More than 200 activists protested against officers in the subway system and the NYPD on Friday night in Harlem, New York
The demonstrations started near the Harriet Tubman Memorial and marched through Upper Manhattan to the Bronx
At least 58 people were arrested as civilians and police officers clashed throughout the night
One video shows a police officer mocking a civilian by saying, 'if he can yell, he can breathe,' when the man complained 'I can’t breathe' during an arrest
This protest follows a similar demonstration in Brooklyn on November 1
The protests were spawned after viral video showed MTA officers 'using excessive force against passengers'
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to add 500 additional police officers to patrol the subway lines
[Local10} BOCA RATON, Fla. ‐ A 73-year-old man wearing a "Make America Great Again" shirt told a bank teller he was robbing that he gave him too much money, deputies said.
Sandy Hawkins was arrested Tuesday on a robbery charge.
According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office probable cause affidavit, Hawkins entered a Wells Fargo branch on Sandalfoot Plaza Drive near Boca Raton shortly after 11:30 a.m. Monday, approached a teller and requested $1,100.
"This is a robbery," Hawkins told the teller. "I have a weapon."
Hawkins, who was wearing a T-shirt with the words "Trump" and "Make America Great Again" -- the campaign slogan used by President Donald Trump -- on the front, put his hand in his waistband, implying he had a gun, the affidavit said.
The teller began counting aloud as he laid out each $100 bill, counting $2,000.
"Hawkins told him it was too much and again demanded $1,100," the affidavit said.
After the teller slid $1,100 under the window, Hawkins took the money and walked out, deputies said.
A manager at a nearby bar later identified the robber from surveillance photographs as Hawkins.
When deputies went to his home, Hawkins was sitting outside on an electrical box and provided a full confession.
"I will make this easy," Hawkins told detectives during an interview.
[HotAir] The secretary of the Navy and the admiral who leads the SEALs have threatened to resign or be fired if plans to expel a commando from the elite unit in a war crimes case are halted by President Trump, administration officials said Saturday.
The Navy is proceeding with the disciplinary plans against the commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who counts Mr. Trump as one of his most vocal supporters. After reversing a demotion in recent days, the president suggested on Thursday that he would intervene again in the case, saying that the sailor should remain in the unit.
The threats by the Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, and the commander, Rear Adm. Collin Green, are a rare instance of pushback against Mr. Trump from members of the Defense Department. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, scrambled to come up with a face-saving compromise this past week in the hope that Mr. Trump could be persuaded to change his mind.
You work for him. Your choice is to carry out the order, or resign. It's not like we don't have a 'deep' team. As Charles de Gaulle is reported to have said - cemeteries are full of indispensable people.
#2
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, scrambled to come up with a face-saving compromise this past week in the hope that Mr. Trump could be persuaded to change his mind.
Maybe, just maybe, the compromise should be coming from the other end of the chain of command and not the CinC. Otherwise, well, bye!
#7
WTF ? They can... do that ? Like some bloody mill workers' Union ?
Gallagher's played the goof the for last time, why can't they just let things be and expect him to reform ? You're entrusting public spending and social services to known criminals everyday for fuck's sake.
In fact a capable defense, or even a commander with his heart in the right place could have spun it as an psy-op exercise against the local daesh, who aired the burning, beheading and maiming of American allies for months.
A lot of anal retentive propriety posturing if you ask me. Imagine doing this to your soldiers in an actual war. Over what ? An ISIS terrorist ? Are these people fucking sane ?! AAARGH ! I hate to see this shit done to honest, salt of the earth men.
I hope he gets book deals, a pvt security firm and a movie deal and retires in great spirits, while these ARBs play plastic golf in their living rooms with their bad backs and faulty livers. Fuck !
#8
This is San Francisco's natural state. People have gotten spoiled since the Dot Boom. When I lived there in the 80's much of the city was *brutally* nasty. I remember stepping over a corpse to get through a door in a SOMA alley. Got drunk, spent the night there, and when I came out the next morning the corpse was still there, rotting away.
#1
Translation: it's not backdoored by us, and we know exactly how we're spying on Americans (despite laws prohibiting exactly that that we should be in prison for). How dare anyone usurp our turf!
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 8:00
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#2
Seriously, that is what you got from the article? You need to adjust your filters.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa is blocking arms sales to countries including Saudi Arabia and the UAE in an inspections dispute, endangering billions of dollars of business and thousands of jobs in its struggling defense sector, according to industry officials.
The dispute centers on a clause in export documents that requires foreign customers to pledge not to transfer weapons to third parties and to allow South African officials to inspect their facilities to verify compliance, according to the four officials as well as letters obtained by Reuters.
Officials at major South African defense groups Denel and Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) said the dispute was holding up their exports, as did a third big defense company which asked not to be named. RDM said some of its exports to the Middle East had not been approved since March.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which account for at least a third of South Africa’s arms exports and are engaged in a war in Yemen, have rejected the inspections which they consider a violation of their sovereignty, the sources said.
Oman and Algeria have also refused inspections and seen their imports from South Africa blocked, the industry officials added.
[Hot Air] Total idiocy, although in their defense this may be something they’re putting out as a morale booster for Trump, not because they believe it themselves. Kellyanne Conway did something similar a few weeks ago. The president’s angry and depressed that he’s going to be impeached, so his staff is lifting his spirits by telling the public that it might not happen.
And hey ‐ they’re right that impeachment must look worse to Pelosi today, given the polling, than it did a month ago.
But be that as it may, ain’t no way no how no chance that the Speaker who got ObamaCare passed is going to whiff on a vote this big. She never would have proceeded with the impeachment inquiry if she had reason to fear a cave-in in the end. Whatever arms need to be twisted, or broken, to get to 218 will be twisted or broken.
#1
I have always said that they will not impeach, but they will give a couple hundred censures on him and drag each one out for the next year as fodder on CNN.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/23/2019 12:28
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#2
At this point I'd say it's even money either way, and that will make some reps in red districts nervous. They may not have much leeway for the vote against that does not matter.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/23/2019 12:47
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#3
There have been too many instances in the last few years of "Surely they wouldn't..." followed by "Welp, they did" for me to buy this.
The Dems will double down until it costs them heavily and persistently; that hasn't happened yet.
#4
In a way, I'm almost hoping they actually do impeach. Although many people feel that when a president is impeached, he is automatically removed from office, the actual trial takes place in the Senate. To remove the President, it takes a 2/3 majority in the Senate. Unless many Republicans vote for removal, it won't happen.
On the other hand, Trump will be able to call witnesses in his defense. On my short list of witnesses would be the leaders in the deep state, the Bidens, Vindman, Schiff, and others. It should almost be fun.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/23/2019 13:19
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#8
My personal favorite conspiracy theory. RBG is dead or dying. Impeachment is a desperate ploy to de-legitimize the president before a replacement can be named. Idiots like Romney will go along with it.
[Babylon Bee] ATLANTA, GA‐Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters announced Friday that the restaurant will be getting a new mascot in place of the traditional Chick-fil-A cow: a golden calf.
Restaurant patrons will be asked to dance around and worship the golden calf when they enter the restaurant to show their submission to the LGBTQ agenda.
"Take off the body piercings that your LGBTQ+ same-sex partners are wearing, and bring them to me," said Dan Cathy in a solemn ceremony while creating the restaurant's first-ever golden calf this morning. So all the people did so and brought them to Cathy. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a plastic fork. "This is your god, people of Chick-fil-A, who brings you great business and allows you to expand into other markets."
Then the people worshiped in a mighty dance. And there was much rejoicing.
At publishing time, an angered Kanye West had entered the restaurant, and, spotting the golden calf, immediately threw down his copies of Jesus Is King and Jesus Is King II, shattering them to bits.
But “activists” are liars. Remember, they aren’t good people who got carried away by a passion for justice. They’re awful, horrible, garbage people motivated by a desire to harm.
[HOT AIR] "The early accounts of the report suggest that it is likely to stoke the debate over the investigation without definitively resolving it, by offering both sides different conclusions they can point to as vindication for their rival worldviews," says the NYT of what its sources are telling them.
There is some anti-Trump bias in the mix of misconduct here, according to those sources. Allegedly that came from FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, whom the NYT identifies as the subject of the criminal investigation that John wrote about last night. Clinesmith supposedly altered an email written by an official at another agency, adding a factual assertion at the end to make it look like it had been written by the author. That altered email was then given to an FBI official to read before signing an affidavit that was part of the FISA submission against Carter Page. Clinesmith was also known to text things to friends like "viva la resistance" when asked if he planned to stay in government despite his disdain for Trump.
He’s resigned from the FBI and is now in a heap of legal trouble, as he should be. This solves the mystery, it seems, of why the Durham investigation is now a criminal probe. Maybe not the whole mystery ‐ Durham could be looking at other people ‐ but at a minimum Clinesmith has been pinched for altering the form.
The Times claims that Clinesmith was "low-level." What about the high-level Russiagate personnel: Comey, McCabe, and Peter Strzok? According to the sources, there’s no allegation made that their work was influenced by antipathy to Trump. I’ve never understood why, if they were out to wreck POTUS, they wouldn’t have leaked something damaging during the campaign to try to blow him up on Election Day, but oh well. The IG did apparently find "sloppy and unprofessional" work in parts of the FISA application, including "errors and omissions in documents" ("the renewal applications contained information that should have been left out, and vice versa"), but no abuse of power. As for the other core conspiracy suspicions about Russiagate, no dice:
#3
Because nobody but a fool really sh@ts where they eat. Being genuinely critical and damaging future opportunities in the swamp is often injurious in so many ways.
#5
Clinesmith supposedly altered an email written by an official at another agency, adding a factual assertion at the end to make it look like it had been written by the author.
So f---ing stupid.
How do such people get hired?
What has happened to our government?
[FOX] OAKLAND, Miss. - A Mississippi company is recalling more than 86 tons of chicken fried rice that may contain bits of plastic.
A recall notice says Ajinomoto Foods North America Inc. of Oakland, Mississippi, reported the problem after customers complained.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says it hasn’t had any confirmed reports of injury or illness.
The 54-ounce (1.5 kilogram) packages were shipped to retailers in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey and Texas.
They’re labeled "Ajinomoto Yakitori Chicken With Japanese-Style Fried Rice." The date codes are 3559007, 3559008, 3559015, 3559190 and 3559191 and the best by dates are 1/7/2020, 1/8/2020, 1/15/2020, 7/9/2020 and 7/10/2020.
Authorities say anyone with one of those packages should throw it out or return it to the seller.
[Aljazeera] William Barr says he was initially suspicious of the death, but now does not believe there was foul play.
US Attorney General William Barr has said he initially had his own suspicions about financier Jeffrey Epstein's widely-speculated-on death while behind bars at one of the most secure jails in the United States, but came to conclude that his suicide was the result of "a perfect storm of screw-ups".
In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Barr said his concerns were prompted by the numerous irregularities at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York where Epstein was being held.
ABC and CBS both covered for him, and instead of rewarding the whistleblower, fired her. That is NOT how journalism operates.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 8:20
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#3
Said it before; when an incident requires the co-incidence of a number of unlikely factors, you're, in effect, multiplying fractions.
And that means you get to a very small value very quickly.
That's where "...and tell me it's raining" comes in.
To end the suspicion will require proving the failures happened frequently or perhaps regularly and not specifically all together this one night.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/23/2019 8:45
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#4
Sounds like Barr is not ready to kill himself too...
#6
He added that he personally reviewed security footage that confirmed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died.
Not confirmation, a data point. Anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention the last few years knows that photographic evidence ain't what it used to be. Facial replacement is a standard visual effect. Even without CGI, Hollywood could stage the whole thing. Grainy security footage only makes the job easier. Show me the script and I'll show you the 'evidence'.
#11
Still think they Pentangeli'd him. He probably did it in a way that would create the maximum amount of conspiracy guessing as a way to screw with whomever was screwing him.
[WND] Two Republican senators are asking the national archivist to provide copies of records of meetings in 2016 between the Obama administration, the Ukrainian government and Democratic National Committee officials.
U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, addressed the letter to Archivist David Ferriero.
In January 2016, Ukrainian governmental officials and corruption investigators met with members of Obama's National Security Council, the FBI, the DOJ and others, including DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa, who has been suspected of working with Ukrainian officials to undermine the Trump campaign, the senators say.
"According to Andrii Telizhenko, a political officer in the Ukraine Embassy in Washington, D.C., who participated in a January 2016 meeting, 'U.S. officials volunteered ... that they had an interest in reviving a closed investigation into payments to U.S. figures from Ukraine's Russia-backed Party of Regions,' which refers to the investigation that involved Paul Manafort," the senators write.
[Axios] A Chinese spy has defected to Australia, offering a bevy of secrets on Chinese intelligence operations, according to Australian newspaper The Age.
Why it matter: Wang "William" Liqiang is the first Chinese operative to "blow his cover," The Age reports. He provided Australia information on Chinese political interference in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, along with the identities of senior Chinese military intelligence officers in Hong Kong.
What's happening: Wang is "at an undisclosed location in Sydney on a tourist visa and seeking urgent protection from the Australian government," The Age writes.
In interviews, he has revealed how China controls listed companies to finances its intelligence projects, surveil and profile dissenters and co-opt media.
His testimony to ASIO, the Australian counter-intelligence agency, demonstrates "how Beijing’s spies are infiltrating Hong Kong’s democracy movement, manipulating Taiwan’s elections and operating with impunity in Australia," per The Age.
Duncan Lewis, the head of ASIO, on Friday said the Chinese government is "trying to place themselves in a position of advantage" through "insidious" foreign interference, per The Age.
[Zero via WND] Rudy Giuliani claims that US diplomats have been acting to further the interests of billionaire George Soros in Ukraine in what he described as a "massive pay-for-play" scheme which included falsifying evidence against President Trump.
"The anti-corruption bureau is a contradiction," Giuliani told Glenn Beck, regarding Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which Joe Biden helped establish when he was the Obama administration's point-man on Ukraine.
As a bit of background, in December of 2018, a Ukrainian court ruled that NABU director Artem Sytnyk "acted illegally" when he revealed the existence of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's name to Journalist and politician Serhiy Leschenko in a "black ledger" containing off-book payments to Manafort by Ukraine's previous administration. The ruling against Sytnyk and Leshchenko was later overturned on a technicality.
I read that as "monkey laundering". Damn speed reading!
Seems the Dems are playing with fire here. No way can they keep banging on this without exposing Biden & Son, no matter how much the media cover for them.
[Daily Caller] Foreign-born researchers working at U.S. agencies secretly joined China’s payroll, sending sensitive U.S.-funded research to the country while U.S. government agencies took almost no defensive measures against a major recruitment operation, a Senate investigation found.
Researchers linked to the Chinese government formed a Chinese cell within the Department of Energy, attained access to American genomic data, and recruited other U.S. researchers to join, the bipartisan report stated.
China’s Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) aims to get foreign governments to finance the communist power’s military and economy by buying off researchers who are doing work abroad. The experts apply to the program, and if approved by the Communist Party, they join China’s payroll and sign secret side agreements that the experts will share their research with that country, according to the investigation.
Some of the information captured by TTP had significant military value. For example, in 2016, Dr. Long Yu, a Chinese citizen and U.S. permanent resident working for a U.S. defense contractor, applied for Chinese talent plans and was arrested for attempting to give hundreds of gigabytes to China, including design info on military jet engines, according to the investigation.
"China wins twice. First, the American taxpayer funds China’s research and development. Second, China uses that research to improve its economic and military status," Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said in a statement.
#1
Foreign-born researchers working at U.S. agencies anywhere...
Check your local 7-11, QuikMart or family owned food desert oases. They know police and ambulance routes, refill cycles and work schedules of customers.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. ‐ A dog in Florida went on joy ride Thursday, driving a car around a cul-de-sac. In circles. In reverse.
According to Port St. Lucie police, as officers responded to reports of a dog locked in a 2003 silver Mercury Sable "circling the cul-de-sac while in the reverse gear."
Investigators learned the car owner made a wrong turn on his way home, said Senior Sgt. Lisa Marie Carrasquillo, police spokeswoman.
The driver got out and shut the door, leaving the dog inside.
"The dog named Max accidentally hit the shifter into reverse, causing the car to circle the cul-de-sac, leaving the owner locked out of the car," police stated. "As the car circled the cul-de-sac, it struck and damaged a mailbox."
Carrasquillo said Max apparently was driving for several minutes.
Carrasquillo said the driver provided an extra key fob, but the battery was dead.
Police wound up entering the code on the key pad of the door.
"The dog is happy and fine," Carrasquillo said Friday.
Max, who apparently wasn't wearing a seatbelt, did not get a citation.
Any civilizing you lot can do will be much appreciated.
[KhaamaPress] Washington supports continued involvement of India in Afghanistan, a State Department official told news hounds on Thursday.
Nancy Izzo Jackson, a State Department official in charge of Afghanistan said "The United States welcomes India’s substantial investment in and assistance to Afghanistan."
Jackson further added "And we will continue to support efforts to achieve an honorable and enduring outcome in Afghanistan that preserves our investment in Afghanistan’s future."
India has played a major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... regime and has invested over $2 billion in various reconstruction and infrastructure projects.
The construction of the major Salma Dam, the new Afghan parliament building, Zaranj-Delaram highway, and some other projects are among the key investments India has done so far in the country.
The government of India pledged a fresh aid package of $1 billion to support the reconstruction projects in Afghanistan during a visit by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... in late 2016.
[KhaamaPress] A group of ten ISIS Khurasan bandidosgunnies surrendered to 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... in eastern 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, days after hundreds of ISIS bandidosgunnies surrendered to security forces in this province.
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/23/2019
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[ToloNews] US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in a tweet welcomed the release of Afghan soldiers.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) reported that on Thursday 10 Afghan soldiers were handed over to the organization by the Taliban ...Arabic for students... "The 10 Afghan National Security Forces members were released and handed over to the ICRC in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Province, in the District of Nahr-e Saraj," Juan Pedro Schaerer, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan said in a statement quoted by Rooters.
"We transferred them across the frontline to Lashkar Gah where we handed them over to the Afghan authorities at the governor’s office, said Schaerer.
This follows the release of three prisoners of the Haqqani network ...a branch of the Afghan Taliban, based in Pakistain. The network is a family business founded by the later Jalaluddin Haqqani... in exchange for two Western professors earlier in the week.
US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad announced the release in two tweets :
"Welcome the news that the Taliban released 10 Afghan soldiers today. This action followed the release of Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government, and the separate Taliban goodwill gesture of releasing two Afghanistan professors" and "Hopeful these steps lead to a reduction in violence and rapid progress towards a political settlement involving the Afghan government, the Taliban, and other Afghan leaders. The Afghan people yearn for peace and security, and we stand with them."
[ToloNews] Afghan cops launched a large-scale clearing operation named "Pamir 110" in the northern province of Kunduz on Thursday to clear bully boyz from the outskirts of Kunduz city, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement.
The operation was began on Wednesday night at approximately 10 pm Kabul time when Afghan forces approached Kunduz city from various directions, the statement said, adding "The forces were well-prepared for the operation."
Gen. Nabiullah Mirzayi, with 217th Pamir Corps, has called on the people to cooperate with the security forces during the operation.
Afghan forces have launched military operations in Badakhshan, Takhar and Baghlan province and "cleared the majority of bully boyz in many places," according to MoD statement.
All sorts of no doubt interesting people had something to say about this beloved Talib.
[ToloNews] A funeral was held Thursday for Wahid Muzhda, a writer and political analyst, who was shot and killed in Kabul on Wednesday while he was on his way to a mosque for prayers. The incident occurred around 5:00 pm when at least one unidentified gunman on a cycle of violence attacked him in the PD7 area of Kabul, close to the Russian embassy, said Nasrat Rahimi, the front man for the Interior Ministry. No group has grabbed credit for his death.
Muzhda served as foreign minister during the Taliban ...Arabic for students... regime and he was a member of the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Continued on Page 49
#2
Was ever so very well versed
A scholar by Allah accursed?
Wait, cursed? I meant blessed!
To the mosque he processed
And his mosque got this shitstirrer first.
[KhaamaPress] The security forces killed three Talibs during two separate festivities in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, the Afghan military said.
According to a statement released by 209th Shaheen Corps, the security forces clashed with Talibs in Darya Khana area of Darzab district and Charshangho area of Manjeek district on Wednesday afternoon.
The statement further added the security forces killed three Talibs during the two festivities.
An Afghan soldier also sustained injuries during the festivities, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement.
The Taliban ...Arabic for students... group has not commented regarding the two festivities so far.
[KhaamaPress] The Office of the Inspector General in Department of Defense echoed concerns regarding the misuse of Afghan Air Force fleet, in its quarterly to U.S. Congress.
The report on Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan outlined the issues the U.S.-led training mission is facing in Afghanistan.
Citing the TAAC-Air report, the Inspector General added in its report that the Afghan Air Force had a total of 183 aircraft as of the end of the quarter of 2019, which has been growing each quarter, in accordance with the AAF Modernization Plan.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the report stated that a key concern for TAAC-Air advisors is misuse of the AAF fleet. "One indicator of misuse is aircraft utilization rates (average flight hours per aircraft per month)."
The report further added that the monthly utilization rates for the Mi-17 and MD-530 helicopters in September (38.6 and 31.8, respectively) far exceeded the manufacturer’s recommended rate, which is 25 hours per month for each aircraft, warning that the high utilization rates reveal a potential for more serious maintenance requirements in the future that could cause the helicopters to go out of service unexpectedly and remain unusable for an extended period. 25 hours a month??
"The AAF UH-60 monthly utilization rate in September, 19 hours, is below the recommended maximum of 35 hours per month," the report said, adding that "TAAC-Air told the DoD OIG that not all AAF units have access to the data required to conduct effective fleet use and maintenance planning, which leads to overfly of utilization rates."
The report also outlines shortfalls in how the Afghan Air Force is planning and operating. "TAAC-Air also reported that the AAF often fails to adhere to its own aircraft tasking process, resulting in delays in delivery of critical supplies."
The TAAC-Air has also told the Inspector General that senior AAF officials often delay approval of supply requests, instead of adhering to established procedures for such authorizations which ’lead to logistics inefficiencies which result in extended 2-3 day gaps whereby combat operations are either halted or commanders are forced to take unacceptable risks’, according to report.
#3
So those helicopters are supposed to be used for just 4 6-hour days out of 30?! OK, they're helicopters, but how can they be worth anything if you have to have 7 of them to keep one operating each day?
And from when we had actual traffic reports from helicopters, I doubt they had such a large stable of aircraft.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/23/2019 10:56
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#4
It sounds like a misallocation of maintenance budgets. How much of it is disappearing into the ether?
For those paying attention to the smaller players.
[KhaamaPress] Adib Fahim has stepped down as deputy chief of the Afghan intelligence, the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS).
Fahim published a copy of his resignation letter online which he submitted to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah ...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president... on Wednesday.
He described personal issues as the main motive behind decision to step down.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Cynthia backed into the galley, the barbecue fork held in front of her. Jack! she called. Where the hell are you?... Fahim said he would remain committed and strive for the realization of the ambitions of the country.
The Offices of the President and Chief Executive have not commented regarding the resignation of Mr. Fahim so far.
Adib Fahim is the eldest son of the former Afghan Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim who passed away in early 2014. He assumed charge as the first deputy chief of the National Directorate of Security early in June of 2015.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan forces clashed with Talibs in Wardak and Paktiya provinces in the past 24 hours killing or wounding at least 12 holy warriors.
The 203rd Thunder Corps said in a statement the security forces clashed with Talibs in Ibrahim Khel and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... yan areas of Wardak province.
The statement further added the security forces killed 4 Talibs during the festivities and maimed at least 6 others.
Furthermore, the security forces repulsed a Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... attack in Rohani Baba area of Zurmat district in Paktiya, the 203rd Thunder Corps said, adding that the security forces maimed 2 Talibs during the clash.
The 201st Silab Corps also added that the security forces discovered and defused 4 improvised bombs during the operations in Ghazni province.
[The Hill] A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after he was convicted of conspiring to turn over U.S. intelligence information to China's government.
Prosecutors said that Jerry Chun Shing Lee, who was with the agency for 13 years, had direct knowledge of sensitive secrets, according to NBC News.
Lee was not charged with giving China any intel, according to NBC.
A judge said "it is all but certain" he gave information to China, but Lee's lawyer said "the government has offered only conjecture as a basis for these claims."
Lee reportedly pleaded guilty in May to a charge of conspiring to give national defense information to a foreign country. He was arrested in 2018 after FBI agents said they found notebooks and a flash drive with information and phone numbers of CIA personnel, details about an operation and information about facilities.
He reportedly admitted to a 2010 meeting with Chinese intelligence officials who said they would pay him and "take care of him for life" in exchange for secrets.
#1
Seems like a lot of people in the intel community getting busted working for the ChiComs lately. Or maybe it's been going on all along and we're just paying attention to it now.
#3
How stupid is the US Government in hiring foreign born into sensitive positions?
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, aka Zhen Cheng Li Here’s what you need to know:
1. Lee Is Suspected of Giving Information to China That Led to the Death or Imprisonment of About 20 American Agents, Sources Tell NBC News
[THEBAGHDADPOST] A security source reported on Friday the reopening of the port of Umm Qasr in Basra province, after dispersing the protesters at its entrance.
The source said: "The staff managed to enter the port of Umm Qasr, which was closed by demonstrators since Monday."
"More than 100 tankers loaded with oil derivatives arrived at the port," the source added. "All events in the port of Umm Qasr is stopped until now."
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Russian Federation could supply the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... with their S-400 air defense system as early as next year, the Russian publication Nezavisimaya Gazeta said in a report this week.
"The Russian Federation and China can become the main exporters of advanced weapons to Iran after the country leaves the arms embargo," Nezavisimaya Gazeta began.
"The Pentagon shares many concerns. Experts draw attention to the difficulties that Iran may face in acquiring the latest technology. Iran, as the US military notes, is interested in Su-30 multipurpose fighters, Yak-130 combat trainers and T-90 tanks. S-400 systems, as well as Bastion coastal missile systems, may become an acquisition," they added.
According to the Russian publication Avia.Pro, as soon as the UN sanctions are lifted from Iran, a corresponding agreement will be concluded between Russia and Iran, and within a couple of weeks, such weapons will be transferred to the army of the Islamic Theocratic Republic, and, obviously, this is precisely what the U.S. fears.
Neither Iran nor Russia has recently commented on this claim, but if true, this would be a major boost to Iran’s air defenses, as they currently have the Russian-made S-300.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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#1
Good to put a time box around airstrike planning.
[THEBAGHDADPOST] In separate operations in western and northern Iraq on Friday, anti-ISIS coalition warplanes and local security forces killed a number of alleged 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.... fighters. Iraqi troops also reportedly captured an individual handling the hard boy group’s logistics support in eastern parts of Anbar province.
"An international coalition Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... killed several turbans inside a tunnel in the Badush mountains," the Iraqi military communications center known as the Security Media Cell said in a statement. It added that a ground team then deployed to the area and confiscated a number of bombs and food supplies being used by the Death Eaters.
The Badush mountains are located in a remote area of the northern province of Nineveh where Islamic State bandidosDeath Eaters previously sought shelter in extensive tunnels they had built there.
Later, Iraq's Military Intelligence Directorate announced the arrest of an Islamic State official who it said had been managing the "logistics" for the group's activities in Anbar’s placid provincial capital of Ramadi, an area that the terrorist organization overran in 2015 and held until Iraqi forces pushed them back in 2016.
The individual was wanted as per Article 4 of Iraq’s counter-terrorism law, the directorate said. Iraqi security forces routinely make this claim in such public statements despite the fact that Article 4 only addresses sentencing guidelines.
Backed by the US-led international coalition, Iraqi forces launched another series of operations against the Islamic State in recent days and weeks. Security forces continue to hunt down remnants of the hard boy organization across the country in attempts to prevent those loyal to it from regrouping to pose an increased threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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More on this story from yesterday. In yesterday’s comment thread, Unaitle Panda6599 shared a link that claims the former FBI lawyer in question is one Kevin Clinesmith.
[SPECTATOR.ORG] 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 ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... campaign aide Carter Page, CNN reports.
The lawyer allegedly admitted making the change to Sherlocks for Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who referred the matter to U.S. Attorney John Durham. The longtime federal prosecutor, tasked by Attorney General William Barr with looking into the origins of the Russia collusion probe, reportedly has launched a criminal investigation into the FBI lawyer.
"The alterations were significant enough to have shifted the document’s meaning and came up during a part of Horowitz’s FISA review where details were classified," CNN reports. The question naturally arises as to whether the details gained classified status because officials sought to hide the deception or whether the details actually rated such a designation. The heavily redacted warrant application dropped jaws upon its release by referring to opposition research as "research," claiming a "law firm" rather than the Clinton campaign hired the Sherlocks, and seemingly labeling former MI6 spook Remington Christopher Steele as a "U.S. person." The notion that an FBI employee altered a report already criticized for deception further undermines the credibility of the probe.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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#1
What did Trump-loathing CNN mean by releasing this story?
Likely that the complete story is even worse than it looks from this little tidbit. (Let us all recoil in our mutual surprise)
Expect the spin to be "just one rogue employee and a minor one at that".
#2
CNN trying to stage a pre-emptive (non-fatal) strike in hopes of redirecting attention away from the much more serious, fatal (to the DS) charges to come
[Dhaka Tribune] A man was arrested for beating up and shaving off his wife's head for dowry in Bogra's Nandigram upazila on Friday.
Police arrested the accused Morshedul Islam, 22 after the victim's mother filed a case with the Nandigram cop shoppe.
Shawkat Kabir, officer-in-charge of the Nandigram cop shoppe confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
''We arrested Morshedul after the victim's mother filed a case against her daughter's husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law. The arrestee will be sent to court on Saturday morning.'' the OC added, ''We are trying to arrest the other accused.''
According to the police, the accused Morshedul, a resident of Yusufpur village of the upazila, married Marzia Akhtar from the Pachpakia village of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... re's Singra upazila nine months ago. At the time of the marriage, the bride's family paid around Tk 150,000 as dowry.
Recently, the accused Morshedul started constructing a brick house and demanded an extra Tk200,000 from his wife. As Marzia refused to pay the amount, her husband and mother-in-law used to torture her.
On Thursday, Marzia and her mother-in-law locked into an altercation over a trivial matter. After being informed of the matter, Morshedul beat his wife up and shaved off her head.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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#1
Probably a good idea, what with things being a bit tense. Wouldn't do to have some Iranian catspaw get your knuckleheads overly excited and make the Juice cluster-bomb your unruly asses.
[Dhaka Tribune] Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have arrested three suspected members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s, which remains obscure and probably defunct today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually exploded. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt. (JMB) from, Char Raninagar in Sadar upazila of Chapainawabganj.
The arrestees are Manirul Islam, 30, Zia ul Haq, 33 and Hossain Ali, 39, reports UNB.
Tipped off that a group of people of the banned turban outfit gathered in the area for holding a clandestine meeting, a team of RAB-5 conducted a drive in the area, and arrested the three around 3:30 am Friday, said a blurb of RAB-5.
The elite force members also recovered some jihadi books and leaflets from their possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... has detained in Syria a member of the ISIS terror group* who has organised terror attacks in Russia and Germany, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Friday, as quoted by Ottoman Turkish Hurriyet newspaper.
"We have captured in Syria’s A’zaz one of the key ISIS terrorists, a member of the top leadership of the group, nicknamed Yusuf Huba. He used to produce bombs and to teach other people to do it, including through the Internet, he used to recruit bully boys, and he has created a network of suicide kaboomers, he used to stage terror attacks and murders with use of poison. He arranged a terror attack in Russia in 2018 and in Germany’s Hamburg as well", Soylu stated.
According to the interior minister, the detained bully boy was engaged in arranging 20 terror attacks. Syria’s A’zaz passed to Turkey’s control in 2016 as a result of the Operation Euphrates Shield.
While Ankara has repeatedly stated that its operations in Syria only targeted the ISIS group and US-backed Kurdish bully boys, which the Ottoman Turkish government considers to be terrorists, Damascus stressed that the Ottoman Turkish Army had never asked permission to act on Syrian territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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[NYPOST] A quick-thinking Ohio woman pretended to order a pizza ‐ but was really calling 911 ‐ to save her mother from an alleged abuser, police said.
The unidentified woman covertly called police on Nov. 13 to calmly request that a pizza be sent to her apartment, where Simon Lopez, 56, allegedly showed up drunk and started assaulting her mother, the Toledo Blade reported.
"I would like to order a pizza," she told Tim Teneyck, a dispatcher with the police department in Oregon, a suburb of Toledo.
"You called 911 to order a pizza?" Teneyck replied. "This is the wrong number to call for a pizza."
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no ‐ you’re not understanding," the woman said, prompting Teneyck to catch on to what was unfolding on the line.
"I’m getting you now, I got it," the dispatcher continued. "What apartment? Is the other guy still there?"
The savvy caller kept up the ruse, saying she did indeed need a "large pizza ... with pepperoni" to be sent over, according to the 911 recording.
Responding cops took Lopez into custody on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge after he punched the woman’s mother so hard that she fell into a wall, according to a police report obtained by the Toledo Blade.
Lopez came to the women’s home "disorderly, loud, verbally and physically abusive" and threatened to beat the victim after punching her, she told police. Lopez denied the accusations, police said.
Oregon Police Chief Michael Navarre praised Teneyck’s alertness, saying he was "extremely proud" of his work and now plans to incorporate it into dispatcher training.
"He picked up on a woman who was in distress, but was in a position where she couldn’t convey it to him in those words," Navarre told the newspaper. "And then he was able to ask her all the right questions without outing her in harm’s way."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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#1
Salute to the dispatcher. Someone actually interested in his job.
#5
Responding cops took Lopez into custody on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge after he punched the woman’s mother so hard that she fell into a wall, according to a police report obtained by the Toledo Blade.
I'd classify that as a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Punching an old lady is extremely uncool.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/23/2019 13:27
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[SultanKnish] Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the latest star of the Democrat effort to undo the 2016 election, is still at work on the National Security Council. While Trump supporters on the NSC like Rich Higgins and Ezra Cohen-Watnick were forced out, Vindman won't be. NSC staffers who criticized Obama holdovers or sought to expose their misbehavior are gone, but Vindman is still there while undermining Trump.
And that's the SNAFU of things on the NSC.
The National Security Council has been ground zero in the campaign against President Trump from the beginning. General Flynn's appointment as National Security Advisor had touched the third rail because the NSC had been used to coordinate anti-Trump operations in the Susan Rice era.
Continued on Page 49
#2
"Praetorian guard": exactly. The kind of thing you associate with Roman intrigue and assassinations, or with banana republics and Pakistan in our own time.
The very worst example of this was Ben Rhodes, an aspiring novelist who evolved from a speechwriter to deputy national security adviser for communications, and, in that capacity ran our foreign policy. War and diplomacy weren't run by the cabinet members accountable to Congress, but by political operatives.
Pajama Boy making foreign policy = the height, or nadir, of The Shitshow
#4
An unnecessary level of bureaucracy ... as superfluous as the Department of Homeland Security . But it does provide employment for high salary pundits.
#6
Since the NSC was created by statute, it's not going away anytime soon. Thus we'll have to wait until a serious Federal budget's proposed by Trump that'll defund this and other clusterf&cks.
#8
In the meantime, I'm sure there's an island up near Alaska they could all be transferred to. In order to concentrate their efforts on why they should keep their jobs. And make sure there's no distraction, like phones, internet or TV. For entertainment, they can play truth or dare.
#10
Send them to that island at the very end of the Aleuitian chain which is only a few hundred miles from Russia. Mission: Watch for Russian Collusion.
#11
You will disagree with me but I found Fiona Hill a competent and impressive witness. This badass lady knows her stuff. But then again I have read her book about Putin which is the best there is.
Sondland instead is a joke, sorry.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/23/2019 13:39
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Agree that Fiona Hill is a superb analyst and an honest individual. Baby in the NSA bath water.
[DW] They are charged with spying on Sikh opposition and suspected Kashmiri separatist groups and passing on the information to India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.
The trial of two Indian citizens accused of spying on Kashmiri and Sikh groups in Germany and sharing information with Indian intelligence agents began on Thursday at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt.
Manmohan S., 50, and his wife, 51-year-old Kanwal Jit K., were charged with foreign secret service agent activity in Germany.
Starting in January 2015, Manmohan is accused of obtaining information on Kashmiri separatist and Sikh groups operating in Germany and passing it on officials of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW ... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man... ), posted at the Indian Consulate in Frankfurt.
From July 2017, his wife Kanwal Jit is also suspected of taking part in the intelligence gathering.
In return for their service, the couple reportedly received a total of €7,200 ($7,974) from RAW.
While the trial begins on Thursday, further hearings are scheduled up until December 12.
If convicted, the couple may be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Added per Dron66046’s comment to aid future searches, the miscreants’ full names are Manmohan Singh and Kanwaljit Kaur. In Sikhs, every lady's a 'Kaur'.
The R&AW is so fucking stingy and mismanaged. Why can't they recruit muslims to spy on muslims ? Poor middle aged sikh couple are expected to do everything by themselves ?
#2
Could really be a case of another Indian family getting them into trouble because their LCD is bigger.
"I've seen that Manmohan with strange people wearing sunglasses at night."
"Are you sure they weren't just Indian rappers ?"
"Okay. How about his wife. New earrings every week. Bitch ! She's highly opinionated and informed for an indian wife ! The other day she was saying muslims are bad..."
#3
Former Khalistani sympathiser who claims to have spent several months in prison in India. Fled India after Indira Gandhi's assasination and applied for asylum in Germany.
Posted by: John Frum ||
11/23/2019 18:45
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#4
You wouldn’t happen to know their full names by any chance, John Frum? I like to have that in the record in case a report using the full name comes across my screen.
#5
Manmohan Singh and Kanwaljit Kaur. In Sikhs, every lady's a 'Kaur'.
They are alleged to have been paid a measly $ 7000 for spying on dangerous separatists who are aided by Merkel's govt.
As I said. R&AW are cheapskates ! Who knows, the handler could've pocketed thousands himself !If the allegation is true, which is highly unlikely. There's realistically no information worth $7000, which a family would risk life imprisonment or death for, in this business.
Sikh khalistani groups like the Babbar Khalsa operate wherever there are Sikhs from Canada to China; I'm sure you have them on file. One can spot them by their militant ways and secretive communities. Also, they'll hound Indian dignitaries or pro-Indian journos and politicians and even ally with islamists as and when it suits them, especially for arms and ammunition.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels launched a new attack against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops in the northern countryside of the Latakia Governorate on Thursday.
Led by the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), the jihadist rebels began their assault by storming the Syrian Arab Army’s positions north of the hilltop town of Kinsibba.
According to a military source near the front-lines, the Turkestan Islamic Party and their bully boy allies were able to initially infiltrate the Syrian Army’s positions after killing and wounding several soldiers.
Following the infiltration by TIP and their allies, the Russian Air Force entered the battle and began to unleash a major assault on the jihadist supply lines from the key city of Jisr al-Shughour in western Idlib.
A military source in northern Latakia told al-Masdar News this morning that the Russian Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s killed and maimed more than 15 members of TIP and their allied faction, adding that most of these casualties were foreign jihadists.
The Turkestan Islamic Party in the Levant is known for its ideological proximity to the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) terrorist organization. Its members in Syria are estimated to be in the thousands, with most of these fighters coming from China’s Xingyang region.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish Army and their bully boy allies killed several Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers in the northeastern region of Syria this week.
According to a military report from the al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria, the Ottoman Turkish Army and their allied bandidosturbans targeted the Syrian Arab Army’s positions near the Abu Rasin area.
The report said the Syrian Arab Army’s positions were specifically targeted at the towns of Rabiyat and Tal al-Ward; this resulted in the death of at least four soldiers and hospitalization of several others.
This attack by the Ottoman Turkish Army may not have been intended for the Syrian military, however, as the the former reportedly targeted these two towns in northern al-Hasakah after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attacked the so-called "Syrian National Army’s (SNA) positions near the Abu Rasin area.
A source from the Syrian Army said that they did not respond to the attack of yet, but they have reported this ceasefire violation to the Russian military police in northeastern Syria.
Previously, the SAA and SDF repelled several attacks by the SNA on the Tal Tamr District; this has prompted the the Ottoman Turkish-backed bandidosturbans to halt their attempted advance into this part of the al-Hasakah Governorate.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish authorities gave their allied Death Eaters in Syria German-made tanks, the German magazine Bild reported on Friday.
According to the report, the Ottoman Turkish authorities supplied its allied holy warrior forces like the so-called "Syrian National Army" (SNA) with the German-made Leopard-2 tank.
The German publication said that the Ottoman Turkish-backed Death Eaters have even used these Leopard-2 tanks against the U.S. and German-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria.
One of the spokespersons for the Ottoman Turkish-backed Death Eaters confirmed to the German publication that the tanks were being used by their forces. The spokesperson said: "The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... provided us with military equipment including tanks."
The Ottoman Turkish military has been using the Leopard-2 tank since 2016; they have also supplied the holy warrior forces inside Syria with these armored vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[al-Emarah] Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate pounded with missiles the enemy’s military corps in the bustling provincial capital of Paktia province yesterday night, a report said but gave no casualty details.
In another report, Mujahideen fighters seized a vehicle from enemy during a surprise attack in Zurmat district of Paktia province on Thursday night.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales who was granted political asylum in Mexico has dismissed allegations that Russian military are waiting for him in Bolivia.
"They are trying to destroy us with endless lies and accusations," Morales wrote on his official Twitter account. "They said that I already returned to Bolivia, that Russian soldiers are in Bolivia waiting for my return. Now in the framework of the same campaign, they are accusing me [of crimes] and presenting montage as evidence. The Bolivian people call for peace and dialogue," he added.
The presidential election in Bolivia was held on October 20. According to the Supreme Electoral Court, incumbent President Evo Morales won in the first round. His main competitor, Carlos Mesa, refused to recognize Morales’ victory in the first round. After the results of the election were announced, large-scale protests and strikes started across the country.
On November 10, Morales announced his resignation and characterized the situation in the country as a coup. He was earlier asked to leave his post by the country’s armed forces, opposition and labor unions. Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and several ministers and parliament members stepped down as well.
The Mexican authorities granted political asylum to Morales. Morales arrived in Mexico on November 12. Later on that day, Bolivian Senator Jeanine Anez declared herself as interim president.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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#1
Not Russian soldiers in Bolivia but Russian NKVDGRU in Mexico City
[APNEWS] The disgraced former DEMOCRAT
mayor of Baltimore pleaded guilty Thursday to federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges involving sales of her self-published children’s books, a case that exposed anew the depths of corruption in Maryland’s largest city.
Catherine Pugh pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the government and two counts of tax evasion. She pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to seven counts of wire fraud that were included in the indictment unsealed a day earlier.
The case centered on sales of her self-published "Healthy Holly" books to nonprofits and foundations to promote her political career and fund her run for mayor. Pugh, a veteran Democratic politician who was elected mayor in 2016, resigned under pressure in May. At least it made the second third paragraph
Pugh faces up to 35 years in prison at her scheduled Feb. 27 sentencing. U.S. Attorney Robert Hur said she could be sentenced to about five years based on sentencing guidelines, but a judge would make the final determination. Hur added that Pugh’s admissions of guilt "demonstrated that she betrayed the trust placed on her."
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) unleashed a heavy assault on the western and southwestern countrysides of Aleppo last night, as they targeted sites belonging to the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... According to reports this morning, the Syrian Arab Army fired several missiles and artillery shells towards the sites controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
The reports said these attacks were in retaliation for the recent strikes launched on Aleppo city by the jihadist rebels. At the same time, the jihadist rebels claim their attacks are in retaliation for the strikes launched by the Russian and Syrian forces in Idlib.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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[NYPOST] Sixteen people have been arrested in what the feds have described as a "brazen" smuggling attempt in which they cut through a portion of the wall along the US-Mexico border and entered Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, according to reports.
Border Patrol agents spotted a white Dodge 4500 utility truck crossing into the US near Campo about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday after human smugglers cut a hole in the wall, officials said.
A few minutes later, agents saw a man with a vehicle matching that description trying to cut a lock on the gate of a nearby home with bolt cutters.
"Agents activated their emergency lights and siren to stop the suspect vehicle, but the driver refused to yield and fled," border agents said.
The truck eventually stopped and the driver and the 15 other people inside the vehicle began running before finally being collared, officials said.
"All 16 admitted to entering the US illegally and were transported to a nearby Border Patrol station for processing," according to the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NationalReview] Adam Schiff’s impeachment inquiry is incoherent. Given the impossibility of a senatorial conviction, the only strategy is to taint the president with the brand of impeachment and weaken him in the 2020 election.
Yet Schiff seems to have no sense that the worm has already turned. Far from tormenting Trump and the Republicans by a long-drawn-out Schiff extravaganza, Trump’s supporters are beginning to feel that the longer the farce, the better the optics. Polls show that Trump is almost back to where he was in popularity when Schiff unleashed his late-September Ukrainian caper. And the point, after all, was again to drive down Trump’s popularity and render him politically inert.
From the day Schiff reemerged after his licking his wounds in hibernation, following the Mueller implosion, his efforts have insidiously gone downhill. Once Trump released the transcript of his July 25th call with Ukrainian president Zelensky, the nation learned that the Schiff’s gold-standard whistleblower was no such thing. Instead, he seems a rank partisan and sloppy leaker whose machinations and background are already boomeranging back on those who put him up to this present circus.
Continued on Page 49
#4
It's Victor Davis Hanson - no Never-Trumper like Goldberg and the rest of the NRO losers
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2019 9:58
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#5
Some of the more lucid Democrats, if there are any (and I know that's a big if), might be concerned that if the Schiff Show goes to the Senate it's likely to blow the lid off of a whole lot of things the Democrats would prefer to keep covered. MSM won't be able to keep it all hidden. Their precious Baraq might be exposed. Biden's chances in 2020 have already been dashed and he was the only candidate they had who wasn't far and away over the rainbow. Vindman's career will never recover. How much more damage are they willing to sustain? Or are they all too far gone to understand what they're doing to themselves?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/23/2019 13:08
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[PhilStar] Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants have reportedly demanded more than P30 million in exchange for the release of three Indonesian fishermen seized in the waters off Sabah last September. The military said it received the information from villagers shortly after a video posted on Facebook showed the captives appealing to their employer and the Indonesian government to heed the demand of the kidnappers.
A Malaysian newspaper report said that before the posting of the video, the kidnappers contacted a family member of one of the hostages and demanded ransom.
Western Mindanao Command spokesman Arvin John Encinas said ground forces and intelligence units have yet to confirm reports that Abu Sayyaf rebels were behind the kidnapping.
Maharudin Lunani, his son Muhammad Farhan, and Samiun Maneu were in a fishing trawler when they were captured off the coast of Tambisan. The victims were reportedly brought by their captors to Sulu. Malaysian authorities have said that lawless groups behind recent kidnappings of fishermen and crewmembers of foreign fishing boats off the coast of Sabah could have ties with the Abu Sayyaf.
Aside from search and rescue operations for the Indonesian fishermen, the military is also looking for a couple snatched from a resort in Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur last month.
Posted by: ryuge ||
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#1
That's like $ 200,000 for one Indonesian fisherman.
"Look, guys err... why don't you just keep the day's catch and let 'em go ?"
[DAILYWIRE] Pennsylvania State Senator John Yudichak announced on Tuesday that he will be switching his political affiliation from Democrat to Independent due to a disconnect with an increasingly leftward-moving party.
"As an Independent, I will continue to put people above politics," Yudichak said in a blurb. "I will continue to support Democratic ideas as well as Republican ideas when it is clear that they serve the greater good and help government work for people rather than the narrow interests of partisan ’purists.'"
The state politician has represented Pennsylvania’s 14th senatorial district for three terms and is not up for re-election until 2022. Yudichak suggested that leaving the party is the only way he can faithfully serve his district, which covers the northeastern part of the state and includes Carbon, Luzerne, and Monroe Counties.
"From an administrative standpoint if there was an independent caucus I’d be in the independent caucus but there were only two. That’s something that I’m trying to change," Yudichak said over Twitter. "I’d like to change the conversation where we get out of this idea that it’s us vs them. I think it’s a false choice for Pennsylvanians, I think it’s a false choice for Americans."
Pennsylvania Democrats were able to flip five State Senate seats blue during the 2018 election cycle, which reportedly pulled the party even further to the left. Yudichak’s decision to leave the party will make him the commonwealth’s sole Independent state senator and brings the minority caucus from 22 seats to 21; Republicans currently control 27 seats, with one vacant seat in a solidly red district scheduled to be filled in January through a special election.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) released a new video this week showing their allies from the Assyrian-led Syriac Military Council (SMC) at the front-lines in northeastern Syria.
In the video, the Syriac Military Council can be seen preparing themselves for a potential attack by the Ottoman Turkish-backed bully boyz near the Assyrian town of Tal Tamr in the Khabour region of al-Hasakah.
The Syriac Military Council is considered one of the SDF’s closest allies in northeastern Syria, as they have fought alongside them throughout their campaign against 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/ISIS/IS/ISIS) in the al-Hasakah and al-Raqqa governorates.
Syria’s Assyrian population lives predominately in the al-Hasakah Governorate, with the highest concentration of them living in the Khabour region and al-Qamishli District.
While not allied with the Syrian government, the SMC has not clashed with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) or their allies, despite being close to their lines in al-Qamishli and other parts of al-Hasakah.
The primary opponents of the SMC are currently the Islamic State and the Ottoman Turkish-led bully boy forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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[FREEBEACON] Democratic presidential candidate Kámala Harris Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others... lamented the mass incarceration of those convicted of marijuana-related offenses Thursday. The former Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, attorney general did not acknowledge that on her watch, 1,974 people were incarcerated for the same infraction.
"I mean, you want to talk about ’gateway,' that approach is the gateway to America's problem of mass incarceration..." Harris told Stephen Colbert on Thursday. "So not only do I intend to legalize marijuana, but I will also tell you, Stephen, that part of the big issue is we've got whole populations of, in particular, black and brown men and women who have been incarcerated, who have been designated felons for life, who now should be coming out, we should be releasing them, we should be expunging their records."
Harris neglected to mention her own role in incarcerating those black and brown men and women. A Washington Free Beacon investigation first reported that Harris, as attorney general of California, sent at least 1,560 people to state prisons for marijuana-related offenses between 2011 and 2016.
Presidential rival Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) brought further attention to Harris's record during a July presidential debate, noting that she "put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana." Harris called that claim a "lie," but a fact check by the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... Chronicle found that the initial Free Beacon report actually understated the number of jail sentences and "1,974 people were admitted for hashish and marijuana convictions during that period."
#3
Well, she's not wrong. Weed shouldn't be illegal. It's about 1000x less harmful than alcohol.
Fun fact: did you know that weed (known then as hemp and an excellent fiber for industrial use) was outlawed so that DuPont wouldn't have any competition for its new product, nylon. Yup, that happened. Combined with fake news about how weed was making black men rape white women, which weed doesn't make you an aggressive rapist.
Who here thinks that weed makes users into crazed criminals? Lol. It makes you want to sit on the couch and eat cookies. Ask any bouncer who worked a crowd of weed smokers to see a band and how they compare to the usual crowd of drunks who usually come to shows.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 4:26
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#4
Who here thinks that weed makes users into crazed criminals?
Not this cat. Since I live in Mass., we've now effectively legalized pot in this state, and believe it or not I liked it better when it was illegal. I don't think it helps when you encourage society by making drugs legal, because there are still negative effects. For example, if you're baked and driving a vehicle, there's little question your reaction time is reduced, although that may be partially offset by the tendency to drive slower. That said, legalization seems to be the way we're headed.
#5
^ Absolutely right. Some things should be acceptably illegal, like narcotic substances. To be indulged in only by braving the law, but never to be given free reign. It is one of the dichotomies every modern State faces, in a quest to balance public health and security directives with human rights and liberties.
A mature society deters its children from wanton recreation with such substances, but since societal mind-set has malfunctioned all over, it's up to the State to deter individuals.
#6
It was already illegal to drive under the influence.
"Wanton recreation"? What the hell does that even mean? If I want to go get rip-roaring drunk, I can. That's my business. If I want to get stoned out of my gourd and watch Akira, that's my business. There is simply no harm that the government is protecting me from.
Weed is *not* a narcotic. Who told you that? Opium is a narcotic. Weed doesn't even addict the human body. What public health directive?
You know what does tremendous harm? Putting people in jail for weed. That does more harm than all the driving while high on weed incidents put together in all 50 states.
DuPont's nylon was a success. It's time to repeal the law protecting it from its onetime competitor.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 7:55
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#7
since societal mind-set has malfunctioned all over, it's up to the State to deter individuals.
Dron, this is a paradox that I dealt with in Poli Sci 50 years ago.
The state IS the incarnation of the societal mind-set so .........
#8
The state IS the incarnation of the societal mind-set
I have to disagree a bit. The State can be an extension of the overall culture. It is practically exterior to the contemporary mores and conventions of society that make a mind-set. Which is why the American republic still perseveres in its conservative estate even after the 60s and this post millennial madness.
I'm not for a fascist concept of State, but every once in history the individual does need to sacrifice his/her prerogatives in the larger interest.
Which brings me to what Herb says. That for him subjectively, it's a fantastic product. It does no harm According to some real fervent research. to peoples' bodies and in fact makes them happy and pliant.
Pliant... remember that word when I tell you the Left wants you to partake of it in larger numbers, and that the 'wellness science' behind it may be just as spurious as that of climate change.
Again, I'm not against the darn thing itself. I've certainly done my share of experimentation, even abuse. I can handle the effects at this stage in my life. But do I want every schoolkid, young boy and girl in my country to have access to cannabis derivatives as easy as buying cigarettes ? While a hostile predatory community of criminals is prowling seeking pliant prey ? While certain politicians are depending on the MSM and 'liberal' groups to induce a 'freedom frenzy', take it to anarchist levels ? Hell no. Not while I'm alive.
You might say that's being unequal. Yes, it is. But in trying to protect our societies from being overrun by hostile ideologies and enemies with relatively healthier lifestyles, we must impose restrictions on certain elements which seek to compromise our indigenous demographics.
Would you sleep better if your children were by themselves and in possession of their wits, or if they were surrounded by idiots and wolves while stoned ? Because that's what the practical reality boils down to.
With time, the world shall get even more difficult to deal with for our future generations, more chaos, more pressures, more frustrations and angst. Individuals will seek escape. And given escape, more and more will take it, most of the time.
I like to be intoxicated, but it's my personal failing. I love my children and will not let them do what I do, because I know it's bad for them in so many ways. It's very simple. But today everything is about logic. If it can be refuted by stats, then it's stupid and if an 'elite' can advertise it, espouse its intrinsic value with the help of cooked up numbers, it's the brightest thing to do.
#10
Why should anyone have to vouch for a 21 yr. old with a 15 day old baby?
Posted by: chris ||
11/23/2019 9:50
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#11
Don't smoke or deal weed, won't be arrests. I know plenty of people who have gone their entire life without it, so it's easily done.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/23/2019 10:22
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#12
JFC, "Herb", we get it -- you're a pothead. Your sole god is pot, and nothing bad ever came from it, as far as you're concerned.
No go smoke something and leave the discussion to the adults.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/23/2019 10:24
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#13
Oh yeah. I understand that weed isn't consequence free. It's just that it's not nearly as bad as it's been made out to be.
Let's consider that the negative effects of legal weed are -100. The negative effects of illegal weed are -10,000,000.
Moreover consider the effects on the Mexican cartels. Overnight they are deprived of one of their revenue sources. Mexico becomes a better place and we get fewer illegals.
I have to say, it feels strange to be engaged with actual arguments, even if I disagree with them. So much at Rantburg is name calling and personal insults.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 10:27
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#14
So much at Rantburg is name calling and personal insults.
Actually, very little of the discussion here is like that. But we're glad you have given up on the neocons/endless war/evil America stuff. It was becoming tiresome.
#15
negative effects of legal weed are -100. The negative effects of illegal weed are -10,000,000.
Those are words like politicians and hack journos spout. Here's another such statement:
'The -10,000,000 you know is better than the -100 you know jack shit about.'
Why do you have a problem with buying overpriced weed from dealers for yourself and using it in private ? Does your individual liberal adventure have to be taken on trust as sound judgement and applied as state policy for 330 million people ? It sounds like the same kind of insistence that some people show for welcoming everything from voodoo to islam into their society just because they prefer black dicks or arab accents.
#16
#12 oh yeah, there's the made-up positions I don't hold combined with personal insults I've come to expect from Rantburgers.
Seriously, what is you people's *deal* with inventing things, accusing me of saying what you said, and then criticizing me for what you made up? This is how the SJW Left argues, people.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 11:00
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#17
America isn't evil. Globalists are evil. Neocons are evil. You know, the ones who hijacked America into bombing the shit out of countries who never attacked us? Once AGAIN, we have people creating strawmen. Sigh.
Does your individual liberal adventure have to be taken on trust as sound judgement and applied as state policy for 330 million people ?
Absolutely not and once again, *I didn't say that*. Illegal weed creates an absolutely staggering amount of harm in our society. Legal weed doesn't bring it to zero. But it absolutely reduces the harm from astronomical levels to manageable levels.
Do you understand it is wrong to put people in prison for weed? The entire reason it's illegal in the first place was to remove a competitor to DuPont's nylon. Yes, that's right. This happened. I encourage you to do your own research. It's not because weed was some kind of societal scourge that was going to make 21 year old mothers neglect their 15 day old children.
And even if there WAS an epidemic of child neglect from stoned mothers, it would STILL be not just less harmful, but stupendously less harmful than putting all those people in prison.
State policy for 330 million people should be legal weed, regulated and taxed the same as we do for alcohol and tobacco. Remember how Prohibition was an utter disaster, didn't work to stop people drinking, and only resulted in skyrocketing crime and the creation of powerful mafia organizations? Yeah, pretty much the same thing.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/23/2019 11:32
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#18
How long before we have affirmative action for people who willingly impair themselves with weed? Public drunkenness and DUI are still on the books, but I can see the day where there are laws against drug testing for employment and insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse to underwrite insurance for business that have drug impaired people on their payroll.
I'm sure it will all work out. /sarc
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/23/2019 12:37
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#22
I work in an industry where inattention can mean instant death or maiming for you or one of your co-workers. If you want legal weed, fine, change the laws. But here's the thing, if you accept tax money in any form or fashion, be it welfar, snap, EBT, social security, no weed. If you want to do weed, and you are caught driving, death penalty. Make it the same for alcohol. If you want to have a gun, no weed. If you are caught smoking it in public, death penalty. Oh and any weed without the $100/ounce tax stamp that has to go through the process from the DEA that NFA items do from the ATF, death penalty. You are caught growing your own, death penalty. All JOBS must drug test weekly, fail, shotgun to the fax, no questions asked.
I DO NOT want people around me stupid cause of beer, liquor, wine, drugs of any kind. I still have all my fingers, toes and limbs oh and eyes, so yeah, I'd like to keep them. Not everyone I know does.
You can sit in your hole in the ground and smoke your very expensive crap and die of cancer or stroke. I want no part of it. And I don't want it near me or my kids.
#3
'Ghost' guns are constructed by buying unfinished versions of firearms online then the necessary parts to complete it online. They are completely unregulated.
It's a sad day when the stubborn federal bureaucracy prevails over an entity attempting to manage taxpayer dollars efficiently. And when billionaire businessmen are allowed to dictate space policy to the United States Air Force, it's tragic. But that's what is happening to the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.
The NSSL is the Air Force's premier aerospace initiative, designed to keep America first in space by limiting the U.S.'s over-reliance on other countries' products and services through the thing America does best: competitive enterprise. That would be the case, unless influencers like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk get their way.
Thus far, the Air Force has run the NSSL efficiently, protecting America's national security with competitive contract bidding that has resulted in minimal waste to taxpayers. But big-name cronies and federal bureaucracy evidently won't permit an efficient government program and are doing their best to derail it.
Back in mid-August, Blue Origin – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' personal aerospace company – filed a protest against the Air Force's handling of the NSSL program. Blue Origin complained that the Air Force is operating NSSL unfairly, but that's ridiculous. Just this year alone, the Air Force's NSSL program awarded Blue Origin a massive contract valued at $500 million. Bezos' company isn‘t being treated unfairly and it isn't hurting for government money; it's just not being selected by the government 100 percent of the time. In filing protest, though, Blue Origin isn't trying to be logically consistent – it just wants more power.
By pressuring the Air Force to weaken its competitive structure, Blue Origin increased its chances of landing a launch contract. The move to protest was an obvious, self-serving ploy – one that the Department of Defense easily saw through. But apparently, this slipped by the bureaucratic watchdogs, who bought into the argument hook, line, and sinker.
On November 18, 2019, the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) released a statement siding with Blue Origin. In the press release, the GAO argued that the NSSL's selection process was unjust because the Air Force's methodology "does not provide a reasonable, common basis on which offerors will be expected to compete." According to the GAO, should the NSSL program move forward, the Air Force must explicitly outline the various factors considered during its selection process.
But that's absurd. Here's why.
When it comes to the NSSL, the Air Force is essentially a consumer deciding which services it wants to acquire. Like any other consumer, the USAF has the opportunity to select from a range of different providers, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Consumers, however, are never forced to lay out in explicit detail the exact methodology for their decision; the onus is always on the service provider to prove their capabilities. But now, the GAO is arguing precisely the opposite.
The GAO would rather the consumer (in this case, the Air Force) be forced to articulate its myriad priorities and justify its decision-making to the service providers. This inverts market principles. It will also considerably slow down the NSSL by forcing the Air Force to retool its entire selection process. And for what? All to allow deep-pocket cronies like Jeff Bezos a better chance to snare government contracts.
Indeed, the GAO's decision is both completely unreasonable and wholly unprecedented. It also highlights the dangerous coupling of crony business interests and cumbersome government bureaucracy.
This isn't the first time cronyism has attempted to infiltrate the NSSL initiative, either.
In May 2019, SpaceX sued the Air Force for "wrongly awarding" NSSL launch contracts to its competitors. Once again, an aerospace company headed by a famous billionaire – Elon Musk in this case – attempted to use the power of federal bureaucracy to exert its crony influence over the NSSL's selection process. Just like Blue Origin's protest, SpaceX's lawsuit was undoubtedly filed to acquire more taxpayer funds, not out of a quest for fairness or justice. And while the courts have yet to rule on SpaceX's suit, in the case of Blue Origin, the GAO was more than happy to play ball.
Musk and Bezos are savvy. The two have already been a disruptive force within a largely stagnant space industry, and for the most part, I'm a fan of what they've managed to accomplish. I like how they have pushed commercial space flight to unprecedented success. But for all their positive disruption, both Bezos and Musk have made billions off of taxpayer-funded programs and subsidies.
They have figured out there's gain to be had in exploiting or creating government inefficiencies. Government waste is crony profit, and when inefficiencies don't exist, federal bureaucracy can be used to create them. That's exactly what is happening now with the NSSL – and that's precisely why people like Bezos and Musk cannot be trusted. They are attempting to weaken an effective, essential national security program, and government watchdogs like the GAO are helping to pave the way.
#1
I'm calling bullshit. The only other competitor is United launch Alliance (Boeing + Lockheed) and their Atlas V uses Russian engines. Think ULA, as a monopoly w/ much political pull, will give the Air Force a competitive price w/o a SpaceX or Blue Origin breathing down their necks?
#3
Ask your corrupt congresscritter who writes the law that says your government procurement officer can't walk down to Walmart/Home Depot and buy some hammers, but must put it out for bid or use a GSA selected provider who will charge several times the price.
#4
Sounds like a Deep State Turf Fight™ to me with the Congress Critters™ Vs. the Pentagon Posse™ Vs. the USAF REMF's... Hard to decide who to cheer for.
#5
I call bullshit too!
Note that they don't use Falcon Heavy that exists or consider Starship or Blue Origin
BUT Vulcan doesn't Exist YET! 0 Flights
It's the prime platform and it's more powerful second stage was just shutdown
The Solid fuel one from the ENDLESSLY merging and RENAMING company doesn't exist either and it's one of the chosen...
THE GAO folks get my vote.
#6
people like Bezos and Musk cannot be trusted. They are attempting to weaken an effective, essential national security program, and government watchdogs like the GAO are helping to pave the way
#7
BTW Atlas can not be bid as it uses the Russian engines.
Instead ULA and it's parents Boeing/Lockheed are using Vulcan (0 flights) with Blue Origin first stage engines (0 Flights).
So Vulcan is king but uses Blue Origin engines and an all Blue Origin rocket must be questionable.... Implication is the Blue must only be an engine manufacturer. A rather presumptive and regal attitude.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Thousands of Algerians erupted into the streets on the 40th consecutive Friday of increasingly vociferous protests against the North African nation’s leadership, expressing fears that next month’s presidential poll will be rigged.
Chanting "No election on Dec. 12!" and "Nothing will stop us!" as a police helicopter flew overhead, the demonstrators in Algiers continued their demands for an end to Algeria’s post-colonial political system. Those demands include the departure of acting leader Abdelkader Bensalah and powerful army chief Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah.
Protest organizers estimated that tens of thousands participated in Friday’s demonstration in the Algerian capital.
Although long-time former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ...10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and served on his third or four terms. When he announced for the fifth, or maybe it was the sixth, visibly doddering, a grateful nation rose up in its wrath and threw him out... was ousted from power in April by the demonstrators, his legacy spawned a deep distrust of government that remains. The protesters don’t believe that those currently in power will ensure a democratic election because of their past links to the ailing, 82-year-old former leader.
The demonstrations on Friday formed a ballooning sea of placards and banners that stretched 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) down a key street in Algiers.
Thousands of protesters also erupted into the streets in the country’s big cities, including Oran, Constantine and Setif.
Coming from all sections of society - including students, doctors and teachers - the protesters who have turned out in the thousands since February are united behind a common goal of holding transparent national elections to install a brand-new leadership. They reject the vote being organized by the current leadership, whom they perceive as corrupt.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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[FREEBEACON] Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) argued Friday that President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... seeking legal recourse in U.S. courts amounts "in and of itself [to] obstruction of justice." She has a face like a dog chasing parked cars
"We're not going to fall into their tactics of delay and trying to use the court system. That is, in and of itself, obstruction of justice and that's what the president does not seem to understand," she said.
Jayapal echoed the sentiments of Speaker of the House Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments... (D., Calif.), who also raised the question of obstruction at a Thursday presser. Jayapal said appealing to the judiciary to prevent testimony from administration figures would undermine Congress's ability to hold Trump accountable.
"We are not going to allow the president to use obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress to stop us by saying ’well, we need to call more witnesses,'" Jayapal said.
She alleged that Trump had incriminated himself with his own comments and that the "evidence is clear" that he obstructed justice regarding the investigation into his phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Public testimony in the impeachment inquiry concluded Thursday, and it remains an open question where Democrats' impeachment effort will go from here.
Trump has used executive authority to keep some of his advisers and staff from speaking to Congress. Pelosi has said she is not waiting on a decision from the Supreme Court on whether Congress can compel them to testify.
"They keep taking it to court, and no, we're not going to wait till the courts decide," Pelosi said. "We cannot be at the mercy of the courts. The courts are very important in all of this. Those cases will continue."
#4
I don't think she understands.It's amazing that they think everyone just believes whatever they say .
Posted by: chris ||
11/23/2019 9:53
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#5
Nor do they care, Chris. We are supposed to care, and believe, like those we should aspire to be like. Deplorable people do not matter; we must unlearn what we have learned.
Posted by: Bobby on the road ||
11/23/2019 10:03
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#6
Proud representative from Washington's 7th District which is the People's Commune of Seattle... 'enuf said.
Dems try to impeach Sen. Graham in 3,2,1. [Breitbart] Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday requested State Department documents related to former Vice President Joe Biden’s communications with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Graham, R-S.C., sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting the documents to assist in answering questions regarding allegations that Joe Biden was involved in the termination of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in order to end an investigation into natural gas company Burisma Holdings, where his son Hunter Biden served on the board.
[DAWN] Police arrested nine more men in a case pertaining to the alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old in Kurram district's Peewar area, District Police Officer (DPO) Rahim Shah said on Friday.
Shah added that police have sent DNA samples to the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Forensic Science Agency in Lahore and expressed hope that the case will be solved soon.
The recent arrests bring the number of people arrested in connection with the case up to 11. Police had arrested two suspects earlier this week.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio wondered: Where the hell was Chumbaloni? And where was his $600?... commanding Brig Najaf Abbas and commanding officer Col Mohammad Javed Ilyas of Brigade 73 also visited the area and talked to the victim's family as well as the staff of the government school where she studied.
They said that the culprits would not be able to escape punishment and added that measures were being taken to prevent such incidents.
Earlier this week, the victim was found dead in a pond in the Peewar village by her family. According to the victim's grandfather, the family started to look for the minor girl when she did not return from school.
The body was taken to the district headquarters hospital Parachinar for an appointment with Dr. Quincy and, later, a medical examination revealed that the minor girl was subjected to sexual assault before she was killed.
Later, the DPO had said that two watchmen of the school had been taken into custody for investigation.
Following the incident, students and members of local bar association held a protest on Wednesday against the incident. The protesters demanded the local authorities to investigate the case and ensure early arrest of the culprit.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2019
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#3
In a land full of Democrats dancing
With foreigners, fans of Charles Manson,
And Hollywood molochs,
One man has the bollocks
To stand up and holler, "Heil Hanson!"
#5
The polls just need a slight correction-- revise the #s upward 3-6 points in case of Trump support, or downward by a similar margin for measuring his detractors.
#6
They been faking polls for years...LA times lied about Gov Davis poll in Calif during his recall...they got caught and it cost them 15,000 subcribers in the first two weeks.
[Breitbart] Nigel Farage will announce his party’s "contract with the people" on Friday where he pledges to cap immigration to 50,000a year, announce tax breaks for small businesses, and reform of Britain’s political system.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Local10} BOCA RATON, Fla. ‐ A 73-year-old man wearing a "Make America Great Again" shirt told a bank teller he was robbing that he gave him too much money, deputies said.
[HotAir] The secretary of the Navy and the admiral who leads the SEALs have threatened to resign or be fired if plans to expel a commando from the elite unit in a war crimes case are halted by President Trump, administration officials said Saturday.
[FOX] OAKLAND, Miss. - A Mississippi company is recalling more than 86 tons of chicken fried rice that may contain bits of plastic.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...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...
...Arabic for 
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
[The Hill] A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after he was convicted of conspiring to turn over U.S. intelligence information to China's government. 
...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 
...
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang 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 
Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others...
...10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and served on his third or four terms. When he announced for the fifth, or maybe it was the sixth, visibly doddering, a grateful nation rose up in its wrath and threw him out...
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments...
[Breitbart] Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday requested State Department documents related to former Vice President Joe Biden’s communications with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
[DAWN] Police arrested nine more men in a case pertaining to the alleged rape and murder of a five-year-old in Kurram district's Peewar area, District Police Officer (DPO) Rahim Shah said on Friday.
