[YNet] - A driver plowed his car into a carnival parade in the western German town of Volkmarsen on Monday injuring 30 people, including children, some of them seriously, police said on Monday.
Regional broadcaster Hessenschau said police believed the driver, identified as a 29-year-old German citizen, had acted deliberately, but that nothing was immediately known about his motive.
#2
I was on a jury once where we KNEW the guy was guilty of something but it was totally unclear which (if any) of the charges actually applied or were 'proven.' We picked the lesser one and called it a day.
This is a phenomenally bad idea for a number of reasons. Just a few months ago the IRS stated that they audit low-income taxpayers at a higher rate 'because that's where the money is', and now they're doing a backflip after the slew of bad press. There's no need to go after low income taxpayers. When I was a Mass. DOR auditor my bread and butter were non-filers; if chosen correctly, about 90% of the time you'd get some combination of a filed tax return and a big payment. The IRS just needs to send out nonfiling notices, then maybe follow up with a house call, without weapons. It doesn't serve any purpose to start the process with a field visit unless your goal is to scare the shit out of taxpayers.
[ZH] - The IRS announced Wednesday that it would increase at-home visitations to high-income taxpayers who haven't filed tax returns on time.
Remember when the IRS under the Obama administration targeted conservative groups? Now it appears this anti-wealth attitude extends to anyone earning over $100,000 that hasn't filed a return since 2018 or prior years.
During an at-home visit, IRS agents will inform the non-compliant taxpayer how to file returns and show them a pathway of regaining compliant status.
“We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”
Uncle Sam wants his goddamn money! Hey - business is bad? Fuck you, pay me. Got hit by lightning? Fuck you - pay me!
#1
It's hard to feel any sympathy for the wealthy, after hearing what they think of us little people.
How about this: an executive order confiscating the wealth from the top 100 billionaires in America to be divided evenly among the population. Followed by a national referendum. How do you think that would turn out?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/24/2020 9:57
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Does this group include Congresscritters? They're not a 'special' group, are they?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/24/2020 10:05
Comments ||
Top||
#4
If you haven't filed a return since 2018 (the return would be for calendar 2017) and the IRS has a copy of your 1099s and or W-2s they send you a letter via USPS.
In a lot of those cases, the person not filing is disabled or otherwise not completely functioning and sometimes they are owed refunds. Ideally the IRS would contract with a local social agency for the physical notification.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/24/2020 11:44
Comments ||
Top||
#5
#2 yes Bobby they are.
You must do your own taxes according to the IRS, but the IRS will 'assist' in filing your taxes if you are blind, mentally ill, or a Congresscritter. Consider the company.
Not that they ever show bike races stateside besides the Tour de France - I have to go get the Youtube highlight clips, which I guess is better than trying to watch an entire seven-hour bike race (Milan-San Remo, one month away, is 185.2 miles).
[Cycling News] - Mauro Vegni, head of the race organisation for Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Giro d’Italia, has expressed his concern over the recent spike in coronavirus cases in Italy.
Over the last few days, small pockets of Italy - mainly around Lombardy - have been put on lockdown after the nation saw diagnosed cases rise from just a handful to well over 150.
Italy now has more cases outside of China than another other nation, including Japan and Singapore. So far, the virus has led to 2,619 deaths, with over 79,000 reported cases.
The bulk of RCS Sport's races take place over the next few months, with Strade Bianche in less than a fortnight. Tirreno and Milan-San Remo follow suit before the Giro in May.
According to Vegni, he is more concerned over the future of Milan-San Remo due to the fact that it takes place closest to Italy’s main area of coronavirus cases. I suspect they'll go through with the races and do something to discourage spectators, whatever that may be.
[Sultan Knish] The latest battle over Special Immigrant Visas pitted Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior advisor, against the Pentagon. The military brass was lobbying for 6,000 special immigrant visas for Iraqis who worked for American forces in the country. These visas were once again billed as helping "interpreters".
That’s a lot of interpreters considering that there were only 5,200 American troops in Iraq.
How could there be more Iraqi interpreters for American troops than there are troops?
The Special Immigrant Visa scam has been sold for over a decade using the same claim that it’s needed to save the lives of Iraqi and Afghan interpreters who are risking death by helping American soldiers.
In one decade, the United States has handed out 75,250 of these visas to Iraqi and Afghan employees, and their dependents. Between 2007 and 2017, they represented 1 percent of all immigrant visas.
The truth is that the military brass has wrongly used the incentive of Special Immigrant Visas to recruit local personnel and cut costs by promising them resettlement in the United States. Considering the costs of resettling even the nicest Iraqi or Afghan families, it would have been cheaper to pay each of them a six-figure salary. But that would have come out of the defense budget. The SIV scam passes the buck to local cities and states, to ordinary taxpayers and communities who have to hire interpreters who speak Pashto to interact with the children of the interpreters who are swamping local school systems.
One Iraqi or Afghan employee brings a lot more dependents and expenses with him. In 2017, the 4,677 Iraqi and Afghan employees brought 13,713 dependents with them for a total of 18,390 refugees.
Those were the worst numbers since before Obama took office.
While conventional refugee numbers have been slashed, the number of Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqis and Afghans drastically shot up because the Pentagon was getting its way on immigration. Few of these visas were for actual interpreters. That number tends to be capped at 50 a year. Most of the SIV applicants coming in had to have only worked for a few years in often vaguely defined capacities.
#1
Wasn't the narrative for the last several years that we were "abandoning them?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/24/2020 8:36
Comments ||
Top||
#2
You'd think sending your own guys to a language school in Iraq'd be more practicable, right ? But the problem was not one of mere interpretation.
It was elements of the sunnat your ⭔ needed sifted, their implications in the texts deciphered. They were occurring in legalese, community charters, correspondence, etc. There was a tug-of-war after 2001 between US defence and intelligence factions over whether to approach Asian or Arab help over it.
The 'history and culture' part of the Jihad is known best to the Pakistainer and the Indian, since that is where the bloodshed mostly begins. But India was strictly a navel gazing polity, afraid of venturing into geo-politics, especially war with muslims... brrr ! The Indian governments wanted the muslim vote and they couldn't care less about America's troubles or Israel or anything until the 2008 attacks. India's Leftist govts never encouraged anti-islamist lobying or covert operations back then. They just didn't volunteer to help. Pakistain did, and America and Britain did take them up on that, but the ISI piggybacked their Jamaat sasquatches on such visa policies and entrenched them deep in NY, New Jersey, London, Birmingham, Manchester.
By Obama's time, the richer Muslim Brotherhood had practically infiltrated nearly all offices in American intelligence, the Pakistani ISI in UK's political parties. The pan-islamic Muslim Brotherhood and the Asian Jamaats are essentially rivals for the same crimson hued sunni dystopia envisioned by their predecessors; often playing a balance of power game with the amount of influence they can garner in liberal democracies.
We should have pitted them against each other, and bumped them off in false flag ops, but the over-compartmentalized, assembly-line systematization plaguing the American side; and the classic ineptitude and political impotence of the Indian side kept us from trusting and working with each other. The advantage was reaped by well taqiya-ed plants and bi-lingual sasquatches who wanted to exploit American largesse.
There's book about all this written by one o' my betters, a Gen Katoch. I forget the name. It documents the ways by which the Jamaat and the MB divvied up sectors, and infiltrated and consolidated their hold on different aspects of Ewwropean and American administrations using Leftist provided social justice covers and means.
#5
I heard that right after 9/11, hyphenated American Jews from the Muslim world tried to volunteer as interpreters for the FBI/CIA/DoD. But the entrenched Muslim interpreters let it be known they would not work if the sons of apes and monkeys were hired, and that was that.
#6
That's because the primarily Arab Muslim Brotherhood had already gotten it's hold through the CAIR, the North American Islamic Trust, and Islamic Society of North America into these American govt depts.
The Arab sees the South Asian as a monkey, subhuman. They are essentially only fit to be slaves, even according to their scriptures.
[Mil.com] Hershel "Woody" Williams did not even know something called the "Medal of Honor" existed when the Quiet Dell, West Virginia, native learned he would receive the nation's highest and most prestigious personal military decoration.
In fact, at the time, he thought the best part about getting the medal was being sent home sooner than expected after fighting in the Pacific Ocean Theater during World War II.
"In September (1945), after the war was over in August, I was called to my division general's tent for him to tell me that I was being sent back to the states," said Williams, one of two Medal of Honor recipients from WWII still living .
"The whole division, they were not scheduled to come back to the states yet, but I was sent back to Washington to receive it. And if he used the terms or the words 'Medal of Honor' it didn't mean anything to me because I had never heard of it. I didn't know what he was talking about. ... The thing that impressed me and the thing that I remember most of course is -- I had been there for two years now -- I got to go home. He could have said anything else in the world and I don't think it would have overshadowed that."
Williams, a corporal with the 21st Marine Regiment, earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Iwo Jima, which occurred 75 years ago from Feb. 19 through March 26, 1945.
On Feb. 23, Williams -- armed with a flamethrower and with only four riflemen covering him -- destroyed seven Japanese pillboxes, one by one, over a four-hour period. His medal-earning action took place on the same day as the iconic Iwo Jima flag raising, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.
Williams did not witness the flag actually being raised, but did see it later flying high atop Mount Suribachi, providing a "morale booster."
#2
When the National WWII Museum, a/k/a the D-Day Museum, was started, the best thing about it was that you could talk to a lot of vets about their experiences. Not so much anymore. (The good news is that I drive past the museum most mornings, and there is usually a line of parents leading their children into the museum. So the vets won't be forgotten, at least by some of us.)
Posted by: Matt ||
02/24/2020 11:34
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Matt, is that the museum in New Orleans? Do they have some kind of oral history archive of recorded interviews with vets that visitors can listen to / history students can research?
#4
Lex -- Yes, it's in New Orleans, and basically started with Stephen Ambrose, a history professor at the University of New Orleans, collecting oral histories from vets (including German veterans.) The Museum has several stations at which you can listen to selected oral histories, but also has an online archive here.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/24/2020 11:58
Comments ||
Top||
#1
Some lemurs were included in the security detail at the last minute. You have to understand. The monkeys are a real menace at the Taj Mahal. They run at the sight of a few lemurs though.
#3
^ Lemme just say I'll breathe easier when they're on their way home. ☺
I saw the first lady up close for the first time. The Donald's a lucky man. Also, my boss would shake Mrs. Kushner's hand but she namaste-d him away. Very heartening, an office joke for the rest of the year.
We really appreciate the kind words spoken by Mr. Trump.
#6
Then there's this. Meet Krishna. You should probably take him and show him around in blue states. He'll fuckin' kill the hand that goes for his MAGA hat.
#9
With the Indians spending for most of it. It's PR for the Modi Govt too. All the praises heaped on this 'champion of India' by the most powerful man on earth.
[American Thinker] Ali Watkins, it seems, wasn't the only one.
The still-employed New York Times reporter set a new low bar in swamp journalism by sleeping with her sources, in her case Senate intelligence staffer James Wolfe, who got a two-month jail sentence for leaks to her, but in her case, ended only in her reassignment to the Times' New York City desk.
It's still going on, and a new case of it signals it's apparently widespread practice in the mainstream media. As well as nearly everywhere else.
Now we have a less-politically prominent official, 30-year-old Defense Intelligence Agency bureaucrat Henry Kyle Frese, who's in the news for pleading guilty to leaking big classified secrets surrounding the defense capabilities of North Korea and China to his lover-reporter, CNBC national security correspondent Amanda Macias, and then, at her request, to her good pal NBC national security correspondent Courtney Kube. Court documents show that he had 630 phone calls and at least 57 text messages with Macias, and 34 phone calls and 151 text messages with Kube. The two women were both Trump haters based on their Twitter posts, slanting their coverage to make the president look bad through the use of classified secrets as if to contradict him, leaving him unable to use Twitter to either trick our enemies or else dismiss the reports. They took the eight top-secret reports Frese leaked to do that, and then boosted each other publicly on Twitter while communicating privately through its messaging system.
Here's the lovelorn trio of Macias, Frese and Kube, from their social media presence:
[Libertynation.com] Peri begins by pointing out that the Democrats are currently in a heated contest to determine which one of them is the most electable. It doesn’t take long, however, for her to identify the real challenge any nominee will face: "He or she will need to run against a president seemingly prepared, and empowered, to lie and cheat his way to reelection."
The author claims that President Trump would seek another win by lying and saying "absolutely anything necessary to attract and maintain support." She also points to the so-called list of Trump’s lies as president. If the newspaper responsible for this particular curation is to be believed, he has rattled off over 15,000 since taking office. Of course, even a cursory glance shows that most of the statements in the fib collection are either Trump’s opinions, hyperbole, or even simple mistakes.
Moreover, the notion that the Democrats ‐ and their close friends and allies in the press ‐ are somehow the epitome of honesty is laughable given their constant caterwauling about Russiagate conspiracy theories. But, according to Peri, President Trump is going to do far worse when it comes to winning in November.
Trump Is Going To "Cheat!"
Just in case bending the truth a little doesn’t quite cut it, the president will find a way to cheat, somehow. Peri is sure of it. She recalls an observation made by journalist Katy Tur during a discussion about the challenges involved in covering the president:
"She said that what made covering Trump as a reporter and running against him as a candidate so difficult was the way that scandals stuck‐or didn’t stick‐to him. Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state was like a stain on her shirt that people couldn’t get past, because it was the only mark on an otherwise clean shirt. But Trump had so many stains that ’you couldn’t tell if it was a stained shirt or if it was just supposed to be that way.’"
The author goes on to cite the controversy over Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an example of how he will break the rules to defeat his opponent. Of course, she forgets to mention that the Democrats failed to prove that Trump’s motivation in his dealings with Ukraine was specifically to hurt former Vice President Joe Biden.
Peri also seems to forget the fact that Hillary Clinton’s campaign brazenly paid money to have a former British spy dig up dirt on Trump using Russian and Ukrainian sources. A little bit of "good for me, but not for thee," perhaps? But that’s not the worst of it. It seems employing the Democrats’ tactic of using foreign powers to gain an edge in the election isn’t the only card up Trump’s sleeve.
#11
Looking at the field of Dems running, Trump should have a landslide. It is the Dems who cheat in elections. They are trying to figure out how to screw Bernie again.
[American Thinker] In 2018, California implemented the California Values Act, which gave special protection to illegal aliens by mandating that California law enforcement agencies cannot cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") thumbed its nose at California and arrested two people in Sonoma County Superior Court.
California has lots of reasons to hang onto its roughly 2.2 ‐ 3.5 million illegal immigrants. They provide cheap, easily-exploited labor. They swell the state’s population, which matters for electors and congresspeople, as well as the distribution of certain federal funds. As illegal immigrants are fed into the system, they provide reliable (legal or illegal) Democrat votes. And they make Californians feel virtuous even as they allow corrupt Latin American states to continue exploiting their own citizens and destroying their economies by relying on remittances from people illegally in America.
For these reasons, California enacted the pompously named "California Values Act." Although the act refers to "immigrants," it’s obviously intended to affect only illegal aliens because the Act’s entire purpose is to use the agencies of the state to prevent ICE from gaining access to people illegally in California ‐ including people who have committed crimes in California. This is the type of law that could only come from legislators and other virtue signalers ensconced in comfortable middle- and upper-middle-class enclaves unaffected by felonies that would never have happened but for open borders and sanctuaries.
Throughout the Obama administration, sanctuary cities and states were able to get away with these policies because the Obama administration, despite Obama’s sworn obligation to upload the laws of the United States, approved of open borders. Trump promised to change all that.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Monday evening landed at the Agra airport ahead of their much-anticipated visit to the iconic Taj Mahal(Agra,UP). Addressing a crowd at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) earlier, Trump said the US will "always be a faithful and loyal friend to the Indian people" as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a rousing welcome in Gujarat, which included a 22-km roadshow and a jam-packed cricket stadium. Addressing the crowd, Trump said: "Five months ago, the United States welcomed your great Prime Minister at a giant football stadium in Texas and today, India welcomes us at the world's largest cricket stadium right here in Ahmedabad."
President Trump arrived in Ahmedabad today for the first leg of his maiden India trip during which he visited Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram, took part in a roadshow with PM Modi. He will later head for Agra to see the iconic Taj Mahal with his wife Melania.
Trump, who is also accompanied by daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and top brass of his administration, will get a taste of India's cultural potpourri during his Gujarat itinerary which is high on symbolism, especially after the bonhomie between the two leaders at the 'Howdy, Modi!' event in Houston during the Indian prime minister's visit to the US in September 2019.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a friend of mine. I had committed to this trip long time back. I will be addressing a big rally," Trump said at the White House.
The US president, who is scheduled to arrive at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport at around 11.40am today, will participate along with Modi in roadshows on his way from the airport to Sabarmti Ashram and from there to the newly-built Motera cricket stadium, where over one lakh people are expected to be present for the 'Namaste Trump' event.
#1
Dron, what's the reaction from our good friends the Pakis?
Posted by: Matt ||
02/24/2020 9:20
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think they'll most likely keep mum, Matt. Because the FATF thingy is still looming and Trump did promise them resumption of the IMET thingy. Their proxies are causing havoc enough already anyway.
They're sure to put out a statement like 'Trump asked again if he couldn't negotiate a Kashmir deal for both parties but those uncouth Indians threw it in his face ! They just don't want peace, those Indians !'
[France24] Israeli fighter jets launched air strikes on suspected Islamic Jihad positions in Syria, the Israeli military said on Monday, after the militant group and Israel exchanged rockets and air strikes around Gaza.
Israeli aircraft hit what the military said were Islamic Jihad sites in the Gaza Strip and Syria late Sunday, after the Palestinian militant group fired a barrage of rockets at Israel.
In a new flareup a week ahead of a fresh general election in the Jewish state, the Israeli Air Force carried out strikes on "dozens of Islamic Jihad terror sites" throughout Gaza and near the Syrian capital Damascus, a military statement said.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities in either Gaza, which lies to the west of Israel, or Syria, which is to the country's north.
Islamic Jihad, which along with allied group Hamas has fought three wars with Israel in Gaza since 2008, operates in both territories.
A military aircraft also fired at "Islamic Jihad terror operatives preparing to launch rockets" from the northern Gaza Strip, the army said.
"A hit was identified," it added, with health officials in Gaza saying four people were wounded in the strikes.
In Syria, the Israeli army said it had struck Islamic Jihad targets outside Damascus, including a base "used as a hub" for the group's activities in the country.
An AFP correspondent in Damascus heard several strong explosions shortly before midnight (2200 GMT).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks were "near the Damascus international airport".
The Syrian state news agency Sana said "most of the enemy missiles were shot down before reaching their targets", stressing that "no airport" was struck.
This violence brewing in the Indian capital Delhi is approx 10 miles away from the Hyderabad House, the venue of the Modi and Trump official meet on Tuesday. #TrumpInIndia#TrumpIndiaVisithttps://t.co/SxQKe9tL7t
#1
January 25, 2020:
NEW DELHI: Replicating the Shaheen Bagh style of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act other Muslim-dominated localities of Delhi, too, have begun sit-in protests. So far, the peaceful protests have spread to at least nine localities, including Seelampur, Indralok, CHANDBAGH,
Mustafabad, Khureji, Wazeerabad, Hauz Rani, Jafrabad and Sri Ram Colony Khajuri.
Iran's semiofficial ILNA news agency is reporting that the death toll from the new coronavirus in the city of Qom is 50. The report on Monday says the 50 deaths took place since Feb 13. https://t.co/AuhJnjtoKQ
@ChrisMurphyCT
if you're going to sneak around secretly meeting with Iranian officials..be a dear and get swabbed for the safety of your family and those around you, kthanx.
When the country is ruled by Ayatullah whose religion are to make taqiya deceptions
The more taqiya you make, the closer you get to Allah
Posted by: 3dc ||
02/24/2020
05:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
difficult to believe unless somehow Qom got a particularly deadly strain of the virus
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/24/2020 9:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Or they are way under-reporting the number of cases. Maybe they're inshallah medical care is not correctly identifying the number of cases?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/24/2020 9:58
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Or a particularly severe shortage of the pertinent medicines.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/24/2020 13:26
Comments ||
Top||
#5
newest WHO numbers for Iran are 43 infected 8 deaths
even without the 50 figure the fatality rate is high
I thought surely it was a virulent strain but it may be do to high rates of cigarette smoking or high rates of the use of intravenous drugs or the reinfection rate or the refusal to treat for a fever in Qom
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/24/2020 15:30
Comments ||
Top||
#6
or the refusal to treat for a fever in Qom
Or the necessary drugs being reserved for nomenklatura.
Apart from the health impact it may upend politics entirely. The left will be hard pressed to survive the threat. The impact on political Islam will be severe. It will be a struggle to defend civility in a time of crisis.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/24/2020 9:15
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Kind of, yes. They officially let us leave the community every third day, for shopping and stuff. Work has not restarted on campus yet, but we did start teaching online so as not to get behind. DingTalk (an Alibaba company) bought around 20,000 new web servers two weeks ago to bear the load. It is working okay.
#5
In other news, Kuwait now reports four coronavirus infections. I wonder if there is a connection to them flying 700 people from Iran to Kuwait and these new infections. Who'da thunk it.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/24/2020 10:10
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Nah, bear is good. Think of ball bearings 'bearing' the load.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/24/2020 10:12
Comments ||
Top||
#8
...And if this thing gets loose in the hajj, look out - all else being equal, the death rate in Muslim nations will be horrifying. Then we're going to face nations like Iran and Pakistan disintegrating as local imams and military strongmen decide they're the rightful heirs to the power and the weapons.
Think it's about right to order a pallet or two of 'Interesting Times' brand popcorn..
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/24/2020 15:42
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Mike, having a flagpole for a family tree protects you from plagues.
[JPost] Saeedi claimed that the outbreak was Trump's way of fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites if the Islamic Republic took revenge for the killing of Soleimani.
The Friday Prayer Imam of the religious city of Qom, which has been struck with a coronavirus outbreak that has left 29 infected and six dead, blamed US President Donald Trump on Saturday for targeting the city with the virus in order to "make Qom look like an unsafe city and to take revenge," reported Radio Farda.
"The enemy wants to instill fear in people's hearts, make Qom look like an unsafe city and to take revenge for all its defeats," said Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi, the Friday Prayer Imam and Custodian of the Shrine of Masoumeh. "Trump will die frustrated in his wish to see Qom defeated."
The cleric added that Trump targeted the city because it is a "shelter for the Shi'ites of the world, the center of religious seminaries and the city where Shi'ite sources of emulation live."
Saeedi claimed that the coronavirus outbreak was Trump's way of fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites if the Islamic Republic took revenge for the killing of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, according to Radio Farda.
In January, Trump warned in a tweet that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, the US had targeted "52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture."
Just kidding: Rockets fired towards southern Israel
[JPost] - At least 8 rockets were fired towards southern Israel Monday afternoon after a night of deadly retaliatory airstrikes against targets belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group in Syria and throughout the Gaza Strip following rocket fire towards southern Israel throughout the evening on Sunday.
Victory Girls via Instapundit
Who saw this coming? Far left MSNBC pundits shed liberal tears after Bernie Sanders took the Nevada caucus. This seems counter-intuitive, I know, but apparently Bernie was not the droid they were looking for.
There has been bad blood between Sanders and MSNBC before, with Sanders accusing the network of unfair coverage. In fact, Bernie supposedly complained about it to network president Phil Griffin. So when Bernie won the caucus and took the top of the Democratic heap, liberal tears flowed copiously on the floors of the station.
Chris Matthews went Godwin Lite and compared Bernie’s victory to the Nazis overrunning the Maginot Line in 1940. Whereupon David Harsanyi of The Federalist offered a more accurate analogy:
". . . a far better analogy is to say Sanders has stormed the Democratic Party like the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace."
Matthews went on to wonder if it would be better for Democrats if Sanders lost the upcoming election.
"I mean, he takes it over, he sets the direction of the future of the party ‐ maybe they’d rather wait four years and put in a Democrat that they like."
Plus, Joy Reid sounded desperate and really shed those liberal tears, because she fears not only losing the Presidency but down ballot races as well.
It’s like the lightbulb went off in her head, and she just discovered that a lot of Democrats don’t like their party elite, either. Just like many disaffected Republican voters in 2016, right?
#1
Come on this is just false. MSDNC is not far left. They are corporate Democrats. Sanders is far left. Sigh. Dumb people don't even understand basic facts about politics.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/24/2020 7:23
Comments ||
Top||
#2
..yeah, right. We're talking velocity not the end state difference between them.
#3
Dumb people don't even understand basic facts about politics.
Uh huh. Self awareness much?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2020 7:44
Comments ||
Top||
#4
(1) Presidents win re-election
(2) After two terms the other party takes the Executive
These are not laws but tend to be true with the exception of Carter getting one term and Reagan getting three.
If they hold true it is much better for the nation if the Socialist wing of the Democrats gets humiliatingly crushed against Trump. If the Dems steal the nomination from Sanders on behalf of Bloomberg and he loses bad to Trump the Socialists will be positioned well for 2024 when the incumbency advantage is gone, Bernie and Warren with all their commie love negatives will be too old, and the horrors of socialism will be that much easier for the young to ignore.
#5
Seriously? The MSDNC wing of the Democrats aren't socialist. They have more in common with the 1990s Russian oligarchs. Moreover they are globalists and would happily start wars all over the planet.
Sanders is the socialist wing. These are basic facts, people.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/24/2020 8:45
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Facts are that the Donks have been slowly turning up the heat on the frog in the pot for decades and now their socialists just want to got full flame on the stove. That is the fact. It's all been about the centralization and concentration of power for them all. Speed is the only difference.
#8
Democrats are three factions:
* Socialists = Sanders
* Corrupt opportunists = Clintons
* Affirmative Actions = Obamas
There is a lot of overlap between some of them but I think the three are currently fighting for control. The US is better off if the Socialists are destroyed and the Earth salted beneath their feet. Same with the Affirmative Action folks but less so, for now.
#9
You're trying to tell us that Baraq Obama is not a socialist? When he advocated redistribution of wealth? What is that if not socialism? And ObamaCare was nothing but a compromise because he knew he couldn't get single payer. Socialism. Communism. P2K has it right. The only difference is how high and how fast they want to turn up the heat on that frog.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/24/2020 11:43
Comments ||
Top||
#10
More like State Capitalism. Obama has done more to help a tiny handful of powerful banks and powerful health insurance company bloodsuckers to consolidate control of their industries than any president in the modern era.
We see more industry concentration today than at any time since the days of Morgan and Rockefeller.
Finance, Tech, Healthcare... Obama consolidated industry control on behalf of the DNC's moneybags. Not socialist in the slightest.
Faux-socialism in the economic sphere, combined with with identity-politics Kulturkampf policies, lawfare, decrees and DoJ mischief in the socio-cultural sphere.
#12
When you are consumed with hate, you are vulnerable. The left was so consumed with their hate for Trump they threw out anyone that wanted to work with him and every moderate that had remotely like values. This left the door wide open for someone like Sanders, and AOC, and.... They are reaping what they have sewn. So long to the democrat party, and welcome in the new Democratic Socialist Party, soon to be the People Communist party.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/24/2020 12:36
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Ah, purity test are half the fun. The other half being the gulags and such.
What a lot of these advocates today do not comprehend is that the overlap, that is for them.
One day Joaquin Phoenix is the darling of Capital District, next he is purged for disparaging Native Americans by voicing in Brother Bear, or his performance of Jesus was too likable. It can be avoided by tacking left, and left, and left, but one day his will have completed his transition surgery and wearing his sparkle kilt on the red carpet with xmblt's domestic partner talking about how his now grown cow not only have legal rights, but is the inheritor of his estate, he will discover there is no further left to go.
#14
rj's got it - Clinton opportunists are the least bad of the Democrat options. Sort of like sleazy Trump is (by far) the least bad of Republican options. How did we get from George Washington to here?
#15
A lot of the DNC and Dem hierarchy don't seem to want Bernie. They must figure he is not controllable. I think an investigation is called for to see if he has Russian links.
There was always fraud and corruption. And as the demos was expanded the portion that had an expensive classical education naturally made up a smaller part of the total.
#18
On the question of Obama being a socialist or not, I'd say he probably is but is smart enough to know the nation isn't ready yet. He laid groundwork but never pushed it too far that he lost the rubes in his party.
Watts Up With That? via Instapundit
Billions of desert locusts have descended again on East Africa. Crawling first, then sprouting wings and flying in hungry hoards of 40-150 million or more, they are devastating crops and threatening tens of millions of people with lost livelihoods and starvation. This latest locust plague, says the United Nations, is the worst in 70 years for Kenya, the worst in 25 years for Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.
...Incredibly, this looming catastrophe is due to policies and programs that have been officially adopted and deliberately implemented by the very UN agencies that are now crying loudest about the horrific situation.
For years now, the FAO, UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have been working in cahoots with some of the most radical environmentalist pressure groups on Earth to devise and impose "agroecology" ‐ a perverse combination of socialism, pseudo-ecology and primitive, anti-technology agriculture. The program is financed and advanced by the UN, by European governments via their development agencies and funding of environmentalist NGOs ‐ and even by US taxpayers, who provide 22% of UN funding and underwrite grants to and tax-exempt status for environmentalist groups.
Agroecology is above all political. It rejects virtually everything that has enabled modern agriculture to feed billions more people from less acreage. It rabidly opposes monoculture farming, hybrid seeds, synthetic/non-organic insecticides and fertilizers, biotechnology ... and even mechanized equipment like tractors! It claims Dr. Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution, which saved a billion people from starvation, did little more than put global food production "under the control of a few transnational corporations."
Acceptance of agroecology tenets and restrictions has become a condition for poor farmers getting seeds, and their countries and local communities getting development loans and food aid. Mid-level bureaucrats get cushy jobs overseeing and propagandizing agroecology campaigns, while ruling elites get more opportunities to siphon off additional millions in international aid money. They still erect roadblocks to Golden Rice, which could save 2 million parents and children a year from blindness and death.
AgroEcology advocates extol "food sovereignty" and the "right to subsistence farming." They promote "indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices," to the exclusion of knowledge, practices, technologies and equipment that have been developed in recent decades ‐ and could help end Africa’s perpetual poverty, malnutrition, disease, joblessness and early death. They sow fear about pesticides and GM food. So, I've a question: Who are the real racists? These who think that African-Americans are drunk on white guilt? Or whose who starve millions of Africans?
#1
Locust are the least cause of their food shortages problems. Kleptocrats and other tribal thieves have been destroying its food independence since those racist white colonials departed.
[Washington Examiner] The federal judge presiding over Roger Stone's case turned down the Trump associate's attempt to disqualify her.
U.S. Judge Amy Berman Jackson argued Sunday evening that there is no legal basis as to why she should recuse herself from the case after Stone filed a motion on Friday requesting that she be removed from the case for alleged bias.
Stone, who also asked for a retrial, raised concerns about the judge's partiality, pointing out that Jackson praised the jurors in his trial for their "integrity." The judge, however, shredded Stone's argument in her six-page filing, saying that her "general comment that 'jurors' served with integrity" did not "purport to, and did not address" Stone's new trial request.
"There is no rule and no case law that would justify the recusal of a judge for bias simply because he or she says something about an issue on the docket, on the record, at some point before a reply has been filed, or before a hearing ‐ which may or may not be required in the Court's discretion ‐ has concluded," she wrote.
She added, "If parties could move to disqualify every judge who furrows his brow at one side or the other before ruling, the entire court system would come to a standstill."
Jackson further defended herself by noting that she insured fairness throughout the case, including when Stone himself shared a threatening post about her on Instagram.
If the Trunks take the House in November, she could be the shot across the bow of the politicized judiciary. Long over due signal to the American aristocracy.
[Aljazeera] A Palestinian has been killed by Israeli forces and two others were wounded as they tried to retrieve his body in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to local media reports.
The incident took place near the separation fence east of Khan Younis in the southern part of the coastal territory, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Sunday.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) faction named the deceased as Mohammed Ali al-Naim, 27, and said he was a member of the organisation.
The Israeli military said troops shot dead a Palestinian who was suspected of placing a bomb near the fence.
In a statement, the army said it "spotted two terrorists approaching the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip and placing an explosive device adjacent to it".
"The troops opened fire towards them. A hit was identified," it said.
It's Monday on Town Hall - Kurt's time
[Townhall] The D.C. establishment and their media rump-kissers went into a full-on spazz mode when President Trump continued his unbroken streak of awesomeness by appointing Ric Grenell the acting Director of National Intelligence, thereby threatening the intelligence community’s unbroken streak of failure. None of our media idiot savants ‐ a term which is only half-accurate ‐ thought to ponder the question of exactly how Ric’s appointment could possibly make the IC worse. Its legacy of ashes is a national embarrassment. But then, the purpose of the currently-constituted intelligence community, the foreign policy community, and every wing of our incompetent, inept, and corrupt establishment is not to serve the people of the United States. Its purpose is to serve the personal interests of the currently-constituted intelligence community, the foreign policy community, and every wing of our incompetent, inept, and corrupt establishment. Its denizens fear that this fearless patriot is going to burn down their whole shoddy edifice, and we can only hope they’re right.
...The Grenell appointment is only one battle in this post-impeachment campaign to make up for three years of lost time squandered on bogus charges and endless investigations. See, when Donald Trump came into office, unlike Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit, he did not have a bulging Rolodex full of eager sycophants with bureaucratic experience. He first tried to hire old "conservative" establishment hands and found that their loyalty to the establishment trumped their purported conservatism. Slowly, he has been surrounding himself with quality people. And those Trump loyalists brought into the administration fresh? Well, after three years, they now have experience. They know their way around. He has built a cadre of tough, experienced loyalists within the bureaucracy. Just think of how it is going to be after eight years.
...Trump has rejected the special rule that holds that of all presidents, only he has no right to an administration composed of supporters. And he refuses to pretend to be impressed by the loser establishment that brought us Iraq, Iran, the unopposed rise of China, Libya, TRUMP RUSSIA, and a zillion other failures, fiascos, and frauds. Time for a winning establishment. And that’s what Trump is building.
#1
All bureaucracies use opacity to hide failure and corruption, but the intelligence agencies are opaque by design! The level of failure we've seen but I'll bet the corruption they're hiding is huge.
[MSN] Richard Grenell’s tenure as the nation’s top intelligence official may be short-lived, but he wasted no time this week starting to shape his team of advisers, ousting his office’s No. 2 official ‐ a longtime intelligence officer ‐ and bringing in an expert on Trump conspiracy theories to help lead the agency, according to officials.
It’s MSN, dear Reader. They can’t help it.
Mr. Grenell has also requested the intelligence behind the classified briefing last week before the House Intelligence Committee where officials told politicians that Russia was interfering in November’s presidential election and that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia favored President Trump’s re-election. The briefing later prompted Mr. Trump’s anger as he complained that Democrats would use it against him.
Joseph Maguire, the former acting director of national intelligence, and his deputy, Andrew P. Hallman, resigned on Friday. Mr. Grenell told Mr. Hallman, popular in the office’s Liberty Crossing headquarters, that his service was no longer needed, according to two officials. Mr. Hallman, who has worked in the office or at the C.I.A. for three decades, expressed confidence in his colleagues in a statement but also referred to the "uncertainties that come with change."
Indeed.
One of his first hires was Kashyap Patel, a senior National Security Council staff member and former key aide to Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, and the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Mr. Patel will have a mandate to "clean house," CBS News reported, citing a person close to the matter.
Mr. Patel was best known as the lead author of a politically charged memo two years ago that accused F.B.I. and Justice Department leaders of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. The memo was widely criticized as misleading, though an inspector general later found other problems with aspects of the surveillance.
Let us pause to admire the delicacy of that statement before going on.
Working with Mr. Nunes, Mr. Patel began what they called Objective Medusa to examine the F.B.I.’s investigation into whether anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired with Russia’s election interference in 2016.
[GatestoneInstitute] French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new measures aimed at countering political Islam in La Belle France. The changes would limit the role that foreign governments have in La Belle France in training imams, financing mosques and educating children.
Macron also vowed to fight what he called "Islamist separatism" and to lead what he described as a "Republican reconquest"
...a very strong image, not lightly thrown around...
aimed at reasserting state control over Moslem ghettoes ‐ so-called no-go zones (zones urbaines sensibles, sensitive urban zones) ‐ in La Belle France. Bring forth the tumbils! Continued on Page 49
#7
Macron shows us what a Buttfug administration here would be like. A glib and callow youth busy with lots of faux-moderate symbolism; a weird marriage; general fecklessness.
#10
I guess I've heard the same rumour. This is all damage control before 2022 to make sure LePen doesn't sweep the floor with him. Leftist snobs insult the intelligence of their citizens all the time. Then they get sent away. He will too. Every casualty in France to islamists; rape victims, survivors of murders, victims of gangs ... all are on him.
[The Hill] The judge that signed off on a $2.5 million settlement deal between the University of North Carolina and Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is effectively voiding the agreement.
In a ruling on Feb. 12, Judge R. Allen Baddour said that the SCV had no standing to bring the initial lawsuit against UNC over the Silent Sam monument. The lawsuit was filed a year after protestors toppled the Confederate monument in 2018 and settled minutes after it was brought in December 2019. In fact, court records show the UNC board of governors' chairman agreed to the deal before the lawsuit was filed, according to NPR.
The bronze statue of a Confederate soldier ‐ long known as Silent Sam ‐ stood on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus from 1913 until it was pulled down by protestors in 2018.
The settlement was met with suspicion and confusion, as the board never held a public meeting on the future of the statue. UNC’s student newspaper The Daily Tarheel reported that two previous decisions by Baddour that were favorable to UNC had since been overturned.
A group of UNC students and faculty partnered with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to file a motion to intervene with the deal.
"The court system is supposed to resolve conflicts between parties with adverse interests. Parties must have legal authority to be in court at all, which is referred to as ’standing,’" Attorney Elizabeth Haddix told the Tarheel.
Judge Baddour agreed, vacating his previous consent judgement.
"While this was not the result we had hoped for, we respect the court’s ruling in this case," UNC responded in a statement. "The Board of Governors knew from the very beginning that this was a difficult but needed solution to meet all their goals to protect public safety of the university community, restore normality to campus, and be compliant with the Monuments Law."
It is not clear yet what will happen to the Silent Sam statue, which has been put in storage since being taken down.
#4
This judge's behavior satisfies the Three Requirements of the Shitshow - not one or two but all three, simultaneously, of:
1. Absurdity / illogic
2. Gross incompetence to the point of obscene clownishness
3. Ostentatious virtue-signaling
[The Hill] The United States and the Taliban are on the verge of signing what would be a historic agreement aimed at winding down America's longest war, potentially fulfilling one of President Trump's key promises.
But first comes a weeklong test. A seven-day "reduction in violence" period started Friday afternoon Washington time, midnight Saturday Afghanistan time.
The initial agreement to reduce violence is aimed at building confidence ahead of signing a broader peace agreement.
If the reduction in violence holds, U.S. and Taliban negotiators will sign the broader agreement Feb. 29, starting a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops in exchange for Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for terrorist attacks against the West.
But that's not the end of the peace process. Intra-Afghan talks will start after the U.S.-Taliban deal signing ‐ a critical stage where the entire process has the potential to collapse.
Many details of the deal and how it will work remain murky. But here are five things to know now about the U.S.-Taliban deal.
[PJ] The top official in the intelligence community charged with election security overstated and left out facts during a congressional briefing earlier this month.
Three national security officials told CNN that the briefer, Shelby Pierson, failed to accurately relay intelligence findings to Congress having to do with Russia helping Donald Trump get re-elected.
The US intelligence community has assessed that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election and has separately assessed that Russia views Trump as a leader they can work with. But the US does not have evidence that Russia's interference this cycle is aimed at reelecting Trump, the officials said.
"The intelligence doesn't say that," one senior national security official told CNN. "A more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference, it's a step short of that. It's more that they understand the President is someone they can work with, he's a dealmaker."
That's a huge, monumental error that raises questions about whether Ms. Pierson gave her own spin on the intel or whether someone else did it for her. Considering what happened the last time that Congress believed Trump was being materially assisted by the Russians, it's hard to overstate the potential impact of this error.
[The Hill] President Trump’s sudden decision to replace his top intelligence chief sparked criticism among congressional Democrats this past week after reports that the dismissal stemmed from a classified briefing on election security with a key House panel.
Trump reportedly moved to oust acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire after a senior DNI official briefed the House Intelligence Committee about Russian efforts to aid his reelection. Maguire's term as acting DNI was going to be up Mid-March anyway.
The president is said to have viewed the briefing as an act of disloyalty, in part because it involved sharing information with a House panel led by one of his political foes, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). He also reportedly said the briefing should not have occurred, while denying the analysis by intelligence officials and claiming the intelligence community is being "played."
"We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections," Schiff tweeted after news of Maguire’s departure. "If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling. Exactly as we warned he would do."
Rather than wait until Maguire’s acting role expired next month, Trump on Thursday tapped a longtime loyalist, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, to serve as his new interim DNI chief before he nominates a permanent replacement.
That move prompted renewed warnings from Democrats that Trump is willing to accept the help of foreign nations to benefit his reelection campaign ‐ a claim that was central to their impeachment effort.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday condemned Trump’s DNI pick, comparing his lack of experience to her being asked to perform brain surgery.
#4
Many of Trump's problems have come from the intelligence community. It seems like Trump needs someone experienced in house cleaning more than someone who is experienced in the intelligence community.
[Breitbart] Philip Haney, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official during the Obama administration who blew the whistle on shortcomings within his own agency, was found dead in California on Friday with a "gunshot wound" to the chest, several news outlets report, citing a statement from the law enforcement.
Although authorities have said the gunshot wound "appears" to be "self-inflicted," stressing that the investigation is ongoing, 66-year-old Haney had been missing since February 19. and died from a gunshot wound to his chest two days later, Red State and Heavy reported.
Gunshot wounds to the chest are uncommon in the case of suicides, data reportedly show. Haney’s death has triggered a wave of claims suggesting he may have been a victim of foul play.
Echoing some of the whistleblower’s friends, a number of senior congressional officials have expressed alarm to Breitbart News about this, noting that they do no believe Haney was suicidal.
Law enforcement found Haney’s body 40 miles east of Sacramento, California.
#2
Rural highway intersection. Gunshot wound to the chest. LE initial assessment: suicide. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiigt. It would appear that he was meeting someone. #PhilipHaneydidnotkillhimself
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/24/2020 10:43
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Gunshot wounds to the chest are uncommon in the case of suicides
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/24/2020 11:32
Comments ||
Top||
#6
If an assassination, I think a woman was the "hit man". Women who commit suicide will not shoot themselves in the head as it damages their looks. When female assassin also kills her target in a like manner, a quick death with a shot to the heart.
[PAGESIX] Disgraced "Empire" star Jussie Smollett ...Cable TV actor whose primary talents seemed to be being black and being homosexual. In a bid for national attention, he paid a pair of Nigerian brothers to rough him up a little so he could claim that two large, white, MAGA hat-wearing men had shouted This is MAGA country! while thumping him at 2:30am on a bitter cold night in Chicago and throwing bleach on him, presumably to lighten him up. The story quickly unraveled, and he became a laughingstock and the poster boy for pretend victimization and attention whoredom... will once again appear in a reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... court Monday on renewed felony charges for allegedly staging a hate crime.
Smollett, 37, was indicted for a second time Feb. 11 on six counts of felony disorderly conduct after a special prosecutor assigned to reinvestigate the case decided it was "in the interest of justice" to bring the renewed charges against him.
He’s scheduled to be arraigned before Judge LeRoy K. Martin Jr. at 9:30 a.m. at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse and could either be released on his own recognizance or held on bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
[Sudan Tribune] The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on Friday formed an investigation committee to probe the use of violence against peaceful protesters on Thursday.
On Thursday, the police used tear gas and batons to disperse a protest calling to reintegrate pro-democracy military officers sacked recently by the army. The police crackdown on the protesters resulted in the injury of 53 people, according to the health ministry.
In a video message released on Friday evening, Hamdok announced the formation of an investigation committee on Thursday events.
He appointed the Attorney general at the head of the committee and ordered the committee to submit its final report within seven days maximum.
In his short speech, the prime minister said that the biggest challenge facing his government is restructuring the state machinery and its transformation to ensure the security and rights of the Sudanese.
He further strongly condemned the use of violence against civilians, stressing that such practice "is unacceptable in a government brought by the people".
Also, the head of the transitional government emphasized the importance of the role played by the youth in the defence of the revolution.
"They are guards of the revolution and its protectors," he said for the first time hinting on the need to keep the Sudanese street mobilized during the transitional period.
The Sudanese police released a statement on Friday saying they reacted to a small group of people who used the protest to commit "acts of vandalism".
The statement denied the use of live bullets and regretted the use of violence saying it was a "natural result for such frictions". In addition, it said over 60 coppers have been maimed and several of its vehicles have been damaged.
[AP-Twitter] Warning that China’s virus epidemic is “still grim and complex,” President Xi Jinping called Sunday for more efforts to stop the outbreak, revive industry and prevent the disease from disrupting spring planting of crops.
Xi defended the ruling Communist Party’s response as “timely and effective” in a video conference with officials in charge of anti-disease work, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Xi sounded a note of caution in the face of hopes abroad that the disease that has killed more than 2,400 people since December might be under control. He said the situation is at a “critical stage” and called on officials to “resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic.”
“The current epidemic situation is still grim and complex,” Xinhua cited Xi as saying. “Prevention and control are at the most critical stage.”
The ruling party is trying to strike a difficult balance between stopping the virus and reviving China’s vast manufacturing and other industries. Most of the world’s second-largest economy has been shut down since late January in the most sweeping anti-disease measures ever imposed and are only gradually reopening.
Forecasters say China might rebound quickly if the outbreak can be controlled by the end of March. But they say this quarter’s economic output will shrink by as much as 1% from the quarter ending in December after Beijing extended the Lunar New Year holiday to keep factories and offices closed and told the public to avoid traveling.
Concern is growing that the disease might be spreading in South Korea and other countries, instead of only affecting people who visited China and others who had close contact with them.
Xi said the epidemic is a health emergency with the “fastest spread” and “most difficult prevention and control” in China since the Communist Party came to power in 1949, according to Xinhua.
“For us, this is a crisis and a big test,” Xi was cited as saying.
The report made no mention of criticism from members of the public that officials delayed taking action against the disease and might be concealing details its impact, but Xi was cited as saying “all work arrangements are timely” and anti-disease measures are effective.
#14
About the Dow dropping, Market Watch has a round-up of company comments on the impact of thr coronavirus, including this:
• Procter & Gamble Co. PG, -2.04% expects the outbreak to materially impact earnings for the January to March quarter in China and for the overall company, given that China is the consumer goods giant’s second-largest market. The company has 387 suppliers in China that ship to it globally more than 9,000 materials, impacting about 17,600 different finished products.
The question is whether P&G and other manufacturers have pre-approved back-up suppliers in case of emergency, a prudent preparation, given that smaller but disruptive emergencies happen all the time — it was only a few years ago that P&G’s IAMS pet food line had to switch to a new supplier for one of their key ingredients when contaminated dog food started making pets sick.
[NYPOST] Rep. Alexandria Boom Boom Ocasio-Cortez Dem represntative from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details... wasn’t just supporting women in announcing a slate of seven House candidates who’ll get cash from her Courage to Change PAC: The key fact is that two of them are challenging incumbents.
Indeed, she and her allies are now targeting several longtime local politicians, on the theory that they’re every bit as much of a problem as Republicans.
"It’s time to elect a progressive majority in Congress accountable to strong, grassroots movements that push support for issues like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, racial justice, & more," she tweeted Friday.
"My ambition right now is to be a little less lonely in Congress," AOC told The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... But she may not last in Congress: Already in hot water for refusing to pay dues to her caucus’ fundraising arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she’s now devoting her resources instead to defeating Democrats.
Don’t be surprised when the established Democrats who’ll control redistricting after the 2020 Census do their best to eliminate her seat.
#5
There was a news story out about a month or two ago that stated New York will definitely lose one of their congressional seats after the 2020 Census is finished. The seat to be lost is likely one of NY-1 to NY-4 (Long Island, one seat is Republican) or less likely this lunatic's seat (NY-14). The only interesting question is how bad will AOC piss of the NY Dem establishment.
All of this will, unfortunately, will not happen in time for Nov. 3rd, 2020.
#3
@#2 Some truth to that, I believe. But not so random.
If you consider the coronavirus as a test in how the globalist media can coordinate and control the global narrative - it makes a bit more sense. Globalists and their pet media peddles fear.
What are some results that could result from this "emergency" and resulting narrative?
Let's see if:
1.) mandatory vaccinations starts trending.
2.) if there's a push for cashless transactions
3.) I'm especially curious if this was the first designer ethno based bioweapon - we'll see how the contagion spreads and the body count sums in the more western developed countries.
[The News (Pak)] Interior Minister Ijaz Shah Saturday said the government was making efforts to apprehend the former spokesperson of the Tehrik-e-Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Pakistain (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) who beat feet from the state's custody a few weeks ago.
The interior minister was speaking to media after a tree plantation ceremony at the District Commissioner's office. Talking about Ehsanullah Ehsan ...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, then the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency... 's escape from custody, he said that efforts were being made to arrest him.
Last week, Shah admitted for the first time that the ex-TTP spokesperson had escaped the state's custody after an audio message of the holy warrior stating the same started doing the rounds on social media.
[IsraelTimes] Vermont senator says pro-Israel confab allows ’leaders’ to speak who ’oppose basic Paleostinian rights’; AIPAC blasts statement, says he is ’insulting his very own colleagues’.
The Corbynization of the Democratic Party proceeds apace.
#3
Diversity for thee but not for me. The ADL, the organization which advocates for mass immigration changes tone when it comes to Israel.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/24/2020 8:55
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Those Icky Juice, Herb?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/24/2020 8:58
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Diversity for thee but not for me
Being a 'global citizen' you're obviously opposed to majoritarian democracy or the concept of sovereignty. Israel, while not a theocratic state, does not have separation of church and state. They seek to retain their principally jewish ethos. I fully support that, my own countrymen wish for a strong hindu ethos. Only global Leftists want amalgamated societies, and attack polities that protect their majority from dilution.
#3
I'd expect this in Croatia or Russia, not two bottom of the table clubs from Italy. The again, if your team sucks like Bari does, I'd probably riot as well.
[al-Emarah] Amid ongoing Al Fath operations Mujahideen carried out attacks on a hireling check post in Babaji area, PD4 of capital Lashkargah.
The post was overrun after killing 8 puppets and destroying a ranger pickup parked inside as well as seizing 1 RPG launcher, 2 mortar tubes, 2 rifles and other equipment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Sudan Tribune] Sudanese official sources revealed on Saturday that Ali Kushayb, one of five Sudanese indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), had fled to the Central African Republic after an agreement between the transitional government and the gangs to hand them over to the war crimes tribunal.
According to Darfur 24, Kushayb crossed the border to the CAR Africa, adding he and dozens of armed rustics travelled in two four-wheel vehicles, and cars loaded with fuel.
The official expressed fears that the runaway who is from al-Taisha tribe launch a new rebellion in Darfur.
An activist from Um Dafouk said that Kushayb had been during the past weeks in Badia area, northwest of the city, and used to come Um Dafouk market but he disappeared last week.
Um Dafouk is located on the border area between Sudan and the CAR in the state of South Darfur, at 370 km west of Nyala.
Kushayb is charged with war crimes against civilians in Darfur during 2003 and 2004. He is accused of ordering killings, rapes, and looting. An ICC arrest warrant was issued for him on April 27, 2007.
The ICC calls on the Sudanese transitional to hand over the deposed president Omer al-Bashir, his former interior state-minister Ahmed Haroun, his former defence minister Abdel Rahim Hussein and militia leaders Ali Kushayb and Abdallah Banda.
Sudanese government still has to launch the handover procedures to the ICC. Information minister Faisal Mohammed Saleh denied last Tuesday the arrival of an ICC delegation to discuss their handover.
[PUNCHNG] Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe on Thursday insisted he was not a "dictator", days before an election in which he is aiming to extend his family’s decades-long domination over the West African nation.
The incumbent looks set to claim a fourth term in power, as the country of 8 million goes to the polls on Saturday after the constitution was changed to allow Gnassingbe to run again.
Critics say the vote will not be fair as the opposition has faced a crackdown to snuff out a wave of protests.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... Gnassingbe told AFP in a joint interview with Le Monde newspaper that such accusations were "more due to reputation than reality".
"Sometimes these statements and opinions are exaggerated ‐ in any case, I don’t feel like a dictator," he said.
The president took over in 2005 after the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years after seizing power in a coup.
"I can’t change my name," the current leader said.
"I don’t think that my being his son should be a reason for exclusion."
Gnassingbe said he was "calm and confident" of securing a knockout victory in the first round of the polls.
The opposition has failed to stick together since rocking the country’s ruling clan with huge protests in 2017 and 2018.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
[The News (Pak)] Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... on Saturday said the Afghan peace treaty would be signed in the presence of Pakistain because it was quite impossible to deliver goods without Pakistain’s participation in the final agreement.
Talking to the media here, he said efforts for the success of Afghan grinding of the peace processor were a Herculean task. Pakistain, he said, was making efforts to constitute an extensive delegation after Feb 29 to promote intra-Afghan dialogue. "It was not an easy task and Pakistain's honest efforts made the process finally successful and result-oriented," he added. He said Pakistain made the world realise that Afghan peace was only possible through peace talks and not war. "Pakistain convinced the world to make efforts for a political solution to the Afghan problem through dialogue. It was hard to convince Taliban ...Arabic for students... for the grinding of the peace processor, but Pakistain made them join the process," he added.
Qureshi said Pakistain played a key role in resumption of the grinding of the peace processor, which had been suspended since US President Trump tweeted about suspension of Afghan grinding of the peace processor after killings in Afghanistan. Pakistain made positive efforts for early resumption of dialogue, he added.
The foreign minister said Pakistain played a key role in the release of two abductees and got dialogue resumed in Doha, which was not an easy task. He said signs were positive as both parties in Afghan grinding of the peace processor had declared settling of affairs and reaching an agreement.
[Al Jazeera] al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... (AQAP) has confirmed the death of its leader Qassim al-Rimi, according to a monitor, weeks after the United States said it had killed him in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors gang networks worldwide, said on Sunday that the announcement was made in an audio speech delivered by AQAP religious official Hamid bin Hamoud al-Tamimi.
In his speech, al-Tamimi also said that Khalid bin Umar Batarfi was AQAP's new leader, the monitor added.
Noted.
SITE said that Batarfi has appeared in many AQAP videos over the last several years and appeared to be al-Rimi's deputy and the group's front man.
US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... announced earlier this month that his country had killed al-Rimi in an operation inside Yemen.
"Under Rimi, AQAP committed unconscionable violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to conduct and inspire numerous attacks against the United States and our forces," Trump said at the time.
"His death further degrades AQAP and the global al-Qaeda movement, and it brings us closer to eliminating the threats these groups pose to our national security."
[IsraelTimes] London says it’ll look at tens of millions given to UN refugee agency; one physics book discusses use of slingshots against IDF soldiers, others praise terrorists.
Textbooks were found to praise Paleostinian "deaders," including Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre during which Paleostinian gunnies hijacked a bus and murdered 38 Israelis.
The materials revealed by the Daily Mail and their translations were provided to the paper by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se).
The UK has given some $427 million in aid to UNRWA over the past five years with another $84 million pledged for the coming year. Roughly 62 percent of that funding goes to schools in the Paleostinian territories, which could be using such textbooks.
Responding to the Daily Mail report, UNRWA said in a statement that it "cannot alter host government curriculum as this is a matter of national illusory sovereignty, but it does have robust systems in place to ensure education delivered in its schools reflects UN values."
Last May, the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union announced that it would conduct an examination of new Paleostinian school textbooks following a study that found them to be more radical than in the past and containing incitement and rejection of peace with Israel.
The development came after the European Parliament in April 2018 passed legislation geared to prevent hateful content in Paleostinian textbooks. In October of that year the parliament’s budgetary committee recommended freezing more than $17 million in aid to the Paleostinian Authority over incitement against Israel in its textbooks.
The EU hands the PA 360 million euros ($404 million) per year, with most earmarked for its education ministry. In addition, the European body donates $178 million to UNRWA, much of which goes to its schools that teach the PA curriculum.
[PULSE.NG] The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it has neutralised some key leaders of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of West Africa Province (ISWAP) at Jubillaram and Alinwa in the Northern part of Borno, as they assembled for meetings.
Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, made the disclosure in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.
Daramola said the ISWAP leaders were neutralised in operations conducted on Thursday.
He said the air strikes were carried out by the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation Lafiya Dole, under the auspices of Operation Rattle Snake III.
"The mission was executed on the heels of credible intelligence reports indicating that some key ISWAP leaders had assembled for meetings, which were being held simultaneously at two separate venues, at Jubillaram and Alinwa in Marte Local Government Area.
"Accordingly, the ATF scrambled its attack aircraft to engage both locations, damaging the meeting venues and neutralising the terrorists,’’ Daramola said.
He said the NAF, operating in concert with surface forces, would sustain its air campaign to shape the battlespace in the North East for the effective conduct of further ground and air operations.
Operation Rattle Snake III which commenced on Feb. 4, was aimed at targeting selected locations within the North East in order to shape the battlespace for more effective onslaught against the holy warriors.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Last year’s event in Aalst featured a float depicting Jewish stereotypes standing over bags of money, leading UNESCO to drop festival as heritage event.
Organizers of a Belgian carnival on Friday rejected calls by Israel to scrap this weekend’s annual parade after last year’s featured a float with anti-Semitic caricatures.
The carnival in the industrial city of Aalst has its roots in the Middle Ages and often features satirical floats that take shots at local politicians and the wealthy.
Last year’s festivities featured one float depicting Jews with exaggerated features and side locks standing over bags of money. The caricatures recalled anti-Semitic tropes of the Middle Ages and Nazi Germany.
Christoph D’Haese, the mayor of Aalst, said that "raising awareness is one thing; forbidding and censorship is something else."
"A magnifying glass is now looking at a very beautiful folk festival that has been able to take place 91 times without any significant problems," he told a Phlegmish radio station, according to the Guardian. "If we can avoid sensitive issues, or visualize a theme without causing hurt, I call for that. We need to be aware of the fact that a large community may feel hurt and have respect for it. But Aalst will always remain the odd one out."
Belgium’s prime minister, Sophie Wilmes, described the parade as an "internal affair" after Israel on Thursday called for the parade to be cancelled.
However, you can observe a lot just by watching... Israel’s Ambassador to Belgium, Emmanuel Nahshon, later said that Jerusalem was not calling for the parade to be cancelled but for anti-Semitic caricatures to be banned.
"What we are asking for is absolutely not the prohibition of the carnival as such," Nahshon told the Guardian. "What we are asking for is the prohibition of all these anti-Semitic cartoons, which go beyond good taste, which have nothing to do with a sense of humor and which do not honor an exemplary democracy such as Belgium."
The carnival had been listed as a UNESCO heritage event until last year, but Aalst renounced the distinction days before the UN cultural agency scrapped it over the anti-Semitic incident.
In October, parade organizers published 150 caricatures mocking Jews ahead of this weekend’s event.
One caricature showed a red-headed Orthodox Jew with golden teeth and is captioned: "UNESCO, what a joke."
Aalst is one of Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... ’s most famous carnivals where politicians, religious leaders and the rich and famous are relentlessly ridiculed during the three-day festival ahead of Roman Catholic Lent.
UNESCO, Jewish groups and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... condemned last year’s float as anti-Semitic, with the EU saying it conjured up visions of the 1930s.
#1
You can learn a lot by observing people's Ids: how they make jokes, what upsets them as per their Twitter raves/rants, and what tfey find both upsetting AND jokeworthy as per their Belgian Aalst floats...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Pope Francis ...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess... has cautioned against "unfair" solutions aimed at ending the conflict between Israelis and Paleostinians.
In a speech Sunday during a visit to the Italian southern port city of Bari to reflect on peace in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Francis lamented the many areas of war and conflict, including in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Francis spoke of "the still unresolved conflict between Israelis and Paleostinians, with the danger of not fair solutions, and, thus, presaging new crises."
The pope didn’t cite any specific proposals.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Every Pope I've seen in my 70 years around has been worthy of some measure of respect.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Iranian President Hasan Rouhani likened US sanctions to coronavirus on Sunday, saying sanctions by Washington make panic more than reality.
Speaking with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg, Rouhani said the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union "is expected to stand up to US’ illegal actions."
He described Tehran-Vienna relations as very good and friendly.
"The two countries have good potentials, especially in economic fields, for cooperation and we hope that Austria disregards the Americans’ illegal pressures in developing its cooperation with Iran."
"We believe that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) can still be saved," Rouhani said, as quoted by Mehr news agency.
He stressed, meanwhile, that the nuclear deal does not just belong to Iran, Europe or the P5+1, but it can contribute to regional and global peace and security.
The Iranian president said that the nuclear deal could have been a good basis for building new trust between us and the West, including the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the United States, emphasizing that the Islamic Theocratic Republic has been committed to the deal for its own part.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Just a panic? Okay, let's see how the virus does in Iran. China cut it off at about 80,000 cases with very tight population movement control and other measures. Are the mullahs going to work at home now and broadcast their sermons on the Internet? Nah, I didn't think so .. let's fill up those mosques!
[al-Emarah] At noon hours today an invader tank has been shred into pieces following a power full landmine blast in Alizo area of Daman district, killing and wounding all minions abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
A day that started with another (2nd in 4 days) failed Islamic Jihad attack against Israel, with dozens of rockets fired at Israel from Gaza, ended with an IDF strike on key Islamic Jihad targets in Damascus. Whatever the night brings, we are ready.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... Paleostinian Resistance® movement announced on Sunday that one of its fighters was martyred in an Israeli ’savage crime’ at the border between 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... and the occupied territories, east of Khan Younes.
"One of OUR Mujahedeen (fighters) Mohammad Ali Hasan An-Naem, 27, was martyred on Sunday morning in a savage Zionist crime," al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s military wing, said in a brief statement carried by Paleostine Today news agency.
Israeli occupation forces on Sunday morning rubbed out a Paleostinian and injured four others near the Gaza border, before brutally extracting the martyr’s body with a bulldozer.
In a widely shared distressing video, an Israeli armored bulldozer was filmed repeatedly crushing the body of the slain Paleostinian with its blade, then grabbing the corpse with the blade and swinging the body back and forth in the air.
The IDF began attacking terror targets in the Gaza Strip in response to over 21 rockets were fired towards southern Israel communities on Sunday in several rocket barrages after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) threatened to avenge the death of a terrorist by the IDF after he tried to plant explosives along the Gaza border fence.
The IDF said as of 11 p.m. that of 21 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, 13 were successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
A video from the scene uploaded to social media on Sunday showed a crowd of Palestinian youth throwing stones towards an Israeli bulldozer sent to retrieve the body of the dead terrorist. He was identified as Muhammed Ali al-Na’im, 27, a commander of PIJ’s military wing, al-Quds Brigade, in the Khan Yunis area.
The graphic footage showed the bulldozer driving at high speed toward a group of Palestinian youth to prevent them from grabbing the body. Several people were seen carrying one individual, but the bulldozer was seen lifting the body of the deceased suspect from the ground before it returned to Israel along with an IDF Merkava tank which had been guarding it.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza was quoted by the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency as saying that another two men were injured by IDF gunfire while trying to retrieve the body and the wounded individual.
According to the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit, two Palestinians were identified approaching the fence and placing an improvised explosive device on it near the southern city of Khan Yunis. They were fired upon by troops from the IDF’s Kfir Brigade “who were deployed to the location following the detection” of the suspects.
The Israeli military said the cell affiliated with the PIJ terrorist group which had placed the explosive device near the border fence on Sunday morning was responsible for two other similar incidents in recent months near the fence.
Defense Minister Bennett called the uproar over retrieval of the terrorist’s body by the IDF bulldozer “hypocritical criticism of the left,” and supported the IDF’s collection of the corpse.
“I am sick and tired of the hypocritical criticism of the Left against the ‘inhumanity’ of using a bulldozer to retrieve the body of a terrorist who tried to murder Israelis. Gentlemen, you are not human. Hamas holds the bodies of Hadar and Oron,” he said, referring to the bodies of two fallen IDF soldiers in the hands of Hamas since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
Last week, Bennett said that Israel would begin to “hoard” the bodies of Palestinian terrorists, to use as “bargaining chips” to pressure Hamas to release two Israeli citizens and the bodies of the two fallen IDF soldiers held by the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s Al-Qassam brigades reported that the IAF targeted multiple targets belonging to terrorist groups in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday night. The IDF confirmed that it had struck a PIJ terror cell preparing to launch rockets from the northern part of the Strip. Palestinians reported that there were at least three injured in the strike.
PIJ: "Al-Quds Brigades claims responsibility for the bombing of the Zionist settlements this evening, which comes in response to the assassination of the martyr Mujahid Muhammad al-Na'im and the abuse of his body, and we will respond to any aggression if you return."
Following the launch of 20 rockets from Gaza, the Prime Minister will enter a security assessment at the Kirya at 19:30, attended by Defense Minister Bennett, Chief of Staff of the IDF Aviv Kochavi and other senior officials https://t.co/Uto1GJe3J3
[The News (Pak)] Pakistain sealed the Taftan border and stopped movement of people to and from the country on Sunday in light of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... which led to the deaths of eight people in the country over the past few days. Tehran said on Friday that as many as 43 people were being treated for the virus in different cities of the country. The Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... government on Friday imposed emergency in all areas of the province bordering Iran.
Spokesperson of the Government of Balochistan Liaquat Shahwani said that it had been decided to keep the pilgrims in Iran for the time being. He said that the provincial government had decided that Paks from Balochistan will not be allowed to travel to Iran.
"The government is alert about the coronavirus. We are speaking to the Irani government about our pilgrims in Iran," he said. Shahwani said that pilgrims from Iran will be allowed to enter Pakistain after a thorough screening process. He said that 89 pilgrims in Taftan's Pakistain House were being brought to Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Times of Israel] 8 environmental activists locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! , including one who reportedly also has British and American citizenship.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... sentenced eight environmental activists, including an Iranian who reportedly also has British and American citizenship, to prison sentences ranging from four to 10 years on charges of spying for the United States and acting against Iran’s national security, the judiciary said Tuesday.
According to the judiciary front man, Gholamhossein Esmaili, an appeals court issued the final verdicts.
Two of the activists, Morad Tahbaz and Niloufar Bayani, got 10 years each and were ordered to return the money they allegedly received from the US government for their services.
Tahbaz is an Iranian who also holds US and British citizenship.
Iran does not recognize dual or multiple nationalities, meaning Iranians it detains cannot receive consular assistance from their other countries. In most cases, dual nationals have faced secret charges in closed-door hearings before Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which handles cases involving alleged attempts to overthrow the government.
Esmaili, the judiciary front man, said two other activists, Houman Jokar and Taher Ghadirian, each got eight-year sentences for allegedly "collaborating with the hostile government of America."
Another three of the activists, Sam Rajabi, Sepideh Kashan Doust and Amirhossein Khaleghi Hamidi, were sentenced to six years in prison each. The eighth activist, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, got four years. All the activists were arrested in early 2018.
A ninth activist who was arrested at the time, Kavous Seyed Emami, an Iranian-Canadian naional, died while in jug under disputed circumstances in February 2018. His widow then was blocked from flying out of Iran, but later made it out.
[Geller Report] This week The Daily Mail reported that a Somali community leader in Minnesota confirmed that Ilhan Omar married her own brother to defraud US immigration.
In response to this Ilhan Omar retweeted an anti-Semitic screed at her critics.
The article blames "Pro-Israel Zionists" and Jewish reporter David Steinberg for the reporting on Ilhan’s marriage to her brother.
When you have the law on your side, pound the law. When you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. And when you have neither law nor facts, pound the table. The poor dear is reduced to pounding the table. It will be very interesting, when the authorities look closely at her situation, to see how many other instances of visa fraud her family indulged in — I’ve seen it claimed that several of her immediate family are not actually immediate, and some may not be family.
[AlAhram] Forces loyal to Libya National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... said on Sunday they had killed 16 Ottoman Turkish soldiers in recent weeks, a day after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... acknowledged it had lost several "deaders" in combat in the north African country.
Khalid al-Mahjoub, a front man for Haftar's LNA, said the Turks were killed in the port city of Misrata, in battles in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and in the town of al-Falah south of the capital.
Turkey backs Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and has sent Syrian soldiers along with some of its own soldiers and weapons to help the Tripoli-based administration repel an attempt by the LNA to capture the city.
Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday acknowledged some Ottoman Turkish losses in Libya's "struggle".
"We are there (in Libya) with our (Ottoman Turkish) soldiers and our teams from the Syrian National Army. We continue the struggle there. We have several deaders. In return, however, we neutralized nearly a hundred (of Haftar's) legionaries," Erdogan said.
So that’s ten, then.
The Syrian National Army, also known as Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , is a Turkey-backed Syrian rebel group fighting against pro-Damascus forces in northern Syria, where 16 Ottoman Turkish soldiers have been killed so far this month.
Ceasefire talks between Libya's warring sides resumed on Thursday after the GNA had pulled out of negotiations following the shelling of Tripoli's port by Haftar's forces.
A waste of time, but necessary to keep certain parties from fussing.
Iraqi security forces kill one person and wound seven as they opened fire on protesters in Baghdad, according to security and medical sources.https://t.co/UilRa3sWYd
[XINHUANET] Chinese health authority Sunday said it received reports of 648 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 97 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Among the deaths, 96 were in Hubei Province and one in Guangdong Province, according to the National Health Commission.
[APS.DZ] Several thousands of persons on Sunday demonstrated in the streets of Casablanca (west of Morocco) to denounce social inequalities and the high cost of living.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[The News (Pak)] Local police said Friday they had arrested a man for allegedly killing his wife and her friend here in the city's Basti Malook area over the so-called "honour".
The suspect ‐ who killed his wife after seeing her sitting with her friend ‐ was identified, police confirmed on Friday. He handed himself over to the authorities after the honour-killing last night.
The bodies were shifted to Nishtar Hospital for post-mortem, police mentioned.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[22 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Did he shoot his wife dead or shoot his dead wife? Murder or corpse abuse?
[ToloNews] On Sunday, the second day of the reduction in violence pact in Afghanistan, two attacks on Afghan forces were instigated by the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , say local officials, who say both happened in the southern province of Kandahar. And at least four other incidents in various provinces were reported to TOLOnews and confirmation is pending.
The week-long reduction in violence started on Saturday, Feb. 22.
Continued on Page 49
Several Turkish troops are wounded in Syria’s Idlib province after pro-Damascus forces targeted a Turkish military convoy with heavy artillery, the Syrian Observatory monitoring group reports.https://t.co/WFYwqrrrKn
The outpost in Bambara Maoude, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the city of Timbuktu “was the object at about 0500 GMT of a terrorist attack,” the military said on Twitter.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[The News (Pak)] The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Friday rubbed out five bandidossnuffies during a search operation in the city's Shagai area after both sides exchanged fire.
The CTD said a security operation was conducted in the area following a tip-off about the turbans' whereabouts.
Explosive material and weapons ‐ including three boom jackets, two pistols, two hand grenades, and three SMGs were recovered ‐ were recovered from turbans. The bandidossnuffies had arrived in the area from the Millagori district.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Inspector-General Sanaullah Abbasi said police would continue to conduct operations against the bad boys.
[AlAhram] Syria's Kurds on Sunday renewed their appeal for international aid to put on trial thousands of captured members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, including Western nationals.
Almost a year since the March 2019 fall of the last IS bastion in Syria, the victorious US-backed and Kurdish-led forces still hold about 12,000 suspected IS members in the country's northeast.
Most of them are Syrian or Iraqi nationals but their ranks include between 2,500 and 3,000 nationals from around 50 other countries.
In the face of Western hesitation to repatriate their own nationals, the Kurds have resigned themselves to having to put those detained on trial in Syria.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish authorities "need international cooperation", Fener al-Kait, a foreign affairs official, said in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli.
"We need a lot, at the judicial and technical levels," he told AFP, adding that several countries were expected to come forward with assistance "in a month of two", without identifying them.
Kait on Sunday met with a parliamentary delegation from Belgium, 15 of whose nationals are held by the Kurds, while more than 60 Belgian women and kiddies remain in camps for suspected IS family members.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[PUNCHNG] Senator representing Plateau North in the National Assembly, Istifanus Gyang has condemned the bill seeking to create an agency for repentant Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... terrorists, describing it as an insult to Nigerians.
The bill for the creation of National Agency for Education, Rehabilitation, De-radicalisation and Integration of repentant faceless myrmidons in Nigeria which was sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, a former Governor of Yobe State representing Yobe East Senatorial passed first reading in the Senate last week
Senator Gyang who dissociated himself from the bill, in a statement in Jos on Sunday said the Bill is not only uncalled for but assaults the sensibility of Nigerians in view of the fact that most of the victims and communities affected by insurgency, banditry and violent attacks are still languishing from neglect and lack of the much-needed government attention and intervention despite repeated calls.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[RADIOSHABELLE] In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command conducted an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... targeting an al-Shabaab ...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... compound in the vicinity of Saakow, Somalia, Feb. 22.
"Al-Shabaab kills regularly and indiscriminately," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Miguel Castellanos, U.S. Africa Command deputy director of operations. "This al-Qaeda affiliate exploits innocent Somalis, displaces families, and imposes illegal taxes through force and violence. They want to export their vision of destruction more widely. It is our collective international efforts and persistent pressure that prevents this from occurring."
The US raid killed two bad boys, another was maimed, and an al-Shabaab compound was reduced as a result of this precision airstrike.
"We currently assess no civilians were maimed or killed as a result of this airstrike," said AFRICOM in a statement released on Sunday.
Somalia remains key to the security environment of East Africa, and its long-term stability is important to advancing U.S. interests in the region.
In addition, in Khan Yunis the headquarters of the Khan Yunis Brigade of the PIJ terrorist group was struck, which included a compound for training anti-tank missiles squads and military equipment used by the terrorist organization's naval force. (7/10)
#BREAKING: Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket launch squad wiped out by Israeli airstrike during ongoing strikes on militant bases in Gaza, casualties reported
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi Al-Mashat unveiled four new missile systems in the capital Sanaa on Sunday.
Mashat vowed that the local-made missile systems “will change the course of the battle” with the Saudi-led Coalition which has been since March 2015 launching a brutal aggression against the Arab impoverished country.
He said that “Thaqeb-1”, “Thaqeb-2”, “Thaqeb-3” and “Fater-1” were entirely manufactured by Yemeni experts.
He said that “Thaqeb-1”, “Thaqeb-2”, “Thaqeb-3” and “Fater-1” were entirely manufactured by Yemeni experts.
“The new missile systems will change the course of the battle with aggression powers, and will be followed by more advanced systems that will be capable to repel hostile Ariel attacks,” Mashat said during a ceremony to unveil the new missile systems, as quoted by Yemen’s Al-Massirah TV.
He praised the efforts of the Yemeni Armed Forces to develop and modernize the military-industrial system in line with the requirements of the battlefield.
Yemen has been under bloody aggression by Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 in a bid to restore power to fugitive president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is Riyadh’s ally.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
#1
Rebadged Russian missiles (who do they think they are, General Motors?).
Thaqeb-1: Based on the R-73 (AA-11 Archer)
Thaqeb-2: Based on the R-27 (AA-10 Alamo)
Thaqeb-3: Based on the R-77 (AA-12 Adder)
Fater-1: Based on the 3M9 missile of the Kub (SA-6) SAM system
[PULSE.NG] The 23 Armoured Brigade of the Nigerian Army has confirmed that one of its men died while another got injured when they were fighting Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Death Eaters who attacked Garkida in the evening of Friday, February 21, 2020.
The army announced this in a blurb on Sunday, February 23, 2020, with pictures of some properties the Death Eaters destroyed in Garkida.
In the statement, the 23 Armoured Brigade which has its headquarters in Yola said, the destruction would have been worse but for the timely intervention of its troops, who interrupted the Death Eaters and killed some of them.
The statement signed by Major Haruna Mohammed Sani, Assistant Director of Army Public Relations, the 23 Armoured Brigade added that a soldier died during the shootout with the krazed killers.
After 6hrs raid, Boko Haram threatens fresh attack on Adamawa communityhttps://t.co/KFdCxgTCuq
[SABA.YE] The US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition’s fighter jets waged on Sunday evening six air raids on areas in Jawf province and on Nehim district of Sanaa province, a security official told Saba.
The official explaiend that two airstrikes hit al-Ghail district and another, while another one targeted al-Moton district in Jawf.
The Aggression warplanes also launched three airstrikes on Nehim district, in the east of Sanaa province, he added.
The Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority strongly condemned the airstrikes launched Sunday evening by Saudi-led aggression coalition aircraft on Taiz International Airport, which led to the destruction of the airport’s facilities.
The aggression coalition warplanes waged two airstrikes on Taiz airport; the first one hit the airport’s terminal while another targeted the aircraftanchorage, causing severe damage, according to a joint statement issued by the ministry and the aviation authority.
The statement indicated that the aggression coalition aircraft had targeted Taiz airport with a series of raids, destroying 60 per cent of its facilities, while Sunday’s raids resulted in the total destruction of its facilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/24/2020
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
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.
[Sultan Knish] The latest battle over Special Immigrant Visas pitted Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior advisor, against the Pentagon. The military brass was lobbying for 6,000 special immigrant visas for Iraqis who worked for American forces in the country. These visas were once again billed as helping "interpreters".
[Mil.com] Hershel "Woody" Williams did not even know something called the "Medal of Honor" existed when the Quiet Dell, West Virginia, native learned he would receive the nation's highest and most prestigious personal military decoration.
Some lemurs were included in the security detail at the last minute. You have to understand. The monkeys are a real menace at the Taj Mahal. They run at the sight of a few lemurs though. 
[American Thinker] Ali Watkins, it seems, wasn't the only one.
[Libertynation.com] Peri begins by pointing out that the Democrats are currently in a heated contest to determine which one of them is the most electable. It doesn’t take long, however, for her to identify the real challenge any nominee will face: "He or she will need to run against a president seemingly prepared, and empowered, to lie and cheat his way to reelection."
[American Thinker] In 2018, California implemented the California Values Act, which gave special protection to illegal aliens by mandating that California law enforcement agencies cannot cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") thumbed its nose at California and arrested two people in Sonoma County Superior Court. 
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Monday evening landed at the Agra airport ahead of their much-anticipated visit to the iconic Taj Mahal(Agra,UP). Addressing a crowd at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) earlier, Trump said the US will "always be a faithful and loyal friend to the Indian people" as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a rousing welcome in Gujarat, which included a 22-km roadshow and a jam-packed cricket stadium. Addressing the crowd, Trump said: "Five months ago, the United States welcomed your great Prime Minister at a giant football stadium in Texas and today, India welcomes us at the world's largest cricket stadium right here in Ahmedabad." 
Trump, who is also accompanied by daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and top brass of his administration, will get a taste of India's cultural potpourri during his Gujarat itinerary which is high on symbolism, especially after the bonhomie between the two leaders at the 'Howdy, Modi!' event in Houston during the Indian prime minister's visit to the US in September 2019. 
[Washington Examiner] The federal judge presiding over Roger Stone's case turned down the Trump associate's attempt to disqualify her.
[Aljazeera] A Palestinian has been killed by Israeli forces and two others were wounded as they tried to retrieve his body in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to local media reports.
[MSN] Richard Grenell’s tenure as the nation’s top intelligence official may be short-lived, but he wasted no time this week starting to shape his team of advisers, ousting his office’s No. 2 official ‐ a longtime intelligence officer ‐ and bringing in an expert on Trump conspiracy theories to help lead the agency, according to officials.
[GatestoneInstitute] French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new measures aimed at countering political Islam in 
[The Hill] The judge that signed off on a $2.5 million settlement deal between the University of North Carolina and Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is effectively voiding the agreement. 
[PJ] The top official in the intelligence community charged with election security overstated and left out facts during a congressional briefing earlier this month.
...Cable TV actor whose primary talents seemed to be being black and being homosexual. In a bid for national attention, he paid a pair of Nigerian brothers to rough him up a little so he could claim that two large, white, MAGA hat-wearing men had shouted 
[Sudan Tribune] The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on Friday formed an investigation committee to probe the use of violence against peaceful protesters on Thursday.
Warning that China’s virus epidemic is “still grim and complex,” President Xi Jinping called Sunday for more efforts to stop the outbreak, revive industry and prevent the disease from disrupting spring planting of crops.
Dem represntative from da Bronx in Noo Yawk and leader of the Mean Girl Caucus in Congress. One of the Great Minds of the 21st Century, she is known as much for her innaleck as for her dance moves. She is all in favor of socialism, even though she's fuzzy on the details...
...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, then the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency...
[Al Jazeera] The magnitude 5.7 earthquake kills nine people and leaves 37 others wounded, according to Turkey's health minister.
[Sudan Tribune] Sudanese official sources revealed on Saturday that Ali Kushayb, one of five Sudanese indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), had fled to the Central African Republic after an agreement between the transitional government and the 
[PUNCHNG] Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe on Thursday insisted he was not a "dictator", days before an election in which he is aiming to extend his family’s decades-long domination over the West African nation. 
...Arabic for 
[Al Jazeera] al-
[IsraelTimes] London says it’ll look at tens of millions given to UN refugee agency; one physics book discusses use of slingshots against IDF soldiers, others praise terrorists.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
[IsraelTimes] Last year’s event in Aalst featured a float depicting Jewish stereotypes standing over bags of money, leading UNESCO to drop festival as heritage event.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[al-Emarah] At noon hours today an invader tank has been shred into pieces following a power full landmine blast in Alizo area of Daman district, killing and wounding all minions abroad.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
[Al Jazeera] Lowest parliamentary vote turnout since 1979 revolution reflects disillusionment among reformist backers, analysts say.
[XINHUANET] Chinese health authority Sunday said it received reports of 648 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 97 deaths on Saturday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
[APS.DZ] Several thousands of persons on Sunday demonstrated in the streets of Casablanca (west of Morocco) to denounce social inequalities and the high cost of living.
[The News (Pak)] Local police said Friday they had arrested a man for allegedly killing his wife and her friend here in the city's Basti Malook area over the so-called "honour".
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...
[SABA.YE] The US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition’s fighter jets waged on Sunday evening six air raids on areas in Jawf province and on Nehim district of Sanaa province, a security official told Saba.
