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Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Baltimore, a den of thieves
[American Thinker] A lot of solid blue cities are getting raided by the FBI for corruption these days - Los Angeles, Taylor, Michigan, near Detroit, Chicago, the town of Harvey, Illinois, near Chicago, Edinburg, Texas... But none look quite so corrupt from top to bottom as Baltimore, whose mayor seems to be on the run from the long arm of the law (oh, wait, pneumonia) over a corrupt book deal, and now thieves are coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches. Here's the Baltimore Sun's description of the latest details:
The job training nonprofit raided Thursday by federal agents as part of an investigation into Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is run by an executive director who was convicted of stealing $852,000 from a previous employer, court records show.

The Maryland Center for Adult Training, also known as MCAT, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past decade from city, state and federal government agencies to provide training for men and women to become certified nurse assistants and medical technicians.

Since Pugh became mayor in December 2016, the city has awarded the organization $28,649 ‐ mostly from a federal Department of Labor program and local casino money ‐ to provide nurse training through last June. But MCAT’s approval to conduct that training expired in May, according to the Maryland Board of Nursing.

The nonprofit has not reapplied for certification. Nonetheless, Baltimore officials agreed in October to lease MCAT an office in the 4900 block of Park Heights Ave. ‐ which federal agents raided Thursday. Documents prepared for the city’s spending board, which approved the lease Oct. 3, stated that MCAT was "certified by the Maryland Board" to train people to become nursing assistants.

Hiring a convicted thief. Using city funds to train people at an unaccredited school. Pouring money into the school even when there was no school. This is just one corner of the blue-city empire that Baltimore had become and there are quite a few others as this list of stories shows here. Any question as to why the city was so dysfunctional? It was a one-party city, its minions had the leftist contempt for rule of law, its denizens figured no one would ever be looking for it, and they were all convinced they were in to rule forever. Having zero changeover in government for decades, as was the case in Baltimore, was the perfect setup for corruption.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/29/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This will be an interesting story to unfold. Like rot eating away at an old wooden structure. Discovery will be pursued how far. Future prospects of Hogan might dim a bit. The great Wye oaks of Talbot county were used as foundations but today many have rotted away. Those foundations of cedar remain today strong as ever as they were placed hundreds of years ago. The 460 year old Wye oak of Talbot county was the state tree until its demise a few years ago. The Wye oaks were massive but as with all living things large and small their time does end.
Posted by: Dale || 04/29/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Any chance that the people of Baltimore will want a change at the next election? Huey Long's comment about Louisiana comes to mind.
Posted by: Tom || 04/29/2019 11:18 Comments || Top||

#3  mabey they could start investigating Western Washington sometime soon......
Posted by: 746 || 04/29/2019 15:44 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Airlines eye crueler ways of making passengers miserable
[Anchorage Daily News] News this week that Delta Air Lines is testing seats that recline even less should be sufficient to confirm airline passengers’ fears that things will only get worse before they get, almost certainly, worse.

But give Delta this much credit: At least they're still providing seats.

A glimpse of how bad things really could get was provided the other day at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2019 trade show in Hamburg, Germany.

The event featured plenty of innovations intended to make air travel more comfortable for those who can afford top-dollar trimmings, including first-class and business-class seats with lots of amenities.

And then there was the Italian seat manufacturer Aviointeriors, which displayed the latest iteration of its Skyrider "standing seat." It's an idea that the company unveiled about a decade ago and keeps refining to make it more appealing to airlines.

Imagine a bicycle seat with a lightly padded, upright piece of plastic to lean against.

That's pretty much the Skyrider, which Aviointeriors is hoping will be the hot ticket for carriers looking to cram even more seats into economy-class cabins, particularly for shorter flights.

"Skyrider is concept foundation of new way to travel in the short-haul routes," the company declares in passable English on its website. "Innovation is driving Aviointeriors in developing a new concept of a family of economy seats."

I reached out to Aviointeriors by email to see what kind of interest airlines have shown to the Skyrider and whether any orders have been received. I didn't get a response.

But considering that Aviointeriors has been steadily tweaking the design to meet carrier and regulatory requirements, I'm figuring they're serious about getting this product into the aviation marketplace.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/29/2019 04:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably designed to get more H1b visa carriers on one plane.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/29/2019 6:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Bless me father for I have ... anyway not enough coffee this morning, BP, made me read your comment as "HIV virus carriers"!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 04/29/2019 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not sure the airlines can be much more offensive to passengers than they are now--not unless you can put wings on cattle cars.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/29/2019 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  "HIV virus carriers"

Great Tshirt slogan when you must fly.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/29/2019 10:59 Comments || Top||


#6  not unless you can put wings on cattle cars

So you've never flown steerage to Honolulu, JQC?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/29/2019 11:38 Comments || Top||

#7  not unless you can put wings on cattle cars

There are several Drill Sergeants that would like to offer you a demonstration of how to pack a platoon and their gear in a bus designed to carry 20.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/29/2019 12:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Yeah right it's only going to be used on short haul flights. Just like the luggage surcharge was due to fuel costs...which came down quite some time ago but the charges are still there.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 04/29/2019 13:32 Comments || Top||

#9  I started having doubts when the flight made 1/3 of the morally required beverage rounds for six hours of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/29/2019 13:36 Comments || Top||

#10  I tend to fly ever so slightly more than tipsy, recommend the pink gin for flying.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/29/2019 16:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Two boilermakers before boarding.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/29/2019 16:57 Comments || Top||

#12  I had to fly with a bunch of mongrels from Orlando to Chicago on my way to Indianapolis. The seat was the least of the problems. Even though I live on the Atlantic coast, I was happy to see all the diversity imports were flying home.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/29/2019 18:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
15 Serial Killers, Rapists, Kidnappers, Child Molesters Eligible to Vote Under Bernie Sanders' Plan
[Breitbart] This week, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsed a plan that would allow felons serving time behind bars the right to vote from their prison cells.
"So, I believe people who commit crimes, they pay the price and they get out of jail, they certainly should have the right to vote," Sanders said during a town hall. "But, I believe even if they are in jail, they’re paying the price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy."

Initially, Sen. Kamala Harris said, "I think we should have that conversation" when asked about allowing convicted criminals to vote from their cells, but she has since backtracked on that statement, declaring that she actually opposes giving felons in prison the right to vote.

"Do I think that people who commit murder and people who are terrorists should be deprived of their rights, yes I do," Harris said.

During a rally in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, Sanders doubled down on giving all incarcerated felons the right to vote from prison, comparing the plan to giving women and black Americans the right to vote.

"If you are a citizen, you have the right to vote. And that is a right we must protect because we know the history of this country, we know that women didn’t have the right to vote," Sanders said. "We know that African-Americans didn’t have the right to vote."

"Being an American citizen and having the right to vote is something that we must never, ever give up on," Sanders said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/29/2019 00:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bernie's big vote hustle.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/29/2019 9:26 Comments || Top||

#2  See, this is one reason, among others, that the death penalty is so important. If they were dead, they would still be voting Dem, but at least they would never be re-released.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrack2366 || 04/29/2019 19:58 Comments || Top||


Joe Biden On Anita Hill In 1998: ‘She Was Lying'
[The Federalist] Former vice president Joe Biden repeatedly said on The View on Friday that he believed Anita Hill from the moment he heard her tale of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas. But he previously told Sen. Arlen Specter that it was clear her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee included lies.
So he's not always wrong?
"Not only didn’t I vote for Clarence Thomas, I believed her from the beginning. I was against Clarence Thomas, I did everything in my power to defeat Clarence Thomas and he won by the smallest margin anyone ever won going on the Supreme Court," Biden told "The View’s" Joy Behar.

But in 1998, Biden admitted to Specter that "It was clear to me from the way she was answering the questions, [Hill] was lying" about a key part of her testimony. The exchange was published in Specter’s 2000 memoir, "Passion for Truth: From Finding JFK’s Single Bullet to Questioning Anita Hill to Impeaching Clinton."

The issue is important, as the media and other partisans rewrite the historical record about Hill and her accusations. The widely watched hearings revealed inaccuracies in Hill’s various versions of events and ended with 58 percent of Americans believing Thomas and only 24 percent believing Hill. There was no gap between the sexes in the results. In the intervening years, activists have relentlessly attempted to change the narrative, writing fan fiction about Hill, bestowing honors on her, and asserting that her disputed allegations were credible.

On "The View," Biden claimed, "If you go back and look at what I said and didn’t say, I don’t think I treated her badly. I took on her opposition. What I couldn’t figure out how to do ‐ and we still haven’t figured it out ‐ how do you stop people from asking inflammatory questions?"
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/29/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What I couldn’t figure out how to do — and we still haven’t figured it out – how do you stop people from asking inflammatory questions?”

What's wrong with asking inflammatory questions? You might just get at the truth.

The Dems use lying like a cudgel. The truth is much easier. It doesn't require a cover-up.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/29/2019 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Nobody believed Christine Blasley Ford either. But they acted like they believed her and voted against Kavanaugh. Same thing with Biden, Hill and Thomas. It's the Big Lie. It's the Democrat way.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/29/2019 10:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Polio tragedy
[DAWN] IT started with a rumour. As province-wide anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
efforts were under way in KP, around 75 students from a school in Badhber complained they had headaches, nausea and stomach aches after being administered polio drops. They were admitted in the Hayatabad Medical Complex, but were quickly discharged as doctors declared their condition stable. What had happened was likely a case of mass hysteria, given the fears that have been drilled in the population’s mind about polio drops for years. A video of a man at the hospital claiming the vaccines were causing children to faint ‐ and then, almost with comical effect, telling healthy children to ’fall asleep’ for the cameras ‐ began to do the rounds. It was clear what we were seeing was a hoax, the agenda of diseased mindsets. In another video, the same man claims some of the children have died. The man has now been incarcerated
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
, but the damage is done. The fake news spread like wildfire. It is disheartening that one barefaced lie appears to have sent Pakistain’s anti-polio efforts back, possibly by decades.
Of course, if your population wasn't pig-ignorant Muslim hysterics with no sense of civility, it wouldn't happen
Outraged parents from school set a basic health unit on fire, smashing its windows and doors, while thousands of others filled KP’s hospitals, panicking that their children would meet the same ’fate’. The events of a single day led to an 85pc rise in vaccine refusals across the province: 700,000 families refused to administer drops to their children. (During last month’s anti-polio drive, the number of refusals was 57,000.) In Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, some 164,000 families refused have their children vaccinated. On TV channels, charlatan intellectuals spoke against vaccinations, endorsing ideas by conspiracy theorists that have long been refuted, while a popular daily’s headline declared that hundreds of children fell sick after being administered polio drops in KP. No questions asked, no research undertaken, no evidence of critical engagement, the news was consumed and reproduced as fact.

And then the worst happened ‐ it always does when disinformation campaigns and fear-mongering are given free rein. A police officer responsible for protecting polio teams was bumped off in Bannu, followed by the killing of another police officer in Buner the next day. The day after that, a young woman health worker was killed in the line of duty. While the rest of the world has vanquished the polio virus, Pakistain lives with the shame of being one of three countries that have been unable to eradicate it due to obscurantist beliefs and a culture of paranoia and conspiracy that is so ingrained. In this critical time, disinformation and lies that endanger the lives of so many cannot be tolerated. Authorities must remain vigilant of those who espouse anti-polio propaganda ‐ be it through mosques or the media. And security should be beefed up for polio teams and their protectors instead of suspending the polio campaign, as the authorities have done.
Posted by: Fred || 04/29/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Yes, the ancient Greek definition of tragedy is anything that could have been avoided but for hubris...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/29/2019 8:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Transgender Admissions To All-Male, Historically Black College Undermine What It Means To Be A Black Man
[The Federalist] Beyonce’s new Netflix movie about her Coachella performance exposes the audience to the culture of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). HBCUs appeal to people because of their history and tradition.

These colleges continue to provide an education to black students, although all races are welcome to attend, that emphasizes being positive members of our community. While people like Beyonce and billionaire Robert Smith shining the spotlight on HBCUs can benefit the institutions, I fear mainstream culture has began to corrode the mission of some of these colleges. That includes my alma mater, Morehouse College, which has been an all-male institution ‐ until now.

Morehouse, the Powerhouse

Morehouse is an all-male college that boasts alumni such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Howard Thurman. The Atlanta-based college, like the city it is located in, has a strong gay male culture. In 2009, students cross-dressing on campus led administrators to create a dress code that explicitly forbade students from wearing women’s clothes.

Despite the dress code, the shifting culture around gender identity brought many young men who consider themselves gender non-conforming. I attended Morehouse with several non-conforming students who are biologically male, and I consider them just as much my Morehouse brothers as any other alumnus.

When Morehouse hired last year its first non-alumni president in five decades, I feared he would bring the sort of corrosive liberal policies that define predominantly white colleges and universities. This fear may have been founded, since the men’s college has recently changed its admissions policy to include the acceptance of transgender people who are biologically female.

The new policy states, "Morehouse will consider for undergraduate admission those applicants who live and self-identify as men, regardless of the sex assigned to them at birth." This makes it clear the agenda of its Ivy League-educated president is to make Morehouse just like the liberal, white campuses that he is accustomed to. The "who live" part of the policy is the most troubling.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/29/2019 03:48 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If we stop to look back upon this, surely we too will become pillars of salt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/29/2019 3:57 Comments || Top||

#2  HBCUs appeal to people because of their history and tradition.

Some history and traditions are more equal than others. If it's white and male, fugeddaboutit.
Posted by: Raj || 04/29/2019 7:23 Comments || Top||

#3  How does a centaur get abs like that? He can't do situps!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 04/29/2019 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  On. The. Down. Low.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/29/2019 8:48 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm amazed with all this 'black experience' that's been going around and blacks attempts to have a white free college that we haven't seen some kind of migration to a single state (or two) to become the majority in that state. Yes that state would be under the microscope when it comes to comparisons but certainly they must believe they'd prosper so why not?
Posted by: rschwarz || 04/29/2019 10:16 Comments || Top||

#6  See Idaho.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/29/2019 11:00 Comments || Top||

#7  How does a centaur get abs like that? He can't do situps!

Climbing on mares.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/29/2019 16:59 Comments || Top||

#8  What DOES it mean to be a black man and why is it important to fit in that bucket?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/29/2019 17:01 Comments || Top||


Milan Kundera Warned Us About Historical Amnesia. Now It's Happening Again
[TheBurningPlatform] A taste: The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 04/29/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You have to see the original article at Quilette, if only for the exhibit where the comments section immediately turns into an example of what Kundera was talking about with a strongly implemented "But Whaddabout The Stuff That Nazi Western Civ Guy Churchill Did To The Indians During WW2?"

(The stupididy of which would take a couple days to enumerate, which I don't have).

https://quillette.com/2019/03/31/historical-amnesia-and-kunderas-resistance/.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/29/2019 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Statists seem to like erasing history--from the Nazis burning of books to tearing down historical monuments in the U.S. to Biden and the Anita Hill fiasco. Is Christine Blasey Ford going to end up as a Joan of Arc character in the revisionist history books?
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/29/2019 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  from what Ive been reading here lately, not if the Marines have anything to say about it
Posted by: 746 || 04/29/2019 15:45 Comments || Top||

#4  The great Winston Churchill a trigger?
The Commonwealth? Shashi, don't snigger!
The casualty figure
For Hindoo... and Digger?
Point five eight percent... so why bicker?

Maybe oughtta be a hashtag, if it isn't already.
Posted by: Snoger Grundy4919 || 04/29/2019 19:24 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
23[untagged]
8Islamic State
4Commies
3Govt of Iran
3Taliban
2Arab Spring
2Abu Sayyaf (ISIS)
1Thai Insurgency
1TTP
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Govt of Sudan
1Hamas
1Houthis
1Palestinian Authority

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2019-04-29
  Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years
Sun 2019-04-28
  Father, brothers of alleged Sri Lanka bombing mastermind killed
Sat 2019-04-27
  Sri Lanka - Inside help?
Fri 2019-04-26
  Jihadists 'blow themselves up' as soldiers raid suicide vest factory in Sri Lanka
Thu 2019-04-25
  Trump says sending ‘armed soldiers’ to US-Mexico border
Wed 2019-04-24
  Saudi Arabia beheads 37 for terrorism crimes, most of them minority Shiites
Tue 2019-04-23
  IS claims Sri Lanka blasts
Mon 2019-04-22
  Sri Lanka explosions, 24 arrested, 290+ dead, 8 kabooms
Sun 2019-04-21
  3 churches bombed at Easter services in Sri Lanka 262 Dead
Sat 2019-04-20
  Woman killed after shots fired during violent riots in Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Fri 2019-04-19
  Islamic State Declared A New Wilaya In Africa
Thu 2019-04-18
  German Police Arrest Man Suspected Of Recruiting ISIS Members To Syria
Wed 2019-04-17
  Houthis in Yemen introduced a new airburst ballistic missile that spreads 14,000 pieces of shrapnel over a large area
Tue 2019-04-16
  Violence and dozens of arson attacks in Copenhagen after anti-Islam politician throws Koran in migrant neighbourhood
Mon 2019-04-15
  Notre Dame Cathedral is burning

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