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Half of Saudi Aramco production restored
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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9 19:35 Secret Master [2] 
1 00:45 g(r)omgoru [1] 
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Prominent Democratic donor Ed Buck is ARRESTED for running a drug den and 'being a violent sexual predator
[MAIL] A prominent California Democratic donor has been charged with running a drug house where two men died of overdose and a third nearly died last week.

Edward Buck was charged Tuesday.

Prosecutors are asking that he be held on $4 million bail, calling Buck 'a violent, dangerous sexual predator' who offered drugs, money and shelter to mainly addicted and homeless men in exchange for participating in sexual fetishes, including administering dangerous drug doses.

Prosecutors allege Buck provided the meth that killed two men who were found in his apartment in 2017 and this January.

Gemmel Moore, 26, died in 2017. Timothy Dean, 55, died early this year.

Authorities allege that Buck personally injected drugs into a man who survived an overdose this month.

According to prosecutors, the man went to Buck's apartment on September 4.

It was there that Buck 'personally and deliberately' administered a large dose of methamphetamine, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/18/2019 02:16 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wanna bet Kamala Harris once decided not to prosecute him?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 2:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Prosecutors are asking that he be held on $4 million bail, calling Buck 'a violent, dangerous sexual predator'

"We have to hold him with a federal chastity belt, your honour."
Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 4:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Meanwhile the Jeffrey Epstein story appears to have gone the way of the Edsel.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2019 5:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Well Epstein is dead, Buck isn't. Latest victim, this witness, survived, ran out and called for help. So that's why they arrested him. Expect Buck to be memory-holed in a month.
Posted by: Charles || 09/18/2019 5:59 Comments || Top||

#5  So the New York Slime just identified the wrong person sticking their johnson in someone's face?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 7:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Seems to be a common theme among the demoncrat donors.
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/18/2019 9:03 Comments || Top||

#7  ..well, when they pick themselves as their own god, they set the bar very low.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 9:06 Comments || Top||

#8  No problem. He has one of these. Actually, probably more than one.

Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/18/2019 11:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Starting to be very clear why Democrats are soft on crime.
Posted by: ruprecht || 09/18/2019 12:15 Comments || Top||


Sheriff helped plot his own deputy’s killing over ‘racially offensive’ tape, prosecutors say
[OUTLINE] Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins learned one of his deputies had a tape of him making "racially offensive" comments, prosecutors say. So the North Carolina lawman encouraged another man to kill the officer, according to a felony indictment revealed late Monday night.

"The only way you gonna stop him is kill him," Wilkins allegedly told the would-be shooter in a 2014 recorded phone call about a plan to kill former deputy Joshua Freeman. The plot was not carried out.

Wilkins is charged with two felony counts of obstruction of justice charges for his failure to arrest the unnamed person or report the threat on Freeman’s life, and for also allegedly giving the man advice about how to get away with the murder.

Wilkins has been sheriff of the small county in northern North Carolina, where the biggest town is home to about 8,400 people, since 2009 and was most recently reelected in 2018. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who brought the charges, told the News & Observer that Wilkins is still the sheriff.

"Technically," the prosecutor said, "he can continue to serve if he chooses to until convicted."

According to the indictment, Wilkins found out in 2014 that Joshua Freeman claimed to have a recording of the sheriff using "racially offensive language," and that the deputy planned to publicly reveal the tape and turn it over to authorities in Raleigh. It’s unclear what Wilkins might have said on that alleged tape or what became of the recording.

In the August 2014 phone call, prosecutors said, Wilkins’s "personal animosity" toward Joshua Freeman led him to go along with the plan to kill the deputy. The recorded call makes it clear the sheriff had no intention to protect Freeman or intervene, according to the indictment.

On the call, the sheriff advised the unnamed man, whom Wilkins knew, that "if you need to take care of somethin', just take care of something," according to the indictment.

The man gave Wilkins a specific time and location detailing when he planned to kill Joshua Freeman, plus described the firearm he planned to use in the shooting, the indictment says.

Wilkins then "counseled the individual how to commit the murder in a manner as to avoid identification," the indictment says.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to the indictment, Wilkins found out in 2014 that Joshua Freeman claimed to have a recording of the sheriff using "racially offensive language,"

Sounds familiar, like Sov. U. during Stalin's era.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 0:45 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Stormy Daniels floats presidential run
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Porn star Stormy Daniels recently announced that she would enter the 2020 presidential race if her former attorney Michael Avenatti announced a campaign.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, discussed her unlikely but possible presidential campaign in an interview with The Daily Beast that was published Sunday.

“If he decides to run, I’m going to run just so I can start a GoFundMe for the sheer purpose of making smear campaign videos against him,” Clifford said, laughing. “Just for fun. I bet people would actually be into it.”

Avenatti had been representing Clifford in a lawsuit purposed to void a hush-money agreement she made for an alleged affair she had with President Trump in 2006.

Clifford opted to retain new representation in March.

“This was not a decision we made lightly and it came only after lengthy discussion, thought and deliberation, as well as consultation with other professionals,” Avenatti said in a statement at the time. “We wish Stormy all the best.”

Avenatti has been arrested on multiple occasions with claims of domestic violence and embezzlement in an attempt to extort Nike.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably'll get higher numbers than Beto. But will not surpass Kamala Harris.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Professional courtesy
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/18/2019 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  She can call it the Stephanie Clifford Presidential G-String account. Everyone can donate a dollar.
Posted by: gorb || 09/18/2019 1:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Finally - a presidential candidate presenting me with a hard, difficult choice...
Posted by: Raj || 09/18/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Looks like a presidential candidate to me. She should do a doubleheader with Kamala.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 9:06 Comments || Top||

#6  How is she taking the bull semmen explosion ?
Posted by: Clyde Dribble8052 || 09/18/2019 11:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Seriously, could she be any worse than any of the other Democrats?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/18/2019 11:59 Comments || Top||

#8  I think she'll find folks are unwilling to support a GoFundme against a sleazy garbage like Avenatti as they are simply to annoy the President.
Posted by: ruprecht || 09/18/2019 12:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Women with braids;
Posted by: Dale || 09/18/2019 12:29 Comments || Top||

#10  ^An arrogant little sh*t, ain't she?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 12:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Langstrumph? Her parents sure are. Probably be on board the transgender child train too if it were boy to girl.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/18/2019 16:18 Comments || Top||

#12  I'm sure Kamala, has more experience in politics and screwing politicians than Stormy.
Posted by: bbrewer126 || 09/18/2019 22:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Clintons Hired Thousands of Operatives to Infiltrate Talk Radio Posing as Real People
[NEON NETTLE] The Democratic Party, in coordination with the Clinton White House, hired and trained thousands of operatives to infiltrate talk radio posing as real people, in an attempt to manipulate public opinion, according to newly emerged documents.The elaborate operation was carried out by the Democratic National Committee and Bill Clinton's administration during the 1990s as was revealed in recently uncovered documents from the Clinton Presidential Library.The DNC launched the Talk Radio Initiative (TRI) ahead of Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.The program trained thousands of operatives to conduct surveillance of radio station contents, call into their radio shows, and covertly sow Democratic talking points while posing as regular listeners.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/18/2019 01:47 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Clintons are posing as real people.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 2:05 Comments || Top||

#2  ha ha You beat me to it.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 4:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Limbaugh figured this out 20+ years ago - refers to them "seminar callers". Kinda old news if you ask me.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/18/2019 7:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Its why the socialists couldn't understand the Tea Party. They believed it was just another astroturfed operation like hundreds of their own.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 7:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Limbaugh figured this out 20+ years ago - refers to them "seminar callers". Kinda old news if you ask me.

It helps to have periodic reminders of this, and the young'uns may have never heard about it until he mentioned it again last week. I did like the Beatles parody song about it - nice touch!
Posted by: Raj || 09/18/2019 8:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Were they any better than the trolls who visit Rantburg?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/18/2019 12:01 Comments || Top||


California adds Iowa to 'travel ban' over refusal to fund gender transitions
[FOXNEWS] California announced last week that it has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever-expanding "travel ban" list because of that state's new prohibition against funding gender-transition surgeries under Medicaid.

The announcement by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra means that as of Oct. 4, California will no longer offer taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa for any public employee or student at a state-run university.

Becerra's authority came from a 2016 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bars state-funded travel to other states that undercut LGBT rights. The blacklist already included Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Conservatives have called the law ineffective, inconveniencing, possibly unconstitutional and hypocritical. The state's sports teams have turned to private funding to get around the restrictions, according to The Los Angeles Times.

“The Iowa Legislature has reversed course on what was settled law under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, repealing protections for those seeking gender-affirming health care,” Becerra said in a statement. “California has taken an unambiguous stand against discrimination and government actions that would enable it."

The brouhaha began after the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in March that taxpayers could be forced to pay for gender reassignment surgery. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law effectively overriding that ruling two months later.

"This narrow provision simply clarifies that Iowa’s Civil Rights Act does not require taxpayer dollars to pay for sex reassignment and other similar surgeries," Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett said in a statement at the time. "This returns us to what had been the state’s position for years."

At the federal level, the Trump administration has rolled back the Obama-era determination that sex-based discrimination prohibitions under existing law include protections for gender identity.

The Health and Human Services Department, in May, angered progressive advocates with rules that both allowed doctors not to perform certain operations and stated that "gender identity" was not protected under sex discrimination law in health care.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ever thought of giving California back to Mexico?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 2:06 Comments || Top||

#2  They wouldn't take it, eh?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 2:20 Comments || Top||

#3  California has been Mexico for a long time...
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 09/18/2019 7:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Did not realize gov’t funded sex change surgeries was a “right.”
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 09/18/2019 7:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Shitshow, Part 90.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 8:36 Comments || Top||

#6  #1

All it takes is amending the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which only requires a 2/3 approval by the Senate. Phrase it as making amends for 'white supremacy' and what objections could they have? /rhet question.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 9:09 Comments || Top||

#7  A source of great pride for Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and now Iowa. Congratulations, Iowa! You're doing something right.

California is not yet officially part of Mexico but, when Newsom gets a call from Mexico City, he does as he is told. Beware, the demographic changes that happened in California are now taking place in Texas and other states, courtesy of the Democrats. It's all going as planned.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/18/2019 12:09 Comments || Top||


City commissioner: Replace male statues in Central Park with women
[NYPOST] The city’s monument "men" are in peril.

A member of the commission that oversees art and architecture on city property suggested Monday that instead of simply adding statues of historical female figures to Central Park, the panel yank out some of the male ones first.

"There are what, five or six [male] statues that I think could easily be replaced by individual statues of each of these women," said Hank Willis Thomas, a painter who serves on the Public Design Commission, at a hearing at City Hall.

Thomas appeared to be specifically fingering statues including that of Scottish poet Robert Burns, in the park’s Literary Row, and the one of Christopher Columbus in the park, near the famed second one of the explorer in Columbus Circle, for removal.

"I don’t think that there are many people who will miss the Burns statue, or some people may not miss the Columbus statue if there’s another one just a few hundred yards away," Thomas said.

But Mayor Bill de Blasio
...cryptocommie mayor of New York and for some reason a Dem candidate for president in 2020. Corrupt and incompetent, his qualifications for office seem to consist of being married to a black woman, with whom he honeymooned in Cuba. He has a preppy-looking son named Dante, whose Divine Comedy involved getting his back hair up when a police car drove past him slowly...
‐ who created monumental hoopla when he opened the door to possibly removing what some groups deemed offensive statues by creating an advisory panel ‐ refused to back the notion.

A rep for Hizzoner told The Post that the mayor ‐ who hand-picked Thomas and the rest of the 10 commissioners on the panel ‐ continues to support adding new monuments instead of removing existing ones.

De Blasio fueled the controversy over potentially removing statues such as those of Columbus by creating an advisory panel to review monuments throughout the five boroughs.

In the end, his panel suggested just one statue be removed ‐ that of 19th century Dr. J. Marion Sims, who experimented on enslaved black women, from Central Park. His advisory panel also said descriptions accompanying other questionable figures be tinkered with to note both sides of their story.

Then there was a movement to increase the presence of female statues, and two names ‐ of women’s rights pioneers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony ‐ were pitched. Central Park currently has 23 statues ‐ all male.

But the proposed double-female statue met resistance for not including a woman of color, so there were calls for abolitionist Sojourner Truth to be added.

Still, the panel said it was troubled over linking the trio in one monument, since while the women all worked on the suffrage movement, they had different approaches, and it began thinking about individual monuments.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  including that of Scottish poet Robert Burns

Is there a whim-inspired fool,
Owre fast for thought, owre hot for rule,
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 0:40 Comments || Top||

#2  "I don’t think that there are many people who will miss the Burns statue..."

So much for Auld Lang Syne
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/18/2019 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  What? No Margret Sanger?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/18/2019 0:53 Comments || Top||

#4  "Forget all those pigs on the Maine;
We'll honor the widows of Spain!"
"And Central Park joggers?"
"Millennial bloggers
Of color who live to complain."
Posted by: Beldar de Medici6343 || 09/18/2019 1:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Islamic State did the same thing for their religion. But you can't annul the achievements of a society by destroying its icons. Fools.



Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 5:27 Comments || Top||

#6  You know, I'm always annoyed by the "when they come for our guns, we'll show them". Because, the time "to show them" is now - before they succeed in wiping out your culture. After they do, there's no reason to fight.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 5:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Proposed additions to aforementioned monument:

Astarboard, we've stuck on some sponsons,
Guns womynned by stunning Ms. Munsons;
To port, Havanese
(who are trans, if you please!),
Also Munsons, aim monstruous johnsons!
Posted by: Beldar de Medici6343 || 09/18/2019 7:38 Comments || Top||

#8  A shit's a shit for a' that
- Bobby B.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||

#9  C'mon, NYC endorses gender transitions.
Just knock their dicks off!
Posted by: Skidmark || 09/18/2019 16:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Balto is toast. Male and unislamic.
Posted by: JHH || 09/18/2019 19:11 Comments || Top||


Sanders campaign wracked by dissension
...although they all adore the new spokesperson, former Women’s March leaderette, Linda Sarsour...
[POLITICO] Some of Bernie Sanders
...The only first openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated out of it by Hillary Clinton, then went back to being a socialist, waiting for 2020 to roll around...
’ fiercest supporters are sounding the alarm that the campaign is bogged down by disorganization, personality festivities, and poor communication between state operations and national headquarters.

After a pair of setbacks this week ‐ the acrimonious shakeup of his staff in New Hampshire on Sunday and loss of the Working Families Party's endorsement
... a minor “democratic socialist” party founded in 1998 in New York, and currently active in fourteen states and Washington, DC. As a result of all that activity, they have managed to elect precisely one state-level representative and one state-level senator, a tribute to the fact that Americans are uninterested in the bootless drama of minor parties...
to Elizabeth Being Native American has been part of my story since the day I was born Warren
...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless...
a day later ‐ Sanders’ allies and former aides are worried that recent disappointments are not one-off stumbles but rather emblematic of larger problems in his bid for the White House. The concerns are particularly acute in New Hampshire.

"Seeing the campaign not be able to outshine Warren with WFP progressives doesn’t have me questioning WFP’s process," said Rafael Shimunov, a former national creative director for WFP and 2016 Sanders volunteer. "It has me questioning where the Bernie campaign could have done better, because I want to make sure the strongest candidate unmasks Biden and unseats Trump."

The worries come as the campaign enters a critical, more urgent phase. After Labor Day, more voters typically tune into the election and begin to make up their minds. Expectations for Sanders are sky-high, especially in New Hampshire, where he defeated Crooked Hillary Clinton
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away...
in 2016 by 22 percentage points.

But Warren has jumped in the national polls to tie Sanders for second place, and Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
...Failed seeker of the Democratic presidential nomination on multiple occasions, vice president under Barack Obama, giving it a last try in his dotage for 2020...
has proven harder to knock off his first-place perch than his rivals expected.
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  None of this matters. All of these people hate America, and they're not going to be able to stop themselves from spewing it all over.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/18/2019 1:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Stalinists vs Trokskyites?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 7:57 Comments || Top||

#3  All of these people hate America, and they're not going to be able to stop themselves from spewing it all over.

Problem is, there's a market for that among some percentage of the electorate. As long as that percentage is > 0, it's too large.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/18/2019 8:10 Comments || Top||

#4  I want to make sure the strongest candidate unmasks Biden

"Unmasks"? Wtf?

So now this Obama domestic-spying dirty trick has become a standard term used by Democratic Party operatives...

Everything now is disinformation, wetwork, agitprop lies.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 8:28 Comments || Top||

#5  ..and for reasons they can't comprehend, a zero trust society.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 8:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Stalinists vs Trokskyites?

More like Chimps vs. Bonobos.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 9:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Bernie got a lot of traction when he campaigned in California in 2016. There was certainly a whole lot more enthusiasm at his rallies than Hillary's. I think if she hadn't rigged the election, he would have won. It would be foolish to count him out in 2020. I mean, he's up against Slow Joe and Fauxcahontas. I want to believe that Trump would walk all over him.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 09/18/2019 12:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Eh, Hillary won the Democratic nomination fair and square. That just makes it all the more cartoon villain that she rigged it anyway. Like when Dirk Dastardly stops to cheat.

The DNC argued in court, and won, saying that they were a private company that could nominate whoever they like and were not obligated to respect the results of a vote.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/18/2019 15:48 Comments || Top||

#9  I want to make sure the strongest candidate unmasks Biden

That *is* a curious statement. Unmasks Biden as... what? A kooky, slightly corrupt old Liberal politician who likes to smell women's hair? A lizard person? A secret Catholic? What?
Posted by: Secret Master || 09/18/2019 19:35 Comments || Top||


Tulsi Gabbard accuses Trump of placing US troops under command of 'Islamist dictator'
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Rep. Tulsi Gabbard compared President Trump to a pimp while criticizing one of his tweets that indicated he would follow 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...
's lead in responding to an attack on one of the kingdom's major oil facilities.

"I've never engaged in hateful rhetoric against you or your family, and I never will, but your offering our military assets to the dictator of Saudi Arabia to use as he sees fit is a betrayal of my brother and sisters in uniform who are ready to give our lives for our country, not for the Islamist dictator of Saudi Arabia," the Hawaii Democrat said in a video posted to Twitter on Monday. "For you to think that you can pimp out our proud service men and women to the prince of Saudi Arabia is disgraceful, and it once again shows that you are unfit to serve as our commander in chief."

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who still serves in the Hawaii Army National Guard, continued: "My fellow service members and I, we are not your hookers. You are not our pimp."

Gabbard's video was a response to a Trump tweet from Sunday, in which the president wrote, "There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!"
Posted by: Fred || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, she's not wrong. It's insane that the US puts its military at the service of other countries like this. What are we, an international mercenary company?

No, we're not. Mercenaries get paid. We spend our own money on these pointless interventions, and nothing ever gets better.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/18/2019 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  We spend our own money on these pointless interventions, and nothing ever gets better.

I wish military interventions could be like education or public safety appropriations, where we spend the money once and never have to do it again.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 2:57 Comments || Top||

#3  ^LOL
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 2:58 Comments || Top||

#4  The problem lies in judging Iranian reaction to expected US response to the latest Iranian aggression, this time against Saudi Arabia.
Iranian response against the US or Israeli targets could lead quickly to serious war, but would probably end the Iranian regime rather quickly. A more plausible response by Iran would be against Saudi Arabia itself.
It is for that reason that consultation with Saudi Arabia is necessary. The government of same must be willing and prepared to defend itself against further Iranian aggression or means must be employed to protect it against the next Iranian response.
Incidentally, further Iranian aggression against Saudi Arabia is even more probable if there is no US response to the latest Iranian attack, than if there is one.
For the US to respond while ignoring potential Saudi vulnerabilities would be irresponsible.
Posted by: Daniel || 09/18/2019 4:02 Comments || Top||

#5  For the US and Israel to sit back and focus on their own problems while the islamics fight amongst themselves to be oil suppliers with no markets would be even better.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 4:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Unfortunately, you can judge what Islamics would do by what, say, USSR would do.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 4:28 Comments || Top||

#7  just Trump keeping up appearances that the sheet-wearers in SA are our allies and that what happens to them is important to us.

'Oh no, don't throw us in that briar patch, Br'er Mullah!'
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 09/18/2019 7:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Sorry Herb and Tulsi, American military is never under foreign control. It's the law, period. The chain of command goes directly to the President. We coordinate, cooperate, and support but we never surrender the ultimate allegiance to the Constitution.

Your problem is that we are riding a tiger and can't get off. The American Constitution was never designed to have a large standing army engaged in entangling alliances across the world. It has corrupted the underlying checks and balances relationships internal to the federal government. If you took the time to notice, the current occupant is trying to actually disengage us and avoid bellicose knee jerk military actions, which is probably why a couple of old guard cabinet people have left.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 7:56 Comments || Top||

#9  If Herb's comments were Iranian agit-prop, how would they be different?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/18/2019 8:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Easy there. Truth is, we have no good options in this mess. The Iranians hold all the cards.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 9:09 Comments || Top||

#11  I wish military interventions could be like education or public safety appropriations, where we spend the money once and never have to do it again.

That is what the gamma ray bombs are for
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/18/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||

#12  I've lost track...was this an inside job by state department neocons to work war profits or a legitimate Iranian strike where the US is the bought and paid for military pawns of the Saud?

Oh I have one...this is a combined effort by valjar democrats and Iran to influence the Israeli elections to insert a peace above all government.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/18/2019 12:01 Comments || Top||

#13  Ah, the guilt by association logical fallacy. It never gets old.

Hitler was in favor of banning smoking. You're also in favor of banning smoking. If your comments were Nazi agit-prop, how would they be different?

Gosh, the entire idea of going to war with a nation that is no threat to us is SO un-American. What would George Washington say about intervening against the Persians on behalf of desert nomads?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 09/18/2019 15:19 Comments || Top||

#14  While or after he considered himself British?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/18/2019 15:37 Comments || Top||

#15  A Saudi military strong enough to take on Iran is strong enough to unify the Middle East. They've tried it before - until the Brits knocked them back on their heels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikhwan_revolt

Far better if everyone in the region is defanged, including Iran.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 15:38 Comments || Top||

#16  Herb, our policy aim is clear, simple and 100% consistent with the tried and true "offshore balancing" approach that Britain used successfully for hundreds of years vis-a-vis Europe: prevent any single power from dominating the Middle East.

Iran seeks to dominate the Middle East. They must be prevented from doing so by an offshore balancing strategy combining economic pressure with punitive strikes and opportunistic anti-Iranian coalitions.

None of the above requires us to invade Iran. But we absolutely should apply as much pressure, wherever whenever and however we can, as an offshore balancer.

Carry on.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 15:55 Comments || Top||

#17  Gosh,the entire idea of going to war with a nation that is no threat to us is SO un-American.

Iranian AgitProp would be no different than your bullshit, you pusillanimous tool.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/18/2019 18:40 Comments || Top||

#18  a nation that is no threat to us

What a fascinating assessment.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/18/2019 20:08 Comments || Top||

#19  perhaps he's on the payroll?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/18/2019 20:09 Comments || Top||

#20 
a nation that is no threat to us

What a fascinating assessment.


Oddly enough, that might have been true if Eisenhower the dodderer hadn't dismantled the European empires, leaving the US as the only UN "policeman" to keep the peace. But Humpty Dumpty can't be re-assembled, and the only thing holding back general war (as countries resume fighting each other for fame and glory) and soaring commodities prices is Uncle Sam. The minute we step back, I fully expect history to resume in the Middle East, with a new Ummayad or Abbasid empire taking the place of the existing gaggle of states. What stinks about it is the fact this empire will comprise 40% of the world's oil production. That's why we stay involved. Because $200 oil* will take the country into steep recession. The Saudis were nuts to let oil get to $100. That was the trigger for the Great Recession. They now know the global economy's pain threshold and are racing to get oil production back online before we go through another painful recession.

* We use 20m barrels of oil a day. Every dollar price increase costs the economy $7.3b per year. A $10 price increase represents a $73b hit.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 20:34 Comments || Top||

#21  Every day we become more and more "energy independent" Turn a few more screws and your argument becomes mute. Unless you consider we can charge more for our exports, then it's a benefit to let them war.
Posted by: bbrewer126 || 09/18/2019 22:33 Comments || Top||

#22  Every day we become more and more "energy independent"

As long as we use oil, we're not energy independent. We don't use it because we like it. We use it because it's cheap. There's a single price for oil. We produce 12m per day, use 20m. Producers sell to the highest bidder. $100 oil means we pay $100. Oil producers make out like bandits. As consumers, we're screwed, unless we make like the Saudis, nationalize oil production and give everyone a stipend from the proceeds.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 23:29 Comments || Top||

#23  So bottom line is that as long as we use oil, we're not energy independent. There is a single market for oil, and we pay whatever price producers demand. Anyway - oil consumption and production numbers at the link.

https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/us_oil.php
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 23:30 Comments || Top||


DONALD Trump Stole Pancakes and Forgot a Relative was Dead While Visiting Family, Cousin Claims
Stop the presses! Newsweek has a scoop even bigger than the New York Times’ latest!!
[Newsweek] A relative of President Donald Trump has accused the self-proclaimed billionaire of being a pancake thief, having stolen a handful of flat cakes while on vacation at his late mother's former home in Scotland.

A distant cousin of the president, Alice Mackay‐related to Trump through his mother's family, the McLeods‐said the commander-in-chief is an unpleasant man who has never used any of his wealth to help his mother's local community.

The 79-year-old spoke in glowing terms about Trump's late mother‐Mary Anne MacLeod, who died in 2000‐and his older sister‐Maryanne Trump Barry, 82‐saying they were both generous people who made many contributions to the Isle of Lewis, an island located in Scotland's far northern Outer Hebrides archipelago.
“He never comes, he never calls, the vile man never gave us lots of money...,” Mrs. Mackay added. Ugh.
Mackay told Scottish newspaper The National: "I don't like the man at all, he's so unlike his mother and father." She recalled that Mary Anne and Fred Trump were "lovely parents, I don't know what went wrong with him. My mum and dad were second cousins. Every time they were over here they came to ours for dinner."
It doesn’t sound like you lot never bothered to exert yourself to visit the American branch, so it is unclear why the son should feel any obligation.
Mackay recalled one morning when the future president committed two social faux pas in quick succession. "He was here one morning I was busy making pancakes and he had forgotten my husband had died," she said. "He put a few pancakes in [his] pocket and never said 'cheerio' or anything."
Or perhaps you didn’t notice, being busy as well as sunk in grief. Possibly he did not want to intrude more than necessary, not having been an intimate, unlike his mother and sister. Though a pocket full of pancakes strikes me as an unwise move despite the compliment to the cook...
The White House did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment regarding the allegation of theft.
Theft? Perhaps you’d like to bring back hanging for the stealing of a loaf of bread, O clever Newsweek journalist, and transport to Australia for a pocket full of pancakes?
Trump visited his mother's former home in the village of Tong in the northeast of the Isle of Lewis in 2008. According to The National, the president has only visited once, and spent just 97 seconds in the home where his mother was raised alongside nine siblings.
I so love visiting people who keep one eye on the clock from the moment I arrive. Did she count the spoons as well as the pancakes in the minutes that followed his departure?
During his visit, Trump said he had been "very busy‐I am building jobs all over the world‐and it's very, very tough to find the time to come back. But this just seemed an appropriate time, because I have the plane... I'm very glad I did, and I will be back again."
But he never did, because they made it clear he was not welcome.
Posted by: Beavis || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh great. Two articles in a row (the other about Stormy) I thought it had to be the Bee.
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/18/2019 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  97 seconds. I counted.
Posted by: gorb || 09/18/2019 1:50 Comments || Top||

#3  "An Impolite Visitor!" -- paper;
"His crass pancake-pilfering caper!"
"Old lady cries, 'skinflint!,'
Admits Donald didn't
Break in or get plastered or rape her."
Posted by: Beldar de Medici6343 || 09/18/2019 2:45 Comments || Top||

#4  but how many scoops of ice cream did he get?
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 09/18/2019 7:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Is he as distance a cousin as a certain MA senator is Cherokee?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/18/2019 7:56 Comments || Top||

#6  You spelled Newsweak incorrectly.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/18/2019 8:00 Comments || Top||

#7  "My mum and dad were second cousins."

You sure they weren't more closely related?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/18/2019 8:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Desperation.

Next time Newsweak is put up for sale it will be the owners paying the buyer to put them (and us) out of their (our) misery.
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 9:00 Comments || Top||

#9  If that doesn't take the cake. Yeah, my room, I know...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/18/2019 9:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Does pancake mean something different in Scotland than America?

If you were to put my wife's pancakes in your pockets, your pockets would have to be yuge.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/18/2019 10:31 Comments || Top||

#11  I have cousins too.
Posted by: Iblis || 09/18/2019 10:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Mmmhh pancakes
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/18/2019 16:41 Comments || Top||

#13  "The stocks." And what's next on the docket?
"A man caught with cakes in his pocket."
"He scurried off, yelping..."
"When served a third helping!"
"I have here a scrap of his jacket."
Posted by: Jereter Trotsky3452 || 09/18/2019 16:45 Comments || Top||

#14  I suppose we should be thankful Cosmopolitan or NYT didn't get there first.

TRUMP'S COUSINS ACCUSES HIM OF GRABBING HER FLAPJACKS !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 16:51 Comments || Top||

#15  Something not being mentioned here is Trump is an anti germ freak. I don't see him sticking food in his pocket. It sounds more like something a rustic game keeper might do.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/18/2019 18:08 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Liberman sets out religion and state demands for entry into govt
[Jpost] Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has repeated demands for the establishment of civil marriage in Israel and the mandatory teaching of core curriculum studies in ultra-Orthodox primary schools as conditions for entering any new government.

He added that his party would also demand the implementation of public transport on Shabbat, and the repeal of the so-called mini-markets law preventing local authorities from increasing commercial activity in their cities on Shabbat.

The Yisrael Beytenu leader also called on President Reuven Rivlin to take "active role" in bringing about national unity government.

Speaking outside his home in the Nokdim settlement early Wednesday morning after Yisrael Beytenu looks to have nearly doubled its Knesset representation, Liberman repeated his assertion that his party would only enter a national unity government without sectoral parties.
Third round of elections coming up. If they form Bibi-Gantz coalition, you stay outside.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 05:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I scanned a couple of articles at the Jpost, and it seems like Bibi is still in, but ...

Can you interpret/clarify, g(r)om? Anybody?
Posted by: Bobby || 09/18/2019 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Bibi can't form a government without Liberman and the religious parties. But Liberman won't go with the religious.
Gantz can't form a government without Arab parties and Liberman - and (even if Gantz went bananas) Arabs won't go with Liberman
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  What's Liberman's price?
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  ^I don't know. I hope Bibi does.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  #2 that description sounds like the girl's clicks in high school...
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/18/2019 9:40 Comments || Top||

#6  No sh*t?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Funny how the left here in the US points to coalition government as a superior model but they want to cut the entire center of CONUS out of their preferred governing coalition. Hypocrisy much?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 09/18/2019 10:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Each form has it's advantages and disadvantages, Anakin. For example, in Israel leftards did not take over one of the two major parties - they've started a party of their own. Ditto, somebody like Obama (or Bush II) couldn't become an Israeli PM because he'd be eaten alive during coalition negotiations.
On the other hand, you've stability. Of course, stability not always good - not when both your parties stand for the same thing.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 10:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Good news of sorts: Right wing parties agreed to PM request to act in unison
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/18/2019 13:18 Comments || Top||

#10  somebody like Obama (or Bush II) couldn't become an Israeli PM because he'd be eaten alive during coalition negotiations.

How?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 17:04 Comments || Top||

#11  This laundry list sounds like a first pass that will be whittled down as negotiations are concluded, and Lieberman gets to a point that reflects his 8 or 10 seat representation (out of 120). He might get to be kingmaker, but definitely not king.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 17:08 Comments || Top||

#12  somebody like Obama (or Bush II) couldn't become an Israeli PM because he'd be eaten alive during coalition negotiations.

How?


According to a friend of a friend who was Mr. Obama’s classmate at Harvard law school, he was a pathetic negotiator even then. When a key part of getting the job is brilliant negotiating, someone who says, “Don’t call my bluff,” isn’t going to get very far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/18/2019 22:36 Comments || Top||

#13  According to a friend of a friend who was Mr. Obama’s classmate at Harvard law school, he was a pathetic negotiator even then. When a key part of getting the job is brilliant negotiating, someone who says, “Don’t call my bluff,” isn’t going to get very far.

Whereas Dubya was a great p0ker player. Putin almost annexed Georgia, but Dubya prevented it by flying in a couple of US military transport planes.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/18/2019 23:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
New Women's March board member calls Israel: "Racist State"
[Jpost] Three of the founding and most prominent board members of the Women’s March stepped down from their positions, the organization announced Monday.

But that was not the only shakeup for the group ‐ 17 new board members have been appointed.

One of them, Zahra Billoo, a lawyer who serves as executive director of the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
, has repeatedly made comments sharply critical of Israel.

On Twitter, Billoo has said several times that Israel engages in war crimes and terrorism, and that it is an "apartheid, racist state."

The three women who resigned in July ‐ Linda Sarsour,
...to be fair, Ms Sarsour has become terribly busy lately with her new gig as spokesperson for Israel-hating Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, who is completely untroubled by her open antisemitism...
Tamika Mallory and Bob Bland ‐ along with co-chair Carmen Perez, had been at the center of a controversy over allegations that they failed to condemn and in some cases fostered anti-Semitism in the movement. Perez remains on the board)

In one tweet from 2015, Billoo wrote that she was "more afraid of racist Zionists who support Apartheid Israel than of the mentally ill young people the #FBI recruits to join ISIS
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
Last year she tweeted that her comments on Israel led to an interfaith group withdrawing an award it was set to give her. In a series of tweets, Billoo wrote the unnamed organization told her "that pressure opposing my award was mounting. The organization’s institutional funding was being threatened and their Jewish members were threatening to leave."

But Billoo also has ties to the Jewish community. In 2015, she wrote an article in the Huffington Post about her decision to speak at a conference organized by the American Jewish Committee that said while her views on Israel differed from those of some in attendance, she also shared many of their goals on other issues.

"Some of us may disagree on politics in the Middle East, but there is no disagreement that the rise of Islamophobia
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
and anti-Semitism in the U.S. is, in its simplest form, the growth of hate against faith, and both our communities are impacted," Billoo wrote.

The anti-Semitism accusations against the Women’s March date back to Mallory’s ties to and refusal to disavow Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has a long history of making anti-Semitic comments. An article in Tablet last year also alleged that Mallory and Perez made anti-Jewish comments at Women’s March planning meetings.

Sarsour, who is Paleostinian American, has also made statements implying feminism and Zionism are incompatible.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/18/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would have titled this, Women's March replaces light skinned anti-Semite with slightly darker skinned anti-Semite.

This is, I suppose, rebranding.
Posted by: lord garth || 09/18/2019 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  "Bob Bland"?

A stage name? Bend over, boyfriend!!
Posted by: Lex || 09/18/2019 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Bob Bland and Zahra Billoo - definitely members of the All Name Team.
Posted by: Raj || 09/18/2019 11:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Billoo is a Pakistani name. East Punjab - real low class, even in the 'Stain.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 23:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Tamika sounds unmistakably Wakandan.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 09/18/2019 23:58 Comments || Top||



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Wed 2019-09-18
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