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Iranian security forces brutally beat #Iranian protesters
Today's Headlines
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09:58 2 11:55 Frank G [4]
08:08 9 17:57 rjschwarz [17]
06:32 2 12:53 Skidmark [17]
06:32 4 09:28 SteveS [11]
06:17 6 15:20 Lex [15]
02:39 17 15:21 Abu Uluque [22]
02:35 1 06:56 Procopius2k [14]
02:31 9 12:18 Webbell Hubster2957 [12]
01:55 12 23:58 gorb [14]
01:53 10 14:58 Lex [11]
01:38 2 03:25 Dron66046 [9]
01:29 3 12:41 Unaitle Panda6599 [7]
01:26 6 23:51 Unaitle Panda6599 [12]
01:21 4 12:56 Skidmark [9]
01:14 15 21:01 gorb [9]
01:12 13 23:53 Unaitle Panda6599 [21]
00:59 1 07:13 Procopius2k [11]
00:45 3 16:07 Lex [6]
00:31 1 04:28 Lex [9]
00:07 7 15:43 Silentbrick [11]
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Home Front: Politix
How Republicans Won Phase One Of Impeachment
[Federalist] Mollie Hemingway. Nuff said
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 09:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mollie's solid as always but this observation is a little disturbing:

Schiff kept a tight hand on the wheel, controlling witness lists, controlling their testimony, keeping things secret, selectively leaking, and withholding information. That’s his prerogative, but for impeachment to be considered something other than political theater, the unfairness didn’t work.

Huh?
A Shitshow + Star Chamber is part of the Chairman's "prerogative"? Really?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Under HR660 (?) they adopted rules that allowed that, as unfair as it is
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 11:55 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
African Nations Raise Eyebrows by Recommitting to Fossil Fuels
Last month, South Africa's government declared that it would increase the production of coal-fired energy.

It was a surprise to many in the climate-change scene. They had expected African countries to cut back on coal, especially after the African Development Bank (ADB) stopped financing coal projects.

Despite this, the African nations are sticking with fossil-fuel projects. But, how does Africa manage to fund them?

In sub-Saharan Africa, 620 million people‐a third of the population‐have no electricity. The remaining third have intermittent power supply, with constant outages. In such dire circumstances, one would not expect restrictions on fuel sources.
Like California?

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 08:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well fossil fuels do have the added positive externality of feeding plants.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  ... plus being readily available, unlike unicorn dreams.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 11/22/2019 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  They went for cheap, reliable energy? Color me non-surprised.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2019 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Those Savages!
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 9:29 Comments || Top||

#5  how does Africa manage to fund them?

China has already put in about a $100b in Africa. There are other multinational entities too which are invested in the fuel/energy sector. The ADB and their friends can shove their concerns up their thunbergs.

Developing countries will press on, mostly along the same route the first world took to get there. If they are believing 'experts' who believe everything from the moment man discovered fire is a sin now, fuck 'em. Poor and destitute populations cannot and will not switch to batteries or expensive to produce and maintain infrastructure for alt power.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 9:43 Comments || Top||

#6  didnt someone say that "Global Warming is a hobby for people who live in rich countries"
Posted by: 746 || 11/22/2019 10:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Climate Change scammers get a big FU from China ..
Posted by: TCal - ZooJerzee || 11/22/2019 11:40 Comments || Top||

#8  "So uppity! After all we've done to make them symbols of virtue!"
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:52 Comments || Top||

#9  If all the carbon offset payments are being made should landowners living in the tropics be flooded with money by now.

Has anyone tracked the money being sold against offsets?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/22/2019 17:57 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Carjacking or Cartel? We report, you decide
[KRQE] An Albuquerque woman was murdered in her driveway in what police think was a random robbery that turned into a shooting.

The shooting happened around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning in the driveway of a northwest Albuquerque home in the Corte de Loma cul-de-sac, located in the Las Lomitas neighborhood near Unser and I-40.

Albuquerque Police haven’t identified the woman who was killed, but police say she was the mother of two New Mexico State Police officers.

In a news conference Tuesday morning, an Albuquerque Police spokesman said investigators believe the woman was shot after an attempted robbery. Neighbors told police they ran outside when they heard the gunshots, and saw two men in a brown Jeep Cherokee fleeing the area.

The Albuquerque Police Department says this is the city’s 71st homicide this year.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 06:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Police say the victim was shot as she went to warm up her car

Hmmm, sounds like an eco-freak from Cali or NJ got incensed by this wanton warmingness.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/22/2019 7:58 Comments || Top||

#2  The mother of two New Mexico State Police officers

Retribution?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 12:53 Comments || Top||


Government
JFK files: CIA spy in Cuba ‘befriended' Castro, Che; played key role amid nuclear-war fears
[USA Today] The World War II veteran with the top-secret job hid a lot from his 12-year-old daughter. But on this day, he opened up about how suspicious it seemed: The accused assassin of John F. Kennedy getting shot and killed on live TV, during a transfer between jails.

Today, Lilliam remembers her dad "being sort of angry that we weren’t going to get any answers... and just really wondering about it: Was it (Lee Harvey) Oswald who shot the president like we all thought? And he conveniently gets shot himself?"

She wouldn’t know for four more years that this was not simply idle speculation about danger and deception surrounding the president’s 1963 murder. Her dad was a deep-cover CIA operative whose life had been dedicated to danger and deception.

A secret war the White House waged against Cuba provided both in abundance. And the spy was often in the thick of the adventure. Fate would sideline him at a crucial moment, when Fidel Castro took control of the island nation. But that didn’t derail his dedication to fighting communism ‐ until a personal demon destroyed his career.

The spy was Ross Lester Crozier, who died in obscurity in 2000. Details of his role in history remained buried in 944 pages of classified Central Intelligence Agency documents until their release, bit by bit, starting two years ago.

A CIA assessment of Ross Crozier's interactions with Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

In those files, reinforced by recollections of his daughter and of former operatives who worked under him, Crozier emerges as a real-life James Bond. He interacted with major players of tumultuous events involving Cuba and the Cold War from the mid-1950s to the early ’60s. He crossed paths with spies who would later be arrested in the 1972 burglary of Democratic offices at Washington’s Watergate complex, which took down another president.

Prior to Cuba’s revolution, he managed to develop a rapport with its two biggest icons ‐ Castro and aide Ernesto "Che" Guevara, whose name and image today are synonymous with revolution.

Crozier also was the agency’s official liaison for a CIA-funded group of young, exiled Cubans who opposed both Castro and Guevara.

Through those students, he learned that the Soviet Union had placed missiles in Cuba capable of striking the U.S. and passed this intelligence on to Washington. But his reports went nowhere, he complained to a researcher in his later years ‐ a lost opportunity with the potential to change the course of history by preempting the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 06:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A little CIA PR to try to cover their past and current despicable institutional behaviors?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 6:52 Comments || Top||

#2  That may be the most cynical thing I've read, P2k.

Not saying it's wrong, mind you, not saying it would surprise me, just saying it is cynical.

Sorry I didn't think of it myself.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/22/2019 7:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Corporate virtue signaling for the uninformed, or a thesis on the origins of regime change...or both.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Tales from back when the CIA was on our side.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2019 9:28 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Hunter Biden-linked company received $130M in special federal loans while Joe Biden was vice president
[Washington Examiner] An investment firm linked to Hunter Biden received over $130 million in federal bailout loans while his father Joe Biden was vice president and routed profits through a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, according to federal banking and corporate records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

Financial experts said the offshore corporate structure could have been used to shield earnings from U.S. taxes.
The cash flow goes from taxpayers to Biden's pockets - a one-way trip
Rosemont Capital, an investment firm at the center of Hunter Biden’s much-scrutinized financial network, was one of the companies approved to participate in the 2009 federal loan program known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF.

Under the program, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank issued billions of dollars in highly favorable loans to select investors who agreed to buy bonds that banks were struggling to offload, including bundled college and auto loans.

According to federal records, 177 firms participated in TALF, many of them well connected in Washington or on Wall Street. For investors, there was little risk and a high chance of reward. The Federal Reserve funded as much as 90% of the investments. If the bonds were profitable, the borrowers benefited. If not, the department agreed to take over the depreciated assets with no repercussions for the borrowers.

"It's very complicated to become qualified as a TALF borrower or as a TALF fund, if you will," Carol Pepper, a wealth management specialist, told Forbes in 2009. "But that's an example of where, if you can get into a TALF fund, you can benefit from this government program."

Under the terms for the program, any U.S. company looking to invest in select categories of bonds was eligible to apply for the loans. However, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve maintained the "right to reject a borrower for any reason," and the internal selection process was criticized by some lawmakers as opaque and open to corruption.

"How can my constituents in Vermont get some of that money? Who makes the decisions? Do you guys sit around in a room ‐ do you make it? Are there conflicts of interest?" Sen. Bernie Sanders asked Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke at a March 3, 2009, Senate hearing. "Do you have to be a large, greedy, reckless financial institution to apply for these monies?"

Joe Biden was a key advocate for the financial bailout, which was approved under the Bush administration and expanded under President Barack Obama. He delayed his Senate resignation in January 2009 to cast his final vote to increase funding for the Troubled Asset Relief Program before taking office as vice president.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 06:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if he shared with Obama?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 6:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, we certainly know what Hunter didn't buy with any of that money.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 6:26 Comments || Top||

#3  At least it's efficient. It bypasses the Ukrainian middlemen.
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  People talk about Ukraine as if American oligarchs are lily white. The fact is, if American oligarchs like the Bidens weren't so damn crooked nobody in this country would have ever even heard of Ukraine.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  What a great racket!
Report investor contributions, wash profits in the Caymans (beautiful islands by the way), report forward earnings, get Fed money and write off loan interest against reported earnings without ever tapping the cash washing island account.

Wait...racket?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 13:19 Comments || Top||

#6  the 2009 federal loan program known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF

Often paired with the other investment vehicle utilized by the Biden and Heinz-Kerry clans known as the
Senators' Hidden Investment Trust and Structured Highly-leveraged Offshore Wealth-generation scheme
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 15:20 Comments || Top||


FBI official is under criminal investigation for 'altering document' used to obtain Russia probe surveillance warrant on Trump campaign aide Carter Page during 2016 election
[MAIL] A criminal investigation has been opened into an FBI official suspected of 'altering' a document in the warrant application to surveil Trump campaign advisor Carter Page during the 2016 election, according to a new report.

The alleged document tampering was uncovered during Inspector General Michael Horowitz's probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, and subsequently referred to U.S. Attorney John Durham for criminal investigation, CNN reported on Thursday.

In October 2016, the FBI sought and was granted a FISA warrant to surveil Page's communications and access all of his stored emails and texts.

To obtain the warrant, the FBI had to convince a judge in a secret court that there was probable cause that Page was a foreign agent. The 90-day warrant was renewed three times, but Page has never been charged with any crime.

It's unclear which FBI official is under criminal investigation for allegedly tampering with documents in the warrant application.

The names of the supervisory special agent or agents who submitted sworn statements to support the FISA application and renewals were redacted when the applications were publicly released.

Former FBI director James Comey signed off on the FBI evidence in the applications prior to being fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe signed off on the subsequent renewals.

The alleged FBI document tampering is expected to be addressed in Horowitz's IG report, which is undergoing final classification review.

In a letter sent on Thursday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, Horowitz said he expected his office to be able to release the report on December 9 'barring unforeseen circumstances.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 02:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Smoking gun' or 'bridge to nowhere?'
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 2:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Alle grappies op ń stokkie
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 4:40 Comments || Top||

#3  I recall it was Strzok who altered it? Or was that the notes from Flynn's interview?

My, there's quite a lot of altering goin' on...
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:40 Comments || Top||

#4  No, no joke g(r)om, I'm leaning toward 'bridge to nowhere.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 7:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Dis ‘n feit soos ‘n koei
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 8:21 Comments || Top||

#6  it was likely a flunkee working at Peter Strzok's direction formally or informally

it would be a real hoot if it were Lisa Page and if she had flipped and was now working with the investigation
Posted by: lord garth || 11/22/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#7  混蛋不得不混蛋
Posted by: KBK || 11/22/2019 10:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Could well be Lisa Page. It has been speculated she flipped. Would rather it be her boss Jim Baker and Lisa the stoolie.

From CNN: An FBI lawyer since separated from the bureau faces a criminal investigation for altering a document relating to obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA) Court warrant to surveil Donald Trump campaign aide Carter Page, CNN reports.
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 10:56 Comments || Top||

#9  The Conservative Treehouse: The Washington Post Helps Identify FBI Lawyer Who Altered FISA Docs
If you have followed the case closely, the intentional removal of Peter Strzok in combination with the explanation of the lawyer’s FISA responsibilities; and in combination with prior reporting of FBI lawyer 2; it seems pretty obvious the line-level lawyer was Kevin Clinesmith.

Kevin Clinesmith was one of the key FBI small group members on the original Clinton investigation known as the “mid-year exam”, or in text messages the “MYE”. Within the MYE Clinesmith was one of the key legal staff working with Peter Strzok. Clinesmith was lawyer #2 for Strzok who eventually transferred to the subsequent Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 11:14 Comments || Top||

#10  I thought altering documents was standard procedure for the FBI.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2019 11:23 Comments || Top||

#11  that's why their 302's are written notes, not recordings, amirite?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 11:56 Comments || Top||

#12  Sorry I'm not multi-lingual. Some of the posts on this thread are indecipherable to me.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:24 Comments || Top||

#13  We're an eclectic bunch. Between us, we speak Afrikaans, Bureaucratese, C++, English, German, Hebrew, Latin, MilSpec, Russian, Snarkanese, Yiddish, and a touch of Zulu.

Personally, as a man of the world, I feel it is important to both greet and curse the natives in whatever their barbaric tongue.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2019 12:39 Comments || Top||

#14  If true this was an illegal act committed to enable the administration to spy on the opposition's presidential campaign.

Would this be the 21st century equivalent of the Watergate burglary?

Speculation:

The leading Democrats have known about this for some time.

Impeachment is a bargaining chip.

The Democrats want a quid pro quo.

Impeachment will be shelved if this investigation is stopped.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 11/22/2019 12:45 Comments || Top||

#15  re #13: Abu, use Google translate - copy the text in the post, then paste into Google Translate, using Detect Language.
Not perfect, but you usually get the sense of the post.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2019 12:58 Comments || Top||

#16  Strzok, Page et al are this century's Plumbers.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 13:03 Comments || Top||

#17  If I had a bus schedule I could read assembler.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 15:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Most decorated soldier of Vietnam War had almost as many Article 15s as he did medals
h/t Instapundit
There is a long-standing adage in combat arms branches that says "you haven’t had a full career until you’ve gotten an Article 15."

Well, this Vietnam War veteran had his share non-judicial punishments (authorized by Article 15 of UCMJ), racked up 115 confirmed kills and was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was also one of the most decorated soldier in American international combat, even eclipsing both Alvin York and Audie Murphy.

Born in the summer of 1938 in South Carolina, Joe Ronnie Hooper was relocated as a child to Moses Lake, Washington.

Originally a Navy man, Hooper first enlisted in December of 1956. He worked in naval aviation, eventually reaching the rank of Petty Officer 3rd class, the equivalent of an Army or Marine corporal (E-4). He was honorably discharged in 1959.

The next year, Hooper enlisted in the US Army as a Private First Class. After graduating Basic Training, he volunteered for Airborne School. From there he did tours of duty in Fort Bragg, Korea and Fort Hood, eventually making his way to Fort Campbell’s 101st Airborne Division.

Now a Staff Sergeant, Hooper requested a tour in Vietnam but was sent to Panama instead as a platoon sergeant. Unable to stay out of trouble while he was there, he was the subject of several Article 15 hearings and was eventually demoted to Corporal. However, he eventually got his Sergeant back and deployed with the 101st to Vietnam in December of 1967, taking on the role of a squad leader.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 02:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you read early American military history, you'd be quickly informed of the number of officers who were 'boarded' yet still served and went on to higher grade.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 6:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Fiona Hill Testifies Russian Meddling Sought To Sow Discord Between Parties, Criticizes Those Casting Trump Presidency As Illegitimate
[Daily Caller] Fiona Hill, former senior director for European and Russian Affairs on President Trump’s National Security Council, testified Thursday that the goal of Russian meddling into the 2016 election was not to elect Trump over then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but to sow discord between Republicans and Democrats.

"The Russians’ interests are frankly to delegitimize our entire presidency," Hill stated in response to a line of questioning from Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff during her public impeachment hearing. "So one issue that I do want to raise, and I think this would resonate with our colleagues on the committee from the Republican Party, is that the goal of the Russians was really to put whoever became the president, by trying to tip their hands on one side of the scale, under a cloud."

"So if Secretary, former First Lady, former Senator Clinton had been elected as president, as indeed many expected in the run-up to the election in 2016, she too would have had major questions about her legitimacy," she continued. "I think that what we’re seeing here as a result of all of these narratives is exactly what the Russian government was hoping for."

"Perceived misinformation, perceived doubt, they have everybody questioning the legitimacy of a presidential candidate, be it President Trump or potentially a President Clinton, that they would pit one side of our electorate against the other, they would pit one party against the other, and that’s why I wanted to make such a strong point at the very beginning."

Hill further emphasized the "need to be very careful as we discuss all of these issues not to give them more fodder that they can use against us in 2020."
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 02:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Finally, some sanity. This woman knows what she's talking about. Unbelievable that it took this long for someone in Washington to say the obvious.

Putin couldn't care less about who's in the White House. He feared and loathes Trump as much as he fears and loathes any Democrat who might replace Trump.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 5:23 Comments || Top||

#2  And the Democrats played into their game, being crazy marxists themselves.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 5:36 Comments || Top||

#3  They spent 25 million as compared to 2 billion total.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 6:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Is there like anyone in USG branches dealing with Ukraine who is not an Ukrainian patriot?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 6:38 Comments || Top||

#5  At least we KNOW she didn't sleep her way to the top
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 8:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't jump to conclusions, lookist!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 8:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Fiona walks into a bar.
Bartender says, "Why the long face?"
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:34 Comments || Top||

#8  played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the miniseries?
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 11:59 Comments || Top||

#9  ^ Hey, hold up there. I could use the work and I can totally lose the weight!
Posted by: Webbell Hubster2957 || 11/22/2019 12:18 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Warren criticizes Netanyahu after indictment
Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Netanyahu had been indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

"Netanyahu is accused of accepting bribes, trading government favors, and manipulating a free press. Like his pal Donald Trump, he'll stop at nothing to enrich himself and stay in power. This blatant corruption has no place in any democracy‐I'll fight it at home and abroad," Warren wrote in a tweet.
What are the cases Netanyahu has been indicted for?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 01:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What are the cases Netanyahu has been indicted for?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 1:59 Comments || Top||

#2  This is bullshit. A friggin' carpet and some cigar boxes. Is a head of State expected to refuse to meet people, throw away gifts ?

Desperate, arab-loving, boy buggering lawyers are just trying the Dem playbook in Israel. This shit is everywhere. It's the trend among leftist lawfarer flunkies of self-righteous politicians who can't win elections fairly. And the only good solution is a boot on their faces.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Warren wouldn't make a decent blemish on Netanyahu's backside.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 2:14 Comments || Top||

#4  It's bullshit, but is swung the election. The new class is powerful and works against national interest wherever it's found.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 2:17 Comments || Top||

#5  p.s. Gantz haven't noticed, but they already started investigating him.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 2:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Atone for your own corruption, you lying sack of shit.

Give up the faculty position and the high six figure salary you scored based on false pretenses, posing as a minority.

Apologize to the all the people you defrauded. Then and only then maybe you can criticize others for corruption.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:44 Comments || Top||

#7  By the way, according to Israeli Basic Law (constitution of sorts) PM can continue in his job until convicted (including appeals). So ...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 8:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Has Warren claimed she's of Palestinian descent yet?
Posted by: Crusader || 11/22/2019 10:01 Comments || Top||

#9  ^ Still searching for recipes-- falafel crab cakes etc
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 15:24 Comments || Top||

#10  ^ Nice
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 19:24 Comments || Top||

#11  I guess Warren somehow magically knows the truth already.
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2019 23:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Much like 0bumhole would have.
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2019 23:58 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
The Connection Between Epstein & Impeachment
BLUF:
[Sons of Liberty] So, why the secretive, Soviet-style impeachment process and the dramatically heightened hyperbole in the press and sinister collusion over a story about a dead pedophile?

What’s the connection?

Here it is: Apart from the left’s fear and loathing surrounding Donald Trump, both the impeachment process and the Epstein story run a very high risk for the American people discovering the true character of those who govern them. While many of the astute have already figured this out, a preponderance of Americans making this discovery could prove fatal to socialist ascendency in America, and might actually spell the demise of at least one of our political parties.

As some commentators have noted, the abysmal character of this impeachment process is due to congressional Democrats’ knowledge that if the proceedings do not remain within their tight control, they run the risk of exposing not only the machinations of the Deep State at large, but the illegal activities of public officials at many levels, going all the way back to Bill Clinton’s administration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 01:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ....run a very high risk for the American people discovering the true character of those who govern them.

The Washington elite could care less what the "American people discover" or think. This isn't about discovery, it's about enabling the media to establish a time and distance conundrum with regard to illegal acts and wrongdoing. It's purely a political 'cover for action.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 2:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Muslims are just vermin to be fumigated. China is just an opportunist - show firm and they'll pipe down. The real enemy is the Western "cognitive elites" - dumb as shit and twice as arrogant.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 3:39 Comments || Top||

#3  It's simply a redirect from their own crimes, corruption and lies.

Virtually everything they print or say now is either a form of projection-- accusing Trump of abuses that they themselves are guilty of-- or a head fake designed to keep the public off the trail.

That trail leads to the obvious conclusion that our political class and their cheerleaders in the media don't have the faintest idea of how to run this country. They have failed massively in every realm-- economic, political, foreign affairs, the cultural sphere-- and have given us 30+ years of stagnation and decline.

In our history only the late 19th century compares for our era's level of corruption, incompetence, economic concentration, and stupidity.

At least then our power and stature int he world were increasing. These f---ing morons have deliberately squandered the extraordinary windfall they were handed in 1989.

Hence the massive and constant attempt to redirect the public's attention away from their colossal failures.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:54 Comments || Top||

#4  might actually spell the demise of at least one of our political parties.

Hasten the day. The American DNC is near the sort of intellectual and moral bankruptcy that the Indian INC underwent in the previous decade. Too much power, and too many threads of compromise with pressure groups whose interests are contrary to those of the law-abiding common citizen. There is no way the DNC is coming back from the rot. And Americans are not as dumb as the globalist groups supporting the DNC want to believe. No one is.

The equivalent of the DNC in India, the INC is today a joke, after just two terms of conservatives. The media realized it couldn't live on goodwill from 'deposed princes' and changed loyalties, even if not in spirit. Today, they are laughed at and ridiculed, their 'stalwarts' are either fighting off cases or in jail, their financiers and benefactors are fighting extradition and orange notices. Once you've descended the food chain, the officials take it from there.

After a century of systematized pavlovian conditioning pushed by federal agencies and judiciaries, Democrats were only able to make a slight dent in the American psyche. It won't simply give in, like Brit compliance with everything out of Westminster.

The challenging task for Trump will remain to purge the federal bureaucracy and appoint nationalists in those positions that require them. Maybe a PR campaign to remind American youth of what the US means ? The 'keep America great' concept could flow into the campaign for his successor, maybe Melania or Junior.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 5:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Not Melania. Even if she were not a naturalized citizen, she clearly has absolutely no interest in politics. She does her duty as Mrs. Trump, whether that involves his business entertaining or the nation’s, but she is has no interest beyond supporting him in his work. Hillary Clinton is the rare president’s wife interested in taking up the mantle for herself, and look how bad she has been at the job.

If Donald Trump, Jr is the one who has been tweeting and going on television, he may be the one. Or Ivanka, though she strikes me as happier being an executive in the organization — better work/life balance, donchaknow.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 10:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Any Trump relative would be unlikely as it would look bad.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 11:37 Comments || Top||

#7  The one to carry on Trump's legacy has not emerged yet. It needs to be someone who's savvier about Washington, who won't get sandbagged as Trump was. Maybe someone like Josh Hawley. Possibly Ted Cruz.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Lex. WRT Ted Cruz: Trump has shown how far a president can go against the Deep State and the media. Cruz has the stones to try, so that's an improvement Originally, I was for Cruz/Fiorina, but figured selling the task as doing things the same old way to fix what doing things the same old way got us wasn't going to get anybody elected.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 11/22/2019 14:43 Comments || Top||

#9  John the Baptist = Trump
Messiah = ?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 14:56 Comments || Top||

#10  Melania = St Mary M.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 14:58 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Australia's ex-spy chief warns about China influence
[Aljazeera] China is trying to "take over" Australia's political system with an "insidious" and systematic campaign of espionage and influence-peddling, Canberra's ex-spymaster said in an interview published on Friday.

Duncan Lewis, who resigned in September after five years at the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), said China could target anyone in political office, with the effect potentially not known for years to come.

"Espionage and foreign interference is insidious. Its effects might not present for decades and by that time it's too late," Lewis was quoted as telling the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in his first interview since leaving the office.

"You wake up one day and find decisions made in our country that are not in the interests of our country," he said.

Australia courts Vanuatu to tackle China's influence (2:45)
"Not only in politics but also in the community or in business. It takes over, basically, pulling the strings from offshore," he added in the interview.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 01:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The 'blind sow and acorn' matrix.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 2:11 Comments || Top||

#2  "You wake up one day and find decisions made in our country that are not in the interests of our country,"

Yupp. And if you don't fight it tooth and nail the first time it happens, the country is maimed forever.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 3:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Obama Reminds Democrats To Save The Far-Left Stuff Until After They Get Elected
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Former President Barack Obama on Friday offered a firm warning to the 2020 Democratic primary field. Worried the candidates may be openly pushing the party too far to the left, he urged them to remember the age-old secret of getting elected as a Democrat.

"They’ve got to save the far-left stuff until after they get elected," Obama said. "You’ve got to lie a little. ’Mislead’ is the better term. You won't get elected otherwise. On the campaign you want to stick with the simple stuff like ’yes we can’ and ’change.’ Once you’re elected, you can basically go full commie."

Historically, Obama is correct. Every single Democratic president since Grover Cleveland has won the presidency by simply lying to the American people‐or at least misleading them. It worked then, and it would likely work in 2020.

Obama noted that typical Democratic voters are not ready for forced abortions, wealth confiscation at gunpoint, or even labor camps. "Unfortunately," Obama said, "ideas like this take time to develop in the collective mind, so we have to hide them from the American people."

Obama also warned that another four years of President Trump could be devastating to the far-left agenda. Worse, he warned that the continued push for impeachment will likely aid Trump in winning a second term.

"Listen," Obama said, "If they had tried to impeach me, I’d have been done for real quick. We had so many scandals we actually ran out of code-names for them. But this Ukraine deal, it’s a joke, and it needs to stop."

The message from Barack Obama is crystal clear. Democrats need to save the far-left talk for November 4, 2020--and stop trying to impeach President Trump for no reason.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 01:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not Bee.
Posted by: Guillibaldo Omaving7499 || 11/22/2019 2:14 Comments || Top||

#2  [Babylon Bee]

Bee, Guillibaldo Omaving7499. But it’s playing off something the former president did say on the subject recently.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 12:10 Comments || Top||

#3  My way of saying this is credible enough To Be Not Bee.
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 12:41 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Queen tells Sir Boyd Tunnock she prefers Tunnock's teacakes to the caramel wafers as she knights him at Buckingham Palace ceremony
[MAIL] The inventor of the Tunnock's teacake has today been knighted by the Queen - and revealed after the ceremony that Her Majesty is a fan of the snack.

Sir Boyd Tunnock, 86, received his knighthood from the Queen at a royal investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.

The inventor, who runs the family-owned business in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, received his honour today for services to business and charity.

He said the Queen chose the teacake from the Scottish brand over the caramel wafer, which was created by his father.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 01:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the good old days you needed to do some kind of brave deed in battle to be knighted. Now you just need to invent a cookie.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2019 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  ^Well, what's wrong with that?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 8:05 Comments || Top||

#3  In the good old days you needed to do something monumental to get a Nobel Peace Prize, too.

We'll just note that making a 'good cookie' is a better accomplishment than some others that are celebrated.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/22/2019 8:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Wouldn't be the first time a royal conferred a title on someone just because they favour their buns.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Bad Dron, BAD, Bad , Bad , unfortunately true though. At least Epstein didn't get a patent of nobility but it wasn't from his Bro's lack of trying to get one from the Vatican.
Posted by: Gomez Flugum6633 || 11/22/2019 17:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Sir Loin - look it up.
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 23:51 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Australian, Dutch police break up massive ecstasy smuggling operation
[France24] International police have broken up a huge drug smuggling operation preventing millions of ecstasy pills flooding into Australia, officials said Friday, as a minister claimed the drugs were timed to target holidaying teens.

The joint Dutch-Australian operation seized $200 million worth of MDMA -- the key ingredient in ecstasy -- in the Netherlands and Belgium and led to charges against 11 people, including one Australian woman, officials said.

"That is one of the most significant operations in the history of the collaboration between all of our agencies," said Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who leads Australia's police and security agencies.

Following a months-long investigation, some 700 kilograms (1,540 pounds) of crystalline MDMA were intercepted in August in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, the Australian Federal Police said.

Dutch police then raided 15 locations in the Netherlands and Belgium on November 5, uncovering two hidden laboratories, additional stashes of MDMA and 50 tonnes of precursor chemicals, police said.

"We believe that this criminal network was involved and able to produce many thousands of kilos of MDMA, equivalent to tens of millions of pills, a large part of which was likely destined for Australia," said Andy Kraag, assistant commissioner of the Dutch National Criminal Investigations Division.

Kraag told a press conference in Brisbane the seized MDMA "could be used for more than 10 million ecstasy pills."

Dutton said the timing of the drug operation indicated the smugglers were hoping to specifically target "schoolies week," when thousands of high school students party along Queensland beaches beginning this weekend.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 01:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  MDMA
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Compared the risk of harm for horse riding (1 adverse event in 350) to that of ecstasy (1 in 10,000)
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 11:47 Comments || Top||

#3  What odds the gang running the operation is connected to one or another jihadi group?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  15 locations in the Netherlands and Belgium

What are the odds? >1:15
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 12:56 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
President Putin says five men killed in huge explosion in northern Russia that caused sudden radiation spike died trying to create a weapon that ‘has no equal in the world'
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 01:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This was the 'unlimited range' missile right ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 1:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Good thing they're dead, then.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 2:26 Comments || Top||

#3  'unlimited radiation'
Posted by: Guillibaldo Omaving7499 || 11/22/2019 2:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Designed to wipe out those lickspittle capitalists in Alpha Centauri.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 3:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Our spike is bigger than your spike.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:27 Comments || Top||

#6  They've always been in the lead with technology. Light bulb, automobile, airplane, stacking dolls, etc.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 6:02 Comments || Top||

#7  They have solved the problem of developing a doomsday weapon and not telling anyone about it.

The whole point of the doomsday machine is lost if you keep it a secret!
-- Dr. Strangelove
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2019 6:18 Comments || Top||

#8 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 8:39 Comments || Top||

#9  Radioactive used jockey shorts!
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/22/2019 9:11 Comments || Top||

#10  no equal in the world because the skyfall concept is more dangerous to the owner of the weapon than to the potential victims
Posted by: lord garth || 11/22/2019 9:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Top Men(c)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 10:44 Comments || Top||

#12  Were they the ones that helped.with the clinton uranium deal?
Posted by: Angens Turkeyneck2026 || 11/22/2019 10:46 Comments || Top||

#13  They were working on a solution in search of a problem.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 11/22/2019 11:48 Comments || Top||

#14  That's the problem with nuclear hand grenades.
Posted by: The peanut gallery || 11/22/2019 15:26 Comments || Top||

#15  Good for killing mean streaks.
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2019 21:01 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Chicago Drug Gang Leader Says if Anyone Insults Muhammad, 'His Head Gotta Go'
[PJ] It could be a whole new trend, drug dealers against blasphemy: Jason Brown, according to the Associated Press, is the "37-year-old leader of the AHK gang," and "could be heard on secret FBI recordings speaking admiringly about beheadings by the Islamic State group." Brown, also known as Abdul Ja’Me, said that if anyone insulted Muhammad, "his head gotta go."

The illustrious Brown’s AHK represents a convergence between drug trafficking and Islam. According to prosecutors, AHK deals drugs all over Chicago, and is "comprised of former members of the Black P-Stone, Gangster Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers who converted to Islam, the court filings say. The gang requires all new members to convert."
Is this unique to this Chicago gang, or it is becoming a trend across the country?
The new Muslims of AHK display the zeal that is common to converts in general. Brown "handed over $500 on three occasions this year to someone he believed would wire it to an Islamic State fighter." He also talked about traveling to the Islamic State’s domains himself.

Above all, he and his comrades picked up on the fact that jihadists have used drugs to fund their efforts for years. Years ago, in his study of the Taliban, journalist Ahmed Rashid reported: "Abdul Rashid, the head of the Taliban’s anti-drugs control force in Kandahar, spelt out the nature of his unique job. He is authorized to impose a strict ban on the growing of hashish, ’because it is consumed by Afghans and Muslims.’ But, Rashid tells me without a hint of sarcasm, ’Opium is permissible because it is consumed by kafirs [unbelievers] in the West and not by Muslims or Afghans.’ This seems to have been a common view among the Taliban. Another Taliban named Khaled asked, ’Who cares if heroin is wreaking havoc in the West? It doesn’t matter; they aren’t Muslims.’"

And in December 2017, Politico revealed that "in its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States."
Given Mr. Obama’s enjoyment of a variety of chemical substances over the course of his life, no doubt he considered that a second win.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 01:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Abdul Ja’Me

Is that a wish, or a command?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 5:25 Comments || Top||

#2  A muslim DeShawn.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 5:38 Comments || Top||

#3  If Obama had a son ...
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Why is not in federal custody?
Posted by: chris || 11/22/2019 10:20 Comments || Top||

#5  They get converted in prison. It seems that criminals are naturally attracted to it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 13:07 Comments || Top||

#6  If Obama could have had a son ...

Michelle Obama reveals daughters were conceived by IVF
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 13:10 Comments || Top||

#7  ^ OK, so Big Mike's their dad. Who's their momma?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 14:48 Comments || Top||

#8  yeah they get converted in prison, you also fimd alot of assholes in prison which goes right along with islam.
Posted by: chris || 11/22/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||

#9  A friend who works in the US BoP told me that there's a whole industry to protection and extortion in the prisons. And you absolutely have to play ball to survive. Blacks have no choice but to join the baddest blacks, because blacks are the most vicious and tricky bastards in prison.

I'm guessing this Brown asshole must have latched onto the islam lingo as a means to gaining greater reach and support. It's a wise tactic given the availability of lawfarer and representation support for 'diversity' currently.

Islam is the ultimate mental-set that appeals to borderline sociopaths. You get to be 'righteous', pay obeisance to a 'god', and you get to be a criminal. You don't have to obey social mores and you can give women the hell you believe they deserve. You can do anything your body wants to other human beings and judges and legislators will only scratch their heads deliberating over what to do with you before you die of old age or a rival hit. You can laugh at the silly white man with his altruistic laws and his stupid stun-guns while you bash in a woman's head, hack off a kid's arm and rape someone's wife with relative impunity.

And in a way, it is our fault.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 15:12 Comments || Top||

#10  ^ An argument for greater use of Solitary.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 15:22 Comments || Top||

#11  Don't be surprised when you and your boys start having their heads on spikes filled with bacon showing up on random street corners.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/22/2019 23:14 Comments || Top||

#12  greater use of Solitary.

I was thinking 'Total Harvest'. Kidneys, liver, heart, eyes, marrow, blood... hair. Everything. Give it to law abiding folks with no criminal records, who need it. Incinerate the meat.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 23:19 Comments || Top||

#13  I was thinking 'Total Harvest'.

So we export him to China?
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 23:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
California Law Aimed At Acquiring Trump's Tax Returns Ruled Unconstitutional
[The Federalist] A California law that sought to require candidates to publish tax records in order to appear on the ballot has been ruled unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court Thursday.

The "Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act," which was signed by California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in July, required candidates running for president or governor in the state to hand over the five most recent years of tax returns to the California secretary of state to qualify for the ballot.

The California Supreme Court unanimously struck down the law Thursday ruling it a direct violation of the state constitution which mandates the state government to operate an "open presidential primary whereby the candidates on the ballot are those found by the secretary of state to be recognized candidates throughout the nation or throughout California."

The state’s highest court found that the new legislation passed by Democrats flew "in conflict with the [state] constitution’s specification of an inclusive open presidential primary ballot."

Democrats have demanded President Donald Trump to release his tax returns ever since he announced his White House bid four years ago, from using various lawsuits in state and local jurisdictions to their oversight powers in the House of Representatives to subpoena for their release speculating on improper conduct.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 00:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Little noted but very important (cause like most bad news for the Left, its buried) -

Federal court undercuts progressive efforts to nullify Electoral College, rules electors can vote freely

States can not override the process of electing to federal offices.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 7:13 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
A Florida Man Gets Arrested for Meth, Smuggles More into Jail in a Most Original – and Seemingly Impossible – Way
[Smoking Gun] NOVEMBER 18--Following his arrest for possession of a hypodermic needle containing methamphetamine, a 380-pound Florida Man was hit with additional felony charges after jail personnel discovered a bag of meth "wedged deep within the belly button cavity of the defendant," according to a court affidavit.

Police responding late Friday to a suspicious person call placed by employees of a McDonald’s in Clearwater arrested Martin Skelly when a search of the 41-year-old St. Petersburg resident turned up the loaded needle.

Following Skelly’s collar for possession of narcotics and drug paraphernalia, cops asked him if he was in possession of any other contraband, since he could face additional charges if he brought illegal items into the county jail. Seen above, Skelly denied having "any additional contraband on his person."

However, during intake processing at the jail, Skelly was subjected to a thorough body search that resulted in the discovery of a small plastic bag containing 2.7 grams of meth. A jail deputy reported that the baggie was "wedged deep within the belly button cavity" of the 5’ 8" defendant.

After the meth stash was found around 1:45 AM Saturday, Skelly reportedly told an investigator, "I was just being dumb and not thinking."

The discovery of the hidden meth resulted in two additional felony charges being filed against Skelly--introducing contraband into a correctional facility and narcotics possession. He is locked up in lieu of $9150 bond.

Skelly’s criminal record includes a three-year stretch in state prison for cocaine trafficking and busts for theft, drunk driving, narcotics possession, violating probation, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 00:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  "I wondered where that went."
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Now I remember where I put my car keys ....
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2019 16:00 Comments || Top||

#3  So he's the guy in the photo with the navel monkey-bumhole-tattoo
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 16:07 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
'Big Mike' and Ellen Degenerate sing duet about latest book
[The Hill] Former first lady Michelle Obama shared a video singing a duet with Ellen DeGeneres to plug her new book, "Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice."

The book is a "guided journal" for readers and will function as a companion piece to her critically-acclaimed 2018 memoir "Becoming." The book will include inspiring questions and quotes that are "designed to help readers reflect on their personal and family history, their goals, challenges, and dreams, what moves them and brings them hope, and what future they imagine for themselves and their community," according to a release from publisher Penguin Random House.

With DeGeneres playing the piano, she and Obama sang a song promoting the new project. Obama provided the "lyrics" in the caption of her post:
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 00:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sing it in prison, Barry.
"Prisoners, in love..."
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:28 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Biden: 'Boxcar' Abrams ‘Would Be the Ga. Gov Right now, Were it not for Voter Suppression'
[Breitbart] While speaking to reporters in Atlanta on Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden stated that, if not for voter suppression, Stacey Abrams would be the governor of Georgia.

Biden vowed [relevant remarks begin around 10:25] that if he is elected president, the Department of Justice will focus on states that try to make it more difficult for people to vote and called for reinstating the pre-clearance requirement in the Voting Rights Act.

He added, "Stacey would be the governor right now, were it not for voter suppression, right this minute."
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 00:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Classic voter pandering in downtown Atlanta.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Blacks get’make-up’ votes for all the years they couldn’t vote, is that how it works?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/22/2019 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Cause suppressing the 'white' vote wasn't effective enough, Joe?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 7:03 Comments || Top||

#4  "You will vote how we tell you too!"
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/22/2019 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  that's funny since no one I know, knows who the hell she was before she run.
Posted by: chris || 11/22/2019 10:23 Comments || Top||

#6  So, he's picked his VP candidate?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Without vote fraud, the democrat party would not exist. Humans don't let humans vote democrat.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 11/22/2019 15:43 Comments || Top||


POTUS ‘Wants a Trial in the Senate' and to Call Schiff, Whistleblower, and Bidens
[Breitbart] On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s "The Story," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley stated that if the House moves forward on impeachment, President Trump "wants a trial in the Senate" and to bring up witnesses like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), the whistleblower, and Hunter and Joe Biden.

Gidley said, "I spoke to the president about this tonight. ... The president did nothing wrong. He wants that plain and clearly explained to the American people. But, he also feels there’s no basis to move forward at all in the House. But if they do, he wants a trial in the Senate. He wants to be able to bring up witnesses like Adam Schiff, like the whistleblower, like Hunter Biden, like Joe Biden. And he says, if the House moves forward with this sham, and they continue to push these fake, illegitimate proceedings onto the American people, then he wants it to go to the Senate, and he wants a trial."
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 00:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gotta hand it to him...
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Can't wait to see those old senators roasting Schifferbrains over the coals.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:43 Comments || Top||

#3  And since the President has the ultimate authority on declassification, nobody can say "Sorry, I can't talk about that. It's classified."
So EVERYTHING can come out.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2019 13:00 Comments || Top||

#4  I will never understand why people jump into volcanoes. Have a nice swim, Dems. You didn't see what happens next coming?
Posted by: Beau || 11/22/2019 14:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Bring it on.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 14:46 Comments || Top||


Kamala Harris Puts On Southern-Fried Accent for Single Debate Question
[BREITBART] Sen. Kámala Harris
Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others...
(D-CA), who was born in Oakland, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, and grew up in Berkeley, broke into her campaign-trail southern accent for just one question during Wednesday’s 2020 Democrat presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia.

The odd moment occurred as Harris, who is polling in single digits nationally, explained how she would unite the "Obama coalition" to win the White House.

"Look, there’s a lot at stake in this election and I’ve said many times that justice is on the ballot in 2020," Harris began. "It’s about economic justice, it’s about justice for children, it’s about justice for our teachers."

"This issue is not, ’what is the fight?'" Harris continued, before deploying the accent: "The issue is: ’how we gonna win?"

"To win, we have to build a coalition to rebuild the Obama coalition. I’ve been referring to that because that’s the last time we won," she added.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Southern Pacific Heights accent.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 5:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Kamala Shamala and the Pharaohs, or An Austral Foxtrot

A political person of Louth
Announced, in mid-speech, "Shush, ma mouth!
In every oration,
This troublin' migration
To uppity Dublin... the South!"
Posted by: Harry Smith2396 || 11/22/2019 5:13 Comments || Top||

#3  down south, even.
Posted by: Harry Smith2396 || 11/22/2019 5:15 Comments || Top||

#4  I hear she's done most of her work down south.
IYKWIM
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 11/22/2019 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  I's in no ways tiiired
Posted by: Regular joe || 11/22/2019 14:03 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian security forces brutally beat #Iranian protesters
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Iraq
At Least seven people killed in #Baghdad when security forces shot live fire and #teargas canisters at demonstrators in Baghdad
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


India-Pakistan
‘MQM-L man’ held for killing 96 persons, weapons seized
[DAWN] Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested a suspected hitman for his alleged involvement in killings of 96 persons.

"The anti-street crime squad and Soldier Bazaar police arrested Yusuf alias Thelewala and seized a TT pistol, grenade and a cycle of violence from him," said SSP East Azfar Mahesar.

The held suspect belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
-London and he had revealed to have killed 96 persons, he added.

Speaking at a presser at his office, the SSP said that the held suspect joined the MQM in 1995 and started assassinations the same year.

"He along with his other accomplices was directly involved in killing of 30 people. He had also disposed 66 bodies," he said.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And their chief wants amnesty in India.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 12:11 Comments || Top||

#2  In all fairness he did kill mostly bad people.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 12:12 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi forces surround schools to prevent students from joining protests
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Iraqi security forces surrounded educational institutions across Baghdad on Thursday to prevent students from taking part in anti-government protests as two more people were killed in overnight festivities in the capital.

Thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad and across the south have been out protesting since October 1 against corruption and poor public services.

Students in Baghdad and across southern cities have been skipping classes to take part in the protests, despite the government ordering schools and universities to operate normally.

Local reports suggest that Iraqi intelligence services have forced the schools to provide them with a record of attendance for teachers and students to see who has been absent from class.

More than 330 people have been killed as security forces responded to the mostly peaceful demonstrations by firing live ammunition, rubber bullets and military-grade tear gas canisters at protesters.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Afghanistan
Special Forces kill, detain 13 Taliban and ISIS militants in 4 provinces
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces
...established in 2007 with the intent of taking one conventional infantry kandak (battalion) from each of the regional ANA corps, giving them special training and equipment, and reorganizing based on the U.S. Army Rangers. Each battalion is assigned to one of the six regional corps. The commandos comprise 7% of the Afghan National Security Forces but conduct 70% to 80% of the fighting...
killed 7 Talibs and arrested five other bully boyz including an ISIS-K Death Eater during the operations in four provinces in the past 24 hours.

The military officials said earlier today the Special Forces killed 5 Talibs, arrested 5 others and destroyed a small cache of weapons during a raid in Khakrez district of Kandahar.

The officials further added the Special Forces arrested an ISIS-K Death Eater and destroyed a small cache of weapons during a raid in Bati Kot district of Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

The Special Forces killed a Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
Death Eater during a separate raid in Shindand district of Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
, the officials said, adding that the Special Forces killed another Taliban Death Eater during a similar raid which they conducted in Charkh district of Pashtun-infested Logar.

The anti-government armed bully boyz have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Benghazi security directorate shuts down women's police station
[Libya Observer] The security directorate in Benghazi has shut down the women's cop shoppe and placed its chief as well as the rest of personnel under interrogation on charges of "publicizing criminal investigation".

The security directorate said the decision was made after one of the cop shoppe officers had leaked a video for an accused woman under investigation.

"Leaking the video of the investigation could be a way to help the people involved in the crime get away with it. The case is very delicate and has shocked the public opinion for the murders, looting and thefts it contains." The security directorate said in a statement.

The security directorate ordered the suspension of some personnel and to send the rest of the policewomen to various stations and units across the city.

Social media users circulated a video for a woman talking about a crime she committed with nine other people, recounting how she lured a woman, kidnapped, raped and then killed her. The video also refers to the involvement of female police personnel, men and women, in the crime, which according to observes could be the reason why the women's cop shoppe was closed.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Joe Biden Becomes Unwitting Grandparent Again
[THECONSERVATIVETREEHOUSE] DNA testing has established, “with scientific certainty,” that Hunter Biden is the father of an Arkansas baby, according to a motion filed Wednesday in Independence County on behalf of the child’s mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts.

Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, “is not expected to challenge the results of the DNA test or the testing process,” the filing states. An attorney for Hunter Biden, former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (read more)
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With Ukrainian gas company oligarch as godfather.
Posted by: Thomogum Omereng5658 || 11/22/2019 1:32 Comments || Top||

#2  is not expected to challenge the results of the DNA test or the testing process

Well, duhh... you can't. It's not easy like Daddy's handing his 'quid pro quo' spurious ticket to another guy and sniggering smugly in line.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 1:38 Comments || Top||

#3  I can't even think of any snark. This family is so unbelievably dysfunctional, corrupt, and reamed out like a rotten tree eaten from the roots by fungus and through the bark by so many insects that it can't even stand up straight.

Why the f--- does anyone take these hollow shell of a man seriously?

How the hell did he become a candidate for president?

Are they trying to lose the election?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:59 Comments || Top||

#4  #3 To really understand the new class (credentialed) Lex, don't look at their leadership - look at the lower ranks: school principals, perfessors, etc...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 5:11 Comments || Top||

#5  I can't even think of any snark.

You don't need to. Trump already tweeted his congratulations to Biden on becoming a grandpa.
My google-fu must be weak as I can't seem to find it again.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2019 6:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Dems say, Trump's corrupt! So they offer Biden.
Dems say, Trump's a buffoon! So they offer Fauxcahontas and Fartacus.
Dems say, Trump's an extremist! So they offer Bernie Trotsky.
Dems say, Trump's lewd, licentious! So they offer KamalHo and Avenatti.

"I have made but one prayer to God-- that he make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it!"
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 12:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Well! Joe is an elder statesman! Hunter was a Navy Reservist! How dare anyone cast aspersions on these two fine men!

/sarc
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2019 12:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Congratulations, Joe Biden!
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 12:21 Comments || Top||

#9  ^ Classic. One word, and devastating. Troller-in-Chief
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 13:07 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Forces in black outfit arrested #protesters in #Karbala
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  No they do it in turns, as many as can fit at a time. Like a flash mob. Except the 'flash' this time is from the part that stand around waiting their turn.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Why is black a slimming color and white a less flattering color?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 12:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
A soldier has been injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Krishna Ghati area of Jammu and Kashmir
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  When hate overwhelms policy.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 9:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Will Joe Biden Take the Fifth in a Senate Trial?
[AMGREATNESS] Recently, I asked a liberal friend whether Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
...Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant...
would assert his Fifth Amendment rights in an eventual trial before the Senate. "That’s never going to happen," my friend sniffed. He went on to mock the "conspiracy theory" that the Ukrainians interfered in the election and the "debunked" theory that Hunter Biden somehow broke a law by taking money from Burisma.

"Yes it will," I responded. "The whole theory for impeachment hinges on the assumption that the investigation of the Bidens was just a personal political hit job to help in 2020. If Trump can establish a legitimate law enforcement concern in looking into the Bidens and/or Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election, the whole thing falls apart."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why take the 5th? Just lie his pants off. Tell me someone who has gone to prison for lying to congress other than people who are not part of the Inner Party?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 7:01 Comments || Top||

#2  What about a fifth grader?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  If it gets too closely, criminally, expect Slow Joe to claim senility. "I don't remember". It's not far from the troof
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 8:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Trump knows that this would be the equivalent of the truth being an impenetrable defense against liable.

So if slow Joe and the coup plotters have to testify..............
Posted by: AlanC || 11/22/2019 8:33 Comments || Top||

#5  If it gets too closely, criminally, expect Slow Joe to claim senility. "I don't remember". It's not far from the troof

Worked for Mueller.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Not 5th, sniff. Joe will take the (hair) Sniff.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 16:09 Comments || Top||

#7  He'll take a Fifty or any any other denomination he can finagle.
Posted by: Unaitle Panda6599 || 11/22/2019 23:55 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Tehran’s control over Iraqi leaders — the smoking gun
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Our worst fears about Iranian dominance of Iraq have been proven true in the form of large quantities of leaked Iranian intelligence documents. These materials pertain to Iraq, yet provide insights into the nature of Tehran’s clandestine activities in Syria, Leb, 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 elsewhere.

These documents demonstrate that almost every senior Iraqi official is in Tehran’s pocket.
Oh dear.
Current Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is characterized as having a "special relationship" with Iran. Former PMs Nouri al-Maliki and Ibrahim al-Jaafari were wholly under Iran’s sway. Even Haider Abadi, who is usually portrayed as pro-West, held regular private meetings with Iranian intelligence personnel. Most of Abadi’s ministers were likewise assessed to be beholden to Tehran. In the context of the fight against ISIS, one Iranian agent told Abadi: "The Sunnis are vagrants, their cities are destroyed," adding that Iran
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


Afghanistan
With Daesh Gone, Taliban Once Again Tops List of Deadliest Terrorist Groups
[SPUTNIKNEWS] Deaths caused by terrorist attacks around the world fell dramatically in the last few years, but with the world’s largest terrorist group, ISIS, removed from the equation, Afghanistan’s Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
once again tops the list as the world’s deadliest non-state organization.

For four years, ISIS topped the Global Terrorism Index, compiled annually by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). However,
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Iraq
Tribal sheikhs of the holy city of #Karbala unanimously declare their total rejection to Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi's call
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Home Front: Politix
Sen Graham: 9 Dec Release Date for IG report on FISA abuse
[Breitbart] On Wednesday's broadcast of the Fox News Channel's "Hannity," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on alleged FISA abuses in the 2016 election will be released on December 9.

Graham said, "It'll be December the 9. You'll get the report."
This is beginning to seem like Calvin waiting for his propeller beanie.
Posted by: lord garth || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Old Russian saying "Crows don't pluck each others eyes."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 2:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Lindsey Graham did not kill himself
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 11:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm just glad Linds' capo McSssssssschame has passed on.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 11/22/2019 14:40 Comments || Top||

#4  At least until Horowitz's dog eats it.
Posted by: charger || 11/22/2019 17:34 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Tribes affairs office in #Nasiriyah set on fire
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Afghanistan
Iran Supplies Taliban With Weapons: Pentagon Report
[ToloNews] Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
continues to support the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
with weapons, training and funding to counter US and Western influence in Afghanistan, according to a Pentagon report released on Tuesday.

A US Defense Intelligence report said "Stronger partners, such as Hezbolloh, are highly capable, reliable, and receptive to Tehran. Other groups, such as the Afghan Taliban, are less receptive to Iranian guidance but still help further Iran’s regional objectives because they combat common enemies," the report said.

Iran’s relationship with the Taliban has evolved over the years. Following the Taliban’s rise to power in the 1990s, Iran refused to recognize the group as a legitimate government.

"In 1998, Iran nearly went to war with Afghanistan after the Taliban captured and killed nine Iranian diplomats," the report said, but added "relations began to thaw after the US invasion of Afghanistan."

Since at least 2007, Iran has provided "calibrated support"‐including weapons, training, and funding‐to the Taliban to counter US and Western influence in Afghanistan, combat ISIS-Khorasan, and increase Tehran’s influence in any post-reconciliation government, it said.

"Iran balances this support as part of its "dual-track strategy" for engaging both local groups and the Afghan government in Kabul to achieve its broader security goals. Tehran does not seek to return the Taliban to power but aims to maintain influence with the group as a hedge in the event that the Taliban gains a role in a future Afghan government," the report said.

Iran’s biggest customers include Syria, Hezbolloh in Leb, and Iraqi Shia militias, but Iran has also provided weapons to the Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s 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...
, Paleostinian groups, and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the report pointed out.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Home Front: Culture Wars
Tabletop games designer, JR Honeycutt, another 'punch Nazis!' male feminist leftist, gets accused of being physically and sexually abusive towards women - gets cancelled, deletes his social media accounts
[Reddit] When The Quartering got punched at that convention, Honeycutt made a post on social media saying that Nazis should be punched, as should Hambly, and as should "bad people" in general.

A few days ago, an ex of Honeycutt's came forward to accuse him of abuse. Some quotes from her blog post:
He thought I liked rough sex and without my consent he would do things like pull my hair or lightly slap my face. At my first Gen Con we were sharing a room, I was being sassy about something and he slapped me so hard his wedding ring cut my cheek. I didn’t know what had happened or why, so I started crying. He hugged me and told me he was sorry and that he didn’t mean to hit me that hard and was only trying to be playful.

After that I told him I didn’t want to have sex for the rest of that trip because I didn’t feel well. He made me feel guilty because it was rare that we were alone together. He touched me while I was asleep that night. I woke up and told him to stop.

We stayed off site in an AirBnB. This is significant because this is the first time that he covered my face with a pillow until I almost passed out after he touched me in my sleep. When confronted he said he didn’t remember but that he was sorry.

After I got out of the shower, without warning, he starting having sex with me. This time was the most painful and I bled after the fact. I thought he just thought it was something I was into.

I am writing this for a few reasons. First and foremost JR is a predator from my own perspective. I know that he has been getting women drunk and trying to sleep with them and I want people to be aware. I personally know of 4 other women who he has hurt through manipulation. He uses his position in the industry as a tool to lure women towards him.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More MeToo ?

What I don't understand is what his treatment of women has to do with the stupid game industry. It's another of those 'We won't associate with that kind of man' things.

He uses his position in the industry as a tool to lure women towards him.

Wonder what kind of women these are. The kind that select the long eared dwarf in video games.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Also, he could be an Antifa gnome.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Erb follows these things.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 1:01 Comments || Top||

#4  I see... most interesting.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 1:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Since when gamers are interested in 3D women?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 3:18 Comments || Top||

#6  I designed a tabletop game once. WarGame it was called.

You had to roll different kinds of dice and spin a dial; which together made numeric codes that allowed you to order types of strikes from a tactical menu. You had to draw the moving pieces in with a pencil and eraser, on a grid on the only sheet - and it had to look good. You could use yellow pens for fire, black for debris or bodies, and red for blood. At the end of every game, the 'battlefield' was a work of art that told a story of tactical follies. It became a cult thing and people used to pin up the war sheets on the school board. They even asked me to draw them custom units and teachers suggested I publish the thing.

I was 15.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 3:47 Comments || Top||

#7  I designed a whiffleball game when I was 10, but it was reality-reality, of the physical sort. Grass, sky, bats & balls, bases.

Didn't think of "using [my] position in the industry to lure girls", but maybe that would have made the game even more fun.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:37 Comments || Top||

#8  I invented Lego-Tetris.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 5:59 Comments || Top||

#9  You can laugh all you want, but the computer game industry is bigger than Hollywood. This stuff matters.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2019 6:20 Comments || Top||

#10  This week in MISS! Magazine, 7 Clues You're Following Your Bliss a Little Too Closely:

1) "he slapped me so hard his wedding ring cut my cheek"
Posted by: Harry Smith2396 || 11/22/2019 6:24 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm not laughing. Every year my wife wants to play the new Assassin's Creed game for three hours a day until she liberates a small country and owns all seven pieces of the golden monkey.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#12  You can laugh all you want, but the computer game industry is bigger than Hollywood. This stuff matters.

Matters, of course. When distillation was invented drunkenness and alcohol related mortality reached picks unseen since then - it's called natural selection.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 6:33 Comments || Top||

#13  Herb, tabletop games are not computer games. Tabletop games are not growing at the rate of computer games, and are nowhere near as large an industry.

The GenCon mentioned in the article got its start as Lake Geneva Convention -- as in Wisconsin -- for players of Dungeons and Dragons. For the last ten or fifteen years, it's been held in Indianapolis.

Honeycutt isn't a Big Name even in tabletop games. BoardGameGeek.com connects him to two games in the top 1000 -- which isn't bad, but one of them was designed as an ensemble, with many authors contributing storylines. The other is a "restoration" of a thirty-year-old game -- new pieces and layouts, but still the game someone else wrote decades ago.

This story is as important as the dating habits of a minor league baseball player, and even less relevant to Rantburg.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 11/22/2019 6:53 Comments || Top||

#14  But MEN BAD, which suits Erb's purpose
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 8:04 Comments || Top||

#15  ...and I worry about being banned from Rantburg.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:05 Comments || Top||

#16  You guys are just mean to him because you know you'll never be as intelligent as he is.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 10:45 Comments || Top||

#17  I thought it was kinda interesting. Perp has a cool name (stage?). Nice photo.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:22 Comments || Top||

#18  I liked the article!

Always fun to find male feminists are always manipulative abusers who'll say anything to get laid.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 11:23 Comments || Top||

#19  Male feminist abusers / manipulators get lots o' nookie. Worked for Warren Beatty. Also that abusive left-wing radio show host in Toronto, Jian Gomeshi (?sp)
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:49 Comments || Top||

#20  I work in the tabletop game industry, and have done so for years. It's what I do every day when I'm not reading Rantburg! So does my wife, who knows JR Honeycutt and Victoria Mann slightly. I don't know either of them, but I'm pretty sure I did see them drinking at the Big Bar On Two during the Origins Game Fair this year with Matt Fantastic, the guy who assaulted Jeremy Hambly.

I'm not going to comment in too much detail on either the JR Honeycutt/Victoria Mann accusations or the Matt Fantastic/Jeremy Hambly assault. Matt fantastic ended up apologizing formally in print to Jeremy Hambly for calling him a Nazi. Hambly became famous in certain circles for a hot minute for getting assaulted - which was probably what he was after in the first place. Hambly is a troll, and Matt is a New York leftist with very short fuse. So that's the story on that.

Victoria Mann was a somewhat naive and very young woman having an affair with an older man who turned out to be a violent creep behind closed doors. Her motivations seem like fairly normal ones based on her own words: travel, career advancement, and maybe catching a husband and starting a family. This is a pretty old story in any industry, including mine.

Speaking of which: since this is my actual area of expertise, let me clear up some misconceptions expressed in this thread. Tabletop gaming is a thriving seven billion dollar-a-year industry that employs tens of thousands of people in the United States full or part time. It is also a subculture unto itself: an affluent one with real social influence. And yes some gamers are indeed attractive young women. In fact, young women are one of its fastest growing demographics.

Herb was right to put up this article. A lot of the issues society at large is dealing with (and that Rantburgers like to discuss) are being dealt with within that subculture. It's a process. We're better at dealing with certain issues constructively; worse with others. (We are all geeks, after all.) But like any group we have issues, and Victoria Mann has a right to tell her story if that's what she feels she needs to do.
Posted by: Secret Master || 11/22/2019 12:51 Comments || Top||

#21  #16 You guys are just mean to him because you know you'll never be as intelligent as he is. thinks he is.

Drone, you forgot the /sarc
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 13:00 Comments || Top||

#22  She was banging that creep while he was still married. Let's play a little board game I call "Reap What You Sow."
Posted by: Regular joe || 11/22/2019 13:53 Comments || Top||

#23  Drone, you forgot the /sarc

Where's the perverse fun in that ? 😈

It's true. You'd each have to knock off a digit from your IQs to be as blissfully naive.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 14:44 Comments || Top||

#24  Secret Master, that's ... Wow ! I actually enjoy the designing of games. In fact I see it as story telling with a non-linear approach. Unfortunately never got the time or companions to enjoy playing anything. But I really respect the love that goes into what you do. It's high art.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 14:52 Comments || Top||

#25  #20 Secret Master - wow, thanks.

Q for you: where do most of the economic returns (profits) in the tabletop gaming industry go-- to the inventors? The companies that license the games? The retailers/distributors?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||

#26  I play calvinball...
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 11/22/2019 15:00 Comments || Top||

#27  I think I read something about this quite a while ago. IIRC, the writer's take was although he was not much of a fan of Honeycutt, he was pushing some leftest ideas into the nominally neutral industry, that years later without anyone else having knowledge of this event Mann started throwing the Believe All Women card about in a bid to increase her profile.

And its all fun and games until you are creating your character and you have 16 genders to choose from, Luigi and Wario have a kiss session, or the NPCs in your new VR game treat you poorly because your computer has cookies from bad wrong sites.

Gaming is the future, especially as movies continue to bleach and tank. Why watch the latest Aliens hash where the plot climax is two dudes kissing, when you can be a colonial marine, team up with Hicks, and VR recon the terra forming station - and that's it no stupid subplot about how the planet used to be earth like until global warming and a species mutated into the Aliens.

Don't believe me? I've heard rumors that the gold standard Dungeons and Dragons is already incorporating the 57 genders and sexual preference as attribute modifiers.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/22/2019 16:27 Comments || Top||

#28  Yeah, well I designed a game over 50 years ago. Six players altogether, somewhat like Calvinball. It was called "Invisible Baseball". My five younger siblings all remember it.
Posted by: Bobby on the road || 11/22/2019 16:57 Comments || Top||

#29  People making up shit AGAIN about me. I'm not a "men bad" feminist and seriously WTF. I am a staunch anti feminist. Why do you think I posted this article in the first place, genius?

Jesus.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2019 18:23 Comments || Top||

#30  Have a great weekend, Herb. Thanks for posting.
seriously
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 18:25 Comments || Top||

#31  ^Don't believe me? I've heard rumors that the gold standard Dungeons and Dragons is already incorporating the 57 genders and sexual preference as attribute modifiers.

Only if there is a *LOT* of money in doing it! (Though I suppose you could do a supplemental rules book without a lot of risk. Maybe a short print run of a few thousand and see how it goes?)
Posted by: Secret Master || 11/22/2019 19:26 Comments || Top||

#32  Q for you: where do most of the economic returns (profits) in the tabletop gaming industry go-- to the inventors? The companies that license the games? The retailers/distributors?

Definitively not the retailers and distributors. Being a brick-and-mortar game store retailer is a tricky business. Most of them fail. If you're really, really good at it - have Magic nights twice a week, Pathfinder Society meetups once a week, run minicons, and the whole nine yards - you're still looking at being solidly lower middle class after putting in regular 60 hour weeks.

And tabletop game distributors live off tiny margins of 11 to 14 percent. It *may* be a little higher for Alliance when it comes to selling D&D stuff (they have an exclusive on that), but distro still barely gets by.

Game designers are generally poorly paid, and investors often disappointed by their returns in my experience. No: the real money goes to those publishers who are lucky or smart enough have a string of hit products. If you even have a few small hits, it's like printing money. Also, printers and manufacturers do very well of the tabletop gaming business - especially with Kickstarter funding thousands of projects that wouldn't have gotten made back when I've started. They always get paid whether a game sells or not.
Posted by: Secret Master || 11/22/2019 19:34 Comments || Top||

#33  Thanks!
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 20:04 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Wahid Muzhda, Political Analyst, Assassinated In Kabul
[ToloNews] This follows an attempt to kill Hassan Haqyar, also a political activist, who was maimed in an attack by unknown button men in Kabul on October 31.

Wahid Muzhda, an Afghan political analyst, was assassinated Wednesday in Kabul when at least one unidentified button men on a cycle of violence attacked him in the PD7 area close to the Russian embassy, the Ministry of Interior confirmed.

Nasrat Rahimi, the ministry front man, said the incident occurred around 5:00 pm while Muzhda was going to the mosque.

The reason for his death is not clear, and police are investigating the incident, Rahimi added.

According to Rahimi, the attackers fled the area after assassinating Muzhda.

Muzhda was a poet and writer, and worked in the Foreign Ministry during the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
's regime and was a member of the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil...
Party. Muzhda also published a book titled "Afghanistan."

Muzhda was accused of expressing opinions that supported the Taliban, and he had reportedly been arrested by the National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
An intellectual Talib? I suppose there had to be one, to balance the illiterate ministers they produced in such numbers.
Muzhda was born in 1953 in Baghlan province, completed his elementary education at Habibia High School in Kabul, and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Kabul University.

The attack on Muzhda has been heavily condemned on social media, and many described his death as a loss to the nation.

So far no group has grabbed credit for the attack.

On October 31, Hassan Haqyar,
...another supporter of the Taliban, oddly enough. It’s enough to make one wonder who has it in for Talib intellectuals...
a political activist, was maimed in an attack by unknown button men in the Pul-e-Artal area of the Kabul while he was on his way home. Haqyar was taken to Emergency hospital in Kabul after being shot in the leg, but was later was discharged.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  and many described his death as a loss to the nation.

"The only graduate in Kabul. Gone !"

Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  The reason for his death is not clear ... worked in the Foreign Ministry during the Taliban's regime and was a member of the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Party

Two impeccable reasons right there.
Posted by: Guillibaldo Omaving7499 || 11/22/2019 2:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Muzhda also published a book titled "Afghanistan."

"A light-hearted romantic comedy with young bacha bazi dancing boys, beheadings, and uneducated chattel in hefty bags"
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 2:54 Comments || Top||

#4  The reason for his death is not clear

Muzhda was going to the mosque.

Pretty much covers it.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 9:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Muzhda didn't kill himself.
Posted by: lord garth || 11/22/2019 12:32 Comments || Top||

#6  we've got an overabundance of 'political analysts'. they can have some of ours to replace him
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 11/22/2019 16:32 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Myles Garrett: Mason Rudolph’s racial slur ignited helmet attack
[NYPOST] Happens all the time. Yep. Yep.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just see Smollett.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  And no one else heard it.
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 11/22/2019 7:01 Comments || Top||

#3  At least he didn't try the #metoo gambit.
Posted by: Mercutio || 11/22/2019 7:41 Comments || Top||

#4  "Locker room talk gets resolved on the field."-Howie Long
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 13:05 Comments || Top||

#5  gotta always play the race card.Too hell with taking responsibility for your actions.
Posted by: chris || 11/22/2019 14:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Last refuge...
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 15:02 Comments || Top||


Britain
St Corbyn Reveals the Holy Labour Manifesto
Labor's newest "longest suicide note in history", it sounds like. Manifesto is basically "Make Britain Poor Again"

Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A general reminder, because we’ve caught a number of articles recently from various posters making this filing error: stories set in England go under the Britain tab, not Europe. It may help to remember the famous quote, “Fog in the channel, Europe cut off.”

Our thanks for your help in making Rantburg the wonderful site that it is — teamwork works!
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 0:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ben Carson on Maxine Waters Letter: ‘Basic Manners Elude You’
[BREITBART] Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson
... a neurosurgeon who was under the delusion that being brilliant qualifies him to be president....
said Monday that Rep.
U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district, serving since 1991, a total of 27.9740658281048 years. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the most senior of the 12 black women currently serving in the United States Congress, is a member and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Before becoming a member of Congress she served in the California Assembly, to which she was first elected back when Disco was in flower, in 1976, which would make it 42.97201244001445 years. She has been a politician for virtually all her adult life. If she was brighter she'd be a Communist...
Comrade Maxine Waters (D-CA) lacked "basic manners" in penning a letter to President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
last month saying his "shamelessness knows no bounds."

Waters’ October 28 letter demanded answers from the Trump administration about its plan to push homeless Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,ns out of homeless encampments, Politico reported.

The Washington Post reported in September that the administration has pushed for a crackdown on homeless encampments in California, with aides discussing the possibility of moving them to government-run facilities.

"Shamelessness," Carson wrote in a reply letter obtained by Politico, "is a career politician of 30 years laying blame. Shamelessness is allowing more than 55,000 Americans to live on the very streets they represent," referencing Waters’ district in southern Los Angeles County.

Carson added that he wrote multiple letters to Waters’ office with the intent of meeting to discuss the homelessness crisis in her district but claimed she had refused to meet him.

"Basic manners elude you and it seems that instead of producing results, you’re more interested in producing cheap headlines at the President’s expense ‐ like a true career politician," Carson continued.

In response to Carson’s letter, Waters told the Hill that Carson is incompetent and "a complete failure at HUD."

"All of this demonstrates his lack of competence as HUD secretary and the cruelty of this Administration. Instead of whining about his inability to get on my schedule, he should take some time to focus on the over half a million people experiencing homelessness in this country," Waters said.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I remember right, the majority of the homeless in the US are in California.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 11/22/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Total People Experiencing Homelessness
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks Skid. According to that, there are 565,000 homeless in the US, and 23% are in California. Carson understated.
Posted by: KBK || 11/22/2019 11:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Homelessness is a California problem. It should be solved by Californians. If our irresponsible state and city politicians would enforce drug and vagrancy laws the problem could be solved. I think the primary federal concern is all the pee and poo flowing into the ocean.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Most likely, on some level, Mad Max understands which level of government is responsible for what but she has so much fun blaming that bad Orange Man for everything.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:53 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Refugees, IDP cost KRG $1.5 billion annually: PM Barzani
[Rudaw] The financial burden of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the Kurdistan Region costs the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) $1.5 billion a year, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Wednesday.

He urged the international community to help "alleviate the burden" on the KRG, which has increased since the Ottoman Turkish offensive in Northern Syria began on October 9.

"Currently we are hosting about 1.5 million IDPs and refugees. So far I believe somewhere around 16,000 people have crossed the [Syrian] border and are settled in the camps," PM Barzani said during the Middle East Peace and Security Forum organized by the American University of Duhok.

Two camps on the Syrian border have been re-opened following the Ottoman Turkish incursion in the Kurdish enclave of Rojava.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
, along with its Syrian proxy forces, began Operation Peace Spring in a bid to create a 'safe zone' free of the US-backed, Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG), considered by Ankara to be linked to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). The latter is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey and various other countries, including many Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an states.

The safe zone is to be resettled with 3,000,000 Syrian refugees, which Kurdish leaders say amounts to forced demographic change in the mixed Kurdish, Arab and Christian area.

The Kurdistan Region is expecting to receive more than 250,000 refugees from northern Syria if the conflict continues.

Barzani considers refugees and IDPs a "huge responsibility and a huge burden" on the KRG's shoulders given the government’s limited resources.

He cited a lack of assistance from the Iraqi government and the international community as the reason for the KRG’s inability to "alleviate the burden" of the ongoing influx.

"We are calling on the international community to help us, to first help us take care of the refugees that are in Kurdistan. But also help us to help them return to where they came from.

"That will not happen if they are not engaged in reconstructing and providing the services that they need," he added.

He added that the reconstruction of war-torn areas is the responsibility of both the Iraqi federal government and those of countries from which the refugees have fled, but little help has been received so far.

"We have been taking care of refugees for many years and we were hoping that the federal government of Iraq and the international community would come to the assistance of the KRG,"Barzani said.

The PM said the situation will further deteriorate if a swift solution is not provided.

"This will continue unless there are solutions and ways to help these people return to their original homes. They will not go home if there is no security. They will not go home if they do not have a safe place to live in. They will not go home if they do not have access to basic services, no schools, no hospitals, no jobs, no salaries."

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) is also a source of further displacement, according to the Prime Minister.

PM Barzani described the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a "partial defeat" and said that many who had returned to their homes elsewhere have now been pushed back into the KRI due to ISIS activity.

"Kurdistan is a much safer place. It respects and protects people who are fleeing from the threat of terror."

The Prime Minister visited camps in recent weeks, telling arrivals that that the KRI is "their home."

'We welcome you with open arms," he told the new arrivals from Rojava.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:


-Obits-
Guyana man buried immediately after crash; cops exhume body to determine if he's dead: report
"Put me down, dammit! I ain't dead!"
"Yer dead! You look terrible!"
"I do? Maybe I am then... How bad?"
"Awful."
"Damn. I had so much to live for."
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wait for it..."He's dead, Jim."
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Weirder things have happened.

"That bitch...will.. not...get... my insurance !" CRACK !





Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 10:35 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Fear, turmoil in Lebanon as its financial crisis worsens
[DAWN] On one of Beirut’s main commercial streets, store owners are cutting salaries by half or considering shutting down. Shops advertise sales, but still can’t draw in customers. The only place doing a thriving business: the store that sells safes, as Lebanese increasingly stash their cash at home.

It’s a sign Lebanese fear their country’s financial crisis, which has been worsening for months, could tip over into disaster.

Banks have clamped limits on withdrawals of US dollars. The Central Bank’s sources for dollars are waning. Politicians are paralysed, struggling to form a new government in the face of tens of thousands of protesters in the streets for the past month in an unprecedented uprising demanding the entire leadership go.

"People are scared," said Khalil Chehab, owner of Shehab Security, a store selling safes on Beirut’s Hamra Street. "Since the middle of last month, business rose about 30%."

As he spoke to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, three customers were in his shop. Clients of all economic levels have been coming, he said ‐ and the shop has safes for any budget, with prices from $35 to $15,000.

A jewelry shop nearby has also seen a bump in business from people in need of cash coming in to sell their valuables, said its owner, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Nabil.

Businesses and households have been thrown into disarray. Residents say they don’t know how they will come up with dollar payments needed to pay for tuition, health insurance and housing loans. Companies are struggling to transfer salaries to staff, others have cut salaries or are simply laying off employees.

Leb has one of the highest debt ratios in the world, at around $86 billion or 150% of GDP. Much of the government’s budget is sucked up by salaries in the sprawling public sector, while infrastructure has gone undeveloped for years. Struggling with the broken economy, the government began hiking taxes and taking other measures, prompting small protests early in the year.

But the protests went kaboom! across the country on October 17 in response to a new round of proposed taxes and evolved into a revolt against the country’s entire political elite. Protesters blame the politicians for decades of systematic corruption and mismanagement that brought the country into its dire economic straits. The prime minister stepped down on Oct 29, but political parties have been unable to agree on a government since.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:


5 Syrian government forces have lost their lives after #Turkish-backed armed opposition groups targeted a position of Syrian forces with mortar shells and drones
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Council approves $100,000 to bus homeless out of King County
[KING5] SEATTLE ‐ King County Council approved $100,000 in funding Wednesday for a program that would bus the homeless outside the county.

Council members earmarked the money as part of $450 million in supplemental funding for the 2019-2021 biennial budget. Other items in the supplemental budget included money for more electric vehicle chargers, a campaign for human trafficking awareness, and extending a gender identity task force.

Councilmember Reagan Dunn, who championed the bus ticket funding, said the King County Executive’s Office will also work on the design of his proposed Homeward Bound program, which would combine the five programs that currently provide family reunification services. It would also hand out bus tickets to the homeless for any destination that’s not in King County or an adjacent county.

"This funding allows us to offer stop-gap family reunification services while collecting data that will inform the design of a dedicated Homeward Bound program," Dunn said in a statement.

Although $100,000 is a significant increase over the $37,000 that Dunn said the county currently spends on family reunification, it’s much less than the $1 million that Dunn called for two months ago.

"Considering that San Diego spends $1.2 million on their Homeward Bound program, ours will ultimately require a larger investment ‐ but for now, this is a good start," Dunn said in a statement.

"We think the $100,000 is an appropriate amount given what the need is," said Lauren McGowan, the senior director for Ending Homelessness with United Way King County.

McGowan said United Way has a similar program and it uses only a small fraction of the $2 million they dedicated to helping the homeless.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why don’t they just have the police pick them up and drive them out of town? They aren’t allowed to arrest and jail criminals so they should have time.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/22/2019 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  As a Seattle is a "Sanctuary City" only the cynical might compare and contrast this with their stand on deporting illegal aliens...
Posted by: magpie || 11/22/2019 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny that the program is euphemized as 'offering family reunification services'. More honest name would be 'GTF outta here'.
Posted by: Thomogum Omereng5658 || 11/22/2019 1:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Not Bee? Damn, I'm on a losing streak.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 5:02 Comments || Top||

#5  ....to Mercer Island.
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 11/22/2019 7:14 Comments || Top||

#6  IIRC, NYC does almost the same thing - sending homeless somewhere - any where - else.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/22/2019 8:23 Comments || Top||

#7  gender identity task force. these fuckers are crazy
Posted by: chris || 11/22/2019 10:28 Comments || Top||

#8  ^ Snark in disguise? "G.I.T.F." = Git [the] F[ook outta here]?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:28 Comments || Top||

#9  "Gender Identity Task Force!"
I like it. Not as snappy as Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, or Bravo Zulu, but could be useful in dealing with our era's multitude of crapulosities.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Unless the bus lets them out in the middle of nowhere, I'd imagine people living wherever the bus stops will be ready to sue.
Posted by: Ebbinemp Clereting6518 || 11/22/2019 11:58 Comments || Top||

#11  If they get them across the range to Wenatchee or beyond, their reception might be a bit more than just 'legal'.

Well, except for Spokane.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 11/22/2019 13:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Change it to outside the country and I'll be good with it.
Posted by: gorb || 11/22/2019 23:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Will the Peshmerga reform – or be integrated into the Iraqi Army?
[Rudaw] There is renewed talk about the future status of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces ranging from uniting the two predominant Peshmerga units in Kurdistan to broadly unifying the group with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).

On November 12, during an officer's graduation ceremony in Zakho, the President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani called for a Peshmerga "that is united and has a national thinking as well as being above all political, partisan, ethnic, religious and sectarian purposes."

"It should not be the force of [political] parties and groups," he said. "It should stay away from internal disagreements and rivalry. Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces should never be for political intentions and determination of political issues."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkish-backed armed groups have detained 12 women in Afrin in November
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Home Front: Politix
California Supreme Court knocks down Trump tax requirement for primary run
[SFCHRONICLE] So now the fix is out. See what they come up with next.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We have to do *something*. You can't just let people vote for whoever they want."

Interesting this happened in CA.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/22/2019 6:21 Comments || Top||

#2  It's an election of a federal office. States can not establish any higher requirements than the national government does.

Of course if they don't teach American history, and its laws, a lot people think they can do anything they want to (in establishing a one party system).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 7:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Sanity in California??
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 11/22/2019 7:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Damn, I was hoping they'd then be excluded from the votes.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 8:25 Comments || Top||

#5  They need to be regulated back to territory status.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/22/2019 9:15 Comments || Top||

#6  In spite of Newsom's best efforts.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:44 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Former IDF chief of staff Eisenkot unveiled Hezbollah's operational plan, which was planned together with IRGC Quds Force, for the "Occupation of the Gallilee"
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Has puff the magic Dragon been informed?
Posted by: Angens Turkeyneck2026 || 11/22/2019 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Are those the tunnels that Israel destroyed?
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/22/2019 12:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Pigs Fly: Left-Wing Hollywood Reporter Praises Movie "Richard Jewell" for treating Media as a "Plague of Locusts"
[HollywoodReporter] Clint Eastwood's latest tells the true story of a security guard initially celebrated as a hero for saving lives in the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics, then vilified when the press reported he was a suspect.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Most Hollywood films about journalism since All the President’s Men 43 years ago have taken the free press’ side, portraying it as a scruffy if noble institution essential to the well-being of democracy. Eastwood and screenwriter Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips) here take a rather different view of the Fourth Estate, portraying it as reckless, corrupt and immoral."

Hooray for Hollywood!

Finally, people are realizing that our "press" is not free, that are journalists are partisan hacks who've created a Shitshow.

Can't wait to see the flick.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 4:31 Comments || Top||

#2  How about 'propagandists' as a more appropriate yet still civilized identification. There are others, but we need to keep the Burg 'G' rather than 'X'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 6:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Schiffshow?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I remember this. They were completely repulsed by him as a person and it violated their sacred values to see him cast as a hero. So they shit on him and called him the villain, even though there was no evidence. Liars.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 11/22/2019 18:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Interesting that the plot line is so similar to the one Clint Eastwood followed for "Sully."

Little People who have power hate Greatness, especially when it appears in an otherwise ordinary man.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 18:24 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemeni Houthi spokesman saying their forces are ready to strike key targets in Israel
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  Arabs, they don't understand that political turmoil in Israel does not affects IDF operational ability.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 2:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Iran is willing to fight til the last drop of Houthi blood
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 2:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Nuke Iran
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 11/22/2019 6:56 Comments || Top||

#4  I continue to be impressed by the dogged Houthi rocketeers.
Posted by: Fliting Poodle3288 || 11/22/2019 12:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Put them on the list.
Posted by: Hellfish || 11/22/2019 12:43 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Confirmation of latest Trump judicial pick tilts balance of 11th Circuit Court
[FOXNEWS] The Senate confirmed yet another of President Trump's picks to a federal circuit court seat Wednesday in a vote that tilts the balance of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to a GOP-appointed majority.

The 11th Circuit is now the third court to undergo such a transformation during Trump's presidency.

With an 80-15 vote, the Senate confirmed Barbara Lagoa to the seat formerly held by Judge Stanley Marcus, a Clinton appointee who sat on the appeals court that handles cases from Florida, Georgia and Alabama since 1997. Lagoa, the first Cuban-American woman confirmed to the 11th Circuit, tilts that court, which was previously split between six Republican appointees and six Democratic appointees, to a GOP-appointed majority. Trump's nominees alone now hold five of the 12 seats on the 11th Circuit.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only 15 Dems opposed? Suggests she might not be a good pick.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/22/2019 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  ...they needed the Cuban vote out of Miami to contest Florida next year.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/22/2019 7:08 Comments || Top||

#3  It's getting harder and harder for judge shopping Democrats to find a bargain.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:33 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 Dems can read the writing on the wall.

Thanks prob'y in large measure to Venezuela's meltdown and Bernie/Lieawatha's love of Chavez, Maduro et al., Florida is going red for 2020.

Sane Dems don't dare upset Cuban-Americans any further or their hopes for 2020 are finished.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 15:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Trump's nominees alone now hold five of the 12 seats on the 11th Circuit.

Soon to be 6 out of 12. Trump has nominated Andrew Brasher to replace G.H.W. Bush appointee Ed Carnes.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/22/2019 18:59 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran reconnects internet in one province after shutdown over protests: ISNA
[THEBAGHDADPOST] The internet has been restored in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, the semi-official ISNA news agency said on Thursday, after a days-long nationwide shutdown meant to help stifle unrest over fuel price hikes.

The authorities blockage of Internet access made it difficult for protesters to post videos on social media to generate more support and also to obtain reliable reports on the extent of the unrest.

But Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that calm had returned across the country, state TV reported.

"The internet connection has been restored in Hormozgan province and all social media applications are active again," ISNA, referring to a province that was a hotbed of protests.

Iranian officials had earlier said internet access would be reactivated if calm was restored.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Iraq
Iraqi parliament strips benefits of senior officials
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Despite measures taken by the Iraqi parliament, anti-government protests raged in the country for the fifth week in a row. Parliamentary decisions included stripping bigwigs from benefits they enjoyed.

Among the benefits abolished by parliament were financial preferences granted to senior civil servants such as the president, prime minister, and politicians.

The move towards reform, however, failed to quell demonstrations, with protestors saying that such solutions no longer meet their demands which include the total overthrow of government, parliament and the entire country’s political infrastructure.

Many of the statements put out by protestors cite the death of fellow marchers so as to say that matters have spiraled out of hand for the incumbent government.

Demonstrations in Iraq entered their 27th day, taking place in Baghdad and nine other provinces. It is worth noting that the Iraqi government and parliament are seeking to meet the demands of the demonstrators.

Moreover, a number of political blocs withdrew a day after representatives signed a document at National Wisdom Movement leader Ammar al-Hakim’s house which gave Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi 45 days to implement the promised reforms.

Reforms cited by the document included establishing a special court for corruption, changing the electoral law and electoral commission, reshuffling the Cabinet, prosecuting the forces who targeted the protesters and passing several pending proposals on oil and gas, social security, and other issues.

The Nasr Coalition and Hikma Movement warned that they will form an opposition bloc in the parliament and move to withdraw confidence in Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi if he does not proceed with the reform proposal within 40 days.

Speaking about the document signing, Member of the Iraqi Center for Political and Legal Development Hisham al-Shammae said it sent negative signals to people demanding the dissolution of parliament and resignation of the government.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian authorities sentence environmentalists and arrest dozens of students from the University of #Tehran
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  See - nobody is all bad.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Islam is never tolerant of other religions.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 19:51 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Australian tourist, 35, tied up and beaten by Indian mob had allegedly 'misbehaved' around village women
[FoxNews] The Melbourne tourist, identified by local media as William K. James, 35, had suffered “grievous injuries” after villagers in the southwest state of Karnataka tied him to a power pole and assaulted him, local police told the Times of India.

James, who had been sightseeing in India since Sept. 17, was traveling alone by bus from the town of Badami to the city of Bagalkot, which is 21 miles north, Jagalasar said.

But just 10 miles from Badami, he got off the bus at the village of Konanakoppa for reasons that are still unknown. Jagalasar said James was drunk when he arrived and was accused of misbehaving with a few women.

“When some men tried to stop him, he reportedly made a bid to attack them,” Jagalasar said. “The men tied him up to an electric post and assaulted him.”
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Relative of the couple who were flying a drone in front of an IRGC facility in Iran ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 11/22/2019 1:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
FBI Seeks Interview With CIA Weaselblower Eric Ciaramella
[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] The FBI recently sought to question the CIA whistleblower who filed a complaint over President Trump’s July 25 Ukraine call ‐ a move that came after a vigorous internal debate within the bureau over how to respond to some of the issues raised by the complaint’s allegations and whether they needed to be more thoroughly investigated, according to sources familiar with the matter.

An FBI agent in the Washington field office in October reached out to one of the lawyers representing the whistleblower and asked to question the CIA analyst who triggered the congressional inquiry into the president’s conduct, one of the sources said.

But no interview has yet to be scheduled. It is unclear what the intended scope of the interview would be or whether the whistleblower’s lawyers will agree to it. Mark Zaid, one of the lawyers for the whistleblower, said he and his co-counsel would have no comment. An FBI spokesperson also declined comment.
Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An FBI agent in the Washington field office in October reached out to one of the lawyers....

The Special Agent is now on long-term assignment at the Cape Romonzof Long Range Radar site near Hooper Bay, AK. He cannot be reached for comment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/22/2019 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Ciaramella: Weaselblower
Schiff: Smokeblower
Kamala H: Willieblower
Biden pere: Joey Snifferblower
Biden fils: Cap'n Hornblower

Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  The last is sooo, inappropriate, Lex.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/22/2019 5:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Wonder whether we'll see Hunter Horn------ in Mexico next, striking a deal with Evo Morales, leader of the indigenous nation of coca growers?
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 5:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Where's the fart blower?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/22/2019 11:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Eric Swallowswell: Fartblower
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:36 Comments || Top||

#7  What we wanna know, Charlie, is who gave you the classified information?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/22/2019 12:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Vindman?
Posted by: Bobby on the road || 11/22/2019 16:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Yep
Posted by: Frank G || 11/22/2019 19:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Besoeker—- it’s better than duty at Cape Lisbourne or Tin City LRRS.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/22/2019 19:45 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Heavy Turkish shelling on the village of Qiz-Ali and its silos, 45 km south-east of #Kobani
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Home Front: Politix
Deval Patrick Cancels Atlanta Event After Only Two People Show Up
[FREEBEACON] Democratic presidential candidate Deval (Whoa! Nice) drapes! Patrick was forced to cancel a campaign event Wednesday night after only two people showed up.

Patrick, who entered the primary field too late to qualify for the MSNBC debate in Atlanta, was scheduled to speak across town at a campaign event at Morehouse College, a historically black university. He cancelled the event after only two students showed up, according to CNN news hound Annie Grayer.

"Governor @DevalPatrick was supposed to have an event at Morehouse College tonight," Grayer reported. "An organizer with the college who planned the event told CNN that Patrick cancelled the event when he arrived and learned that he would not have an audience. (Note, two people came, not pictured)."

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Deval Patrick....who?
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 11/22/2019 7:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Not Bee? Wow. It's getting tougher and tougher to guess.
Posted by: Lex || 11/22/2019 11:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, there goes my Dark Horse..
I thought he might be Chicago Machine entrant, backed by Obama, but there was no fanfare = DUD ..
Posted by: TCal - ZooJerzee || 11/22/2019 12:16 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq’s COI issues arrest warrants for several officials in Kirkuk
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Iraq’s Commission of Integrity COI said on Thursday it had issued arrest warrants for several officials, including Kirkuk’s deputy governor for technical affairs.

The Commission said in a statement that it had also issued arrest warrants for Kirkuk University’s assistant director for scientific affairs, the former head of the college of law, and the head of the law section in accordance with Article 331 of Iraqi Penal Code.

Arrest warrants were issued for ten former secretaries of the Kirkuk-branch oil storage facility for allegedly violating Article 349. The officials were in charge there from 2015 until 2018.

It also ordered the arrest of the former mayor of Dubis on charges related to Article 322.

Kirkuk is an oil-rich and multi-ethnic province that sits within a belt of territory known as the "disputed areas," which is claimed both by the Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal government.

The province was largely controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government before 2017. In October of that year, Kurdish forces were pushed out of the city by the Iraqi Army in response to the Kurdistan region’s controversial independence referendum.

The federal government is under intense pressure from massive street protests to crack down on corruption, which is endemic in Iraq and the Kurdistan region.

Posted by: Fred || 11/22/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq



Who's in the News
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3Sublime Porte
2Taliban
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hezbollah
1Houthis
1Moslem Colonists
1Narcos
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Arab Spring

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2019-11-22
  Iranian security forces brutally beat #Iranian protesters
Thu 2019-11-21
  Afghanistan’s president claims victory over IS
Wed 2019-11-20
  SpaceX Starship BLOWS UP!
Tue 2019-11-19
  Iran’s Guards threaten petrol protesters with ‘revolutionary’ response
Mon 2019-11-18
  Basra roads closed as national protests continue
Sun 2019-11-17
  Today's Hong Kong Images on Twitter -
Sat 2019-11-16
  Protests erupt across Iran, burning banks, angry over gas prices
Fri 2019-11-15
  Roger Stone found guilty by D.C. jury.
Thu 2019-11-14
  121 ISIS militants and relatives surrender to Afghan forces in Nangarhar, 300+ in past week
Wed 2019-11-13
  Live: the House’s Trump Impeachment hearings starting at 10 a.m. ET
Tue 2019-11-12
  Israel hit by rockets after killing Islamic Jihad leader Abu al-Ata in Gaza
Mon 2019-11-11
  Thanks to all the veterans on Veterans Day!
Sun 2019-11-10
  Bolivia's president announces his resignation
Sat 2019-11-09
  Will Julian Assange Die in Prison? Is that why a "dead man" data dump just took place?
Fri 2019-11-08
  WikiLeaks just dropped their databomb

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