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B-52s in Al Udeid AB Qatar
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
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4 17:41 magpie [] 
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4 21:53 Snavimble Bucket1794 [] 
1 08:36 M. Murcek [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
1 13:30 Mike Kozlowski [2]
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3 11:26 Skidmark [1]
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6 23:58 trailing wife [1]
1 14:35 Rambler in Virginia [1]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 6: Politix
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2 13:05 CrazyFool [1]
7 21:06 Woodrow [3]
12 13:44 charger []
8 14:59 Bobby []
7 14:33 Glenmore []
6 21:08 Woodrow []
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Brave Pro-Abortion Legislator Sims Challenges Group Of Nuns To Fistfight
[Babylon Bee] HARRISBURG, PA‐Pennsylvania's favorite pro-abortion legislator, Brian Sims, wanted to show he was tough. While most guys would join a local MMA club or luchador circuit, Sims isn't most guys. He had a much better idea. Sims wandered into a local Catholic church and challenged a group of singing nuns to a fistfight over the issue of abortion.

"Hey nuns, come on down here and fight me if you want to show abortion is bad!" he called out, adding several slurs and expletives to his courageous speech. "Yeah, that's what I thought! Chicken, eh? Probably hateful Chick-fil-A chicken too, and not woke chicken like Popeye's!"

Several nuns were about ready to perform a double reverse elbow-drop on him from the rafters, but a priest stopped them, according to witnesses.

"Oh, I see, running away, eh? You yellow [expletive]! I'll punch your face off with my bravery!" he cried as he slowly backed away.

At publishing time, Sims had hastily moved along when someone his own size showed up to accept his challenge.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 07:23 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Like the punchline of the old joke: You're not so tough, Batman...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/11/2019 8:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Brave Sir Robin Brian!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 05/11/2019 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  DQ'd from Bee/Not Bee, else I would have fallen for it.

That said, $3000 on the Nun.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/11/2019 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  If the Nun can bring her wooden ruler ... her win by a KO in the First Round
Posted by: magpie || 05/11/2019 11:18 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
No, There Isn't Moral Equivalence Between Communist China And The U.S.
[The Federalist] Just as trade negotiations between China and the United States may be reaching their crescendo, an outspoken ex-conservative has made an assertion about the People’s Republic of China (PRC) likely to warm the hearts of the leaders of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Writing in the Washington Post on his desire for an "unapologetic atheist" to someday ascend to the White House, Max Boot says:
There are too many examples of evil committed in the name of God to assume that people act morally because they are afraid of divine punishment. More likely, people are social animals who develop moral codes so they can live at peace with their neighbors. That’s why almost all societies, whether religious or not, have similar taboos against murder, robbery, rape and other sins.
Most of China’s 1.4 billion people have no religious affiliation, and fewer than 7 percent are monotheists. Is there any reason to believe that China is a less moral place than the United States, where 70.6 percent profess to be Christians? [Emphasis mine]

Boot’s apparent attempt to draw moral equivalence between China and the United States would be news to the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens living in the world’s leading surveillance state‐to the extent they are able to read his article behind the Great Firewall, and not one of the 1 to 2 million Uighurs currently imprisoned in "re-education camps" or countless others held captive for challenging the Party line.

It would be news to members of the dissenting Chinese diaspora being tracked down and targeted by the Communist regime at every corner of the Earth. And it would be news to those peoples whose sovereignty is threatened by the CCP and the People’s Liberation Army that serves it‐"it" being the Party, not the country.

Beyond the Chinese people and those in China’s direct orbit, Boot’s claim would also be news to the more than 20 million U.S. federal government employees or applicants, and their families, friends, and colleagues, who had their most sensitive information stolen by China in the 2014 Office of Personnel Management hack. It would be news to the entrepreneurs who have seen hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of intellectual property and technology pilfered by the Chinese government. And it would be news to those nations who are being crushed under the weight of Chinese debt if not foreclosed upon under the PRC’s loan-to-own Belt and Road strategy.
"Stolen by China" - did you read that, (He)erb?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 07:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Have we forgotten these are Red Communists we are attempting to deal with. What more is there to know ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  People who promote sodomy, pederasty and abortion should have their tongues catch fire when the word "moral" crosses their lips.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/11/2019 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Max Boot's Anti-Trump fervor is just a symptom of his degeneracy into madness
Posted by: Frank G || 05/11/2019 9:28 Comments || Top||

#4  The Stupid it burns!
Most of China’s 1.4 billion people have no religious affiliation,...
The Chinese Communist Party is the official state religion (they just don't call it one!) and it actively persecutes followers of rival beliefs. Remember the Falun Gong purges?
...and fewer than 7 percent are monotheists.
Monotheists meaning the Abrahamic Monotheisms (Christianity, Muhammedism, Judaism in all their permutations), is that what he is saying? Historically the Chinese have been polytheists, practiced Ancestor Worship, practiced Confucianism and Daoism ... did I forget Buddhism. An Atheist wasteland they ain't, Mr. Boot.
...Is there any reason to believe that China is a less moral place than the United States, where 70.6 percent profess to be Christians?
Moral meaning what, exactly? "...living at peace with their neighbors" doesn't mean that they haven't been happy to starve, enslave and slaughter strangers ... just not their immediate neighbors and family.
Posted by: magpie || 05/11/2019 17:41 Comments || Top||


Economy
Fix air travel in America: Raise taxes Adjust the passenger facility charge
[The Hill] Within the infrastructure debate in Washington, let us not lose sight of the condition of America’s airports.

President Trump and newly elected members of Congress campaigned on a promise to fix our country’s outdated infrastructure, often citing airports as a prime example. But if the past has taught us anything, it’s that everyone holds hands when it comes to talking about infrastructure, but points fingers when it comes to paying for it.

The case for investing in airports is clear. U.S. airports count themselves among the world’s busiest, yet no U.S. airports ‐ once the envy of the world ‐ crack the top 30 for the world’s best airports. From London’s Heathrow to Seoul’s Incheon, countries around the world ‐ with whom we directly compete for tourism dollars ‐ have prioritized air travel infrastructure, while America’s aging, inadequate facilities are creating more hassle and congestion than ever.

Without improvements, passengers won’t just lose their time and patience: the U.S. economy stands to lose billions of dollars in travel spending if nothing is done to address the state of our country’s air travel infrastructure. In 2016, Americans avoided 32 million trips because of airport hassles, costing $24 billion in spending.

Can this problem be solved? Since Congress is loath to raise taxes, the outlook for any transportation pay-for is usually bleak. But, when it comes to airports, there is a simple tax-free solution: raise the cap on the passenger facility charge (PFC), which gives airports the option to adjust their own user fees if they need infrastructure improvements.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 07:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Better idea. Tear down the airports. Make everyone go through a warehouse security operation and wait on the tarmac. Parking lots, runways, porta johns. It could not be much worse than what air travel is today.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/11/2019 8:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Toll Booths at airport entrances really are the key.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Or we could stop paying huge subsidies to tiny rural airports and small, secondary airports in larger cities that have no chance of being able to sustain themselves? We could save money instead of steal more money!
Posted by: Vernal Hatrack2366 || 05/11/2019 8:56 Comments || Top||

#4  ...We also have an out-of-control NIMBY culture here, which I'm pretty sure places like the ROK don't have to deal with.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/11/2019 8:56 Comments || Top||

#5  And the ones that remain should be privatized, with the security theater removed.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrack2366 || 05/11/2019 8:56 Comments || Top||

#6  AFAICT the big push to upgrade or build new terminals is more about creating graft opportunities than improving air travel.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/11/2019 9:16 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/11/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||

#8  a promise to fix our country’s outdated infrastructure...

Um, shouldn't that be crumbling infrastructure? Isn't that the usual bullshit?
Posted by: Raj || 05/11/2019 10:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank Gawd for my Emotional-Support Tarantula or I'd never make it through the long TSA lines without anxiety.

Sure, come and frisk me!
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/11/2019 12:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Sure, come and frisk me!

My emotional support cooties are not going to like that.
Posted by: gorb || 05/11/2019 12:31 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Did This Texas Democrat Just Admit The Real Reason Why The Left Wants Trump Impeached?
[Townhall] Even for Democrats who want to impeach and remove President Trump, they know the waters of this are murky, choppy, and loaded with peril. You cannot go off half-cocked. One minor misstep can lead to political blowback that could all but assure a second term for Donald Trump‐and with this current crop of Democrat, there are a lot of loudmouths who could mess things up. I’m not complaining about that. I hope Democrats continue to reach full froth on impeachment and Russian collusion because they’re looking totally insane. And if Nancy Pelosi wants to keep her caucus from going totally off the reservation, she better speak to Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who said that the Democrats just have to impeach Trump...because he will get a second term. Green sad this during an MSNBC interview on May 4 (via Free Beacon):
Green, who has called for Trump's removal from office since 2017 and introduced articles of impeachment that year, told MSNBC that he dismissed the idea that impeaching Trump could help him politically.

"I'm concerned if we don't impeach this president, he will get re-elected. If we don't impeach him, he will say he's been vindicated," Green said. "He will say the Democrats had an overwhelming majority in the House and they didn't take up impeachment. He will say that we had a constitutional duty to do it if it was there, and we didn't. He will say he's been vindicated."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's incredible how they just can't admit nobody likes them and they need to change. I've never seen such severe denial in my life.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/11/2019 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Al Green the missing chromosome that replaced Cynthia McKinney?
Posted by: Hupailing Elmoluck5245 || 05/11/2019 2:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Articles of Impeachment:

1. He got elected.

2. He says rude things on Twitter.

3. ...
Posted by: KBK || 05/11/2019 15:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I sometimes wonder if the Trump organization helps fund the biggest Moon Bats of the Dims.
Posted by: Snavimble Bucket1794 || 05/11/2019 21:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Why Is Pressure Mounting BTWN The U.S. and Iran?
[Jerusalem Post] Iran announced this week that it is changing a key term of the Iran nuclear deal ‐ and plans to make an even more dramatic change in 60 days if partners don’t ease conditions.

The partners ‐ Europe chief among them ‐ complained, loudly. But so did an ex-partner: the United States.

The Trump administration immediately retaliated, expanding sanctions on Iran after Tehran said it would fiddle with a deal that the Trump administration thinks should be null and void.

"Hey, this is binary. You’re either in compliance or you’re not," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Baghdad on Tuesday, a day before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced the change, and at the same time that the Trump administration was celebrating the one-year anniversary of pulling out of the deal. (Reports of Rouhani’s planned announcement had already emerged.)

Pompeo’s statements sound a little confusing to observers who have followed the Trump administration’s stance on the deal. Trump has called the agreement the "worst" deal ever.

So what’s going on?

The answer is that the Trump administration sees Iran’s behavior as another instance of why it pulled the U.S. out of the deal in the first place: the Iranian regime is not trustworthy.

Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Suspect internal economic pressure on Persian regime is causing them to double-down.
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/11/2019 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  If they fire a SCUD at one US vessel or allied installation, it could be over very quickly. I don't believe the Orange Man will want to play games with this one.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/11/2019 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  if a missile is fired, i doubt it would be a SCUD; more likely a Silkworm. much harder to detect and destroy. plus the iranians would just have to know they have only one shot before all hell comes crashing through their door. and roof. and walls.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/11/2019 9:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Why Is Pressure Mounting BTWN The U.S. and Iran?

Radical Democrats and their Iranian allies.
Posted by: Phaick Uneretle6310 || 05/11/2019 10:18 Comments || Top||


Q&A: Syria’s Assad sets sights on Idlib, the final showdown?
[Rudaw] After eight months of relative calm, Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib is once again a theater for bloody military operations: heavy bombardment, Arclight airstrikes and waves of civilian displacement as Syrian government troops, backed by Russia, push their way into the rebel-held enclave in a widening offensive.

The violence of the past week threatens to completely unravel a crumbling cease-fire agreement reached between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor....
and Russia at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in September last year, which averted a potentially devastating assault by the Syrian government to retake the province.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/11/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  The Zeno's paradox of the middle east. It's always halfway to being captured /suppressed / pacified.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/11/2019 8:36 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Trump, Pareto, and the Fall of the Elites
The Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto died in 1923. He saw men’s beliefs and actions as motivated by sentiment and self-interest. The ostensible motivations given for certain beliefs and actions, such as helping the underprivileged, are often cover for actions actually motivated by a desire to protect the privileges of the elites -- the power structure.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 05/11/2019 11:22 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  actions as motivated by sentiment and self-interest.
Milton Friedman called it 'unenlightened self-interest', if I remember correctly. But not a bad thing, by the way.
Free to Choose

I read Friedman's book many years ago, but maybe I'll get the Kindle edition....unless I can find the paperback.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/11/2019 11:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Man is a rationalizing being, not a rational one.
Posted by: charger || 05/11/2019 13:11 Comments || Top||

#3  @charger - Yes, you've got it right.
Posted by: KBK || 05/11/2019 15:39 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
28[untagged]
6Taliban
5Islamic State
5Govt of Iran
4Arab Spring
3Commies
3al-Nusra
1Salafists
1Sublime Porte
1TTP
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Hamas
1Houthis
1Moslem Colonists

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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
Sat 2019-05-11
  B-52s in Al Udeid AB Qatar
Fri 2019-05-10
  U.S. revokes citizenship of Portland mosque's imam for ties to ObL
Thu 2019-05-09
  Rotherham abuse scandal: 40 arrests made in last two months
Wed 2019-05-08
  Pompeo suddenly in Iraq
Tue 2019-05-07
  400-strong Christian mob attacks Muslim shops in Sri Lankan town hit by Easter bomb
Mon 2019-05-06
  19 killed in Gaza, four in Israel in Sunday’s escalation, say officials
Sun 2019-05-05
  Iran money man zapped in Gaza
Sat 2019-05-04
  Israel strikes Gaza targets in response to heavy rocket fire Saturday
Fri 2019-05-03
  Taliban militants blow up one of the oldest shrines of Ghazni city
Thu 2019-05-02
  Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
Wed 2019-05-01
  Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated businessman Malek sentenced to 25 years in prison
Tue 2019-04-30
  Gunmen kill pastor, worshippers in Burkina Faso church
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?

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