[ToloNews] The Afghan government has begun the release of the last portion of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... detainees, following the Taliban's release of Afghan commandos.
These Taliban were singled-out for having allegedly committed serious crimes.
Continued on Page 49
Uncle Sugar continues tightening up the purse strings on President Trump’s watch.
[AlAhram] The United States has suspended aid to Æthiopia over the filling of its disputed Grand Æthiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) without an accord with Egypt and Sudan, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, quoting a State Department official.
The official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter and asked not to be identified, said President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s administration is increasingly concerned about the lack of progress in negotiations between the three countries.
He said the US government is working with the three countries to facilitate an agreement that balances their interests.
The US had brokered talks between the three sides late last year to break the years-long deadlock in negotiations, but failed to secure signatures from the three countries on a draft deal.
Washington stressed to Æthiopia that the filling of the 6,000-megawatt dam "should not take place without an agreement".
Egypt initialed the deal drafted by the US but Æthiopia refused to sign.
Addis Ababa announced in July that it had achieved its first-year target for the filling of the dam’s reservoir due to the rainfall season.
The move was condemned by Cairo and Khartoum, both of whom sought a legally binding agreement before the dam’s filling.
The State Department official’s comments to Bloomberg confirm a report by Foreign Policy magazine on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approving a plan in late August to suspend some foreign aid to Æthiopia over the dam dispute.
US officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter told Foreign Policy last week that the decision made by Pompeo could affect up to $130 million in foreign aid to Æthiopia, adding that the finalised cuts could amount to less than $130 million, however.
The nearly completed $5 billion dam has been a source of contention between the three countries.
Cairo fears the project will significantly cut its crucial water supplies from the River Nile, while Sudan has concerns on how the reservoir will be managed.
Æthiopia says the massive project, which it hopes will make it Africa’s largest power exporter, is key to its development efforts.
#1
This dam is more important to Ethiopia than any amount of aid. This was a foolish decision if it's actually intended to stop them. If, on the other hand, it's intended to permanently stop aid to a country that doesn't deserve it, then good for Trump.
More about the recently arrested Muslim Brotherhood Number One.
[AlAhram] The arrest of acting supreme guide Mahmoud Ezzat will further undermine the Moslem Brüderbund.
On 28 August the Interior Ministry made a surprise announcement: it had arrested Mahmoud Ezzat, the acting supreme guide of terrorist-designated Moslem Brüderbund group.
Ezzat, who was arrested in a flat in New Cairo, had been on the run since the downfall of the Moslem Brüderbund regime and arrest of most of its leaders in the summer of 2013. It was widely believed that like thousands of other Moslem Brüderbund members Ezzat had fled Egypt and travelled to either Qatar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/03/2020 00:00 ||
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[11130 views]
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[AlAhram] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... says it will allow flights ``from all countries'' to cross its skies to reach the United Arab Emirates.
The Saudi Press Agency announcement on Wednesday comes just days after Saudi Arabia allowed the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight to use its airspace to reach the UAE, signaling acquiescence for a breakthrough U.S.-brokered deal by the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations with Israel.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/03/2020 00:00 ||
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Continuing government cost cutting that started by reducing subsidies to the Saudi on the street and, after cutting vast swathes of the House of Saud from princely incomes, locked a slightly smaller group of them into a fancy hotel until they coughed up newly defined excess ill-gotten gains.
[Rudaw] From Pakistain to Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... is scaling back its famed chequebook diplomacy, a longstanding policy of splashing petrodollars in exchange for influence, which observers say has yielded few tangible gains.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/03/2020 00:00 ||
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[11133 views]
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“Pay attention to US, O Unbelievers!!! Thus do we set free our vicious and crazy, justifying their desire to terrorize you with terror.“
[IsraelTimes] Egypt’s highest Moslem authority al-Azhar condemns French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... ’s decision to reprint cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, as the trial opened over the subsequent 2015 terror attack on its Gay Paree office.
"The insistence on the criminal act
Sorry — it’s only illegal in backward parts of the world. Civilized people raise an eyebrow and move on....
to republish these offensive cartoons embeds hate speech further and inflames the emotions of faithful followers of religions," al-Azhar’s Observatory for Combating Extremism says on its Facebook page.
Only your religion, O powerless ones. The rest of us prize self control over childish temper tantrums.
Charlie Hebdo, whose taboo-breaking style makes it a beacon of free speech for many but a lightning rod of racial insensitivity for others, marked the start of Wednesday’s trial by republishing the controversial cartoons that had angered Moslems globally.
Good for them. Remind us all what we are fighting for.
Al-Azhar, also considered the foremost religious institution for Sunni Moslems, says the contentious decision to reprint the caricatures is "an unjustified provocation of the emotions of nearly two billion Moslems around the world."
#1
"provocation of the emotions" -- Control your emotions, you stupid caveman. That is the only advice I can offer. You pretend your religion isn't one of savagery, but you act like vicious toddlers whenever somebody offends you and claim you can't help it because of "passion". What a load of manure. These people are as ridiculous as the caricatures of them make them look.
[Rudaw] Five years on from his tragic death, the family of Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi have urged the international community to not ignore the plight of refugees.
The refugee crisis received new media attention after images of Kurdi, 3, washed up on a Ottoman Turkish beach spread across the globe.
The toddler drowned with his mother and brother Ghalib, 4, after their boat capsized on the way to Greece on September 2, 2015.
They wouldn’t have drowned if his father hadn’t decided to give up a perfectly satisfactory asylum situation in Turkey for illegal migration during the roughest weather of the year to the gold-laden streets of Angela Merkel’s Germany in an unseaworthy boat.
His death led to calls for European leaders to offer refugees safe and legal passage.
They could instead have condemned the father for the greed and stupidity that led to the deaths of 3/5ths of the family, or Turkey for encouraging the migrants to continue on, but they went for the maximum accusation of the innocent instead.
"We cannot close our eyes and turn our back and walk away from them," his aunt Tima Kurdi said at a presser held by the German migrant rescue group Sea-Eye, AFP reported.
"People all over the world continue to suffer and it's getting worse, not any better. And they are asking for help," she said.
The family are from the Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria.
Three individuals were each sentenced to 125 years in prison in mid-March for their involvement in the tragedy a week after they were captured in Adana, southern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... Sea-Eye named a rescue ship in memory of Kurdi in February 2019.
"Those people are innocent victims, they flee from force, not by choice," said Tima, who founded the Kurdi Foundation, which aims to help refugee children.
...all those who claim to be children, or the half or less who actually are not adult under the law?
"Sadly, our family's tragedy is one of many," she added.
During the height of Europe's refugee crisis, more than 1 million people mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, fled to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... in 2015, many of them by crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats that often sank.
In March, the UN migration agency said an estimated 20,000 people have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2014.
This is the email Portland mayor @tedwheeler sent to residents at his NW Portland condo after antifa attacked the building in a riot & tried to burn it down. He simply announces he will move, rather than end the rioting. #PortlandRiotspic.twitter.com/rK5nPQPtj3
#3
"The damage caused by the riot just because I live there is unacceptable. Rioters must always remember to invoke Evil Orange Man as justification for rioting to be acceptable. Tell all your friends."
[ALMASDARNEWS] A front man for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... accused Greece of practicing piracy in the eastern Mediterranean region, stressing that the French moves would end in a crushing defeat.
"Turkey is conducting research and exploration work in the eastern Mediterranean within its continental shelf and its territorial waters, and this is something Greece has nothing to do with," Omar Celik said in a statement reported by the Anadolu Agency.
He continued, directing his speech to the Greeks: "If you are looking for reliable interlocutors, there is nothing better than Turkey. Greece has become a piracy country in the eastern Mediterranean and is seeking things larger than its size."
On his attack on La Belle France, Celik said: "If the French president announces red lines in our continental shelf and our homeland, then we return those lines to him."
He continued: "The French have nothing that they can achieve by bringing Rafale fighters to the eastern Mediterranean , or conducting maneuvers with Greek Cyprus. The result will be a severe defeat for the Greek government."
Earlier in the day, Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... said, "The attempts to seize the riches of the Mediterranean are a new face of modern colonialism ."
He said, "The attempt to confine Turkey within its coasts through the Greek island of Meis (Kastellorizo), which has an area of only 10 square kilometers, is the most prominent expression of injustice and inequity."
Celik added, "Attempts to push a country that does not benefit itself (referring to Greece) to confront a regional and international power such as Turkey, has become a funny thing."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2020 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#10
This comes humming back at us if the Dems win in November ("Biden Withholds Funds From Racist States.") Of course, it might anyway. So let's win both the voting and the counting, and the recounting and the litigation, and the shooting.
Posted by: Matt ||
09/03/2020 12:23 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Trump should commit to sit down with New Yorkers and then do it in Florida where most are now living.
#18
Had a thought. What if the non-urban counties in Oregon called a convention citing the Declaration of Independence with the intent of applying for separation from Portland-Eugene? See - West Virginia.
#21
Lincoln carved West Virginia off by writ. But it's still a sound idea.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/03/2020 16:04 Comments ||
Top||
#22
Trump does have an army. It's called the Army.
He has a navy, air force, marines, and now space force too. he is, after all, commander in chief.
Maybe he should take a sizable force into NYC City hall and say "You called?". (Of coure he wouldn't abuse his office that way. I don't think...)
#23
#22 Trump does have an army. It's called the Army.
He has a navy, air force, marines, and now space force too. he is, after all, commander in chief.
Can he rely on them?
Does he know who the trustworthy ones are?
Do he or his team know who the untrustworthy ones are?
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) fired 74 employees in August on various charges including submission of fake or altered degrees, sabotage of company property, bribery, theft and drug trafficking.#PIAhttps://t.co/Gx9Oc8rlX5
[TheHill] The Trump administration imposed sanctions Wednesday against the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor and one of her (Oh crap, here comes the anti-woman trope.)
top aides as the court continues to probe alleged war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Calling the ICC a "thoroughly broken and corrupted institution," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions against chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. Sanctions are also being levied against Phakiso Mochochoko, the court’s head of jurisdiction, for "having materially assisted" Bensouda, Pompeo said. The humorous version. Still not tired of winning...
#4
Never bothered to check the number of Article 32 investigations and courts martials conducted by the American military of its own. You only need someone to 'help' if you don't do it yourself. We're covered.
#5
The US sets up the international institutions, but as World Police is exempt from them. The US has to get its hands dirty clearing the way for an eventual global governance, and using the machinery that the US has set up to hinder the US in its mission is clearly wrong.
The United States does act as an international sheriff, self-appointed perhaps but widely welcomed nevertheless, trying to enforce some peace and justice in what Americans see as a lawless world where outlaws need to be deterred or destroyed, and often through the muzzle of a gun.
That this does not benefit the American people is irrelevant. Their blood will water the new global governance, even though they do not realize it. Americans have always believed that they had discovered the secret to human happiness and wished to export it to the rest of the world. This ICC prosecutor is trying to derail this process.
#6
/\ Americans have always believed that they had discovered the secret to human happiness and wished to export it to the rest of the world.
Thank you for that bit of enlightenment. Evidently I am swimming against the tide as I could care less what level of "happiness" the "rest of the world" enjoys or is devoid of. I do wish them all the very best, but how they achieve their best is quite frankly none of my fok'n business.
It truly is amazing what we can learn here, about ourselves.
#9
but how they achieve their best is quite frankly none of my fok'n business.
Unless their best involves oppressing US. E.G. if China's best involves infecting us and the rest of the world with the Whu Flu then it quickly becomes our business. Remember that the enemy gets a vote on peace or war.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed four seizure orders for Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", funds and property in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... around the world on Wednesday.
The decision, which came several days after Israel and Hamas agreed to a Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i-brokered ceasefire to calm the escalating tensions between the two sides.
The cumulative amount from the seizure order is millions of shekels and is part of Israel’s economic campaign against the terror group which is led by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing in the Defense Ministry along with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), IDF, Foreign Affairs Ministry and other parties.
Gantz signed a seizure order to the amount of $900,000 in relation to the Osama Albashiti and Partners Money Changes and Money Transfers as well as its owner Asma Sadek Mohammed Albashiti for its Hamas related activities.
The defense minister also signed an order to restrict the transfer of property and funds to Ramy Abdu and Khalid Turaani, who manage the Paleostine-International Platform of NGOs Working for Paleostine (IPNGO) organization which operates in the UK and act on behalf to Hamas.
Gantz signed a similar order against Mahmoud El Hanafi, who serves as director-general of the Paleostinian Institute for Human Rights, which acts on behalf of Hamas and operates in Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... . The group has been declared a terror organization in Israel.
"We will continue to act against terror in every way it acts, everywhere," Gantz said. "The defense establishment, through the National Economic Counterterrorism Headquarters in the Defense Ministry, will pursue terror organizations in Israel and around the world, and will interrupt the distribution of terror funds."
The seizure and restraining orders have been published on the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing website and translated into English and Arabic.
The Defense Ministry says they’ve also been widely distributed to Israel’s financial system and across the world, "which should impose additional restrictions on those organizations, institutions, and individuals."
[AlAhram] The Egyptian president underscored the importance of the Israeli side 'not taking unilateral measures that would undermine the chances for peace'.
Bibi: Got it. Is that the last thing you have to check off?
Al Sisi: Yuppers — everything checked off to shut up the idiots back home. It’s time for whiskey and cigars! Too bad you Israelis don’t go in for dancing girls, but if you have a BB gun, I’d love to take out some of the idiots you have chanting out there — they sound like a plague of locusts..
[IsraelTimes] Chief Paleostinian negotiator will give virtual seminars as a fellow in The Future of Diplomacy Project in move criticized by pro-Israel groups.
Saeb Erekat ...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state... , the Paleostinians’ chief negotiator, is bringing his expertise to Harvard.
Erekat will mentor students and give virtual seminars as a fellow in The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Erekat, also the secretary general of the Executive Committee of the PLO, said in a 2014 interview with Al Jazeera that "I will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state."
The Kennedy School — among the most prestigious graduate schools for public and social policy in the world — announced Erekat’s appointment last week. The other Fisher Family Fellows include Julie Bishop, chancellor of the Australian National University; Federica Mogherini, the high representative/vice president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019; and Peter Wittig, who served nearly 40 years in the German Foreign Service.
The new fellows "will strengthen our capacity to learn the lessons of effective diplomacy and statecraft," faculty chair Nicholas Burns said, according to the watchdog group Honest Reporting.
Harvard announced last month that it would provide only online learning for the fall semester. The announcement said the fellows will visit the Ivy League university’s Boston-area campus in the spring to lead study groups on topics of their expertise, including the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.
Erekat’s appointment was criticized on Twitter by the Israel advocacy groups CAMERA on Campus and The Simon Wiesenthal Center, among others.
Posted by: Pearl Lumplump9517 ||
09/03/2020 6:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Harvard envied Yale’s exciting student, disenchanted Taliban envoy Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi. Wilson Quarterly reported on what happened to the gentleman after his year at Yale here.
But what Harvard has bought is something else entirely.
[AmThinker] I understated the case when I called MSNBC's host Joy Reid an "embarrassing ignoramus" four years ago. It's one thing to spout Hamas propaganda, get her facts all wrong about Hillary Clinton's email scandal, or even lie about people hacking her blog posts to evade responsibility for what she wrote. It's quite another to imply anything negative about Muslims on MSNBC's programming. Even if spreading the latest phony progressive talking point that Trump-supporters are responsible for the BLM/Antifa riots...because they are acting the way "Muslims act."
[FoxNews] The high-profile attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with fatally shooting two people in Kenosha, said he was locked out of his Twitter account Tuesday after posting about raising money for Rittenhouse's legal defense.
L. Lin Wood argued the action against his account is the latest example of Twitter censorship of conservative voices and he intends to file a lawsuit against the social media giant and its CEO Jack Dorsey.
"I'm going to take Jack Dorsey's ass down," Wood told Fox News. "He has been abusing the First Amendment of this country for his own agenda."
Wood was blocked from tweeting for several hours on Tuesday for violating Twitter rules. Wood said he's been careful to abide by Twitter's terms of service. But he got a notice that his account was locked for "glorifying violence."
"I knew they were going to censor me because I'm sending a message of hope," Wood, who posts regularly to his nearly 138,000 followers, told Fox News. "I'm sending a message of truth. And I'm sending a message that Kyle Rittenhouse is innocent."
Hours after the account had been suspended, Twitter said lied it made a mistake in a statement to Fox News. In response Lin Wood threatened to sue Jack Dorsey and take his "a** down" for censoring conservatives.
Man, if Trump is reelected, how would Wood like to be Attorney General? Helluva pay cut, but we can hope.
#3
When you look at it through the lens of Critical Theory, they think he *was* inciting violence. Simply by existing and defending an innocent man, he is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Thus, he is inspiring violence.
The fact that they themselves are committing violence is irrelevant. When the righteous do it, it's OK. When anyone else does it, it's wrong. Just think of barbarian tribes and you'll get the idea. It is literally pre-Enlightenment thinking.
#5
He has been abusing the First Amendment
I thought that only applied to censorship by the government - how does it prohibit a private corporation from blocking anyone?
#6
What is difference between publisher and platform?
A platform is not responsible (legally) for the content that is posted. Publisher: a company or person that qurates and distributes content. You can think of all the news and media outlets out there as prime examples. A publisher is legally responsible for the posted content and the source.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2020 10:44 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Been wondering about that myself, Glenmore. The solution is I think, the same as for other communications platforms, like AT&T. Make them subject to the FCC and designate them as a critical communications infrastructure, making them quasi-governmental utilities, thereby requiring them to adhere the Constitution.
#8
You're going after it wrong. Its not first amendment, its Anti-Trust. Disassemble Google, rip apart Facebook, Force Google to spinoff Youtube back to being independent, and go after Twatter as a monopoly. Same as they did to Ma Bell decades ago.
Twatter is the most easily fixed: Simply have the President choose an alternative platform like Parler, and do "exclusives" there, forcing the press and the public to come over to a more free and open plaform.
#9
#8 You're going after it wrong. Its not first amendment, its Anti-Trust. Disassemble Google, rip apart Facebook, Force Google to spinoff Youtube back to being independent, and go after Twatter as a monopoly. Same as they did to Ma Bell decades ago.
Yes, although all the "free market" whores of Conservatism, Inc. will squeal like stuck pigs if it happens.
All the more reason to do it, of course.
But Trump needs more of his own people at the levers, and McConnell is still standing athwart history and yelling "But muh donorz!"
#10
...how does it prohibit a private corporation from blocking anyone?
To start with, Twitter is not a "private corporation". It IS, a publicly held/traded corporation. If you do not understand the difference you might want to do some reading.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[Rudaw] Five years on from his tragic death, the family of Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi have urged the international community to not ignore the plight of refugees. 
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
[IsraelTimes] Chief Paleostinian negotiator will give virtual seminars as a fellow in The Future of Diplomacy Project in move criticized by pro-Israel groups.
