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400 rebels killed by the Syrian Army during east Damascus offensive
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Home Front: Politix
Mississippi to Clawback Funds from Dem VA Gov's Green Car Company
Mississippi's state auditor has demanded that a troubled electric car company founded by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe repay nearly $6.4 million in public funds after the company failed to deliver on its promises to create jobs.

State Auditor Stacey Pickering announced the formal demand to GreenTech Automotive on Wednesday, signaling a new round of problems for the venture McAuliffe left in 2012 during his second run for governor.

McAuliffe's office has said the governor has had no involvement with the company since stepping down as its chairman and divesting his financial stake. But the escalating standoff in Mississippi raises the likelihood that the business deal McAuliffe brokered could be headed toward a bitter end in court. Ending his four-year term as governor with a higher national profile and record as an exuberant pitchman for Virginia, GreenTech's unraveling could dog McAuliffe amid speculation about a 2020 presidential bid.

In the letter to GreenTech CEO Charles Wang, Pickering asked that the full sum be repaid within 30 days, and warned that failure to pay could result in the state filing a civil lawsuit against the company. The total consists of $5 million in public loans GreenTech received, plus interest and recovery costs.
Posted by: lord garth || 07/16/2017 09:35 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


5 Times Democrats Tried To Work With The Russians To Swing Elections
[Daily Wire] The Left has been screaming for Donald Trump Jr.'s head after it became known that he met with a Russian government attorney with the intent of obtaining opposition research on Hillary Clinton. While this was wrong (but not illegal), the Democrats aren't really in a position to lecture about Russia collusion since their party has a history of attempting to work with the Russians to swing elections.

Here are five times Democrats attempted to work with Russia to influence elections.

1. Former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) twice reached out to the Soviet Union for election help. According to Michael Reagan, Sen. John Tunney (D-CA), at the behest of his friend Ted Kennedy, lobbied the Soviet Union "to sabotage [Jimmy] Carter's foreign policy efforts," as this was during Kennedy's primary challenge against Carter in 1980.

"One 1980 document stated that Kennedy offered to condemn President Carter’s policy toward the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in exchange for KGB help," wrote Reagan. "News accounts of that period prove that Kennedy did, in fact, openly criticize Carter's Afghanistan policy."

Additionally, in 1983 Kennedy reached out to the Soviet Union in an attempt to undermine Ronald Reagan's foreign policy and weaken his re-election prospects in 1984, even going as far as offering to set up television interviews in America in order to make the Soviets come across as more "peaceful."

2. In 2012, Barack Obama said to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president at the time: "After my election I have more flexibility." This now-infamous quote was from a hot mic; Obama was telling Medvedev that at that time he just needed Vladimir Putin, who had won Russia's presidential election earlier that month, "to give me space" on Russia-related issues until after his election. Medvedev told Obama, "I will transmit this information to Vladimir, and I stand with you."

During one of the 2012 presidential debates, Obama snarkily said to Mitt Romney, "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War's been over for 20 years." Obama won re-election, and Putin proceeded to take advantage of Obama's "flexibility" with his invasion of Crimea and calling the shots in Syria.

3. Jimmy Carter tried to work with the Soviets during the 1980 election to improve his chances against Ronald Reagan. Michael Reagan also noted in his column that Carter, through his political ally Armand Hammer, lobbied for the Soviet Union to let "Jewish 'refuseniks' emigrate to Israel" to strengthen Carter's standing in important states, but the Soviets rebuffed Carter.

Interestingly, Reagan biographer Craig Shirley wrote in one of his books that during the 1976 election, the Soviet Union "had made overtures to the Carter campaign," even going as far as suggesting "that they could possibly pursue policies that could affect the outcome of the election so as to favor Carter."

4. Bill Clinton pledged to support Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996 if Yeltsin agreed "to clear up 'negative' issues." The Washington Times unearthed a confidential memo in 1996 that revealed the following:
President Clinton, in a private meeting at the recent anti-terrorism summit, promised Boris Yeltsin he would back the Russian president's re-election bid with "positive" U.S. policies toward Russia.

In exchange, Mr. Clinton asked for Mr. Yeltsin's help in clearing up "negative" issues such as the poultry dispute between the two countries, according to a classified State Department record of the meeting obtained by The Washington Times.

Mr. Clinton told Mr. Yeltsin that "this is a big issue, especially since about 40 percent of U.S. poultry is produced in Arkansas. An effort should be made to keep such things from getting out of hand," the memo said.

Bill Gertz, who reported on the memo and is now an editor for the Washington Free Beacon and a columnist for The Washington Times, explained that the memo "exposed the Bill Clinton style of leadership -- going to bat for his political donors and other vested interests in his home state of Arkansas."

5. When Tip O'Neill was Speaker of the House, he wanted the Soviets on the Democrats' side during the 1984 election. According to Michael Reagan, O'Neill told the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, "that it was in everyone’s best interests if the Soviets would help the Democrats keep 'that demagogue Reagan' from being re-elected."

"O'Neill warned Dobrynin that the 'primitive instincts' of this 'dangerous man' would plunge the world into war," wrote Reagan.

Each of these examples, with the possible exception of the Clinton-Yeltsin one, were easily worse than Trump Jr. agreeing to a meeting with a Russian government lawyer for dirt on Hillary Clinton. Again, this does not excuse Trump Jr's sleazy behavior, but it does show that the Democrats are more than happy to do the same thing when it helps their side.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/16/2017 05:57 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Fox News Swings Left - Becomes Meaningless
[BusinessInsider] In a surprisingly frank outburst, Fox News anchor Shep Smith tore into the Trump administration on Friday for its lack of transparency on the unfolding Russia scandal.

"Why is it lie after lie after lie?" Smith said to fellow anchor Chris Wallace. "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling."

In a surprisingly frank outburst, Fox News anchor Shep Smith tore into the Trump administration on Friday for its lack of transparency on the unfolding Russia scandal.

"Why is it lie after lie after lie?" Smith said to fellow anchor Chris Wallace. "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling."
Posted by: Clart Ulanter7967 || 07/16/2017 01:18 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shep has always been a Lefty-Symp Drama Queen. I can't watch him
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Shepard Smith, Geraldo, and Chris Wallace all give Fox a lefty slant. Often while watching Smith, I get this feeling I'm watching CNN or MSNBC.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/16/2017 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Shep's best reporting was in the movie "Volcano".
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 07/16/2017 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Shemp Smith is reliably Centrist-Left at best, but if the subject is Big Business then he goes full-on Left. During the Gulf Oil Spill he reached the barking mad stage. Stopped listening to his segments at that point -- if I wanted a sermon there is a church nearby.
Posted by: magpie || 07/16/2017 12:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace. The Inuit Throat Singers of Fox News.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/16/2017 12:12 Comments || Top||

#6  I don't pay for that drooling. Another Murdoch property. Die! Burn it with fire!!
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/16/2017 18:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Let me know when Shep Smith finally comes out of the closet.
Posted by: Raj || 07/16/2017 19:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Tucker remains the single thing of significant value for Fox. Bret a second, and Hannity is predictable and sadly, not a deep thinker. Marie Harf is proof the Murdoch kids wives have taken control....
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 07/16/2017 20:08 Comments || Top||

#9  #7 - already done
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 21:14 Comments || Top||

#10  FWIW
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 21:17 Comments || Top||

#11  Can't, won't watch Shep. Seen a bit of left leaning in the Fox Rudder, love Tucker and Hannity. Gutfeld is funny and is good comic relief.
Posted by: Wizski || 07/16/2017 22:36 Comments || Top||


‘Free Press Act’ would require White House to hold regular televised press briefings
[WASHINGTONTIMES] The White House would be required to hold at least a couple on-camera press briefings each week if a Democratic politician musters support for a House bill being offered.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut introduced the Free Press Act on Thursday, a legislative proposal that aims to increase transparency within the Trump administration by mandating two on-camera press briefings per week.

"The White House has begun to dramatically, and in an historically unprecedented way, reduce the media and therefore the American people’s access to the thinking of the president," Mr. Himes said in a statement. "And that’s not healthy."

"This simple bill achieves two important goals," he added. "First, it ensures that the press briefings will continue on a regular schedule. Second, it guarantees the American people have access to the proceedings first hand."

The current White House has hosted an average of 2.7 press briefings per week since President Trump took office in January, according to the congressman, on- and off-camera alike. The Trump administration ranks last place in terms of average briefings when compared to the previous three presidents, however, and each of the last nine weeks has witnessed either one or no televised press briefings, he added.

Posted by: Fred || 07/16/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why? What good would it do other than to spew out the crap they release in paper form?

The White House has begun to dramatically, and in an historically unprecedented way, reduce the media...

Oh... CNN and the rest of the demoncrat propagandists get cut out and start crying.

Dunno... seems pretty healthy to me to let the competition flourish.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/16/2017 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I get my news directly from the White House. Since I subscribe to the White House 1600 Daily I get a long list of what everyone there is doing each day. They also send me surveys asking me directly for my input on a lot of issues every week or two.

The BS Media does not provide that service to me. Therefore, screw em.
Posted by: Deadeye Snolung3806 || 07/16/2017 1:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Violates the separation of powers. BTW, where were these Donks during the 'pen and phone' era?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/16/2017 7:17 Comments || Top||

#4  "And now the press briefing; Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, get knotted!"
Posted by: Ulains Thuque6389 || 07/16/2017 8:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Call only on Breitbart, et al for questions. Any Acosta outbursts and he's banned
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 8:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Daily stock footage of Trump typing in a twitter tweet.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/16/2017 8:32 Comments || Top||

#7  To fight the deficit, I propose that media organizations pay a entry fee, on a 'progressive' sliding scale and similarly a query fee if they wish to ask a question. Consider it the FOIA charge for time and labor.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/16/2017 10:31 Comments || Top||

#8  And if they are caught 'reporting' the news in ways that are easily proven wrong with 5 minutes on google or an actual lie, fine the news agency 10 million per incident, the reporter gets 1 million fine and 10 years in jail. 2nd offense is death. Anything reported as actual news must be pure unvarnished fact. Zero opinions. Any opinion piece must be so labeled and include the disclaimer that the author may be lying, misleading and an enemy of the country.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 07/16/2017 11:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Optics 2018. Who wants to be accused of voting against a "Free Press Act?"
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/16/2017 12:56 Comments || Top||

#10  WRONG WRONG WRONG, like Everything the left wants to do.
Posted by: newc || 07/16/2017 14:33 Comments || Top||

#11  Simple. Have it 5 days a week. Require live network coverage. Don't allow questions from non-press participants (non-press includes CNN,MSNBC, etc...). And if you don't go to one you are banned for 2 weeks.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/16/2017 14:43 Comments || Top||

#12  Just get a big fat guy to come out every day and moon the press pool for 1/2 hour. As the lefty media loves Shakespeare murder in the park, performance art spraying of HIV positive blood and all antifa activities, they will be unable to complain in a credible fashion...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 07/16/2017 18:42 Comments || Top||

#13  What I was thinking, have a half-hour comedy hour.

Lucky they don't hire me, I'd have mocking Mondays where the whole show was devoted to Obama gaffs. Stuff like, how to make waffles, geography and battle history of the US in Vietnam and proper pronunciation. The history of the umbrella. Hard to the corp. Interesting Italians through history. Funeral etiquette.

If you like that, you will love Thirsty Thursdays, where I showcase a mixed drink and explore the history of pub games (including cards and dominoes). Random guest/assistant.

What else...Wacky Wednesdays - nothing but Gary Larson slides.

Travel Tuesdays - 30 minute highlight of US Historical and Beautiful View Points: Custer's Last Stand, Devil's Tower, The Hornets' Nest, Alabastar Caverns.

Sunday Saunter - Live Stream of driver going across I-70 in Kansas.

Friday, Saturday?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/16/2017 19:53 Comments || Top||

#14  Yeah, yeah, I know, infowars...but...:

Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/16/2017 20:04 Comments || Top||

#15  One small amendment. Make the broadcast mandatory on all channels. Then have the briefing everyday 7-10PM Eastern time.
Posted by: Titus Oppressor of the Lichtensteiners3701 || 07/16/2017 21:21 Comments || Top||


24 Republicans Vote To Preserve Transgender Ideology in Military
[BREITBART] Twenty-four Republicans banded together on Thursday to defeat an amendment which would have ended former President Barack Obama
They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them...
’s 2016 policy of funding "gender-reassignment" surgery for soldiers who want to live as members of the opposite sex.

The amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act was offered by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R, Mo.). It would have prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for the non-military medical task of converting healthy soldiers into "transgender" soldiers who face lifelong dependence on hormones and surgery.

The July 13 vote saw Democrats vote in lockstep to defeat the amendment, despite the national unpopularity of the transgender ideology. They were joined by 24 Republicans who broke with their party to assist the Democrats to defeat the amendment, without any visible objections by the GOP’s business-focused leadership.

The offer of free medical care to gender-confused soldiers is part of the broader effort by Obama to have the Pentagon affirm and implement the transgender ideology, which says that people can have a "gender" different from their biological sex. The ideology also says that a person’s legal sex is defined by their self-assessed gender -- not by their biology -- and that other Americans must agree with people who say they are a member of the opposite sex.

Posted by: Fred || 07/16/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here is the list of Republicans who voted for you to pay for these kinds of medical treatments:

Amash
Bergman
Coffman
Comstock
Cook
Costello (PA)
Curbelo (FL)
Denham
Dent
Faso
Fitzpatrick
Issa
Katko
Knight
Lance
LoBiondo
MacArthur
Reed
Reichert
Ros-Lehtinen
Shuster
Stefanik
Tenney
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Sadly, I'm waiting for the backlash from the first combat death of a wo-man.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/16/2017 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Primary.
Posted by: newc || 07/16/2017 14:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Frickin' Issa. Maybe I'll stay home in 2018.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/16/2017 15:21 Comments || Top||

#5  To receive the mutilation, one must first be probed, prodded, psyched, and approved. This process, and the configurations of the knotholes incorporated, ultimately controls the expenditures.

The narrative does not end with the approval of funding that may or may not be spent.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/16/2017 15:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Luckily, my senator is Cruz:p
Posted by: Silentbrick || 07/16/2017 17:24 Comments || Top||

#7  I have D. D. Hunter . He needs to clean up his accounting, but at least he votes right
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 17:35 Comments || Top||


Kamala Harris meets with Democratic elite in Hamptons
[PAGESIX] The Democrats’ "Great Freshman Hope," Sen. Kamala Harris, is heading to the Hamptons to meet with Hillary Clinton’s
... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, sometimes described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as a crook...
biggest backers.
Ah, yes. The Great Freshman Hope, meeting the elites in the Hamptons. How jolly!
The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, senator is being fêted in Bridgehampton on Saturday at the home of MWWPR guru Michael Kempner, a staunch Clinton supporter who was one of her national-finance co-chairs and a led fund-raiser for her 2008 bid for the presidency. He was also listed as one of the top "bundlers" for Barack Obama’s
Because I won...
2012 re-election campaign, having raised $3 million.

Guests there to greet Harris are expected to include Margo Alexander, a member of Clinton’s inner circle; Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic donor who is the chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, even though he lives between a sprawling Westchester estate and an Upper East Side pad; designer Steven Gambrel and Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman.

Posted by: Fred || 07/16/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where's the RICO act?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/16/2017 5:27 Comments || Top||

#2  It doesn't apply to the elites G(r)omgoru. They are except from the "little guys" laws you know.
(Do I really need to add '/sarc' to this?)
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 07/16/2017 7:15 Comments || Top||

#3  She's an idiot who got her start below Willie Brown's belt
Posted by: Frank G || 07/16/2017 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  The Dems are going to try to score another coup as they did in 2008 with another ghost freshman Senator. If you want to find out more about Harris, watch the Senate hearings when she waterboards Jeff Sessions. She is a rude bytch.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/16/2017 8:49 Comments || Top||


Government
Ted Kennedy and the KGB
In light of recent events, an interesting perspective.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/16/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now there's a case of real "collusion" (more like treason. The double standard the Dems have for themselves and the different one they have for the Pubs gets to be a real pain in the arse.
Posted by: JohnQC || 07/16/2017 8:54 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
24[untagged]
8Islamic State
5Govt of Pakistan
3Taliban
3Moslem Colonists
2Sublime Porte
2Govt of Iran
2al-Nusra
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
2Govt of Syria
1TTP
1Commies
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Abu Sayyaf (ISIS)
1Jamaat ul-Ahrar
1Maute group (IS)
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Thai Insurgency

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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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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2017-07-16
  400 rebels killed by the Syrian Army during east Damascus offensive
Sat 2017-07-15
  Islamic State's Afghan 'emir' killed in raid, US says
Fri 2017-07-14
  19 give up the ghost in suicide kaboom at checkpoint in Anbar
Thu 2017-07-13
  ISIS declares Tal Afar as a separate kalifate
Wed 2017-07-12
  Amnesty: All sides violated international law in Mosul
Tue 2017-07-11
  ISIS: Al-Bagdadhi baghdeadi
Mon 2017-07-10
  Frenchman held for planning terror attack with Belgian pair
Sun 2017-07-09
  Iraqi forces take Mosul
Sat 2017-07-08
  Turkey detains 29 IS group militants in raids in Istanbul
Fri 2017-07-07
  40 ISIS troops die in battle with Iraqi forces in Salahuddin
Thu 2017-07-06
  Haftar's forces declare victory in battle for Benghazi
Wed 2017-07-05
  Baghdadi’s “mail man” killed in security ambush in Diyala
Tue 2017-07-04
  US-backed SDF breaches Raqqa's Old City wall
Mon 2017-07-03
  British soldier drowns ISIS thug in puddle after being ambushed
Sun 2017-07-02
  Palestinian Forces Hand Over Most Wanted Fugitive in Ain Hilweh


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