Hi there, !
Today Wed 02/17/2021 Tue 02/16/2021 Mon 02/15/2021 Sun 02/14/2021 Sat 02/13/2021 Fri 02/12/2021 Thu 02/11/2021 Archives
Rantburg
531688 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 65 articles and 303 comments as of 11:01.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Car bomb explodes outside Somali parliament HQs in Mogadishu
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
4 18:19 JohnQC [1] 
7 19:51 magpie [2] 
5 13:45 Mercutio [1] 
2 11:00 trailing wife [1] 
1 12:59 FlatulentDiner@Table~4° [2] 
8 20:54 trailing wife [2] 
6 23:45 Deadeye Jaiting7534 [2] 
6 20:46 Dron66046 [2] 
8 17:12 NN2N1 [1] 
9 16:06 Clem [3] 
7 09:56 Cesare [2] 
2 05:40 Clem [1] 
4 16:20 Angstrom [1] 
1 07:52 Frank G [2] 
4 03:58 Threque Whosing7013 [1] 
0 [2] 
4 20:36 trailing wife [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
14 23:05 Deadeye Jaiting7534 [1]
0 []
7 10:47 Slappy [2]
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 [1]
0 [1]
1 18:18 trailing wife [4]
2 13:40 M. Murcek [2]
1 01:06 trailing wife [2]
0 [2]
2 21:46 magpie [3]
0 [2]
0 [1]
0 [2]
5 15:52 Clem [2]
7 10:04 CrazyFool [2]
Page 2: WoT Background
3 22:18 Maggie Hupomp2614 [1]
3 15:31 Chris [1]
0 [2]
4 10:37 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [3]
1 05:15 Dron66046 [1]
7 16:38 Clem [1]
1 17:49 Unump the Infinitesmal7038 [1]
1 08:58 Frank G [2]
1 10:46 Lord Garth [1]
Page 3: Non-WoT
25 23:59 Maggie Hupomp2614 [2]
0 [1]
4 15:01 Injun Bumble1241 [1]
3 15:30 Injun Bumble1241 [2]
12 15:02 Bangkok Billy []
4 23:58 Deadeye Jaiting7534 [1]
0 [1]
1 15:55 Thineger Sproing6704 [1]
5 15:22 3dc [1]
1 17:58 Unump the Infinitesmal7038 [1]
1 09:46 Chris []
10 20:25 Ulosing Ebbotle6278 []
2 16:01 Thineger Sproing6704 [1]
Page 6: Politix
1 18:01 trailing wife [3]
6 18:25 Abu Uluque [1]
4 16:56 Glenmore [1]
7 18:30 Abu Uluque [1]
6 17:24 Angstrom [1]
32 22:12 crazyhorse [1]
5 23:09 trailing wife [1]
14 18:26 JohnQC [1]
22 20:39 NoMoreBS [1]
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
California is Dead Last in Survey of States - Has Most Coronavirus Restrictions [California Globe]
Posted by: Thrineting Thraick6405 || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm impressed by the article and I am more impressed by the CA citizens' comments; They sound like Rantburgers. Are you sure this story isn't a plant ? (kidding really, who ever heard of a Plantburger)
Posted by: Flererong White1259 || 02/14/2021 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Neat to hear that our San Diego Police are ignoring our new "little" mayors orders to enforce public health orders to stop indoor dining at restaurants.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 02/14/2021 1:48 Comments || Top||

#3  CA, along with OR, is the current testing site for Anarcho-Tyranny.
Posted by: Thineger Sproing6704 || 02/14/2021 2:43 Comments || Top||

#4  No matter how hard Fecesbook and Twatter attempt to supress it, the science does not support lockdowns as a means of controlling COVID19 or any other viral disease of that sort.

Ask them for the standard for an undergraduate paper: 5 cited research articles which demonstrate credibly their assertion from reputable peer reviewed journals.

They cannot do it, because it DOES NOT EXIST.

Prove to me that it does and I'll argue the point with studies that show it does not.
Posted by: Threque Whosing7013 || 02/14/2021 3:58 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
How the Political-rise of Sonny Bono is Happening Again in California
[CaliforniaGlobe] Anger over business restrictions are leading more business owners on a similar political path.
Sonny Bono sounded very much like Donald Trump, only on a local scale. May California find themselves having elected oodles just like him.
Bono’s rise into politics, particularly starting in local elections, is now being seen again in 2021. Fatigue from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 restrictions, particularly by small businesses and other groups primarily affected by the COVID lockdowns, is sparking similar political change.

Change wasn’t seen as much in the 2020 elections largely because COVID-19 still lacked a widespread vaccine, together with during the fall of 2020, a large spike in cases precipitated more restrictions. The focus on the Presidential election played a factor, as well.

But there were some election results sparking up because of it, most notably the Stockton Mayoral election where a Security Company manager and Pastor, Kevin Lincoln, defeated incumbent Mayor Michael Tubbs, with small business issues one of the top concerns.

Anger over COVID-19 and business restrictions statewide are also dominating at the state level right now as well, and driving the now probable recall election against Governor Gavin Newsom. Many local 2021 races are also seeing non-politician business owners running for office this year, some already declaring for 2022 races. As with Bono in 1988, the anger over business restrictions has hit a crucial boiling point. Some even have the financial backing and name recognition Bono had.

People running because they’re mad at something isn’t new, even among more business-savvy candidates. But the specific anger over business restrictions and regulations is beginning to eerily parallel Bono’s rise to public office in the late 1980’s, as well as other business owners spurned by governments, such as radio star Pappy O’ Daniel when he ran for and became Governor of Texas in 1938.

Bono showed what could happen if you restricted business owners in California too much in 1988. The governor’s COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 are now simply showing that it’s beginning to happen again in local governments.
Posted by: Thrineting Thraick6405 || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
SA Rand turns 60 today – here's what R1 could buy you in 1961, compared to now
[Bus Insider SA] Since the rand was launched sixty years ago, inflation has been sapping its buying power at a rate of 8% a year.

The rand was first introduced as a currency in South Africa on 14 February 1961, the year that the country became a republic and Queen Elizabeth ceased to be head of state.

British-styled currency (pounds, shillings and pence) were replaced by rands and cents at an exchange rate of approximately two rand for every one pound. (It’s currently R20 a pound.)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 08:47 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who could have possibly predicted such an outcome ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  "Bad luck"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 9:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Given they've printed over 40 percent of all money ever printed in 2020 here, we're be headed that way soon enough.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/14/2021 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  In 1961 the dollar exchanged for 4.23 Swiss Francs. Today it is ..89 fancs for a Dollar. Much worse is on the horizon my friends.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/14/2021 12:33 Comments || Top||

#5  "SA Rand"? I thought this was going to be about Sally Rand.
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/14/2021 13:45 Comments || Top||


Britain
Seven cosy Cotswolds winter hideaways
[BritMag] The Cotswolds is a picturesque region of rolling hills, winding rivers and pretty medieval villages that extends across six English counties.

It’s an area that offers the English idyll, attracting famous guests through the years — several of TS Eliot’s poems were inspired by his visits, Peter Pan author JM Barrie would spend his summers in the north Cotswolds and HRH Prince Charles even owns a house here.

Constructed from honey-coloured limestone, many of these hamlets have protected status, making them a magnet for film and TV crews, who flock here to shoot period dramas ranging from Tess of the D’Urbervilles to Downton Abbey. If you’re looking for somewhere to bed down for the night then you can stay in one of the region’s many historic houses. Atmospheric, cosy and welcoming, these properties are the perfect place for a festive break.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 08:41 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I took a private tour of the Cotswolds and the Lake District a few years ago. Unforgettable beauty.
Posted by: Jiggs Javirong2320 || 02/14/2021 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  A lovely part of the world, and the cream teas are wonderful. Probably the beer is as well, but I don’t like beer, so I don’t know. At the height of the tourist season, in August, it’s almost as bad as Greece — and while sunny, it isn’t very warm by America standards. Bring a jacket or sweater,
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 11:00 Comments || Top||


Peter Hitchens: We Did Have A Sensible Covid Plan... But Copied A Police State Instead
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Posted by: Thrineting Thraick6405 || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Let me just be upfront and say.

If the Chi-coms wanted to bring down the USA and ham string 1/2 of the Free World. A Pandemic released going into a major US / EU election season sure would be THE way to do it with WAR.

Lock-downs, Masks to reduce positive Voter verification/ID.

Voting Machines pre-programmed to give Biden a 6% lead, coupled with an estimated 4% bogus mail in ballot submission. Poll watchers barred from observation.

Given most Board of Election Polls are run by officials hand picked by too many Metro-Minority controlled Democrats.

All eager to cover up voter issues being deployed by certain radicals groups. (eg. Fulton Co. Atlanta Ga)
Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/14/2021 6:14 Comments || Top||

#2  ....(eg. Fulton Co. Atlanta Ga)

Spits !
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 6:37 Comments || Top||

#3  never step foot in it if I don't have to besoeker.
Posted by: Chris || 02/14/2021 15:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, it obviously didn't have anything to do with a virus.
Posted by: Angstrom || 02/14/2021 16:20 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China Is Creating a New Master Race
[Gatestone]

  • "U.S. intelligence shows that China has conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities," wrote then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, in a December 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "China Is National Security Threat No. 1."

  • All these Chinese moves are meant to obtain "biological dominance." "There are," as Ratcliffe noted, "no ethical boundaries to Beijing's pursuit of power."

  • The experiment evoked the eugenics program of the Third Reich to create a "master race."

  • Shenzhen's He [Jenkui], after an international uproar caused by news of his dangerous and unethical work, was fined and jailed for "illegally carrying out human embryo gene-editing," but in the Communist Party's near-total surveillance state he obviously had state backing for his experiments.... Beijing's prosecution of He, therefore, looks like an attempt to cool down the furor and prevent the international scientific community from further inquiry into China's activities.

  • "What is most disturbing about these endeavors is that China has gleaned access to CRISPR and advanced genetic and biotech research, thanks to their relationship with the United States and other advanced Western nations. American research labs, biotech investors, and scientists have all striven to do research and business in China's budding biotech arena... because the ethical standards for research... are so low." — Brandon Weichert, author of The Weichert Report and Winning Space, interview with Gatestone Institute, February 2021.

    Bing Su, a Chinese geneticist at the state-run Kunming Institute of Zoology, recently inserted the human MCPH1 gene, which develops the brain, into a monkey. The insertion could make that animal's intelligence more human than that of lower primates. Su's next experiment is inserting into monkeys the SRGAP2C gene, related to human intelligence, and the FOXP2 gene, connected to language skills.

    Has nobody in China seen Planet of the Apes?

    Or maybe they have. "Biotechnology development in China is heading in a truly macabre direction," writes Brandon Weichert of The Weichert Report in an article posted on the American Greatness website.

    In a communist society with unrestrained ambition, researchers are pursuing weird science. What happens when you mix pig and monkey DNA? Chinese experimenters can tell you. How about growing human-like organs in animals? Yes, they have done that as well.

    Moreover, Beijing may already be engineering "super soldiers." "U.S. intelligence shows that China has conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities," wrote then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, in a December 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "China Is National Security Threat No. 1."

    It is not clear how far Chinese military researchers have gone. They are, however, advocating use of the CRISPR gene-editing tool to enhance human capabilities, and the Communist Party's Central Military Commission is "supporting research in human performance enhancement and 'new concept' biotechnology."

    The People's Liberation Army has gone all-in on gene editing of humans. As leading analysts Elsa Kania and Wilson VornDick report, there are "striking parallels in themes repeated by a number of PLA scholars and scientists from influential institutions."
  • Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 08:05 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Paraphrasing the Six Million Dollar Man intro: "We can rebuild him. Make him spit farther, drag on his smoke harder..."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/14/2021 9:34 Comments || Top||

    #2  I'm shaking.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 02/14/2021 11:00 Comments || Top||

    #3  Right Now You Are All Suffering From FUTURE SHOCK

    And IT will become more Severe With Continual Lock Down

    Posted by: Shock Shinetch3202 || 02/14/2021 16:33 Comments || Top||

    #4  Well, they gots over a billion peeps, so they just might make it happen. They might disappoint those Aryans in India, but no matter.
    Posted by: Clem || 02/14/2021 16:37 Comments || Top||

    #5  Betcha 90% or more of them end up dying unexpectedly of cancers, heart disease, strokes, and having serious mental health issues, if they survive the process, and most of their offspring end up spontaneously aborted. Our bodies are the emergent result of the interaction of various contradictory bits of DNA with each other and the environment, a balance tested repeatedly by mutations since our ancestors first wiggled their little single cell selves in the early oceans and water films in the rocks. If being so much better physically and mentally were evolutionarily possible, some population somewhere would have achieved it and spread throughout the world, outcompeting the rest.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 17:48 Comments || Top||

    #6  ^TW, sometimes evolution can't take on organism from A to C because B is disadvantageous. The figure they can jump from A to C without going through B by using genetic engineering - the way they adapted a bat virus to attacking humans. The reason I'm not worried is because, given the psychologies involved, they'll try to produce a super soldier by putting a jet engine on F150.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/14/2021 18:21 Comments || Top||

    #7  "The time has come to give yourselves to the program! Who's ready?"

    "I am, Sir!"

    "Psst... looks like Yew is fucked. Did you see what they did to Tew?"

    "What?"

    "They tried to give him six hands. Now he's shitting ink all over the place."

    "Quiet!"

    Posted by: Dron66046 || 02/14/2021 18:42 Comments || Top||

    #8  given the psychologies involved, they'll try to produce a super soldier by putting a jet engine on F150.

    If I could say things in fewer words... ;-) Well summarized, g(r)omgoru.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 20:54 Comments || Top||


    Europe
    EU's Covid-19 Vaccination Debacle: Epochal Failure
    [GatestoneInstitute]

  • The vaccination rollout has been plagued by bureaucratic sclerosis, poorly-negotiated contracts, penny-pinching and blame shifting — all wrapped in a shroud of secrecy. The result is a needless and embarrassing shortage of vaccines, and yet another a crisis of legitimacy for the EU.

  • "The European Commission ordered too late, limited its focus to only a few pharmaceutical companies, agreed on a price in a typically bureaucratic EU manner and completely underestimated the fundamental importance of the situation. We now have a situation where grandchildren in Israel are already vaccinated but the grandparents here are still waiting. That's just completely wrong." — Markus Söder, Bavarian premier and possible future German chancellor.

  • "I now fear that the European Union will find itself in the impossible situation of having to prolong some of the existing [Covid-19] restrictions beyond the summer, while both Britain and the United States start to normalize. That is the cost of the vaccine delays: a very high cost in lives, prestige and further economic losses." — Bruno Maçães, political scientist and former Portuguese Europe Minister.

  • "The commission decided to aggrandize its competence and it wasn't up to the job — it didn't have the right people or the right skills." — Adrian Wooldridge, political editor, The Economist.

  • "In the dispute over the delivery delay of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the EU Commission is currently making the best advertisement for Brexit: It is acting slowly, bureaucratically and protectionist. And if something goes wrong, it's everyone else's fault." — Bettina Schulz, commentator, Die Zeit.
  • Posted by: Thrineting Thraick6405 || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  EU knew what it was doing. It prioritized its own political objectives over saving lives. At every turn it pursued what was good for it, not the European people. Now they're saying they're going to confiscate vaccines made in Europe to keep instead of the customers in UK and Canada who paid for them.

    A lot of people are, for the first time, seeing the EU for what it's always been.
    Posted by: Elmung Hatrack5948 || 02/14/2021 4:53 Comments || Top||

    #2  Come on, Söder, do what FJS & Stoiber couldn't do!
    Posted by: Clem || 02/14/2021 5:40 Comments || Top||


    The Grand Turk
    Turkey and the Democrats
    [AlAhram] What is the future of Ankara’s increasingly fraught relations with Washington?

    “Put simply, the Turkish government views the United States as a strategic threat rather than an ally, and a growing majority in Washington have come to view Turkey the same way,” writes Nicholas Danforth in a report for the Brookings Institute.
    In his first presser since taking his post in Ankara over a year and a half ago, US Ambassador David Satterfield
    ...President Biden kept on one of the OrangeManBad’s ambassadors? Perhaps he’ll take care of accepting his resignation on a day that doesn’t have an 11:00:a.m. lid...
    dismissed Ottoman Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu’s "unfounded" allegations that the US had criminal masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt. "They’re not responsible statements from an ally and a strategic partner. And we regret them," he said, proceeding with an assessment of US-Ottoman Turkish relations.

    Continued on Page 49
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

    #1  All of this could be papered over with a deal for Hunter and 10% for The Big Guy
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 7:52 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Politix
    Impeachment Fails, Trump Reinstated As President
    [Babylon Bee] The Democrats' second attempt to impeach Donald Trump has failed once again, resulting in Trump being reinstated as President. Joe Biden must now step down as President and leave the Oval Office immediately.

    "That son of a gun has done it again!" muttered Joe Biden to himself as he began to clean out his desk. "I thought we had him the second time for sure. Now I’ve gotta clean out the place right in the middle of nap time!"

    Trump’s motorcade was spotted pulling up outside the White House moments after the Senate voted and confirmed his acquittal. Trump was eager to return and wasted no time in getting back to work and reversing all of Biden’s executive orders.

    "Your favorite President has returned, everyone! Totally exonerated and better than ever!" announced President Trump before reentering the White House.

    At publishing time there was a great cry of all of the libs screaming ’NOOOOOOO!’ in unison. Sources expect this will continue until Trump’s next impeachment.
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 10:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Twice they lied, twice they failed.

    How can the citizens have them removed from office now that they even have the voting machines doing their bidding for them?

    How do we get justice PEACEFULLY?
    Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/14/2021 13:55 Comments || Top||

    #2  Perhaps they lied 3 times

    Posted by: Phinesing Whomolet6297 || 02/14/2021 14:36 Comments || Top||

    #3  Buy Dung? rules!
    Posted by: Thineger Sproing6704 || 02/14/2021 15:55 Comments || Top||

    #4  Can we proceed with Marjorie Taylor Greene's impeachment of Biden? It shouldn't be difficult to find plenty of evidence to support impeachment. Evidence won't need to be fabricated.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 02/14/2021 18:19 Comments || Top||


    Nikki, they still hate you and want you to die
    [Don Surber, who you should read regularly] A followup for that hack move by Nikki I see where Nikki Haley showed all the loyalty of a Mitt Romney as she dumped on Donald Trump. That's the thanks he gets for appointing her ambassador to the UN, even though she virulently opposed his nomination in 2016.

    How cute. She thinks this will endear her to the press.

    That will never happen.

    They hate her and want her to die.

    On September 13, 2018, the New York Times reported, "Nikki Haley's View of New York Is Priceless. Her Curtains? $52,701."

    The story began, "The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley's official residence as ambassador to the United Nations."

    The story was wrong.

    This was the doing of Obama.

    The story in fact was leaked by a White House official in the Obama administration, Brett Bruen, who never told reporters that Obama did this, not Haley.

    The Times later posted a note to its story online, "An earlier version of this article and headline created an unfair impression about who was responsible for the purchase in question. While Nikki R. Haley is the current ambassador to the United Nations, the decision on leasing the ambassador’s residence and purchasing the curtains was made during the Obama administration, according to current and former officials. The article should not have focused on Ms. Haley, nor should a picture of her have been used. The article and headline have now been edited to reflect those concerns, and the picture has been removed."

    Too late.

    The story had already appeared in print and dominated a news cycle. That is how the media works. Lie loudly but carry a small correction.

    The Associated Press noted in its rewrite, "The ambassador’s residence was moved in 2016 from the Waldorf-Astoria after a Chinese insurance group bought the hotel."

    Hmm.

    Red Obama.

    A couple of years later, Ambassador Haley has turned on President Trump again, which proves her deep and undying loyalty -- to Nikki Halley.

    The Romney wannabe said, "We need to acknowledge he let us down. He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again."

    That path led to 3.5% unemployment.

    That path led to the addition of 600,000 manufacturing jobs, the first increase under a president since Reagan.

    That path led to the first president not to start a war since Jerry Ford. Before that was Nixon. Before that, Eisenhower.

    Covid 19 blew up that economy. In two months, the unemployment rate shot up from 3.5% to 14.7%, which made it the worst financial collapse in the nation's history.

    But by the time his first term ended, President Trump had dropped the unemployment rate to 6.3%.

    We will see how Chairman Xiden does.

    There is one thing to learn in all this. Conservatives often make a newly elected woman or black person a superstar. But after witnessing Mia Love and others crash and burn as they turned on Donald Trump, we should adopt the 4 year rule and see how they pan out once in office.

    Oh sure, defend Marjorie Taylor Greene or any other rookie who comes under vicious attack.

    But beware because the rest of the story may surprise.
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 07:53 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Sometimes I think Trump's main problem was simply that he wasn't sufficiently ruthless.
    Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/14/2021 8:05 Comments || Top||

    #2  /\ Same problem with Bush. There was a lot of Beltway vermin...
    Posted by: magpie || 02/14/2021 8:16 Comments || Top||

    #3  Word. Look at the riots. In 1992 GHW Bush called out the National Guard, and shut them down within a couple days. In 2020, Trump did nothing. Bill Clinton was tougher on crime.

    He talked a lot but in reality the guy was a pushover.
    Posted by: Slulet Smiter of the Brontosaurs3652 || 02/14/2021 8:17 Comments || Top||

    #4  #1 Reality TV =/= reality.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB || 02/14/2021 11:07 Comments || Top||

    #5  Hey Nikki, they still hate you and want you to die yes....and now we do too:p


    /sarc....
    Posted by: Silentbrick || 02/14/2021 12:55 Comments || Top||

    #6  She chose. Classic CLM (Career limiting move). Now she will suffer the consequences. If trump is really wanting to MAGA, he needs to start in the Senate, by putting Romeny, Sasse and Murkowski's heads on pikes via primary opponents. As an example for Haley and McConnel, etc.

    I guess she didn't want to run for President after all. Probably gunning to take a senate seat when Graham retires.
    Posted by: Deadeye Jaiting7534 || 02/14/2021 23:45 Comments || Top||


    Why Don't We Know Why Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick Died the Day After the Capitol Riot?
    [PJ] The House impeachment managers had no problem blaming President Trump for the "armed, angry mob" that engaged in a "deadly" riot at the Capitol Building on January 6th. Among the dead that day was a woman shot in the neck by a Capitol Police officer while she tried to break in through a broken window. Others died of natural causes, such as heart attack and stroke.

    The next day, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died. We still don’t know why the 40-year-old veteran and cop died. But the media believed they had the story, though any facts to support it were elusive.

    The House impeachment managers are pinning his trial conviction on Sicknick’s death.

    As independent reporter Glenn Greenwald noted, the mainstream media bet the farm on the assertion that a Capitol rioter hurled a fire extinguisher, hitting and killing Officer Sicknick.

    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 03:32 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  "Why don't we know...."

    Same reason we "don't know" what actually happened to Seth Rich, Jeffrey Esptein, Ambo Christopher Stevens, or the particulars of the Tsarnaev brothers, MAJ Nidal Hasan, the Clinton home-brew servers, Paki DNC computer mechanic Shahid Imran Awan and family, Soetoro's midnight shipment of pallets of Green Backs and Swiss Franks to Iran, the endless detention of Julian Paul Assange, the electronic surveillance of Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump, the specific origins of COV-19, or the overseas career moves of Hunter Biden.

    Apparently, we have.... 'no need to know.'

    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 3:43 Comments || Top||

    #2  If the truth were known that it was basically unrelated to the "riots", then they wouldn't have a bludgeon to use socially to silence their opposition.
    Posted by: Threque Whosing7013 || 02/14/2021 3:53 Comments || Top||

    #3  Why isn't the autopsy report available? I could find George Floyd's (for my wife who thought the cop killed him).
    Posted by: Bobby || 02/14/2021 8:11 Comments || Top||

    #4  One story circulating is that he was manning the line holding back protesters and that a policeman behind the line shot tear gas or pepper spray that either landed very near him and he was violently allergic to or actually hit him in the head. I have no opinion on the truth or accuracy of that story as most stories out of D.C. seem to turn out to be total B.S. other than the players being players.

    Posted by: 3dc || 02/14/2021 10:33 Comments || Top||

    #5  we also don't know why the Capital Police, with a force of 2000+ was unprepared and functionally incapable for handling a few hundred rioters

    for comparison, the entire Baltimore city police dept has about 3000, DC police dept about 4000
    Posted by: Lord Garth || 02/14/2021 10:56 Comments || Top||

    #6  Sicknick had a fatal stroke 1/7/2021.
    What I want to know is, where is Ashli Babbitt’s body.
    Posted by: Xyz || 02/14/2021 14:15 Comments || Top||

    #7  So many MSM stories without evidence.
    Posted by: Thineger Sproing6704 || 02/14/2021 16:04 Comments || Top||

    #8 

    Maybe he knew something like Epstein, Seth and others that preceded him.
    Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/14/2021 17:12 Comments || Top||


    Rep. Dan Crenshaw has created a handy-dandy list of conservative principles
    [American Thinker] I've long admired Rep Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) for the knack he has to clearly state conservative principles — and his willingness to speak out constantly about those principles. One of Trump's problems was his inability to articulate principles. His practical instincts were good, but he — along with way too many Republican politicians — allowed Democrats to win the war of words. On Friday, Crenshaw again used his gift in this area with a Twitter thread that lists 22 core conservative principles that we need to fight for in this lunatic Democrat era.

    Crenshaw went down in my estimation last month when he attacked Trump over the events at Capitol Hill (an attack at odds with the facts) and when he pushed back against ousting Liz Cheney from her leadership position in the House after she voted in favor of impeaching President Trump. Both of those stands looked remarkably like pandering to the Bush crowd and the Democrats. I strongly disagreed with them then, and I still do now.

    On Friday, though, Crenshaw published a Twitter thread (which I'm presenting below as a straight text list) that deserves respect. In it, he simply and clearly articulates principles that are the antithesis of the madness the Biden administration and the rest of the Democrat party crew are imposing on our nation:

    The Conservative Guide to the Culture Wars (in no particular order):

    1. America is worthy of our love and patriotism.

    2. Victor mentality is better than a victim mentality.

    3. Free speech is absolute. "Hate speech" is not an objective term.

    4. It doesn't matter what kind of gun you restrict, criminals still hurt people. Let us protect ourselves.

    5. You get to keep wealth you create & pass it to your kids.

    6. The govt has no right to shut down your business or invade your home without due process, even in pandemics.

    7. Women should not have to compete against men in women's sports.

    8. Verifying ID to vote is not racist. It is common sense.

    9. Borders and national sovereignty are not racist or xenophobic.

    10. You can't have freedom without order, order without law, law without morality, morality without religion, or religion without God.

    11. Innocent until proven guilty — not the other way around.

    12. Personal responsibility is a virtue.

    13. Never give into cancel culture (but stay humble and apologize when you're wrong).

    14. The founding was 1776, not 1619.

    15. Stand for the anthem.

    16. Policy that favors one race over another is not "social justice," it is racist.

    17. It's Latinos, not Latinx.

    18. Less abortion, more adoption.

    19. Only women can be pregnant and breastfeed.

    20. It's ok to lose in competitive sports, and second place trophies don't help anyone (but also see # 7).

    21. More police, not defund the police.

    22. We don't tear up the past, we learn from it.

    23. This list is not exhaustive.

    Again, it's a shame that Crenshaw seems to have missed the fact that these are the principles that Trump, inarticulate though he was, put into play during his four years. Again, it was not Trump who was a break in normalcy; it's the Democrats who were and still are.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 03:01 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  He diminished hisownself with that Liz Cheney support
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 7:43 Comments || Top||

    #2  /\ Thanks for the memory jogger Frank.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 7:52 Comments || Top||

    #3  Perfect is the enemy of good, and that list is good.

    But not perfect.
    Posted by: Bobby || 02/14/2021 8:12 Comments || Top||

    #4  Read Russell Kirk.

    https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/ten-conservative-principles/
    Posted by: Jiggs Javirong2320 || 02/14/2021 8:58 Comments || Top||

    #5  Is this the GOPees formal replacement of the 10 Commandments?
    Posted by: Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589 || 02/14/2021 11:37 Comments || Top||

    #6  Consider the power of wisdom as a compilation not a prescription.
    Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/14/2021 12:54 Comments || Top||

    #7  Reading this right now. Assuming (yeah, yeah, I know) everyone agrees to the rules adn sticks to the rules, the list needn't be long nor tailored to specifics of the moment.

    I'd say this book has toaught me more than all the history and poli-sci courses I took in high school and college.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/14/2021 15:05 Comments || Top||

    #8  #6 - I like that, stealing it
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 15:55 Comments || Top||

    #9  Crenshaw is suspect.
    Posted by: Clem || 02/14/2021 16:06 Comments || Top||


    Richard Burr Puts Senate Precedent Above The Constitution
    [PowerLineBlog] Unlike the other six, however, Sen. Richard Burr previously voted that the trial should not proceed because it is unconstitutional to impeach a president who is no longer in office. But now, Burr has voted to do that unconstitutional thing.

    Burr tried to explain away the contradiction this way:

    When this process started, I believed that it was unconstitutional to impeach a president who was no longer in office. I still believe that to be the case. However, the Senate is an institution based on precedent, and given that the majority in the Senate voted to proceed with this trial, the question of constitutionality is now established precedent. As an impartial juror, my role is now to determine whether House managers have sufficiently made the case for the article of impeachment against President Trump.

    Burr has said he will retire at the end of 2022. That’s a good call. The reasoning behind his vote to convict Trump shows that he’s been in the Senate for too long.
    Posted by: Thrineting Thraick6405 || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  You know what? Fuck you man.
    Posted by: newc || 02/14/2021 3:07 Comments || Top||

    #2  Any relation to Aaron Burr?
    Posted by: Clem || 02/14/2021 5:34 Comments || Top||

    #3 


    In desperate situations he is NOT a person to be trusted to stand and protect our Rights, and the US Constitution.

    He bailed and went with the flow, proving he understands the need for re-election sound bites. But will join the MOB to protect himself in the end.
    Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/14/2021 5:54 Comments || Top||

    #4  Burr was a disaster on the Senate Intelligence Committee. His departure cannot be soon enough.
    Posted by: b || 02/14/2021 7:32 Comments || Top||

    #5  Remember that a Lynch Mob is very, very democratic. If the "majority" want a hanging they get it, laws be damned.
    Posted by: magpie || 02/14/2021 8:10 Comments || Top||

    #6  Given the outcone of the "trial," Burr finds himself this morning "on the wrong side of history..."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/14/2021 8:17 Comments || Top||

    #7  Brings to mind the political class herniating themselves to get a tv spot to denounce the Grenada invasion the first morning.
    Posted by: Cesare || 02/14/2021 9:56 Comments || Top||


    Science & Technology
    Artificial intelligence 'predicts how you vote just from a photo of your face'
    [SUN] Artificial Intelligence researchers working on facial recognition systems now say their machine learning system can predict a person’s sexuality and even their political views just from measuring their face.

    The research was published this week in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, was conducted by Stanford University’s Michal Kosinski.

    The paper explains that the algorithm studies body language. "Head orientation and emotional expression stood out," Kosinski writes.

    "Liberals tended to face the camera more directly, were more likely to express surprise, and less likely to express disgust."

    But there were several other clues in people’s features — not just race and age but more subtle indicators — which also helped the facial recognition algorithm predict the way a subject might vote.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 07:47 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  small head? Eyes too close together? Dem all the way
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 8:09 Comments || Top||

    #2  "Liberals tended to face the camera more directly, ---- is this code for 'in your face'?
    Posted by: warthogswife || 02/14/2021 13:00 Comments || Top||

    #3 
    Posted by: Phinesing Whomolet6297 || 02/14/2021 13:22 Comments || Top||

    #4  ^ I have to politely disagree
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 13:54 Comments || Top||

    #5  Well, would you believe this then,
    Posted by: Phinesing Whomolet6297 || 02/14/2021 14:02 Comments || Top||

    #6 
    several other clues in people’s features — not just race and age but more subtle indicators

    "Piercings, tattoos, an overall delinquent stare, meth mouth, we factored 'em all in. Heh heh... it's a genius our system."
    Posted by: Dron66046 || 02/14/2021 20:46 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Fmr. Iranian crown prince: Nuclear deal a mistake, Ayatollahs won't change
    [Jerusalem Post] "Unlike countries that define themselves with what they support, that is, prosperity and progress for their people, the ayatollahs' regime defines itself through what it opposes."

    Former crown prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran, warned that the Biden administration's intent to rejoin the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran is a mistake and that the deal was based on the misconception that the current regime would change its ways. He spoke in an interview with Israel Hayom published on Sunday.

    "They said they would return to the nuclear deal when their sworn enemy (the regime in Iran) rushed to quintuple the rate of uranium enrichment," said Pahlavi about the administration's statements concerning returning to the deal.

    "This is blackmail of the free world. The only smart solution to the concerns of the Americans, the peoples of the region and for the Iranian people, is to support Iran's struggle for freedom and democracy."
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 08:33 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  What are we going to just sit here until Allah (PBUH) calls our number ?

    I remember getting a box from Soliemeni last fall,
    ⚛⚛⚛ lets see if it works.

    Posted by: FlatulentDiner@Table~4° || 02/14/2021 12:59 Comments || Top||


    Government
    Former NSA director, retired top officers ask Supreme Court to declare military draft unconstitutional
    [Military Times] The former National Security Agency director and nine prominent retired general and flag officers have signed on to legal brief asking that the U.S. Supreme Court rule that the military draft is unconstitutional.

    Their filing is in support of a petition that argues the Selective Service System is unconstitutional because it applies only to men ages 18 to 26 and not women.

    Former Director of the National Security Agency Michael Hayden, a retired Air Force four-star and retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal top the list of supporters on the legal brief.

    The group’s attorneys filed their brief Wednesday to support the petition filed by the National Coalition for Men, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Selective Service System on Jan. 8.

    The original claim argues that the high court should overturn a ruling it made in 1981 when the same challenge was made. At the time the justices ruled that the draft was constitutional because its primary function was to ensure combat ready forces for defense of the nation. At the time, women were excluded from combat roles.

    But that’s changed.

    The Pentagon announced it would lift the ban on women in combat jobs in 2013. Over the following six years the services opened up all jobs previously closed to women.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 02/14/2021 09:35 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Assuming the US had an active draft, how would the vetting for extremism and assurances of "protected minority victim group" quotas play out?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/14/2021 10:55 Comments || Top||

    #2  They can't read the basic document.

    Section 8.

    The Congress shall have power..

    To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;


    Per their power, in Title X USC

    246. Militia: composition and classes

    (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

    (b) The classes of the militia are—

    (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and

    (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.


    Selective service is the activation of class (2) of the militia.

    Then again, people have a very hard time reading the basic document.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/14/2021 11:39 Comments || Top||

    #3  Clearly the Constitution is un-Constitutional.
    Woke reasoning 101.
    Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/14/2021 12:28 Comments || Top||

    #4  "We want full equality! Wait... what...the Draft? Nuh Uh! No way"
    Posted by: Frank G || 02/14/2021 13:31 Comments || Top||

    #5  Basic reading ability is racis and sexis.
    Posted by: Thineger Sproing6704 || 02/14/2021 16:02 Comments || Top||

    #6 
    #4 "We want full equality! Wait... what...the Draft? Nuh Uh! No way"
    Posted by: Frank G 2021-02-14 13:31


    Frank,

    Prrrrrrrrrrretty much this - no matter what the Left Hand Side actually says, they would shut down Selective Service before the first woman could register.

    Mike
    Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/14/2021 16:32 Comments || Top||

    #7  I remember looking at the big hoo-haw about the Equal Rights Amendment and wondering: "Did they understand that enacting it would cause most, if not all, of inheritance, divorce, child custody and such laws to suddenly become Unconstitutional?"
    Posted by: magpie || 02/14/2021 19:51 Comments || Top||


    -PC Follies
    Daniel Greenfield: AOC Blamed Trump for Assaults on Elderly Asians; The Attacker was Muslim
    [FrontPage] Who’s really responsible? Democrats who support criminals and police defunding.

    When a video of an assault on a 91-year-old Asian man went viral, the media and civil rights groups were quick to blame President Trump for using the term, "Chinese Virus".

    "We stand with our Asian American & Pacific Islander community against the rising tide of racism and hate crimes that have been stoked to a fever pitch, much of amplified by the actions of our last president," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tweeted another false accusation.
    Continued on Page 49
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Devout Moslems

    #1  Guess Nation of Islam member or an even more dangerous offshoot.

    Muslim had been convicted of "assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury" in October 14, 2020 and was let off with an "unsentenced term". He had also been convicted of the same charge in 2015 and got off with probation. Had he been locked up, the 91-year-old man he attacked would have been safe. California’s Democrat establishment and its media allies falsely blamed Trump for their own support for criminals like Muslim at the expense of their victims.
    Posted by: Gralet Jomort6809 || 02/14/2021 0:47 Comments || Top||

    #2  Those are definitely possibilities, Gralet Jomort6809. Or Sudden Jihad Syndrome by someone who just likes hurting others, and found a target population that can’t fight back effectively, or someone moderately mentally ill who can’t control his impulses. At the link Mr. Greenfield gives another such attacker, only he has a Black, non-Muslim name. And those attacking orthodox Jews in the New York City region are generally Black or Hispanic petty criminals of no specific religion, but often enough gang members.

    All of which shows the criminal folly of “understanding” such people instead of locking them up when they misbehave.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 8:43 Comments || Top||

    #3 

    WARNING
    Liberals, Socialists and Democrats.

    Trump is now a Private US Citizen.
    Keep lying out your butts and mouths and deliberately putting them in print and he'll be as rich as a Social Media Owner soon.

    All he has to do is to prove defamation, and show one of 4 things:

    * a false statement claiming to be fact.

    * It was printed, or communicated to others.

    * Deliberate malice intent, or negligence.

    * If it damages his image and/or negatively harmed him, his family, or his businesses.

    He can sue the crap out of you for Libel or whatever term is used in your state.

    According to the SCOTUS you are only safe on the Congressional Steps or in chambers.
    Posted by: NN2N1 || 02/14/2021 17:30 Comments || Top||

    #4  He is a private citizen, but he was a public figure long before he ran for president. The rules are a bit different for public figures than they are for you and me.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 02/14/2021 20:36 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
    40[untagged]
    4Taliban
    3Devout Moslems
    3Houthis
    3Sublime Porte
    2Commies
    1Human Trafficking
    1Islamic Defenders Front
    1Islamic State
    1Jaish-e-Mohammad
    1Narcos
    1Ottoman Proxies
    1Antifa/BLM
    1Govt of Iran
    1Govt of Syria
    1Hezbollah

    Bookmark
    E-Mail Me

    The Classics
    The O Club
    Rantburg Store
    The Bloids
    The Never-ending Story
    Thugburg
    Gulf War I
    The Way We Were
    Bio

    Merry-Go-Blog











    On Sale now!


    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.
    Click here for more information

    Meet the Mods
    In no particular order...
    Steve White
    Seafarious
    tu3031
    badanov
    sherry
    ryuge
    GolfBravoUSMC
    Bright Pebbles
    trailing wife
    Gloria
    Fred
    Besoeker
    Glenmore
    Frank G
    3dc
    Skidmark

    Two weeks of WOT
    Sun 2021-02-14
      Car bomb explodes outside Somali parliament HQs in Mogadishu
    Sat 2021-02-13
      Senate Votes - 57 - 43; Trump Acquitted
    Fri 2021-02-12
      Denmark charges seven with attempted terrorism
    Thu 2021-02-11
      20 U.N. Peacekeepers Wounded in Mali Attack
    Wed 2021-02-10
      5 Detained For Death Threats To French Teen Who Criticized Islam As ‘Religion Of Hate'
    Tue 2021-02-09
      Houthis launch attacks on Soddys in Al Jawf and Marib
    Mon 2021-02-08
      Syrian teen arrested in Norway for plotting attack
    Sun 2021-02-07
      LeM chief arrested in Jammu; major terror strike foiled
    Sat 2021-02-06
      U.N. Report Says Qaida's Leader in Yemen under Arrest
    Fri 2021-02-05
      Border Patrol Agents Arrest 11 Iranians in Arizona Who Illegally Entered US
    Thu 2021-02-04
      IS Attack Kills 19 in Hama
    Wed 2021-02-03
      Israeli Delhi embassy bomb: National Investigation Agency registers case, police busily following leads
    Tue 2021-02-02
      Somali forces end Al-Shabaab siege of Mogadishu hotel; 9 dead
    Mon 2021-02-01
      Kidnappers Demand 15,000 Libyan Dinars for Each Egyptian Kidnapped in Tripoli
    Sun 2021-01-31
      A busy day in Kabul: Talib assassin toes up, Talib Kabul Number 2 tied up, 2 kabooms kill 1

    Better than the average link...



    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.
    3.238.162.113
    Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
    WoT Operations (17)    WoT Background (9)    Non-WoT (13)    (0)    Politix (9)