[AlAhram] Dozens of Coptic families have fled North Sinai as jihadist attacks against Christians grow in number. Simultaneously, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis fired missiles across the border into Israel, prompting an Israeli response that killed several Ansar Beit al-Maqdis operatives in Egypt, and security forces launched a new sweep of Gabal al-Halal, a notorious murderous Moslem hideout.
The developments raise questions not only about the capabilities of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... -affiliate Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, but the ways in which the war against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq and the shrinking spheres of IS influence there are playing out in Sinai.
Continued on Page 49
[SCMP] China’s move to effectively cut off North Korea’s revenue lifeline by banning coal imports is the first significant signal that Beijing is willing to work with the United States to rein in its defiant neighbour after President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s repeated complaints.
This latest move might also indicate a willingness to break the deadlock between China and the US since Pyongyang quit the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 2003.
Trump has made repeated calls for China to get tough on North Korea, saying Beijing could end its neighbour’s nuclear programme "very quickly and easily".
China does provide most of North Korea’s food and fuel; it has long played a crucial role to effectively keep the regime afloat and avoid a repeat of the famines of the 1990s. But the solution China truly seeks is not what the US anticipates.
China’s strategists have long-feared any tough action against the reclusive state might lead to its collapse, triggering a refugee wave at China’s borders and leave Beijing without a geopolitical buffer to US forces under a unified Korea.
There also remains a significant ideological and historic bond between the two nations since fighting together during the Korean War.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... China has failed to tame North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... since his ascension in 2011, a year before President Xi Jinping (習近平) took power in China. Xi has met his South Korean counterpart many times, but has never met Kim.
Since he came to power, Kim has purged bigwigs with close links to China in fear of a Beijing conspiracy to replace him, and accelerated Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes despite China’s objections. During Kim’s five years in power, North Korea has implemented 36 ballistic-missile tests and three nuclear tests.
The recent killing of Kim Jong-nam, the leader’s estranged brother, might be the last straw. While Pyongyang denies any role, the use of the VX chemical agent ‐ a weapon of mass destruction according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ‐ might prompt Beijing to further distance itself from Kim’s dynasty.
China may now realise that continued inaction on North Korea conflicts with its rising international clout and contradicts its national interest. Kim’s weapons of mass destruction pose the same risk to China as they do to South Korea, Japan or the United States.
North Korea’s relentless weapons build-up has fuelled an arms race in the region. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India and Australia are scrambling to upgrade their defences. South Korea’s decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system to contain the North’s nuclear capability is perhaps the highest-profile reaction, a move that Beijing is fiercely fighting against for fear it could also be used to curb China.
All this risks triggering a nuclear domino effect in Northeast Asia. Trump has even suggested that Japan and South Korea acquire nuclear weapons to counter any challenge from North Korea.
In this volatile environment, China’s continued support of a regime widely seen as a state sponsor of terrorism and a major threat to peace in the region will only damage Beijing’s international image and undermine relations with most of its important trade partners ‐ South Korea, Japan and the US, among others.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
the dollars on this are small
in 2016 China imported about 20 million tons from NKOR at about $25/ton
In the same year, SKor imported about $800M in minerals, lumber, etc. from NKor.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/06/2017 9:07 Comments ||
Top||
[Daily Caller] Private companies are making a considerable impact in moving U.S. goods to markets here and abroad in an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly manner that is aiding our economy, creating jobs and saving wear-and-tear on our highways. Reliable and affordable transportation options are critical for the success of many of these small businesses and agricultural producers.
Short line railroads connect these economic drivers in our communities across our nation to customers worldwide. These rail lines provide crucial economic corridors that serve communities and support jobs and development. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) joined me in leading the introduction of the bipartisan S. 407, the Building Rail Access for Customers and the Economy (BRACE) Act, to enable short line railroads to make long-term plans for infrastructure repairs and upgrades, improving the link between our rural communities and the national freight railroad network.
#1
these short lines are on track that was abandoned by the class 1 Railroads
in all States where the short lines are operating, there are State subsidies (usually used for track upgrading, signal work, grade crossing work). The BRACE would put federal $ into this process. IMO, the justification for this is pretty iffy. To determine whether such subsidies serve a public interest requires guessing about future industrial activity, future relationships between producers and suppliers, various competitive products in the marketplace, etc. Any honest analyst would put huge error bands on their analysis. Dishonest analysts will be able to justify or deny whatever the politicians want.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/06/2017 10:28 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You get stuck behind a line of trucks on gridlocked Interstate 5 in southern California and you might begin to appreciate trains.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/06/2017 11:20 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Biggest loser if DAPL goes into service is the BNSF, Buffet's RR, and biggest hauler of non-pipelined oil.
#4
Lord Garth is correct. Most of the lines had insufficient traffic for the Big Boys to bother with. But they also lost all the union rules when the short line operators bought them up. Now they are more like a 'Mom and Pop' operation, where the General Manager also drives the locomotive.
Customer service improved, too, so smaller shippers - ignored by the Big Boys when they were retrenching - began using the trains again.
Almost anything you put in a freight car will replace three or four big trucks on the Interstate. Trucks will still deliver the stuff to a warehouse near you.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/06/2017 12:58 Comments ||
Top||
[The Last Refuge] Sometimes the utilization of Timelines means you have to look at the new information with a keen awareness of specific events. In hindsight, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers may have notified Team Trump of Obama’s Intelligence Community (James Clapper and John Brennan) spying on their activity.
As you look at the FISA request dates below, it’s important to note that NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers would be keenly aware of both the June request ‐ Denied, and the October request ‐ Granted. Pay specific attention to the October request. "October"!
Skipping down to the Bottom Line:
Occam’s Razor. NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers didn’t want to participate in the spying scheme (Clapper, Brennan, Etc.), which was the baseline for President Obama’s post presidency efforts to undermine Donald Trump and keep Trump from digging into the Obama labyrinth underlying his remaining loyalists. After the October spying operation went into effect, Rogers unknown loyalty was a risk to the Obama objective. 10 Days after the election Rogers travels to President-Elect Trump without notifying those who were involved in the intel scheme.
Did NSA Director Mike Rogers wait for a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) to be set up in Trump Tower, and then notify the President-elect he was being monitored by President Obama?
[PJ] If I were a Democrat, I'd be afraid. I'd be very afraid.
Forget the usual smokescreen of hyper-partisan blather from Chuck Schumer on "Meet the Press" or the myriad calls for Trump's head from the usual press suspects and consider the situation: Congressional committees, the FBI, not to mention numerous avid media organizations and who knows who else (NSA? CIA? ASPCA?) have been investigating putative Trump-Russia collusion for some time now and come up with... exactly nothing.
Are they likely to come up with something of significance at this point? Almost certainly not.
So now we have Trump's bold, brash, "unhinged" Twitter accusations that Obama wiretapped him. This came after Mark Levin, Breitbart, Andrew C. McCarthy, Louise Mensch and others I've forgotten about or am unaware of reported about two appeals to FISA courts (one denied last summer and one approved in October) for permission to tap phones in Trump Tower. Did they happen?
It seems that tapping of some sort actually occurred because it was virtually acknowledged in tweets from Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, who sprang to action only hours after Trump tweeted, writing : "I'd be careful about reporting that Obama said there was no wiretapping. Statement just said that neither he nor the WH ordered it." Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for the former president, had almost simultaneously declared: "Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U. S. citizen." Ordered? That's what we used to call plausible deniability and now is known as a wiggle word.
#1
If I were a Democrat, I'd be afraid. I'd be very afraid.
Wishful thinking. Be afraid as a non-member of ruling elites. As we've seen since Jan 20th, they openly disregard any orders by an elected president they don't like.
[Hot Air] With the Trump administration claiming Trump Tower may have been wiretapped and a spokesman for Obama denying he was involved in such a thing, some are recalling the targeting of Fox News reporter James Rosen by the Obama Department of Justice. Rosen appeared on Fox News today to discuss his experience.
"I have to clarify that I was not wiretapped, my parents were not wiretapped, which is where you place a listening device on someone’s telephone line and you listen to their conversations," Rosen said. He continued, "What happened to me was that the Attorney General, Eric Holder, under Barack Obama as president secretly designated me a criminal co-conspirator and a flight risk and thereby had a federal judge give the government permission to rifle through all my gmails.
"They could read the emails, and then also to get all the phone records associated with about 20 phones that I used at that time in my reporting. All of those phone lines were 202 or 703, which are the area codes associated with Washington and the Pentagon, northern Virginia area. One of those 20 phone lines was 718 and that referred to my parent’s house on Staten Island at that time."
As to whether his case could shed any light on the claims being made by President Trump, Rosen said, "There’s just a lot we don’t know." He added, "If it’s true that the Obama administration went to the FISA court to get some kind of surveillance at Trump Tower, whether it was of a computer tower or whether it was of the president’s telephone as he seems to believe when he uses terms like wiretapping, we would like to know what basis of probable cause would have been asserted in order to secure that permission for that surveillance." if he thinks something like what Trump is alleging could happen, Rosen replied, "It’s entirely plausible. This is the nature of the age in which we live."
#1
It's not like Obammer has not wiretapped before. There are far too many on the left denying that Obammer wiretapped Trump; it tends to raise one's suspicions.
[PJ] NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. ‐ Joe Wurzelbacher, best known as "Joe the Plumber" after questioning then-Sen. Barack Obama on camera during a 2008 campaign stop, said he will view President Trump’s presidency as a win if he follows through on his promises in three main areas.
"Since 2008, I’ve really focused on state’s rights and Second Amendment issues, and so I go on Fox and go on a lot of different places, but I talk mostly about those things because that’s really where the power is supposed to be ‐ with the states. The federal government has essentially three jobs and I think President Trump is going to be able to do that ‐ one, create a good environment for business, two, secure American borders and three, make our military strong," Wurzelbacher told PJM during an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend.
"As long as he does those three things, I’ll see it as a win. All those social issues and everything else gets pushed back to the state level because there’s no reason a centralized federal government should be passing laws for the rest of the land; that’s where the states comes in," he added.
Wurzelbacher said he is most concerned about the effect of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules and regulations on small businesses.
[Free Beacon] Former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest would not give a definitive answer Sunday when asked if any Obama loyalists have been behind recent intelligence leaks in the Trump administration.
ABC host Martha Raddatz referenced the accusation of President Trump's deputy assistant, Sebastian Gorka, that former President Barack Obama and his staffers are behind leaks against Trump officials. When confronted with this accusation, Earnest chose not to answer the question, instead praising the intelligence community.
"Martha, what I can tell you is that the men and women of our intelligence community are patriots," Earnest said. "And these are professionals who have served presidents in both administrations and they took an oath to protect this country and set aside their own political views."
"And that's what the men and women of our intelligence community do, and they should be lauded for that," Earnest added.
Earnest then took an apparent jab at the Trump administration, saying that the intelligence community does not deserve "to be attacked or accused of having a political motive."
Several Trump advisers have urged the president to fire political appointees from the Obama administration who are still serving in government, Politico reported Thursday.
[Wash Times] Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, on Sunday walked back his bombshell declaration about transcripts showing Russia-Trump collusion, saying he had no proof such documents exist and apologizing for any "hyperventilating."
"I have no hard evidence of collusion," Mr. Coons told "Fox News Sunday."
He said he was sorry for any misinterpretation of his comments, which blew up on social media after a Friday interview on MSNBC.
"So to the extent of those comments, they might be in some way misinterpreted as leading to sort of a hyperventilating attitude here in the Senate about this, I apologize for that," Mr. Coons said. "That’s not what I was trying to do."
At the same time, he said, "I am confident that intelligence exists that is relevant to this question. Not that says there is collusion, and proof of it, that’s not what I was trying to say."
[IsraelNationalNews] Right now it’s Democrats 3, Republicans zero, so far as being politically adroit and savvy in the early going of Donald Trump’s Presidency.
But that’s just from my own unscientific count...and so now it’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions they want for a souvenir.
The Democrats got their first head on the wall when they got three San Francisco hippies, called judges, to stop Trump from going ahead with his immigration pause. That was the first sign that the Democrats meant it when they said that they intended to resist, defy and obstruct the President anywhere and everywhere.
Now they won’t rest until they’ve hunted down and captured every member of Trump’s cabinet, or anyone associated with Trump.
Or, more to the point, the Democrats will always have Russia...always Russia to pin on any GOP hopeful. Russia is their ace in the hole.
Somewhere down the line you took a harmless sip of vodka with a Russian ambassador? ‐ Gotcha!
In the past, Russia was seldom on the map for the Democrats.
They were not bothered when Obama leaned over and whispered to Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that, "After my election I have more flexibility." To do what? Nobody asked. Nobody cared. Because it was Obama and if the Russians are good for Obama the Russians are good for America.
Not so these days under Trump.
That slice of Obama coding was caught from a hot microphone but it was cold news for the news media. The Republicans did not react either.
That’s because Republicans do not know how to fight street fight. The Democrats sure do, especially when they’re licking their wounds. Anything goes.
So Down Goes Michael Flynn as Trump’s National Security Adviser. That was their second trophy. Flynn, a good man, a man who deserved better, never had a chance after those leaks found him in a (innocuous) chat with a Russian envoy. That was all it took -- and next on the menu?
Now, even as we speak, they’ve got their claws on Jeff Sessions, Trump’s Attorney General, also a good man who deserves better, and he too got caught having a cocktail with a Russian and that is all America is talking about because the Democrats want it that way.
Do they want what’s good for the country? Not a chance.
They want what’s good for themselves and the Party as I wrote last week here in "The Democrats are not done ruining the country." This starts with Obama who has elected himself our shadow President. He’s calling the shots from his bunker only blocks from the White House...and today, Trump, silent no more, has gone public with an accusation that Obama had him wiretapped.
Since Obama was so good at community organizing it figures he would be just as good at community disorganizing ‐ and that’s what his Progressive thugs are counting on. He won’t quit and the Democrats won’t quit obstructing. In fact Obama is just getting started.
Israel, for example, is still standing tall despite his many efforts to bring her down. There is so much more damage to inflict here and abroad.
Sessions? I hate to say this, but I think he folded and quit on himself. Recusing himself from taking part in any investigation related to the elections -- that was a mistake. That action presumed guilt, surely weakness. We expected something bolder. We had hoped for a fighting Attorney General, someone to say, "How dare you impugn my integrity. I am fighting this all the way."
I think he’s cooked and it’s his own fault.
But then again, he’s a Republican and Republicans still do not know that against the Democrats it’s for keeps.
This is war and it won’t be over until there is only one political party left standing.
[The Hill] Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Sunday said that President Trump is likely correct that there was surveillance on Trump Tower for intelligence purposes, but incorrect in accusing former President Barack Obama of ordering the wiretapping.
"I think he’s right in that there was surveillance and that it was conducted at the behest of the attorney general -- at the Justice Department," Mukasey told ABC’s "This Week."
Trump on Saturday accused Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in New York City just before the November election.
[LawfareBlog] As with all things Trump, the media is so eager to trash the President that it has turned a serious story into a partisan melee. What both sides need are a few buckets of cold water. Here are eight. Hitting the links is worth the time .
James Clapper, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, went on Meet the Press to discuss the charges. He offered a blanket denial that a FISA court order was ever issued against then-nominee Donald Trump.
But here’s what people immediately noticed about Clapper; he can’t be trusted. Clapper previously lied to Congress about NSA spying programs while under oath:
#6
Surveillance doesn't necessarily mean wire taps.
It could as Skidmark stated, mean the Feds used some "electronic devices" to monitor the goings on of the Trump campaign and feeding info to Shillary.
Of course, the real issue for the deep state is the vast corruption and pay to play of the Clinton Foundation which touched everything in the Obama administration...Obama had to know what was going on...I mean he probably cashed a few checks.
If this had been an Obama tweet about the Bush administration, the press would have gone slathering nuts to dig up evidence it occurred. The fact they are working so hard to discredit the claim just tells me there is some truth if not a lot of truth to the matter.
Remember "the guilty dog barks first" and the Obama administration and the press are barking like fox hounds on a hunt.
#7
It is of great import to note the consequences of 8 years of Obama allies and senior civil service "burrowing" by political appointees and preferential promotions to create nodes of allies whose allegiance is to a political party not the constitution. This is a serious threat to the stability and confidence of bedrock components of our government. It's cleansing will be rife with charges of racism and fascism. The complicit media will stoke civil unrest not seen since the 60's or perhaps worse. If not cleansed, worse will follow....
[National Review] President Trump’s early Saturday morning tweeting has exploded to the forefront an uncovered scandal I’ve been talking about since early January (including in this weekend’s column): The fact that the Obama Justice Department and the FBI investigated associates of Donald Trump, and likely Trump himself, in the heat of the presidential campaign.
To summarize, reporting indicates that, prior to June 2016, the Obama Justice Department and FBI considered a criminal investigation of Trump associates, and perhaps Trump himself, based on concerns about connections to Russian financial institutions. Preliminary poking around indicated that there was nothing criminal involved.
Rather than shut the case down, though, the Obama Justice Department converted it into a national-security investigation under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). FISA allows the government, if it gets court permission, to conduct electronic surveillance (which could include wiretapping, monitoring of e-mail, and the like) against those it alleges are "agents of a foreign power." FISA applications and the evidence garnered from them are classified ‐ i.e., we would not know about any of this unless someone had leaked classified information to the media, a felony.
In June, the Obama Justice Department submitted an application that apparently "named" Trump in addition to some of his associates. As I have stressed, it is unclear whether "named" in this context indicates that Trump himself was cited as a person the Justice Department was alleging was a Russian agent whom it wanted to surveil. It could instead mean that Trump’s name was merely mentioned in an application that sought to conduct surveillance on other alleged Russian agents.
President Trump’s tweets on Saturday claimed that "President Obama . . . tapp[ed] my phones[,]" which makes it more likely that Trump was targeted for surveillance, rather than merely mentioned in the application.
[Breitbart] Sunday on Fox News Channel’s "Fox & Friends," while discussing President Donald Trump’s tweets accusing the former Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower before the election, conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin broke down the wiretapping reporting.
Levin said, "Well, a pleasure to be here. The evidence is overwhelming. This is not about President Trump’s tweeting. This is about the Obama administration spying, and the question is not whether it spied. We know they went to the FISA court twice. The question is who they did spy on and the extent of the spying that is the Trump campaign, the Trump transition, Trump surrogates."
Levin then read several news articles about the surveillance.
Actually it is. President Trump has accused his predecessor of orchestrating surveillance of his personal communication.
The question is who they did spy on and the extent of the spying that is the Trump campaign, the Trump transition, Trump surrogates.
No, the question is did President Obama himself or in collusion with members of his staff conspire to surveil then-candidate Trump's Trump Tower personal communications. Because, contrary to the 'oh you know what he meant' squad, that's what he is alleging.
#3
Interestingly, Hillary, allegedly, in a tweet on 10/31/16, claimed: "Computer scientists have uncovered a covert server linking the Trump organization to a Russian-based server." Hillary's Tweet.
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.