#2
OK Fred, I got the hint, Norma Shearer (Xmas) Christmas this is at least the second Front Page Pic feature post for Norma this month so, on with the show
Posted by: Herb Jones9420 ||
12/12/2021 11:12
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#3
Norma Shearer
Posted by: Herb Jones9420 ||
12/12/2021 11:17
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#4
Norma Shearer
Posted by: Herb Jones9420 ||
12/12/2021 11:22
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#10
^^^
Thanks, Woodrow, for getting into the spirit of Norma Shearer's Xmas by posting The Christmas Party short...perfect way to end this thread...Bravo!
Posted by: Herb Jones9420 ||
12/12/2021 23:00
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Fox News' Chris Wallace: "After 18 years, I have decided to leave Fox. I want to try something new, to go beyond politics, to all of the things I'm interested in." pic.twitter.com/vgMF8Ktdnr
Shortly after the show ended, CNN announced that 74-year-old Wallace would join the streaming service CNN + as an anchor. This service is scheduled to debut later next year.
By that time he’ll be tan and rested, and CNN+ will no doubt no longer exist. Also, Pennsylvania News Today needs a copy editor who can translate typo gibberish into meaningful text.
#11
Chris Wallace's cri de coeur: "It's not fair! I've been at Fox for eighteen years! Eighteen Years! I should be in charge! My opinions respected! Why couldn't I *ahem* we run off that young rookie Tucker Carlson like we did Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly? Life is so Unfair!"
#12
Going to CNN+, a subscription service to be launched soon. What’s funny is that no one watches CNN for free. Who would actually pay for their content? Pretty hilarious. Gave me a good chuckle starting the day. Btw, the Fox Nation streaming product has some pretty good content. Tucker does some great hour-long interviews.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
12/12/2021
10:21 ||
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#1
They’re still taking orders for the things, though. Mr. Wife wanted to get me an Apple watch for my birthday — the new one that tracks sleep and such — but says there’s no point until they catch up on backorders.
#1
Do they *need* it, or is it for emissions controls?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/12/2021 10:39
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#2
Modern diesel engines powering trucks, utes and four-wheel drives won't start unless AdBlue has been added to the exhaust system to reduce the levels of nitric oxide pollution.
#3
Green thinking at its finest. Stupid choices resulting in stupid outcomes,until one day the cascading effects of needless complexity bite you in the ass. Welcome to single point of failure systems analysis.
[Ilustra Media - John 10:10 project] Celebrate Christmas with a breathtaking tour of Earth from the perspective of the International Space Station. Photographed at night more than 200 miles above the surface of our planet, this unforgettable video is a unique call to worship and rejoice in the greatest gift the world has ever received.
חג מולד שמח, Weihnachten, Geseënde Kersfees, joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad, क्रिसमस की बधाई....Merry Christmas to all.
#3
Glorious! With all its imperfections, I’m very grateful to be living now. And now I know how to say Merry Christmas in Hebrew — it somehow never came up before. ;-)
#8
Oddly, every time I see people complaining about students praying with their coaches or mentors, I always think, come out to the oil field and complain when we circle and pray for a safe hitch, safe job tonight and everyone going home to their families with the same number of body parts they left with.
We maybe something of a fractious and loud family here at the 'burg, but family. From my family to all the burg families, please have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, or whatever you celebrate, it's all good. We know what's required to be counted among the good and decent human beings, so let's help each other be the best humans we can.
And with all the driving, please be careful, be safe, take it slow and if you're tired, take a nap before or even pull off somewhere on the road and take one. Too many of my oilfield brothers have been lost on the way home in car wrecks. Don't want to lose any 'burg people either.
If states can shield their laws from review by federal courts, then CA will use that authority to help protect lives.
We will work to create the ability for private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in CA. pic.twitter.com/YPBJ00vN6z
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) December 12, 2021
Posted by: Skidmark ||
12/12/2021
08:51 ||
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#1
We have winner...
Only a Seriouly Reatarded Liberal Idiot could connect the 2 issues.
#2
One is written in the Constitution, the other is a fable made up by the self appointed law as in Sotomayor to get around that difficult process of Article V.
#3
Empty threat. They're already doing everything they can to infringe on gun rights. He makes it sound like they'd leave gun alone if we let abortion be, but that's 100% not the case.
[Aljazeera] Russia faces "massive consequences" if it invades Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said at a meeting of top diplomats from the G7 group of leading industrialised nations.
There was a "very much a united voice from the G7 nations who represent 50 percent of global GDP, being very clear that there will be massive consequences for Russia in the case of an incursion into Ukraine", Truss said on Sunday at the meeting in the northern English city, Liverpool.
NATO chief rejects Russian demand to deny Ukraine entry
Can a new conflict in Ukraine be prevented?
Biden speaks to Ukraine’s president amid Russia tensions
Ukraine is at the centre of a crisis in East-West relations as it accuses Russia of massing tens of thousands of troops in preparation for a possible large-scale military offensive.
US intelligence assesses that Russia could be planning a multi-front offensive on Ukraine as early as next year, involving up to 175,000 troops.
The Kremlin denies it plans to invade and says the West is gripped by Russophobia. Moscow says the expansion of NATO threatens Russia and has contravened assurances given to it as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
[legal Insurrection] Newly leaked emails from the U.S. government indicate that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was studying coronaviruses found in bats from Laos in the months before the pandemic.
This revelation indicates that a lab-leak origin for SARS-Cov-2 virus (the pathogen causing COVID-19) is a strong possibility.
In September, scientists discovered Banal-52, a coronavirus found in Lao bats, which shares 96.8 percent of its genome with Sars-Cov-2.
The striking similarity between the two coronaviruses led scientists to speculate that the Lao bat strain could have somehow given rise to Sars-Cov-2.
But there was one glaring problem: how could a virus originating in bats living in Laos spark an outbreak in Wuhan over 1000 miles away?
That puzzle might now have been solved, as leaked emails between EcoHealth Alliance and US government funders reveal viral samples from Lao bats were being collected and sent for study in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Back in September, Nature published news of the Laos bat virus discovery, pushing it as proof of its "natural origin". Yet, a few critical aspects were suggestive of lab manipulation.
#1
EcoHealth Alliance and US government funders reveal viral samples from Lao bats were being collected and sent for study in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Who knew? A bilateral 'Gain of Function' project? There goes my Wet Market theory.
#2
On 30 October 2008, Nature endorsed an American presidential candidate for the first time when it supported Barack Obama in America's 2008 presidential election.
[NY Post] The two-hour video tete-a-tete on Tuesday between President Biden and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has predictably not borne fruit for America. Biden issued stern warnings about sanctions that were widely celebrated in the American press. But Putin was already well aware of these warnings. The session was, in fact, a hollow exercise in showmanship. And Putin stole the show.
Instead of being a moment for projecting US resolve, the meeting was just another step in Biden’s ongoing, unintentional plan to help Putin make Russia great again by allowing the Russian president to reassert his influence over the nations of the former Soviet Union.
The mere act of Putin having a one-on-one meeting with the US president is a win for Moscow’s spymaster, who craves being perceived as a top dog in global geopolitics. It makes Russia seem on a par with the United States, which it certainly is not.
The call was followed by a terrible blunder. Biden granted Moscow the guarantee that the US will not use force to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While using force against Russia is a bad idea with respect to Ukraine, which is not part of NATO or a critical US asset, Biden abandoned a valuable tool, the principle of strategic ambiguity. Biden could have kept Putin off balance and unsure of what we would do. But by stating that force was "not on the table," Biden may have guaranteed that Russia will proceed militarily into Ukraine.
[ABCNews] A far-right extremist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his violent actions during August 2020 protests against racial injustice in Oregon’s largest city
Alan Swinney was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon, attempted assault, pointing a firearm at another, and second degree unlawful use of mace, among other charges, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Portland residents saw almost nightly protests after a white officer murdered George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis last year, with some rallies erupting in chaos and counterprotests. after a white officer murdered George Floyd, a Black man
“As evidenced by the defendant’s escalating violence, letters, social media statements and testimony, the defendant has no remorse for his actions, no desire to change and every intention of engaging in future acts of violence,” Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez wrote in a sentencing memo.
Swinney, 51, was among dozens of far-right demonstrators Aug. 22, 2020, who fired paintball guns and sprayed mace at anti-fascist demonstrators during a violent brawl in downtown Portland.
Many in the crowd were carrying firearms, but authorities said at one point Swinney pulled a revolver and pointed it at the crowd of counterprotesters.
To support their sentencing recommendation, prosecutors included a handwritten letter Swinney tried to send to Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicting of killing Floyd, sparking months of nationwide protests.
In the letter, Swinney expressed sympathy for Chauvin after his conviction, telling him to keep his head up because he could win on appeal or be freed through other means.
“Another thing that may end up working in your favor is that this country is headed toward civil war,” Swinney wrote. “I see it ramping up. Civil war will get you out of jail. It’ll get me out too.”
Burying the lede:
Swinney is a member of the far-right group the Proud Boys.
He earlier admitted, as part of a civil settlement, to assaulting a woman during an August 2020 protest in Portland.
[Washington Free Beacon] Margaret Goodlander serves as counsel to AG Merrick Garland, who oversees the probe
A top adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing calls to recuse herself from the Justice Department's investigation of the Trump-Russia probe, which has looked into the actions of her husband, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Margaret Goodlander serves as counsel to Garland, who oversees Special Counsel John Durham's investigation. Garland has oversight of Durham's budget, the scope of the investigation, and the release of a report Durham is believed to be writing. Sullivan, who married Goodlander in 2015, has been referenced in Durham's indictment of a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for the Clinton campaign. While there is no indication that Durham is targeting Sullivan, the national security adviser could be a witness for the investigation given that he was a foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Durham's report could also reveal embarrassing details about Sullivan's work on the campaign to dig up dirt on Donald Trump's possible links to Russia.
A spokesman for the Justice Department said Goodlander "has no role in Mr. Durham's investigation," but it is unclear whether she has formally recused herself from the matter or whether the Durham probe is outside her Justice Department portfolio. Fox News reported that Goodlander advises Garland on antitrust and international issues.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and the watchdog group Empower Oversight say Goodlander should be formally recused from the Durham investigation to maintain public trust in the probe.
"The Justice Department's standing guidance calls for employees to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, especially when it comes to ongoing criminal investigations," said Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"It’s in Garland's best interest—and he's obligated—to be transparent about whether his department is walling off officials who have a real or even perceived conflict, just as prior administrations have done," Grassley told the Washington Free Beacon.
As a Clinton adviser, Sullivan had contact with the campaign lawyers who commissioned the Steele dossier, the infamous British spy report that made false allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Sullivan is the Clinton adviser referenced in Durham's indictment of cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann. Sussmann, a former partner at the firm Perkins Coie, is accused of lying to an FBI lawyer about his reasons for investigating suspicious computer traffic between Trump's real estate company and Alfa Bank, a Russian bank. Durham alleges that Sussmann said he did not have a client with interest in the information when he was in fact working for the Clinton campaign.
According to the indictment, Sussmann's former Perkins Coie partner, Marc Elias, in September 2016 briefed Sullivan and others on the Clinton team about his firm's efforts to investigate the Alfa Bank data. Sullivan days before the election issued a statement that cited the Alfa-Trump allegations as evidence of collusion. It was unknown at the time that the Clinton campaign was investigating the Alfa Bank issue. The FBI later determined that there was no nefarious link between the bank and Trump.
Elias was the attorney who hired Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier. Durham indicted the primary source for the dossier, Igor Danchenko, on charges that Danchenko lied to the FBI about the identity of his sources. Dancheko allegedly lied by saying that a longtime Democratic operative, Charles Dolan, was not one of his sources.
Grassley and Empower Oversight have pressed the Justice Department over the recusal of another official, Susan Hennessey, who has pushed the false claim that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Hennessey, who serves in the national security division, last year criticized Durham's investigation, calling it "partisan silliness."
Grassley said Garland has stonewalled his requests for information about Hennessey and other Justice Department officials' conflicts of interest.
#1
So I guess if judges can make up their own laws (Fruit of the Poisoned Tree, etc), it would be unreasonable to prevent prosecutors from doing the same.
#2
Is it really a 'precedent?' I thought parents were responsible for what their kids did - like not preventing kids' alcohol use at their parties. And from the evidence presented in the article there were plenty of warning signs of which the parents were aware. (So were or should have been the authorities.) This looks like a typically preventable tragedy.
#3
Seems like she's trying to back-end corruption of blood (backwards, though).
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/12/2021 9:30
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#4
I thought parents were responsible for what their kids did
"Hey Dad, can I fly to an island in the Caribbean and hang out with Presidents and English princes?
How about a private party at an old missile silo in New Mexico?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2021 14:59
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#10
Ya man, uz got dat right now, dis iz discriminations again da parents. I ain't no fall guy for my kidz, da ones I know, an da onez I don't know. An day putz up a statutez 2me...
Posted this morning from a comment and link provided by our very own newc.
[LI] Many U.S. universities are cooperating with academic institutions embedded within Communist China’s military and nuclear weapons program, a report published this week warns.
"Dozens of U.S. universities maintain ties to Chinese universities that conduct defense research in support of Beijing’s military buildup, including work related to the country’s nuclear weapons program," the NBC News reported, citing the study titled "The Middle Kingdom Meets Higher Education" published by the the DC-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
Confucius Institute: Beijing’s Trojan Horse
The primary tool of China’s infiltration on U.S. college campuses are the Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes, the 68-page report authored by FDD’s Adjunct Fellow Craig Singleton found.
The report vindicates the position taken by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which took measures to weed out these Beijing-controlled institutes from U.S. universities.
In August 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the Confucius Institutes operating at U.S. campuses as "an entity advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence." These institutes were working to recruit "spies and collaborators" at American campuses, Pompeo warned.
Following the tough stance taken by the Trump State Department, the number of Confucius Institutes have dropped from 113 in 2018 to 28 in 2021. The FDD report concludes that the "CI closures have significantly eroded malign Chinese influence on college campuses."
Even after their closure, the nefarious influence of CIs could be a lasting one, the report revealed:
#1
The report vindicates the position taken by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which took measures to weed out these Beijing-controlled institutes from U.S. universities.
The mainland is a closed society. Entrepreneurism is a nearly genetic code of culture. Intelligence collection is no exception.
We condone their 'Trojan horse' students, they accept our NIH, CDC, WHO 'gain of function' laundered funding. We answer intelligence gaps (shortfalls) on both ends by monitoring communications and recruiting potential sources. What's not to like ?
Trump had to go. He was killing a long-running project.
Partially translated via Google Translate. Parts of the story rewritten. Edited.
[Fuerzas Armadas Mexicanas - Facebook] Two Mexican military men were in combat and four others were shot to death in a confrontations with the army in Tamaulipas, according to a Facebook announcement.
On Saturday in Nuevo Laredo, soldiers were on patrol when that a man fired on them at the intersection of calles Octavio Sosa and Jose Maria Serratos.
Military return fire killed the shooter. Two solders were killed in the exchange of gunfire.
Another army reinforcing element arrived at the scene. Three more shooters were shot to death.
[SANFRANCISCO.CBSLOCAL] In the month of November, city data shows there were 3,375 reports of larceny theft in 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... — the overwhelming majority of those were car break-ins.SFPD’s Central District, home to tourist hot spots including Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown, sees the highest number of smash-and-grabs.
In fact, last month alone, there were 876 reports — that’s almost 30 a day — compared with 442 last November.
It’s still up from the year before, when there 734 cases pre-pandemic.
"I’ve always seen a lot of glass here so it’s no surprise it’s been going on for years. I’ve lived here in the 90s and my car has been broken into actually, not as of late, it was probably in the last 20 years, broken into twice," said Aileen McAllister, who lives in the Marina.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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#1
Newsome took his vacation in third world Cartel infested Mexico because it is a lot safer there than the fourth world Dem infested California.
#3
As usual. Democrats demand money and nothing gets better, only worse. Consistent grade of F for this group. They wanted a third world and they have it in their own pile of mess. My hope is they continue to live amongst their own. Misery loves company. They live in the meat grinder of their own choosing. Change?; never, they are right and everyone else is wrong. In time the genetics of these people will be their dead end.As with caged animals the brain grows smaller. Survival instincts lost. They will always turn on each other, what is easiest or close at hand. I have seen this in the past during the city riot years.
#5
saw an excerpt from Solidad Obrien's interview with Mayor Lightfoot and another Chicago "official". The problems according to them were racism and they need more money.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/12/2021 9:56
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#6
Why shouldn't these folks break into cars? For the most part we've abandoned any concept of an external morality, the chances of them getting arrested are as far as I can tell infinitesimal, and in San Francisco the victims aren't likely to shoot back. I guess one of the victims might throw a vente latte at them, but that's it.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/12/2021 11:57
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#7
Too lazy to cut off Cat converters? Must be American rather than Latinx thugs
Posted by: Regular joe ||
12/12/2021 12:13
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#8
Not all San Franciscans are putting up with this bullshit -- Asian Americans are starting to fight back, taking lessons in self-defense and "heading to gun shops in droves": The West’s Asian Americans arm up for self-defense
#9
Look behind the liberal,Soros/progressive backed DA’s and consider why the biggest city locations were selected. High minority criminal demographic and major media news coverage to ensure widespread coverage. Now add in decreasing police budget and the chilling effect of LEOs being prosecuted for aggressive policing. You get criminal chaos viewed by the widest cross-sections of thr public. A frightening massive public safety crisis that seems to threaten everyone and screams for a quick solution. TaDa, national police force. Now the federal government is in complete charge of law enforcement at every level. And the first thing they come for, the Second Amendment. Once that is well underway imagine what the Central Committee has in store for the workers….think about it my friends. Yes, it is that serious and planned by people who want the end of our nation.
#10
3000/month (month has 30 days on average) so 30 into 3000 is 100 reported car break-ins a day. A day has 24 hours, so 24 into 100 is 4.16~ an hour, an hour is 60 minutes so 4 into 60 is 15 minutes. So, every 1/4 of an hour there is a reported car break-in.
Next SF is going to tell us that they beat up Santa Claus
[ET] China’s Belt and Road Initiative has resulted in debt traps for a number of countries. Laos may have just joined the list with the opening of the China-Laos railway on Dec. 3.
Countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia are already struggling to repay China’s Belt and Road loans, while Laos, a landlocked country, still has great expectations for the Beijing-initiated railway project, hoping that it will energize its agriculture-based economy.
The debt incurred by Laos, $3.54 billion, is close to one fifth of Laos’ 2020 GDP, which was $19.14 billion. If Laos fails to repay its debts, it will have to use its natural resources, such as bauxite and potassium mines, to repay the debt.
Laos’ outstanding debt, most of which is owed to China, is equal to approximately two-thirds of its annual economic output, according to a Dec. 2 report by the Associated Press (AP).
The AP report quoted Greg Raymond, a Southeast Asian expert at Australian National University, as saying,"Laos has put itself in a position where if the railway doesn’t make a profit, then it’s got real debt issues."
Raymond told BBC that China will have a double benefit from the railway project. First, the line helps to connect China and Southeast Asian countries in its backyard by rail, greatly facilitating China’s access to those countries. Second, China can use the new special economic zone in Laos as a node to control production, supply chain, and consumption.
The newly opened line goes to China in the north, Thailand in the east, Myanmar in the west, Malaysia and Singapore in the south. It is a great help for the CCP to realize its ambition to expand its influence in Southeast Asian countries.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/12/2021
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[Breitbart] The British government has promised to help Ukraine fortify its Belarusian frontier amid worries Alexander Lukashenko could redirect illegal migrants colonists from Poland and the Baltic States to the Ukrainian border.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Affairs said in a blurb that the British government had "reaffirmed its readiness to assist the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in strengthening borders and combating illegal migration".
Ukraine borders both Poland and Russia-allied Belarus so it is not unreasonable for Ukraine to have concerns that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko may turn his sights from Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia to Ukraine following the largely unsuccessful Belarusian-sponsored border crisis inflicted on the three EU member-states.
Ukraine has an EU Association Agreement but is not an EU member, however migrants colonists could swing through Ukrainian territory and on into Slovakia to penetrate the bloc.
[Breitbart] The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) has confirmed reports that people-smugglers are now advertising crossings from Russia to Finland to migrants colonists, as many abandon attempts to enter the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... from Belarus in the face of strong border enforcement by Poland and the Baltic States.
Since the middle of last month people-smugglers have begun advertising the Russia-Finland route into the European Union, according to an intelligence research group who looked at Kurdish and Arabic forums on social media platforms like Facebook that are geared toward migrants colonists looking to enter Western Europe.
"Right now it is very difficult to say whether this will result in a new route for the migrant flows and whether we will see people arriving at the Finnish border, for example. But on social media, the reactions have been very positive," said Monika Richter, the head of research for the group, in comments reported by newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.
Finland’s intelligence service SUPO has confirmed the increase in marketing online for the Russia-Finland route, with communications director Milla Meretniemi telling Hufvudstadsbladet: "We are aware that this kind of marketing has occurred. As one of the EU’s external border countries, Finland is following the development stage very closely. But we cannot comment on our operational tasks any more than that."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Some migrants advancing through Mexico vowed on Saturday to press onward towards the United States following a deadly accident in the south of the country that killed dozens of people, mostly from Guatemala.
At least 55 people were killed and dozens more were injured when a truck packed with migrants flipped over in the state of Chiapas on Thursday.
People spilled from the truck carrying an estimated 166 travelers after it crashed on a curve outside the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, causing one of the worst death tolls of migrants in Mexico during the past decade.
The incident comes as the Mexican government tries to stem the number of migrants crossing the territory on their way north toward the U.S. border.
News of the deadly incident rattled migrants who had made their way to the central state of Puebla, many of them families with children. Still, some said they were determined to push forward to the United States or other cities in Mexico despite the risks of the dangerous journey, which can include relying on people smugglers known as "coyotes."
In recent days, dozens of migrants were sent from the southern border city Tapachula to Puebla as Mexican migration authorities attempted to dismantle an improvised camp and head off potential caravans of migrants walking north.
The Mexican government previously promised migrants humanitarian visas and transportation to other cities.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An investigation into last year’s Beirut blast is set to resume after a court rejected the last of several lawsuits that had led the probe to be suspended for more than a month.
The investigation into the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, has faced pushback from a political system where impunity has become entrenched since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Here’s what you need to know about the standoff:
WHAT IS THE JUDGE INVESTIGATING? The explosion that was caused by chemicals left at the port for more than six years and which killed more than 215 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of Beirut.
Judge Tarek Bitar, 47, wants to interrogate several senior politicians and security officials.
High-level security and government officials "foresaw the significant threat to life ... and tacitly accepted the risk of deaths occurring," Human Rights Watch has said.
Bitar’s efforts have become a rallying cry for many Lebanese against decades of unchecked corruption and mismanagement.
WHO DOES THE JUDGE WANT TO QUESTION? SOME VERY POWERFUL PEOPLE.
The most prominent include former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who is the right-hand-man of Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... and an ally of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, and Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...In 2020 Hezbollah blew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate facility exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that. And it ain't never coming to trial... ’s General Security.
The judge has also sought to question Hassan Diab, an academic who was prime minister at the time of the blast.
Many of them could face prison time if convicted of negligence or causing deaths, although Lebanon has almost no track record of holding to account people in top positions.
All deny wrongdoing.
HOW ARE BITAR’S EFFORTS BEING STYMIED? All of the current and former officials Bitar has sought to question as suspects have resisted, arguing they have immunity or that he lacks authority to prosecute them.
This resistance to his actions has played out in the courts, in political life and on the streets.
Suspects have swamped courts with more than two dozen legal cases seeking Bitar’s removal over alleged bias and "grave mistakes", leading to several suspensions of the probe.
The ex-ministers say any cases against them should be heard by a special court for presidents and ministers.
That court has never held a single official accountable, and it would pass control of the probe to ruling parties in parliament, likely burying hopes of accountability.
Sectarian sensitivities have been brought into play.
The move against Diab, for example, prompted objections from Sunni Moslem political and religious leaders who said it was an attempt to target the position of prime minister, which is reserved for a Sunni in Lebanon’s sectarian political system.
WHY DOES HEZBOLLAH CARE? Bitar has not charged any known members of Hezbollah, the Shia Moslem group that has powerful political influence and a heavily armed militia. But the judge’s actions, including his attempts to question powerful figures allied to Hezbollah as suspects, have prompted the group to accuse him of bias.
In September, a senior Hezbollah official sent him a message warning that the group would "uproot" him.
Hezbollah and its allies have pushed for Bitar’s removal via the executive branch, sparking a row that has paralyzed government.
Together with its allies, Hezbollah called for an anti-Bitar protest in October that escalated into deadly violence.
Hezbollah has accused the United States, which lists the group as a terrorist organization, of meddling in the probe. The US ambassador has denied this.
Hezbollah dismissed accusations made at the time of the blast that it had an arms warehouse at the port and says it had nothing to do with the earth-shattering kaboom. Its adversaries have long accused the group of controlling the port - something it also denies.
WHAT’S AT STAKE? ANY HOPE OF ACCOUNTABILITY.
For advocates of reform, the tussle over the probe is part of a wider struggle about the rule of law and bringing to account officials for corruption and bad governance responsible for other catastrophes too, including Lebanon’s financial meltdown.
Critics say the elite are using their influence to block any attempt to set a precedent of holding officials to account and want to bury any scrutiny of the port’s management, which is a microcosm of the sectarian system which parcels out public resources to serve the interests of major players, not the state.
Beirut’s already strained ties with Western governments, whose help could prove vital in lifting Lebanon out of its economic crisis, may suffer further if the probe is torpedoed.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[DW] More Afghans facing extreme poverty are turning to opium production as a means of survival. Despite promises to the contrary, the Taliban ...Arabic for students... are unlikely to oppose cultivation of the narcotic cash crop.
The cultivation of opium poppy as a medicinal plant has a long history in Afghanistan.
The milky sap extracted from the seed pods is dried to produce raw opium, an effective remedy for severe pain. Today, opium is used primarily as an intoxicant and as a raw material for the production of stronger drugs like prescription painkillers and heroin.
In the last harvest season, which ended in July, an estimated 6,800 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan. This was an 8% increase over 2020, according to a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
According to the report, Afghanistan accounts for 85% of global opium production, and Afghan opiates supply 80% of users worldwide.
The UNODC has calculated that the opium business will have generated between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion (€1.6 billion and €2.4 billion) in Afghanistan in 2021, about one-tenth of Afghanistan's economic output.
The agency said the Taliban takeover in August 2021, and the resulting protracted economic uncertainty, drove opium prices in August and September to new highs. "This strengthens the incentive for opium cultivation," the report said.
'WE DIDN'T HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL'
"Opium production in Afghanistan will continue to increase," says a former Afghan army officer under the condition of anonymity. "Growing opium is a secure source of income for farmers and many unemployed people who are now returning to their villages from the cities," says the army officer, whose identity is protected for security reasons.
Up until the Taliban takeover, the officer belonged to a special unit of the Afghan army tasked with fighting drug-related crime.
"We didn't have everything under control at the time," the officer admitted. "Especially in remote areas, the Taliban had more influence and protected farmers growing opium poppies. If the Taliban wanted to, they could hinder opium production — they've done that before."
During the Taliban's first period of rule from 1996 to 2001, they cracked down on opium production, which consequently dropped to 185 metric tons in 2001. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... after the Taliban were toppled from power that year, opium production shot up again.
Even today, the Taliban claim they want to combat opium cultivation and drug trafficking in Afghanistan. After taking power in August, the Taliban announced their intention to reduce opium production to zero.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the Taliban are known for using the drug trade to finance bad boy operations. According to the US government, they generate up to 60% of their annual revenue from growing and trafficking drugs.
OPIUM TRADE LIKELY TO CONTINUE
Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said the Taliban are not the only factor driving the drug economy in Afghanistan in recent years.
"The previous government struggled with the Taliban for influence in rural areas, and many of its people were directly involved in drug smuggling," he said.
The analyst said Western troops in Afghanistan often worked with warlords, commanders and government officials who were involved in the drug trade, and rarely did anything to stop it.
Ruttig added that he does not think the Taliban are serious about wanting to reduce opium production in Afghanistan to zero.
"They don't want to do it, and they can't do it, because they would lose key rural supporters," he said.
Just in the past two days: In France, s3x jihad by the colonists; in Spain, they colonize otherwise empty spaces by invitation; in Belgium they claim to be children, in Sweden bombs and no-go zones.
Anti-Mass Migration Activist Claims Migrant Sexually Assaulted Her in Her Home
[Breitbart] Anti-mass migration activist and former spokeswoman for the group Generation Identitaire Thaïs d’Escufon has reported that a North African man broke into her home and sexually assaulted her. Ms d’Escufon stated that a North African man claiming to be Tunisian followed her home, taking advantage of the fact she was wearing earphones at the time to tack her unnoticed.
According to d’Escufon, the man told her, after assaulting her, that "I know that in La Belle France, you think that all Arabs are evil, I am not like that, I swear before God."
What did he intend to accomplish by that statement?
He then picked up all his cigarette butts in order not to leave any traces of himself at her apartment.
Despite the French government dissolving Generation Identitaire earlier this year over hate allegations, Ms d’Escufon remains a social media influencer in La Belle France as well as an activist.
Sexual violence and sexual assault remain a major problem in parts of La Belle France, with a 2020 report claiming that in 2019 sexual violence had risen 12 per cent compared to the prior year.
"All French regions have experienced increases in the number of rapes, assaults, and sexual harassment recorded by the security forces in 2019, notably Corsica, Centre-Val-de-Loire, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, and Nouvelle-Aquitaine," the French Interior Ministry statistics service SSMI stated.
As early as 2017, tech entrepreneurs launched an app in Gay Paree warning users if they were in a "no-go" area and if they were at risk of being sexually assaulted.
Spanish Birthrate Declined over Five Per Cent During 2020 Pandemic Year
[Breitbart] The number of children per woman, according to El Mundo, now sits at just 1.19, down from 1.24 in 2019 — one of the lowest annual birth rates in Spain since the 1990s, with statistics from the World Bank showing the country has been below the 2.1 replacement rate since 1980.
The figures further Spain’s existing demographic issues which have seen the population’s average age reach 43.9 years, the 19th-highest average age in the world according to Central Intelligence agency (CIA) statistics.
In 2019, former Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell — now High Representative of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European Commission — stated that migrants colonists may be the answer to Spain’s ongoing demographic crisis, arguing that the country needed "new blood".
Spain is not the only European country to deal with rapid demographic changes and low birth rates. In Italia, populist Senator Matteo Salvini recently rejected the idea of using mass migration to solve the problem, saying that his country should enact pro-family policies instead.
"My objective is to give economic serenity to Italians to encourage them to have children," Salvini said last month and added, "I refuse to think of substituting ten million Italians with ten million migrants colonists.”
The large explosion is thought to have taken place around 1 a.m. along Stora Nygatan street and damaged several shops and restaurants nearby. So far, according to spokesman Norling, the police have no suspects in the case, but they are treating the incident as a crime.
The suspected bombing comes just three months after an explosion in Gothenburg left one woman dead and 23 people injured. The main suspect in the case, a 55-year-old who was in the process of being evicted by the owner of the building, was later found dead by police in a body of water just over a week after the explosion.
In March of this year, another explosion in Höganäs in Skåne County saw 40 apartments damaged, with the blast thought to have taken place in the stairwell of an apartment building. Police described the stairwell as having been “blown out”.
Last year, despite the Wuhan virus pandemic, the city of Stockholm saw a record number of explosions.
#3
Yes indeed, Merrick. But in the meantime, Mademoiselle d’Escufon needs to stop running around the neighbourhood wearing earphones and starting working on situational awareness. And as an influencer, to share that advice with all who listen to her.
For anyone wanting to track this kind of thing themselves, Gates of Vienna has some overlap with what we collect here, as does The Religion of Peace, links I’ve saved for when I have more time and energy. Breitbart key words Europe migrant crisis, immigration, and jihad, and Daily Mail key words immigration and ISIS capture most of their stories without needing to scroll through all the hay to find the interesting needles.
79.4% of Spain's adult population has been vaccinated with two doses or more. The birthrate in Spain declined by nearly 10 per cent because the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wondering out loud if the 2 are connected and if the 2020-21 Still Birth & Miscarriage numbers seen in Canada, match other countries?
#5
X-Christians, or, Pining Yearnin' for the Burns
More OPM! Immigrants, welcome!
Poor? Bankrupt your fellows to help 'em,
For, saving their hue,
They're exactly like you!
Hell, the Muslims are practically Malcolm...
Little.
Experts warn software bug poses a huge threat to internet-connected devices
Software flaw could allow criminals and spies to steal data or plant malware
Users first reported being able to control another person's computer while using a simple chat box code in the wildly popular online video game Minecraft
#5
^ Yes, I saw this. Good post. I didn't want to be an alarmist but it is unfortunately true. I speak to an accountant who deals with the current world wide hacking going on. Specifically Canada, USA, Mexico and Puerto Rico. This is a full time job for her. Since the chip hacking has dramatically increased. law enforcement says just going on line exposes you. Chase bank tells customers they think it is Amazon or WIFI. I have seen this worsen each of the last three years. Cash is king. Then at one retail location with bar code readers no hacking for eight years, verified. So older technology better?; just because it is obsolete?, I don't really know.
#6
Yesterday I mentioned Chrome has had to do several updates. It is like they have entered everyone's operating system and have control over their joy stick. Oops!. that didn't sound right.
[Breitbart] A group of migrants called an Arizona TV station and sent video documenting where they asked for help. They claim to have spent more than four hours wandering the desert looking for U.S. authorities. Federal officials reportedly told the migrants they could not take them in because their shelters were full.
“We have been walking for three or four hours,” one female migrant said in a video they sent to Univision 23. “We are in the middle of nowhere, we are a group of Cubans and Venezuelans.”
Another woman said in the video the group left Mexicali, Baja California, hours before and wandered the desert looking for Border Patrol. The group appears to have been made up primarily of women and children.
“We don’t have food, we don’t have water,” a middle-aged woman says in the video. “We are close to a highway — we are going to try to go there because we have young children, no one is coming, no patrols, no police and we have to go somewhere to ask for help.”
Toward the end of the video, a Venezuelan man says Border Patrol did arrive and provided them with food and water but told them that they were on their own because the shelters “were collapsed” and they could not take them in.
It is unclear in the video if authorities processed and released the migrants or if they simply allowed them to continue on foot.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian terror group rails at ’misleading media campaign,’ says fire that set off explosions was caused by electrical short-circuit
The Paleostinian terror group Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, claimed Saturday that explosions that shook a refugee camp in southern Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia... were caused by an electrical short-circuit in a storage area for oxygen bottles used to treat coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... patients.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported that arms stored for Hamas went kaboom! Friday in the Burj al-Shamali camp, killing and injuring a number of people. A security official also said the earth-shattering kabooms caused casualties but did not give a breakdown.
Hamas in a statement Saturday described the earth-shattering kabooms as an "incident," adding that a fire in the refugee camp in the southern port city of Tyre caused limited damage. It gave no word on casualties but residents in the camp said at least one person was killed.
Hamas said the oxygen bottles and containers of detergents stored at the camp were to be distributed as part of its aid work.
"Hamas condemns the misleading media campaign and the spread of false news that accompanied the incident," the terrorist group said in its statement. It added that reports about the cause of the blast and the "deaths of dozens" were baseless.
The denial came after a Hamas source told a Lebanese newspaper the arms cache that went kaboom! was "for defense." The source also confirmed the blast was caused by a fire.
Initial reports said a fire had started in a diesel tanker and spread to a nearby mosque controlled by Hamas. The fire triggered explosions of some weapons that appeared to have been stored inside the mosque, according to the residents.
Immediately after the blasts, Lebanese troops deployed around the camp and briefly prevented people from entering or leaving.
NNA said the state prosecutor in southern Lebanon has asked security agencies and arms experts to inspect the Hamas arms storage site inside the camp.
Lebanon is home to tens of thousands of Paleostinian refugees and their descendants. Many live in the 12 refugee camps that are scattered around the small Mediterranean country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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People-Smugglers Now Advertising Russia-Finland Border Route to EU
[Breitbart] The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) has confirmed reports that people-smugglers are now advertising crossings from Russia to Finland to migrants colonists, as many abandon attempts to enter the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... from Belarus in the face of strong border enforcement by Poland and the Baltic States.
Since the middle of last month people-smugglers have begun advertising the Russia-Finland route into the European Union, according to an intelligence research group who looked at Kurdish and Arabic forums on social media platforms like Facebook that are geared toward migrants colonists looking to enter Western Europe.
"Right now it is very difficult to say whether this will result in a new route for the migrant flows and whether we will see people arriving at the Finnish border, for example. But on social media, the reactions have been very positive," said Monika Richter, the head of research for the group, in comments reported by newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.
Finland’s intelligence service SUPO has confirmed the increase in marketing online for the Russia-Finland route, with communications director Milla Meretniemi telling Hufvudstadsbladet: "We are aware that this kind of marketing has occurred. As one of the EU’s external border countries, Finland is following the development stage very closely. But we cannot comment on our operational tasks any more than that."
Meretniemi went on to note that the migrant crisis along the border with Belarus was largely directed by the Belarusian government, but said that "Right now we have no reason to assume that Russia would act in the same way at the Finnish border".
The tactic of using migrants colonists to try and destabilise rival states has been dubbed "hybrid warfare" or "hybrid aggression".
Last month, Finland’s Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said that if the country were to face a surge in migrants colonists similar to the crisis along the border with Belarus, then Finland could close its border with Russia.
Mikko Lehmus, the head of the Situation and Risk Analysis Centre of the Border Guard, stated that closing the border entirely could be difficult, as building a fence or border barrier would not be feasible.
During the migrant crisis of 2015, Finland — with a total population of under six million people — saw tens of thousands arrive in the country.
Teija Tiilikainen, director of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, has stated that the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which has a European Union Association Agreement, could play a role in a potential migrant surge into Finland.
"At the moment, it is difficult to comment on whether Russia would like to make bilateral relations with Finland more difficult if it intends to conduct a military operation in Ukraine. But that’s not an impossible thought," Tiilikainen said.
Thousands of mostly Middle Eastern and South Asian migrants colonists have been pressing upon the borders of Poland and the neighbouring Baltic States of Lithuania and Latvia — all members of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... — for months, having been allowed into Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus as tourists with the express purpose of having them head west as migrants colonists to destabilise the EU.
Low-level festivities have continued along the frontier since the last major attempt to force the border was made in mid-November, when hundreds of migrants colonists attacked Polish border guards, coppers, and soldiers including territorial reservists with missiles and even stun grenades and were beaten back with tear gas and water cannon.
Footage of one of the more recent smaller festivities was released by Poland’s Ministry of National Defence on December 9th, and shows migrants colonists who have become aggressive after being caught approaching Polish border fortifications from the Belarusian side under the cover of darkness.
Wczorajsza nieudana próba nielegalnego przekroczenia granicy w Dubiczach. Migranci wciąż zachowują się agresywnie i atakują naszych żołnierzy i funkcjonariuszy. pic.twitter.com/CT3TSkhRjA
— Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej 🇵🇱 (@MON_GOV_PL) December 9, 2021
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
#1
...Good thing for popcorn futures that the smugglers have never read their history. Otherwise they'd know that the Finns are very, very protective of their territory.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/12/2021 17:31
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#2
^^^^
The way "Woke" has taken over the world; I would not be too surprised if we very shortly discover they have been Mickey Finn'd
[ToloNews] Donors agreed on Friday to transfer $280 million from a frozen, trust fund to the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to support nutrition and health in Afghanistan, the World Bank said as it seeks to help a country facing famine and economic freefall.
The World Bank-administered Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund will this year give $180 million to WFP to scale up food security and nutrition operations and $100 million to UNICEF to provide essential health services, the bank said in a statement..
Using reconstruction trust fund money and channeling it through the WFP and UNICEF, both part of the U.N. family, appears to be a way to get funding into the country for basic needs in a manner that does not necessarily implicate U.S. sanctions against the Taliban.
ICRC Paying Health Worker Salaries, Buying Equipment
[ToloNews] The International Committee of the Red Cross is paying the salaries of 6,000 medical employees and provide medical equipment for at least 23 public hospitals, an official said.
“The ICRC is working to remove the obstacles in the health sector. The process of supporting the hospitals will go on for some days,” said Munqad Abdul Rahman Rodwal, a senior official at the ICRC.
“The ICRC is providing salaries for employees of 15 health centers across Afghanistan so far. It has provided health products as well.”
Afghan Airline Brings Indian Aid to Kabul
[ToloNews] Afghan airline company Kam Air brought an aid package of health supplies provided by the Indian government into Kabul on Saturday. It was the first flown-in humanitarian aid from India since the fall of the former government.
The aid consists of two tonnes of health supplies.
“India donated some health products via the Word Health Organization to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. We praise it and call on other countries to provide assistance to Afghanistan,” said Javid Hajir, a spokesman for the ministry.
India pledged to provide 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Afghanistan.
Analysts believe that India’s aid was politically motivated.
“India's trying to fill the vacuum and gain influence in Afghanistan to not allow its rival Pakistan to remain the winner of the game in the field. I think India’s presence in Afghanistan has more political value than economic,” said Abdul Naseer Rishtia, an economist.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban/IEA
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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[11154 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
This condition will likely last until elections are held. The possibility that Haftar or Seif al-Qadafi will win the election will surely lead to civil war. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, second eldest son of the former ruler, was promising both politically and intellectually. He was captured by militiamen from Zintan in the country’s southwest, and only released in 2017. The International Criminal Court wants him extradited to try him for crimes against humanity, but there is no chance of that. In 2015, the Libyan Dawn militia, the military arm of the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliament in Tripoli, put him on trial, sentenced him to death, but failed to secure him. Western media does not like to admit it, but Seif is indeed popular and just might win the election.
S&P Global Ratings changes its outlook for #Turkey’s credit rating to negative from stable, as the country struggles with high inflation and a depreciating currency.https://t.co/uqdB8BWrhw
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
about 8 years too late
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2021 9:23
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#2
Let's not laugh until we see the next S&P review of the US gummint's credit rating. Turkish bonds might look like a safe harbor after that.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/12/2021 10:59
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#3
Erdogan has more credibility than Pres. Magoo. Here's the latter's puppet master speaking via the PervOTUS's official Sh!tter account:
"The cost of the Build Back Better Agenda is $0. The President’s plan won’t add to our national deficit and no one making under $400,000 per year will see their taxes go up a single penny. It’s fully paid for by ensuring big corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share."
National disgrace. Impeach Magoo.
Even Erdogan would do less damage than this disgusting moron is doing to our nation.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The documentary film "This is happening with us" about female genital mutilation in the North Caucasus has received the right to rent, the premiere of the film is scheduled in Moscow. It is not customary to discuss the practice of female circumcision in the Caucasus, but while working on the film, the Muftiate of Dagestan issued a fatwa about the inadmissibility of such operations, the co-authors of the film said.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote , the problem of female circumcision in the North Caucasus is most acute in Dagestan, where, according to the "Legal Initiative", at least 1,240 girls annually become victims of such operations. Criminal punishment will not eradicate the problem until a general legal background is formed that will allow women to feel safe, the authors of the FGM project for Afisha Daily said.
#1
Criminal punishment will not eradicate the problem until a general legal background is formed that will allow women to feel safe
So they've been sexually mutilating girls for 2000+ years as a population control measure and can't come up with a legislative framework to address the act? Girls are less responsive and reactive so there are fewer pregnancies, but then the rapes go up and it to becomes a cultural practice, which increases the population.
[OneIndia] More than a year after they arrived in large convoys of tractors, several protesting farmers on Saturday morning began returning to their home states, taking with them a victory to cherish and memories of a successful siege at Delhi's borders. The farmers lifted blockades on highways at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders and took out a 'Victory March' to celebrate the repeal of three contentious farm laws and the Union government's written assurance to fulfil their other demands, including constituting a committee for legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Emotions ran high as the farmers set off for their homes in different states, including Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, after a successful movement. Tractors bedecked with colourful lights rolled out of the protest sites blaring songs of victory while the elderly flaunted their colourful turbans and danced with youngsters.
The farmers are celebrating December 11 as 'Vijay Diwas'. Thousands of farmers had been protesting at the borders of the national capital since November 26 last year to demand the repeal of the three farm laws.
On November 29, a bill was passed in Parliament to repeal the laws, one of the main demands of the farmers. However, ars longa, vita brevis... the farmers refused to end their protest, demanding that the government fulfil their other demands that included legal guarantee on MSP and withdrawal of police cases against them.
As the Union government accepted the pending demands, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions spearheading the stir, on Thursday decided to suspend the farmers' movement and announced that farmers will go back home on December 11 from the protest sites at Delhi borders.
Farmer leaders said that they will again meet on January 15 to see if the government has fulfilled their demands.
Parliament passed a bill on November 29 to repeal the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and the Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
[ToloNews] In an effort to fight poppy cultivation and drug trafficking, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Saturday appointed counter-narcotics officials in all 34 provinces.
The counter-narcotics department of the MoI has ordered all newly assigned officials to stand strongly against poppy cultivation and narcos across the provinces.
"The counter-narcotics department of the MoI has started the process of appointments in order to seriously fight against cultivation and drug trafficking across the country," said Hedayatullah Hedayat, deputy front man of the MoI.
According to residents, because of the easy access to drugs, the number of addicts is increasing every day in the capital city of Kabul and in other provinces.
"Drugs addicts have increased in Kabul, they can easily find drugs, they are creating problems for the people," said Abozar, a resident.
Abdul Qader, a former Afghan National Army member, took to using drugs after losing his job after the political change in the country.
"I lost my job and could not find a new job, I got addicted and there is no possibility to abandon it," said Abdul Qader.
"Every day, he is selling something from home to pay for drugs," said the mother of Abdul Qader.
Afghanistan is one of the biggest producers of drugs in the world.
According to reports, drug trafficking has increased during the government of the Islamic Emirate, and the security forces on the border of Tajikistan said they seized nearly 500 kilograms of drugs at the border area during the last two months.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AlAhram] Sidelined after a decade leading Æthiopia's army, General Tsadkan Gebre-Tensae did not expect to don his uniform after retirement. But when war erupted in Tigray, the renowned military strategist was back, ready to fight the army he had once commanded.
Tsadkan's army was dominated by Tigrayans, as was the national government -- intensifying discontent among other ethnic groups that would eventually lead to the TPLF's ouster from power.
For many observers, there is little doubt that Tsadkan, whose face -- round, bald, moustached -- is famous in Æthiopia, is the man responsible for the advances of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group since June.
Thirty years earlier in 1991, Tsadkan led the TPLF's march on Addis Ababa, part of a coalition that ousted the autocrat Mengistu Hailemariam.
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#ArmedEncounter 🚫 El Centro Sector #USBP agents foiled a smuggling attempt in which two human smugglers were transporting 6 undocumented individuals. During a search of the vehicle, a loaded firearm was discovered. Another example of the dangers at the #SouthernBorder. pic.twitter.com/6hB2ShfLn3
— USBP Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino (@USBPChiefELC) December 7, 2021
Posted by: Skidmark ||
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We cynically will not ask how much of that money will actually reach the target group, nor whether the EU cares as much for having an impact as it does for looking generous.
[Rudaw] The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Children’s Funds’ (UNICEF) said Thursday that a European humanitarian aid agency has contributed over two million euros to its Syria programmes to help the war-town country’s vulnerable children and their families.
UNICEF said in a statement that with the €2 million ($2.3 million) funding from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), it "will be able to reach more than 126,000 children and their caregivers with essential protection, education, water and sanitation services as well as life-saving cash transfers to the most vulnerable families."
"Over a decade into the conflict in Syria, the humanitarian needs of more than 13.4 million people in the country - 6.1 million of them children - are being compounded by the day," said UNICEF Representative in Syria, Bo Viktor Nylund. "The continued, substantial support from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... has helped us to meet our commitments towards vulnerable children and families in Syria and ensure they can access critical services."
The ECHO’s total funding to the UNICEF has reached over €55 million since 2016, including to the Thursday one, according to the UN agency.
According to data from the ECHO’s website, the total EU assistance to the Syria crisis has reached more than €24.9 billion since 2011 while its assistance to the war-town country in 2021 was €130 million.
UNICEF said in March that nearly 2.45 million children in Syria as well 750,000 other Syrian children who live in the neighboring countries are out of school, adding that 90 percent of the country’s children need support "as violence, economic crisis and COVID-19 pandemic push families to the brink."
Syrians rose up against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... in March 2011, demanding an end to the rule of the Assad family who have been in power for half a century.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Report: U.S. Universities Cooperating With Institutions Tied To China’s Military, Nuclear Weapons Program
Beijing “exploited the expertise of Chinese students … conducting research in the United States to accelerate China’s economic and military modernization.”
#5
^ Then to imbibe or not is the question. Here at lease some notion of reality is found in present thought expressed here many times quite adequately. Yesterday is done so we live in today but sneak a peak now and then at tomorrow with shall I say trepidation. I must say S you are a stimulating rascal. Where is my smiley face when I need one.
Two staff members of the International Committee of the #RedCross abducted last month in eastern Democratic Republic of #Congo have been freed, says the humanitarian organization.https://t.co/tfgldtoOID
Two staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) abducted last month in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been freed, the humanitarian organization said on Saturday.
The ICRC said in late November that one Congolese citizen and an international staff member had been kidnapped in North Kivu province, where dozens of armed militias operate.
The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have warned about an increase in attacks on aid workers in eastern Congo. Three employees of the UN refugee agency were injured on Wednesday in North Kivu when their vehicle came under fire.
[JustTheNews] Forty of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C. were given a failing grade in their response to child and youth sex trafficking, according to a report by the nonprofit Shared Hope International.
According to the report, Alaska is the lowest-ranked state, while Florida is the top-ranked, with an overall grade of C and a score of 72.5 out of a possible 110 points.
States are scored on six different policy issues and given "extra credit" for extending certain protective policies to youth aged 18 to 24 and child labor trafficking victims.
[IsraelTimes] At a massive rally Friday celebrating the 34th anniversary of Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,’s founding, co-founder of the terror group Mahmoud al-Zahar said Paleostinians will not relinquish "an inch" of the land they view as theirs.
"The participation of thousands in these marches commemorating the launch anniversary [of Hamas] confirms that the Paleostinian individual cannot give up his right, and refuses to forfeit not an inch of his land," al-Zahar said, according to Paleostinian media reports.
Hamas does not recognize Israel and often declares its intention of setting up a state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, eradicating Israel.
The anniversary comes as amid a string of recent Paleostinian terror attacks, with four taking place in Jerusalem alone, including a deadly shooting committed by a member of Hamas.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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Half hour long audio report in English can be heard at the link.
[DW] Increasing numbers of migrants colonists attempt to cross into La Belle France over the mountains, but this route can be dangerous. Refuges have been opened, and closed, as authorities and volunteers differ over how best to accommodate those who have arrived.
Jean Gabriel is a mountain man. He has walked the mountains of the world, and now tries to make sure that the migrants colonists who walk his mountains arrive safely in La Belle France and are well looked after.
For those migrants colonists who do make it over the border, a refuge in Briancon awaits. Some migrants colonists stop a few days or weeks here before continuing their journey on to other parts of La Belle France, the United Kingdom, or elsewhere in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... — migrants colonists like university student Ayoub from Morocco, who hopes that he can make his parents proud in Europe and one day have a family of his own.
This episode was recorded at the end of April 2021 in the French Alp
Episodes 1-6 of this series can be seen at the bottom of the link.
[NATION.PK] The horrific lynching of a Sri-Lankan manager in Sialkot left every Pak embarrassed. The employees of Rajco Industries unleashed the attack on an innocent Sri-Lankan manager using the pretext of blasphemy ...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran... . A charged mob killed the manager and then set his dead body on fire. What happened in Sialkot portrays a very grim picture of tolerance in Pakistain. Sadly, the first inquiry report has unearthed shocking realities. The inquiry report suggests that a delegation from a foreign country had to visit the factory and manager Priyantha Kumara asked to remove the stickers having religious writings. Workers were already annoyed by Mr Kumara’s principle to maintain discipline. Additionally, at the time of the gloomy incident, the arrangements of cleanliness were being made. Walls were being painted. Furthermore, Mr Kumara removed some stickers at 10:28 am that created some inconvenience between the manager and workers. The inquiry further reveals that the manager was not familiar with the workers’ language, then factory owners mediated, and the issue was resolved. The manager apologised for the misunderstanding but some workers abetted others to kill him. All the security guards and factory owners bravely ran away from the spot. Given this information, it is not difficult to deduce that Mr Kumara was possibly innocent, but extremism made him a culprit unjustly. The false use of blasphemy laws is becoming rife day by day.
If we talk through an Islamic lens, the mob has killed and burnt the whole of humanity as per Koranic teachings. Accusing someone of blasphemy, killing him unjustly and taking the law into his hands is against Islam. Those who pave the way for corruption on earth can never be true Moslems.
Many factors are responsible for extremism in Pakistain; one of the unavoidable factors is the Tehrik-e-Labaik Ya Rasool (TLP). Whether the factory workers were affiliated with TLP or not, psychologically, they were TLP’s supporters. The government’s inefficiency and incompetency gave breathing space to TLP. Salman Taseer’s killing and the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri gave impetus to the rise of TLP as a movement. Then, Faizabad’s sit-in paved the way for its entry into the political arena. TLP has tempted people to take the law in their own hands and has never condemned the misuse of blasphemy laws. Bowing down to TLP pressure again and again, the government has made TLP more powerful. A news report shows that from November 2017 to October 2021, seven protests have been staged by the TLP, and seven agreements have been signed. Using TLP for political gains to destabilise the PLM-N government proved disastrous for the future of the country. TLP is expanding gradually and it can be a serious threat to our national security. In 2018, TLP bagged 2.2 million votes and emerged as the fifth largest party of Pakistain and third largest in Punjab.
Giving more room to a radical version of Islam will pose a threat to peace to society. No one is against capital punishment to those who disrespect the last Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). But it is a matter of the judiciary, not an individual to do this. If an individual kills someone using blasphemy allegations, he will be a a murderer. The process of prosecution and inquiry of blasphemy cases must be meticulous. If the evidence does not prove someone guilty of blasphemy, then the accuser must be punished severely.
There are some important suggestions to cope with the current situation of extremism. First of all, the writ of the state needs to be established. The majority of the issues are emanating from the poor rule of law and a weak writ of the state. Using these religious snuffies for political gains is no more affordable. Secondly, the government must conduct an all-Mashaikh conference in which almost all distinguished custodians of shrines should take part. All Mashahiq should strictly direct their followers not to take part in any vigilantism. Similarly, an all-Ulema conference should be conducted to send a clear message to followers—that no one will take the law in their own hands. In case if any follower goes against this, the Learned Elders of Islam will not try to save him from the law. There should be a consensus among the Learned Elders of Islam and Mashahiq that taking law in one’s own hands is not acceptable and no one can kill anyone using blasphemy allegations. It is a matter of the judiciary, not the individuals. Thirdly, extremism is increasing in universities also. We need to develop centres for Islamic research in universities. Violent groups of students like the Jamaat Talaba-I-Islam should be discouraged in universities like 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.... University. These violent mostly peaceful groups got political support from politicians which helped them survive. Fourthly, unfortunately, many teachers and students in universities think that sidelining religion is the only way out of extremism. They have to know that understanding religion is the solution. Fifth, religious seminaries should be under the government’s control and the government should make a head of Madaris with a doctorate in Islamic Studies and have a good understanding of the Koran and Sunnah. Last but not least; over 20 million children are out of school—they are more prone to find comfort in turban thought. We must rectify this.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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#1
They'll order quarantines for a case of the sniffles, but not for this?
#1
What's really disturbing about these people is they are the same bunch that support planned parent and eugenics. Sure they claim they love minorities, but they love them getting abortions and destroying their lives so that they wear the invisible slave collars of government.
#2
The Stanley Milgram experiment was caught in the reproducibility problem. The Washington Examiner included it in a long piece on the subject a few years ago. Key paragraphs:
When researchers, journal editors, peer-review panels, colleagues, and popular journalists share the same beliefs, confirmation bias will flourish. It’s human nature! Reading a typical behavioral science study involving race or sex, privilege or wealth or power, you can find it hard to distinguish between the experimenters’ premises and their conclusions. Better to scan the literature for what lawyers call “admissions against interest”—findings that contradict the prevailing creed. These are rare, but they exist, and they have undermined much of what behavioral scientists think they know about human behavior.
The subversion comes in many forms. A finding can often be undermined simply by looking closely at how the experiment was performed. Perhaps the most famous experiment in all of social science—I think we’re supposed to call it iconic—was undertaken in the early 1960s by Stanley Milgram, an assistant professor at Yale. Milgram was struck by the trial of the Nazi mass-murderer Adolf Eichmann, then underway in Israel.
His hunch was that Eichmann wasn’t singularly evil but merely a cog in the Nazi machine—a petty little man following great big orders. Nearly anyone, Milgram mused, could be induced to override his conscience and perform evil acts if he were instructed to do so by a sufficiently powerful authority. Even someone from Yale.
This has since become known as conformity (not confirmation) bias, another elaborate and unnecessary verbalism invented to describe a home truth: We crave the approval of our friends and families, of people we take to be like ourselves. But conformity bias has been stretched much farther. The enormous power it holds to guide our behavior has crystalized as a settled fact in behavioral science.
To test his theory Milgram told his subjects that they were participating in a study of “learning.” A man in a lab coat took the subjects one at a time into a room and told them to turn an electric dial to shock a stranger in a room next door. They were to increase the strength of the shock by increments, finally to the point of inflicting severe pain. (The shock generator was a dummy; no one was actually hurt.)
The results were an instant sensation. The New York Times headline told the story: “Sixty-five Percent in Test Blindly Obey Order to Inflict Pain.” Two out of three of his subjects, Milgram reported, had cranked the dial all the way up when the lab-coat guy insisted they do so. Milgram explained the moral, or lack thereof: The “chief finding” of his study, he wrote, was “the extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority.” Milgram, his admirers believed, had unmasked the Nazi within us all.
Did he? A formidable sample of more than 600 subjects took part in his original study, Milgram said. As the psychologist Gina Perry pointed out in a devastating account, Beyond the Shock Machine, the number was misleading. The 65 percent figure came from a “baseline” experiment; the 600 were spread out across more than a dozen other experiments that were variations of the baseline. A large majority of the 600 did not increase the voltage to inflict severe pain. As for the the participants in the baseline experiment who did inflict the worst shocks, they were 65 percent of a group of only 40 subjects. They were all male, most of them college students, who had been recruited through a newspaper advertisement and paid $4.50 to participate.
The famous 65 percent thus comprised 26 men. How we get from the 26 Yalies in a New Haven psych lab to the antisemitic psychosis of Nazi Germany has never been explained.
Many replications of the Milgram experiments have succeeded, many have failed. But its importance to behavioral science cannot be overstated. It helped establish an idea that lies at the root of social psychology: Human beings are essentially mindless creatures at the mercy of internal impulses and outside influences of which they’re unaware. We may think we know what we’re doing most of the time, that we obey our consciences more often than not, that we can usually decide to do one thing and not another according to our own will. Behavioral scientists insist they know otherwise. This is the “mindlessness bias,” a just-invented (by me) term to describe the tendency of social psychologists to believe that their subjects are chumps.
There are other interpretations of Milgram’s results, after all, that are not quite so insulting to human nature. Perhaps the shockers were indeed conscious moral agents; maybe they had been persuaded they were participating in Science and, given the unlikelihood that a Yale Ph.D. student would let them cause harm, they were willing to do what they were told to advance the noble cause. Later interviews showed that most subjects thought this at the time of the experiments and were glad they had participated for precisely this reason. Others said they assumed the experiment was a ruse but went along anyway—some because they didn’t want to disappoint that nice man in the lab coat, some because they worried they might not get the $4.50. The theory that they did what they did “blindly,” as the Times headline said, is an assumption, not a finding.
As one would-be replicator of the Milgram experiment, a heterodox researcher named Michael Shermer, wrote: “Contrary to Milgram’s conclusion that people blindly obey authorities to the point of committing evil deeds because we are so susceptible to environmental conditions, I saw in our subjects a great behavioral reluctance and moral disquietude every step of the way.”
#3
Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
Summary:
- Solo, siloed investigator limited to small sample sizes
- No pre-registration of hypotheses being tested
- Post-hoc cherry picking of hypotheses with best P values
- Only requiring P < .05
- No replication
- No data sharing
#4
Yes, our reality of the times. Not all will drink the cool aide. Followers will follow. Then for some reason some people evade the programing. The end is always the same. They fail massively in one way or another. This error is reoccurring. Perhaps a revolution is actually a good thing. The new growth will occur only to become enlightened and progressive. On and on. The definition of insanity.
#5
the human race has had a tulip mania. Dot com bust. Y2k. Witch trials. Red scare. The proximate focus of each is different, the overt sameness of the gullibility is repetitive. Just as the left was able to bork Robert Bork but not repeat the feat with Clarence Thomas or Brett Kavanaugh (not for lack of trying) they will gnash their teeth when they try to foist Fauxi 2.0 and the majority of people just laugh cynically and move on.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/12/2021 13:46
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[JPost] Negotiations between world powers and Iran are at a deadlock and cannot continue indefinitely, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said on Saturday.
"Time is running out," Baerbock, who was sworn in last week, warned.
Iran "has shown in the last days that we do not have any progress... due to the offer of the Iranian government, negotiations have been thrown back six months," Baerbock told reporters on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Liverpool, England.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss similarly said last week, ahead of Thursday and Friday’s talks, that they are "really the last chance for Iran to sign up" to return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal.
In those negotiations, Iranian officials insisted on sticking to a tough stance from last week, while the E3 — as European parties to the talk Britain, France and Germany are called — were working from texts discussed five months ago, before Iran left the talks.Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that Tehran was serious in its nuclear talks, as indicated by the very proposals that European negotiators said were unrealistic.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that Tehran was serious in its nuclear talks, as indicated by the very proposals that European negotiators said were unrealistic.
"The fact that we presented the text of Iran's proposal to the negotiating parties shows that we are serious in the talks, and if the other side is also serious about the removal of sanctions, we will achieve a good agreement. We are definitely after a good agreement," IRNA quoted Raisi as saying.
The talks resumed on Thursday with the United States and Israel - which is not a party to the 2015 deal - piling rhetorical pressure on Tehran about the possible economic or military consequences if diplomacy fails.
Asked whether new draft proposals that Iran had put forward last week were being discussed, Iran's top negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani told Reuters: "Yes, the drafts we proposed last week are being discussed now in meetings with other parties."
Bagheri said last week that "all the issues that had been drafted during the previous negotiations until June can be negotiated."
"Iran backs result-oriented talks and we are determined to reach a deal that guarantees our nation's interests," Bagheri told reporters in Vienna.
A European source, speaking on condition of anonymity, appeared to suggest that Iran had agreed to continue talks from where they left off in June. This would be put to the test in the next couple of days, the source said, but made no mention of Iran's new proposals. Iranian officials denied it.
"We will definitely agree to nothing less than the JCPOA and this will certainly be a red line for Iran," Bagheri Kani told Iran's Press TV on Saturday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a "productive" meeting with counterparts from the E3 in Liverpool on Friday, discussing the way forward for talks on the Iran nuclear deal, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday.
The JCPOA restricted Iran’s uranium enrichment until 2030 in exchange for gradual sanctions relief from the US, EU and the UN. The US left the deal in 2018, under former president Donald Trump, while current US President Joe Biden seeks to return to it.
Israel opposes the JCPOA because it insufficiently limited Iran’s uranium enrichment, and, in fact, legitimizes further enrichment after the agreement expires, which paves the way for an eventual nuclear bomb. In addition, the JCPOA did not address Iran’s other malign actions in the region.
The indirect US-Iranian talks, in which diplomats from France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China shuttle between them because Tehran refuses direct contact with Washington, aim to get both sides to resume full compliance with the accord.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2021
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[IsraelTimes] Soldiers sent to scene after surveillance identified the suspects trying to cross; authorities say illegal substances worth some $650,000
The Israeli military said Friday it had thwarted an attempt to smuggle drugs worth millions of shekels into Israel from Egypt.
The army said its surveillance had identified suspects on the border and troops had been sent to intercept them. The suspects fled and some 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of drugs were caught by soldiers, estimated to be worth some NIS 2 million ($650,000).
The drugs were handed over to police. Authorities did not say what type of drugs were seized.
Last month saw two similar drug smuggling busts on the border with Egypt.
The Israeli-Egyptian border has been used for years as a smuggling location, particularly for marijuana, but for other drugs as well.
The IDF recently updated its rules of engagement to allow soldiers to more easily open fire at suspected thieves and smugglers, in a bid to crack down on crime.
Under the IDF’s new open-fire regulations, troops are permitted to use deadly force in cases of thefts of weapons and ammunition from military bases, break-ins at bases and firing ranges, and smuggling attempts along the Israeli-Egyptian border, according to the military.
In the past, soldiers could only open fire in those circumstances if their lives were in immediate danger, a fact that was generally known by criminals.
Though the IDF is tasked with preventing smuggling along the Israeli-Egyptian border, the military typically strives to avoid direct confrontation with drug smugglers.
#2
Looks like Bozo has opted for a publicity approach rather than doing the hard work.
Next flight - J.Smollett, C.Cuomo, A. Baldwin, J. Psaki and Big Bird.
(a faulty o-ring could solve a lot of issues....just sayin')
[JustTheNews] A Customs and Border Protection division used government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, according to a federal watchdog.
Yahoo News published a report on the investigation in which the news outlet also found the Counter Network Division
...have we heard of them?
also made quires on congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress.
Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine.
Rambo has been identified as the agent who accessed a reporter Ali Watkins' travel records. She worked for Politico at the time. His contact with her led to the inspector general's investigation.
Rambo was unavailable Saturday for a request by the Associated Press for comment.
The inspector general referred possible criminal charges for misusing government databases and lying to investigators, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute Rambo and two other Homeland Security employees, the according to the Associated Press.
The only person convicted as a result of Rambo's efforts is James Wolfe, a former Senate Intelligence committee security director who had a personal relationship with Watkins. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters.
The Associated Press obtained a redacted copy of the Homeland Security Department's inspector general report, the revelations in which have concerns among news outlets and calls for an explanation, the wire service also reports.
Customs and Border Protection said such vetting and investigation efforts are "strictly governed by well-established protocols and best practices."
The new disclosures are among the most recent examples of federal agencies using their power to examine the contacts of journalists and others.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has stopped prosecutors from seizing the records of journalists in leak investigations with few exceptions.
#1
Counterpoint: First… The author Mrs. Jana Winter [Yahoo News] and Ali Watkins are lying about a very key point. Watkins claims James Wolfe never leaked any classified information to her, and Jana Winter makes that point repeatedly. This is a lie, they are liars – [sue me]. James Wolfe did leak classified information to Ali Watkins, who was writing for Buzzfeed at the time, which Watkins then shared with her friends and peers in the media. One specific classified leak was the Carter Page FISA application, which Wolfe leaked to Watkins in March of 2017.
Second… When Jeffrey Rambo enters the picture to question Watkins, neither of them knew at the time that Watkins was already under FBI investigation. The timeline is outlined in the original James Wolfe indictment. After Watkins wrote an article in early April 2017, using the Wolfe and the FISA leak as her anonymous source, she became a target for investigation.
#3
Cells within cells. Exciting new, short-term project. No additional training necessary. Some travel required. Special Duty Pay authorized. Reassignment to former duties at project termination. If interested, you know the drill. Sign the NDA and see Jake for additional.
#4
Ali Watkins is the notorious little whore who slept with Senate Intel Committe security official James Wolfe, whose leaks she published as a way of helping spread the Russia Hoax bullshit about Carter Page being a Russian spy when in reality he's a C!A asset.
Our media whores are beyond shameless. This one literally pristituted herself for a story -- which itself was bogus.
#8
Claiming to be a "journalist" doesn't mean you're not also a criminal or terrorist.
Didn't al'Qaeda prep for the 9/11 aftermath by sending "reporters" to "interview" -- assassinate -- the leader of the Northern Alliance leader?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/12/2021 12:16
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#9
You’re thinking of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir, Rob. His son, Ahmad Massoud, is in Tajikistan as the leader in exile of the Northern Alliance 2.0. Unlike his father, the Taliban he faces have Pakistani military advisors.
[Rudaw] Suspected Ottoman Turkish warplanes launched an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... for the second time within five days in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) district on Saturday with no casualties reported, Yazidi activists and groups said.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... bombed the town of Khanasor on the Syrian border targeting a building that was used by the Autonomous Administration Council of Shingal, established by Sinjar Resistance® Units (YBS), for meetings, Murad Ismael, co-founder of Sinjar Academy and a Yazidi activist said in a tweet.
"This building is one few good building in the town and was used before ISIS for social and political activities, weddings," he said referring to 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.... by its acronym. "In addition to the horror this strike caused, and assuming no casualties, this building worthed [sic] 200,000 dollars and it’s gone now," he added.
The YBS was established to protect the Yezidi community in Iraq in 2007, playing a crucial role in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) after it overran the district in August 2014 and committed genocide against the the ethno-religious minority.
The district has been hit by multiple Ottoman Turkish airstrikes in recent years, which appeared to have given more reasons to the displaced Yezidis not to return from camps in the Kurdistan region to their ancestral homeland. Ankara justifies its strikes by claiming Mount Shingal is host to a number of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions and considers YBS to be linked to them.
The Free Yezidi Foundation called out the international community to stop Turkey. "How many Yezidis must die before Turkey is stopped?" The NGO said in a tweet. They added that ISIS "came to eradicate the #Yazidi on land; now Ottoman Turkish places + drones attack from above."
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis fled their homes in the summer of 2014, seeking shelter on Mount Shingal, and then in the Kurdistan Region with a limited number resettled in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and North America. In the first days of the genocide, 1,293 people were killed and over 6,000 people were kidnapped, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. Over 2,000 remain missing.
The region has stayed unstable due to the presence of a number of armed militias, constant Ottoman Turkish airstrikes and the dispute between Baghdad and Erbil over who runs the district.
Five days ago, a commander of YBS, Marwan Badal Haji was killed in a Ottoman Turkish airstrike in the same town a stronghold of YBS. He was traveling in a vehicle accompanied by two of his children who survived the attack. Marwan was known as Haval Dezhwar amongst the locals and hailed from the same area.
Earlier in August, a Ottoman Turkish airstrike killed two members of the YBS, including a senior commander and three civilians. Another airstrike hit a hospital in Shingal a day later, killing four care workers and four YBS fighters.
A taste. The hour long video of the discussion can be seen at the link.
[PJMedia] The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) held a panel discussion on December 7, 2021, to describe the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the Darien Gap. This region of Panama sees a massive train of international migrants colonists crossing from Colombia, in South America, to Central America on their way to the southern border of the United States. Most Americans likely don’t understand the source of illegal immigrants colonists and assume most of them to be of Mexican descent. But as many as 100,000 migrants colonists have passed through the Darien Gap in 2021, many from state sponsors of global terror. A shocking number die along the way, and many more become victims of human trafficking. The United States doesn’t know who passes through this route on the way to our border—the border the Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan ...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation... has refused to secure.
The Darien Gap has been described as the most dangerous jungle in the world, and is known as a chokepoint for migrants colonists from all over the globe who are moving on foot to the north. One news hound says the area has the most vultures he’s ever seen in one place.
Vultures, of course, feed on carrion. In this case, human bodies.
The humanitarian crisis could be stopped immediately, one panelist said:
The Panamanian authorities will tell you they can’t close down the migration route, which is completely false because during the pandemic they shut it off. It was finished, right? I mean, there was not even a drop coming through during the pandemic. Panama locked down like North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... for the pandemic, right? So we know that they can shut it off, period.
The panel consisted of global war correspondent Michael Yon, Mayor Francisco Agape of the Panamanian city Cémaco, which is near Darien Gap, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), possibly the only member of Congress who has visited Darien Gap.
Yon says he spent a large portion of 2021 in Panama, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as some European countries facing similar migrant crises. He described the dangers faced by migrants colonists trying to cross the Darien Gap on foot — many without shoes:
We think about 10 percent of the people that go through die. There’s no way for us to know the true numbers because we don’t know how many leave Necocli and we don’t know how many actually come out through Bajo Chiquito. But after being down there for months and interviewing just tons of people — hundreds — I’m going to guess 10 percent die out there. And if 100,000 people came through this year, that’s 10,000 people. So you can imagine how much those vultures have to eat. And I’m not sure if that’s why the vultures are there, but it’s a strange amount of vultures. But anyway, so you got a lot of people that get lost out there. They finally come through Bajo Chiquito. So the causes of death for the people that come through are usually the Mountain of Death, or they get lost, waterborne illnesses, something else might hit them — yellow fever — out there, anything. There’s all kinds of problems. And also floods. When they finally get to the river, their bodies come washing down in their tents wrapped up. I mean, flash floods are pretty intense there.
Bajo Chiquito is a community of 400 mostly Enbera Indians right over the border in Panama. Yon describes this as an area where the residents engage in widescale rape, murder, and theft against the migrants colonists who make it that far. The large number of migrants colonists cause acute and widespread environmental destruction to the small area, destroying agriculture, groundwater, and natural resources. Mayor Agape is a member of the Enbera tribe and is trying to stop what he sees going on.
Oh dear. It looks like someone has been reading Tales From The Crossfire Gazette, and missed the point completely.
[BenarNews] The United States on Friday imposed financial sanctions on the notorious Bangladeshi police unit RAB and six of its current and former officers, saying they were responsible for serious human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... abuses.
In addition, Benazir Ahmed, a former director general of the force, was barred from entering the United States "due to his involvement in gross violations of human rights."
Washington announced the move on International Human Rights Day, unveiling sanctions against "15 individuals and 10 entities" around the globe.
"Widespread allegations of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) ... threaten U.S. national security interests by undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the economic prosperity of the people of Bangladesh," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
The force, which comprises members of the police, army, navy, air force, and border guard, is accused of more than 600 enforced disappearances in the past 12 years, a similar number of extrajudicial killings, and use of torture, the statement noted.
RAB was founded in 2004, and charged with internal security, intelligence gathering related to criminal activities, and government-directed investigations, according to the U.S. treasury.
In Dhaka, prior to the announcement, about 100 relatives of disappeared people marked International Human Rights Day with a protest outside the National Press Club with tears and chants of "Give them back!"
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch had lodged its strongest call yet for action against RAB, saying that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres should immediately ban RAB officers from participating in United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... peacekeeping missions. HRW also called on the world body to ramp up screening of those officers deployed under its blue-and-white flag to ensure that its human rights screening policy was being effectively applied in Bangladesh.
"Nobody believes the Bangladesh government’s lies about enforced disappearances by its security forces," said Brad Adams. Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The question now is what donors and the U.N. are going to do about it."
The six officers named by the Treasury Department are Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun, the current director general of RAB; Benazir Ahmed, its former director general; Khan Mohammad Azad, an additional director general of the force; and Tofayel Mustafa Sorwar, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, and Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan, all former additional director generals at RAB.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions bar U.S. citizens from conducting business with or making contributions to the sanctioned individuals and block access to any property they hold in the United States.
PANTHEON Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo watched the circling Commanches and asked himself What would Geronimo do?... U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken named two Bangladeshis on a list of 12 foreign government officials barred from entering the United States.
He cited a 2021 U.S. law enabling the move against individuals and their immediate family members when "there is credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in a gross violation of human rights or significant corruption."
The statement named Benazir Ahmed — the former RAB director-general who is currently Bangladesh’s police chief — and Miftah Uddin Ahmed, a current lieutenant colonel and former commanding officer of RAB Unit 7, for the May 2018 killing of Teknaf City Municipal Councilor Ekramul Haque in Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh.
"We are determined to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy, and we reaffirm this commitment by using appropriate tools and authorities to draw attention to and promote accountability for human rights violations and abuses, no matter where they occur," Blinken said.
The U.S. moves placed RAB in a pantheon of the worst rights abusers in the world, including those involved in the racial profiling and mass detention of ethnic Uyghurs in China, the slaughter of civilians in post-coup Myanmar, and the exploitation of North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... n workers abroad.
BenarNews tried to contact RAB authorities for a response to the U.S. sanctions, but phone calls and messages were not answered.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal rejected the U.S. sanctions, saying they were "in no way justified."
"The basis on which the action has been taken does not reflect the ground reality," Khan told BenarNews Friday night.
"Ours is a country of 170 million people. Policing here is not as easy as in other countries. The police officials in Bangladesh discharge their duties with much patience," he said.
"While discharging their duties, they must confront many security situations; sometimes they are forced to fire for self-defense. They are entitled to defend themselves," Khan said, referring to allegations of extrajudicial killings.
"In case any members of the law enforcement agencies are found to have violated laws, we punish them accordingly," he added.
In August, while responding to a Human Rights Watch report on enforced disappearances, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said they were "fabricated."
"Some people dissociate themselves from their families and then they come back home after some days," he told BenarNews. He said incidents of killings and disappearances happened everywhere.
"When people were killed in America by law enforcement agencies they called it in the line of duty, but when it happens in our cyopeople[journalists] call it extrajudicial killing," he said. "This mentality has to be changed."
’NATIONAL SHAME’
Activist Sanjida Islam, whose group "Mother is Calling" (Mayer Daak) represents relatives of disappeared people, welcomed news of the U.S. sanctions.
Her brother, Sajedul Islam Sumon — a leader of the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) — went missing in December 2013 after RAB officers whisked him away from a residential neighborhood in Dhaka, she said. He has not been seen since.
"We are glad. This is the first time the state law enforcement agency RAB comes under question from anyone. No domestic institution could [raise] any question about their unlawful activities in Bangladesh," Islam told BenarNews.
"The family members of the victims of enforced disappearances have gone to every institution of Bangladesh to get their sons or brothers back, but in vain," she said.
Nur Khan Liton, a human rights activist and former executive director of the rights advocacy NGO Ain o Salish Kendra, said the U.S. action against RAB was correct.
"We, the human rights activists in Bangladesh, have been clamoring for years that the law enforcement agencies such as RAB have been carrying out extrajudicial killings in the pretext of ’crossfire’ and are responsible for enforced disappearances," he told BenarNews.
"But the state did not heed our concerns. They did not attach importance to our observations. The state repeatedly shrugged off the responsibility for the gross human rights violations," he said.
"I think this is a matter of national shame when we see a foreign country adopts a resolution of sanction on a state agency of Bangladesh for the violation of human rights," Khan said.
"The sanction would not have come had they taken our concerns and observations seriously."
[AlAhram] Ziad Hilweh knew his family might die on the way. But the risk was worth it, he said, to reach the shores of Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... for a new start with his wife and three kids, away from the daily humiliation of life in Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ... The country's economic meltdown had destroyed him. The currency crash meant that the value of his salary from working at a private security company fell from $650 a month to about $50 after the Lebanese pound lost more than 90% of its value in less than two years. It reached the point the 22-year-old could no longer afford milk and diapers for his children.
But the young father's hopes of a better future were shattered last month, when the boat they were on board headed to Italia broke down in the Mediterranean Sea, hours after they set off from the outskirts of Lebanon's port city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... . Along with dozens of other would-be migrants colonists on the boat, they were towed back to shore by the navy after a terrifying attempt at escaping.
For years, Lebanon has been a host for refugees, mainly from Syria, but now it is a departure point. Hundreds of Lebanese have tried to reach Europe this year on boats from their country's shores, spurred by a devastating economic crisis that has thrown two thirds of the population into poverty since October 2019.
It is not a route on the scale of the main sea path from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... to Greece used by many refugees and migrants colonists. But it is a startling shift as Lebanese join Iraqis, Afghans, Sudanese and other Middle Eastern nationalities in leaving their homelands.
Sea departures from Lebanon have increased starting in 2020, compared to previous years, said Lisa Abou Khaled, spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency. According to UNHCR figures, more than 1,570 people embarked or attempted to embark from Lebanon between January and November, most heading for Cyprus. The majority have been Syrians, but Abou Khaled said a notable number of Lebanese have joined them.
``It is evident that these are desperate journeys undertaken by people who see no way of survival in Lebanon,'' said Abou Khaled.
The country is witnessing a frightening convergence of multiple crises, including political instability, the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic and a massive explosion at the capital's main port in August last year that have all added to the financial unravelling of the country.
The rest of the article details the failed attempt, which nonetheless cost Mr. Hilweh a discounted $10,000 and the sale of his car and apartment. But he is so desperate he intends to try again.
[JPost] Israel and the Mossad will hit the Islamic Republic when it deems necessary, but it particularly likes to do so juxtaposed to when Tehran has angered the IAEA.
Much of what was in Saturday’s New York Times report about Israel’s covert war on Iran’s nuclear program was previously known, but some important new details tie together some dots in critical ways. Here are two new takeaways:
#4
..or soon to be imported Mexican autos sold to their upper class that a really nice armored cars. Certainly not green in any way. Decisions, decisions, decisions. [as though those on the Left really care as they live by the motto "one set of rules for thee, another set of rules for me"]
#5
..or soon to be imported Mexican modified autos sold to their upper class that a really nice armored cars. Certainly not green in any way. Decisions, decisions, decisions. [as though those on the Left really care as they live by the motto "one set of rules for thee, another set of rules for me"]
[The Blaze] A CNN employee was charged with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice underage girls to engage in unlawful sexual activity. John Griffin, 44, was arrested on Friday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to federal prosecutors.
Griffin, of Stamford, Connecticut, attempted to persuade parents to allow him to train their underage daughters to be sexually submissive, according to the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont.
"According to the indictment, from April to July of 2020, Griffin utilized the messaging applications Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters, conveying to them, among other ideas, that a 'woman is a woman regardless of her age,' and that women should be sexually subservient and inferior to men," the Department of Justice statement reads.
"In June of 2020, Griffin advised a mother of 9- and 13-year-old daughters that the mother’s responsibility was to see that her older daughter was 'trained properly.' Griffin later transferred over $3,000 to the mother for plane tickets so the mother and her 9-year-old daughter could fly from Nevada to Boston’s Logan airport," the statement says. "The mother and child flew to Boston in July of 2020, where Griffin picked them up in his Tesla and drove them to his Ludlow house. At the house, the daughter was directed to engage in, and did engage in, unlawful sexual activity."
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/12/2021 6:00
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Golden Age of Ped0philia:
Epstein, Maxwell, Gates, Andrew, Clinton
Biden and Son
Anthony Weiner and other shit-politicians of both parties
Weinstein, other Hollyweirdos like Spacey, rappers, CNN producers
The C!A ring French elites celebrating ped0 Matzneff and others
The FB-eye looking the other way
After just five meets and the Akron Invitational, Thomas has not just destroyed opponents. The Penn freestyle records are being rewritten by a swimmer who was second-team All-Ivy league in 2018-19 — as a male
#9
who was second-team All-Ivy league in 2018-19 — as a male
Or who then identified as a male - making her accomplishment back then even more amazing than the current one...
I linked this at instapundit some time ago. But from the fact that a friend sent me this link today, I presume it’s not widely known. The link I put at instapundit was from American Thinker. And for once their title was the most accurate thing ever: Executive Order Canceling the Constitution.
If you’re wondering how that is possible, wonder no more. You know how our government freezes assets of enemy governments? Like Iran’s assets that the FICUS is dying to unfreeze ASAP?
Well, the veneer-thin coat of legality on this bullshit relates to that. At the same time that Dementia Joe and The Commie Ho are giving money and actual nuclear tech to declared enemies of the US, they are declaring US citizens who so much as dare talk against them as enemy collaborators and traitors. And because they’re owned by China (though anyone who thinks that stopping fracking and the keystone pipeline is not a big sloppy kiss to Putin needs their heads examined. It’s in fact the kiss of life, since the only thing Russians have worth anything is oil and they were in deep trouble before China stooges stole our elections) they are of course doing it by screaming Russia, Russia Russia!
Contrary to its title, this EO is not about Russia. It is designed to allow the Biden administration to deprive American citizens and organizations of their rights and property by arbitrarily linking those persons to real, imagined, or vaguely defined activities of the Russian government.
The Biden administration unilaterally makes the determination and requires neither criminal acts nor intent. The punishment is blocking assets and a prohibition on any dealing with the accused person. Spouses and adult children of individuals found guilty by accusation under this EO are punished, too.
The EO was preceded by some distracting maneuvers, both diplomatic (hostile rhetoric toward Russia) and military (sending naval ships toward the Black Sea and recalling them back, as if dealing with Russian threats). Thus, many people assumed that the EO was directed at Russia, and completely missed the fact that it is directed at dissent here, at home.
Over the past four years, the Democrat Party, Fake News, and Big Tech have been frequently portraying their opponents as Russian trolls or Russian misinformation operators. The Russian collusion narrative, initially invented to overthrow the Trump administration, has been used to smear many conservative movements. Now this effort has been crowned by an Executive Order.
All they have to do is make a list of those they consider to be Russian agents. The executive order itself says you can’t dispute your inclusion in this list.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
Oh, yeah, all your property will be impounded, and everyone is forbidden from doing business with you. On the say-so of corrupt agencies and people who have been lying to us for years.
And there’s nothing you can do, and anyone who helps you faces a similar fate.
This is completely fair, because on the FICUS say-so, you become an enemy of the state, and a Russian agent. Totes. Even if there’s no rational reason beyond “Russia ” (And more so China) have an interest in dissension in the US. But if this is the case, the Junta should immediately consider itself Russian agents. (They’re already China’s.)
This was signed on the 15th of April. Do you think there aren’t already things going on to make this work? Do you think that we’re not all already on that list?
Do you think it’s a coincidence you’ve not seen this bullshit anywhere? (And btw the link on top is to the government itself.)
Now, if they were sending goons to collect you, those of you who haven’t lost all your guns in a tragic boating accident would shoot, and it would be on like Donkey Kong.
But that’s not what will happen, and that’s why I’m writing this and asking everyone of you who has a blog and who knows they’re probably already on the list to share it. Or of course if you’re brave enough not to mind if you’re on the list. Note the “your spouse and adult children” too, which is intended to stop you doing anything, for the love of your kids.
I’ve seen this before. Very few people know that the “revolutionary” governments in Portugal froze bank accounts and assets of anyone who spoke out against them. One day you’d go to your bank to remove money, and you couldn’t. Your bank account was frozen as an enemy of the state.
Oh, you have a mortgage? Kids in school? Bills to pay? How terrible and sad it is that you are now functionally a pauper.
As for suddenly finding no one would give you a job, I never even figured out how word went out on that, and I don’t if anyone ever did.
Now, the times we’re living in? Will anyone notice a large number of people becoming suddenly unemployed, and/or having their house foreclosed upon? Help? Well, all they have to do is send a few people who look like government agents to your neighborhood and ask your neighbors (and friends, and associates) questions while strongly implied you’re a traitor working for a foreign power.
Your weapons? Well, then. Surely, you’ll sell them long before it comes time to …. well…. to starve I suppose.
Oh, but surely states will oppose this?
If it’s done the way it was in Portugal, most people won’t even be aware it is going on. Whatever the mechanisms are for flagging foreign enemies in the US — and they are there, and have been, from when our agencies were slightly less corrupt than they are now — will just be deployed, as they have always been, but against anyone who publicly and loudly disapproves of the Junta.
FYI that’s you and me. And anyone who believes in the Constitution and has made this clear in public at any time.
“But that’s a lot of people!”
Well, I imagine right now they’re going for “vocal”. It’s still a ton more people than they can get at gun point (where they can maybe get a 100 TV people and Trump ex-officials.)
And the thing is it will be done behind the scenes, quietly. Through extorsion, and cancelling and whisper campaigns, to discredit and destroy their enemies, and taint them with the label of foreign agents, all without a legal process or any sort of ability to confront their accusers.
At some point, they’ll “notice” the ten million or so new homeless, (hell, the opening of the borders might disguise this, rather neatly, too) and out of their “humane concern,” they’ll create places you can go and be housed and fed.
Do I need to tell you it’s a trap?
This is just a way to round up desperate people. It might also in the end be a way to get rid of the homeless, which rest assured they intend to, once they’re done using it to drive the country’s cities to shit.
Paranoid? Did you read that Executive Order? If not, go do it, I’ll wait.
Now will this be applied ruthlessly and efficiently? Guys, this lot couldn’t shoot a lame fish in a barrel. No, but it will be applied irregularly, annoyingly, and deployed as an instrument of terror to make a large number of people shut up and go along, for fear for their livelihood, their kids, their friends.
It will be, as what they’re already doing to the military and police, a shit show designed to cow people into silence and into fear of losing everything.
Will it work? Oh, for a while at least. I mean, it is working on our military and police.
In my case it puts me in a bit of a pickle, as I don’t like camping, and I’m not young enough to survive long out there. But that’s okay. Personal survival is desirable but not important.
Will it make the left win and rule forever and ever?
Snort. Giggle. They probably think so, but you’re not that stupid. Or at least I hope you aren’t.
These people can’t run the country. They can’t.
The big fatal flaw in their plans of destroying the US is that they can’t survive anywhere else. And they can’t survive in the US after they utterly destroy the economy.
I wrote this at insty yesterday, in this post:
I feel very much about this, as I felt about the early covidiocy, when I was screaming from the rooftops “look at the Diamond Princess numbers. This mostly affects the very old, and even with them it’s not that contagious” while people were coming up with creative reasons that the Diamond Princess wasn’t representative, my favorite of those being “you get the best medical care possible in a cruise ship.” Uh. No. You don’t. Of course you also don’t in our hospitals, when doctors put you on ventilators without regard for the effects of forced ventilation on the very old, which is why the death toll is what it is, but never mind.
Listen to me now, please: the democrats are not at the beginning of a 1000 year Reich. They’re not even at the beginning of a 70 year USSR. Or at the beginning of the decade-plus of Nazi rule.
What all totalitarian regimes have in common is that they screw up economies beyond belief. And I mean that. If you haven’t lived through it, you won’t believe me, but let’s say that communists managing the desert will run out of sand. And socialists will too, but slower. (And our current afflictions are not socialists. No. Shut up. Don’t care about the textbook definition which, at any rate, only the Marxists ever cared about. For all practical applications, communists are socialists in a hurry. And boy, is the Junta in a hurry. Because they are scared. And they should be.)
Do you know why the USSR and the other tragic post-World-War II Marxist regimes survived as long as they did? The US.
Because America is wealthy and can’t stand to see people starve, through humanitarian aid (and the usual traitorous would-be socialists here) we sent aid to those regimes. We kept them afloat.
In doing their best to take over the US all the left is managing is to kill the golden goose. Even if everything they plan came to pass, their regime woud last less than 5 years, because Americans will not starve peacefully.
They don’t understand that because — since China pays a lot of them directly or not — they think China can replace the US in financing their lavish lifestyles and our not-quite-starving.
They don’t get that China is already in American terms close to starvation themselves.
This is because to the left economics is not real. It’s a fantasy they can spin any way they like, and it will keep them going on unicorn farts and dreams.
But if you’re not a leftist, you know economics is “the study of how humans live and eat.” And the democrats are breaking that.
Which means it will get very, very bad in the US. Probably briefly. It will be much worse in the rest of the world.
And the left is bringing this on us, because yes, they believe they can set up the new USSR.
What I can’t understand is why the right also buys into this illusion. Just as I couldn’t understand why no one was looking at the Diamond Princess numbers.
Looking, being scared and buying into apocalyptic scenarios can be fun. Briefly. But we don’t have time for that nonsense. We have a Constitutional Republic we must rebuild. Because otherwise we’re going to be in serious trouble. Not communism, but communism is not the only kind of bad trouble. And for the rest of the world, civilization will be over.
Be not afraid, and do understand that even if the left gets everything it wants — or rather, for sure if it does — it will lose very fast. But we still need to win.
So, I know in the long run they can’t win. In fact, the harder they push, the faster they fall.
BUT–
If this goes into action, as stupid and imperfectly as it will be implemented, it will hurt and perhaps kill a lot of people.
If you’re at risk:
1- Have an alternate identity if you can. I don’t even know how to go about that, except perhaps a ring around the rosy of dbas, trusts and corps. Remember, they’re not nearly as efficient or good at tracing things as they think they are. Our secret services were redesigned by a man who can’t figure out how to go through a gate with an umbrella. And he hired people who think he’s smart.
2- Be ready to decamp at the drop of a hat, if it becomes obvious your financial life is frozen, and there’s nothing you can do for money.
Decamp where? Well, not abroad. As I pointed out above, if the wheels come off here, they’ll come off and explode abroad.
If you can own something outright through a trust or a corp or something, this might be a place to go. If you can’t…. have you considered winter camping gear?
3- Don’t leave yourself defenseless. Don’t sell weapons. Don’t consign yourself to the tender mercies of the government.
Oh, yeah, and keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.
4- Other than that? Find a way to keep being heard. If all you can do is paint the words in blood on phone poles do so. But again, they’re not nearly as smart as they think they are. Find new identities and new ways back on line.
All you have to do is survive this for a year, maybe a little more. And the way to survive it is not to act the way the left would, which is the way they expect everyone to act.
Don’t surrender. Don’t give up. Don’t ask for help.
And keep coming back when they least expect it.
If that EO doesn’t show you they’re not Americans, they’re insane, and they mean to be dictators, I don’t know what will.
Make sure people know the powers the Junta is arrogating to itself. Make sure they can’t do this quietly.
#2
Needs an editor. I stopped reading at the 10,000 word mark.
Tho I would very much like to hear more about the post-Salazar Portuguese experience she mentions, briefly, before resuming her journey through the cosmos...
[AlAhram] Father Tsige Mezgebu was leading an afternoon prayer service in August when a column of haggard-looking rebels entered Lalibela, prompting worshippers to cry out "God save our city!"
He immediately feared the worst for the 11 mediaeval rock-hewn churches that make Lalibela, in northern Æthiopia's Amhara region, a holy site for the country's tens of millions of Orthodox Christians -- as well as a top tourist magnet.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) holy warriors have a fearsome reputation, with officials and human rights
Continued on Page 49
Security forces in #Lebanon and #Syria say they had seized two separate shipments of the banned stimulant captagon that were destined for #SaudiArabia via Jordan, the latest in a string of similar busts.https://t.co/4nUTFqtwjm
#2
Everybody and his brother in the Middle East is making this stuff and selling it, as far as I can tell. It’s a favourite money maker for various jihadi groups, not to mention random entrepreneurs.
It’s the New Yorker, so I can’t judge how true versus truthy their claims might be.
[ToloNews] The New Yorker Magazine in a lengthy report with newly available source material shed light on the Afghan grinding of the peace processor--from its start in 2010 to the foreign forces’ withdrawal in August of this year. Titled, "The Secret History of the US Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan," the report is the first of two parts and covers the failure of the grinding of the peace processor and the fall of Kabul, and is written by Steve Coll and Adam Entous.
According to the New Yorker report, the first attempts for making peace between the Taliban ...Arabic for students... and Afghan government started in November 2010. However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... the attempts did not materialize because the Taliban refused to work with the then-president Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ...A product, and probably the sole product, of the Southern Alliance... government, seeing him as "an illegitimate puppet."
On the other hand, Karzai also objected to the US conferring legitimacy to the Taliban. "You betrayed me!" Karzai shouted at Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, during a meeting in late 2011.
According to the New Yorker, the peace talks did not bear fruits for many years because the Taliban objected to talking with the Afghan government, instead insisting for direct talks with the United States.
The peace talks got serious during Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... 's administration because the US president was determined to pull out US soldiers from Afghanistan, the report says.
Throughout the negotiations between the Taliban and the Trump Administration, Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, ex-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. When Biden abandoned the country left with a helicopter, four cars, and part of the national treasury... and his government were sidelined.
To have leverage, Ghani maintained back channels to American politicians who were supportive of the war, the report says. Ghani, for instance, maintained ties with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham ...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John Maverick McCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems... , who was advocating for the US’s presence in Afghanistan.
Many US officials believed that Ghani had no interest in peace talks. "He preferred the status quo," Khalilzad said. "It kept him in power."
According to the New Yorker, Trump even had asked Zalmay Khalilzad, the then US envoy for Afghan peace, to provide the Taliban with money if that would encourage them to have a peace deal.
Trump asked Khalilzad if he could give the Taliban "something to make them cooperate."
"What are you talking about, Mr. President?"
"Like money."
"No," Khalilzad replied. "They’re on a terrorism list. We can’t give them money."
Finally, the US and the Taliban drafted a deal which was signed in February 2020. When Khalilzad told Trump that Ghani was not happy with the draft deal, Trump replied: "Why are you wasting your time going to talk to Ghani? He’s a crook."
When on July 2021 Ghani met President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S., who gives the term geriatric a bad name. He blames Afghans for losing Afghanistan.... in Washington, Shaharzad Akbar, the chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) was also in Washington, meeting with human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... groups. The report quoted her saying she was disappointed about peace when she heard that many Americans had already concluded that Afghanistan was a lost cause. "I ended up crying a lot that evening," Akbar said. She returned to Kabul and went from embassy to embassy requesting visas for her staff.
According to the New Yorker, Ghani asked for military assistance from Biden, such as more helicopters, and the continuation of logistical support by the American contractions. Biden’s response was vague, according to Afghan officials present in the room.
The New Yorker touched upon the release of Taliban prisoners, quoting American officials saying that Khalilzad wanted a deal to be signed and that he was ready to gives almost everything to the Taliban.
Khalilzad "plainly wanted a deal and seemed willing to give the Taliban almost everything," said Andru Wall, a Navy commander at the Resolute Support Mission. "It was not clear if we had any true red lines."
According to the report, the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a meeting with Ghani in Kabul urged him to be flexible about releasing the Taliban’s prisoners and assured him that "The United States is your leverage. If we do not get what we want, we will not leave," he said. "We will only leave when there is a political resolution."
"This clarity that you will stand with us in the negotiation is something that we have never had," Ghani told him, according to the report.
The New Yorker said the Taliban had agreed on terms over counterterrorism and restrictions on fighting, especially stopping Taliban fighters from attacking US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops as they withdraw based on the agreement. "If one American dies after the deal is signed, then the deal is off," Miller told the Taliban envoys before the Doha deal.
Based on the Doha deal, the intra-Afghan peace talks was scheduled for March 10, 2020, to seek an enduring peace in Afghanistan. The talks, however, started six months later than the date specified in the deal.
Abdul Matin Bek, an advisor to Ghani and a member of the republic negotiation team, had told Khalilzad that the Taliban were not willing to make a political settlement. He told Khalilzad "wake up." "Please, for God’s sake, the Taliban are not in favor of negotiations, they are not in favor of a political settlement," he said. "They’re really on a victory march," the report said.
The talks did not bear fruit, while at the same time war intensified in the country, which according to Miller was clearly "violations in spirit, if not the written word" of the Doha deal.
The intra-Afghan talks did not lead to peace and the Taliban continued overrunning provinces. Kabul finally fell on August 15th, 2021.
According to the report, on August 14, a day before Kabul’s fall, Hamdullah Mohib, the national security adviser, had learned that one of his colleagues at the Presidential Palace was on a list of at-risk Afghans approved by the US embassy for evacuation. "That afternoon, Mohib spoke by phone with a contact at the State Department. During a discussion about peace talks, Mohib paused to ask, "Is there an evacuation plan for us, for me and Ghani? The official asked for something in writing."
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] A new film based on the PMC Wagner franchise is on its way.
In the film "Granite", with the participation of the heroes of the films "Tourist" and "Solntsepek", PMCs go to work in Mozambique.
To fight local militants, the government of Mozambique hired both Russian PMCs and South Africans.
Also in the area of problems of Mozambique, the notorious Eric Prince was spinning. Since the spring of 2021, a group of American Green Berets has also been working in Mozambique, also training the local military.
South African PMCs. Amnesty International accused the South African PMC of involvement in the deaths of civilians as a result of attacks using light helicopters.
Ours in Mozambique.
According to press reports (however, not particularly confirmed by anything, during the fighting in Mozambique, the Russian PMC had from two to seven killed.
ISIS militants are actively operating in northern Mozambique, having under arms 2-2.5 thousand people who are waging a war relying on bases in the jungle, periodically arranging raids on army defensive positions and settlements, sometimes even capturing large coastal cities.
The local military is, at best, poorly competent in counter-terrorism matters, so the government of Mozambique is constantly looking for help on the side. It pays for aid both in money and access to minerals (in particular, to gold mines).
So far, the ISIS problem in Mozambique has not been resolved. The militants seek to transform into a full-fledged ISIS wilayat and take over the entire country in order to make it a base for further ISIS expansion into neighboring countries.
Given the scale of the activity, there are at least a few more films ahead of us.
If we talk about the film, then if they can shoot at least at the level of "Tourist" and "Sunshine", then it's already not bad. Plus, they will also highlight the little-publicized theme of Mozambique and Russian participation in local affairs, although it is unlikely that someone will reveal all the cards in the film.
The trailer is terribly translated, so be advised. And I agree with Rozhin, it looks like the film is going to be pretty good.
I just hope I get another prerelease screening as I did with Sunshine.
#1
Spoiler alert: At first the government turned to foreign mercenaries in the form of Russian and South African military contractors whose main job was to keep the onshore Total facilities and their foreign workers safe. First came the several hundred Russian Wagner Group men who arrived in August 2019 and, while they had some success in halting the Islamic terrorist threat to the LNG facilities, the Russians suffered heavier casualties than anticipated and Wagner left in early 2020 after spending about eight months in Mozambique.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] The first photo was taken on July 9, 2017 (even before the official end of the Battle of Mosul - it officially ended on July 10).
The second photo was taken on December 11, 2021.
From the second photo, you can't even say that until recently there were solid ruins here after carpet bombing of the districts held by ISIS. The Battle of Mosul, along with the Battle of Aleppo, is one of the largest land battles of the 21st century in terms of duration, losses and number of forces involved.
PS. And also about Iraq. Recently, the US announced that it would end its military mission in Iraq and withdraw its troops. This is, of course, caused by a well-known law passed under pressure from the Shiite factions after the assassination of Soleimani. Despite numerous attempts to cancel or disavow it, the United States did not succeed. Therefore, the strategy had to be changed.
The bases and military equipment are transferred to the Iraqi army, the remaining forces are relocated to Iraqi Kurdistan, and their very status will formally change to "advisers and instructors", so there is no talk of a complete withdrawal from Iraq.
The United States is not abandoning its attempts to undermine Iranian influence in the country, but now it will rely on attempts to oppose the government to Shiite factions, as well as to cause a rift between pro-Iranian groups and Sadrists.
This will ensure that the US-Iranian hybrid war on Iraqi territory continues (both the US strikes on Hashd Shaabi and Iranian proxy attacks on US bases and convoys), and the local government remains dependent on the course of this war. At the same time, both Iran and the United States will strive to establish such a government in Iraq, which would definitely take the side of Tehran or Washington and put pressure on the opponent.
In the case of the United States, a right-wing military dictatorship led by some general in the spirit of Al-Sisi, who is not afraid to start a civil war against the Shiite militias.
In the case of Iran, the sovereignty of the Shiite bloc and the Shiite prime minister loyal to Tehran with the purge of cadres loyal to the United States and the complete expulsion of any American and NATO presence from Iraq.
In light of the threat of a breakdown in negotiations on the resumption of the nuclear deal, it cannot be ruled out that in the foreseeable future, Iraq will face serious shocks caused by this hybrid war on its territory.
[GREATERKASHMIR] Inspector General of Police 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.... , Vijay Kumar on Saturday claimed that a Pak LeT Death Eater carried out the attack on a police party in north Kashmir's Bandipora yesterday in which two cops were killed.SgCt Mohammad Sultan and constable Fayaz Ahmad were killed in the attack at Gulshan Chowk area of the district yesterday.
News agency GNS quoted IGP Kashmir saying that a Pak Death Eater of Lashker-eToiba carried out the attack "facilitated" by two OGW (Over Ground Worker) Over ground workers (OGWs) are people who help militants, or terrorists, with logistical support, cash, shelter, and other infrastructure with which armed groups and insurgency movements such as Hizbul Mujaheddin and Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jammu and Kashmir can operate.... s. The IGP Kashmir however did not identify the Death Eater or the OGWs.
"Investigation is underway," he added.
A senior police officer further told GNS that based on CCTV footage of the attack "and other evidence", police have learnt that the Pak Death Eater fired upon the driver and one PSO guarding the concerned SHO and tried to snatch the rifle.
"But he couldn’t snatch the weapon due to retaliation by the PSO, " the officer said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's other gun out of his other hand...... General Officer Commanding of Army’s Kilo Force, Major General Sanjiv Singh Salaria on Saturday chaired a joint meeting of security officers in Bandipora, a day after faceless myrmidons killed two coppers in the district of north Kashmir.
Salaria along with IGP Kashmir visited the scene of the attack and reviewed operational works and instructed field officers to generate specific inputs and enhance anti-militancy operations in district, a police brass hat told GNS.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
00:00 ||
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[11141 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
[Rudaw] A plane carrying over 400 Iraqi and Kurdish migrants colonists from Minsk arrived in Erbil on Friday. Some migrants colonists claim they were forced to return. And ...your point is?
So far, over 3,000 migrants colonists from across Iraq have returned from Belarus since last month. The majority of them are between the ages of 18 and 30.
Aryan Khalil, a returnee, told Rudaw on Friday he was deported by force by Belarussian police.
"They brought a bus the day before yesterday and filled it with migrants colonists by kicking them. They then sent us in three taxis to the airport and locked us up. They made us get on the plane tonight and then returned us," said the man.
Every migrant has a different story to tell. They have spent between $5,000 and $30k en route to Europe.
"[Making it to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... on] this route is by chance. Some have been returned by force while some could make it. We’re the victims of this route," said migrant Hawkar Bahadin at the airport.
Many come back to the Kurdistan Region with wounds from police brutality at the border.
"They [police] fractured my leg," said Jumaa Mohammed, who said he left the Kurdistan Region in search of a better life.
Thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish people traveled to the Belarus-Poland borders in recent months to make it to Europe.
The difficult conditions at the border zone caught the attention of international media and leaders. Several migrants colonists have died on the border so far.
Erbil and Baghdad began offering free flights to those who chose to return voluntarily last month.
According to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Foreign Relations, more than a thousand migrants colonists are waiting to be sent back to Iraq in Belarusian camps.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2021
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[11145 views]
Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
#1
Where does all the travel money come from?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/12/2021 9:48
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#2
The majority of them are [males] between the ages of 18 and 30.
They couldn't make it at home or change the ruling political environment so they joined the migrant hoard. They couldn't make it in their adoptive nation protesting borders or just being ne'er-do-wells so they were rounded up, beaten and booted out of the country, at some cost.
Apparently the money comes from savings, sale of assets like homes and cars, and loans. Some of the loans are from traffickers, to be repaid from earnings upon arrival at their final destination.
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.
A moderate sized cricket ground ? 
EcoHealth Alliance and US government funders reveal viral samples from Lao bats were being collected and sent for study in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
It's not just Portland. 
The report vindicates the position taken by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which took measures to weed out these Beijing-controlled institutes from U.S. universities.
[SANFRANCISCO.CBSLOCAL] In the month of November, city data shows there were 3,375 reports of larceny theft in 
[ET] China’s Belt and Road Initiative has resulted in debt traps for a number of countries. Laos may have just joined the list with the opening of the China-Laos railway on Dec. 3.
[Breitbart] The British government has promised to help Ukraine fortify its Belarusian frontier amid worries Alexander Lukashenko could redirect illegal 
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Some migrants advancing through 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An investigation into last year’s Beirut blast is set to resume after a court rejected the last of several lawsuits that had led the probe to be suspended for more than a month.
Hezbollah
...Arabic for 
A ten percent increase in TB profits for sure. 
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
[Breitbart] A group of migrants called an Arizona TV station and sent video documenting where they asked for help. They claim to have spent more than four hours wandering the desert looking for U.S. authorities. Federal officials reportedly told the migrants they could not take them in because their shelters were full.
...The land area formerly occupied by the state of Lebanon, before that Phoenicia...
[JustTheNews] Forty of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C. were given a failing grade in their response to child and youth 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran...
[JustTheNews] A Customs and Border Protection division used government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, according to a federal watchdog.
...
...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation...
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...
• Mossad/Israel like to hit Iran when it angers the IAEA
The Golden Age of Ped0philia:
FBI moves quickly at CNN to take Griffin scalp while Cuomo brothers slide down the media memory hole. 
...46th president of the U.S., who gives the term geriatric a bad name. He blames Afghans for losing Afghanistan....
Recently, the US announced that it would end its military mission in Iraq and withdraw its troops. This is, of course, caused by a well-known law passed under pressure from the Shiite factions after the assassination of Soleimani. Despite numerous attempts to cancel or disavow it, the United States did not succeed. Therefore, the strategy had to be changed.
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
