Ground reports from Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh say that Chinese troops continue where they were, digging trenches and preparing bunkers above Pangong Lake and 3 points in the Galwan valley. No sign of pullout from Indian territory, despite Beijing’s statement y’day!
It's Kurt VPN via Instapundit
It’s pretty clear who the commie bastards known for their shoddy lab practices and their weird fetish for gnawing on pangolins badly want to win in November, and is not Trump and the Republicans. The Chinese communists want their money’s worth, and they will go all-in for the Democrats who find the chance to hurt Trump at the same time they hurt America too delicious to pass up. Plus, the Dems heartily approve of what Mao’s Pals are doing to freedom-loving Hong Kongers, seeing it as a template for what they would love to do to freedom-loving us.
We need to understand and accept that a vote for anyone with a "D" is a vote for Xi.
Learn to code, bitchezzzz! [NY Post] - ViacomCBS is slashing an additional 400 jobs as the broadcasting giant continues to search for cost savings from last year’s merger of CBS and Viacom even as it struggles to shore up losses from the coronavirus pandemic. 'I don't care if my parent company's strugggggling...!"
The layoffs, which kicked off this week, primarily took place at CBS’ entertainment, news, studio, sports and local news divisions, according to sources. I.e., everywhere.
A rep from CBS did not comment. "I know nuuuuuthing!"
ViacomCBS has undergone several rounds of layoffs since the merger closed in December. Those cuts primarily hit administrative and back-office divisions in an effort to eliminate duplication. This week’s cuts are the first layoffs on the broadcast side, although a number of executives have departed since the merger. Further speculation abounds that the high-priced talent (as it were) didn't take pay cuts themselves, so more staffers got shitcanned as a result, which means every one of them will likely hate Katie Couric crowd for the rest of their lives. I don't know about you but I'm having trouble holding back the tears here....
#2
Correct - HR is where large corporations put their useless people. I said that to one of them at my last software job, then I quit a few weeks later. I might try to find the reprimand letter from Laurie Donahue (I never forget an asshole). I said goodbye to her with a shit eating grin as I walked out the front door.
#8
Saw a tweet somewhere earlier, Cami McCormick, who was injured by an IED while working for CBS in Afghanistan in 2009 was let go, but some lames who are good at pushing the Orange Man Bad line have been kept on.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2020 18:16
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#4
Ya know, I'm not that concerned with rats who undergo surgery and later become alcoholics.
As for people -- people susceptible to addiction to depressants may "discover" their like for them through anesthetics. Though, honestly, I suspect the susceptible would have discovered that anyway.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/28/2020 14:25
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#1
Some 1,800 new employees are being trained up to replace hundreds of older tradesmen who retired over the past several years after being hired during the last shipbuilding binge in the 1980s. Training the new group has taken time, and slowed some projects down. “Those people are leaving in groups, requiring us to replace them in big groups,” Lesko said.
Now WHO could have predicted that predictable event?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 11:20
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#2
Betcha, their MBA told them not to bother before there's an absolute need.
#3
/\ The same MBAs that list Preventative Maintenance as a 'Profit Loss' and suggest that machines should be run until they totally break down... those people.
#6
Sneering liberals who look down their noses at the trades are just now realizing thair freedom rides on "those people".
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/28/2020 16:44
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#7
I don't know whether to laugh, groan, or scream. This is the definition of stupidity (not training the new employees, but refusing to train them ahead of time).
#9
/\ Want to bet one Management guy said to the other while playing golf: "My Silicon Valley buddy says that we're okay ... just hire some H-1B's and no problems!"
[FoxNews] A Florida woman who was fatally shot Tuesday during a confrontation with sheriff’s deputies was a U.S. Army veteran who had been struggling with personal issues, according to reports.
Tracy Drowne, 42, had pointed a handgun at the deputies when they responded to her home near Avalon Park about a battery call, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
“There were issues that she was dealing with,” Drowne’s ex-husband, Salvador Perez, who lives in California along with their two daughters, told the newspaper. "She thought everyone was out to get her and she didn't trust anybody."
Drowne died in a hospital a short time after the 4:30 p.m. incident.
#1
“There were issues that she was dealing with,” Drowne’s ex-husband, Salvador Perez, who lives in California along with their two daughters, told the newspaper. "She thought everyone was out to get her and she didn't trust anybody."
#6
Actually, given how much vitamin D deficiency plays into this, if I were Black I’d be furious that vouchers for free D-3 pills weren’t being passed out by do-gooders on street corners in Black neighbourhoods.
#8
Does this control for statistically proven higher rates of obesity, hypertension, cardiac disease, and type 2 diabetes amongst Louisianae blacks? If not, then the headline is fearmongering.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/28/2020 21:35
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#1
that despite the president’s claims about mail-in voting, “fact checkers” say there is “no evidence” that mail-in voting would increase fraud risks and that “experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.
That is progressive 'fact-checking'. No evidence because the Dems never allow it to be investigated and 'very rarely linked' seems to contradict the previous statement of 'fact', which, again, can never be proven if never investigated.
Check on, dudes!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/28/2020 15:06
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#2
This is Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, which has its own censorship team?
#3
Funny that twitter decided to call the president out on something so transparently true. Perhaps tey shouldn't have liberal zealots in charge of censorship.
#1
Overton Window moved in preparation. If Twitter/Facebook/Google stop playing stupid censorship games, no executive order will need to be issued. The ball is in their court.
#4
Rantburg is a private platform, too. You want a Biden administration to regulate it? Forcing Fred to keep troll comments online (free speech, you know) or adorn articles with his fantastic bylines?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/28/2020 18:14
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#5
Platforms don't censor opinions, and neither do we, EC, but active threats to murder Citizens is not censoring viewpoints, it's a solicitation to a Federal crime
There are plenty of opinions I've found objectionable, as others may have found mine at times. It remains as should theirs. I DO ridicule, frequently, and as MY opinion
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 18:32
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#6
Yes you do and you should. That is the point.
If Twitter wants to "fact check" Trump (or anybody else) that's their right. It's THEIR platform.
And if Twitter wants to kick Trump off (or anybody else), that's their right, too.
You don't have 1A rights on a private platform.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/28/2020 18:52
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#7
BUT - that's the American legal difference between a Publisher (Liable) and Platform (Not)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 19:00
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#8
First, let's kill all the lawyers :-)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/28/2020 19:11
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#9
As much as we hate the bovine egesta from the likes of Twitter, Farcebook, etc., I don't think Trump's gonna win this battle.
Perhaps all this will spur some enterprising person to come up with his/her own platform/company. I understand there are some out there (Gab, Patreon), but I don't know much about them.
#10
So Rantburg is a publisher (liable) and Twitter or Facebook are platforms (not liable)?
If Trump wants to change that, Twitter and Facebook would become liable for what is posted. This means they would actually be forced to censor what people post.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/28/2020 19:14
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#12
I frequently find fact checks to be somewhat ... slanted. Or they pick out a couple of words, ridicule them, and determine the rest of the piece is non-factual.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/28/2020 19:18
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#13
So, who "fact-checks" the MSM? When The New York Times has to cough up an insincere apology for fake news (2-3 years ago), then what can one say?
You don't hear many retractions from these MSM pukes, either.
#15
Of course fact checks can be (and often are) biased or simply sloppily researched. But that's not a reason for the government to step on the 1-A rights of the platform company/person.
I have been (needlessly) lectured on that fact about the 1-A (well known by me).
The 1-A is about YOUR rights the GOVERNMENT must not violate. It only regulates what the government can (or rather can't) do.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/28/2020 19:26
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#16
Rantburg is a private platform, too. You want a Biden administration to regulate it? Forcing Fred to keep troll comments online (free speech, you know) or adorn articles with his fantastic bylines?
Rantburg is not a dominant market player. Big players have to play by rules that others don't. MSFT was targeted for antitrust enforcement, but not AAPL or Commodore or Atari. There's a reason for that.
#17
As much as we hate the bovine egesta from the likes of Twitter, Farcebook, etc., I don't think Trump's gonna win this battle.
Perhaps all this will spur some enterprising person to come up with his/her own platform/company. I understand there are some out there (Gab, Patreon), but I don't know much about them.
The big social media players aren't escaping regulation any more than Verizon, Comcast and AT&T can escape regulation.
#18
Nothing will come out of this. Grandstanding, nothing else.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/28/2020 21:14
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#19
Nothing will come out of this. Grandstanding, nothing else.
I'm inclined to agree. Until an enforcement action ensues, it's a little premature to celebrate. When Twitter gets hit with a $1b fine or Jack Doherty is forced out, then I'll be impressed.
Long before, long today. If Trump were able to get the social media giants to not censor anything outside of incitement to riot or facilitate felonies, TWTR's revenues and profits would go up. I'm tired of far left CEO's using these companies as their piggy bank to subsidize Democratic candidates at shareholder expense. If they're political organizations, none of their expenses should be tax deductible. Let them pay taxes on revenues taken in.
[FoxNews] The White House plans to cancel visas for thousands of Chinese graduate students affiliated with Chinese universities tied to the People’s Liberation Army, according to a report.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the plan with President Trump during a meeting Tuesday, The New York Times reported, citing officials with knowledge of the discussions.
The plan to cancel visas comes as the Trump administration is seeking to punish China after Beijing moved to impose new national security legislation on Hong Kong, which was condemned by Pompeo this week. Canceling visas was already being discussed by the administration before Beijing's move in the territory.
The visa cancellations could affect at least 3,000 of the approximately 360,000 Chinese students studying in the U.S.
Chinese students make up the largest percentage of international students in the U.S. and American universities, which rely on their tuition, are expected to oppose the administration’s move, according to The Times.
The F.B.I. and the Justice Department have warned universities about the potential of Chinese spies among the student population – especially in the sciences – but schools have been leery of targeting students due to their nationality and have said security protocols are in place, The Times reported.
“In China, much more of society is government-controlled or government-affiliated,” Frank Wu, a law professor and the incoming president of Queens College at the City University of New York, told The Times. “You can’t function there or have partners from there if you aren’t comfortable with how the system is set up.”
“Targeting only some potential professors, scholars, students and visitors from China is a lower level of stereotyping than banning all, but it is still selective, based on national origin," he added.
The cancellations would not be aimed at punishing the students, who would likely not be accused of any wrongdoing, but rather at the Chinese military universities with ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
#5
Hope we got a way to identify them going forward, since I doubt they will tell us who they are. Of course, you could assume most are a collection asset of some kind and just stop letting most in.
[YNet] - Israel’s national cyber chief Thursday officially acknowledged the country had thwarted a major cyber attack last month against its water systems, an assault widely attributed to arch-enemy Iran, calling it a "synchronized and organized attack" aimed at disrupting key national infrastructure.
..."If the bad guys had succeeded in their plot we would now be facing, in the middle of the Corona crisis, very big damage to the civilian population and a lack of water and even worse than that," he added.
...Unna said the attempted hacking into Israel’s water systems marked the first time in modern history that "we can see something like this aiming to cause damage to real life and not to IT or data."
Had Israel’s National Cyber Directorate not detected the attack in real-time, he said chlorine or other chemicals could have been mixed into the water source in the wrong proportions and resulted in a "harmful and disastrous" outcome.
...Iran hasn’t commented on the attempted hacking and has played down the alleged reprisal on May 9 against the Shahid Rajaee port. Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s port and marine agency, told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that the attack failed to infiltrate into the agency’s systems and only damaged "several private sector systems."
Israel has not officially commented on the attack against Iran, but in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, Amos Yadlin, a former head of military intelligence, said it was significant.
"The attack displayed the cyber ability of a world-power. It appears that this was a clear Israeli message to Iran, don’t dare to touch civilian systems, the water and electricity systems in Israel, which were attacked this past month. You, the Iranians, are more vulnerable than we are," he said.
Without discussing the attack directly, Unna said the past month marked a historic turning point in cyber warfare.
"Cyber winter is coming and coming even faster than I suspected," he said. "We are just seeing the beginning."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
05/28/2020
09:13 ||
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[9 views]
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#5
Easy answer. We know the location of the 3-4 largest electrical cross connects, distribution, and generation hubs. thats 12-3 targets.
Metalized (copper coated) mylar. Big chaff clouds over each of those areas designed to short out the equipment. Can be done with cruise missiles, or even balloons. Non-lethal. Will blow so many transformers their grid will go down hard and stay down for a while. Be sure to take out the power to the refineries and ports, and if enough capacity exists, knock out power to major population centers that are favorable to rebellion.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/28/2020 16:42
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[Washington Examiner] Some companies are adding coronavirus surcharges to bills, infuriating customers enough to take their business elsewhere.
"Many customers are angry about the changes," wrote Ted Rossman, an industry analyst at CreditCards.com. Rossman noted that roughly 86% of respondents from an American Express survey said they would stop patronizing a business if it applied surcharges to receipts.
A dentist in Florida charged patients $10 to help pay for the personal protective equipment worn by staff, which the mother of one patient felt she was not obligated to pay.
"I don’t feel that I’m required to pay that," she told a local news station in Jacksonville, Florida.
In Texas, a hair salon added a $3 "sanitation" fee to customers’ receipts. The owner of the salon said the extra charge was to cover new expenses that are now required to run a business.
"The cost of reopening includes all the extra supplies that we need and all the cleaning supplies that we need. It's worth it! It's absolutely worth it," Rachel Gower, owner of the Upper Hand Salon, told the local ABC news station.
#1
Some prices go up, some go down. Gasoline is, or was down. Auto and truck prices are down. Air travel costs are down.
I paid nearly $9.00 per gallon for exterior cleaning bleach last week at a small hardware store. Suppliers to small hardware stores are forced to raise prices. The supplier's money is found in large volume, box store sales contracts. Just another marketing strategy the box stores use to push Mom & Pop operations out of business.
#3
@#1- Agree, B. Impose burdensome rules on small businesses that don't have the legal & financial muscle to fight. And, so often, those fees get passed on to the angry consumer.
But I have heard about the PPE surcharge in other places as well. What can one say?
#4
I had a friend who went to work in a lawn mower factory after college. The front office was delighted when they landed their first Walmart production contract. The annual Walmart sales increased year after year until Walmart became their largest customer. I suspect you can imagine what happened next.
#5
I don't see a compelling reason to put a separate freakin' Covid-19 'surcharge' on a sales receipt; just raise the price like a normal business would and be done with it.
#10
Among other tragedies, the financial tragedy; American taxpayers are still paying the wages of intelligence organizations and members charged with monitoring (years in the making) events such as those in Wuhan. Yes, 9/11 redux and epic fail.
#11
I don't see a compelling reason to put a separate freakin' Covid-19 'surcharge' on a sales receipt
The point-of-sale (POS) system will have made that charge available. Until 'the tax' is ruled eligible or not, it ups the AR book for the business. Coded separately for extraction later.
#13
I'm so desperate for a haircut that I wouldn't mind paying.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/28/2020 13:24
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#14
86% of respondents from an American Express
That's rich. Would the Discover users like to weigh in as well?
My state doesn't allow such things; I ask if and where these charges must be displayed - 1st chance to learn about the surcharge is with the receipt is a bit shady.
#15
Wait until people see the government surcharges. Think that state, local and federal governments will gracefully accept reduced budgets? Already seeing more cops out writing more tickets ... for safety of course.
#16
Of course, Cali is attempting to repeal Prop 13, with Chinavirus adding to the repeal's "urgency".
Meanwhile, Colorado is talking about repealing the Gallagher Amendment, which is its equivalent of Prop 13 (but as a state constitution amendment of course).
#18
I had a friend who went to work in a lawn mower factory after college. The front office was delighted when they landed their first Walmart production contract. The annual Walmart sales increased year after year until Walmart became their largest customer. I suspect you can imagine what happened next.
If they turned away any customers or did capital improvements because of increased business from Walmart, they screwed up. Because Walmart likely asked for price reductions that brought revenues below their operating costs, thereby driving them out of business.
#20
What can I say, I'm a bean counter.
On my receipt, I want to see Federal, State, County, Municipal, and Commerce Region charges, as well as Compliance Charges and Special Build Charges.
If I'm in a rural area and see a x% tax for schools, ok then. If I'm in an urban area and see a x% charge for a new water fountain, well then...
It may make a difference whether I return to a service industry, a safety surcharge (in this case, it is government mandated or else they get their license pulled - an excellent lesson in regulations being passed onto the consumer). With a major purchase like appliance or vehicle, that lower priced urban ticket may end up being more than a higher priced rural ticket without the additional charges.
#1
No cars, commercial trucks, or auto parts were made from February 1942 to October 1945. Gasoline, automobile tire purchases and other goods were rationed. People drove less and got by.
Auto production bounced back following the war. Used car prices continue to lag into the 1950's.
[KMBC] Master Sergeant David Royer, an active-duty soldier at Fort Leavenworth, intervened in an active-shooter situation Wednesday morning on Centennial Bridge in Leavenworth, Kansas, and "saved countless lives," according to police.
Leavenworth Police Chief Patrick Kitchens said they initially received a multiple shots fired call around 11 a.m. from the bridge and believed the case to be road rage. But after further investigation, police found it was an active shooter situation with a suspect randomly firing at vehicles passing by with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle.
"This was an active shooter with multiple weapons on the bridge, firing at cars with no particular association," Kitchens said.
At least seven bullets flew through the window of a Ford Taurus. Two other cars were shot. Investigators said a Fort Leavenworth soldier, who was in one of those vehicles, was wounded.
"There was an active-duty soldier assigned to Fort Leavenworth waiting in traffic behind the event who saw the event unfold and determined it was an active shooter," Kitchens said. "The soldier intervened by striking the shooter with his vehicle, causing him to be critically injured, ending the encounter with the active shooter and likely saving countless lives."
Kitchens said the suspected shooter is a Platte County, Missouri, resident.
"There doesn’t appear to be a target," Kitchens said. “The person was simply, randomly firing at vehicles as they passed by."
Investigators are not sure yet what motivated the man to target random people. Detectives are looking into the shooter's history.
#8
Was it an automatic transmission or a semi-automatic ?
If he was really mean after he ran him down , he'd make a Molotov Cocktail and light him up to make sure.
#12
I see no mention of a name on the shooter, so I am assuming it is a media-protected class, with some iteration of Mohammed in the name at very high odds.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
05/28/2020 20:30
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[Rush Limbaugh] RUSH: We talk about the blue states and the blue state governors and their maintaining the lockdowns in their states. One of the things that we have to be concerned about in terms of getting the economy ramped up -- because Trump has a new phrase, "Transition to Greatness." Trump are is promising economic growth next year, 2021.
He promised Americans that they're gonna see some great numbers in the fourth quarter of this year. Trump is promoting a future economic recovery. It's a Transition to Greatness. "You're gonna see some great numbers in the fourth quarter, and you're gonna end up doing a great year next year," Trump was quoted by the AP. He said, "We built the greatest economy in the world. I'll do it a second time."
Now, some of the people in the Drive-By Media are saying, "Trump's new Slogan Is a Confession of Failure -- 'Transition to Greatness' is a corporate-style euphemism that tries to spin a collapse as a success." This is happening at the Atlantic, which just got through laying off a hundred people -- which Trump, by the way, touted.
So here's this bunch laying off a hundred people trying to tell us that Trump doesn't know what he's talking about, that his new slogan, Transition to Greatness, is actually a concession of failure -- that any reference to making America great again is an admission of failure. Trump's not responsible for this, any more than anybody else on that task force or any other position of authority who demanded the lockdowns.
They had to lie to him about all these computer models to get him to go along with it. All it took was one number, folks, if you remember. They told him, "If we don't anything, 2.2 million people will die." That phony model from the U.K. said 2.2 million would die. That model was done without factoring any kinds of social distancing or mitigation, and once that modeler plugged in social distancing, that 2.2 million became 500,000.
That was still out of whack. He said 500,000 people would die in the U.K. He revised that to 20,000. These models have been worthless. They have yet to be right about anything. Yet they remain quoted, and they remain consulted. Here's the thing about the blue state governors and the shutdowns, because there is one thing about this that I am worried about, and I'll admit it to you.
Our country cannot fully recover without the California and New York state economies participating, and we know it and they know it. Gavin Newsom knows it, and so does Fredo Jr. know it. Andrew Cuomo knows it. The longer they... Why do you think California and New York are not even talking about opening? California and New York say, "We're shutting down for the rest of the summer."
These birdbrains in California -- these public health officials and the city council, town council, board of supervisors, whatever -- say, "Yes. We're gonna maintain shelter-in-place through the summer, through the end of July, maybe into August." They know what they're doing. Gavin Newsom's doing the same thing, and the longer New York and California stay stagnant, the more it's going to impede the nationwide economic recovery and boost.
#1
GavinNewsom's doing the same thing, and the longer New York and California stay stagnant, the more it's going to impede the nationwide economic recovery and boost.
Destroying the Trump economy is obviously the goal. They have no viable candidate, no plan or platform. The dems are simply focused on the destruction of the Orange Man and the regaining of power.
#2
These birdbrains in California -- these public health officials and the city council, town council, board of supervisors, whatever -- say, "Yes. We're gonna maintain shelter-in-place through the summer..."
The process is even worse than that: at least a city council would involve elected representatives.
Instead the lifer/don't-lift decisions are being made at the county level -- quick Q: who's your county supervisor? Do you have any idea? And not even the supervisor or sheriff. The decision as to whether each county in California goes over the brink is given over to one obscure bureaucrat with zero expertise or skill in anything outside of medicine: the county health commissioner.
That individual's decision trumps the governor's decision if it's more restrictive than his. Any power-hungry little bureaucrat in sic a position has a built-in incentive to be more rather than less restrictive.
And there is nothing the public or its representatives can do about it: the process entails zero public input and no role for the people's representatives. And so we have different rules for different California counties - no haircuts allowed in some, haircuts in others; some surgeries allowed in some but next to none or few in other counties. Banana republic time.
#10
Here's the "Cironovirus Tracker" for counties and cities in the SF Bay Area. Key points:
1) it's now been admitted, finally, that there were at least 10,000 people infected in this area as early as February 6 -- i.e. six weeks before the lockdown even started. And yet there were no more than a total of 30 deaths attributed to these infected cases.
2) if you look at the curves for infected cases and deaths for each county, they all have more or less the same shape over some 10-12 weeks: a slow build followed by a spike, a plateau and then a decline. This is almost exactly the pattern that is seen during flu season. Also, this pattern occurs regardless of when the initial spike happened in that particular county, be it prior to the March 19 "shelter in place" lockdown or many weeks after the lockdown.
It is obvious that the authorities do not have the faintest idea as to how dangerous or fatal this strain actually is -- and what if any correlation exists between the fatality rate and any one of their grasping-at-straws measures.
They're just making this up willy-nilly as they go. All the evidence and every day's data indicate what we suspected from the beginning: this year's bug is not significantly more fatal -- and did not/doesn't merit more extreme public health measures i.e. beyond sensible precautions including washing hands, staying away from others if you have symptoms and above all, protecting the elderly-- than the other Asian flu strains that every year kill thousands of Californians.
YES!!The numbers indicate it has, particularly in the Bay Area, where aggressive restrictions were first put in place.
BUT, ER, NO--Not really: However, after several weeks of flat or declining numbers, the Bay Area has seen a growth in new cases during the past week. From May 19 to May 23, the Bay Area reported 200 or more cases each day and averaged more than 210 cases per day last week. In the span of April 16 to May 17, the Bay Area averaged fewer than 160 cases per day and hit 200 only once.
AND NOW, THE INCOMPETENCE... The spike coincides with the gradual reopening of California even though most of the Bay Area has maintained its shelter-in-place orders.
No you ninnies, the "spike" occurred in the East Bay counties and is almost certainly due to the lag time needed for infections to move from the heavily-Chinese epicenter -- in SF, San Mateo and Santa Clara -- over to the East Bay, i.e. Oakland and the counties where most of the area's African-American population resides.
Zero attempt to do any intelligent time series analysis at all.
No comparison with time series data for prior year flu seasons.
No effort to separate signal from noise, to isolate causes and effects.
And based upon this third-world bullshit performance they have thrown over 5 million Californians out of work, cratered many thousands of small businesses, and are ruining the educations hence life producers of 5 million school kids who were already suffering the effects of their shitty third-world caliber educational system.
#16
#12 - how about you look at the world outside Californian Bay area?
Been there done that - and realized that cross-country comparisons are totally useless. Again, the methods of attributing cause of death have varied so widely that the data are completely inconsistent. And incomplete. And shifting. And of course inaccurate and even corrupted in many cases by officials seeking to game the numbers one way or another.
The reasons that California data is worth diving into, in isolation, are that
1) it's a large and at least consistent dataset i.e. the method of attributing death has not varied from place to place or time to time;
2) California has vast experience with the spread of virulent Chinese flu strains-- unlike countries in Europe or the Middle East, California is on the front lines and has vast amounts of data for doing yearly comparisons of Chinese-sourced strains
3) Again unlike Europe, California reports data broken out by ethnic sub-groups, which shows clearly what others noticed at the very beginning: fatalities are linked to certain ethnicities' mainly Africans', much higher susceptibility to this disease.
4) we have good data in California about the number of people who were and are still arriving at CA airports every day on direct flights from Wuhan and other Chinese cities, hence we know that the virus was spreading and had already infected tens of thousands of Californians by the end of January
#1
Always doom and gloom. Welcome to Nazi Germany. Only negative news is real news. Only negative studies are accurate studies. 1984 is here. The frog has died in the pot of hot water.
#7
^We'll see in summer because several governments plan to conduct wide-ranging antibody tests.
But the good news, even if HCQ doesn't work (and remember Lancet paper reports on HCQ results without zinc and in late stages), we'll have monoclonal Ab for passive immunization.
[Just the News] Just 17 days before President Trump took office in January 2017, then-FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok texted bureau lawyer Lisa Page, his mistress, to express concern about sharing sensitive Russia probe evidence with the departing Obama White House.
Strzok had just engaged in a conversation with his boss, then-FBI Assistant Director William Priestap, about evidence from the investigation of incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, codenamed Crossfire Razor, or "CR" for short.
The evidence in question were so-called "tech cuts" from intercepted conversations between Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to the texts and interviews with officials familiar with the conversations.
Strzok related Priestap’s concerns about the potential the evidence would be politically weaponized if outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper shared the intercept cuts with the White House and President Obama, a well-known Flynn critic.
"He, like us, is concerned with over sharing," Strzok texted Page on Jan. 3, 2017, relating his conversation with Priestap. "Doesn’t want Clapper giving CR cuts to WH. All political, just shows our hand and potentially makes enemies."
Page seemed less concerned, knowing that the FBI was set in three days to release its initial assessment of Russian interference in the U.S. election.
"Yeah, but keep in mind we were going to put that in the doc on Friday, with potentially larger distribution than just the DNI," Page texted back.
Strzok responded, "The question is should we, particularly to the entirety of the lame duck usic [U.S Intelligence Community] with partisan axes to grind."
That same day Strzok and Page also discussed in text messages a drama involving one of the Presidential Daily Briefings for Obama.
[IsraelTimes] No festivities reported between Israeli troops and Paleostinian security forces during arrest operation, hinting at continuing tacit coordination.
Israeli security forces arrested seven Paleostinian suspects in the West Bank in predawn raids on Wednesday morning, the first such operations since the Paleostinian Authority said it had frozen a vital security coordination mechanism.
The overnight operation followed a five-day lull that partially coincided with the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Pompeo says administration will revoke all but one exemption, accuses Tehran of continued ’nuclear brinkmanship’ and ’extortion’.
The Trump administration announced Wednesday it is ending nearly all of the last vestiges of US sanctions relief provided under the 2015 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 the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... nuclear deal.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Finding himself on sabbatical in Israel for the pandemic, Daniel Douek has ended up carving out an important role for the Jewish state in America’s battle against COVID-19.
The NIH is determined to cast its net globally for coronavirus research. But few countries match Israel’s organized stock of blood samples from both healthy and sick citizens, and this has turned the country into an important center for NIH research, said Douek, a human immunologist.
He said that the project in progress aims to enable doctors, based on assessments of patients’ blood — cross-referenced with follow-up information on how they fare — to assess early on who is at risk of a sudden deterioration, and give them tools to intervene.
[Jpost] The Nigerian military is unlawfully detaining boys and men at a rehabilitation center for alleged members of the Islamist hard boy group 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... , Amnesia Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday.
In the latest allegations of rights abuses since Boko Haram began its insurgency in Nigeria's northeast, Amnesty criticized Operation Safe Corridor,
...a residential deprogramming program that finishes its hundreds of former Boko Haramniks with vocational training. Among the skills acquired by the ex-combatants include tailoring, carpentry and shoemaking....
a program that receives financial and technical support from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , Britannia, the United States and the UN International Organization for Migration.
Nigeria's military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in response to such accusations during a decade of conflict.
"For almost everyone held (at Safe Corridor) to date, it amounts to unlawful detention," Amnesty said of the program which is based in Gombe state and aims at reintegrating former Lions of Islam into their communities.
"Many people there are not former fighters who committed crimes, much less were charged or convicted of any crime," it said in a report that also listed alleged rights abuses by Boko Haram and criticized conditions at other military detention centers.
Amnesty said Safe Corridor "includes positive elements," including adult education and psychosocial counseling described favorably by people formerly held there.
[American Thinker] In Illinois, our Legislature just had a grueling four days in Springfield, where they passed whatever they wanted. When Democrats have huge majorities in the House and Senate and control the governor's mansion, it is not tough to pass what the speaker of over thirty years wants.
Illinois has a constitution that requires a balanced budget, so the budget they passed borrowed $5 billion from the federal government and left a $6-billion deficit. We have hundreds of billions in actual debt and unfunded liabilities; how is this in adherence to the constitution?
Since the work was so tough, the legislators gave themselves an almost 3% raise. Everyone should remember that while the Democrats intentionally keep millions unemployed in Illinois and tens of thousands of businesses closed or in limited capacity, almost every state employee, whether essential or non-essential, gets paid and gets raises and generous benefits. The private sector is clearly expendable to Democrats.
The Legislature was able to come up with detailed language on a constitutional amendment to change the income tax system from a flat tax to a graduated tax. Here is how specific it is.
#3
Not going to affect the presidential election - Illinois already has the mail in dead voters ballots printed and filled out and standing by to be counted.
Once Texas, Florida, Ohio and Georgia rebound under Republican govs, the difference will be quite stark and obvious, even to the most stubborn people in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/28/2020 21:47
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#4
Nothing like a fat slob billionaire governor trying to keep his very own state in a state of depression.
[American Thinker] Criminal terrorists attacked us on 9/11, and nations of the world united to treat us all like criminals and turn the fun and exciting world of air travel into an experience redolent of herding livestock to market.
Nineteen years later, a virus outbreak happens, and governments of the world — upon advice of the experts — treat us like infected patients, demanding we quarantine ourselves and cease all economic and social activities. Is this the first time democratic governments have quarantined people who were not sick?
COVID-19 is serious, highly transmissible, and lethal to a minuscule number of people, and we are past the point of being able to contain and eliminate it. Cowering in our homes, eschewing human contact, and wearing masks is not about saving lives; it is delaying deaths — or, if you prefer the sterile words of the experts, flattening the curve.
We're seeing how the shadow of totalitarianism can darken even the sunniest landscape: paternalistic governors issue decrees and edicts to their benighted subjects, unelected bureaucrats handle enforcement, and millions of miserable human beings discover the giddy frisson of snitching on neighbors.
Autocrats don't rely on bootheels and rifle butts alone. They absolutely cannot survive without press propagandists, spying rat finks, and leagues of toadies throughout society parroting the propaganda and cajoling fellow subjects into compliance.
The Infotainment Media Complex abets the tyranny by censoring dissent and force-feeding us morality tales about some dumb bubba who scoffed at the experts but ended up killing his family with COVID-19. Is anyone else tired of the crowds of liberal arts majors and J School grads shouting "SCIENCE!" like a twisted Thomas Dolby tribute choir?
[The Hill] Late last week the FBI document that started the Trump-Russia collusion fiasco was publicly released. It hasn’t received a lot of attention but it should, because not too long from now this document likely will be blown up and placed on an easel as Exhibit A in a federal courtroom.
The prosecutor, U.S. Attorney John Durham, will rightly point out that the document that spawned three years of political misery fails to articulate a single justifiable reason for starting the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation.
Those of us who have speculated there was insufficient cause for beginning the investigation could not have imagined the actual opening document was this feeble. It is as if it were written by someone who had no experience as an FBI agent.
Keep in mind the FBI cannot begin to investigate anyone, especially a U.S. citizen or entity, without first creating a document that lists the reasonably suspicious factors that would legally justify the investigation. That’s FBI 101, taught Day 1 at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va.
To the untrained eye, the FBI document that launched Crossfire Hurricane can be confusing, and it may be difficult to discern how it might be inadequate. To the trained eye, however, it is a train wreck. There are a number of reasons why it is so bad. Two main ones are offered below (if you would like to follow along, the document is here):
First, the document is oddly constructed. In a normal, legitimate FBI Electronic Communication, or EC, there would be a "To" and a "From" line. The Crossfire Hurricane EC has only a "From" line; it is from a part of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division whose contact is listed as Peter Strzok. The EC was drafted also by Peter Strzok. And, finally, it was approved by Peter Strzok. Essentially, it is a document created by Peter Strzok, approved by Peter Strzok, and sent from Peter Strzok to Peter Strzok.
On that basis alone, the document is an absurdity, violative of all FBI protocols and, therefore, invalid on its face. An agent cannot approve his or her own case; that would make a mockery of the oversight designed to protect Americans. Yet, for this document, Peter Strzok was pitcher, catcher, batter and umpire.
In addition, several names are listed in a "cc" or copy line; all are redacted, save Strzok’s, who, for some reason, felt it necessary to copy himself on a document he sent from himself to himself.
Names on an FBI document are always listed in cascading fashion, with the most senior at the top and on down to the least senior. On this EC, Strzok is listed last, so the redacted names should be more senior to him. Those names could well include then-FBI Director James Comey, then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and then-Counterintelligence Assistant Director Bill Priestap. The document also establishes these redacted names as "case participants."
#1
The prosecutor, U.S. Attorney John Durham will rightly point out that the document that spawned three years of political misery fails to articulate a single justifiable reason for starting the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation.
And the Durham report and indictments are where again please ?
#4
Investigated without a legal predicate?
Will it make any difference? Still waiting to see something from DOJ and Lindsay's committee. Is this just going to result in yet another DOJ-like report to be dumped into never-ending goverment limbo?
#2
Ship: 81% had no symptoms (Anecdotal)
WHO: 1% symptom-less (estimate)
CDC : 20-50% symptom-less, 35% best estimate.
Diamond Princess: Another anecdote, a lot, I forget.
#5
Give it a rest, g. The fanatics screwed up. They're admitting so now. The CDC has revised its estimates down by almost 90% and plenty of others will follow.
I assign homework to those who who ring my doorbell for such purposes, having demonstrated that they don’t know enough about their own beliefs to take on the job of conversion, and invite them to return once they've got the answers from their pastor. Queerly enough, nobody has tried to convert me for about fifteen years.
[MAIL] Bill Clinton is accused of having an affair with Ghislaine Maxwell during trips they took on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's private jet, an explosive new book claims.
The details of the alleged affair between the former president and the British socialite are detailed in a new book - A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein.
In an excerpt of the book, obtained by the New York Post, sources said Clinton would have sex with Maxwell during overseas trips on Epstein's Lolita Express plane and he would visit her at her Manhattan townhouse.
The former president has denied having the affair with Maxwell.
Clinton's spokesman said on Wednesday: 'It's a total lie today, it's a total lie tomorrow, and it'll be a total lie years from now.'
[Haaretz] Where Does Hillary Clinton Stand on Israel? Throughout the campaign, Hillary Clinton has made much of her steadfast support of Israel - unlike her rival Bernie Sanders, who entered the rhetorical no-fly zone of American politics by criticizing Netanyahu’s policies.
#9
Her former president husband is (or was) her chief political strategist. She was in fact, the favored candidate. Reaching her through Bill would have been a viable approach. Not a particularly new approach, but with Bill's his proclivities, a most effective method. Ghislaine had all the tools and Jeffrey drove the bus.
#12
The wily Ghislaine would still be operating today if Jeffrey hadn't gotten himself in trouble. It was in her blood. A Caribbean Island gov't run whore house and 'honey trap?' What an intriguing idea.
Doctor's daughter also pursues lucrative career in medicine? Mossad asset or stringer, very likely. If not, why not? A level of 'placement and access' that certainly would have not been ignored.
Now for the 'what is not being said' moment. Any DoJ curiosity or legal action pending on Ghislaine? Anything coming out of IS or McLean, Virginia ?
#16
Bill wants to be like George Washington with little signs all over the country saying, "Bill Clinton slept here."
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/28/2020 13:13
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#17
For some reason this feels as if Bill is allowing the admission of this to confuse or end investigation into other things. Hope I'm wrong but denials through a spokesman seem tepid.
#19
#17 - good point. Remember too, this is Netflix, Obama's employer
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 13:46
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#20
^ Oops, I was referring to the new NF docuseries on Epstein, not the book
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 13:48
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#21
The ex-president — who denies cheating on wife Hillary Clinton with Maxwell
"Slick" is a serial liar (It runs in the family). He does have a good excuse as he is sorta married to Hilda. Does anyone believe this malarkey? Anyone, anyone?
#6
Anarchy boiling just below the surface pops up again, and a foretelling of what is likely to happen if Soetoro is indicted in connection to Crossfire Hurricane.
#8
Even if the rioters were apprehended (which they likely won't be), Target would decline to press charges. Shrinkage is already built in to the marketing plan and price point.
#17
Fox news Martha MacCallum had a story on the follies in Minneapolis last evening. Footage running behind MaCallum showed a protester waving a "Fuc* Trump" sign.
Appears to be in a league of the politically butthurt and like minded.
#18
Well, B., surely very many delusional people out there also believe Trump is a fault for this. Trump surely wishes he could have been there himself, personally putting his left knee on the neck of that victim.
#21
Fox news Martha MacCallum had a story on the follies in Minneapolis last evening. Footage running behind MaCallum showed a protester waving a "Fuc* Trump" sign.
Link yesterday had all the normal Red Carpet Guests.
Girlfriend had scabies bigger than the white girl crying on her shoulder.
One had a sign, something like, "Let us protest like we are armed white males." or something.
#23
One thing I like about where I live in Texas, the rioters wouldn't come anywhere near our neighborhoods. Armed rednecks* would outnumber them 50 to 1.
* Armed rednecks included alot of people from Africa, Indonesia, Paki, India, etc. My neighbors are from around the world but the vast majority have full Texan.
#24
So MSM has gotten what they wanted when they first started reporting this story. And, of course, OrangeManBad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/28/2020 13:48
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Armed rednecks included alot of people from Africa, Indonesia, Paki, India, etc.
My sister-in-law was travelling to some African country, and we looked it up online. Primary crops are tobacco and corn, poor infrastructure...
Oh, like Kentucky!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/28/2020 14:30
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#26
Nothing says Social Justice like a nice new Sony 65" 4K TV looted from Target, and setting fire to the local auto parts shop.
Lesson learned - a lot of local folks of color have taken up arms to protect their businesses. I wonder if they might reconsider the second amendment and which party kept the government from seizing their firearms... Someone ought to run an ad.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/28/2020 21:40
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[Zero Hedge] The Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can be added to the growing chorus of rational voices who are open to the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) - where scientists infamous for creating hybrid bat coronaviruses that can infect humans swear they have nothing to do with the current outbreak.
NIH Director Francis Collins says that while he believes coronavirus was "absolutely not" genetically engineered, he cannot rule out the possibility that it escaped from the Wuhan lab.
"Whether [the coronavirus] could have been in some way isolated and studied in this laboratory in Wuhan, we have no way of knowing," Collins told Politico on Wednesday. "Nature created this virus, and has proven once again to be the most effective bioterrorist," he added.
In April, WIV vice director Zhiming Yuan told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, "there is no way this virus came from us," according to NBC News. "We have a strict regulatory regime and code of conduct of research, so we are confident."
Did the Beijing laboratory which had two SARS escape incidents follow the same 'regulatory regime' we wonder?
President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both repeatedly claimed that the virus may have emerged from the WIV, while the so-called 'five eyes' intelligence agencies (US, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada) are investigating the origins of the virus - and in particular are "looking closely at the work of a senior scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Peng Zhou," as part of a joint international investigation into the origins of COVID-19, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed weeks ago that the US government is participating in the investigation, though there is no reason to believe the virus was manmade or genetically altered.
Collins refused to comment on his agency’s recent — and controversial — decision to pull funding from researchers studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people. In late April the NIH told the EcoHealth Alliance, whose collaborators included scientists at the Wuhan virology lab, that its project did not "align with the program goals and agency priorities."
Prominent scientific societies and 77 Nobel laureates have asked the administration to investigate why the nonprofit group’s grant was terminated, alleging that the decision was made for political, rather than scientific, reasons. The NIH awards grants using a merit-based system in which researchers evaluate the work of their peers, and ending a grant early is unusual. -Politico
Zero Hedge exposed Zhou's involvement in bat research in January, along with studies by his colleague, "bat woman" Shi Zhengli. As we reported in February, Shi co-authored a controversial 2015 paper which described the creation of a new virus by combining a coronavirus found in Chinese horseshoe bats with another that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. This research sparked a huge debate at the time over whether engineering lab variants of viruses with possible pandemic potential is worth the risks.
Nature.com responded with concern, penning a 2015 rebuke , that reinforce suspicions that bat coronaviruses capable of directly infecting humans (rather than first needing to evolve in an intermediate animal host) may be more common than previously thought.
Collins says he "seriously hopes" that if China develops a COVID-19 vaccine before the United States, that tensions between the two nations "wouldn't be a dominant factor" in whether the US would have access to the treatment.
That's assuming, of course, that a vaccine arrives.
#2
> NIH Director Francis Collins says that while he believes coronavirus was "absolutely not" genetically engineered, he cannot rule out the possibility that it escaped from the Wuhan lab.
What's the difference between genetic-engineering and recombining a few animal and human viruses in human cells in a petri dish??
[Mises.org] In the period leading up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration and its media accomplices waged a relentless propaganda campaign to win political support for what turned out to be one of the most disastrous foreign policy mistakes in American history.
Oh lord. This is what happens when you let economists think about things other than money.
Nearly two decades later, with perhaps a million dead Iraqis and thousands of dead American soldiers, we are still paying for that mistake.
I s’pose it could be argued that we should have dropped a few Daisy Cutters or neutron bombs, then warned them not to catch our attention again, but Dave D. laid out why that should not be our first choice that first time. I have the link somewhere — if I find it I’ll add it in the comments, or perhaps he will if he happens to wander in today...
Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were key players behind the propaganda‐which we can define as purposeful use of information and misinformation to manipulate public opinion in favor of state action. Iraq and its president Saddam Hussein were the ostensible focus, but their greater goal was to make the case for a broader and open-ended "War on Terror."
That’s one name for the current phase of the 1300+ year Muslim conquest of the world in the name of Islam. The Prophet Mohammed (bees piss on his knees) started it in the 7th century AD, and it won’t end until they either conquer or are destroyed.
So they created a narrative using a mélange of half-truths, faintly plausible fabrications, and outright lies: Bull. Shit. They should be ashamed to even think such things.
Iraq and the nefarious Saddam Hussein were "behind," i.e., backing, the Saudi terrorists responsible for 9-11 attacks on the US; ...not backing, but certainly training them at Salman Pak. The reports are in our archives.
Hussein and his government were stockpiling yellowcake uranium in an effort to develop nuclear capability;
Yep. Killed some entrepreneurial locals who discovered it and thought it was pretty. The reports are in our archives. Some of our Rantburgers can talk about it more directly, if they’re willing.
Hussein was connected with al-Qaeda
...Al Qaeda and all the other Sunni and secular Arab terror groups, not to mention most of the others that wanted to learn how to hijack airplanes and make explosives. Again, Salman Pak stories are scattered throughout the Rantburg archives...
Iran was lurking in the background as a state sponsor of terrorism, coordinating and facilitating attacks against the US in coordination with Hamas; ...also in our archives, including in recent days...
Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and other terror groups were working against the US across the Middle East in some kind of murky but coordinated effort; Duh!
We have to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here";
That is a matter of taste, of course — some think it’s unsportsmanlike to not let them get at our civilians at home, just like we let a nice variety of narco-gangs fight over territory in our city ghettos...
The Iraqis would welcome our troops as liberators.
And so they did. Once again we have articles, photos, and video in the Rantburg archives.
And so forth.
So forth, indeed.
But the propaganda "worked" in the most meaningful sense: Congress voted nearly 3–1 in favor of military action against Iraq, and Gallup showed 72 percent of Americans supporting the invasion as it commenced in 2003. Media outlets across the spectrum such as the Washington Post cheered the war. National Review dutifully did its part, labeling Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Justin Raimondo, Lew Rockwell, and other outspoken opponents of the invasion as "unpatriotic conservatives."
Et cetera at length, turned to the WuHu Flu issue. After that introduction I can’t be bothered to read further. So if you do, dear Reader, feel free to comment on it for us.
[VARIETY] A Seattle judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a little-known advocacy organization that hoped to bar Fox News Channel from transmitting its popular primetime opinion programs to its large cable-news audience.
The Washington state group known as the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics, or WASHLITE, filed a suit in Superior Court of Washington State in April, calling for an injunction that would keep Fox News from "publishing further and false and deceptive content" about the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic. Several Fox News opinion hosts in prior weeks questioned the level of the coronavirus threat, with former Fox Business Network anchor Trish Regan losing her position at the company after hosting a segment with graphics that read "Coronavirus Impeachment Scam" while suggesting liberals were overstating the danger of the contagion.
WASHLITE argued in its initial filing that Fox News was subject to established protections for consumers against false information and put forth the notion that deceptive or unfair acts may be enjoined under statutes in Washington state.
In an eight-page document, however, Superior Court Judge Brian McDonald said WASHLITE had failed to establish a case, noting that its "assertions do not hold up to scrutiny." He added: "WASHLITE’s professed goal in this lawsuit — to ensure that the public receives accurate information about the coronavirus and COVID-19 — is laudable." But its argument of using a consumer protection act, he said, "runs afoul of the protections of the First Amendment."
Fox News expressed satisfaction at the outcome. "Using a false portrayal of Fox News Channel’s commentary, WASHLITE attempted to silence a national news organization to settle a partisan grievance," Fox News said in a statement. "This was not only wrong, but contemptuous of the foundation of free speech and we are both pleased the court dismissed this frivolous case and grateful to the First Amendment community that rallied to our side."
Catherine Clark, an attorney representing WASHLITE, said that "an appeal will be filed within the designated appeal period," but declined to elaborate.
The case even drew the attention of Fox News rivals, who came to the network’s defense in an amicus brief. The Internet and Television Association, a trade organization that represents CNN parent WarnerMedia and MSNBC overseer NBCUniversal, the suit "asserted that news providers do not enjoy First Amendment protection when they distribute their programming over a cable television system. That radical proposition is plainly wrong."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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#1
Telling the truth is a revolutionary act in this time of universal MSM deceit.
*Shrug* A lesson in the difference between stock speculators and long term investors. According to Forbes, Moderna is continuing steadily down the clinical testing path, but the stock price has been volatile. It should be noted that even after falling 40% from peak, the stock price is still more than twice the initial price offering of $22.
[Zero Hedge] In his classic book "the Intelligent Investor", Benjamin Graham, considered the founder of value investing, warned readers that evidence of company insiders and management selling large slugs of shares should be an immediate red flag for the discerning investor. If management seems more interested in cashing out than running the company, then they're likely prioritizing their own financial interests over the long-term viability of the company.
A little over a week ago, shares of American biotech stock Moderna soared more than 30% following a bullish statement on the company's vaccine results. A few days later, CNN reported that company insiders, including the company's chief medical officer and chief financial officer, cashed out some $30 million in options. CEO Stephane Bancel has also cashed out enough Moderna shares to cement his status as a billionaire.
The high-flying biotech stock was forced to reckon with the confidence-draining impact of insider sales when StatNews reported on Wednesday that insiders have sold more than $89 million in stock so far this year. Statnews didn't say where it obtained this info; that $89 million number is larger than the sales that have already been disclosed to the SEC.
Of course, insiders aren't the only ones cashing out: the White House's "Vaccine Czar" - formerly a board member at Moderna, which is working closely with the NIH - finally acquiesced to critics who insisted he should sell all of his Moderna options to avoid the appearance of a conflict. Of course, with the sales coming just hours after the stock's face-melting rally, the former big pharma exec pocketed ~$12 million.
The news, which follows a secondary offering by Moderna last week seemingly timed to take advantage of the rally, sent Moderna shares down 6.8% in premarket trading on Wednesday.
#2
This is one of those deals where the optics are bad, but, like it or not, that's how the game is played. Options are very often part of C-Suite's compensation package. A little bit different than when United Airlines execs got bonuses when the rank and file took pay cuts to "save the company"
More to the story
Sure, the timing of the Moderna executives' stock sales seems like the company's leaders were attempting to profit off of good news in anticipation that the stock could soon go down. But appearances can be deceiving.
All of the stock sales in question were done using a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. What is Rule 10b5-1? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established this rule in 2000 to allow company insiders to put trading plans into effect that buy or sell a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time. The SEC actually adopted Rule 10b5-1 to enable insiders to trade shares without engaging in insider trading.
They just got damn lucky on when the timer went off and sold those shares.
[DAILYWIRE] Multiple news outlets are reporting that House Republicans plan to file a lawsuit in federal court against Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments... (D-CA) over a recent pandemic-related rule change that allows a single member of Congress to serve as a proxy vote for up to 10 other members of Congress.
According to The Wall Street Journal, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's... (R-CA) will lead the lawsuit and be joined by nearly two dozen other politicians, including GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA).
The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reports the lawsuit will argue that the rule change, while temporary, will fundamentally transform the nature of the legislature as envisioned by the Founding Fathers. According to Roll Call, Pelosi can extend the 45-day proxy voting period, or shorten it, based on public health information provided by the Sergeant-at-Arms.
After publication, McCarthy posted a statement on Twitter acknowledging the lawsuit and blasting Pelosi’s "voting scheme" as empowering 20 representatives "to control the votes of 220."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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#1
The hyped corona virus was never about the disease but about forcing widespread mail-in voting in order to set-up voter rigging. Dems are desperate.
[AnNahar] The French government on Wednesday banned treatment of COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine, a controversial and potentially harmful drug that US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... has said he is taking preventively.
He just announced he has completed the prophylactic course of treatment with zinc with no ill effects.
The move came after two French advisory bodies and the World Health Organization warned this week that the drug -- a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and lupus
...used by millions for decades without ill effects...
-- had been shown to be potentially dangerous in several studies.
The urgency of the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... outbreak has prompted some doctors to prescribe the drug despite a lack of research to demonstrate its efficacy against the novel coronavirus.
Among them were a French infectious disease specialist who caught the ear of Trump, who stunned his own administration last week by revealing he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against COVID-19.
Under the new French rules, the drug can be used only in clinical trials to test its efficacy against coronavirus -- making it unclear if the French doctor, Didier Raoult, would be able to continue using it at his hospital in Marseille in the south.
Raoult has already rejected a comprehensive study published last week in The Lancet medical journal, which found that administering hydroxychloroquine or its related compound chloroquine actually increased the risk of dying for many patients.
Hydroxychloroquine, also used to treat malaria, is sold under the brand name Plaquenil by French pharma giant Sanofi, which promised to offer governments millions of doses if studies proved it could be safely used in the coronavirus fight.
#2
Funny. President Trump announces he is taking HCQ, now it's getting banned in places. Hmmmm. So, the story of that that Congresswoman in Michigan who claims HCQ saved her life was all made up?
#10
A recent Boston result was quoted as showing that the stuff was dangerous, but it showed the opposite. It was given, according to rules that it could only be used on those who were expected to die, and of those something like 25 to 35 percent actually died. All other patients, with less severe symptoms got no treatment, and of these 9% died.
This was taken as evidence that it was dangerous. Actually it means that 2/3 of those expected to die survived with the treatment. If it was given to the others, two thirds of those that died among them might well have survived, reducing the rate of death to 3%.
Posted by: daniel ||
05/28/2020 14:36
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#11
Facts! Numbers! Statistics! They confuse me, daniel. Stop it!
- Bobby speaking for the Dems
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/28/2020 16:38
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+33 bodies of #GNA Syrian #terrorists mercenaries in AlKadrah hospital now. Waiting to be Identified after today’s fighting against the Libyan Army #LNA
A 13-year-old Iranian girl, identified as Romina Ashrafi, was beheaded by her father in a so-called “honor killing,” according to local media reports. The incident reportedly took place in the city of Talesh in #Iran’s northern province of Gilan.https://t.co/ECQRSOR7L7
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) May 26, 2020
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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(CNN Business) Hertz paid out millions of dollars in bonuses to its executives just before its bankruptcy -- and a month after it started laying off thousands of employees.
Retention bonuses are typical for bankrupt companies that want to prevent their management from abandoning ship. But they're always awkward: the company can't pay its employees or its debts to lenders, but it prioritizes payments to its already handsomely paid bosses. [I guess it never occurred to CNN that bosses tend to work long hours and get paid more.]
Hertz (HTZ) paid a total of $16.2 million to 340 executives on May 19 as part of a plan to keep them in place while the company attempts to reorganize, the company announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The executives will be required to return the money should they leave Hertz on their own before March 31, 2021.
Paul Stone, who was just promoted to CEO three days before the retention bonuses were awarded, got $700,000 under the plan. Chief Financial Officer Jamere Jackson got $600,000, while Chief Marketing Officer Jodi Allen got about $190,000.
The company did not respond to a request for comment, but said in its SEC filing that the payments are justified by financial and operational uncertainty that the company and its employees face. Hertz also declared the payments necessary because of the substantial additional efforts undertaken by the company's key employees with a reduced work force, and the risks to the company if key employees decide to leave.
Still, paying bonuses to executives isn't a great look. The car rental company let go of 14,300 of its workers since April 14 -- nearly half its staff. Hertz has serious financial problems that have been exacerbated by the plunge in air travel in recent months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Additional job losses are probably coming at Hertz. The company's press release Friday night said it planned to close an undisclosed number of its locations away from airports. It had 2,600 such locations in the United States as of last year.
Bankruptcy law makes it difficult for companies that have filed for bankruptcy to pay severance to employees who lose their jobs after a bankruptcy filing. Hertz has filed a motion with bankruptcy court seeking authority to continue to pay severance payments to employees who were let go before the filing.
Hertz still owes about an average of $4,300 in termination pay to 2,500 employees, or just under $11 million in total. It said paying that termination pay will maintain goodwill with employees, reduce the risk of litigation and make it easier to rehire some of those employees once more normal levels of travel resume.
#3
The company did not respond to a request for comment, but said in its SEC filing that the payments are justified by financial and operational uncertainty that the company and its employees face
...like millions of non-essential workers without employment at the moment? Basically looting the assets. Retention, that's your basic paycheck.
#4
Retention? Why in the hell would you WANT to keep the executives who got you into bankruptcy in the first place? Oh, that's right, because you're just authorizing bonuses for yourself. That's swell, I wish I could just authorize myself a bonus whenever I wanted at work...
[Rudaw] Five fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in an air strike near the Iranian border late Tuesday night, a local Kurdish official told Rudaw.
"A car carrying five PKK guerillas passing through the village of Sefre was struck by a missile around midnight," Mawat Governor Kamuran Hasan told Rudaw.
A second missile also hit the village hospital in Mawat district in the north of Sulaimani province, causing material damage but no casualties, according to the official.
A statement from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... 's Defense Ministry published on Twitter grabbed credit for the strike, part of reconnaissance and surveillance operations that "continue resolutely" over northern Iraq.
Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces have been active in the Qandil Mountain range which borders between Turkey, Iraq and Iran, since 2017. The mountainous terrain is used by guerrillas as a base to hide out from forces they are at war with, as well as to launch attacks.
The outskirts of Mount Asos in eastern Sulaimani have seen similar strikes in the past, but Kamuran said this was the first time in his memory that an attack hit the center of a village
The PKK has not issued a statement regarding the attack.
[Vox] Inside the experiments, data wars, and partisan news sites that Silicon Valley thinks can help Biden catch up to Trump.
In Silicon Valley’s new political moment, four billionaires in particular — LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt — have the most ambitious plans, according to Recode’s interviews with over 20 donors and operatives. The chess moves of this power set are instrumental to fulfilling Democrats’ — and much of Silicon Valley’s — four-year quest to oust Donald Trump.
And yet each of these billionaires is moving their pieces with varying levels of secrecy, and often with minimal disclosure, scrutiny, or accountability.
INSIDE THE DEMOCRATIC DATA WAR
Four years after the Democratic Party’s data was described by Hillary Clinton as “bankrupt” and “on the verge of insolvency,” tech billionaires are regrouping and pouring millions into the party’s digital infrastructure, even to the point of building competing power centers that threaten the Democratic establishment.
Republicans have invested far more steadily as of late than have Democrats in the data that powers modern campaigns. And so, a decade after a generation of tech wizards helped usher in a new era of digital campaigning that helped elevate Barack Obama to the presidency, it is Democrats who are left playing catch-up. Even if it was self-identifying progressives that created today’s digital tools, it was conservatives who mastered how to use them, and none more than Donald Trump.
Now, some tech leaders, particularly Hoffman and Schmidt, are racing to master a sphere that, theoretically, is firmly in their bailiwick. But this determination has fueled competing, even rivalrous approaches from multiple tech billionaires. Some Democrats are concerned that both efforts, for all their urgency, are indeed too little, too late — at least for November.
The data wars are a stand-in for the broader tensions between the party and this quartet of Silicon Valley billionaires. While Democratic megadonors on Wall Street tend to route their donations to the party, tech billionaires like to claim they are offering more than just a check — and they want to be more in control.
“My problem is when Silicon Valley folks think that they know how to do our jobs better. I would never walk into Google or anywhere else and say, ‘Your model sucks,’” Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, told Recode. “I don’t second-guess them, and I’m asking them not to second-guess us.”
Kleeb and others in Democratic politics have been particularly incensed by a political startup that Hoffman has invested about $18 million, his single-biggest bet this cycle, in called Alloy. The startup is attempting to build a warehouse to store the data that various progressive groups collect on voters and use it to try to get them to the polls. As part of its data acquisition, Alloy has bought some lists of voters’ cellphone numbers, a data source that people say Hoffman’s team, like other donors, sees as key this year due to the new need for digital campaigning.
But Alloy, despite all its promises to revitalize the left’s voter file, has had an at-times frosty relationship with party officials like Kleeb, who have their own voter file that they’d prefer to improve rather than circumvent. And some of the party’s most senior digital operatives consider Alloy to be an underachievement, saying that it has produced few tangible accomplishments, no publicly announced clients, and, most importantly, squandered significant time and money as it struggled to figure out its role in Democratic politics.
“We’re already putting data into the hands of Democrats and progressives on the front lines of this critical election cycle,” said Luis Miranda, an Alloy spokesperson. “We’re proud of our work, and we’re just getting started.”
And it’s not as though all tech billionaires on the same team are backing Alloy as the singular solution. Some are funding other rival revisions to the party’s data deficit. Where Hoffman sees a product to be replaced, Schmidt — a technocrat’s technocrat — sees a product that can be tweaked, perhaps with some executive coaching.
Sources say he has sunk money into the Democratic Data Exchange, a modest, competing effort by the Democratic National Committee to encourage data sharing by state parties to improve the party’s beleaguered digital backbone. Somehow, despite the somewhat duplicative efforts, Democrats still broadly fear that they’re at a disadvantage compared to the rival efforts of the GOP, which were created a decade ago.
Schmidt, a longtime Democratic powerbroker, may be working more closely with the party than Hoffman. But he is still critical of the party’s operatives and so is doing things his own way with his own skunk-works projects.
In 2016, Schmidt effectively funded and embedded a group of technologists within the Clinton campaign. Many Silicon Valley hands, including some Biden allies, think the Schmidt effort was largely unsuccessful.
And while sadsack Ryan and the GOPe had a lot to do with that, it's always a good idea to keep a close watch on what the oligarchs are doing.
Particularly concerning is the following:
Acronym aims to raise $25 million to set up seven of its own media properties in swing states, creating local news sites that portray moderate Democratic candidates in a favorable light, but appear to be objective, homespun outlets. Democratic operatives see what one calls an “Upworthy model” as an effective way to mobilize their base voters who are reluctant to turn out.
You'd like to think the GOP will be ready to push back on things like this, but...
And then there's this:
“For far too long right-wing media has dominated our discourse and Facebook news feeds,” said Tara McGowan, the founder of Acronym, a political group backed by Powell Jobs and Hoffman.
Yes folks, they really believe this.
Or at least some of them do.
Such delusion coupled with vast financial resources and power is a scary thing.
And so much for non-lefty views getting a fair shake from social media if this is what they believe.
Biden is pathetic, but this infrastructure will still be around and developing, and evolving, and growing even if he's relegated to richly deserved obscurity.
These people need to be destroyed, but too many "Muh Free Market Prinapullz" "conservatives" simply want to run interference for these creatures.
That’s because, after having ignored and pooh-poohed as hard as they can, over and over they’ve had to report on all the things that their stupid and ignorant conservative relatives have spoken of so knowingly on Facebook and at holiday dinners. Clearly this is the result of deliberate Republican planning.
[Townhall] The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that the investigation into GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler (GA) and Jim Inhofe (OK), as well as Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein ...Dem Senator-for-Life from Caliphornica. She has been a politician since about the time she was weaned. Feinstein was the author of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and tried it a second time in 2012. Feinstein has chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. At age 80, Feinstein is the oldest currently serving United States Senator.... (CA), is closed. The group of bipartisan senators were accused of insider trading, and the investigation grew into a national spectacle. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who is also under investigation, has not yet been exonerated by DOJ.
This vindication is especially significant for Sen. Loeffler, who has been lambasted by Democrats and Republicans alike who concluded, before the investigation was finished, that Sen. Loeffler abused her senatorial privilege and was guilty of insider trading after a January coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... briefing. Sen. Loeffler bore the brunt of the attacks on the group of senators.
In the midst of the controversy, Sen. Loeffler elected to liquidate her family’s stock portfolio in order to put criticism to rest and allow her to focus on legislation, despite committing no illegal actions. This move was not enough for Congressman Doug Collins, though, who is challenging Sen. Loeffler in Georgia’s jungle primary in November; he insinuated Sen. Loeffler’s guilt before the case was closed:
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] A Virginia man who fled the country in 2012 and was suspected of trying to recruit men to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab ...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... was indicted in a federal court on a charge of conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist group based in Somalia, prosecutors said.
Liban Haji Mohammed
...age 34, his name has also been spelt Liban Haji Mohamed and Liban Haji Mohamad. According to the FBI he is also known as Abu Ayrow, Shirwa, Shirwac, Qatiluhum, and Qatil. The former FBI translator-cum-taxi driver speaks Arabic and English as well as Somali. Fortunately, his American passport expired in 2018...
of Alexandria, Virginia, is a Somali-born naturalised American citizen who drove a cab in northern Virginia.
He first came to the FBI's attention in 2010 with the arrest of Zachary Adam Chesser, at the time a 20-year-old Virginian who became enthralled with krazed killer Islamist views as a young man and ultimately was convicted of terror-related charges associated with al-Shabaab. The FBI has said Chesser and Mr Mohammed were close associates.
Mr Mohammed left the US in July 2012, and the FBI subsequently placed him on its Most Wanted Terrorists list. In 2015, it was reported that Mr Mohammed was in jug in Somalia, but the US does not have an extradition treaty in Somalia. Authorities did not immediately comment on whether Mr Mohammed had been released from Somali custody.
The US attorney's office in Alexandria said Tuesday's indictment accuses Mr Mohammed of attempting to recruit an undercover agent to travel to Somalia to provide combat training to al-Shabaab fighters.
Mr Mohammed also allegedly planned to use his media skills to improve al-Shabaab's propaganda machine, which it has used to recruit Westerners, the prosecutors said.
Mohamed allegedly tried to recruit an undercover FBI agent to go to Somalia and provide combat training to the terrorist group. According to court documents, he also expressed the intent to help al Shabab recruit Westerners to join its cause by using his language and media skills.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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#1
Cab diver is a classic Somali crime family preference. Scouting possible robbery and fraud targets, getting security and police patterns, and the always lucrative drug and prostitution offerings. Somali’s are clan based multi generational crime syndicates.
#2
So, send the FBI to apprehend him, locally.
Transport to the states and house him in secure facilities.
Long running trial hearings before the trial.
Million$.
How about $10k for some Merc to snuff him at home as a lesson to the locals?
[ToloNews] US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... on Wednesday repeated that he wanted to bring American troops back from Afghanistan, saying the US is acting as a police force and it is time for Afghans to police their country.
"We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan. After 19 years, it is time for them to police their own Country. Bring our soldiers back home but closely watch what is going on and strike with a thunder-like never before, if necessary!" tweeted Trump.
Earlier, news agencies reported that Trump on Tuesday at a White House news conference renewed his desire for a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"We’re there 19 years and, yeah, I think that’s enough... We can always go back if we want to," said Trump.
Trump also said: "Well, I think everyone knows we're down to less than 8,000 troops. We're with leadership in many different fields and in many different parts of that country. We're dealing with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , we're dealing with the president. The president now has gotten himself straightened out with the two presidents, but we're dealing with - because they had, as you know, they had competing factors and factions."
The troop pullout discussion references the peace deal that the US signed with the Taliban on February 29, an agreement that also set a deadline for the US troops to leave the country.
But the Afghan government, which considers the US its strategic partner, has reacted with dismay to the troop withdrawal as the country still grapples with a Taliban insurgency.
During his election campaign in 2016, Trump promised to end the wars like the one in Afghanistan.
Courtesy of Lex:
Trump wants troops in Afgh. home by November [DEMPANIC]
[MSN] Senior military officials are set to brief President Trump in the coming days on options for pulling all American troops out of Afghanistan, with one possible timeline for withdrawing forces before the presidential election, according to officials with knowledge of the plans.
The proposal for a complete withdrawal by November reflects an understanding among military commanders that such a timeline may be Mr. Trump’s preferred option.
But they plan to propose, and to advocate, a slower withdrawal schedule, officials said.
The move is part of the Pentagon’s attempt to avoid another situation like the one in December 2018 and again in October 2019, when Mr. Trump surprised military officials by ordering the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. Diplomatic chaos and violence followed, and the president subsequently modified each announcement. American troops remain in Syria, although in smaller numbers.
US ahead of schedule in cutting Afghanistan troop strength
[AlAhram] U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is down to nearly 8,600, well ahead of a schedule agreed with Talibs in late February, in part because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... , U.S. and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... officials said.
A key provision of the Feb. 29 agreement between the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... and the United States, to which the Afghan government was not a party, involved a U.S. commitment to reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan from about 13,000 to 8,600 by mid-July and, conditions permitting, to zero by May 2021.
A U.S. official said the United States had focused on quickly removing non-essential personnel and those considered to be at high risk from the virus.
U.S. forces are in Afghanistan to conduct counter-insurgency operations. A few thousand U.S. soldiers work with troops from 37 NATO partner countries to train, advise and assist Afghan forces. NATO's mission in the country totalled 16,551 troops in February, according official data available on its website.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... there were "7,000-some-odd" U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but officials clarified that number was slightly over 8,600 troops.
Trump renewed his desire for a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan but added that he had not set a target date, amid speculation he might make ending America's longest war part of his re-election campaign.
NATO DILEMMA
The faster-than-expected withdrawal has put NATO in a dilemma as to whether it should consider swiftly sending back some non-U.S. troops from Afghanistan as well, two NATO sources said.
"The drawdown by the U.S. was expected to be done in 135 days but it's clear that they have almost completed the process in just about 90 days," said a senior Western official in Kabul on condition of anonymity.
The official said that some other NATO soldiers would be withdrawn before schedule.
"All allies have to maintain a fine balance on troop withdrawal as we cannot forget the fact that the war in Afghanistan is far from over," he said.
The Taliban have recently increased attacks in a number of provinces, despite the Afghan government releasing prisoners as per the U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in Doha. According to data from Afghan and Western sources seen by Rooters, the Taliban have mounted more than 4,500 attacks since signing the deal.
Officials are now looking at the pace of the drawdown beyond 8,600.
#3
"All allies have to maintain a fine balance on troop withdrawal as we cannot forget the fact that the war in Afghanistan is far from over," he said.
The cynic in me asks: "(1) Will the 'War in Afghanistan' ever be over? ...and... (2) Is the anonymous official more worried that he will have to be job hunting back home if he loses his 'phoney baloney job' in Kabul?"
[AnNahar] Six jihadists were killed Wednesday in a kaboom that hit their arms depot in northwest Syria while Russian warplanes flew overhead, a war monitoring group said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did not say if Russia was behind the blast that killed the non-Syrian jihadists allied with the Turkistan Islamic Party, ...the Syrian branch of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a particularly nasty Uyghur Salafist jihadi group based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a presence in its native territory in China. The Syrian branch uses the Turkish Postal Service and Turkish banks to solicit donations under the name of "Türkistan İslam Derneği" and through the "Doğu Türkistan Bülteni" website... a Uighur-dominated jihadist group.
"We don't know if it is the result of aerial bombardment or a kaboom inside the warehouse," Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said.
If confirmed, it would mark the first Russian strike on the Idlib region since a ceasefire went into effect in March.
Home to some three million people, the last major opposition bastion in Idlib is controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) alliance, led by al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate.
A Russian-backed regime offensive between December and March displaced nearly a million people in the northwest, but at least 140,000 have returned since a ceasefire went into effect, according to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... The truce, which coincided with the novel coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... crisis, had put a stop to the relentless air strikes by the regime and Russia that killed at least 500 civilians in four months.
Wednesday's explosion hit an arms depot in the al-Taybat village near the town of Jisr al-Shughur, which is controlled by the HTS-allied Turkistan Islamic Party, the Observatory said.
Russian warplanes were flying overhead at the time of the blast, it added.
Nearly half of Idlib's population consists of Syrians displaced from other parts of the country.
The war in Syria has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country's pre-war population since it started in 2011.
While a ceasefire in Syria has reduced combat between rebels and government forces, mercenaries from the two sides are still fighting in Libya on behalf of their Russian and Ottoman Turkish backers.
A brilliant solution to the problem of too many vicious Lions of Islam for the area to support. May it soon be there is only one.
UN experts estimated that up to 5,000 Syrian mercenaries may be in Libya, including "those fighters recruited by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... in support of the" UN-recognised Government of National Accord.
[ToloNews] The three-day ceasefire observed by both the Afghan government and the Taliban ...Arabic for students... in honor of Eid-ul-Fitr ended at midnight on Tuesday; however, neither the government in Kabul nor the Taliban have announced an end to the ceasefire or an extension.
But a government source on condition of anonymity said that an unofficial ceasefire will continue in the country.
The three-day Eid ceasefire has raised hopes among the embattled Afghans that this time the country will experience long-term peace if the two sides announce an end to hostilities and sit at the peace table.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) reported that during the three-day ceasefire there was an 80 percent decrease in civilian casualties.
But minor incidents of mortar attacks and mine explosions we're reported in Helmand, Kandahar, Balkh and Ghazni.
"The Independent Human Rights Commission calls on all warring factions to respect the demand of the people and agree on a ceasefire," said Zabiullah Farhang, the head of the media department of the human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. commission.
Afghans across the country are also pushing for the two sides to extend the ceasefire and start the intra-Afghan talks as soon as possible.
"The Taliban described the release of their 900 prisoners as a positive step--they are very happy--because the Taliban have continued the ceasefire," said General Wahab Wardak, a military analyst in Kabul.
But minor incidents of mortar attacks and mine explosions we're reported in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Kandahar, Balkh and Ghazni.
"The two sides should extend the ceasefire---they must come together and move the grinding of the peace processor forward through talks and debate," said a resident in Kabul Rohul Amin.
According to the AIHRC, before the ceasefire, up to 30 Afghans were killed and maimed as a result of war and violence in the country on a daily basis.
Previously the Afghan government said that it was ready to extend the ceasefire if the Taliban was willing to do so.
[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 Wednesday lashed out at New Delhi for "threatening regional peace via its aggressive attitude" as tensions between China and India grew surrounding the Ladakh region amid reports of both countries' soldiers engaging in disputes.
"India's intentions do not look good," said FM Qureshi, speaking to Geo News. "India has already heated up the Indian Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... e front and you know very well its attitude towards Nepal [on border issue]," he said, adding that New Delhi was also sabotaging peace in Afghanistan.
He blamed India for giving rise to tensions in the region by carrying out construction activities in territory that was considered disputed between it and China. "A war was fought between India and China in 1962 and again, India is resorting to aggressive posturing in the same territory," he said.
The foreign minister urged the Indian government to exhibit responsible behaviour by making use of the "mechanisms of dialogue and consultations to solve disputes".
Commenting on Prime Minister Modi's meeting with the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and tri-services chiefs on the border dispute with China, Qureshi said that it remains to be seen what India's intentions in the region are.
"Pakistain has said this over and over again. I have said this to the UN Secretary-General and written letters to the UN Security Council that India is threatening peace [in the region] through its aggressive behaviour," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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#1
it should be "urges China to 'behave responsibly' in border dispute with India! It sounds like Qureshi is in the pay (pocket) of China.
China started this mess in the first place, I believe that India did the right thing in dealing with this issue.
Note, I tried to do a search for "China, India, border" (without the quotes) and got mostly irrelevant results that had nothing to do with my search keywords so I can link to the relevant articles. How can I narrow the results to just the keywords and not have to search through a couple thousands posts to find the one I'm looking for?
#2
All this nonsense is happening in the Ladakh region, Seeking cure. I did a quick related search for you on that, now appended at the bottom of the article. I’m sure a proper search will yield plenty of relevant articles for you. Happy reading!
#5
Try using in your search string the acronym that apparently is used by the parties to describe the border, "LAC" (Local Area of Control). That should filter out most of the irrelevant results.
Maybe you'll pull in a few Liberal Arts Colleges but I doubt it...
[AnNahar] Eight 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... i government troops were killed and several others maimed in a missile attack by Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s targeting the army command in the battleground province of Marib, a military official said Wednesday.
In recent months, the Iran-backed rebels have been advancing on government troops in Marib, east of the capital Sanaa, which the rebels captured in 2014 at the start of the long Yemen conflict.
"Huthis fired two ballistic missiles -- one at the army headquarters in Marib province overnight on Wednesday," and the other at a military camp, the official told AFP.
Army chief of staff General Saghir bin Aziz "survived" the attack but his son, a captain, and several others were killed in the missile strike on the army headquarters, the source said.
On January 18, a missile attack attributed to the Huthis killed 118 people and maimed dozens at a mosque in a military camp in Marib.
The Huthis took control of the capital of the northern province of al-Jawf earlier this year -- a strategic advance that means they now threaten oil-producing Marib province, the source of significant revenue.
The government, backed since early 2015 by a Saudi-led coalition, is fighting the rebels in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands -- triggering what the UN has termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Fighting has continued despite repeated calls for a ceasefire as part of global efforts to combat coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... , which is spreading in Yemen in what health agencies fear could become a disastrous outbreak.
Last week, international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that six years of war had wrecked Yemen's health system and left it facing a "catastrophe" from the pandemic. MSF said dozens have already died in second city Aden even though the country has reported only some 250 cases and 49 deaths.
And while the Twitterverse explodes in indignation, the Trump administration continues quietly deleting unnecessary regulation, putting together cases against those involved in Obamagate, and preparing more judicial candidates for Senate approval.
[AnNahar] U.S. President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... on Wednesday threatened to close down social media platforms after Twitter labelled two of his tweets "unsubstantiated" and accused him of making false claims.
"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen," Trump tweeted.
Twitter targeted two tweets the president posted on Tuesday in which he contended without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to fraud and a "Rigged Election."
Under the tweets, Twitter posted a link which read "Get the facts about mail-in ballots" -- a first for the social network which has long resisted calls to censure the U.S. president over truth-defying posts.
Trump pushed back again on Wednesday saying "we can't let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots.
"Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!"
The president also accused social media platforms of interfering in the last election, saying "we saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016."
"We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again."
Trump has long used Twitter to publish controversial conspiracy theories and at times false information and even insults.
Before being elected in 2016, he built his political brand by supporting the "birther" lie that Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... , America's first black president, was not born in the United States and therefore was not eligible to be president.
And he has recently ignited another storm with an attempted character liquidation of MSNBC TV host Joe Scarborough by spreading the baseless rumor he murdered an aide.
#1
Twitter and Facebook need to decide whether they want to be publishers or common carriers. A common carrier simply provides a communication channel. They don't censor the traffic and are not responsible for the content. Think phone company. A publisher, like a newspaper or magazine, *is* responsible for the content, and since they are on the hook legally, expected to edit it.
Right now they have an exemption in the law that makes them neither fish nor fowl and keeps them from being sued for incitement or defamation. I don't see that continuing.
Dr. Fei-Fei Li – a Stanford Professor and former Google Vice President linked with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) projects – has been appointed to the board at Twitter as an ‘independent advisor.’
The news comes as Twitter begins to alter President Trump’s Twitter feed to suit narratives that are likely to impede his re-election.
Dr. Fei-Fei has been described as one of “the Google scientists who led the company’s efforts to build its China AI operations” and during her tenure at the digital media giant, the company began “cooperating with a leading artificial intelligence (AI) research body at Tsinghua University, a prestigious Chinese academic institution that also conducts AI research for the Chinese military.”
Now, she’s at Twitter.
According to Radio Free Asia, Dr. Fei-Fei was a guest at two China Overseas Talent Exchange Conferences. One in Guangzhou in 2017, and the other in Beijing in 2018. The conferences were hosted by the European and American Alumni Associated with the backing of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Work Front Department (UWFD).
The UFWD works to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party,” with its primary focus being “the management of potential opposition groups inside China, but it also has an important foreign influence mission,” according to a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 8:25
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#4
You wish to go to an American school, no problem, here are our rules.
In a recent article for the Spectator, U.S. author and publisher Roger Kimball noted: “There are nearly 400,000 Chinese students in American universities. Thanks to Article 7 of the Chinese National Intelligence Law of 2017, each of these students is required to ‘support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law’. In other words, the United States is home to some 400,000 potential spies from China.”
#5
#3 What is it with Stanford?
First a Stanford Nobel Laureate in Biophysics predicts that, at most, 10 people will die in Israel from CV19.
Then, there is Lex's favorite scientist John Ioannidis.
Now, Dr. Fei-Fei Li – a Stanford Professor and former Google Vice President linked with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) projects
#10
The President should leave Twitter and move to Gab
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
05/28/2020 20:32
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#11
Close Down? Hell no, he's forcing them to open up and allow all points of view by taking away an unjust protection th3e government gives them by treating them like a platform instead of a publisher. If they stop editorial control of opinions of other: deleting, banning, shadowbanning, twitter-splaining, deciding to "fact check" some posts and not others... they will not be liable to losing the protection of the laws as written. So either give up editorial control, or give up the exemption and start acting as a publisher who can be sued.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/28/2020 22:01
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#12
^ This
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 22:13
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#13
What Marilyn said. These jokers want it both ways: all the revenue that comes from being de facto a media company but with the none of the responsibilities of the press.
[BREITBART] The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit has been called off with 16 minutes to go in the countdown because of the danger of lightning.
Liftoff is rescheduled for Saturday.
The spacecraft was set to blast off Wednesday afternoon for the International Space Station, ushering in a new era in commercial spaceflight and putting NASA back in the business of launching astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade.
Ever since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian rockets to carry astronauts to and from the space station.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[AnNahar] Greece will reinforce its police patrols on its border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , an official said Wednesday amid expectations of renewed migration pressure.
An additional 400 police will be sent to the northeastern Evros river border region "as a precautionary measure", police front man Thodoros Chronopoulos told AFP.
The border area was the scene of festivities in March after Turkey said it would no longer prevent asylum-seekers from reaching the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... For days, there were skirmishes on the border as migrants colonists, trying to break through, threw stones at Greek riot police who fired tear gas at them.
On Tuesday, Greek Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos told Skai TV that Athens was aware of "certain statements that suggest we will face pressure on our borders again, especially our land borders."
After the attempted asylum-seeker surge in March, Athens said it would extend a border fence, a move that has created a new dispute with Ankara. Turkey says it should be consulted about the fence expansion, noting that the Evros riverbed "has significantly changed due to natural and artificial reasons" since the border was established in 1926.
Ankara says "technical coordination" is required, and that it would not allow any "fait accompli" on its border. Greece counters that it is not obliged to consult Turkey about infrastructure on its own side of the border.
"We will proceed with the fence expansion. It is our constitutional obligation to protect Greek soil", said Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[7 views]
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#1
April 9, 2020: For his part, al-Habib al-Amin, GNA ambassador to Malta, said that GNA failed in all fields due to a lack of vision and strategy. He added in a statement that al-Sarraj should be aware of what is happening to avoid losing his legitimacy..., pointing out that the people are not proud of the government. Moreover, it has been rather obvious from statements made by Islamist politicians that Islamists are not pleased with the performance of the Fayez al-Sarraj government. Mahmoud Abdul Aziz, a member of the Justice and Construction Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, is not pleased with the Government of National Accord’s forces on the military battlefield in Tripoli.
[Red State] When laws do not apply to those who make them, people are not being governed, they are being ruled. Make no mistake, these executive orders are not laws. They are royal decrees. Illinois citizens are not being governed, they are being ruled. The last time I checked Illinois citizens are also Americans and Americans don’t get ruled. Never noticed before how much Pritzker looks like Al Capone.... More like Fred Flintstone
Posted by: Mercutio ||
05/28/2020
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
#1
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 8:05
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#2
When has an Illinois politician ever listened to a judge?
Unless there are handcuffs involved, that is.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/28/2020 8:12
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Watch: #Iran’s FM Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared to be sleeping as President Hassan Rouhani was delivering a speech in the opening session of Iran’s new parliament, according to a video shared by an Iranian state television.https://t.co/PGK5PvaLyhpic.twitter.com/vZylBO65Kd
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) May 27, 2020
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Who does he think he is? A US Senator?
Posted by: Matt ||
05/28/2020 10:15
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[PJMedia] I decided to order some safety stock of toilet paper from Amazon. I ordered a 20 pack of toilet paper.
Wait time was going to be long, but no big deal since I already had a bunch of toilet paper here. No doubt, the stuff was coming from China.
Well, it finally arrived on Saturday. [picture of micro rolls]
from Amazon Customer on May 24, 2020 Are you kidding me with this? As you kidding me? So I paid for, and waited 2 months for what turned out to be 1/4 scale rolls of toilet paper. Yay… More Chinese scams. Time to remove this product, Amazon.
amazon response below:
Thank you for submitting a customer review.
Thank you for submitting a customer review on Amazon. After carefully reviewing your submission, your review could not be posted to the website. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines:
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/28/2020
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Top|| File under: Commies
#7
Just went to my local Smart & Final - TP aisle was fully stocked
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020 13:06
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#8
Costco had Charmin the last time I went there, a 30 roll package of extra wide rolls. Good stuff. We got some Mexican toilet paper at our local grocery store, SUAVEL, Hecho en Mexico por: Kimberly Clark. Haven't tried it yet.
Again, one of my biggest complaints about Amazon and all other online shopping sites is that they never tell you where the products are made.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/28/2020 13:41
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#9
"This is great toilet paper"
- Cheryl Crow
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2020 13:47
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#10
M, that's funny.
Ladies and Gentlemen, if you think the reviews are for the consumers' benefit, its time to clean the BS filter.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Saudi-led Coalition forces 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... announced on Wednesday, the downing of drones over the southern city of Najran a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a favored target of Houthi rocket forces because they can see it, so there's no math involved.... According to the Saudi Press Agency, the front man for the coalition forces, Colonel Turki al-Maliki, stated that the forces were able to intercept and shoot down unmanned drones launched by the Ansrallah forces towards city of Najran.
The front man noted that the Ansarallah forces continue to "violate international and humanitarian law", by launching drones, and "deliberate" targeting of civilians and "threatening the lives of civilians."
Al-Maliki stressed that these "terrorist hostilities" by using drones are a "flagrant violation" of international law, and a confirmation of the Ansrallah forces" rejection of the ceasefire and de-escalation initiative, which began on April 9 this year.
The front man pointed out that there was no response from the Ansarallah forces, stressing that the coalition troops continued to take measures to deter them and destroy their capabilities "strictly", in accordance with the standards of international law, according to the source.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... despite accusing the Ansarallah forces of being the aggressor, the latter has stated that the Coalition has launched over 100 Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s over Yemen this week, with most of these bombs targeting the northwestern part of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[18 views]
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[The News (Pak)] The Pakistain Army troops Wednesday shot down an Indian spy quadcopter in Rakhchikri Sector along the Line of Control (LoC), says the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement.The quadcopter intruded 650 meters on Pakistain’s side of the LoC. This is not the first time that India has unsuccessfully tried to spy on Pakistain with the help of quadcopters, as the Pakistain Army had also shot down an Indian quadcopter that intruded into Pakistain’s airspace along the Line of control on Thursday, April 9.
The quadcopter was shot down after it intruded 600 meters inside Pakistain’s territory for conducting surveillance along the Line of Control (LoC). The Indian quadcopter entered the Sankh Sector along the LoC. The violation was aggressively responded to by the Pakistain Army troops by shooting down the quadcopter.
"Such unwarranted acts by the Indian Army are a clear violation of established norms, existing air agreement between the two countries, and reflect Indian Army’s consistent disregard for the Ceasefire Understanding of 2003," said the ISPR in a statement. The Indian Army, however, rejected the claim saying the quadcopter was not theirs.
Last year, the Pakistain Army had shot down three quadcopters. The first quadcopter was shot down on January 1, 2019 in Bagh Sector. A day later, India again tried to violate Pak borders in the Satwal sector, which was thwarted by the Pakistain Army.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[16 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[SYRIAHR] Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has obtained new information about the commander of "Al-Sham Corps", Mohammed al-Bowaydani, who was arrested by "Haftar’s forces" in battles in Libya. al-Bowaydani is from al-Jilani alley in Bab Amr neighbourhood in Homs city.
Al-Bowaydani started his military career by joining al-Farouq battalion in Bab Amr. After regime forces captured the neighbourhood, al-Bowaydani moved to al-Qalamoun, then he returned to Homs again through a battle under the name "Qademoun Ya Homs" (We Are Coming, Homs), which aimed at that time to capture the area from Sha’er to Homs old neighbourhoods.
After "Al-Sham Corps" had been established and the factions of the northern countryside of Homs had moved to northern Syria, al-Bowaydani was appointed as the commander of artillery battalion in al-Sham corps and participated later in "Olive Branch" operation in Afrin on the side of Ottoman Turkish forces. In Afrin, he committed various violations including thefts, looting and imposing levies. SOHR sources say he is notorious.
Al-Bowaydani has been transported to Libya as a Ottoman Turkish-backed mercenary, where he participated in military operations there on the side of the "Government of National Accord" against "Haftar’s forces". He was arrested a few days ago with nearly 26 other members under his command, mostly from Homs, after being recruited and sent to Libya by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
Right. Pakistain complaining about the way somebody else treats minorities. Pot, kettle, fill in the blanks.
[The News (Pak)] Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... on Wednesday said the fascist ...anybody you disagree with, damn them... Modi government was not only a threat to India's minorities by relegating them to 2nd class citizens' status, but also threat to regional peace,"
In a series of tweets, the prime minister lashed out at the "Hindutva Supremacist Modi government" by saying that it was becoming a threat to India's neighbours.
He cited India's border disputes with China and Nepal as well as the adverse impact of the Modi government's Citizenship Act on Bangladesh.
"The Hindutva Supremacist Modi Govt with its arrogant expansionist policies, akin to Nazi's Lebensraum (Living Space), is becoming a threat to India's neighbours. Bangladesh through Citizenship Act, border disputes with Nepal & China, & Pak threatened with false flag operation," he tweeted.
He said that India was a threat to its minorities "by relegating them to 2nd class citizens' status" and to regional peace as well.
"All this after illegal annexation of IOJK, a war crime under 4th Geneva Convention, & laying claim to AJK. I have always maintained the fascist Modi Govt is not only a threat to India's minorities by relegating them to 2nd class citizens' status, but also threat to regional peace," he tweeted.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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#1
Cobra hisses, Muslim speaks - what's the difference?
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Lebanese Army Command announced that a military unit belonging to the armed forces removed pipelines used to smuggle diesel fuel at the Lebanese-Syrian northern border, in the Al-Beqa’a area.
According to the army, approximately 30 meters of pipes were confiscated inside Lebanese territory.
This step comes within the framework of the continuous efforts made by the army units to combat smuggling at the Lebanese-Syrian borders, and to control them with all available capabilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[SYRIAHR] A commander of the Central Daraa Committee died of his injuries sustained today as a result of an ambush near the conserves factory, north of the town of al-Muzayrip in western countryside of Daraa.
Hours earlier, the Syrian Observatory had monitored an liquidation attempt on the commander with two of his lover companions. The attack left all of them injured, after unknown assailants opened fire on them.
This brings the number of attacks and liquidation attempts in various forms and methods by detonating IEDs, mines, booby-trapped vehicles and shootings from past June to date, to more than 479 attacks.
While the number of those who killed and died in the same period has risen to 313 persons, 77 of whom are civilians, including seven women and seven children, in addition to 164 regime soldiers, loyalists and collaborators with regime security services.
49 members of opposition factions were also killed, those who made "settlements and reconciliations" with the regime and became members of regime security services, including former leaders, and 17 members of Syrian militias affiliated to Lebanese "Hezbollah" and Iranian forces, in addition to six members of so-called "Fifth Corps".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[11 views]
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Russian Air Force was seen all over the western countryside of the Idlib Governorate on Wednesday, as their jets buzzed areas like Jisr al-Shughour along the Ottoman Turkish border.
According to a field report from the Idlib Governorate, the Russian Air Force was flying over areas under the control of the hardline holy warrior groups like the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), and Hurras al-Deen.
Some opposition activists claimed that the Russian Air Force launched Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s; however, a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) source said there were no recorded attacks.
At the same time, the Syrian Arab Army launched their own attack over the Idlib countryside, targeting the movements of the jihadist rebels and Ottoman Turkish-backed groups.
The Syrian Arab Army reportedly targeted several areas around the southern countryside of Idlib, including the holy warrior gathering points at the town of al-Bara’a, which is just north of Kafr Nabl.
Tensions in the Idlib Governorate have recently increased after the jihadist rebels of Hurras al-Deen carried out an ambush that killed over 30 Syrian Arab Army soldiers in the al-Ghaab Plain.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[PIX11] A 64-year old Harlem woman who's been in a medically-induced coma since she was attacked and sexually assaulted is expected to die, prosecutors said.
Frankie Harris, 38, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of rape, strangulation and attempted murder, but the Manhattan District Attorney's Office expects murder charges will need to be filed against the Brooklyn man.
On the night of May 18, Harris allegedly put the victim in a chokehold for several minutes before repeatedly sexually assaulting the woman, officials aid. She was left unconscious on the pavement.
Harris initially told authorities the sex was consensual, but later said he did not have sex with the victim, prosecutors said. He also told Sherlocks he did not choke the woman; Harris said a Puerto Rican man attacked the victim.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said the victim is "well respected in the community."
Police have arrested Harris before. In a previous Manhattan incident, he's charged with forcible touching. Harris also allegedly hit a Hispanic woman in the mouth, punched a different Hispanic woman in the face and threatened to kill the "Puerto Ricans." He's charged with assault as a hate crime in that case.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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[TheIntercept] Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir has been heralded as our best hope in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the antiviral drug doesn’t seem of much help to patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. And while the company’s clever rollout has generated excitement among investors, politicians, and the public, a combination of generic drugs that appears to be more effective in fighting the coronavirus has flown under the radar....
It is amid these feelings of scarcity and indebtedness that Gilead is setting the price for its antiviral medicine. The company, which has already arranged for distribution of remdesivir in 127 countries, is expected to begin selling it commercially as soon as June. And while a 10-day course of the drug, which was developed as a potential Ebola treatment with at least $79 million in U.S. government funding, costs only about $10 to produce, according to an estimate by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, its market price is expected to be several hundred times that amount.
Still, price gouging isn’t what has many scientists upset about remdesivir. It’s the fact that the coronavirus drug that has boosted hopes and sent Gilead’s stock price (and according to some analysts, the entire stock market) soaring doesn’t seem to do much for coronavirus patients.
Continued on Page 49
[Daily Wire] Newly released emails show that Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer's office gave the "green light" for taxpayer money to be awarded to Democrat groups as part of the state's coronavirus tracing program.
"Whitmer's office gave the ‘green light' for a COVID-19 contact tracing ‘arrangement' she denied knowledge of and canceled amid outcry over a contractor with Democratic ties," Bridge Magazine, a local Michigan publication, reported. "Emails obtained through a public records request appear to show Michigan officials tried to avoid controversy by shifting work to apolitical subsidiaries of firms with known partisan leanings."
Andrea Taverna, a senior adviser in the Michigan Department of the Health and Human Services, said in an email to other Michigan government officials: "We got the green light from EOG [the executive office of the governor] to move forward with a slightly different organizational arrangement of the contact tracing volunteer work. This would still be working with Mike Kolehouse, so work there isn't lost – it's just organized somewhat differently – see below."
In late April, The Washington Free Beacon reported that Whitmer had given control of the state's contact tracing program to "one of the left's biggest technology firms" and that the move was seen as potential way of her "using the coronavirus to strengthen the Democratic Party's data operation."
The Washington Post reported that the group that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were going to go "would be managed in coordination with EveryAction, a firm that is closely linked to NGP VAN, a technology provider that boasts that it powers ‘nearly every major Democratic campaign in America.'"
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel highlighted an alleged Facebook post from a Democrat operative who also revived a contract from Whitmer's administration that stated: "I hope [Trump] gets Coronavirus ASAP. Can someone do the country a favor and cough on that man."
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2020
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[ALMASDARNEWS] According to a new report, there are diplomatic efforts made in secret by Tehran to change its policies towards Iraq after the liquidation of the Iranian General Qassem Soleimani during a U.S. raid near Baghdad International Airport.
Citing unnamed sources, Rooters reported that the goal of the new methods pursued by 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 the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is to break the political deadlock in Baghdad, and to accelerate the departure of nearly 5,000 US soldiers from Iraq, according to three senior Iranian officials involved in the process.
"Sometimes you should take a step back, monitor and plan based on the facts on the ground," said a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named.
He added: "We want the Americans to leave the region. If there is chaos in Iraq ... the Americans will use it as an excuse to extend their stay."
According to the report, since the killing of Soleimani, Iranian officials had held "serious talks" with Iraqi President Barham Saleh for the first time in years to build confidence and pressed Iran’s allies inside Iraq to reach a compromise to end the impasse that prevented the formation of a stable government.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... some Iraqi sources indicated that the officials who come to Iraq also have links with the Revolutionary Guards, and they have years of experience in dealing with Iraqi affairs and significant influence with many political and armed factions.
A senior Iraqi official said that President Saleh opposed the preferred candidates for parties allied to Iran to succeed Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned from the Iraqi government last November against the backdrop of protests, as they are highly divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... for Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2020
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Idiots. What possible impact would breaking down the front door have on a willing witness? Now is not the time to make fools of yourselves, guys — President Trump already views your organization with a jaundiced eye, for some reason.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Photos obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show a SWAT team preparing to raid the $4.5million California home of Del Records music executive Jose Angel del Villar at 6am on Friday
Villar is known for launching the careers of controversial Mexican narco music artists including Gerardo Ortiz
Del Records said in a statement that the dramatic raid was part of a criminal investigation into Ortiz Note that the homeowner was not being investigated, but was cooperating in the investigation of Mr. Ortiz.
Ortiz, who is currently in a bitter legal battle with his label, shot back saying he had nothing to do with the raid on Villar's office and home, and claimed that Villar had 'swindled' him out of 'many tens of millions of dollars'
The label chief's offices in East Los Angeles and two other locations were also raided on the same day
A neighbor said the raid was 'botched' as Villar and his family had moved out of the home the previous week ... because the house was in the process of being renovated. So the only ones impressed by FBI flash-bangs and automatic weapons early in the morning were the neighbours.
Villar turned up two hours later, according to the neighbor, and was served a search warrant but not arrested
'They were armed to the teeth with fully automatic M4s, 45-caliber backup weapons, their own medics. I saw them pull out of the house an articulated telescope that can go around corners,' the neighbor said
#3
SteveS I'd give the grunts a break. How are they to know Command effed up? Like that case in Alabama where Ann Rylee was shot. The dimbulbs of several agencies were after a guy who was already in jail. But, unfortunately, after all the effort, there was no kid in a crib where a flashbang could be thrown, and no dog to shoot. What's an honest cop gotta do to get some fun?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
05/28/2020 7:40
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#4
What a f**king joke. They needed a gang of SWAT yahoos just to obtain files?
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.
No cars, commercial trucks, or auto parts were made from February 1942 to October 1945. Gasoline, automobile tire purchases and other goods were rationed. People drove less and got by.
[Just the News] Just 17 days before President Trump took office in January 2017, then-FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok texted bureau lawyer Lisa Page, his mistress, to express concern about sharing sensitive Russia probe evidence with the departing Obama White House.
... 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...
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
[American Thinker] In Illinois, our Legislature just had a grueling four days in Springfield, where they passed whatever they wanted. When Democrats have huge majorities in the House and Senate and control the governor's mansion, it is not tough to pass what the speaker of over thirty years wants.
"Be honest - how much are you exercising?" 
[American Thinker] Criminal terrorists attacked us on 9/11, and nations of the world united to treat us all like criminals and turn the fun and exciting world of air travel into an experience redolent of herding livestock to market.
[The Hill] Late last week the FBI document that started the Trump-Russia collusion fiasco was publicly released. It hasn’t received a lot of attention but it should, because not too long from now this document likely will be blown up and placed on an easel as Exhibit A in a federal courtroom.
[MAIL] Bill Clinton is accused of having an affair with Ghislaine Maxwell during trips they took on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's private jet, an explosive new book claims. 
[VARIETY] A Seattle judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a little-known advocacy organization that hoped to bar Fox News Channel from transmitting its popular primetime opinion programs to its large cable-news audience.
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments...
/\ "Desperate" yes, but not entirely without standards. 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
(CNN Business) Hertz paid out millions of dollars in bonuses to its executives just before its bankruptcy -- and a month after it started laying off thousands of employees.
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] A Virginia man who fled the country in 2012 and was suspected of trying to recruit men to join the terrorist group a
The US attorney's office in Alexandria said Tuesday's indictment accuses Mr Mohammed of attempting to recruit an undercover agent to travel to Somalia to provide combat training to al-Shabaab fighters.
...Arabic for 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached...
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
[BREITBART] The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit has been called off with 16 minutes to go in the countdown because of the danger of lightning.
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a favored target of Houthi rocket forces because they can see it, so there's no math involved....
[SYRIAHR] Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has obtained new information about the commander of "Al-Sham Corps", Mohammed al-Bowaydani, who was arrested by "Haftar’s forces" in battles in Libya. al-Bowaydani is from al-Jilani alley in Bab Amr neighbourhood in Homs city.
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...anybody you disagree with, damn them...
...
[TheIntercept] Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir has been heralded as our best hope in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the antiviral drug doesn’t seem of much help to patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. And while the company’s clever rollout has generated excitement among investors, politicians, and the public, a combination of generic drugs that appears to be more effective in fighting the coronavirus has flown under the radar....
[Daily Wire] Newly released emails show that Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer's office gave the "green light" for taxpayer money to be awarded to Democrat groups as part of the state's coronavirus tracing program.
