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Taliban takes control of border with Uzbekistan
Today's Headlines
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Good Morning

Jen Psaki discusses press room 'alligators', marriage and her red bob in 3,500 word Vogue feature with Annie Liebovitz photo shoot
Wednesday August 11th, 2021

Marilynmonroe6
Ankara and Baku in talks on creating a joint Turkic army
Wagner: Scale of Russian mercenary mission in Libya exposed
Nigerian army says 335 Boko Haram militants have surrendered
Cameroon Says Hundreds of Boko Haram Militants from Nigeria and Chad Surrender
Explosion on a merchant ship in the Syrian port of Latakia
In Syria, two soldiers were wounded by mortar fire from Turkish-controlled territory
Shocking moment DOZENS of migrants rush to climb into the back of a tractor-trailer driven by human smugglers in Texas

Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't know if she was the inspiration for this song, but I always reminds me of her...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't Get Excited - Summer is Nearing an End - Fall in About 5 Weeks -
But Marilyn Monroe is going to "Take You to the Beach"
Swim Suit Edition begins in 5.4.3.2.1...

Posted by: Bill Whineling9226 || 08/11/2021 7:58 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Bill Whineling9226 || 08/11/2021 8:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Marilyn is going to leave you now,
but she is leaving you with this thought...

"Every Doll Needs a Parasol"


Have a Great Rest of the Summer.
Posted by: Bill Whineling9226 || 08/11/2021 8:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I was just asked by a lovely spirit, "don't forget to tell them at Rantburg, what cars I used to drive to the beach in...OK Bill... you're so sweet for doing this for me. I could just kiss you."
Posted by: Bill Whineling9226 || 08/11/2021 8:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Ah-aroooooo...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:39 Comments || Top||

#7  We'll be going to the beach here on the Space Coast into October. Been known to go there New Years Day...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:41 Comments || Top||

#8  I need to watch The Misfits again...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:46 Comments || Top||

#9  I had a brother-in-law in the USMC (Who has since passed) that had the duty of driving Marilyn Monroe around when she visited the troops during the Korean War (police action).
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 14:28 Comments || Top||

#10  The Misfits: Monroe basically reduced the male cast to stuttering teenagers. Gable so outdid himself doing his own stunts to impress her that he had a fatal heart attack shortly thereafter.
Posted by: KBK || 08/11/2021 18:59 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China's Tech Crackdown Screws Foreign Investors
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 11:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11130 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Home Front: Politix
‘It was preordained': State Department blames Trump for US withdrawal from Afghanistan
[Washington Examiner] President Joe Biden had no "viable option" other than to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, according to a senior State Department official who suggested that former President Donald Trump’s team tied their hands with a flawed agreement with the Taliban.

"It was preordained," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters while defending the withdrawal. "It’s a deal that this administration probably would not have made, certainly not in all the detail. But it’s the deal that we inherited."

Taliban forces have swept across much of Afghanistan in the months since Biden announced that he would order U.S. troops to leave the country, culminating in the conquest of several provincial capitals since Friday. Allied officials have described Biden’s decision as "shock therapy," but Price suggested that it should have surprised no one, given that the Trump administration struck a deal that called for the withdrawal of American forces by May 1.

"The idea that the United States could have maintained a significant military presence in Afghanistan ... that was just not tenable," Price maintained. "It was not in the cards, because according to that agreement that was negotiated by the United States, not this administration, but the previous one, if our forces remain there in great numbers after May 1, they could have become the targets of violence."

The U.S.-Taliban agreement was negotiated by State Department special representative Zalmay Khalilzad, one of the rare Trump appointees to keep his job when Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken took office. That deal outlined a plan for a two-phase withdrawal of U.S. forces, in exchange for the Taliban’s pledge to cut ties with terrorist groups that threaten the United States and U.S. allies and the launch of peace talks between the militants and the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

"As intra-Afghan negotiations progress, the United States will watch the Taliban's actions closely to judge whether their efforts towards peace are in good faith," then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a visit to Kabul on the day the agreement was signed. "Should the Taliban fail to honor their commitments, they will forfeit their chance to sit with fellow Afghans and deliberate on the future of their country. Moreover, the United States would not hesitate to nullify the agreement."

Price demurred repeatedly when asked if the Taliban is keeping their end of the bargain — "levels of violence are too high," he repeated throughout the briefing — and argued that the Taliban’s decision not to attack U.S. forces at least vindicates their efforts to broker a deal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 08:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11148 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The gaffs don't want us, just our money. The ultimate advance in warfare will be to make sure the warred upon don't see a dime from the events going on around them.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2 

Seem to remember the Socialcrats having a fit as Trump held to his campaign promise and started drawing down troop, while still holding the Islamic Radicals there in check.


Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  This was pre-ordained from the moment we put boots on the ground in Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed in texas || 08/11/2021 10:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Sec. DOD Austin. "We just couldn't make those n*gger haters understand..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Funny that the 4 years of Trump were probably the most stable Middle East in 40 years and it is his fault. I guess it is if the goal is more instability.
Posted by: Airandee || 08/11/2021 11:06 Comments || Top||

#6  To bad Trump couldn't have pulled us out earlier so it was irreversible by the time someone else took office.
Posted by: ruprecht || 08/11/2021 19:13 Comments || Top||

#7  The Right is the only threat the Left can ever think about.
Posted by: Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589 || 08/11/2021 21:37 Comments || Top||

#8  President Trump tried, ruprecht. The generals slow-walked it, giggling among themselves about how much smarter they were than OrangeManBad...only to finally get hit with a direct order with a hard deadline, followed by a new president who gave the same order with a slightly delayed deadline.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 21:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Trailing… Why did the generals care?
Posted by: Big Feet || 08/11/2021 22:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Three words Eisenhower warned us about: Military Industrial Complex.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/11/2021 22:27 Comments || Top||

#11  Why did the generals care?

I don’t understand the question, Big Feet.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 23:23 Comments || Top||

#12  Why did the generals care?

Trump was the ultimate outsider. Not a member of The Club. And in doing what needed to be done, he was blundering about, breaking rice bowls, and interfering with long-running... let's call them "enterprises". Lucrative enterprises.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 23:37 Comments || Top||


Europe
Poland's ruling coalition crumbles as PM dumps junior partner
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 08:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Factory worker, 27, gets 1.8cm-long nail removed from his scrotum after accidentally shooting himself with a nail gun
Related (sorta): Man survives after 20ft pole pierces through his BRAIN when it fell from 20th-storey of a construction site in India
He'll need a custom hard hat made
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 07:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11137 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Add that to the short list of things... 'a man never forgets.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 7:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Gives "Nailed it!" a new meaning...
Posted by: Warthog || 08/11/2021 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  ^ Exactly what I thought...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:34 Comments || Top||

#4 

No... we can't bear to see it...please, please no...
Posted by: Andy Angusorong7705 || 08/11/2021 9:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Doing his own vasectomy?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/11/2021 10:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Won't have the balls to do that again.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 11:42 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 11:51 Comments || Top||

#8  let me try that again:
Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 11:52 Comments || Top||

#9  ^
Poor Guy Must of Passed out 2wice Just THINKING about having been shot in the marble sack
Posted by: George de Medici4538 || 08/11/2021 11:55 Comments || Top||

#10  That was an OUCH pic

but you're off by a far physical distance
Posted by: Thaiger Ebbeang9016 || 08/11/2021 11:58 Comments || Top||

#11  Saw a Youtube video a few days back discussing using a powder-actuated nail gun as a home defense weapon.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 14:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Well Placed Shot
Posted by: Thrusogum Wholuth2531 || 08/11/2021 15:49 Comments || Top||

#13  for those of you in Rio Linda, 1.8cm is a little less than 3/4 inch
Posted by: Retard Strength || 08/11/2021 18:22 Comments || Top||


Europe
British man is arrested for 'spying for Russia and handing over documents for cash while working at embassy in Germany'
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 07:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:

#1  at least he got paid; most of our traitors do it for "ideological" reasons.
Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 11:49 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Covid-19 Delta Variant: What The CDC Is Sharing.
CDC States:

The Covid-19 Delta variant causes more infections and spreads faster than early forms of SARS-CoV-2. The Delta variant is more contagious than previous strains.

The CDC states Fully vaccinated people with breakthrough infections, can transmit the Delta variant to others.

SIDE NOTE: Recent deeper studies vaccine effectiveness due to the increased number of vaccinated person infections. Show much a higher breakthrough infection percentage.

eg. Additional data from the U.K. suggests the Pfizer vaccine, that was 95% effective against earlier strains of Covid-19, is only about 88% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 Delta variant after two doses, a 12% GAP.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 07:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As Tom Robbins' newscaster said in "Even Cowgirls get the Blues." The situaion is the same as always, desperate as usual...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:45 Comments || Top||

#2  "Another roadside attraction"
Posted by: bman || 08/11/2021 11:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Delta variant has already peaked in India and Brazil with daily infections and fatalities down a lot, e.g. in India in May daily infections averaged 400k but now it is down to about 40k; daily fatalities were at 4k, now down to about 600
Posted by: Lord Garth || 08/11/2021 11:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Get ready for new variants. One crisis after another. Spanish flu lasted eight years, OH joy.
Posted by: Dale || 08/11/2021 11:28 Comments || Top||

#5  "Another roadside attraction"

Better that than another Roadside Picnic!

The Covid-19 Delta variant causes more infections and spreads faster than early forms of SARS-CoV-2. The Delta variant is more contagious than previous strains.

No need to repeat yourself there, CDC. Maybe you could get your Diversity Officer to proofread your work. I understand she is an English major.
And isn't this pretty much what we would predict a disease-causing virus does over time?

Additional data from the U.K. suggests the Pfizer vaccine, that was 95% effective against earlier strains of Covid-19, is only about 88% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 Delta variant after two doses, a 12% GAP.
Am I reading this wrong? 95 - 88 is 7 not 12.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 11:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Am I reading this wrong? 95 - 88 is 7 not 12.

Public skool maffs, you raycis!
Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2021 12:05 Comments || Top||

#7  My boo boo everyone .. I was trimming the eg. for fit.

As we know the vax was never 100% effective. Initially it was found to be 95%, a 5% effective gap.

Now with the Covid-19 Delta variant the data is showing the vax is 88% effective, a 12% gap.

My wording mistake and I own up to it.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 15:14 Comments || Top||

#8  Oopsie! Thanks for the clarification, NN2N1. I was worried I had contracted a rare variant of the Kung Flu that prevented me from doing basic math, kinda like the vanilla virus messes with your sense of smell.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 18:03 Comments || Top||

#9  All that and only a 99%+ chance of surviving if you’re not old, fat & already sick.
Posted by: Ding || 08/11/2021 20:45 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia and China stage joint war games with 13,000 troops in response to 'mounting pressure' from the West
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 07:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Barely a reinforced division.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 8:16 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
A man died in West Africa of a virus that causes internal bleeding and organ failure.
[J99 News] The World Health Organization has confirmed the death of a man as a result of the highly contagious Marburg virus, which can be transmitted to humans from fruit bats. World Health Organization.

  • A man in Guinea, West Africa, has died of the Marburg virus, which causes internal bleeding and organ failure.

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) said the disease has the potential to spread far and wide.

  • The disease can be transmitted to humans from fruit bats, says the WHO.

    A man in Guinea, West Africa, has died after contracting the Marburg virus, causing internal bleeding and organ failure. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the man’s death on August 9, saying the "highly contagious disease" has the potential to "spread far and wide."

    This is the first time the Marburg virus has ever been detected in Guinea, according to the WHO.

    According to the WHO, the man visited a local clinic to seek treatment, but his condition quickly worsened before his death. Researchers at Guinea’s National Hemorrhagic Fever Laboratory and Institute Pasteur in Senegal have confirmed the man’s Marburg virus diagnosis.

    The WHO said the virus can be transmitted to humans from fruit bats and transmitted from one person to another through surfaces and body fluids.

    The organization said the disease tends to begin with a sudden and sudden onset of high fever and headaches, with severe internal bleeding occurring within seven days. The WHO currently rates mortality between 24% and 88%.

    "We welcome the vigilance and prompt investigative efforts of Guinea’s health workers," Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, said in the organization’s statement on 9 August.

    "We are working with the health authorities to implement a rapid response based on Guinea’s previous experience and expertise in dealing with Ebola, which is transmitted in a similar way," Moeti said.
  • Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 06:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11158 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Bush meat. Why go to a "wet market' when you can cut out the middle man?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:27 Comments || Top||

    #2  Bats again. What is it about bats?
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 9:53 Comments || Top||

    #3  Also monkeys. It's named for Marburg, Germany where it was isolated in a shipment of monkeys from Africa. Close Ebola variant.
    Posted by: ed in texas || 08/11/2021 10:26 Comments || Top||

    #4  I’ll wait for Dr Fauxi to tell me what to think before commenting.
    Posted by: Ding || 08/11/2021 20:47 Comments || Top||

    #5  Hope the poor bastard didn't last too long.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 23:09 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Politix
    Pilot plan to charge drivers by the MILE is hidden in Biden's $1.2trillion infrastructure bill
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 06:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  They can't even count votes correctly. They are going to count every mile Americans drive? Riiiiight...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:16 Comments || Top||

    #2  I thought that was what the gas tax was about. Guess the EV surge is throwing revenue off.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 7:26 Comments || Top||

    #3  Simple:
    1. Vehicles inspected every year
    2. Mileage noted
    3. Tax Bill Issued and must be Paid at Inspection
    4. Not Paid you are SOL = Nova = No Go = Take a bus Home
    Posted by: Ominese Whuque5752 || 08/11/2021 7:29 Comments || Top||

    #4  With higher fuel mileage and EV increasing, and with fed gas tax not increasing for many years, the per mile plan may be an option. The part i have trouble with is that you locations are being documented during that mileage collection. If we go mileage, then what O. W. Said. But reluctantly
    Posted by: USN, Ret. || 08/11/2021 7:38 Comments || Top||

    #5  Oh yeah, forgot extra surcharge on 'fuel used' to build alterative infrastructure
    Gasoline (retire & decontaminate environment)
    Electric (build EV stations, power plants, solar, wind etc.)
    Hydrogen (ditto, all of EV plus 'hazard tax' for firefighting equiptment)

    You all have just been made :

    Posted by: Ominese Whuque5752 || 08/11/2021 7:39 Comments || Top||

    #6  Does it beginning to down that mask mandates/"new normal" were a red cape waved at a bull?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:45 Comments || Top||

    #7  It wasn't the bull g, it was 19 RINOs
    Posted by: Rex Mundi || 08/11/2021 10:14 Comments || Top||

    #8  Won't they be bittery surprised to find they aren't fighting frogs?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:18 Comments || Top||

    #9  Unlike Lee, Austin will be executed immediately. Not firing squad or rope, he'll be tranpled by cavalry horses...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:20 Comments || Top||

    #10  So the GIVERnment forces vehicle manufactures to produce cars that get 30 MPG (and they all look the same) and produce EVs . Then due to lack of revenue makes them pay more for driving a vehicle they really would not rather have.
    Posted by: Airandee || 08/11/2021 10:27 Comments || Top||

    #11  ^^^^ #10

    You got it right and back in the day it was called a



    Trabant
    Posted by: Elmirong Ulusort4613 || 08/11/2021 10:33 Comments || Top||

    #12  Red Barchetta...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:41 Comments || Top||

    #13  ^ Good call
    Posted by: Rex Mundi || 08/11/2021 10:47 Comments || Top||

    #14  Does this include farm vehicles? Ranchers feeding cattle?
    Posted by: bman || 08/11/2021 11:34 Comments || Top||

    #15  Big Nanny government has been trying to get this approved for years. Easy way to track you without going through all the stupid hoops with your cell data.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 12:26 Comments || Top||

    #16  Does this include farm vehicles? Ranchers feeding cattle?
    ^bman, Of course, cattle are bad-they fart and cause global warming. And who needs farmers - food comes from grocery stores.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 14:17 Comments || Top||

    #17  #3 Your mechanic can adjust the mileage back
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 14:24 Comments || Top||

    #18  ^ Magic numbers expert doesn't understand how a digital dashboard works. Why am I not surprised?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:40 Comments || Top||

    #19  Oh, right. I magic numbers land, all data can be fudged....
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:42 Comments || Top||

    #20  In magic numbers land...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:43 Comments || Top||

    #21  Yeah, or better yet, drive backwards until the miles are reversed.

    Better leave your phone at home, because the "Contact Tracing" will kick on every time you get above 10mph.
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2021 17:48 Comments || Top||

    #22  # 12 / M. Murcek - that's one of my top five Rush songs. Thanks for the link!
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 18:25 Comments || Top||

    #23  Rush is a long time favorite of mine. I like all their stuff..
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:40 Comments || Top||

    #24  Alex Lifeson on Trailer Park Boys...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:43 Comments || Top||

    #25  A stab in the eye of magic numbers cultists...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:58 Comments || Top||

    #26  OK - what the fuck just happened to my post?
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 18:59 Comments || Top||

    #27  Your mechanic can adjust the mileage back

    In the olden days, cars had analog odometers with gears and wheels. An unscrupulous helpful mechanic could drill a teensy hole and use a dental pick to physically roll back the digit wheels. Or chuck the odometer cable in a electric drill and 'drive' it back.

    Nowadays, it's a digital world. You hook an electronic dingus to the car's CAN bus and you can talk to its computer, which is how your mechanic reads the Check Engine codes or turns off the Service Required warning. I would be totally un-surprised if there was a way to set as well as read the mileage, even if it is not in the official documentation. Data is malleable.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 19:00 Comments || Top||

    #28  Unlike Dominion voting machines, the chip in your car has an error flag that announces it has been altered.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 19:05 Comments || Top||

    #29  Lovely - I can swear like a sailor here but I can't post links to my five favorite Rush songs? What the fuck...
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 19:07 Comments || Top||

    #30  Too many links in one post I'm guessing, Raj. An anti-spam measure, IIRC.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 19:12 Comments || Top||

    #31  Unlike Dominion voting machines, the chip in your car has an error flag that announces it has been altered.

    My first impulse is to snark that error flags are data and like the man said, "Data bees malleable". But I don't know enough about the innerds of auto data systems to say. I would be pleased to see that automakers have tried to create some barriers to hacking, unlike Dominion machines which seem designed to be "updated".

    Worth noting is a general principle in computer security that if someone has physical access to the device, then all bets are off.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 19:26 Comments || Top||

    #32  SteveS - that's probably it. It still sucks - they should have an anti-spam filter to let Rush songs through!
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 19:30 Comments || Top||

    #33  I think 2 links per comment/post is the limit. We had trolls that would linkfest the shit out of RB
    Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2021 19:46 Comments || Top||

    #34  This really hits if you live rurally or in the fly over states. Every time I go out a RT is a minimum of 40 miles and driving all the way into the city is up to 100 miles RT
    The monitoring sucks even more.
    Posted by: Jan || 08/11/2021 20:31 Comments || Top||

    #35  Never mind those who travel around checking cows...off road. Harvest time as well.

    In the olden days, cars had analog odometers with gears and wheels. An unscrupulous helpful mechanic could drill a teensy hole and use a dental pick to physically roll back the digit wheels. Or chuck the odometer cable in a electric drill and 'drive' it back.

    It occurred to me this is meant for those readers under 40, who likely didn't get my joke.
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2021 21:53 Comments || Top||

    #36  I'm sure Teamster driven rigs will get an exemption.
    Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/11/2021 22:29 Comments || Top||


    -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
    Where are you going, Joe? Another 'senior moment' as confused President Biden ignores Secret Service agent directions into White House and bizarrely walks onto lawn
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 06:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11132 views] Top|| File under:

    #1 

    The only thing keeping both parties in Congress from using the 25th Amendment is it would make Harris become President, Pelosi VP and maybe AOC speaker of the house???

    Given that, maybe Woodrow Wilson Process is a better alternative for now?

    Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 7:30 Comments || Top||

    #2  ^Long live the holy Matriarchy!
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:49 Comments || Top||

    #3  Actually I don't believe Pelosi would become VP. Harris would nominate a new VP and the Senate would approve. Besides I don't think Pelosi would give up her power as Speaker - unless she planned on ascending the presidency.

    When Nixon Resigned and Gerald Ford became president he nominated Nelson Rockefeller - who's nomination passed the Senate and House.
    Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/11/2021 8:32 Comments || Top||

    #4  Harris installed via the 25th Amendment? She would be way over her head if this happens--most sensible people. One only needs to reflect on the primary results.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 9:21 Comments || Top||

    #5  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will announce she’s stepping down “probably after next year’s midterm elections,” writes Edward-Isaac Dovere for The Atlantic in a piece about Hakeem Jeffries potentially taking the reins from the California Democrat.
    Posted by: Angens Omains2244 || 08/11/2021 9:28 Comments || Top||

    #6  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will announce she’s stepping down “probably after next year’s midterm elections

    I want to see the incoming house speaker paddle her to death in front of the capital and then cancel all the 1/6 prosecutions.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:37 Comments || Top||

    #7  Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun of your hand?
    Hey Joe, I said, where you goin' with that gun in your hand? Oh
    I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady
    You know I caught her messin' 'round with another man, yeah…
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 11:18 Comments || Top||

    #8  Hey, Joe, where you goin' with that drool on your chin...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 11:51 Comments || Top||

    #9  I love the idea of Jill's fambly having to say "Well, it was just one of those things. No crime. Nothing personal."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 11:53 Comments || Top||

    #10  #7 and #8, Glenmore set him up and Murcek slam dunked it.
    Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/11/2021 12:01 Comments || Top||

    #11  Another View FYI: SILVER ALERT

    Alzheimer’s patient lost at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

    Posted by: Glearong Glulet3779 || 08/11/2021 16:05 Comments || Top||

    #12  Goin' down to shoot my old lady. You want to see that as much as I can...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:31 Comments || Top||


    Fourth case of fatal, rare melioidosis in U.S. found in Georgia
    [Just The News] he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Monday that a fourth, and fatal, case of melioidosis, a rare disease that originates in South Asia, was found in Georgia, and is linked to three other cases in various states.

    The four cases found in Georgia, Minnesota, Texas, and Kansas included adults and children, two of which did not have any known risk factors for melioidosis, and two of the patients died, according to the CDC.

    The CDC examined the bacteria that infected the patients and found that they "closely match each other, suggesting there is a common source for these cases."

    Despite the bacterial strains being close in relation to those found in South Asia, "none of the patients had traveled internationally," the CDC said.

    "The bacteria normally lives in moist soil and water," the CDC explained. "However, in rare cases, it has also been found to contaminate wet or moist products in the areas where the bacteria are common."

    While the CDC has yet to identify the origin of the disease after collecting and testing over 100 samples of water, soil, and products in and around the homes of the patients, it "believes the most likely cause is an imported product (such as a food or drink, personal care or cleaning products or medicine) or an ingredient in one of those types of products."

    The patients were spread out across the country, and the times they contracted the illness varied. Additionally, it can take two to three weeks for someone infected with melioidosis to become sick. For those reasons, it may be difficult to identify the source, the CDC noted.

    The "CDC is asking clinicians to watch for any acute bacterial infection that doesn't respond to normal antibiotics and consider melioidosis — regardless of whether the patient traveled outside the United States," the statement said. "CDC also urges clinicians not to rule out melioidosis as a possible diagnosis in children and those who were previously healthy and without known risk factors for melioidosis."

    Those who are healthy can still contract melioidosis, but prior conditions such as cancer, kidney or liver disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease, or a condition weakening the immune system can increase risk. Most of the children who contract melioidosis do not have any risk factors.

    "People experiencing cough, chest pain, high fever, headache or unexplained weight loss should see their doctor," the CDC advised.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 05:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  "believes the most likely cause is an imported product (such as a food or drink, personal care or cleaning products or medicine)

    "Imported product" was it ?
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 5:43 Comments || Top||

    #2  Imported product walking around...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:29 Comments || Top||

    #3  Quick search says that most people infected show no symptoms, so there could be a much wider spread of this "import" than these 4 cases would tend to indicate.
    Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 11:48 Comments || Top||

    #4  Better shut down the entire economy then.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 12:27 Comments || Top||


    Science & Technology
    Israel to expand use of COVID drug that gets 88% of patients out of hospital
    [JPost] - The Health Ministry has approved the expanded use of an innovative COVID-19 treatment that helped 14 out of 16 severe patients who took it to be released from the hospital one day after receiving their final dose.

    The drug, MesenCure, has been being tested by Rambam Medical Center as part of a Phase I/II trial. The ministry has approved allowing any Israeli hospital interested to take part in the Phase II trial and to use the drug for additional approved patients.

    ...MesenCure, which consists of activated Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) that are isolated from the adipose tissue of healthy donors, was found to reduce inflammation and alleviate respiratory and other symptoms in patients suffering from life-threatening respiratory distress brought on by COVID-19.

    The way forward is through Immunology - not "miracle" chemicals.
    Although, following the Covid outcomes of Sturgis biker rally, have anyone investigated the interplay between Covid and fentanyl?😎;
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 03:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11144 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Hey, this sounds like a very good step forward, fingers crossed it works well for all patients with CCP-virus.

    Frankly, tying your hopes to the same science, is a donkey tread mill, round and around you go expecting a different result is foolish. - If drugs can cure, then let that be so; otherwise, here have a
    Posted by: Solomon Tingle7710 || 08/11/2021 6:00 Comments || Top||

    #2  The way forward is through Immunology - not "miracle" chemicals.
    Although, following the Covid outcomes of Sturgis biker rally, have anyone investigated the interplay between Covid and fentanyl?😎;


    I'm sure you'll be able to strain at gnats, and swallow camels, and take advantage of treatments yourself while being able to look away from all the evidence of what Fauci and his collaborators _have done_.

    DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT I WAS ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE TREATMENTS AND THEIR SUPPRESSION HALF BECAUSE OF THE TREATMENTS THEMSELVES BUT ALSO BECAUSE I WANTED YOU TO UNDERSTAND WHAT FAUCI, DASZAK, ET ALIA HAVE DONE?
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 10:41 Comments || Top||

    #3  ^So no data on fentanyl vs. Covid?😂

    Seriously now. I have attempted to explain to you several times that Fauci has zero, zip, and zilch influence on medical research outside USA. He can no more suppress research re HCQ in places like India, China, Russia, or Brazil (google Brazil HCQ) than he can fly by flapping his hands.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:01 Comments || Top||

    #4  When they ran studies that gave people overdoses and said it was definitive _and people like you didn't look up the safe dosage information from printed reference materials from before the crisis_ they were able to do it in spite of everything.

    They're able to keep you from looking at a PDR and finding out the generally acceptable safe dosage if you don't look.

    Now: detailed dosage information wasn't in the 2010 PDR, which I have, but was in the 2017.

    (Possibly because they had to go back to it in the intervening years because Melfloquine/Lariam turned out to be too dangerous to use. In addition to Plaquenil/HCQ's other uses, for treating Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis).

    All Fauci (and his unknown collaborators) has to do is rely on everyone _not looking_ because Of Course He Wouldn't Be Able To Do That.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 12:26 Comments || Top||

    #5  I don't care what they did, or you say they did, in Los Estates Unidos.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:28 Comments || Top||

    #6  For someone so apathetic you sure seem to be arguing pretty hard.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 13:25 Comments || Top||

    #7  Now, I just reacting to you people - childhood habit never back away from bullies.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 13:29 Comments || Top||

    #8  Seriously now. I have attempted to explain to you several times that Fauci has zero, zip, and zilch influence on medical research outside USA.

    Well, I wouldn't say that considering all the shit he's done in China.
    Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/11/2021 18:05 Comments || Top||

    #9  Ooops. Sorry for the language. Let's just say the good doctor has a credibility problem after denying that any of the grant money he sent to the WIV went to gain of function research.
    Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/11/2021 18:14 Comments || Top||


    Europe
    Iranian official on trial in Sweden for war crimes tied to new president Raisi
    [IsraelTimes] Hamid Noury charged with murder for role in ordering mass executions of political dissidents in 1988, a purge Iran’s new leader is claimed to have led

    A former Iranian prison official handed out death sentence
    ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
    s as part of a 1988 purge of political dissidents, Swedish prosecutors said on the first day of a landmark case likely to stoke tensions in the Islamic Theocratic Republic.

    Hamid Noury, 60, appeared relaxed in light-colored clothing in Stockholm District Court and listened through a translator as prosecutors read out a litany of charges including "murder" and "war crimes," dating from July 30 to August 16, 1988, when Noury was allegedly assistant to the deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison in Karaj, near Tehran.

    Prosecutor Kristina Lindhoff Carleson accused Noury of "intentionally taking the life of a very large number of prisoners sympathetic to or belonging to the People’s Mujahedin" (MEK) as well as others considered opponents of the "theocratic Iranian state."

    Human rights groups have estimated that 5,000 prisoners were killed across Iran, allegedly under the orders of supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, in reprisal for attacks carried out by the MEK at the end of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88.

    While not accused of directly carrying out any of the killings, Noury’s participation included handing down death sentences, bringing prisoners to the execution chamber and helping prosecutors gather prisoners’ names, the prosecution said.

    Defense counsel Daniel Marcus pledged to refute all charges during the three-day trial, and denied Noury even worked at the prison.

    Also in court were lawyers for the group of over 30 civil complainants who helped bring the case, including victims and their families.

    Among those following the case was Lawdan Bazargan, 52, whose brother was executed while in prison for belonging to a left-wing group in 1987, and whose sister will testify in the trial.

    "When we tried to reclaim his body they told us ’An apostate does not have a body,'" Bazargan told AFP, having traveled to Sweden from her home in the United States for the trial.

    A verdict in the three-day case, the first of its kind, is expected in April 2022.

    ‘DEATH COMMISSION’ ACCUSATIONS
    MEK supporters were among several hundred protesters who gathered outside the court carrying photos of the dead and demanding justice.

    The case is particularly sensitive in Iran, where campaigners accuse current government figures of having a role in the deaths, most notably newly inaugurated president Ebrahim Raisi.

    The former head of Iran’s judiciary was accused by Amnesia Amnesty International in 2018 of being a member of a "death commission" which was behind the secret executions.

    Questioned in 2018 and 2020, Raisi denied involvement but paid "tribute" to Ayatollah Khomeini’s "order" to carry out the purge.

    Khomeini died in 1989.

    LURED TO SWEDEN
    Sweden’s principle of universal jurisdiction means that its courts can try a person on serious charges such as murder or war crimes regardless of where the alleged offenses took place.

    Noury was arrested at Stockholm airport in November 2019 following the efforts of justice campaigner and former political prisoner Iraj Mesdaghi.

    After compiling an evidence dossier of "several thousand pages" on Noury, Mesdaghi set about luring the former prison official to the Nordic country — where he has family members — with the promise of a luxury cruise. Noury was arrested as he stepped onto Swedish soil.

    "This is the first time that one of the persecutors has been held accountable in another country," Mesdaghi told AFP.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 01:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  Repellent as some Iranian officials are - I don't believe it's Sweden's business to try people for crimes that occurred outside Sweden and didn't involve Swedish citizens.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 8:57 Comments || Top||

    #2  Sweden’s principle of universal jurisdiction means that its courts can try a person on serious charges such as murder or war crimes regardless of where the alleged offenses took place.

    I had wondered why this trial was taking place in Sweden. Now I know. Pope Boniface, call your office. Apparently Sweden has replaced you as the ruler of the world.
    Posted by: Tom || 08/11/2021 10:16 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    U.S. Provides Nearly $100M in Additional Humanitarian Aid for Lebanon
    [AnNahar] U.S. President Joseph Biden has announced nearly $100 million in new humanitarian assistance for Lebanon.

    “This assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State will help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its compounding socioeconomic impacts on the Lebanese people. The funding will also support Syrian refugees sheltering in Lebanon,” a U.S. statement said.

    With the $41 million of USAID funding, the United States will provide urgently needed food assistance, health care, protection, and water and sanitation support to communities, including those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Importantly, this also includes food assistance to help 400,000 vulnerable Lebanese beneficiaries. Along with funding provided by the U.S. Department of State, this support brings total U.S. humanitarian assistance in Lebanon to more than $372 million in Fiscal Year 2021; in response to COVID-19, the humanitarian impacts of the August 2020 explosions at the Port of Beirut, and the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.

    “The United States is the single largest donor of humanitarian assistance in Lebanon. With so many compounding emergencies in the country and region, including a growing economic crisis, the United States is deeply concerned about the continuing increase in humanitarian needs, and urges other donors to step up to provide much needed support to save lives,” the U.S. statement added.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 01:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11130 views] Top|| File under:


    Arabia
    More than 200 arrested in latest Saudi anti-corruption purge
    [AlAhram] The commission said more than 460 people were investigated in this latest round, and that as a result, 207 Saudi citizens and residents were detained on allegations of corruption, abuse of authority and fraud
    Sunni Gulenists!
    Saudi Arabia
    ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
    announced the arrest of 207 employees across about a dozen government ministries in the latest sweep by an anti-corruption body empowered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
    ...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists. As crown prince, Moe has quietly jettisoned his country's policy of trying to impose its religion on the rest of the world...

    Those detained were not named and it was unclear when the arrests were made. The kingdom's National Anti-Corruption Commission, known as ``Nazaha'', announced the arrests late on Monday.

    The crown prince's anti-corruption purge began in late 2017. It has helped him consolidate power and netted the kingdom $106 billion in assets. Saudi nationals have long complained of rampant corruption in government and of public funds being squandered or misused by those in power.

    Those accused will be referred to prosecution, the commission said. They hail from the national guard and a range of ministries, including defense, interior, health and justice, among others.

    In April, the commission said 176 people from across the public sector had similarly been detained for alleged corruption.

    The kingdom's anti-corruption purge went into high gear in late 2017 when Prince Mohammed targeted more than 300 princes, public figures and businessmen who together symbolized the elite structure encircling the ruling Al Saud family and its vast patronage networks.

    In unprecedented fashion that year, his forces arrested the country's most powerful figures and held them incommunicado at the opulent Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh for weeks and even months. Several were later transferred to prisons or other detention facilities amid reports of physical abuse.

    Last year, two more high-ranking officials were removed from their post and referred to trial. They included Lt. Gen. Fahad bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, a prince who oversaw Saudi operations 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...
    , and his son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahad bin Turki, who was deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's Jouf region.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 01:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:


    Science & Technology
    (CDC warns against travel to Israel)
    My apologies, Snowy Thing — this one is my fault. You posted a CDC warning about travel to Israel because of COVID. If you post the link in comments, we’ll reconstitute it.

    —trailing wife at 12:45 a.m. ET
    Posted by: Thing from Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 00:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Commies

    #1  The problem is at the Israeli end, according to the Times of Israel:

    Birthright cancels dozens of trips to Israel due to new quarantine rules

    Organization that brings young Jews to Israel for free shelves 42 of its 10-day visits planned for the summer after government orders all arrivals from US to isolate for a week

    Separately, the US Centers for Disease Control has warned against travel to Israel, saying there is a “very high level” of COVID-19, and that even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.

    “We anticipate that the seven-day quarantine rule will be temporary, and we look forward to resuming trips as soon as possible,” the newspaper quoted a Birthright spokesman as saying.

    Birthright resumed travel in May following a 14-month hiatus.

    Israel is battling a resurgence of COVID-19 infections that have rocketed from just a few dozen daily cases in June to over 5,000 diagnosed on Monday.

    As of August 16, there will be only 10 countries Israelis will be able to return from without having to quarantine — and only three of those destinations accept Israeli tourists — according to updated travel guidelines published by the Health Ministry late on Sunday.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 0:50 Comments || Top||

    #2  When I was a boy, the Dead Sea was only sick. -George Burns
    Posted by: Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 || 08/11/2021 1:28 Comments || Top||

    #3  The link I had found earlier was to the CDC announcement itself. Which I figured was newsworthy even though I wasn't particularly impressed by it.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 1:31 Comments || Top||

    #4  Now I don't remember where I found it. And my phone hotspot isn't cooperating. Good night.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 1:37 Comments || Top||

    #5  Thank you, my dear. I’ll find it when I wake up in the morning. Again, my apologies.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 3:07 Comments || Top||

    #6  ^Here you are milady. U.S. CDC urges avoiding travel to Israel, France, Thailand over COVID-19
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 3:13 Comments || Top||

    #7  *sigh* I can’t resist looking things up. Is this it?

    Level 4: Very High Level of COVID-19 in Israel
    Key Information for Travelers to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

    Israel

    Avoid travel to Israel.
    If you must travel to Israel, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.
    Because of the current situation in Israel, even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.
    Travelers should follow recommendations or requirements in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, including wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart from others.

    West Bank and Gaza

    Make sure you are fully vaccinated before traveling to the West Bank and Gaza.
    Unvaccinated travelers who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 should avoid nonessential travel to the West Bank and Gaza. If you must travel and have concerns, talk to your doctor.
    Travelers should follow recommendations or requirements in the West Bank and Gaza, including wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart from others.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 3:21 Comments || Top||

    #8  ^Mine from YNet
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 3:23 Comments || Top||

    #9  Yours sounds more like what I remembered reading before it disappeared, g(r)omgoru. Thank you.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 3:24 Comments || Top||

    #10  ^Gracias, donna.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 3:26 Comments || Top||

    #11  I might "warn against travel" to anywhere right now.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 5:18 Comments || Top||

    #12  Place I always wanted to visit. Probably won't because my best interests aren't on their plate.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:35 Comments || Top||

    #13  I was hoping to see La Serenessima some day.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/11/2021 10:46 Comments || Top||

    #14  I warn against listening to the CDC on COVID.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 11:28 Comments || Top||

    #15  I might "warn against travel" to anywhere right now.

    Others also hold that opinion. Danger:Humans A message from the Interstellar Safety Council
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 11:38 Comments || Top||

    #16  Guard your personal safety and don't put one dime in the hands of greedy, ungrateful foreigners..
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:49 Comments || Top||


    -Lurid Crime Tales-
    DOZENS of migrants rush to climb into back of tractor-trailer driven by human smugglers in Texas
    [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
    • Video footage obtained by the National Border Patrol Council Local 2455 union chapter showed how more than 100 migrants were loaded into a tractor-trailer

    • The incident unfolded in Laredo, Texas, last Friday when the individuals were spotted getting off at least 20 SUVs and then rushing inside the cargo box

    • Héctor Garza, President of the National Border Patrol Council's Laredo Sector, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that it is unknown of the migrants were detained
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Human Trafficking

    #1  Another example of Washington betrayal.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 5:32 Comments || Top||

    #2  I doubt anyone rushed back into a boxcar after being let out.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:08 Comments || Top||


    Terrifying moment woman, 28, fights off attacker who slams her to the ground before stealing her car keys at gas station in Alabama
    [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
    • Brandon Young, 28, allegedly robbed a young woman at a Chevron gas station in Mobile, Alabama, on Sunday

    • Video showed the suspect grabbing the woman and then her keys as he threw her to the ground

    • The vehicle was not stolen however as he left the area after the woman ran away

    • The footage from the incident was posted on social media by the woman's stepmom to raise awareness

    • Young faces felony third-degree robbery charges and is due to appear in court this week

    • Gas station owner Nazmul Hasan said Young was seen hanging around the area multiple times on Saturday and was even alerted by police when they stopped in

    • Young frequents the gas station, and has attempted robberies before
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Please specify that your link goes to Daily Mail. Their obnoxious adware policy makes it a no go for lots of people.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:01 Comments || Top||

    #2  [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

    That’s part of the reason why we do that, M. When I spend time reading their articles beyond the key points, I do it in Reader view, which gets rid of the ads. On my iPad there is an AA thingy at the left end of the address bar at the top of the page — clicking on it gives a drop down menu, among whose options is Reader View. Our PC desktop offers something similar.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 11:58 Comments || Top||

    #3  Good advice TW. Thank you.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:55 Comments || Top||

    #4  Firefox with adblock and noscript addons is also very good at avoiding popup and blinky stuff.
    Posted by: rammer || 08/11/2021 17:14 Comments || Top||

    #5  I just skip the Mail and get the video somewhere else...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:25 Comments || Top||

    #6  Whiners.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 23:10 Comments || Top||


    NYPD finally crackdown on Times Square drug dealers: Cops bust huge drugs ring running 24 hour open-air crack market in bid to stamp out violence that is plaguing the world-renowned tourist spot
    [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
    • Federal authorities and the New York Police Department bust up drug ring near Times Square in Manhattan

    • Drug ring involved at least eight men who worked 'round-the-clock,' according to federal prosecutors

    • Investigators said they operated a 24-hour open-air crack cocaine market in Hell's Kitchen near Times Square

    • Authorities said they dealt drugs from at least December 2019 until last month, when authorities busted ring

    • Times Square has been plagued by a spate of gun violence this past spring and through the summer

    • Last month, a 23-year-old woman was slashed in the area after she ignored a male assailant's catcalls

    • In June, a 16-year-old boy allegedly shot and wounded an enlistee of the Marine Corps, 21, in Times Square

    • In May, three innocent bystanders were struck by stray bullets after gunshots rang out in broad daylight

    • In April, a tourist from Kansas City was struck in the shoulder by a stray bullet in the area
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

    #1  On the day that Cuomo announced his resignation - mere concidence?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 4:22 Comments || Top||

    #2  Times Crimes Slimes Square is amatuer hour. It's where visiting rubes go to cop hash made by rolling a dog turn in vacuum cleaner bag contents and "fentanyl" from the plumbing aisle at the hardware store.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:01 Comments || Top||

    #3  Defund The Police™ must be polling really bad for the mid-terms...
    Posted by: magpie || 08/11/2021 10:10 Comments || Top||

    #4  "Your making us look bad, damnit!"
    Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 11:27 Comments || Top||

    #5  you're right murcek, the real drug markets are in the projects.
    Posted by: Chris || 08/11/2021 19:12 Comments || Top||


    -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
    Houston hospital system erects TENTS to deal with surge in COVID cases as intensive care units are swamped: Austin and Dallas schools defy Gov Greg Abbott and implement new mask mandates
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Austin and Dallas schools defy Gov Greg Abbott and implement new mask mandates

    Idiots should be defied. And, on Covid, Republicans are idiots - letting the tail (a small group of "fundamentalist conservatives") wag the dog.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 3:30 Comments || Top||

    #2  ...no, its more of the product of the health community lying for over a year, trashing the fundamentals of proper data gathering, and flip flopping more than a fish on the boat deck. No preface with "We don't know for sure, but" before making fiats to shut down life for most people. Don't give me hospitalization numbers now, give me the fatality count.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 6:34 Comments || Top||

    #3  ^Oh yes, your federal agencies are supposed to be omniscient - otherwise they must be opposed (and they're all Democrats, anyway).
    Newsflash - they did the best they could under the circumstances. And, your Republican/"Libertarian" experts did the worst they could.
    And that's what happens to a country where politics become a clash of mutually exclusive ideologies.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:28 Comments || Top||

    #4  As the truly savvy grifters see the end of the scam in sight, they needed to get these tent rental contracts out there toot suite...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:30 Comments || Top||

    #5  Big business begins to turn the corner...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:32 Comments || Top||

    #6  #3 We just recently found out the CDC test for Covid also tests positive for flu. Did they put that out last year? Why not? The whole basis of data collection for analysis and scientific interpretation was trash.
    Look again, no I don't expect them to be omniscient, but honest. When they're guessing, let the people know they're not sure. It doesn't help one bit when honest scientific opinion is censored by those in power.
    And I certainly have no confidence in a man who funded the bio-warfare studies in a foreign country to skirt American law to have any say in the process because he is absolutely compromised. He's in full CYA and 'squirrel' mode.

    As for the kids...back to proper data collection once again being ignored.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 7:53 Comments || Top||

    #7  /\ And I certainly have no confidence in a man who funded the bio-warfare studies in a foreign country

    Or confidence in the government who has him in their employment.


    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 7:55 Comments || Top||

    #8  #6 Look P2k, you know I respect you - and I don't respect many. But, don't you notice the creeping Manicheanism - anything Democrats/Federales do/say comes from the devil and must be opposed.?
    Be honest, don't you find anti-mask arguments infantile?
    How about MDs who think "mRNA" is genetic engineering?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 8:01 Comments || Top||

    #9  ^And if we discuss vaccination - think your side would've won the Revolutionary war without Washington vaccinating the Army of the Potomac?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 8:03 Comments || Top||

    #10  Well, the thing about history is, it's as speculative as the future. It happened as it did and swearing up and down a single factor was definitive give serious historians a belly laugh.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:09 Comments || Top||

    #11  As for leftists, they are dogma all the way down. If they like vaccination, it's not because its a practical necessity or a good idea. It's because they have decided it's a vehicle to advance The Cause™. People genetically inclined to vote left can't see that any better than a vampire can see its reflection in a mirror.

    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:13 Comments || Top||

    #12  Speaks for itself....
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:23 Comments || Top||

    #13  Grom, 'Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?'
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 9:59 Comments || Top||

    #14  ^Wasn't it the French?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 10:01 Comments || Top||

    #15  Rand Paul is right: *resist*. I won't be masking up for anyone this time around. I masked up only to shop last time around.

    Grom--you're little spineless weasel. If you want to live the rest of your worthless life in a cave wearing a rag all by yourself, have at it.
    Posted by: Crusader || 08/11/2021 10:08 Comments || Top||

    #16  ^And you are a great hero - on the Internet.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 10:18 Comments || Top||

    #17  The COVID religion is dying now. Just as Stalin mis-predicted about capitalism, the believers will not go out gently...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:25 Comments || Top||

    #18  LBJ hospital in Houston is the charity hospital, and is about 10 minutes from swamped under the best of circumstances. It's sort of the "St Elsewhere" of Houston. No insurance or medicare? The ambulance goes to LBJ.
    Posted by: ed in texas || 08/11/2021 10:35 Comments || Top||

    #19  LBJ serves a lot of the Hispanic community, which is likely where many of the recent 'catch and release' immigrants landed. (Didn't look, but Parkland does the same for Dallas.) I am curious how much effect masking practice had - it should be clear that uncontrolled dispersion of infected immigrants is not a good practice, but we are forbidden from suggesting that.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 10:43 Comments || Top||

    #20  As the truly savvy grifters see the end of the scam in sight, they needed to get these tent rental contracts out there toot suite.

    Appropriations for hospitals to fund overfill situations is on its one year use it or lose it deadline. That is a thing.

    Suppose we can look forward to nurses tiktoking on the flying trapeze?
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2021 10:44 Comments || Top||

    #21  Several states have outlawed charity run hospitals as charities can skirt rules incompatible with running a legitimate hospital.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:49 Comments || Top||

    #22  The louder a COVID religionist screeches the less they should be listened to.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:52 Comments || Top||

    #23  #19. People who have had crappy nutrition and hygiene recently (gimmiegrants) are sicker than most people. Knock me over with a feather...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:55 Comments || Top||

    #24  #14 ^Wasn't it the French?

    Nah, it was the Germans. You're probably thinking of the Battle of Rainbow Warrior.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 11:11 Comments || Top||

    #25  ^First Manassas.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:07 Comments || Top||

    #26  Idiots should be defied. And, on Covid, Republicans are idiots - letting the tail (a small group of "fundamentalist conservatives") wag the dog.

    Masks have been proven ineffective in numerous studies by clinical professionals. Why are you so frightened? Your fear has you unhinged.
    Posted by: Beldar and Company8669 || 08/11/2021 12:07 Comments || Top||

    #27  Masks have been proven ineffective in numerous studies by clinical professionals.

    That's just your urban legend.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:12 Comments || Top||

    #28  Uh...no. Do a search for yourself. There have been quite a few studies that address the ineffectiveness of masks, especially the little cloth face diapers. Don't ask me to curate these articles for you, you'll better appreciate them if you do the legwork yourself.
    Posted by: Beldar and Company8669 || 08/11/2021 12:24 Comments || Top||

    #29  ^Read some of them - bandarlog hooting.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:27 Comments || Top||

    #30  ^ COVID religionist tries to re-position his belief matrix...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:28 Comments || Top||

    #31  MM when's your booster shoot scheduled?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:29 Comments || Top||

    #32  It's swirling the bowl now g. Get out while you can.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:29 Comments || Top||

    #33  It isn't? Too bad.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:30 Comments || Top||

    #34  No boosters approved here in the US right now. Why do you ask a question an expert like you should already know the answer to?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:31 Comments || Top||

    #35  Religion can't wait for FDA, NIH, CDC or St. Fauxi. Says it all...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:33 Comments || Top||

    #36  N-95 masks worn so tightly that the skin is bruised under the rim of the thing as it seals to the face, and changed out as soon as it becomes moist are effective, especially when combined with a clear plastic face shield, according to the research I’ve seen. Anything less prevents spraying droplets into the air when coughing or sneezing — a good thing for diseases spread by droplets — but is not much more protective in either direction than that. And the damp inner surface basically cultures whatever was in the breath, so that the concentration of all sorts of ugly things is much higher for the mask wearer than for everyone else if not changed fairly frequently.

    Finally, I would not trust a disposable mask made in China to be either effective or sterile upon opening the package.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 12:36 Comments || Top||

    #37  Years ago, while working in a repair depot, I had a physicist in to have his workstation repaired. Turned out to be a memory module. I said offhand "Maybe a cosmic ray." He said the chances were slim. We got to talking and I said "The Universe is awash in radiation. Could be aliens would come here and be astonished that we could survive it." He smiled and said "Never thought of it like that, but you could be right."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:43 Comments || Top||

    #38  ^TW, surgical mask is - principally - to prevent you from infecting other people. That's why, when you go to a dentist, he wears a musk and you do not.

    p.s. Coronaviruses don't have wings, they propagate with water droplets, which your mask stops either outgoing or incoming.

    The situation you detailed above applies to medical personnel in Covid wards - not to people shopping in a supermarket, or taking a bus.

    Now I realize that, for some people, not wearing a mask in current times proves their bravery (or something). I'm sure the viruses are terribly impressed
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 12:50 Comments || Top||

    #39  Why does an "expert" ask about a booster shot that's not available or approved in the US yet? Not up to speed? Not really an expert? Religious fanatic? You tell me.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 13:05 Comments || Top||

    #40  ^Because I'm expert on immunology - not American psychology.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 13:07 Comments || Top||

    #41  Psychology prolly is in charge at NIH and CDC but that doesn't change the fact there are no "boosters" currently approved in the US. We're all gonna die.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 13:12 Comments || Top||

    #42  I have no more use for COVID religion than I do for pisslam.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 13:13 Comments || Top||

    #43  I've no use for Covid sceptics - reality denial is a form of psychosis.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 13:27 Comments || Top||

    #44  #41 Neh, now that booster shoots are approved in Israel, you people will follow.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 13:28 Comments || Top||

    #45  Ah the tenacity of mindset. And the elasticity thereof. This is no slight on you guys, it's just human psychology.

    I have no doubt if Trump was in office and was running some kind of 'get the Jab America' campaign, we would be seeing a different perspective here at Rantburg too. And jests about antivaxxers or covid skeptics, with rhetoric about saving America with the all powerful mask.

    Posted by: Dron66046 || 08/11/2021 13:45 Comments || Top||

    #46  In fact,
    Sarah Huckabee Sanders Calls Covid-19 Vaccine The ‘Trump Vaccine,’ Urges People To Get It

    So, anti-vaxxers are actually never-Trumpers in disguise.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 14:15 Comments || Top||

    #47  *yawn* tiresome
    Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2021 16:31 Comments || Top||

    #48  Note the misdirection. Now that booster shoots are approved in Israel, you people will follow.

    I didn't say what will come, I said the current stat of play. Andy Cum-oh was governor a couple days ago too.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 16:55 Comments || Top||

    #49  Us people. A dog whistle to blacks...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:16 Comments || Top||

    #50  And they ruined the new Suicide Squad movie!
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2021 17:52 Comments || Top||

    #51  ^ How could you tell?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:56 Comments || Top||

    #52  Except, #45, Trump woundn't do that. He'd say "Look, it's probably a good idea, a great idea, but it's up to you, as it should be..."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:59 Comments || Top||

    #53  You are always telling us many of the cohort in India are a waste of skin, D, so why worry about vaccines now?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:02 Comments || Top||

    #54  Studio told me so, must be true.
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2021 18:07 Comments || Top||

    #55  Candace Owen makes Jenny McCarthy look sane. All the same, I feel vaxx is a personal decision. I got vaxxed, I'm informed it won't stop me from getting COVID and maybe dying anyway. So why should I care what anyone else does. Magic numbers guy will say that's irresponsible. Well, lots of people make other irresponsible choices for themselves every day without my input. So. It. Goes.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:12 Comments || Top||

    #56  As for the cost to society, If I go terminal, that's on the society that enabled Fauxi. I hope it costs them stupidly large amounts.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:34 Comments || Top||

    #57  Why do you engage this asshole anymore?
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 18:43 Comments || Top||

    #58  Because you have to stamp on a cockroach or put out powder or spray...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:48 Comments || Top||

    #59  One could make the argument that how much society has cost the individual, society can right piss off.
    Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2021 18:51 Comments || Top||

    #60  My own opinion. Take it or leave it.

    In business you reduce your risks and do things that increase your chances of success. This not the flu. In my opinion it is bio warfare introduced to the world successfully by China. My brother battled Covid for 6 weeks and lost. He died way too young. I am a hard core right wing conservative but who also believes kids can spread the cold, flu and now Covid faster amongst themselves than any other age group. That endangers the Teacher, the parent at the house suffering from diabetes and the 80 year old grandparent on the weekend visit who has pre-conditions and the school bus driver.

    MASK UP. PERIOD. EVERYBODY.
    Posted by: Ebbomoger Speaking for Boskone4589 || 08/11/2021 23:21 Comments || Top||

    #61  Also, can we have discussions without all of the personal insults?
    Posted by: Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 || 08/11/2021 23:38 Comments || Top||


    -Lurid Crime Tales-
    How NYC gang members allegedly hunted down and killed a federal witness
    [NYPOST] A woman who testified against a Brooklyn gang that terrorized the NYCHA complex where she lived was hunted down and killed after being branded a "snitch," federal prosecutors said Monday in revealing chilling details of her execution-style murder.

    The victim, 33-year-old Shatavia Walls, was bumped off by two men near a walking path at the Pink Houses in East New York on July 7, 2020, authorities said. She died 10 days later at Brookdale Hospital.

    Her murder, federal prosecutors allege, was carefully planned and carried out by members of the Ninedee Gang, one of whom called her a "snitch" on July 4 of that year while they argued about setting off fireworks at the housing complex.

    In 2019, Walls had testified in a Brooklyn federal court case that a member of the Loopy Gang — another crew in the complex with close ties to the Ninedees — had shot her two years earlier, the feds said.

    At the time of her testimony, she faced extreme pressure in her building — with gang members posting flyers that labeled her a "rat" throughout the complex.

    Then, during the July 4 confrontation over fireworks, Ninedee member Maliek Miller called her a "snitch" and fired a gun into the air, prosecutors said.

    Miller and two other Ninedee members, Quintin Green and Chayanne Fernandez, then began plotting her murder, prosecutors said.

    Green and another unnamed suspect, who was a juvenile at the time, decided to strike three days later on July 7, according to court documents.

    The pair "waited at the Pink Houses all afternoon and through the early evening for an opportunity to shoot Ms. Walls, changing their clothes throughout the day in order to disguise their appearance," prosecutors wrote in a memo filed Monday, urging a federal judge to order two members of the gang detained pending trial.

    When Walls emerged from a building in the complex at about 9:25 p.m., Green approached her from behind, exchanged words with her, then began firing a gun at her, the feds said. Green missed and hit an innocent bystander, prosecutors said.

    Walls then sprinted away from Green, who gave chase while continuing to fire at her — at one point leaping over a fence to get a clear shot, according to the court papers.

    In the mad dash for her life, the doomed woman unknowingly ran toward a second shooter — the unidentified juvenile suspect — who opened fire, prosecutors charged.

    Green then caught up and bumped off Walls behind one of the buildings on Linden Boulevard, prosecutors said. After the slaying, a number of Ninedee members hid out in Queens to avoid increased police scrutiny at the Pink Houses.

    Fernandez, Green and Miller were each indicted on murder-in-aid-of-racketeering charges in the slaying.

    A fourth suspect, Kevin Wint, was charged with accessory after the fact for helping them hide out in Queens after the murder, according to court papers.

    In the days after Walls’ death, her heartbroken mother told The Post that the slain woman approached the gang members on July 4 after Borough President Eric Adams
    ...retired New York City police captain, member of the New York State Senate, first Black Brooklyn borough president, law and order Dem after a brief fling with the Publicans. The New York Times isn't fond of him, suspecting he may not actually be black...
    urged Brooklyn residents to talk to neighbors about fireworks, rather than call the police.

    "She watched the news. Yes, she heard it," Helen Testagros said at the time, referring to Adams’ advice. "It was probably in the back of her mind."
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under:


    Government Corruption
    NSA Watchdog to review NSA... following Tucker Carlson's spy claims
    WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency’s internal watchdog said Tuesday it would investigate allegations that the agency "improperly targeted the communications of a member of the U.S. news media" following Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s claims that the NSA tried to shut down his show.

    The announcement puts the NSA’s inspector general at the center of a politically volatile issue. Conservatives have for weeks demanded an investigation into Carlson’s claim that a major U.S. spy agency targeted his show, an allegation for which he has provided no evidence.

    According to a statement, the review by Inspector General Robert Storch will examine NSA’s "compliance with applicable legal authorities" and the agency’s own policies on collecting and sharing information it collects. The inspector general will also examine whether any of the agency’s actions were based on "improper considerations."

    The inspector general’s office can open an investigation on its own or in response to a request from lawmakers or others who have reported alleged wrongdoing.

    "This will clear the air," said Glenn Gerstell, who served as NSA’s general counsel from 2015 to 2020 and worked closely with Storch. "I think it’s entirely appropriate for the inspector general to take a look at any allegations and, in this case, put them to rest."

    Carlson initially claimed in late June that the NSA was "monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air." He said an unnamed whistleblower had contacted his show with details about a possible story that he said could only have come from reading his text messages and emails.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  "I think it’s entirely appropriate for the inspector general to take a look at any allegations and, in this case, put them to rest."

    "We will investigate thoroughly and come to the correct conclusion."
    I feel better knowing that top men are on this.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 11:07 Comments || Top||

    #2  "I think it’s entirely appropriate for the inspector general to take a look at any allegations and, in this case, put them to rest."
    In other words, we know there's nothing here and will investigate ourselves and tell you again.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 11:08 Comments || Top||


    Economy
    US Treasury Using Extraordinary Measure to Raise Cash
    [Epoch Times] Yellen detailed the emergency maneuvers—chiefly pausing investments in certain government employee pension funds—in an Aug. 2 letter to congressional leaders that came as a two-year suspension of the federal debt ceiling expired.
    Would an interest rate increase because of inflation effect your planning, Secretary Yellen?
    The reimposed borrowing limit caps the federal debt at the current level of around $28.5 trillion, restricting the government’s ability to raise additional funds by selling government securities. The reinstated ceiling has forced Yellen, like her predecessors in prior administrations, to resort to emergency measures to allow the Treasury to keep meeting federal debt obligations.

    Yellen said in the letter she was suspending investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund that are not immediately required to pay beneficiaries. She also said the extraordinary measures would involve suspending daily reinvestments in the federal retirement "G-Fund," with all the emergency measures going into effect Monday.

    Federal retirees and employees will not be impacted by the moves and, once the debt ceiling is increased or suspended, all the affected funds will be made whole, Yellen said.
    Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.
    Yellen in June pleaded with congressional representatives at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing to raise the legal cap on how much the government can owe, warning that if they don't agree, there could be "absolutely catastrophic economic consequences."

    Raising the debt ceiling would require buy-in from at least 10 Senate Republicans to overcome the filibuster. Some GOP senators have said it's unlikely their caucus will back boosting the cap unless some spending reform measures are adopted.
    A dime here and a dime there, and pretty soon you're talking about a cup of coffee.
    Republicans have been vocal in their opposition to the Biden administration's big-ticket spending proposals, with President Joe Biden's full budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 totaling around $6 trillion.

    A standoff on raising the debt ceiling in 2011 resulted in the first downgrade on a portion of the federal government's AAA-bond rating by rating company Standard & Poor's.
    Venezuela here we come!
    Posted by: Bobby || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Why not just print it?
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:52 Comments || Top||

    #2  Quit spending so damn much money! It's fiat currency and debt. These people in Washington D.C. are absolutely bonkers.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:31 Comments || Top||

    #3  Maybe consider selling Middle of Nowhere US holds to pay off the national spending debt.

    Then pass a Constitutionally mandated BALANCED BUDGET, except in time of Declared War and national disaster?

    Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 10:01 Comments || Top||

    #4  Then pass a Constitutionally mandated BALANCED BUDGET, except in time of Declared War and national disaster?

    Permanent war & national disaster.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 10:02 Comments || Top||

    #5  The current 'war' is against the people who work and play by the rules, and the 'disaster' is supplied by the decision making crowd.
    Posted by: ed in texas || 08/11/2021 10:43 Comments || Top||

    #6  Peter's broke, Paul's a lousy crook...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:52 Comments || Top||


    Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
    Returning Crimea to Ukraine, any reparations out of the question, Russian senator says
    [TASS] Claims by Kiev that Russia should pay reparations for its reunification with Crimea and that it should return the peninsula to Ukraine are being raised on the eve of the Crimean Platform and have no prospects, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Vladimir Dzhabarov told TASS on Tuesday.

    Earlier, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Uncontrolled Territories Alexei Reznikov stated in an interview that Russia would pay Ukraine reparations for reuniting with Crimea.

    "Any reparations are out of the question. Then we can ask for the reparations for the fact that at the time they acquired Malorossiya, Novorossiya that had never been [part of] Ukraine and belonged to the Russian Empire. They were handed over to Ukraine by the Bolshevik government in order for this union republic to be larger, so it would have more proletarians," the senator said.

    He added that at the time, Crimea didn’t simply join Ukraine but was handed over with all its land and property "which was built at the time by the Soviet Union, above all, Russia."

    "I understand that all this talk emerges in light of the approaching Crimean Platform. Well, then this agency [on Reintegration of Uncontrolled Territories] needs to demonstrate that they are earning their keep, they need to show some activity.

    Although I am sure that each one of them realizes that work on returning Crimea is absolutely futile, because Crimea is the subject entity of the Russian Federation and it will never return to Ukraine where it ended up because of Khrushchev’s willful error," he noted.

    The senator said that Kiev’s attempts to return Crimea are "time and effort spent in vain" and expressed hope that sooner or later the Ukrainian authorities would realize this and would "leave Crimea alone."

    Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced the creation of the Crimean Platform to coordinate efforts on the international level to reinstate Ukrainian jurisdiction on the peninsula. The venue should open with a so-called inauguration summit scheduled for August 23, 2021. It is planned that it will function on several levels: heads of state and government, foreign ministers, lawmakers, a network of experts.

    Earlier, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry promised to name the participants closer to the event. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba previously said that 32 countries had already confirmed their participation and Kiev hopes that a joint declaration will be approved as a result of the forum.

    After the coup d’etat in Ukraine in February 2014, Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified on March 21, 2014. Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Iran Army's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said that domestically-manufactured ‘Dena’ Destroyer is ready for carrying out naval-related missions
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  ...It's an FF (frigate) at best, and probably closer to a K (corvette). That thing tries to take on a USN or RN destroyer, the crew will be communing with the Prophet PDQ.

    Mike
    Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/11/2021 6:01 Comments || Top||

    #2  PBUH lol
    Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2021 7:49 Comments || Top||

    #3  Going to guess drowning is haram. Desert cult and all...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:38 Comments || Top||

    #4  Can do a SINKEX really, really well... After burning, though.
    Posted by: magpie || 08/11/2021 9:59 Comments || Top||

    #5  "Naval-related missions"
    So it floats, then.
    Posted by: ed in texas || 08/11/2021 10:19 Comments || Top||

    #6  Submersible - once.
    Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/11/2021 10:38 Comments || Top||

    #7  "We have created and rendered 3D models from the engineering blueprints. Our army of trained photoshoppers stand ready to composite images of the ship into pictures and videos of real-world naval-related missions."

    Note: There is a rear admiral/ship of the desert joke lurking here, but I ain't going near it.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 12:19 Comments || Top||

    #8  Why do they call the camel the hip of the sesert? It's full of iranian semen...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:17 Comments || Top||

    #9  Ship of the desert...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:17 Comments || Top||


    -Great Cultural Revolution
    'The new 40 acres and a mule': Connecticut plans to give black people a head start in legalized marijuana dispensaries in 'equity' drive
    [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
    • Connecticut's Social Equity Council met for the first time on Thursday

    • Panel will decide who gets priority in licensing for legal weed dispensaries

    • Group approved map of 'disproportionately impacted areas' to prioritize

    • One black business expert compares it to '40 acres and a mule' for community

    • Other states with similar initiatives include Illinois, California and Michigan
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  So there goes another state run "goldmine" too..
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:26 Comments || Top||

    #2  Connecticut was not among the 'slave' states in the union. It's all about the hustle of spinless godless privilege whites in existential crisis.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 8:01 Comments || Top||

    #3  Connecticut, land of very high taxes, has a "Social Equity Council" to sort out inequities based on race? It's anything but that; it's racist. Most likely, it's unconstitutional too. What if someone wants to set up a dispensary in a largely white community? What will the council do? Idiocracy reigns supreme in these blue cities and states. What's the racial make-up of the social equity council?
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:22 Comments || Top||

    #4  “Forty acres and a mule”.

    Was a civil war Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman statement to enlist freed slaves in support of his battle efforts against the Confederate States of America. He offered land and self determination in hopes of gaining their labor support.Note: He already had a documented history of NOT feeding, protecting and abandoning freed slaves in his War Crimes applicable March to the Sea and back up.

    For the record NO no such statements or promises has had US Congressional authority, legal nor budget authority.
    Plus this was prior to the end of the Civil War and there was no such level of official backing by President Lincoln either.

    It was just a unauthorized offer made by Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865. An sometime later, was followed by a series of conversations between Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who suspected as having a role in the Lincoln assassination and then running a kangaroo court to eliminate political opponents.

    So this amounted to an invading nation giving away another nations property before a war ended and peace terms had been agreed on.

    THE REAL QUESTION
    So how many slaves did Connecticut have between 1800-1848?
    Because its slavery officially ended in 1848. Well according to the USA Census from 1800-1848 there were about 1030 total slaves counted during that 48 period in Conn. with only 54 the last year slaves were counted.

    Since slavery was a STATE matter and NOT a Federal Gov. matter until 1860, Connecticut can then only be held responsible for its own actions. So let us use the Connecticut 1800-1848 total numbers of 1030 x what 40 ac and mule cost in 1865 adjusted for 2021 inflation would be about $5,917.31 X 1030 for a total of $6,094,829.30.

    BTW: That $6.09M would be SPLIT across only living Connecticut blood related decedents of the 1030. Since the offer was made to ONLY include living freed slave adults at the time and NOT future Offspring's. So this boils down to a shared Trust Fund Inheritance. Not a identical individual 40ac/Mule awards for future generations.

    Lets say that of the estimated 371,412 Black-Americans now living in CONN, 50% are blood related decedents of the 1030 counted between 1800-1848. That equals about 185,706.

    IF it were legalized by the courts, that $6,094,829.30 / 185,706 would equal $33.00 +/- for each qualified person of the shared Trust Fund Inheritances.


    I'd say make it a 1 time Conn State Tax deduction of $33 if approved by the courts.
    Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 9:56 Comments || Top||

    #5  ^ Please cut to the chase. Do people who never owned slaves owe people who are not provably descendants of slaves anything? No. Let's move on now...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:31 Comments || Top||

    #6  So the Connecticut pols think that the best opportunity for blacks is in the drug trade. Stereotype much, Nutmeg-ers?
    Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 12:02 Comments || Top||

    #7  ^ Ow!
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:37 Comments || Top||

    #8  Got to agree with #2 and #5. About 365,000 northerners died in the Civil War. Long past time to move on.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 14:53 Comments || Top||

    #9  My forebears arrived in the US after the Civil War. I don't owe anybody anything...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:48 Comments || Top||

    #10  A legal weed shop would be quite an asset for an untouchable drug dealer.
    Posted by: Grunter || 08/11/2021 19:26 Comments || Top||

    #11  And a great way to launder money.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 19:27 Comments || Top||

    #12 
    Posted by: Eohippus Glusoger7178 || 08/11/2021 20:33 Comments || Top||


    Iraq
    Iraqi Electricity Minister Adil Kareem claimed on Tues. that water scarcity in Iran has stopped electricity exports to Iraq
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  "Damned Turks!"
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 0:18 Comments || Top||

    #2  It's because they use iranian electric water. It's better than your ordinary water.
    Posted by: ed in texas || 08/11/2021 10:22 Comments || Top||

    #3  Tired of those lightweight bottled waters that don't quench your thirst? It's time for something heavy! New Improved ZamZam Water - now with extra deuterium.
    Product of Iran
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 18:14 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Politix
    Meet Kathy Hochul: New York's Soon-To-Be First Female Governor
    [Daily Mail - American Journalist R Lazy] 'She works hard, she listens to people, she cares,' Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan told The Wall Street Journal. 'In any state, you want for your lieutenant governor somebody who can do the job of governor. It doesn’t always happen, but in Kathy Hochul’s case she has the ability to do the job if it comes to it,

    She describes herself as 'progressive' and is keenly pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ rights. Hochul is well-liked upstate, where Cuomo's popularity has evaporated. 'She is probably one of the most down-to-earth people that you could ever meet,' Assemblywoman Karen McMahon told Politico recently. 'She’s gone to great heights in government, yet one-to-one, she is so accessible and so warm and just a very generous person. She’s always able to help — particularly women, too.'

    Unlike Cuomo — whose father was a governor, and who grew up in wealth and New York society — Hochul's family are Irish immigrants. On her public bio, she recounts how her mother and father once lived in a trailer on the grounds of the steel plant where her father worked in Buffalo.
    I assume the Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, which closed in 1983.
    Her husband is William J. Hochul Jr, a prosecutor of 23 years whose convictions include those of the Lackawanna Six — six American men who joined al-Qaeda.
    Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna’s First Ward section that used to be primarily Black and now has halal abattoirs cheek by jowl with little Yemeni mosques, while the public schools let the Muslim kids leave class to conduct their prayers. The Six were so egregious that the elders of their mosque called the authorities to report them.
    He is now a private attorney but was previously the United States attorney for the Western District of New York from 2010 to 2016. The pair live in Buffalo in a $800,000, three-bedroom apartment, according to public records.
    Why are they paying New York City prices in Buffalo, where housing is relatively inexpensive? You can get a nice 3 bedroom mid-century ranch house in a good school district on 1/2 acre property for about $180,000.
    Their kids are in their early 30s. Katie, or Caitlin, works for PR firm Concepts Inc whose past clients include The Gates Foundation and the Justice Department. Her son, William Hochul III, is a DC lawyer.


    Posted by: Ebbainter Threrelet7364 || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  ...One thing to keep in mind though that is that Governor-designate Hochul is the first upstate politician in decades to even get close to the Governor's Mansion. She's not as beholden to the Big Apple as others have been, and that will make for some interesting dynamics - look for one side or the other to lay down some markers hard and fast.

    Mike
    Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/11/2021 6:06 Comments || Top||

    #2  On her public bio, she recounts how her mother and father once lived in a trailer on the grounds of the steel plant where her father worked in Buffalo.

    ...Their kids are in their early 30s. Katie, or Caitlin, works for PR firm Concepts Inc whose past clients include The Gates Foundation and the Justice Department. Her son, William Hochul III, is a DC lawyer.


    Tells me everything I need to know.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:40 Comments || Top||

    #3  Hochul won her first major elected role in a 2011 special election to replace Rep. Chris Lee, her married male colleague who was caught soliciting women for sex on Craigslist.

    There seems to be a pattern in NY politics. Maybe, it's that everyone is being screwed but some cases are especially egregious so that they get noticed.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:48 Comments || Top||

    #4  ^No. It's that some of the Nomenclature need to be replaced and "sexual misbehavior" (which is abased on how female "victim" feels - not any objective criteria) can be used on any hetero male.

    Do notice that Cuomo escaped investigation into 10,000+ wrongful deaths (or whatever the lawyer lingo is).
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 8:54 Comments || Top||

    #5  /\ (which is abased on how female "victim" feels - not any objective criteria)

    "Feelings" not limited to the four-dimensional continuum (time & space, etc, etc). Simply put.... shi* changes with these people.

    Prevention: Remain professional, avoid private encounters at all costs. Limit discussion to the business at hand. Break both conversation and eye contact as quickly as possible.


    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 9:00 Comments || Top||

    #6  ..or as Vice President Pence said, leave the doors open and have a 'chaperon' in the room. Of course, Biden is still known to do that crap in public and still gets away with it.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 10:06 Comments || Top||

    #7  The rule is, whatever you got, there's worse around the bend...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:01 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Drawdown of US embassy in Kabul is under discussion, sources say
    [CNN
    ...the organization formerly known as the Cable News Network. Now who knows what it might stand for...
    ] There are active discussions about a further drawdown of the US embassy in Kabul among State Department officials, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, as the Taliban
    ...Arabic for students...
    continues to gain ground in Afghanistan.

    Those gains -- which have occurred much more rapidly than many US officials expected -- have made the situation more urgent and sped up the conversations that have been happening for some time now, one source said.

    US officials are no longer talking about six months as the likely timeline for the government of Afghanistan to collapse; they now believe it could happen much more quickly, the two sources said. The US military began withdrawing from the country earlier this year and has completed more than 95% of the US troop withdrawal, which will be completed by late August.

    Right now, the State Department is working to identify essential personnel in the embassy and it is likely that some kind of partial drawdown of personnel occurs in the coming days or weeks, the sources said. The embassy already reduced the number of diplomats in Kabul earlier this year where hundreds serve and has slowly continued to cut back on the overall footprint in recent months. A partial drawdown would be a continuation of efforts to shrink the overall US footprint due to the security situation.

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11140 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

    #1  You can be sure everyone has both bags packed.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 5:14 Comments || Top||

    #2  I suspect the Taliban are planning to raise their flag over Kabul on 11 Sept.

    Posted by: Lord Garth || 08/11/2021 19:02 Comments || Top||


    Taliban takes control of border with Uzbekistan
    [TASS] The Taliban movement has taken control of the border with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Its leaders promise not to attack the neighboring countries, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

    "It is important for us that the border with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan has been taken under control by the Taliban," he said at the Territory of Senses youth forum.

    He recalled that the Taliban had recently seized the city of Kunduz. "If you know geography, Kunduz is a quite large center," Shoigu said, adding that the Taliban leaders promise not to seek to cross the borders or attack neighboring nations.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11153 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Government Corruption
    Federal judge rules against several Indiana abortion laws
    INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that several of Indiana’s laws restricting abortion are unconstitutional, including the state’s ban on telemedicine consultations between doctors and women seeking abortions.

    The judge’s ruling also upheld other state abortion limits that were challenged in a broad lawsuit filed by Virginia-based Whole Woman’s Health Alliance in 2018 as it fought the denial of a license to open an abortion clinic in South Bend.

    U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued a permanent injunction against the telemedicine ban, along with state laws requiring in-person examinations by a doctor before medication abortions and the prohibition on second-trimester abortions outside hospitals or surgery centers. Barker also ruled against state laws requiring that women seeking abortions be told human life begins when the egg is fertilized and that a fetus might feel pain at or before 20 weeks.

    The state attorney general, whose office has been defending those laws in court, said Barker’s ruling contradicted higher court decisions and pointed toward a possible appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals,

    "We will continue to fight to defend Indiana’s commonsense abortion laws and to build a culture of life in Indiana," Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement.

    The anti-abortion group Indiana Right to Life denounced the decision as "judicial activism at its absolute worst."
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under:


    Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
    Ankara and Baku in talks on creating a joint Turkic army
    Direct translation via Google translate. Edited.
    [REGNUM] Turkey and Azerbaijan intend to create a joint Turkic army. Negotiations on this issue are already underway. This was announced on July 28 during a press conference in Ganja by the speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Shentop .

    “Our idea is one nation, two states. And it will always be so. In this regard, took a lot of negotiations and agreements," quotes the Sputnik Azerbaijan Shentopa.

    He also added that within the framework of the agreements, including the military exercises of the two countries, the parties are also taking steps to strengthen economic cooperation.

    Speaking about the situation on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Shentop said that the shelling of the border Azerbaijani regions by the Armenian military is a threat to the security of the region.

    "If these provocations do not stop, then even more bitter consequences are inevitable. The world community should also urge Armenia to stop provocations that pose a threat to peace in the region," he stressed.

    As REGNUM reported earlier , early in the morning of July 28, Azerbaijani Armed Forces units launched an attack on Armenian positions in the northeastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as a result of which local battles unfolded. There are casualties on both sides.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11136 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


    Africa North
    Wagner: Scale of Russian mercenary mission in Libya exposed
    [BBC] A new BBC investigation has revealed the scale of operations by a shadowy Russian mercenary group in Libya's civil war, which includes links to war crimes and the Russian military.

    A Samsung tablet left by a fighter for the Wagner group exposes its key role - as well as traceable fighter codenames.

    And the BBC has a "shopping list" for state-of-the-art military equipment which expert witnesses say could only have come from Russian army supplies.

    Russia denies any links to Wagner.

    The group was first identified in 2014 when it was backing pro-Russian separatists in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Since then, it has been involved in regions including Syria, Mozambique, Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

    Wagner's fighters appeared in Libya in April 2019 when they joined the forces of a rebel general, Khalifa Haftar, after he launched an attack on the UN-backed government in the capital, Tripoli. The conflict ended in a ceasefire in October 2020.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:


    -Obits-
    Russian writer Viktor Likhonosov dies at 86
    [KUBnews] The bright talent, the famous Russian writer Viktor Ivanovich Likhonosov, turned 85 in April. His works were read by Tvardovsky and many other cultural figures. For Kuban, Viktor Ivanovich is a real legend.

    At the end of July, the writer was hospitalized, and on August 9, the classic of Russian literature died. According to preliminary data, the cause of the death of the writer was the consequences of the postponed coronavirus infection.

    As it became known to "Kubanskiye Novosti", the wife of Viktor Ivanovich Olga Borisovna passed away at the end of July, she was buried on August 1.

    Viktor Ivanovich Likhonosov was born in 1936 in the Kemerovo region. Soviet and Russian writer, publicist, teacher. Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of Russia, the International Sholokhov Prize, Hero of Labor of the Kuban, Honorary Citizen of Krasnodar. Author of the book "Our Little Paris" about the history of the Kuban Cossacks. He was the creator, and then for many years and the chief editor of the literary magazine "Rodnaya Kuban".

    Until his last days, Viktor Likhonosov worked as editor of the literary and historical department of the newspaper "Kubanskie Novosti", wrote historical stories, essays, a series of memoirs about famous people. His works have been translated into many languages ​​of the world.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11129 views] Top|| File under:


    -War on Police-
    Chicago cops turn backs on Mayor Lori Lightfoot after fatal police shooting
    [NYPOST] Reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
    ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
    coppers turned their backs on Mayor Lori Lightfoot
    ...the diminutive and vacuous Heronner da Mare of Chicago. When the corpse count rises she blames the guns, which are banned anyway. A racist to the bone, Lori sez that people with the same skin tone all think alike, not quite getting the implications for a city with a population less than thirty percent black...
    when she visited a hospital after two of their colleagues were shot, one fatally — and a former cop has blasted progressive politics for the death.

    Officer Ella French, 29, is the first Windy City cop killed since Lightfoot became mayor in 2019, but the city’s officers have faced a surge of gunfire in the past two years.

    French and her partner were hit by gunfire on the city’s South Side on Saturday after pulling a car over for expired plates, according to the Chicago Tribune.

    Emonte Morgan, 21, and his brother Eric Morgan, 22, both convicted felons, have been charged in the brazen attack.

    On Saturday, about 30 rank-and-file officers gave Lightfoot the cold shoulder when she showed up at the University of Chicago Medical Center and approached them as they stood vigil, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

    When Lightfoot tried to talk with the injured officer’s father, himself a retired cop, he lambasted the mayor and blamed her for what happened earlier in the day, two sources at the scene told the newspaper.

    And when she then tried to comfort the grieving officers nearby, they walked away and turned their backs on her, the sources told the outlet.

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:


    Afghanistan
    Fighting Underway in Balkh, Takhar Provinces
    [ToloNews] Fighting is underway between security forces and Taliban
    ...mindless ferocity in a turban...
    in the northern provinces of Balkh and Takhar since Sunday night, officials from the province said.

    The security forces supported by public uprising forces retook the control of Farkhar and Worsaj districts in Takhar on Sunday after they retreated from the capital city Taluqan, sources said.

    The government and Taliban have not yet confirmed the news.

    In Balkh, heavy festivities are underway in Dehdadi district since Sunday night, sources said. The festivities are close to Balkh capital Mazar-e-Sharif city and Pul-e-Imam Bukhari area, sources said.

    The defense lines will break if reinforcement are not sent to the province, sources from Balkh said.

    Security officials have not commented on the festivities.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

    #1  "Gentlemen, you cannot fight here. This is Afghanistan!", said no one ever.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 19:05 Comments || Top||


    Taliban entered Maimana city the capital of Faryab prvoince
    [TWITTER]

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Gantz, Herzog threaten Israel will step up responses if Iranian attacks continue
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11133 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  It isn't a threat, it's a prophecy.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 4:21 Comments || Top||

    #2  Seeing is believing.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:52 Comments || Top||


    Africa Subsaharan
    Cameroon Says Hundreds of Boko Haram Militants from Nigeria and Chad Surrender
    [VOA News] Cameroon
    ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
    ian officials say at least 82 former 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...
    fighters from Nigeria and Chad, along with their families, have surrendered to authorities in the past week. Authorities say they’re the latest among hundreds of the bully boy Islamists who have been defecting since May, when the group's leader was killed. Cameroon plans to deport the former fighters as the influx has overwhelmed rehabilitation centers along the border.

    Cameroon’s government on August 10 said its National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration center in Meri, a northern town on the border with Nigeria, has 967 former jihadist bully boys. A week ago, there were about 700 former Boko Haram fighters and their families in the center.Among the over 260 who arrived within the past one week are 82 former Boko Haram male fighters. The others are women and kiddies.



    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Mossad: Iran's new president is a nut
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11143 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  The Mossad described him as someone with mental disturbances

    To which Burns replied "This seem to be a presidential norm, nowadays."
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 4:31 Comments || Top||

    #2  Haven't they all been nuts?
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 14:30 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Taliban enter third provincial capital in 12 hours, seventh in four days
    [KhaamaPress] Sources have told Khaama Press that the Taliban
    ...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
    fighters have entered the northern historic provincial capital of Polikhumri, Baghlan province Tuesday evening August 10.

    As per the sources, the fighters have crossed security outposts of the center of the province and the Afghan Defense and Security Forces have retreated and people are horror escaping the city.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.

    Jack! Cynthia exclaimed. Do you know how to drive one of these things?

    Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.

    No, he said. Do you?...

    the Taliban spokesperson Zabiullha Mujahid in a Twitter post said that the fighters have entered the Polikhumri city and Faizabad city of Badakhshan province.

    The spokesperson claims that the button men have inflicted casualties to Afghan government forces in both the historic provincial capitals and the forces are chased away from the cities.

    Earlier today, sources had confirmed the Taliban to have entered the center of Farah province and have broken the central prison.

    The Afghan government has not yet confirmed the collapse of any of these three cities.

    If confirmed, the northern industrial city of Polikhumri will be the seventh city after Zaranj, Kunduz, Taloqan, Aibak, Farah, and Faizabad to be falling to the Taliban in the past four days.

    The unprecedented capture of territories in the past two decades comes as the warring parties are set to negotiate on the situation and probably peace, in Doha on Wednesday.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11158 views] Top|| File under: Taliban




    #4  #1 IMO, loot & women provide a lot more sensible reason for waging a war than nation building.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:47 Comments || Top||

    #5  Seriously, anyone with an IQ of more than 30 really surprised by this?
    Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2021 10:14 Comments || Top||


    Fifth Column
    Matthew Rupert, of Galesburg, Ill., has been sentenced to nearly 9 years in federal prison after being convicted for his role in the Minneapolis BLM-Antifa riots last year
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11148 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

    #1  I was expecting 2 weeks of community service, released for time served.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 0:16 Comments || Top||

    #2  get some dental work while you're in prion
    Posted by: Chris || 08/11/2021 0:25 Comments || Top||

    #3  He'll be more worried about anal work in prison.
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 0:26 Comments || Top||

    #4  Song of the early AM...
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 0:28 Comments || Top||

    #5  Just another pumpkin head communist ☭, should have given him 29 years
    Posted by: Neville Flalet7059 || 08/11/2021 5:25 Comments || Top||

    #6  This is the longest sentence for a BLM rioter.

    May not have been long enough.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 5:30 Comments || Top||

    #7  ^A journey of a thousand li starts with one step.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 6:10 Comments || Top||

    #8  Is a li closer to a mile or a kilometer?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:10 Comments || Top||

    #9  ^Google it
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 7:42 Comments || Top||

    #10  Seems like typical chinese inflation. They all have one zhang or longer d*cks too...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:55 Comments || Top||

    #11  About 1900 the Chinese decided to change traditional measurements to pseudo-Metric: the 'Li' became 500 meters and the 'Jin" became 500 grams.
    Posted by: magpie || 08/11/2021 9:50 Comments || Top||

    #12  Looks to be an Antifa puke. Had there been more of these sentences or longer, there would have been far less trouble later.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 10:49 Comments || Top||

    #13  He’s white..now if he had been black, $22 fine.
    Posted by: Omuck Chuns2452 || 08/11/2021 12:40 Comments || Top||

    #14  Aren't most BLM 'activists' white?
    Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/11/2021 15:25 Comments || Top||

    #15  Cannon fodder was the old name for his kind.
    Posted by: Grunter || 08/11/2021 19:21 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Explosion on a merchant ship in the Syrian port of Latakia
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11149 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

    #1  Most places one would initially assume an innocent accident, but here one assumes WoT - either accidental (or purposeful ... Israel) explosion of arms or chemicals or purposeful sabotage.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 08/11/2021 9:46 Comments || Top||

    #2  ^Just a power of prayer, Glenmore. Just a power of prayer.
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 9:59 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Taliban conquered Fayzabad the capital of Badkhshan province
    [TWITTER]

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    ANDSF Repels Taliban Attack on Mazar-e-Sharif: Governor
    [ToloNews] The Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) pushed back a Taliban
    ...Arabic for students...
    offensive on Mazar-e-Sharif city and retook Nahr-e-Shahi district, Balkh governor Mohammad Farhad Azimi said on Tuesday.

    Azimi said that on Monday night the ANDSF and the Taliban clashed in Nahr-e-Shahi district and Dehdadi district.

    He said the Taliban retreated from the area after facing strong resistance from the Afghan cops.

    "The Taliban have focused their attention on Balkh province to take control," said Azimi.

    "We managed to recapture this area while facing strong resistance and with the help of air support," said Sultan Musavi, the police chief of Nahr-e-Shahi.

    Nahr-e-Shahidi is adjacent to Mazar-e-Sharif, the center of Balkh.

    "Our frontline crosses over 34 kilometers which is very vulnerable," said Abdul Kabir Sharifi, Nahr-e-Shahi district governor.

    "Last night we were attacked, but we defeated the Taliban," said Abdul Qadeer, the commander of public uprising forces.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him...
    a number of residents of Hazarjereeb village in Dehdadi said that the Taliban has fired mortars toward the 209 Shaheen Army Corps several times in the past few days.

    "Mortars were fired from the Imam Bakri direction towards 209 Shaheen Army Corps, the people are very fearful and they are fleeing the area," said Nawid, a resident in Dehdadi.

    People in Dehdadi said that occasionally civilians are hurt as a result of the air strikes.

    In the latest incident, three members of a family were killed in the Samar Qandian village of Balkh as a result of air strikes.

    Fighting in Balkh has also displaced hundreds of families.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11150 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    -Great Cultural Revolution
    Jen Psaki discusses press room 'alligators', marriage and her red bob in 3,500 word Vogue feature with Annie Liebovitz photo shoot
    Lil Red Lying Hood

    and not very good at her job
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Preaching to the choir. What's their paid circulation these days?
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:40 Comments || Top||

    #2  She was horrible at the State Dept. She is where news and information goes to die.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:07 Comments || Top||

    #3  Pee-sucki. Or Sack scratcher..
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:58 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Over 4,000 Wounded Afghans Treated by ICRC in 10 Days
    [ToloNews] Since the beginning of August, 4,042 weapon-maimed patients have been treated at 15 health facilities supported by the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC), an indication of the intensity of the recent violence, the organization said in a statement on Wednesday.

    Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk as fighting intensifies in and around Kunduz, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, and other Afghan cities.

    The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) has called on both warring sides to show restraint and protect civilians and vital infrastructure such as hospitals from attacks, especially in urban areas.

    "We are seeing homes destroyed, medical staff and patients put at tremendous risk, and hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure damaged," said Eloi Fillion, ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan. "The use of explosive weaponry in cities is having severe and indiscriminate effects on the civilian population well beyond its target. Many families have no option but to flee in search of a safer place. This must stop."

    Street-to-street festivities in Kunduz, Lashkar Gah and other cities over the last few days have injured hundreds of civilians even as medical services are heavily strained due to damage to health facilities and a lack of staff, the ICRC said in a statement.

    The ICRC says that electricity is out across several contested cities and water supply systems are barely operational in some places. "Many families are trying to leave but cannot find transport to escape or simply do not have the financial means," ICRC said.

    The ICRC and its partner the Afghan Red Islamic Thingy Society (ARCS) say they are operating at full capacity to evacuate the maimed and transport the remains of those killed as a result of the conflict. In July alone, the ICRC helped nearly 13,000 patients suffering from weapon-related injuries across the country, and this number appears likely to rise this month as fighting increases in highly populated areas.

    "Health-care facilities, medical workers, and ambulances must be spared at all cost," said Fillion. "We also call on all fighting parties to allow humanitarian organizations like the ICRC and ARCS to safely evacuate the injured and bring much-needed assistance to the civilian population."
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11141 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    In Syria, two soldiers were wounded by mortar fire from Turkish-controlled territory
    Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
    [REGNUM] Militants, whose positions are located in the Turkish-controlled Syrian territories of the Idlib zone, fired at the Syrian military in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, Deputy Chief of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria Rear Admiral Vadim Kulit said at a briefing on August 10 .

    As a result of the shelling by the militants, two Syrian soldiers were wounded.

    “Militants operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone of illegal armed groups controlled by Turkey fired at the positions of the Syrian government forces in the area of ​​the Khas settlement of the Idlib province and in the area of ​​the Urum al-Sughra settlement of the Aleppo province. As a result of mortar attacks, two Syrian servicemen were injured , ”said Vadim Kulit.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11148 views] Top|| File under: Ottoman Proxies


    -Lurid Crime Tales-
    'I Thought He's Done A Hell Of A Job... That's Why It's So Sad ': Biden On Cuomo's Resignation
    [Daily Mail - You know the Rest] 'I thought he's done a hell of a job... that's why it's so sad ': Biden says he 'respects' Cuomo's decision to resign after AG report found he sexually harassed 11 women

    President Joe Biden told reporters Tuesday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's downfall was 'sad' because he had done a 'hell of a job' as governor before an investigation found he sexually harassed 11 women.

    'I respect the governor's decision and I respect the decision he made,' Biden said doing Q&A with reporters after giving infrastructure remarks Tuesday afternoon.

    When asked by CBS' Ed O'Keefe - who mentioned how Biden and Cuomo had worked together on infrastructure projects - to grade the governor's performance outside the harassment allegations, the president gushed about the New York Democrat.

    'I thought he's done a hell of a job. I thought he's done a hell of a job,' Biden said, highlighting specifically voting rights and infrastructure. 'That's why it's so sad.'

    That response prompted CNN's Kaitlan Collins to pop up and ask how Biden could say that since the governor had been accused of sexually harassing women.

    More
    Posted by: Ebbainter Threrelet7364 || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11128 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Emphasis should be on Hell.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:23 Comments || Top||

    #2  Joe will be completely out of it mentally when they announce his "resignation for health reasons." Wish I could be there when Dr. Jill takes her walk in Ft. Marcy Park...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:40 Comments || Top||

    #3  "Hell of a job, Brownie..."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 17:15 Comments || Top||


    Iraq
    More than 18 attacks on electricity towers thwarted in Iraq in two weeks: military spox
    [Rudaw] Iraqi security forces have thwarted more than 18 attacks on electricity lines in two weeks, a military spokesperson told state media on Sunday.

    "Many of the people that are targeting electricity towers have been arrested," spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command Major-General Tahsin al-Khafaji told state media. "The security forces have thwarted more than 18 attempts to target electricity towers in the past two weeks."

    Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, especially felt when summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius. This is caused by multiple factors, including poor government delivery of services, rampant corruption, terror attacks on the power grid, and Iran’s recent cuts of electricity and gas exports because of unpaid bills.

    Attacks earlier this summer on electricity pylons contributed to a blackout that left millions in central and southern Iraq without power during a heat wave.

    The Islamic State
    ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
    group (ISIS) has claimed dozens of attacks on Iraq’s electricity grid and threatened other vital infrastructure and Iraqi security forces said they thwarted several other attempts.

    Khafaji added that ISIS is still an active threat in the region.

    Earlier last month, Khafaji said that the "ISIS terrorist organization seeks to create panic through targeting these power lines."

    Last week, Iraq’s electricity ministry said that attacks on power lines damaged 13 electricity towers in three provinces in just 2 days.

    "ISIS probably views infrastructure as a soft target; the attacks require minimal resources and personnel, but the resulting electricity disruptions garner attention and undermine the Iraqi government," the United States Pentagon said in a report on operations against ISIS.

    During a visit to the electricity ministry in July, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said there is no quick solution to electricity shortages.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


    Arabia
    Senior Pentagon official said Tuesday the drone attack on the Mercer Street tanker came from Yemen UPDATE: ‘Never mind’
    [TWITTER]

    Pentagon denies official said attack on Israel-linked ship came from Yemen
    [IsraelTimes] Deputy assistant secretary of defense appeared to say drones that hit Mercer Street were launched from wartorn country, but later clarification says this was not the case
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies

    #1  Why would feces be endangered anyway?

    oh

    Never Mind
    Posted by: Lord Garth || 08/11/2021 11:33 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: Politix
    19 Senate Republicans Made ‘History' for Joe Biden by Passing Bipartisan So-Called Infrastructure Bill
    [Breitbart] Senate Republicans granted President Joe Biden a significant victory on Tuesday in helping the bipartisan so-called infrastructure bill pass through the Senate.

    The Senate passed H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 69-30, which featured overwhelming Democrat support and strong Republican support.

    Nineteen Senate Republicans voted for the infrastructure bill. The Senate Republicans that voted with Democrats for the legislation reportedly include:

    1. Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
    2. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
    3. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
    4. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
    5. Richard Burr (R-NC)
    6. Deb Fischer (R-NE)
    7. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
    8. Rob Portman (R-OH)
    9. Thom Tillis (R-NC)
    10. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
    11. Jim Risch (R-ID)
    12. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
    13. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
    14. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
    15. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
    16. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
    17. John Hoeven (R-ND)
    18. Susan Collins (R-ME)
    19. Mitt Romney (R-UT)

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on the Senate floor this bill, passed under Biden, is the first major infrastructure bill in over a decade.

    Schumer said the bipartisan bill serves as the "first track" of the "two-track" strategy on infrastructure.

    Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the Senate as the chamber passed the bill.

    Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who is retiring soon, said the Senate made history by passing the bill through the Senate:
    Never mind the Pubs can seldom find a single Dem to support any legislation they produce.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11152 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Bi-partisan Bi-treasonous. The road to serfdom.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:32 Comments || Top||

    #2  /\ Yes, multi-level betrayal.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 8:35 Comments || Top||

    #3  People who vote for RINOs will vote for much worse...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 11:59 Comments || Top||


    Africa North
    Clashes between GNU Forces in Al-Zawiya, West Libya
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11144 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

    #1  Not where I would have expected Stallman to start. I thought Redmond or Cupertino were more likely.
    Posted by: Rob Crawford || 08/11/2021 0:18 Comments || Top||

    #2  *Snort* Obscure programming humor that.
    Posted by: magpie || 08/11/2021 10:11 Comments || Top||


    -Lurid Crime Tales-
    Lyft driver busted for attack on country singer Clare Dunn
    [NYPOST] Country singer Clare Dunn has tearfully revealed how a rideshare driver yanked her from the car and violent mostly peacefully threw her face-first into the ground — with the driver busted early Tuesday, online records show.

    "This has been hell," the "Get Out" singer tearfully told People magazine, sharing a photo of her bloodied and bruised face from the June 26 attack in Tennessee.

    The Colorado-based star had been recording in Nashville when she and a friend shared a Lyft home from a girls’ night out, with the pal dropped off first, Dunn said.

    The driver then got increasingly agitated as the 34-year-old singer asked him to take a slower route avoiding highways, and then pointed out that he had missed her turn, she recalled to People.

    "He was screaming at me," Dunn recalled.

    "And I just knew in that moment that I wasn’t going to get on that interstate with him. I wasn’t going to go quietly where he wanted to take me. And I think he realized maybe this girl was going to be more trouble than she’s worth," she said.

    The driver then pulled over less than a mile from her house, she said.

    "Before I could even get my shoes off or get my phone to try and call 911, he grabbed me by the collar, ripped me out of the backseat and slammed me face-first down into a ditch," she told People.

    "Somehow in the scuffle, I thought I called 911, but I didn’t even get the number right. But it was a miracle. They called me back.

    "And when I came to, I was screaming, and I saw headlights. He ended up just leaving me alone at that point and took off," she said, recalling how she ran home with blood on her bruised face.

    "He knew what he was doing," she said of the accused driver.

    "He hit ’complete the ride’ after it was done," she said, saying that doing so removes key information about the driver from the passenger’s app.

    The singer said she and her friend later admitted to each other that they felt "alarm bells" about the driver and are tormented at having ignored them.

    "I had that intuition that something was wrong, and I ignored it," Dunn said, saying she assumed she was "overthinking it."

    "I blame myself," she said, crying.

    Nashville Metro police on Monday put out an alert for suspect Albert Boakye, 46, and he was booked into Metro jail at 12:46 a.m. Tuesday, online records show. He was released just after 4 a.m., with no details immediately available about possible bonds.

    He had been on a warrant for misdemeanor assault after Dunn provided a photo of him along with her trip information from the Lyft app, police told WKRN.

    Lyft told People mag it had reached out to the singer and also helped police with the investigation.

    "Safety is fundamental to Lyft. The behavior described is appalling, and we permanently removed the driver from the Lyft platform as soon as we learned of this incident," a spokesperson told the mag.

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11128 views] Top|| File under:


    Home Front: Politix
    Sen. Kennedy: Bipartisan $1T infrastructure bill full of 'stupid stuff'
    [NYPOST] Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) blasted the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill as chock-full of "stupid stuff" Monday night, hours ahead of a final Senate vote on passage.

    Kennedy told Fox News’ "The Ingraham Angle" that he was likely to vote "yes" on the package until he received a copy of the 2,700-page measure.

    "I realized pretty quickly that if you look up ’stupid stuff’ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of this bill," said Kennedy. "They told us it was a real infrastructure bill. It’s not; only 23 percent of the bill is real infrastructure, the rest is Green New Deal and welfare. They told us the bill was paid for; it isn’t, we’re gonna have to borrow maybe up to $400 billion to pay for it. They told us there were no tax increases. There are; my state’s gonna have to pay $1.3 billion in new taxes on our petrochemical industry.

    "They told us ... the Democrats were really wary of this bill and that if we passed this bill, it would make it harder for them to pass their $5 trillion tax and spending binge, reconciliation bill," Kennedy added. "Well, if that’s true, how come every Democrat voted for this infrastructure bill? And finally, they told us that it’s not going to add to inflation, but it will."

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Comprehensive: 13 across for Washingtonese "sh*t sandwich..."
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:58 Comments || Top||

    #2  You ain't seen nuttin' yet. House Dems are trying to get the $3T+ Green New Deal package revived ala "buget reconciliation". That's the one with gun registration and red flag laws to name a few turd niblets.
    Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 11:57 Comments || Top||

    #3  I want them charged with additional criminal charges related to ILLEGAL immigration.
    Posted by: Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 || 08/11/2021 18:16 Comments || Top||

    #4  ^ moving comment to the correct thread.
    Posted by: Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 || 08/11/2021 18:28 Comments || Top||


    Home Front: WoT
    An American Story: Tennessee Girl Discards Christianity, Becomes Climate Change Activist, Joins ISIS
    [PJMedia] Ariel Bradley
    ...who is not in our archives...
    wasn’t even the only Islamic jihadi from Chattanooga, Tennessee. On July 17, 2015, a fellow resident of the Chattanooga suburb of Hixson, Mohammad Abdulazeez, murdered four Marines at a Navy base in Chattanooga. This delighted Bradley, who wrote: "Gifted this morning not only with Eid but w/ the news of a brother puttin fear n the heart of kufar [non-believers] n the city of my birth. Alhamdullilah [thanks be to Allah]." By that time, Bradley was far from Chattanooga; she was living in the domains of the Islamic State
    ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
    (ISIS) in Syria, and was calling herself Umm Aminah, that is, Aminah’s mother, after her two-year-old daughter, Aminah Mohamad. Six years later, Ariel Bradley is dead, and Aminah is being brought back to a United States that is even more riven now by the divisions and confusions that drove her mother’s life so wildly off course than it was when her mother made her fateful choices.

    Continued on Page 49
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11135 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

    #1  Die an early & horrible death, ya coont
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 0:40 Comments || Top||

    #2  where she will reportedly be put up for adoption. So that authorities will not be accused of Islamophobia, she will most likely be placed with a devout Moslem family.

    Well, Pentecostals won't do apparently. Moslems are a gamble. Can't the authorities find a single respectable atheist couple? That shouldn't be so hard in America.
    Posted by: Cthullu of Ryleh || 08/11/2021 4:46 Comments || Top||

    #3  All that radicalism but never got banned by any social media platform. If her parents were true Christians I would expect them to at least attempt to get custody of their grand-daughter but this family appears to be equally misguided.
    Posted by: Airandee || 08/11/2021 6:31 Comments || Top||

    #4  Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. - Robert A. Heinlein
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 6:39 Comments || Top||

    #5  If you are going down the toilet, might as well be all the way...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:11 Comments || Top||

    #6  She ought to be adopted out to an actual conservative Mooselimb household where the grandmother controls the ladies under strict sharia, with a whip, and they'll never see the outdoors again.

    Posted by: Mullah Richard || 08/11/2021 10:53 Comments || Top||

    #7  What a great plot for the next Disney social justice grrrl power movie!
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 11:48 Comments || Top||

    #8 
    Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2021 12:06 Comments || Top||

    #9  Put the kid up with a interracial gay couple like Don Lemon and his "partner". Sit back and enjoy the court battle among Muslims, gays, and MSM
    Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2021 12:11 Comments || Top||


    -Land of the Free
    Swing-state Wisconsin removes 205,000 voters from the rolls
    From a week ago, but heartening to those who care about clean votes. This will make it harder for the Democrats to cheat next year.
    [WashingtonTimes] Wisconsin elections officials said Wednesday that they have removed more than 205,000 voters from the rolls as part of routine work to keep the state’s registration lists up to date.

    Purging voters from the rolls has been a point of major contention in the perennial swing state. Conservatives filed a lawsuit in 2020 demanding that the Wisconsin Elections Commission remove voters from the rolls if they didn’t respond to mailings within 30 days. The lawsuit ultimately failed and Democrat Joe The Big Guy Biden
    ...46th president of the U.S. An incredibly corrupt version of Jar-Jar Binks, only well into his dotage...
    went on to beat Donald Trump
    ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
    by about 20,000 votes.

    Commission officials announced Wednesday that they deactivated 174,307 voter registrations on Saturday because the voters hadn’t cast a ballot in four years and didn’t respond to a mailing. They said they are required by law every two years to identify registered voters who haven’t voted in the previous four years and deactivate them unless they wish to remain registered.

    The commission on Saturday also deactivated 31,854 registrations of voters who may have moved and didn’t respond to a mailing. The commission mailed postcards during the summer of 2019 to more than 230,000 voters identified by the Electronic Registration Information Center as having possibly moved.

    The commission voted that summer not to deactivate them until after the April 2021 election to give them several chances to affirm they hadn’t moved. That stance prompted a lawsuit from a conservative law firm, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, demanding the commission remove those voters within 30 days if they didn’t respond to the mailing. The state Supreme Court
    ...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
    ultimately ruled that the commission wasn’t required to remove voters within that window.

    Voters who were removed from the rolls can become eligible to cast ballots again by re-registering. People can check their registration status through the MyVote Wisconsin website at https://myvote.wi.gov or by contacting their municipal clerk.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  ...Wondering if it would be impolite of me to point out that FICUS' margin of victory in WI was just 20,682 votes.

    Mike
    Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/11/2021 6:17 Comments || Top||


    #3 

    205,000 illegal voters removed too late.
    Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 6:50 Comments || Top||

    #4  It's basically absurd that any dead person ever remains on voter rolls. A death certificate must be issued. Every one I handle shows state of residence and county where death occurred. All this stuff is in the same courthouse and as of the last ten years or so, in a computerized database. It's political convenience that keeps voter rolls polluted with bad data. Nothing else.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:19 Comments || Top||

    #5  As for people who have moved, PeeAye hopefully (greedily, stupidly) send tax document to my new Florida address for two years after I moved. Wouldn't have been hard in this modern age to find that I sold my property in PeeAye and didn't buy another. Of course, a hopeful tax collector could probably come up with more scenarios than the Warren Commission that involved me still being taxable my the commontheft of PeeAye.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:23 Comments || Top||

    #6  #4 Agreed. Each state has some agency that deals with death records; in some places it is an agency such as a health department, vital statistics or the secretary of state.

    It should not be that difficult to cull out the voting rolls by matching up death records with voting records. The Social Security Death Master File was started in 1962. It would seem that file could also be checked against voter registrations.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 9:16 Comments || Top||

    #7  With a few exceptions, I suspect everyone should be required to appear in person at his or her designated polling place. No guarantees, but this method should substantially reduce the number of dead people attempting to vote.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 9:20 Comments || Top||

    #8  ^^^ Bingo!
    Posted by: Unosh Hupinelet8756 || 08/11/2021 9:29 Comments || Top||

    #9  ...its organized enough, that someone claiming to be the dead person votes either on the day of election. It's one form of busing that Donks support.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 10:03 Comments || Top||

    #10  Yes. Make the invalid gather in an approved location 1 month prior to any election to vote, If that's too hard, they are on their way out and don't need to vote.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:46 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Taliban Control Most of Farah City: Reports
    [ToloNews] Reports say that the Taliban
    ...Arabic for students...
    have taken over most areas of Farah city following fierce battles with the Afghan cops.

    Sources said that heavy fighting is currently underway in the centers of Badakhshan, Baghlan and Faryab provinces.

    Afghan security agencies are not providing information about developments on the frontlines in the north.

    "The Taliban launched four attacks on the Farah police headquarters, but we defeated them," said an Afghan soldier in Farah, Zabihullah Atal.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the shootout, Butch started the buffalo stampeding......
    the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) reported that it has treated 4,042 weapon-maimed patients at 15 health facilities since the start of August.

    Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk as fighting intensifies in and around Kunduz, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, and other Afghan cities.

    The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) has called on both warring sides to show restraint and protect civilians and vital infrastructure such as hospitals from attacks, especially in urban areas.

    "We are seeing homes destroyed, medical staff and patients put at tremendous risk, and hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure damaged," said Eloi Fillion, ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan. "The use of explosive weaponry in cities is having severe and indiscriminate effects on the civilian population well beyond its target. Many families have no option but to flee in search of a safer place. This must stop."

    "The situation is very concerning, the city is under the siege, I don’t know what the government is planning to defend the city," said Bahadur, a resident in Badakhshan.

    "The people have a lot of apprehensions about this issue," said Wahid Shayoun, a resident in Badakhshan.

    Fighting is also reported in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan.

    "They launched about 100 attacks around Pul-e-Khumri city, but all attacks were repelled," said Baghlan governor Akbar Barakzai.

    In Kapisa province, there are reports that the Taliban have recaptured Nejrab district.

    "We call on the government to pay attention to Kapisa and support security forces and public uprising forces," said a resident in Kapisa, Kaka Mohammad.

    "All people should mobilize behind their defense and security forces, they can prevent the advance of the enemies together," said military analyst Safiullah Safi.

    However,
    if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
    sources have said that there has been no plan so far for the recapture of Zaranj, Sheberghan, Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul
    ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone...
    , Taluqan and Aibak cities, but the security institutions have not given information about the security developments in the north.

    The ICRC says that electricity is out across several contested cities and water supply systems are barely operational in some places. "Many families are trying to leave but cannot find transport to escape or simply do not have the financial means," the ICRC said.

    The ICRC and its partner the Afghan Red Islamic Thingy Society (ARCS) say they are operating at full capacity to evacuate the maimed and transport the remains of those killed as a result of the conflict. In July alone, the ICRC helped nearly 13,000 patients suffering from weapon-related injuries across the country, and this number appears likely to rise this month as fighting increases in highly populated areas.

    "Health-care facilities, medical workers, and ambulances must be spared at all cost," said Fillion. "We also call on all fighting parties to allow humanitarian organizations like the ICRC and ARCS to safely evacuate the injured and bring much-needed assistance to the civilian population."
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11140 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Africa Subsaharan
    Nigerian army says 335 Boko Haram militants have surrendered
    [CONCHOVALLEYHOMEPAGE] The Nigerian army says 335 Boko Haram
    ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
    Death Eaters, including two top commanders, have laid down their arms and withdrawn from the sect in response to a military offensive in the northeast.Military spokesperson Onyema Nwachukwu released photos on Monday of the men holding placards asking for forgiveness, and said the group’s chief bomb expert and his deputy were among those who turned themselves in. Hundreds of women and kiddies from the hard boys’ families also surrendered.

    There have been several reports of snuffies surrendering since the reported death of the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau
    ...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down. Last seen in 2017, sneaking into Cameroon while wearing a burka...
    earlier this year.

    It is, however, difficult to assess if the surrenders will be a major win for Nigerian forces fighting Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency, according to Sadeeq Shehu, a retired senior officer of the Nigerian Air Force.

    Even before Shekau’s death, he and his allies had faced a mounting threat from a breakaway faction known as the Islamic State
    ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
    West Africa Province, or ISWAP, which has become more prominent in carrying out abductions and attacks over the past year.

    There are also fears that the ISWAP snuffies may now be operating in the country’s northwest, too. Authorities confirmed recently that an Death Eater flag was seen flying in one town in northwest Niger state.



    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11147 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


    Science & Technology
    Oregon State University develops first-ever bipedal robot that can run a 5K
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11130 views] Top|| File under:




    Home Front: Politix
    Texas Supreme Court rules runaway Democrats CAN be arrested after returning from D.C. if they don't show up for GOP session on voting bill
    [Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
    • The Tuesday ruling overturns a lower court's emergency restraining order preventing the governor from arresting the loose politicians

    • As of Monday 95 state lawmakers were at the Texas House of Representatives

    • A hundred state representatives are needed for the vote to go on

    • The number of progressive holdouts is likely not enough to stop the session

    • Texas is one of several states trying to pass election security legislation

    • The Lone Star Democrats have been on the lam since mid-July
    Courtesy of Besoeker, Western Journal comes at the story from a different angle:
    Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan had filed a petition to overturn the order, according to KVUE-TV.

    "In this case, there can be little doubt that the Plaintiff’s arrest and subsequent transport back to the Capitol falls comfortably within the Legislature’s (and the Speaker’s) broad power to compel the attendance of its members," the petition said.

    "Plaintiffs are 19 state legislators who sought and obtained public office and swore an oath to uphold the Texas Constitution — the very same Constitution that authorizes each House to compel the attendance of its members," it continued.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11134 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Arrest them & make them suffer.
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 0:47 Comments || Top||

    #2  Rumor has it the court refused to consider a motion to allow the fleebaggers to be hunted for sport.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 1:03 Comments || Top||


    #4  Round them up.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:28 Comments || Top||

    #5  Breach of Contract they swore an oath and "took the King's shilling".
    Posted by: magpie || 08/11/2021 9:52 Comments || Top||

    #6  The law's an ass, but it's all about who's getting c*rnholed...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 10:28 Comments || Top||

    #7  They might have to go to Portugal for some.
    Posted by: Mullah Richard || 08/11/2021 11:01 Comments || Top||

    #8  I want them charged with additional criminal charges related to ILLEGAL immigration.
    Posted by: Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 || 08/11/2021 18:29 Comments || Top||


    Science & Technology
    Covid Cases Have Skyrocketted On Martha's Vineyard - 102 new cases, with 50 per cent, coming from fully-vaccinated residents.
    [VinyardGazette] In an email Monday, Martha's Vineyard Hospital spokesman Marissa Lefebvre confirmed that there is one patient currently hospitalized with the virus. Ms. Lefebvre said the patient was hospitalized Sunday in serious condition.

    According to a follow-up email from Ms. Lefebvre, the patient had only received their first dose of the vaccine.

    The state Department of Public Health reported in its August 5 update that 88 per cent of Dukes County has been fully vaccinated, based on 2019 census data.
    So only 1% of infections are bad enough to need hospitalization? Surely that’s a good thing, exactly what the vaccines are supposed to accomplish.. Perhaps at some point we’ll be informed of the health status of this patient — whether as expected the patient is elderly, in poor health, or otherwise immunocompromised.
    Posted by: Cream OMammoth-Yum9271 || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11140 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Hmmm - was there a recent potential 'super spreader event' on the vineyard?
    Posted by: Raj || 08/11/2021 0:44 Comments || Top||

    #2  the patient had only received their first dose of the vaccine
    Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/11/2021 2:47 Comments || Top||

    #3  That vaxx is a real killer isn't it, one dose and you're in the hospital.
    Great sh-t, in a vial.
    Posted by: Ulaviger Unavimble9004 || 08/11/2021 5:36 Comments || Top||

    #4 
    ACTUAL HOSPITAL NUMBERS CITED

    25 cases were fully vaccinated.
    1 partially vaccinated.
    20 unvaccinated.
    and 2 are unknown.


    BTW: Initially 100's of former Obama administration officials, celebrities and Democratic donors had planned to attend Yomama's 60th Birthday bash on Martha's Vineyard during this same time.

    Time will only tell how many got snagged, if any of them.

    Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/11/2021 6:47 Comments || Top||

    #5  I have a hard time believing any really rich person who wants the vaccine hasn't had both doses for some time now. Ones that don't, lots of gummint spokesassh*les have been saying for some time they are just getting what they deserve.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:37 Comments || Top||

    #6  As I said yesterday, the gumming has actually found something it can't even give away. Historians will study this...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 7:38 Comments || Top||

    #7  Went to the doctor's office yesterday. Masks were required of everyone. The woman at the front desk asked me for a photo ID. I gave her my driver's license. It dawned on me that the DL showed me without a mask. I said: "The DMV should have issued the DL with a mask". ..she chuckled under her mask.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 9:32 Comments || Top||

    #8  Last trip to the doctor, I wore a mask, she came into the exam room wearing one too and immediately took hers off and said, you don't need that...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 9:51 Comments || Top||

    #9  White people who know Bath House don't get sick with this...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 11:56 Comments || Top||

    #10  Dukes county has a population of about 16,000 and so far about 1500 covid infections.

    Per county records, so far zero fatalities.
    Posted by: Lord Garth || 08/11/2021 18:49 Comments || Top||


    Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
    Russian Army to receive the first T-14 tanks by 2022
    The T-14 is a big change in Russian tank design, discarding with "inverted frying pan" motif of traditional tank turret design. The bigger change s the improved 125mm smooth bore main gun, said to be even more powerful than previous iterations.
    [TASS] The Russian Army will receive 20 latest T-14 ‘Armata’ tanks by the end of this year, Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko said on Tuesday.

    "This year, 20 latest T-14 'Armata' tanks will arrive for the troops," the defense official said during the single military output acceptance day.

    Also, "65 (each)T-90M Proryv serially produced tanks" will be handed over to the troops this year," he added.

    The domestic defense industry will also deliver 18 medium-and heavy-class reconnaissance/strike drones to the Russian troops while a brigade set of the Iskander-M tactical missile system will arrive for the Army ahead of schedule, the deputy defense minister said.
    A Russian missile brigade is about 20 launchers.
    The Armata is a heavy tracked standardized platform serving as the basis to develop a main battle tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, an armored personnel carrier and some other armored vehicles.

    The T-14 tank based on the Armata platform was shown to the public for the first time at Red Square’s Victory Day Parade on May 9, 2015. The new combat vehicle features fully digitized equipment, an unmanned turret and an isolated armored capsule for the crew.

    2021 state defense order
    According to Alexey Krivoruchko, this year's state defense order was fulfilled 34% in January thru June.

    "As at the end of the first half of the year the 2021 state defense order for the supplies of new weapons and military equipment has been fulfilled more than 34% of the annual amount, which is in accordance with the expected target," Krivoruchko reported to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.

    He added that the conclusion of long-term state contracts had proved highly effective and guaranteed steady supplies of weapons and military equipment for the armed forces throughout the calendar year.

    "The industry's pace of providing new weapons and military equipment ensures the fulfillment of the state defense order," Krivoruchko said.

    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11130 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  "This year, 20 latest T-14 'Armata' tanks will arrive for the troops," the defense official said during the single military output acceptance day.

    By way of discussion, that means a production rate of 1.66 vehicles per month. Keep in mind that this rate includes typical Soviet Russian QA standards.

    Although the M1 Abrams is currently not in production (Congressional pork meant that we overproduced to requirements for years), the Lima (OH) Tank Plant is capable of - and has in fact done so - thirty tanks a month.

    Keep an eye on it, but don't worry too much.

    Mike
    Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/11/2021 5:50 Comments || Top||

    #2  The bigger change s the improved 125mm smooth bore main gun

    Took them long enough. The M1 outranged them as early as the first Gulf War. Using the laser rangefinders our guys knew that and exploited it. See the flash then a sand cloud kick up 100 meters out. Followed by return fire on target.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2021 10:00 Comments || Top||

    #3  Took them long enough. The M1 outranged them as early as the first Gulf War. Using the laser rangefinders our guys knew that and exploited it. See the flash then a sand cloud kick up 100 meters out. Followed by return fire on target.

    Russians has similar fire control enhancements the US has, and has had them for a good while. And they have retrofitted many of their T-72s with those improvements. (T-72B3)

    What they didn't have was an improvement in the 125mm gun itself, and its ammunition.

    As far as the shooting in Desert Storm, the M1 could range out to that, but the optics couldn't. Dunno if it's still a problem.

    We still do not know, even at this late date, just how good/bad the Russian 125mm smoothbore is, since the Russian "customers' don't receive the same gun/ammunition the Russian Army itself uses. It could well be as good or better than the Rheinmetal 120mm.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 10:13 Comments || Top||

    #4  I have seen some chatter about the Armata being a platform for autonomous fighting vehicles. In the tank version, the gun is operated 'remotely' from inside the armored cabin rather than from the turret and it uses an autoloader rather than an extra crewman. Lots of interesting possibilities, IMHO.
    Posted by: SteveS || 08/11/2021 11:20 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    13 Children En Route to Terrorist Training Rescued: MoJ
    [ToloNews] The Afghan Ministry of Justice said on Tuesday that the country's intelligence forces prevented 13 Afghan children from being taken to Pakistain and trained to be terrorists.

    According to the ministry, Death Eaters intended to take the children to the Khyber Agency
    ... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though...
    in Pakistain's Balochistan
    ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
    province to provide them terrorism training after deceiving their families, but the Afghan cops prevented it from happening.
    Well spotted, guys!
    "Our country is in a state of war, in a state of - unfortunately - obvious aggression; when a society is in a state of war, its obvious that calamities and catastrophes are widespread as well," said Justice Minister Fazel Ahmad Manawi.

    The radicalization of children in Pak religious schools is a constant concern for Afghan leaders and regional and international analysts.

    The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations stated that another 67 children who were being smuggled by human traffickers and migrants colonists out of the country in border areas between 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
    and Afghanistan were detained by Iranian border guards and handed over to Afghan cops.

    Zabiullah Rahmatzadeh, director of immigration at the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations, said: "These people were going to Iran from Nimroz via Zahedan; fortunately, we handed them back to their families."

    Numbers provided by the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations show that in the last four months more than 70 people, including six women and three children who were about to be taken out of the country by human traffickers, have been rescued by Afghan police forces.

    Zahir Farahi, the Interior Ministry's director of the human trafficking department, said: "They had made fake visas, photo-changed passports, fake passports, and generally fake ID cards for them, and they wanted to get them out illegally either through the air or across open borders."

    Members of the Afghan government's High Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Moslem colonists Migrants held a conference on Monday to discuss the US State Department's recent report on human trafficking.

    According to the US State Department’s report, Afghanistan is among the 17 countries that have failed to meet the minimum standards set for the prevention of human trafficking.

    The State Department has warned that the 17 countries’ efforts in fighting human trafficking have been insufficient and unsatisfying and this could lead to sanctions by the United States against these countries.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Science & Technology
    Ezra Levant on CCP virus
    [TWITTER]
    Posted by: 746 || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11143 views] Top|| File under:


    #2  Animal Reservoir defined.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 6:22 Comments || Top||

    #3  Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines

    Conclusions:
    Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 6:47 Comments || Top||


    -Great Cultural Revolution
    Major Landlords Sue L.A. for $100 Million over Eviction Moratorium
    Hit back twice as hard.
    [Breitbart] GHP Management Corp. and several other companies owned by developer Geoffrey Palmer are suing the City of Los Angeles for $100 million over its eviction moratorium, saying the policy has resulted in massive losses to the firm.

    The suit further alleges that the plaintiffs cannot find help from banks, who will not refinance mortgages on properties that fall under the city’s eviction moratorium.

    The Biden administration and Democrats in state and local governments have cast such moratoria as measures to protect the poor, but they could hurt the poor in the long run by making it less likely that developers will build housing in Democrat-run cities, or that they will invest in low-income housing at all.

    Los Angeles Times — which took care to note that Palmer is a Republican donor and Trump supporter — reports:

    Palmer’s companies also contend that they will have little success in recouping losses from their tenants after the one-year grace period that follows the end of the city’s COVID-19 emergency.

    “The city orchestrated a regulatory regime designed to provide a compulsory and de facto rent forgiveness to be foisted on landlords throughout the city,” the lawsuit states.

    Palmer has tangled with the city before, persuading a three-judge panel in 2009 to strike down rules requiring developers near downtown to provide a specific percentage of affordable housing in their residential projects.

    The case is being closely watched, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued a new federal eviction moratorium, despite being told in June by the Supreme Court that it lacked constitutional authority to do so. President Donald Trump issued an initial, temporary moratorium when the pandemic first struck in early 2020.

    In his recent “State of the City” address, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was recently nominated as ambassador to India, boasted that the city had passed “one of the first eviction moratoriums in the United States” in 2020.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11137 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  ...There are indications of a growing movement of landlords considering filing 1099s on tenants who haven't paid. That oughta gum up the works right quickly.

    Mike
    Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/11/2021 6:08 Comments || Top||

    #2  Eviction moratoriums = assaults on private property rights.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 8:27 Comments || Top||

    #3  /\ When the property owner's income is exhausted and he can no longer pay property taxes, to whom does his property migrate. Yes, a rhetorical question indeed.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2021 8:33 Comments || Top||

    #4  ^ Excellent points. This is as close as they can come right now to shooting the kulaks. But we await further developments.
    Posted by: Matt || 08/11/2021 10:55 Comments || Top||

    #5  You can always sell down before your property's worthless. And there's always a greater fool...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:20 Comments || Top||

    #6  Think of all the hipster idiots who bought houses in Detroit for a dollar...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 18:22 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Taliban entered Gardiz the capital city of Paktia province
    [TWITTER]

    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11142 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Iraq
    Senior Iranian security official urged Iraq to expel Iranian rebels from Iraqi Kurdistan, or expect Tehran to take ''preventative measures''
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11131 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


    Government Corruption
    Cuomo refused to hire woman because she wasn't 'pretty enough,' ex-aide claims
    [NYPOST] One of Gov. Andrew Sonny Cuomo
    ...Dem dynastic governor of Noo Yawk, the son and heir of the late Mario Cuoma and formerly married to a Kennedy. Acclaimed for his leadership during the COVID epidemic, he managed the nation's highest corpse count while successfully hiding the returns and writing a book praising himself. Among the nation's horniest politicians, he has about a dozen allegations of sexual harrassment and groping against him. Noo Yawk's politix being what they are, he is still hanging tough, waiting to ride it out....
    ’s accusers said Monday that Cuomo once refused to hire a woman because she wasn’t "pretty enough" — and thought then-President Bill Clinton
    ...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of the word is...
    ’s sex scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky was "funny."Karen Hinton, who worked as a Cuomo press aide when he was Clinton’s housing secretary, told The Post that during that time, he conducted a job interview with a woman who had "worked on Capitol Hill for years."

    "I knew her, she had a very good understanding of Capitol Hill politics and policy," Hinton said.

    "She came in for an interview and I sat in since I had recommended her, and he said to me after, ’No, I don’t think so,'" she said.

    Hinton added: "I asked, ’Why?’ He said, ’She’s not pretty enough. I don’t like the way she looks.'"



    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11143 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Wekk if it was Tallib, he'd have a point.
    Posted by: Mercutio || 08/11/2021 11:58 Comments || Top||


    Europe
    North Macedonia to buy military equipment from Turkey
    Direct translation via Google Translate. Edited.

    Turks getting their hooks into the Balkans.

    [REGNUM] On August 10, the government of North Macedonia reviewed and approved the report on the negotiations on the signing of an agreement on military-financial cooperation with the government of Turkey.

    According to the Albanian news agency Telegrafi Maqedoni, North Macedonia will receive 100 million lira or US $ 11.5 million from Turkey for the purchase of military equipment.

    Equipment purchases, of course, will be made in Turkey. As a reminder, North Macedonia and Turkey are NATO partner countries since 2020.
    Posted by: badanov || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11139 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


    Home Front: Politix
    Leader of the Minneapolis chapter of @MinnesotaDFL has come out in support of far-left violent extremism
    [PUBLISH.TWITTER]
    Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11138 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  So the Dems have come out of the closet with regards to supporting violence?
    Posted by: JohnQC || 08/11/2021 9:27 Comments || Top||

    #2  Fine. Eliminate the secret ballot and simultaneously make it the law of the land that you personally are subject to what you voted for.
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 12:11 Comments || Top||


    Science & Technology
    You'll beer-ly believe it! Analysis of 467 popular beers reveals tens of thousands of unique molecules - around 80% of which aren't yet described in chemical databases
    Posted by: Skidmark || 08/11/2021 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11130 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  But none have required people to wear masks or take experimental vaccines. Yay beer!
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:32 Comments || Top||

    #2  Imagine Tony Fauxi had grown up in a beer brewing family. History might be verry different right now...
    Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/11/2021 8:33 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
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    1Narcos

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    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.
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    Meet the Mods
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    Two weeks of WOT
    Wed 2021-08-11
      Taliban takes control of border with Uzbekistan
    Tue 2021-08-10
      Cuomo finally resigns!
    Mon 2021-08-09
      Taliban say capital of Afghanistan's Takhar province seized
    Sun 2021-08-08
      Taliban take over Kunduz
    Sat 2021-08-07
      IDF attacks Hamas headquarters in response to balloon fires
    Fri 2021-08-06
      Jihadists kill 30 in north Burkina Faso, says official
    Thu 2021-08-05
      Israel moves cyber sabotage units to UAE to turn Persian Gulf into crisis hub
    Wed 2021-08-04
      375 Taliban killed in past 24 hours: MoD
    Tue 2021-08-03
      Possible 'Mine Attack' Incident In Gulf Waters
    Mon 2021-08-02
      15 Niger troops killed in ambush, subsequent blast
    Sun 2021-08-01
      Bus with soccer players blown up in Somalia as key election starts
    Sat 2021-07-31
      Tanker managed by Israeli firm attacked off Oman, killing two
    Fri 2021-07-30
      Secret files show Iranian plans to sink ships using cyberattacks
    Thu 2021-07-29
      3 Tunisian parties, including Ennahda, face legal probe
    over foreign funding
    Wed 2021-07-28
      Libya militia leader Mohammed al-Kani diagnosed with rigor mortis

    Better than the average link...



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