burried at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in the University Park area of St. Louis, Missouri.
New study shows AfD Facebook posts spur anti-refugee attacks
29 December
[DW] A new study has found a direct link between social media hate and subsequent violent attacks on immigrant groups in both Germany and the US. Donald Trump's tweets also triggered an uptick in anti-immigrant crime.
Anti-Semitism in Germany: Jewish life 'under threat' says Charlotte Knobloch
29 December
[DW] The former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany says Jewish life is only possible with police protection. She claims the threat comes from the center of German society and says the government needs to act. In an interview with the German newspaper Heilbronner Stimme the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, voiced grave concern Friday over growing anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. She said that public Jewish life is under threat and can only be lived out "in public with police protection and under the most serious security precautions."
"Anti-Semitism, has grown on the right and the left, in the Muslim community and also in the heart of German society."
In April, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, recevied an expert report it had commissioned on the problem. The report found that Jews in Germany were facing increasing anti-Semitism in their everyday lives, leading them to fear for their safety.
Bosnia - a safe haven for refugees?
29 December
[DW] Many refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan or Syria have reached Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most dream of a better future, but the country's economic situation is difficult.
A friend helped Nasib escape to Iran, where he said he could not stay, because he claims Iranian authorities were hostile toward migrants. The young Pakistani passed through Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria before reaching Serbia.
He originally planned to move on, to try to reach Western Europe, but the Croatian EU-border was impossible to pass. He heard about Bosnia and Herzegovina, so he decided to join a group of migrants from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan who were leading the way toward the small Balkan state, which they regarded as a Muslim country.
Missing migrants: Germany's Red Cross receives thousands of inquiries
28 December
[DW] The German Red Cross president said it was "frightening" how many of the disappeared are unaccompanied minors. But some of the missing may have died on their journey to Germany, the aid group said.
The German Red Cross (DRK) on Thursday said it received 2,700 inquiries from migrants seeking missing relatives in Germany this year, including 1,000 of them for unaccompanied minors. In 2016, DRK registered about 2,800 inquiries for missing persons.
Europol said some 10,000 children had gone missing in Europe during the 2015 migration crisis. More than 75 percent of Europe-bound youth are subjected to forced labor, sexual abuse, child marriage and other forms of exploitation, according to the UN.
That would be the work of Obama-ignored Hizb’allah...
[DW] German police have seized more than 7 metric tons of cocaine this year, according to federal police. Germany had been inundated by a "flood of cocaine" from South America, said a senior law enforcement agent.
Cocaine is often sent from South America to Europe in shipping containers and paired with other products, including bananas, according to federal police. When the drug eventually makes it to an entry point such as Hamburg's port, criminal organizations bribe employees to ensure the shipments are unloaded without trouble, the BKA said.
German authorities target Islamist women's network
27 December
[DW] Germany's domestic security agency has identified a terror network made up of 40 Islamist women in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state. Female extremists are becoming increasingly common, as they aim to fill the gap left by their detained husbands.
The Islamist women's network also advertises and proselytizes Salafist ideology aggressively on the internet, said Burkhard Freier, the head of the North Rhine-Westphalian Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). And while it was wrong to conflate Salafism with extremism, every European jihadi in Europe in recent years had been a member of the Salafist scene, the BfV head added.
The BfV chief's remarks followed reports in mid-December by Germany's DPA news agency, which revealed that German authorities had classified several dozen Muslim women and young people as potential risks to domestic security.
EU refugee aid enters new phase in Turkey
27 December
[DW] The European Union has allocated the first half of its €6 billion agreement for Turkey to take in Syrian refugees. Officials are now assessing aid programs as humanitarian efforts carry on.
Introduced in March 2016, at the height of the European refugee crisis, the agreement aims to stop irregular migration from Turkey to Europe while improving the living conditions of refugees within Turkish borders. Since its passing, arrivals and deaths resulting from human trafficking to Greece have plummeted, and the first phase of €6 billion ($7.12 billion) in EU humanitarian funding has kick-started a wide range of programs addressing the most pressing needs of refugees in Turkey – over 3.2 million of whom are Syrian.
255 migrants rescued off Libyan coast: Italian coastguard
26 December
[TheLocal.it] Some 255 migrants were rescued overnight in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya, just before a front of bad weather hit the area, the Italian coastguard said on Tuesday. The non-governmental organisation Proactiva Open Arms picked up a rubber dinghy carrying 134 people, including seven children, on Monday night. They were to be transferred to the Aquarius rescue ship operated by another NGO, SOS Mediterranee, before being taken to Pozzallo in Sicily. A military ship from the European anti-smuggling operation Sophia also rescued 121 people aboard two other boats, the coastguard said.
According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, smugglers have lowered the price of a crossing to €400 ($475) per person, in part due to the bad winter weather, but they are still cramming as many migrants as possible into the dinghies.
Germany plans to start deporting underage migrants to Morocco
24 December
[DW] Since opening its doors in 2015, no unaccompanied minors have been deported from Germany. That is soon set to change, as Berlin has started building centers in Morocco to house deported minors, according to a report.
Report: Germany misses migrant and refugee integration goals
24 December
[DW] Germany's refugee and migration agency will end the year well short of its own integration goals. Waiting times for integration courses are up and participation rates are below target. On top of the high waiting times, BAMF also missed a goal of having 430,000 people participate in integration courses this year. Up to the middle of December, there were only slightly more than 280,000 participants in integration courses.
Only some 84,000 migrants and refugees participated in career-related language support courses, compared to a goal of 175,000 participants.
Denmark opts out of UN refugee resettlement program
20 December
[Ynet] Denmark will no longer take in refugees under a UN resettlement programme after passing a law on Wednesday that enables the government to determine how many may enter the country instead of accepting a set quota.
Since 1989, Denmark has agreed to take 500 refugees a year selected by the United Nations under a programme to ease the burden on countries that neighbour war zones. But after the European migration crisis in 2015 brought almost 20,000 claims for asylum, Denmark has refused to take any UN quota refugees and the centre-right government's new law aims to cut total refugee numbers to no more than 500 a year.
Last year, more than 6,000 people claimed asylum in Denmark. Between January and November this year a little over 3,000 people did.
Migrants in Serbia's north brave winter to cross to EU
20 December
[AlAhram] The so-called Balkan route for migrants was shut last year when Turkey agreed to stop the flow in return for EU aid and a promise of visa-free travel for its own citizens. But people mainly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia continued to arrive in Serbia, mainly from Turkey, via neighbouring Bulgaria, attempting to enter Croatia and the EU.
According to official data there are as many as 4,500 migrants in government-operated camps in Serbia. Rights activists say that hundreds are scattered in the capital Belgrade and towns along the Croatian border. Migrants who cannot afford to pay smugglers, often hide in passing trucks and freight trains or ride on the top of them.
Bruno Alvares of the No Name Kitchen said migrants are given two meals a day, water, clothes, footwear and tents.
"Even if it is cold, it doesn't matter, they will keep on trying because there's ... no evolution in their lives in camps," Alvares said.
Hundreds of Migrants Out in Open Along Serbia’s EU Borders
18 December
[Breitbart] Several hundred migrants were camping along Serbia’s borders on Monday, sleeping rough in make-shift shelters from the cold as they look for a chance to cross into neighboring European Union countries.
Macron ramps up expulsions and ID checks on migrants as he looks set to miss his ambitious deadline of getting people 'off the streets and out of the woods' by the end of 2017
26/12/17
Macron said in July he wanted people 'off the streets, out of the woods' by the end of 2017 and emergency lodgings 'everywhere' in France. But he looks set to miss his deadline
Asylum applications to the European Union will TRIPLE by 2100 as global warming causes people to move to cooler climates, experts claim
22/12/17
The research, led by Columbia University, suggests that weather shocks in countries around the world have increased applications by asylum seekers hoping to enter the EU
Mayors from seven major French cities write open letter saying they are overwhelmed by the flow of migrants
19/12/17
Local chiefs from Nantes, Lille, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulouse and Strasbourg wrote an open letter to Parisian officials to ask for relief from the 'extreme tension' caused by migrant arrivals.
Asylum seekers will be forced to hand over cash and mobile phones under tough new rules unveiled by Austria's new far-right coalition
19/12/17
Austria's new coalition has pledged to stop illegal immigration, cut taxes and resist EU centralisation, and will be led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, at 31 the world's youngest leader
Hamburg Police to Deploy Mass Camera Network to Prevent New Year’s Sex Attacks
31 December
Hamburg police will deploy a mix of fixed cameras, vehicle cameras, and officer body cameras to prevent sexual assaults and identify those who carry out attacks on New Year’s Eve.
Right Wing Populism Could Become ‘New Normal’, No End in Sight For Surge: Tony Blair Institute
29 December
The “populist surge” in Europe has far from peaked and is the most significant change to the European order since the end of the Cold War, a new report by former British left-wing Prime Minister Tony Blair’s own think tank has claimed.
Inter-Ethnic Conflicts on the Rise Between Asylum Seekers in Germany
29 December
Migrants of different ethnicities are forming enclaves within asylum homes and the level of inter-ethnic violence is on the rise as some African migrants claim to be treated as “like dirt” by Arab asylum seekers.
‘Accept the Will of the People on Migration, Culture, or Hit the Road’: Orbán Tells Europe’s Leaders
29 December
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said elections held across the continent are proof that Europeans are “asserting their will” by supporting leaders who reject mass migration and support Christian foundations, and gave a warning to politicians who deny the “natural order of democracy”.
Arrest Made After Asylum Seeker Run Over Outside Illegal Calais Migrant Camp
28 December
A French man in his fifties was arrested earlier this week and has been charged with fleeing the scene of an accident after his vehicle hit a 22-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker near the Grande-Synthe migrant camp in Dunkirk.
EU Army’s First Deployment? Austria Calls For Military-Backed ‘Safe Zones’ in Migrant Origin Countries
28 December
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has urged the European Union (EU) to create safe zones within migrant-origin countries and deploy member states’ armed forces to stop the flow of migrants.
Asylum Seeker Pair Arrested After Sexually Exposing Themselves to Girls as Young as Ten
27 December
The asylum seekers, a 32-year-old Syrian and a 20-year-old Afghan, were arrested in the German city of Augsburg after repeatedly exposing their genitals to young girls on public transportation.
Afghan Migrant Found Dead By Side of the Road in Calais
25 December
An Afghan migrant was found dead by the side of the road in Calais in an apparent hit and run as investigators search for a potential suspect in the case. The man, who has not been able to be identified or his age
‘A Historic Day’ – 162 Migrants Flown Direct from Libya to Europe for First Time
23 December
A group of 162 “vulnerable” refugees were flown directly from Libya to Italy on Friday for the first time, a day hailed as “historic” by Interior Minister Marco Minniti.
Syrian Migrant Living in Sweden Arrested For Plotting Terror Attack in Copenhagen
23 December
Danish authorities have arrested and charged a 30-year-old Syrian asylum seeker living in Sweden, believe to have attempted a terrorist attack last November.
Hungary: We Will Make Our Country Family Friendly So Population Can Grow Without Mass Migration
22 December
The Hungarian government has pledged measures to support naturally growing the population – rejecting mass migration – as an effort to halt the demographic decline after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared 2018 to be a “year of families”.
EU Citizens’ Fear of Mass Migration and Terrorism Has More Than Doubled
21 December
Voters across all 28 member states agree that terrorism and immigration are the most important issues facing the European Union – far ahead of the economy, unemployment, or climate change.
Left-Wing Politician Bemoans Lack of Police Action Against Migrant Criminals
21 December
Left-wing Green Party politician Peter Seifert has complained of a lack of action by German police against migrant criminals, increasing the popularity of the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
France Brings First of 3,000 Migrants Directly from Africa Under New Migrant Plan
21 December
France has begun a new initiative to bring in 3,000 migrants directly from Africa as 19 Sundanese migrants arrived on Monday who will be temporarily housed in a monastery in Alsace.
Doctors and Pro-Migrant Activists Prosecuted over Fake Medical Certificates for Asylum Seekers
21 December
Five medical doctors and four pro-migrant activists have been indicted on charges relating to the issuance of fake medical certificates to asylum seekers to keep them in France.
Poll: 70 Per Cent of Swiss Would Be ‘Disturbed’ by Increase in Muslim Population
21 December
A poll has revealed that a large majority of Swiss citizens would be “disturbed” if the country’s Muslim population were to increase.
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Labels New Austrian Government ‘Dangerous’
20 December
United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has slammed the new Austrian conservative-populist coalition government claiming their right-wing policies are “dangerous.” Al Hussein said he was “very worried” about the implications for the rest of Europe after the conservative
Austria’s Conservative-Nationalist Coalition to Impose ‘Sanctions’ on Migrants Who Refuse to Integrate
20 December
Austria’s new conservative-nationalist coalition is set to get tough on illegal migration and migrants who refuse to integrate into Austrian society.
Global Free Movement: UN Chief Calls Migration a ‘Right’ in a ‘World on the Move’
20 December
Global free movement and “safe”, orderly mass migration should be a right for all poor and unskilled migrants from the third world, according to the director general of the United Nations’ Migration Agency.
UN Launches App to ‘Empower’ Migrants, Encourage Them to ‘Migrate Safely’
19 December
The International Organization for Migration has launched ‘MigApp’ – a mobile phone app developed to “engage” and “empower” migrants and help them “migrate safely”.
Council of Europe: ‘Diversity and Mass Migration Have Always Been Integral Part of Continent’s History’
19 December
“Europe has always been a continent of diversity. Migration has always been an integral part of its history,” the Council of Europe has claimed in a statement marking International Migrants Day.
Czech Prez: Europe Is ‘Jeopardised by a Culture of Hatred Incompatible with Ours’, Israel a ‘Heroic Model for Us’
19 December
The President of the Czech Republic has warned that Europe’s values are being “jeopardised by a culture of hatred that is incompatible with ours”, and said “Israel and its heroism are a model and encouragement for us.”
Malmö Police Backtrack After Warning Girls Not to Go out at Night Alone After Brutal Rape
19 December
The police in the heavily-migrant populated Swedish city of Malmö has backtracked after warning young women not to go out alone at night in no-go zones after a brutal rape in which some claim a 17-year-old girl had her vagina lit on fire.
‘Merkel Has the Blood of My Son on Her Hands’: Mother of Terror Victim
19 December
The mother of the truck driver murdered by failed asylum seeker terrorist Anis Amri last Christmas has blamed German Chancellor Angela Merkel for his death saying his blood is “on her hands”.
Populist Leaders: EU ‘Existential Threat’ to Europe, ‘Drowning It in Migrants to Destroy Our Diversity’
19 December
Populist leaders meeting in Prague this weekend said the EU is “killing Europe”, as they agreed to work on building an alternative model of cooperation that respects the continent’s peoples and cultures.
Protests in Austria as New Right-Populist Government Sworn In
18 December
Left-wing protestors attempted to break through police barricades outside the presidential palace during the inauguration of the new Austrian government Monday morning, as 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz became the world’s youngest national leader.
'You don't get s*** for wearing nowt but if you start wearing a veil you're accused of extremism': Ex Page 3 girl who police feared was being groomed by ISIS is released without charge
28/12/17
Kimberley Miners, who once appeared topless in The Sun, was quizzed last year under the Terrorism Act 2000 and had her home in Bradford searched. She's now been released without charge
'Hair gel jihadi' Muslim convert, 27, who changed his appearance 'to look more Syrian' as he tried to join ISIS after leaving his pregnant wife who ‘snitched’ on him to police is jailed for five years
22/12/17
Liverpool-born Ismael Watson, 27, travelled to Turkey but was stopped and sent back to Britain as he tried to cross the border into Syria, the Old Bailey heard.
Sainsbury’s worker, 19, linked to London Bridge terrorist’s jihadi network faces jail for sharing ISIS propaganda on WhatsApp
20/12/17
Iftikahar Ali, pictured, from High Wycombe was friends with convicted terrorist Taha Hussain who knew London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt, was today found guilty of 13 terrorism charges.
MI5 is struggling to deal with surge in 'high risk' terror suspects as threat to Britain hits 'unprecedented' levels, report warns
20/12/17
A report has given a stark insight into the challenge facing the security services, revealing they are devoting more resources to watching individuals who have had terrorist training or are plotting attacks.
Revealed: Polish mother lives in a £200-a-week council house worth £1.9m on the same millionaire's row where a £2.2m house is rented for £90 a week to a Somali refugee family
30/12/17
With its elegant Georgian houses and scattering of cherry trees, this street is among London's most desirable locations, just a short walk from the West End, the Barbican arts centre and the City.
Lorry hiding seven Iraqi men and three boys is stopped at the same UK petrol station where police arrested nine illegal immigrants three months ago
20/12/17
Police were called to a dual carriageway in Bracknell last week after noises were heard coming from the back of the truck.
Woman, 50, who was caught trying to smuggle three people through the Eurotunnel hidden underneath bedding is jailed for more than two years
19/12/17
Wendy Thomas was stopped at the UK border controls at the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles, France, where officers discovered two women in a holdall and a man lying on the floor in the back.
Migrants Who Lie About Being Refugees Can Now Stay in the UK, Court Rules
28 December
Albanian criminals who pretended to be Kosovan refugees have been allowed to stay in the UK after a Supreme Court judgement revealed a “loophole in the law”.
UK: Whites Scared, White-Owned Businesses Stoned in a Racially Divided Bradford ‘Heading for Disaster’
24 December
Areas of Bradford are no-go zones for certain ethnic groups and the city is “heading toward disaster,” councillors have warned, citing attacks on a synagogue and white businesses in ‘Asian’ areas.
Travellers and ‘Asian Communities’ Fuel Cruel Resurgence in Cockfighting
22 December
Travellers and “men from Asian communities” are driving a resurgence in the cruel blood sport of cockfighting, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has warned.
Study: Brexit Not Driven by Racism, Public Want Immigration Control and Criminal Checks
22 December
The British people largely did not vote to leave the European Union (EU) because they are racist and the public’s desire for control over immigration is not driven by prejudice, a report has found.
Young Britons ‘Paying The Price’ for Decade of Mass Migration, Housing Crisis Report Finds
To be fair, this includes EU migrants as well as Moslem colonists
22 December
A new report has revealed the extent to which Britain’s housing crisis has been driven by mass immigration, with young people “paying the price” for this policy through ever-rising rents.
Refugee Jailed For ‘Ferocious’ Knife Attack Just Two Months After He Was Flown To UK From Syria
20 December
A Syrian has been jailed after stabbing a man multiple times in a ‘ferocious’ attack launched just two months after being flown into Britain with his family as a refugee by UK taxpayers. Fahed Shamery was sentenced at Chester Crown
UK to Spend £180 Million on Africa Aid, Helping Migrants ‘Return Home’
19 December
The UK will spend £180 million of taxpayers’ money over five years in Africa in an effort to convince migrants to stay where they are, reintegrate, or “return home”.
Devout Muslim widow stops wearing her hijab and starts dating a man in Australia after ISIS terrorist shot her husband dead in horrific Jakarta Starbucks attack
31/12/17
A devout Muslim woman stopped wearing the hijab after an ISIS terrorist shot dead her husband in an horrific attack outside a Starbucks cafe in Jakarta. She's now dating an Australian carpenter.
ISIS fighter Neil Prakash denies being the leader of the Islamist terror network's Australian faction as he edges closer to being extradited home
27/12/17
Australia's most notorious living ISIS fighter, Neil Prakash, has denied being the leader of the Islamic State terror group in his home country.
Brother of an ISIS TERRORIST is allowed to join the police after dodging background checks in an astonishing security breach
25/12/17
The brother of a man who fled Australia to become in ISIS terrorist three years ago was allegedly accepted into the Queensland Police Force. The unnamed man had completed two weeks of training but resigned when confronted by authorities.
'Refugee minorities are more prone to terrorism': Psychiatrist warns resentment and feeling Muslims are 'hard done by' could fuel Islamist attacks
26/12/17
A prominent psychiatrist from Bangladesh Tanveer Ahmed says Muslim refugees are more prone to terrorism. He cited Sydney's Lindt cafe siege gunman Man Monis (pictured) as an example.
Careless' immigrant driver who killed a 27-year-old interior designer spared jail despite pleading guilty - and he'll be back on the road in just SIX MONTHS
21/12/17
A 'careless' immigrant driver who killed a 27-year-old fitness model at an intersection in south Brisbane has been spared jail despite pleading guilty.
'It will DESTROY Australia as we know it': Dick Smith says it's 'no accident' immigration has skyrocketed by 27 per cent as he warns we will end up with '50 million people on Centrelink'
20/12/17
Millionaire entrepreneur Dick Smith has slammed Australia's politicians for allowing the immigration rate to soar by 27 per cent. Australia has the fastest population growth pace of any rich country.
Australia records its highest ever immigration rate – with the population tipped to reach 25 million in months
20/12/17
Australia's population is set to reach the 25 million milestone within a matter of months. It comes as the nation's annual immigration pace soars by 27 per cent, with Sydney getting quite crowded.
h/t instapundit
For the third year in a row, Baltimore, Md., has had more than 300 murders, reaching a new record of murders per number of residents in 2017.
Some residents attribute the high murder rate to relaxed police patrols in the city following high-profile cases of police brutality. Officers have backed off in neighborhoods, like the one where Freddie Gray was arrested.
The Rev. Kinji Scott, a pastor in Baltimore who's held positions in local city government, says the opposite needs to happen.
"We wanted the police there," Scott says. "We wanted them engaged in the community. We didn't want them beating the hell out of us, we didn't want that." I wonder how long it'll take for "African - Americans" to realize that "cognitive elites" are not their friends, and "African - Americans" coopted by said "elites" are not their representatives?
#1
Happens when you invert cause and effect. The police were not the cause of the underlying problems, rather the effect to the underlying problems. Now you don't have the police and still have the underlying problems. As long as you allow members of your community to denounce effective behaviors labeled as 'whiteness' I doubt you'll ever solve the underlying problems.
#2
The genetics of tribal cultures cannot be blamed. Someone else must be held responsible. The worship of primitive savages, their athletic prowess, song, art, bead work, and struggles must continue.
#5
The police backed off as the protesters demanded. Now they're not happy that the police did as they asked. WTF. Someone make this make sense. It's as of the protesters didn't want to be taken seriously.
#6
Happens when you invert cause and effect. The police were not the cause of the underlying problems, rather the effect to the underlying problems. Now you don't have the police and still have the underlying problems.
#7
Lets do a Gedankenexperiment. Suppose police comes back, and - in the first week - they've a violent encounter with drug dealers in which one of the later get's killed. (i) Would there be a violent protest? (ii) What Rev. Scott's position will be?
#9
Lets do a Gedankenexperiment. Suppose police comes back, and - in the first week - they've a violent encounter with drug dealers in which one of the later get's killed. (i) Would there be a violent protest? (ii) What Rev. Scott's position will be?
Freezing temps will negatively impact results. Please reschedule for May.
[National Review] 1) If the FISA Court orders to explore the purported Trump-Russian collusion were predicated on phony Steele/Fusion GPS documents and suppositions that prove largely untrue (Comey himself testified under oath that he could not verify their contents), then are subsequent transcripts of court-approved surveilled conversations somewhat poisoned? And, if so, not permissible to be used in collation with later sworn FBI statements to prove inconsistencies, lying, or obstructing? Would someone like Flynn eventually have grounds to appeal his confession?
2) Given the overwhelming progressive consensus by summer 2016 that Trump was not going to be president and that his likely post facto blame for his defeat would fall on deaf ears (Obama before the election had both predicted that Trump would not win and that he would have no grounds to complain of outside interference in the results), why did the amateurish Clinton-created Fusion GPS dossier win such a shelf life, to be peddled around the FBI, discussed by the Obama White House, bandied about by the intelligence agencies, and worked on by the spouse of a DOJ high official? Was the dossier seen as some sort of insurance, or an amusing trifle without consequences ‐ given that a Clinton administration would have no interest in learning whether there was any impropriety among those who trafficked in it (or rather gratitude for doing just that), and who probably would be working for Hillary Clinton anyway?
3) In an era in which "diversity" is a national mantra, why didn’t Mueller’s law team reflect much geographical, institutional, political, ideological, and career diversity? Surely there were hundreds of blue-chip attorneys with DOJ or FBI experience, who lived outside of New York and Washington, who did not go to Ivy League law schools, who did not work in Mueller’s former firm or even New York or D.C. firms, who were reticent about expressing preferences in the 2016 election, who did not give, say, over $100 to a presidential candidate, who were never involved in prior investigations of Hillary Clinton, and who had never represented or had contact with the Clinton Foundation or Obama officials. Or was the political frenzy of early 2017 such that collusion was seen as a slam dunk, and many of the current and former elite of the DOJ, the FBI, and Mueller’s firm wished to get in on the hunt to show how a "dream team," "army," and "all-stars" could take down the obviously hemorrhaging Trump? In any case, in a politically charged era of accusations of a deep-state, ideologically driven, incestuous swamp, Mueller’s team has almost proved a caricature.
4) To what degree, if any, in 2018 will reinvestigations about the improper transmissions of classified emails by Hillary Clinton and her staff ‐ or the use of the likely bogus Fusion/GPS document to obtain FISA warrants, or the unmasking and leaking of names of U.S. citizens surveilled ‐ fall under Mueller’s purview? And if not, why not? And if not, how can critics of the entire notion of a special counsel, then want a special, special counsel to investigate the "real" collusion?
5) In 2018, the charge of "blaming the FBI" as somehow unpatriotic or subversive will probably vanish, with the reality that a politicized FBI hierarchy, not its critics, let down the rank and file and endangered the sterling reputation of a hallowed agency.
Why?
Probably because of cumulative reports that the FBI director confessed that he deliberately leaked to journalists his confidential work notes (written on government time) of conversations with the president, to leverage a special-counsel appointment (which went to his close friend Robert Mueller); that the same director changed the wording of an initial finding of wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton to avoid suggestions of criminal intent (on the written suggestion of a subordinate with clear pro-Clinton sympathies); that a deputy FBI director continued in an investigation of Hillary Clinton at the very time his wife was running for state office, a campaign fueled in part by extremely generous donations from a Clinton-related PAC; that two high FBI officials conducted a clandestine extramarital affair using government-issued communications both to manage their affair and to express disdain and venom for the very object of their current investigations; that these two FBI employees were reassigned and their reassignments were not announced to the public until months after their departure and were revealed in a manner that did not disclose either the reasons for their departure or the relationship between both departures; and that the Obama administration’s FBI, at some point and for some reason, abbreviated its investigation into the so-called Uranium One matter, possibly owing to worries over damage to the 2016 Clinton campaign.
Perhaps each of these problems involves extenuating circumstances and a backstory that makes them less damaging.
But taken as a whole, they point to a careerist FBI hierarchy that did not adhere to standards of professionalism that their subordinates in the field most certainly do adhere to.
The FBI’s current problems are not in their stars, but in themselves.
#1
What we've seeing, IMO, is "cognitive elites" (meaning they're good at cheating on tests) attempting to reverse people's choice.
To barrow from one of my favored authors
"They imagine they're the wave of the future, but it's only sewage flowing downhill" - Lois McMaster Bujold Barrayar.
#2
What we've seeing, IMO, is "cognitive elites" (meaning they're good at cheating on tests) attempting to reverse people's choice.
Good at "cheating" on elections as well, but not good enough. None of this populist rubbish was supposed to happen. Swamp levels were set to increase, not decline. Old white men were to have been finished! But our shadow gov't regime planners miscalculated. As so often happens, our betters underestimated the long memories and wisdom of the 'forgotten man.'
Hence the gnashing of teeth and bitter outrage from the left and Deep State. The damage wrought by Soetoro was too pervasive. Candidate Clinton was simply too heavy a lift.
#4
G(r)om, sometimes the biggest problem with a flat tire is that it's flat right now.
(I particularly like the way that, after all these years, the WAPO had this revelation immediately after Moore won the primary but before the actual election. So he couldn't be replaced.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
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#5
Well Ed, maybe it's past time people learned to to swallow propaganda - I do notice that all of Moore's accusers seem to have disappeared after he stopped being a threat.
h/t Instapundit
I don’t come from the future, I only work there.
Or to put it another way, I spend a lot of my time thinking of where current events and current trends will lead in the future.
Mind you, that future is usually 500 or so years in the future, and I’m also likely to succumb to the rule of cool. I don’t really expect them to have antigrav wands, but come on, guys, gangs of broomers roaming the skies? Perfect for cool stories, even if I wouldn’t want to live there.
Nearer term, and where you can be disproven, making predictions is risky. Or as the professor has been known to say, "making predictions is difficult, particularly about the future."
So, take this with a grain of salt.
...The one thing I can predict for sure is that the left will continue to shriek with unhinged fury at everything that Trump does and fails to do.
So the one solid bet I have for you is "Buy popcorn futures. You can’t go wrong."
[Jpost] Human rights organizations continue to decry ‐ as inhumane and antithetical to Jewish values ‐ the policy of forcibly removing African refugees to a country as perilous as Rwanda.
Amid ongoing legislation to forcefully deport tens of thousands of African refugees to Rwanda, the Population and Migration Authority on Sunday released a report claiming no "infiltrators" entered Israel in 2017.
Moreover, according to data submitted by the authority, 4,012 illegal residents voluntarily left the country, of whom 3,332 were from wartorn Sudan or Eritrea. Still, approximately 35,000 African asylum seekers remain in the country in varying states of legal limbo.
Over the past year, a total of 2,550 asylum requests were made by Eritrean and Sudanese nationals, 7,710 requests were made by Ukrainians, and 7,710 were made by Georgian nationals, the authority said.
However, the government continues to ignore the thousands of African asylum applications that it has received over the years.
The issue of heightened border security reached a fever pitch in 2011, when 17,000 African migrants ‐ most of whom the government referred to as "infiltrators" ‐ entered the country, bringing the total to 64,000 by 2012.
[Daily Beast] Lawyer Lisa Bloom, representing the woman accusing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of sexual misconduct in 1994, when she was 13 years old, speaks to media in Woodland Hills, California, U.S. November 2, 2016.
Former Clinton nemesis turned Clinton operative David Brock was reportedly behind a six-figure effort to identify and bring forward victims of sexual misconduct by Donald Trump before Election Day. Brock’s American Bridge 21st Century Foundation reportedly spent $200,000, and one of his major donors, Susie Tompkins Buell, gave $500,000. Both sums went to the firm of Lisa Bloom. However the efforts did not meet with success, and Bloom claims most of the money was refunded.
[Right Scoop] In a segment on CNN with the legendary journalists from Watergate, host Dana Bash tries to get them to compare Richard Nixon to Trump over his attacks on the press ‐ and they lay into the media instead.
Bernstein says that the media mocks too much and Woodward says the media is smug and self-righteous while pointing out that they would never have the tone that current journalists show on broadcasts and in their social media.
[Townhall] On Sunday evening, President Donald J. Trump took to Twitter to slam the Iranian government and to remind the world that the Islamic Republic is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, something President Obama's State Department reported in 2016.
Indeed, President Trump is correct. A 2016 State Department annual report said Iran "remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world." The report also said that Iran was providing arms and cash to terrorist groups like Hezbollah, notes CNN.
That report came after then Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that some of the money provided via economic sanctions relief to Iran - nearly $150 billion ‐ would end up in the hands of terrorists. "I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists," he said in the interview in Davos, referring to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. "You know, to some degree, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented."
#1
So hang them for treason everytime shia terrorists kill Americans. You might have to dig Lurch's body up a couple of thousand times But I'm sure he'll eventually get the point.
[Townhall] Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen appeared on ABC News "This Week" where he voiced concern that President Barack Obama was not as supportive of anti-government Iranian protesters as he should have been in 2009. He told ABC News that he hopes President Donald J. Trump is "supportive of more freedoms in that country."
Host Martha Raddatz asked Mullen his opinion regarding President Trump’s response to the recent Iranian protests. Mullen was supportive and made key distinctions between how President Obama handled the situation in 2009 and how President Trump is in present day.
Skipping down:
Mullen began his tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 2007 under President George W. Bush and continued under President Obama until Sept 2011.
In 2012, GOP candidate Mitt Romney harangued President Obama’s tepid response at the time to the 2009 Iranian protests.
Romney gave a blistering speech against President Obama saying, "When millions of Iranians took to the streets in June of 2009, when they demanded freedom from a cruel regime that threatens the world, when they cried out, 'Are you with us, or are you with them?' -- the American president was silent," Romney said.
#7
Sorry g(r)omgoru, he's already passed the first tests of sainthood by healing the sick (Obamacare), Feeding the poor (Moochelle's school lunches) and bringing world peace (by rolling over for Iran, China, Russia and Norkland.)
#8
Check my internet accounts. Hell, check the Burg. I made it very explicitly clear and Crystal I wanted Persia back and instead you did the exact opposite of everything I asked you to do and shored up the Mullahs and paid them off and ..worse you fucker bitch.
Adultery applies to false doctrine in some cases.
Did you not hear me down here screaming at you to stop this madness and spiteful work?
What is it about you that refuses the reality that if you stand for what is Correct, one day you will be accepted in a better way?
It's a popularity contest for well spoken tokens or bad ideology to stick it to "The Man"
#9
#2 But imagine the fights among future historians re "Why Americans elected Obama - twice", Besoeker.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru
Easy answer, there was no other suitable candidate from any political party that appealed to the American people.
Really the primary democrat candidates in 2008 were Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama and Richardson. (Among other lesser known candidates.)
#10
Given the republican choices, it's really no surprise that Obama won.
So basically Obama won because his opponents sucked big time, some would say that they were kinda toxic.
(Both major parties apparently still have not learned from the 2016 elections why Trump won. So far Trump has been a spectacular success and this will shape future presidential elections.) (Maybe, if anybody bother to learn from this election.)
Most were long time Washington politicians and frankly, people were tired of the same ol', same ol'. Obama at the time seemed like fresh perspective and eventually won the election.
In 2012, on the democrat side, there basically was Obama and um, Obama. the others were mostly fridge candidates who never really had a chance of winning. Ed Cowan who came in second on the democrat ticket only got 1.56% of the votes.
#13
While the three top Republicans were Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. Ron Paul got 3.77% of the votes, the rest even less. (Same source as above.)
Word limit messed up the order of my posts.
Suggested reading, #9, then #11 followed by #12 with #10 at the end.
#18
But imagine the fights among future historians re "Why Americans elected Obama - twice", Besoeker.
"When millions of Iranians took to the streets in June of 2009, when they demanded freedom from a cruel regime that threatens the world, when they cried out, 'Are you with us, or are you with them?' -- the American president was silent," Romney said.
That bastard didn't say anything until that young lady was shot dead cold by the regime police, and only then when the story couldn't be suppressed any long did that bastard endorse dinner jacket and the election results. Silence, then back to attaching the colon hooks on once a future obamacare.
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least two people, including a Somali soldier, were killed Sunday after a roadside kaboom has destroyed a military convoy in Mogadishu.
A witness, speaking to Radio Shabelle on the phone said the blast which took place near the Ministry of Defense was targeted army convoy ferrying AMISOM forces.
Somali government troops have arrived at the scene following the blast and carried out a manhunt mission, but no arrest was reported.
Al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... has claimed credit for the bombing, saying it killed five AU soldiers.
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[RADIOSHABELLE] Kenya’s elite security forces have intensified a manhunt for al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... Death Eaters who attacked two police camps in northeastern parts of the country on Saturday.
North-eastern regional commissioner Mohamud Saleh said a contingent of security officers drawn from Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), rural border patrol unit and the regal police were in hot pursuit of the holy warriors.
"They (militants) can run but they cannot hide. We will smoke them out of their hideout," Saleh told news hounds.
He assured local residents that security agencies were "in control of the situation" and urged them to provide relevant information that will help nab the holy warriors.
The holy warrior who according to locals were numbering 100 razed two cop shoppes before escaping with a police Land Cruiser. They also vandalized a Safaricom mast hence cutting of communication in the area.
The al-Shabaab fighters had earlier been spotted in Boni forest, Taqsiley and Walkon areas in Ijara sub-county, Garissa county in northeastern Kenya.
They were accused of attempting to recruit local youth through radicalization.
Last week a man who was suspected by local resident to have fled the militia group had been tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! by the area chief in Kotile and handed over to anti-terror military officers based in Gamba in Tana delta.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Jazeera] Four Indian soldiers and three fighters were killed in festivities as rebels stormed a paramilitary camp in the southern region of Indian-administered Kashmire, officials said.
Another paramilitary personnel died after suffering a heart attack during the encounter on Sunday.
Rajesh Yadav, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) front man, told Al Jazeera that fighters fired at a group of police in Lethpora village on Sunday morning at around 2am before entering the building.
"This was a [rebel] attack. The Lions of Islam were four in number, two were killed along the fencing and two managed to enter the campus," he said. "The search is ongoing for a fourth terrorist."
The 160-acre camp in the volatile Pulwama district serves as a training centre and a CRPF base, Yadav said.
Shabaz Ahmad, a 28-year-old Lethpora resident, told Al Jazeera that he was woken up by the rattle of gunfire.
"We couldn't understand what was going on until the morning, when we heard that ongoing fire was some distance away from our area in the camp," he said. "The earth-shaking blasts and kabooms reverberated until late afternoon. The noise of firing is still on, the camp is around two kilometres away from the residential area."
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[Al Jazeera] Security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... (DRC) have rubbed out two people during anti-government demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, according to a rights group.
Another man was reportedly rubbed out in the central city of Kananga by soldiers who opened fire on worshippers gathered for what church leaders said would be a peaceful protest, according to AFP news agency.
Catholic church activists had called for a "peaceful march" after Sunday mass, demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down.
There is growing anger over what some see as Kabila's refusal to relinquish power after his second full term ended in December 2016.
In Kinshasa, the two men were killed outside St. Alphonse church in Matete district as security forces dispersed peaceful protesters, according to Ida Sawyer, the Central Africa director of Human Rights Watch.
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[AlAhram] Israeli occupation forces detained 20 Paleostinians in early-morning raids on Sunday, as festivities continue following the United States' recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
According to local sources, 10 people were detained in East Jerusalem and another ten in the West Bank.
Among those tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! were nine Paleostinians from Issawiya in East Jerusalem and a young man from town of Biddu, north-west of Jerusalem.
Israeli forces also raided several houses in the northern West Bank city of Nablus and detained two Paleostinians from their homes in Sufian Street and al-Ain refugee camp.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... in Jenin, two men from the village of Jaba were detained at a military checkpoint, with another two arrested at their homes during a raid in al-Manshiyeh village in Bethlehem.
A man who had recently been released from custody was rearrested in al-Arroub refugee camp north of Hebron.
Sunday's detentions bring to more than 600 the number of Paleostinians arrested by Israeli forces since protests started in response to US President Trump's announcement in early December that the US embassy would be moved to Jerusalem.
Israeli forces have killed at least 11 and injured 3000 Paleostinians during ensuing festivities.
Come back when you are ready to seriously negotiate a permanent peace treaty, dude. So clever of you to decamp voluntarily before President Trump threw you out.
[IsraelTimes] The Paleostinians say Sunday they were recalling their envoy to the United States for consultations, in a move that follows US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s designation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Paleostinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki decided to recall PLO envoy to Washington Husam Zomlot, official Paleostinian news agency WAFA says, without providing further details.
Ah, so he represents the PLO, that is to say the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank, but not Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
[Ynet] Russia's Investigative Committee said on Sunday it had indicted on terrorism charges a suspect who allegedly organized and carried out a bombing that injured 13 people in a St. Petersburg supermarket this week.
The committee said in a statement that the suspect, whose identity has not been disclosed by Sherlocks, "deliberately made and planted a homemade bomb" that went kaboom! on Wednesday at a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain in Russia's second city.
The suspect told Sherlocks he had been motivated by "hatred toward the organizers and participants" of mindset training sessions he used to attend, the committee said without providing further detail.
Not a jihadi after all, so posted on Page 3: Non-WoT.
[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... on Sunday placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! more suspected 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.... (IS) jihadists in a major crackdown on the holy warrior group ahead of high-security New Year celebrations overshadowed by the first anniversary of an attack that left 39 dead.
Just minutes into 2017, Istanbul was rocked by an attack by an Uzbek gunman acting on behalf of IS who fired indiscriminately on revellers at the Reina nightclub on the Bosphorus.
It was another body blow to Turkey under 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... after a year of attacks by jihadists and Kurdish rebels as well as a failed coup.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... there has been no major attack in Turkey in 2017 since the Reina murders, and security forces this year appear to be taking every possible precaution to ensure this New Year passes without incident.
In pre-dawn raids on Sunday, authorities detained 20 suspected IS members in Istanbul, 15 of them foreigners, who are believed to have spent time in Syria or Iraq, the Dogan news agency said.
Ottoman Turkish media have said the authorities had already detained some 200 suspected jihadists in recent days ‐ including 75 in Istanbul and Ankara on Friday ‐ fearing they could launch an attack over the New Year.
According to some reports, the government is particularly anxious that IS fighters who left the Syrian city of Raqa after its capture by pro-Kurdish militia this year have flooded back into Turkey.
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[All Africa] Scores of civilians and Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... forces of Evil were reportedly killed yesterday during different attacks in Borno and Yobe states.
Witnesses said the first attack was an ambush on firewood mongers in villages around Mafa, the first local government area outskirts of Maiduguri along Dikwa- Gamboru-Ngala-Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... Republic road.
The second attack was reportedly launched at villages around Kanamma in northern fringes of Yobe State, the first place where Boko Haram, then known as Nigerian Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... , settled around 2002.
The third siege was along Maiduguri- Damboa road in southern part of Borno.
Different sources said dozens of people were allegedly killed but this could not be independently verified.
In the attack in Mafa, sources said no fewer than 50 people were killed.
A vigilante Umara Modu said many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Muna camp in the outskirts of Maiduguri, as well as others from the surrounding villages, including Maiwa near Mafa LGA, were killed around 2.30 pm Saturday.
"Different Boko Haram gangs ambushed different locations. More than 50 people, mostly those chopping firewood which they normally sell to support their families, were killed," he said.
"They carted away many trucks belonging to the firewood mongers and set ablaze the rickety ones," he added.
Usman Jidda, a driver who lives near Muna garage in Maiduguri corroborated. "It was a assassination by the terrorists... Based on the information I got, they killed more than 40 people in the bushes," he said.
It was also gathered that the forces of Evil attacked Kanamma villages around 5:45pm yesterday, but many of them met their waterloo as they were killed by an Air Force fighter jet which mobilized to the site after a distress call.
"The BH fighters did not succeed in Kanamma, they were repelled," said Musa Mohammed, a resident of Geidam, which is not far from Kanamma.
"The bully boyz actually attacked Kam village near Kanamma where they sometime ago forcefully recruited many youths. I think they went back to either recruit others but were not successful.
"The village is at a border between Nigeria and Niger, and it is the Musab Albarnawi faction of the sect that is terrorising people there
"It is pleasing that Air Force mobilized immediately. Many of the bad boyz were potted by the fighter jet while fleeing in the desert," he said.
A resident in the town, Musaah Baakura, revealed that prior to the Kanamma attack villagers called and warned their relatives of the possibility.
"They said that the forces of Evil had assembled in a bush, with weapons, trying to hit a target. Many people fled for their lives, some traveled out, some to neighbouring villages while others remained indoors," he said.
In yet another attack, the forces of Evil reportedly laid ambush on vehicles conveying people and foodstuff along Maiduguri- Damboa road.
"Those ones were desperately looking for food and they succeeded in getting plenty," a security source, who does not want to be quoted, said.
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[AlAhram] Egypt’s High State Security Prosecution will question a suspect in Friday's terrorist attack on a Coptic church in Helwan, south of Cairo, as soon as his health stabilises, the general prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the ministry identified as Ibrahim Ismail Mostafa, shot up Mar Mina Church on Friday, killing a total of nine people and injuring four before he was shot and captured.
The ministry said the suspect is currently in recovery.
Police revealed that Mostafa has carried out multiple terrorist attacks against civilians and coppers since 2016.
Investigators say he shot two people dead at a shop on Friday before heading to the church, where he rubbed out another seven people, including a lower-ranking policeman.
According to Sunday's statement, Sherlocks are also gathering the testimony of eyewitnesses to the attack in Helwan, with a view to determining how it was conducted.
The High State Security Prosecution has ordered the retrieval and examination of CCTV footage from both the church and the shop.
The general prosecution also ordered ballistics experts to inspect shell casings of bullets found in the vicinity of the attack in an attempt to match them with a machine gun used by the suspect. They will also be seeking to determine whether the same weapon used by Mostafa to attack Mar Mina was used in other terrorist attacks.
Friday's attack took place as Egyptian Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of the country's 93 million population, prepare to celebrate Christmas on 7 January.
Police have deployed 230,000 personnel nationwide to secure churches, parks and vital public institutions during Christmas celebrations.
[IsraelTimes] Witnesses say the deadly attack outside a church in Egypt lasted up to 20 minutes and that it took another 10 minutes before police apprehended the assailant. Speaking to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Sunday, two days after the attack claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, they said residents and worshippers may have prevented a much deadlier assault. The witnesses say quick thinking by worshipers who closed the church’s iron gate and the brave action of a 53-year-old resident who pounced on the gunman as he tried to reload his automatic rifle may have saved dozens of lives.
The Friday attack targeted the Mar Mina church in Cairo’s southern Helwan suburb and a nearby, Christian-owned shop, killing at least nine people in total.
[BBC] South Korean authorities have seized a second ship suspected of supplying oil to North Korea in violation of international sanctions, officials say.
The Panama-flagged tanker, which is named Koti, is being held at a port near the western city of Pyeongtaek.
South Korea has already impounded a Hong Kong-registered ship it suspects of secretly transferring 600 tonnes of refined oil to a North Korean vessel.
The UN imposed sanctions on the North in response to its weapons programme.
The latest vessel seized, which has a mostly Chinese and Burmese crew, is a 5,100-tonne oil carrier, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. I believe we may be close to the point where we wake up one morning to discover the kak has hit the fan in Korea.
[IsraelTimes] Military court charges 21-year-old Nour Tamimi with aggravated assault of a soldier and preventing soldiers from carrying out their duties
A military court on Sunday indicted Nour Tamimi,
...several members of the extended family are active members of Hamas, including its military wing, so it seems likely these particular females are as well, though some others in the village work for the Palestinian Authority...
who was filmed along with her 16-year-old cousin Ahed slapping IDF soldiers outside the family’s home in Nebi Saleh earlier this month.
[DailyMail] New Zealand became the first major world country to welcome in the start of 2018 as more than 3,000 fireworks were launched into the night sky over Auckland. Sydney then joined in the party with a rainbow waterfall off the Harbour Bridge to celebrate gay marriage, which was recently legalised. Large displays are expected in Japan, South Korea and China before the celebrations move through India and the Middle East, before reaching Russia and Europe then passing over to the Americas.
[DailyMail] Police officers armed with rifles and sniffer dog units will be patrolling the streets of London tonight as 250,000 people flock to enjoy New Year's Eve fireworks at the city's landmarks.
[Breitbart] London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations will be overseen by rooftop snipers from Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS), according to reports
[Breitbart] Record numbers of armed police will be on the streets and extra anti-terror barriers deployed amid the tightest ever security operation mounted at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations.
[DailyMail] Cities across the United States are ramping up security measures to ensure a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve for millions of revelers amid heightened fears of a terror attack.
[AlAhram] On New Year's Eve, the number of police officers on duty in Istanbul will be doubled to 37,000 and public celebrations will be cancelled or banned in some districts for security reasons, officials have said. Many roads in central Istanbul districts will be closed, while heavy vehicles will not be allowed to enter some areas, police have also said.
[IsraelTimes] Police are stepping up security measures ahead of New Year’s celebrations to both ensure the festivities go smoothly and crack down on intoxicated drivers. This includes “extra units, special patrol units,” police say, “and border police are patrolling city centers, traffic police and volunteers also involved in preventing drinking and driving.”
#1
Thankful that DJT is the actual conservative we hoped for in Bush II, and that HRC is home baking cookies for beloved instead of infecting the WH and the country.
[Ynet] Two people have died from fireworks injuries amid New Year celebrations in Germany, but the country avoided a repeat of the mass groping in Cologne from 2016, amid heightened security and efforts to protect women from sexual harassment.
In the Brandenburg region outside Berlin, the dpa news agency reported Monday that a 35-year-old man died after igniting fireworks, and a 19-year-old suffered fatal head injuries after he set off a homemade device.
Police in Cologne reported seven cases of sexual harassment, while Berlin police reported 10 and seven arrests as several hundred thousand people celebrated at the city's Brandenburg Gate.
Police sought to prevent a repeat of New Year 2016 in Cologne, when hundreds of women were groped and robbed, mostly by groups of migrants.
[ARABNEWS] North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday that the United States will never be able to start a war against North Korea now that his country has developed the capability to hit all of the US mainland with its nuclear weapons. “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat,” Kim said during a televised New Year’s Day speech.
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#1
Fuck them all I have one from ACME on my fucking desk that does every facility known and unknown on the planet in every country oooh scary boo!
[WASHINGTONPOST] Nearly a year into his takeover of Washington, President Trump has made a significant down payment on his campaign pledge to shrink the federal bureaucracy, a shift long sought by conservatives that could eventually bring the workforce down to levels not seen in decades.
By the end of September, all Cabinet departments except Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Interior had fewer permanent staff than when Trump took office in January ‐ with most shedding many hundreds of employees, according to an analysis of federal personnel data by The Washington Post.
The diminishing federal footprint comes after Trump promised in last year’s campaign to "cut so much your head will spin," and it reverses a boost in hiring under President Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... . The falloff has been driven by an exodus of civil servants, a diminished corps of political appointees and an effective hiring freeze.
Even though Congress did not pass a new budget in his first year, the drastic spending cuts Trump laid out in the spring ‐ which would slash more than 30 percent of funding at some agencies ‐ also has triggered a spending slowdown, according to officials at multiple departments.
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#1
Among them is Noah Kunin, the former infrastructure director for 18F, the high-profile office created in the General Services Administration in 2014 to boost the government’s digital services.
When he heard former FBI director James B. Comey tell Congress in June that Trump had asked him for his personal loyalty, Kunin said his red line was crossed.
Stating one's loyalty to the President of the United States was too much to ask eh? Would you mind reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? Or would that be a "red line" as well ?
#2
..can change all that with the repeal of the Civil Service Act. Not loyal, hit the road. Works every four to eight years. Screw up and your boss might actually hold you accountable rather than take the blame.
#3
Just think of the boom in the private sector that will happen when these highly motivated and talented federal workers hit the street. Former employees of the Department of Agriculture will start massively efficient farms; former Department of Energy employees will show oilfield roughnecks how the job should really be done "move aside, Butch..."); former Department of Education employees will... well, I'm sure they'll do something. It's a shame that McDonald's has picked this time to start automating. By popular demand, snark of the day.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/01/2018 12:25
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[DAWN] Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday arrived in Saudi Arabia where he would hold meetings with the royal family on what his party said “matters of national interest and not for personal reasons”.
Mr Sharif flew to Saudi Arabia by a foreign airline from the Allama Iqbal International Airport of Lahore.
The ruling party also dismissed the reports as “absurd” that said efforts were under way to have another National Reconciliation Order (NRO). “Those claiming that an NRO is being prepared should at least know that it is signed secretly and not so openly,” a close aide to Mr Sharif, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, said.
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[ARABNEWS] Syrian activists and a first responder group said on Sunday that shelling and rocket fire in the suburbs of Damascus killed 19 civilians a day after medical evacuations were completed to save the lives of 29 others.
Regime forces have advanced against fighters on the edge of the northwestern province of Idlib, the last outside government control, a monitor and the state news agency said. ... and if you can't believe the state news agency who can you believe?
Regime forces backed by Russian warplanes have been battling fighters in an area straddling the border between Idlib and Hama provinces.
The fighting, which could signal the start of a major offensive to seize Idlib province from holy warriors dominated by a former al-Qaeda affiliate, escalated on Thursday.
On Saturday, regime troops advanced, seizing several villages and surrounding areas, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor.
State news agency SANA said regime forces had taken control of five villages, areas and "strategic hills" in the northeast of Hama province.
An AFP correspondent said civilians continued to flee areas near the battle zone, heading north toward the lovely provincial capital of Idlib with their belongings piled high on pickup trucks.
"We were the target of strikes more than once ‐ we couldn’t stay," said Abu Ahmed, a man in his 60s from the southeast of Idlib province, fleeing with his family in a pickup.
"I don’t know how to say how I feel, leaving my land and home at my age. We are leaving without even knowing where we’re headed."
In the Maaret al-Numan area, some people have put up tents, pots and pans piled at the entrance flaps.
"We escaped for the sake of the children. They were terrified by air raids and strikes," said Abu Khaled, a bearded man in his 30s wearing a red and white checkered keffiyeh headscarf.
The father of four, from Hama province, had already fled once with his family ‐ to Idlib, where they lived in a camp for the displaced.
Since Thursday, the festivities have killed dozens of regime soldiers and allied members of paramilitary units, as well as 29 holy warriors from opposition groups or from former al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant, now something else... , the Observatory said.
Assad forces first aim to take control of the southeast of Idlib province, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
This would allow the regime to have full control of a road that links the capital Damascus to Aleppo.
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[ARABNEWS] In 2014, Abdulrahman Saad was taken from his home in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... by ISIS terrorists, leaving his family in limbo.
They asked ISIS security offices and judges: Where is our husband and father? No answer. When the operation to retake Mosul began, they heard he was being held in the western part of the city, with hundreds of other prisoners. But when the area was liberated, they found no trace of Saad, the 59-year-old owner of a wholesale food store.
"Life without my father is difficult," says his son, Rami. Without him, the Saads struggle to get by, and his wife pines for her spouse.
In their misery, they have company. Since Mosul was declared liberated in July, residents have submitted more than 3,000 missing-persons reports to Nineveh’s provincial council, according to council member Ali Khoudier. Most of them are men or teenage boys. Some were locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! by ISIS during the group’s Death Eater rule; others were detained by Iraqi forces on suspicion of Death Eater ties.
Regardless, Iraqi government bureaucracy, inefficiency and neglect have left thousands of families across Iraq hanging as the country’s leadership celebrates the defeat of ISIS.
In a small garden outside of a Mosul courthouse, dozens wait to hear if Sherlocks have news of their missing relatives. They cling to thick files of papers: Identity documents, official forms, glossy family photos and "missing person" advertisements from a local paper. It is unlikely they will hear good news.
"It will be years before these people know what exactly happened to their relatives," said an investigator, as anxious relatives tapped on the windows behind his desk and hovered at his office door.
The investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Iraqi government does not have enough forensic experts to exhume the dozens of mass graves discovered as territory has been retaken from ISIS. And the country’s judicial system is not equipped to efficiently process the thousands of detainees scooped up by security forces.
Even a large First World country like America would have problems processing this volume of detainees and dead bodies in a timely manner.
Some 20,000 people are being held at detention centers across Iraq on suspicion of ties to ISIS, according to a report from Human Rights Watch this month.
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[Al Jazeera] A prominent human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activist in the Maldives says she has received several death threats over an alleged anti-Islamic Twitter post, that has also prompted a criminal investigation.
Shahindha Ismail, executive director of Maldives Democracy Network (MDN), told Al Jazeera that anonymous accounts on Twitter and Facebook have been calling for her death, after a newspaper article and religious scholars accused her of advocating for secularism in the Sunni Moslem state.
"I do not feel safe in the Maldives and I fear for my life," she said on Sunday.
The furore over Ismail's post began on December 20, when she responded to a speech by President Abdulla Yameen, in which he had vowed to crack down on what he said were domestic and international efforts to propagate faiths other than Islam in the Maldives.
"Religions other than Islam exist in this world because Allah allowed for it. No other religion would exist otherwise, is it not?" Ismail said on Twitter.
Her post prompted threats, with one Twitter user who, referring to Ismail, said: "I'm one of hundreds who will cut people like that to pieces." That post has since been deleted.
Several comments on Facebook reviewed by Al Jazeera also called for attacks on Ismail and said she should "be thrown out of the country".
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[ARABNEWS] It is hoped that the levying of a value-added tax (VAT) from Monday will power the Kingdom’s march toward progress and prosperity.
The tax is imposed by 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... and the UAE within the framework of a unified agreement endorsed by the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
"The imposition of VAT will help to raise tax revenues of the Saudi government to be utilized for infrastructure and developmental works," said Mohammed al-Khunaizi, a member of the Shoura Council, here on Sunday, while calling VAT "a major move that will contribute to address challenges and sustain growth." While referring to the compliance of Saudi businesses with VAT regulations, he pointed out that VAT or sales taxes are key revenue sources for more than 166 countries across the world today.
Al-Khunaizi also called for "punitive measures" to be adopted strictly for those who have not registered so far, or who violate the laws. The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has announced that in cooperation with the General Authority for Zakat and Tax (GAZT), it will intensify inspection tours in markets and commercial firms across the Kingdom to track down irregularities before and during application of the VAT.
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[IRANWIRE] The street protests that have engulfed Iran since Thursday have rocked Iran’s political establishment. Small protests about economic conditions are not uncommon in the country, but these protests were different, quickly moving on to address more general political grievances and spreading to other cities. They are now the largest anti-regime protests since 2009. The demonstrations had started by attacking the reform-focused government of President Hassan Rouhani and his economic policies. In fact, by all indications, they were started by Rouhani opponents belonging to the regime’s hardline conservative faction ‐ but they quickly grew and changed tack, sometimes getting out of hand.
Both wings of Iran’s official politics, the Reformists and the Conservatives, have been internally divided over their responses to the street protests. Furthermore, as the protests have spread, their responses have also changed. Initially, many reformists called for the constitutional right to protest to be respected, but many have now moved on to question the motives behind the demonstrations. The conservative opponents of Rouhani, on the other hand, started by supporting the protests as a just reaction to the government’s economic policies but were quick to denounce them later on.
One of the most controversial reactions came from Rouhani’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar. "Protest is a right but protesters should know who is guiding them and who their leader is," she tweeted. Ebtekar also posted evidence that people with Twitter accounts linked to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Israel had supported the protests, and also pointed to support from an Iranian self-declared "anti-religion" tweeter based in New York.
Rouhani’s right-hand man, Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri, had earlier led the way by dismissing the protests and denying that the economy is in bad shape. Jahangiri’s reaction was echoed by many, though not all, Rouhani-supporting newspapers in the country.
Iran newspaper, which usually reflects the government’s view, went with the dull headline of "National Understanding for Economic Improvement" and quoted Jahangiri. The reformist Etemad headlined a quote by Jahangiri ‐ "They will be hurt themselves" ‐highlighting the vice president’s warning to his political opponents that the street protests will end up threatening them. Armaane Emrooz, close to the Executives of Construction Party, Jahangiri’s party, adopted a similar headline.
But some pro-Rouhani newspapers backed the protests. Qanoon newspaper went with the headline "People enforce Article 27," highlighting the article in the Iranian constitution that allows protests as far as the marchers are unarmed and don’t "disrupt the foundations of Islam." Qanoon also published an article that said: "Inefficiency of government authorities in solving people’s economic problems has led to protests by a section of society."
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[ARABNEWS] As protests over Iran’s faltering economy rapidly spread across the country, a channel on a mobile messaging app run by an exiled journalist helped fan the passions of some of those who took to the street.
The Telegram app closed a channel run by Roohallah Zam after Iranian authorities complained that it was inciting violence, just hours before the government shut down the app entirely on Sunday. Zam, who denies the allegations, meanwhile launched new channels to spread messages about upcoming protests and share videos from demonstrations.
What happens next could influence the future course of the largest protests Iran has seen since 2009.
It’s hard to overstate the power of Telegram in Iran. Of its 80 million people, an estimated 40 million use the free app created by Russian national Pavel Durov. Its clients share videos and photos, subscribing to groups where everyone from politicians to poets broadcast to fellow users.
While authorities ban social media websites like Facebook and Twitter and censor others, Telegram users can say nearly anything. In the last presidential election, the app played a big role in motivating turnout and spreading political screeds.
Telegram touts itself as being highly encrypted and allows users to set their messages to "self-destruct" after a certain period, making it a favorite among activists and others concerned about their privacy. That too has made it a worry of Iranian authorities.
Zam has used the app to share news and information published by his AmadNews website. Posts included times and locations for protests, as well as videos of demonstrators shouting inflammatory chants, including those targeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.
Officials have meanwhile targeted Telegram in recent remarks, with prosecutors going as far as filing criminal charges against Durov.
On Saturday, Iran’s Telecommunications Minister Mohammed Javad Azari Jahromi wrote to Durov on Twitter, complaining AmadNews was "encouraging hateful conduct, use (of) Molotov cocktails, armed uprising and social unrest."
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[AlHaram] Ottoman Turkish police have detained 20 people, including 15 foreign nationals, on suspicion of links to Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group during raids in Istanbul, tightening security ahead of the anniversary of a nightclub attack in which dozens were killed.
The raids by the anti-terrorist branch of the Istanbul police took place on Saturday and targeted four locations across the city, the police said in a statement on Sunday. They did not give the nationalities of the foreign suspects.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the suspects were believed to have been plannning an attack during New Year's Eve celebrations in the city.
Ottoman Turkish police have been ramping up operations against suspected Islamic State group faceless myrmidons in recent days, detaining around 195 on Thursday and Friday.
A good portion of those are Kurds, not ISIS jihadis, but you aren’t to pay attention to that detail, dear Reader.
During New Year's celebrations a year ago, a man with an assault rifle rubbed out 39 people including Turks and visitors from several Arab nations, India and Canada at an exclusive nightclub in Istanbul, the country's biggest city. Islamic State group grabbed credit for that shooting, one of a series of attacks believed to have been carried out by the jihadists and Kurdish faceless myrmidons in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... in the last couple of years. A trial of those allegedly involved in the nightclub attack began this month.
On New Year's Eve, the number of coppers on duty in Istanbul will be doubled to 37,000 and public celebrations will be cancelled or banned in some districts for security reasons, officials have said.
Many roads in central Istanbul districts will be closed, while heavy vehicles will not be allowed to enter some areas, police have also said.
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[All Africa] President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed retired general Constantino Chiwenga who led the ouster of former president Robert Mugabe, and Kembo Mohadi to the positions of vice president.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
From what I have seen, he is Ruling well. Does anyone have an intel brief available?
[ARABNEWS] Some 200 protesters marched through central Tehran Sunday as authorities braced for a possible fourth night of unrest and cut access to social media after days of unrest that saw two people killed.
A security deputy for Tehran’s governor told the ILNA news agency that 200 people had been enjugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... after protests on Saturday night ‐ including 40 "leaders."
The interior minister warned that protesters will "pay the price" as footage on social media showed thousands marching across the country overnight in the biggest test for the Islamic republic since mass demonstrations in 2009.
The demonstrations began in second city Mashhad on Thursday over high living costs, but quickly spread and turned against the system as a whole, with slogans such as "Death to the dictator."
Lorestan province deputy governor Habibollah Khojastehpour told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
that two people were killed in festivities in the small western town of Dorud late Saturday, but denied security forces were responsible.
In an apparent attempt to stave off more unrest, the authorities began blocking access to photo sharing and online messaging services on mobile phones, including Telegram, which the government accused of being used to foment violence, local media and Telegram’s CEO said.
The conservative-linked Fars news agency said around 200 people were taking part in the latest protest in Tehran.
"Contrary to rumors from hostile media, most parts of Tehran are calm. Around 200 people are occasionally chanting here and there," it said.
Fars said shops closed early Sunday "for fear of damage to their shops by rioters."
After initial silence, state media has shown footage of unrest, focusing on young men violently targeting banks and vehicles, an attack on a town hall in Tehran, and images of a man burning the Iranian flag.
"Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price," Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli said on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"The spreading of violence, fear and terror will definitely be confronted," he added.
US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said the "big protests" showed people "were getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism."
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[PRESSTV] Yemeni snipers have killed at least four Saudi troops in a series of retaliatory attacks in the kingdom's Jizan region.
The Saudi forces were killed on Sunday after at least another four Saudi soldiers were killed by Yemeni troops in a series of separate operations in Arabia’s southwestern border region of Najran.
The attacks were carried out after Saudi Arclight airstrikes on its impoverished neighbor killed at least eight Yemeni civilians and injured several more.
At least seven people were killed and 10 more maimed on Sunday as a Saudi air raid target Yemen's northwestern province of Hajjah.
In a separate attack in the Ma'rib province, one person was also killed.
Earlier in the day, Saudi warplanes conducted air raids on western Yemen, causing several casualties.
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[AlAhram] Egypt's public prosecutor ordered on Sunday the detention of 10 suspects from a cell reportedly affiliated with the Hasm ...Hasm (Decisiveness) and Liwaa el-Thawra (The Revolution Brigade) are the NeverSisi militant arms of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. They sprang into existence, fully formed, in October, 2016, probably inheriting personnel from previous MB armed factions, and apparently organized by Mohammed Kamel, who was responsible for MB special cells until he was killed by security forces in a hail of gunfire about the time the two groups appeared...
terrorist group for a duration of 15 days pending investigations.
The High State Security Prosecution accused the 10 of joining an illegal group that calls for the suspension of law and constitution, obstructing duties of state institutions, and attacking personal freedoms.
The suspects are also accused of attacks against state institutions and inciting violence against Christian citizens, their properties and worship houses; they are also accused of using terrorism as a tool to disrupt public order and of endangering society.
The 10 detainees were captured during three simultaneous raids on Saturday on terrorist hideouts in the governorates of Fayoum, Giza and Qaloubiya, and found in possession of weapons and ammunition.
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[ARABNEWS] Iran is experiencing a political earthquake. The fault lines are clear: On the one side, the theocratic regime and its suppressive forces; on the other, the Iranian people. At least two dozen cities across the country witnessed large-scale demonstrations on Friday and Saturday against a regime that has been sorely incapable of addressing the country’s economic and political demands. The protests have now grown over 50 cities and several protesters have been rubbed out as security forces opened fire.
"Death to the dictator" is once again echoing among Iran’s struggling population, mainly youths and women. For months, thousands of people have been protesting in various quarters, demanding justice for the plundering of their wealth by institutions tied to the "supreme leader" and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the scale and political orientation of the Dec. 29 and 30 protests were striking and remarkable.
"The people live like beggars/(Khamenei) lives like a God," thousands of demonstrators chanted in several towns on Dec. 30.
One of the most interesting chants in Tehran’s protests Sunday was "Reformists, hard-liner, game is over now," reflecting the desire by Iranians for regime change.
On Thursday, Iran’s second-largest city, Mashhad, saw the spark of the protests. Several thousand people began their demonstrations by complaining about rising commodity prices (in some cases, food prices have seen a 20-30 percent hike in the last week alone).
Quickly, however, the protests were reoriented toward the regime’s bigwigs, including President Hassan Rouhani and supreme leader Ali Khamenei: "Death to Rouhani," "Death to Khamenei," and "Death to the dictator," the protesters chanted.
Then on Friday, the cities of Kermanshah, Shiraz, Rasht, Qom, Hamedan, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Zahedan, Qazvin, and Sari rose up, joined by a large number of smaller towns. There are several noteworthy characteristics about what has been reported thus far.
First, the political nature of the protests has been made clear from the start, although the underlying impetus was the economic situation and particularly the vast financial corruption permeating the regime.
Khamenei, as the main figure of the theocracy, has been a permanent fixture in the protesters’ slogans. And protesters continue to call on the regime to "Free all political prisoners."
Second, the regime’s main players were quick to point out that there is a leading opposition movement that can lead the protests toward their final destination: the regime’s downfall.
During at least seven Friday prayer sessions across Iran, senior mullahs pointed the finger at the opposition and other foreign governments.
The state security and anti-riot forces were out in full force, using water cannons to disperse crowds and drawing chants of "Shame on you" from crowds who refused to give up any ground.
The fearlessness, courage and leading role of women has been exceptional. Dozens of video clips circulating on social media attest to this. In one case, a woman stands in front of security forces and shouts "Death to Khamenei," an offense that could carry the death penalty .
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#1
We can only pray that the protest will be peaceful, and successful.
[PRESSTV] Iran has slammed Canada's "meddlesome" stance on recent gatherings in protest against economic conditions in some Iranian cities, saying it lacks any validity.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran regards the meddlesome stance of the Canadian government as a violation of that country's legal and international commitments," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Sunday.
He added that the Canadian government's position was not in conformity with remarks by the country's senior officials about the importance of improving interaction and dialogue with Iran.
"Unfortunately, the Canadian government's rhetoric is a rehash of the wrong, illogical and ineffective rhetoric of Canada's previous governments against the Iranian people and is inadmissible," the Iranian spokesperson pointed out.
In a written statement on Saturday, Canada's Global Affairs said the country was "encouraged by the Iranian people who are exercising their basic right to protest peacefully."
It called on the Iranian authorities to "uphold and respect democratic and human rights" and vowed to "continue to support the fundamental rights of Iranians, including the right to freedom of expression.”
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#1
Yah, Persian. Canadians are known throughout the world as meddlesome, quarrelsome and difficult to get along with.... you putz.
[Al Jazeera] At least 18 people have been killed in a bombing at a funeral ceremony in eastern Afghanistan, according to local media.
The blast on Sunday took place as people gathered to pay respects to a former district chief in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province, Pajhwok Afghan News reported, quoting provincial Governor Attaullah Khogyani.
The kaboom left at least 13 people maimed.
Photos from the scene showed a burnt-out rickshaw and a destroyed cycle of violence.
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[ARABNEWS] Government forces battled with rebels and al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons on two fronts in Syria on Sunday as the country prepared to close out another violent year since the country descended into civil war in 2011.
Rebels supported by an al-Qaeda-linked cell renewed their assault against pro-government forces that have been holding a vast pocket of the Damascus suburbs under siege, said the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A second front between many of the same groups saw fresh fighting in northwest Syria, along the border between Idlib and Hama provinces, according to the Observatory and Syrian military media.
The fighting outside Damascus was concentrated around the contested town of Harasta and a nearby military installation. The Death Eaters flanked the installation on Sunday, trapping an unknown number of pro-government forces inside, reported the Observatory. The local, activist-run Ghouta Media Center reported fierce festivities and dense government Arclight airstrikes.
Twenty-one soldiers and 26 rebels and al-Qaeda gunnies were killed in two days of festivities, according to the Observatory’s director, Rami Abdurrahman.
Rebels first attacked the installation seven weeks ago. The government responded with waves of indiscriminate air strikes and artillery attacks that killed more than 250 civilians in what are called the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, which are still under rebel control.
The Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, said shelling and rocket fire killed 19 people in eastern Ghouta on Saturday, one day after medical evacuations were completed to save the lives of 29 others. The Red Thingy and Red Islamic Thingy took three days to evacuate 29 patients from the besieged suburbs to receive urgent medical care at government hospitals in Damascus.
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[DAWN] The Ottoman Turkish foreign ministry on Saturday slammed a decision in Greece to grant asylum to a Ottoman Turkish helicopter co-pilot, who fled the country after last year's failed coup, as "politically motivated" and warned of a negative impact on bilateral relations.
The co-pilot ‐ who flew seven other Ottoman Turkish military officers to Greece ‐ was granted asylum after Greek authorities ruled that his human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... would be at risk, despite repeated requests for his extradition by Ankara.
The decision "once again reveals that Greece is a country that protects and embraces plotters," the Ottoman Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that the ruling was "politically motivated".
"Greece has not shown the support and cooperation we expect from an ally in the fight against terrorism," the statement added, warning of an impact on bilateral relations between the two countries.
The ruling is an embarrassment to 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... , who asked for the officers to be extradited during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in December, as part of the first official visit to Athens by a Ottoman Turkish president in 65 years.
Late Saturday evening, Tsipras tried to contain any fallout from the asylum ruling by calling for the decision to be annulled.
"The Greek government filed on Saturday a request for annulment of the asylum decision taken the day before by the asylum authority," the office of the Greek Prime Minister said.
The co-pilot, who landed in the Greek city of Alexandroupoli hours after the putsch was defeated on July 15 2016, had denied being part of the coup attempt.
Despite The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's assertions, the asylum judges said there was no evidence to suggest the co-pilot had participated in a plot to unseat Erdogan.
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[Libya Herald] The LNA’s Special Forces Operations Room announced yesterday that they had completed their military operations in the Sidi Khrebiesh area of Benghazi. They also announced that they had gained control over the al-Balady hotel and its surrounding areas.
The Special Forces Operations Room said that it was continuing with its clearing operations in the surrounding areas. Media reports said that there was resistance from "extremists" in the battle with the LNA. There are other media reports that 6 "terrorists" were locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! as they tried to escape the LNA. The LNA also suffered a number of injuries, local Libyan media reported.
It will be noted that the announcement comes nearly five months after the LNA had announced then that Benghazi had been completely liberated from ’’terror’’ groups.
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[DAWN] Congolese security forces rubbed out a man and injured several others on Sunday in a bloody crackdown on Catholic worshippers who gathered at churches across the country to demand President Joseph Kabila leave power.
AFP news hounds witnessed the latest of several recent outbreaks of bloodshed in the vast, mineral-rich central African country, wracked by tension over delayed elections.
An AFP news hound at a demonstration in the central city of Kananga saw a man shot in the chest by soldiers who opened fire on worshippers gathered for what church leaders said would be a peaceful protest.
Elsewhere, troops fired tear gas and bullets in the air to break up gatherings at Catholic masses across the capital Kinshasa, in one case arresting 12 altar boys who were leading a protest.
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Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2018 8:49
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#8
Irish New Year's blessing
“Count your blessings instead of your crosses.
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes.
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears.
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full times instead of your lean.
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth.
Love your neighbor as much as yourself.”
#12
No major attacks during the celebrations, thanks to all who stood guard through the night, and a calm day to recover for those who need to. May this be a sign that 2018 will be a year full of even more winning — when Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and Mr, Obama discover how ignored the powerless can be.
In other happy news, there is a Pappy sighting in the O Club. It’s a very good day.
#14
"As much as meself, and me neighbor?
A terrible, backbreakin' labor!"
But it seems that he tried,
For the both of 'em died,
If you credit the Balbriggan paper.
[PRESSTV] Health experts in the United States are warning that under the recent tax cuts on alcohol for the first time in decades, the country may witness more alcohol abuse and drunken driving.
The Republican tax overhaul, signed into law by President Donald Trump on December 22, makes alcohol cheaper, which could make people drink more.
“The cheaper alcohol is, the more people drink and the more they have alcohol problems, and there is a huge international literature that has shown that over and over and over,” David Jernigan, the head of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University, was quoted as saying in a Politico report on Sunday, “The public health ramifications of this continue to be invisible to policymakers.”
The US congress actually slashed taxes on various forms alcoholic drinks, including wine, beer, whiskey, vodka and tequila by 16 percent.
“It’s not helpful in terms of fighting drunk driving,” said J.T. Griffin, the chief government affairs officer at Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Beer and spirits operators, which were actually behind the Republican plan, can consequently enjoy an extra $1.6 billion in savings next year.
Still some Republicans, including Ohio Senator Rob Portman, believe that the cuts would have no effect on alcoholism in the US.
“I don’t think it will have that effect,” he said. “All it does is help small craft breweries and small distillers.”
The last time the US lawmakers touch the alcohol taxes was in 1991, when they increased them.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
the tax decrease is from $18/barrel to $16/barrel so about $2/barrel which comes to about a penny per 16 ounce glass of beer - and that decrease is only on the first 100k barrels
the measure was designed to help craft beer manufacturers (although big producers get the decrease also)
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/01/2018 0:38
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#2
If you give these helocopter grannies an inch, they will run the entire block with their stupid pet peeves. They become useless as that watchdog"" that barks all the time.
#4
When the Dims raised taxes on alcoholic beverages in 2014 they did so in a manner that made the accounting process to determine taxes owed by restaurants, bars, etc far too complicated. Point of Sale systems had to altered to compensate for the changes. It was a nightmare for the hospitality industry.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs have executed a lecturer and a student, days after kidnapping them in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government media office in a statement said a lecturer of the agriculture institute and a student were kidnapped b the Taliban ...Arabic for students... bully boyz from an area between Bati Kot and Jalalabad two days ago.
The statement further added that the lecturer identified as Imam Jan and his student Gulbadin were executed on Friday, two days after they were kidnapped.
No further details have been given regarding the circumstances surrounding the abduction and execution of the two individuals.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least twelve people were maimed in an kaboom in Mazar-e-Sharif city, the thriving provincial capital of the northern Balkh province of Afghanistan.
According to the local officials, the incident took place late on Saturday night after explosives planted in a vehicle went off in a crowded part of the city.
Provincial police Chief Abdul Raziq Qaderi confirmed that the kaboom took place in a taxi vehicle due to a magnetic bomb kaboom and as a result ten people were maimed, including the taxi driver.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... the provincial hospital sources are saying that twelve people were maimed in the kaboom and a number of them are at death's door.
No individual or group has so far grabbed credit behind the incident.
Balkh is among the relatively calm provinces in North of Afghanistan where terrorist-related incidents are rarely reported although the anti-government armed holy warrior groups often try to stage attacks in some key parts of the province, including the Mazar-e-Sharif city.
The local officials had earlier said that the signs of ISIS activities were also noted in some remote districts of Balkh besides the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Death Eaters are attempting to expand their insurgency in this province
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Times of Israel] Newspaper says Washington and Jerusalem have overcome the differences that saw Americans tipping off Tehran about Israeli attempt to kill Qassem Soleimani 3 years ago 
[The Wheeling Times Leader] WHEELING ‐ As a region flush with coal, oil and natural gas reserves beneath the ground’s surface, billions of dollars worth of investment continue flowing into northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio for mining, drilling, fracking, pipelining and processing.
... 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...
[St. Louis Post] HERRIN, Ill. • An American Legion post in Southern Illinois is getting ready to restore a 90-year-old statue honoring those who fought in World War I.
Unrelated, but if you thought Chicago had the market cornered on prohibition era bootlegging, here's a fascinating book on Williamson, County (Herrin, IL) and vicinity. 
Lorry hiding seven Iraqi men and three boys is stopped at the same UK petrol station where police arrested nine illegal immigrants three months ago 
[Daily Beast] Lawyer Lisa Bloom, representing the woman accusing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of sexual misconduct in 1994, when she was 13 years old, speaks to media in Woodland Hills, California, U.S. November 2, 2016.
[Townhall] On Sunday evening, President Donald J. Trump took to Twitter to slam the Iranian government and to remind the world that the Islamic Republic is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, something President Obama's State Department reported in 2016. 
[Townhall] Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen appeared on ABC News "This Week" where he voiced concern that President Barack Obama was not as supportive of anti-government Iranian protesters as he should have been in 2009. He told ABC News that he hopes President Donald J. Trump is "supportive of more freedoms in that country."
Not exactly 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma' now is it ? 
the personification of Somali state failure...
the personification of Somali state failure...
[AlAhram] Israeli occupation forces detained 20 Paleostinians in early-morning raids on Sunday, as 
[Ynet] Russia's Investigative Committee said on Sunday it had indicted on terrorism charges a suspect who allegedly organized and carried out a bombing that injured 13 people in a St. Petersburg supermarket this week.
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
[WASHINGTONPOST] Nearly a year into his takeover of Washington, President Trump has made a significant down payment on his campaign pledge to shrink the federal bureaucracy, a shift long sought by conservatives that could eventually bring the workforce down to levels not seen in decades.
...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant, now something else...
By Olga Oliker [CSIS]
[IRANWIRE] The street protests that have engulfed Iran since Thursday have rocked Iran’s political establishment. Small protests about economic conditions are not uncommon in the country, but these protests were different, quickly moving on to address more general political grievances and spreading to other cities. They are now the largest anti-regime protests since 2009. The demonstrations had started by attacking the reform-focused government of President Hassan Rouhani and his economic policies. In fact, by all indications, they were started by Rouhani opponents belonging to the regime’s hardline conservative faction ‐ but they quickly grew and changed tack, sometimes getting out of hand.
[ARABNEWS] Some 200 protesters marched through central Tehran Sunday as authorities braced for a possible fourth night of unrest and cut access to social media after days of unrest that saw two people killed.
[AlAhram] Egypt's public prosecutor ordered on Sunday the detention of 10 suspects from a cell reportedly affiliated with the 
[Al Jazeera] At least 18 people have been killed in a bombing at a funeral ceremony in eastern Afghanistan, according to local media.
[DAWN] The 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Talibs have executed a lecturer and a student, days after kidnapping them in eastern 
