h/t Instapundit
Crude oil production in Texas has beaten a previous record set in the 1970s, a new report from the Texas Independent Producers Royalty Owners Association stated.
Texas oil wells produced more than 1.54 billion barrels of crude in 2018, beating the previous record of 1.28 billion barrels set in 1973, TIPRO reported in its annual "State of Energy Report" early Monday morning.
Natural gas production also grew, reaching 8.8 trillion cubic feet in 2018, the report stated. Howl in pain oil ticks! Howl!!!
#4
US petroleum resurgence to global prominence is transient. Each big advance (offshore, deep water, fracking) starts here, gets fully developed, and moves elsewhere. Right now we are king of fracking, but in a few years it will be Russia or China or KSA etc. As long as it's somewhere the global economy will tick along (more or less): the sh*t will only really hit the fan when we run out of advances and places to use them. It will happen, though we may still have another cycle or two, by which time we had better have come up with serious alternative energy sources.
#6
We have serious alternative energy sources - nuclear. However, the Luddites would we rather freeze and starve. BTW, that big thermonuclear generator in the sky has been going for a long time, and is responsible for skin cancer (thus not the 'safe' alternative the usual suspects claim it is).
[Willamette Week] Portland city council voted to withdraw from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The move makes Portland the second city to cut ties with an FBI task force, after San Francisco left its JTTF in 2017. Portland had rejoined the JTTF in 2015.
Commissioner Chloe Eudaly voted with Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Amanda Fritz to pull Portland police officers out of the JTTF, which investigates potential extremist threats.
Commissioner Nick Fish opposed Hardesty's resolution to pull out of the task force. They had proposed making changes to the memorandum that guided the partnership between local police and federal law enforcement agencies.
Eudaly had not publicly indicated her vote before Wednesday's City Council meeting.
"I believe we all want the same thing, we want to keep our communities safe," Eudaly said. "We want to direct our resources toward actual threats."
Before voting in favor of withdraw, Eudaly said she did not trust the federal administration or feel safer now than five years ago.
Hardesty had led the push to withdraw from the JTTF since winning election in November.
"When we talk about one Portland, a Portland where everyone is respected, we cannot in good conscious continue our participation with the JTTF," Hardesty said.
#3
Those who refuse to protect and defend a state have no right to protection by that state.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/14/2019 8:03 Comments ||
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#4
If several million people in a blue city like Portland or SF die in a terrorist attack, the immediate calls for a "weighted" election to offset the loss of blue voters will be hilarious.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2019 10:29 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] An international court Wednesday ruled Iran can proceed with a bid to unfreeze assets in the United States, rejecting Washington's claims the case must be halted because of Tehran's alleged support for international terrorism.
Washington had argued that Iran's "unclean hands" - a reference to Tehran's suspected backing of terror groups - should disqualify its lawsuit to recover $2 billion in assets frozen by the US Supreme Court in 2016.
But the International Court of Justice in The Hague threw out the US challenges, and said that it had the right to hold full hearings at a later date as to whether Tehran will get the money back.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/14/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
I think the UN might end up owing the US $2B soon.
[AlMasdar] Iraq will be repatriating any Iraqi national that has been captured in Syria, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said during a presser on Wednesday.
According to Abdul-Mahdi, all captured Iraqi nationals will be repatriated and brought to justice for their crimes committed.
Abdul-Mahdi made these comments during a presser with U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
According to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, a senior Iraqi intelligence official said there are up to 20,000 Iraqis, including members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , which Baghdad will bring back home by April.
“Awright, all you Mohammeds, lissen up! Anyone of you not guilty of being an Allah-damned jihadi who fought for ISIS in Syria? No? *BANG* Ok, bailiff, take ‘em out by tens and and hang ‘em.
Awright, all you Abdullahs, lissen up! Anyone of you not guilty of being an Allah-damned jihadi who fought for Al Nusra in Syria? No? *BANG* Ok, bailiff, take ‘em out by tens and hang ‘em.
Awright, all you Fahouds, lissen up!...”
Earlier this year, La Belle France said they would make an effort to repatriate their captured nationals in Syria; however, Gay Paree has yet to take any of their nationals.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/14/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Speaking to Israel’s Channel 13 news, Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal, a former ambassador to Washington, pushes back against claims by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Riyadh wants to work with Israel regardless of a peace deal with the Paleostinians.
"It’s not going to happen," he says.
Asked if Netanyahu is deceiving the Israeli public by saying the Gulf wants to work with Israel before a peace deal with the Paleostinians, he responds "absolutely."
"From the Saudi point of view its the other way around," he says.
Faisal tells the channel that the Saudis want to push forward, but Jerusalem has refused to respond to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative or propose a plan of their of their own.
"With Israeli money and Saudi brains we can go far," he says.
"Jerusalem is something I want to see before I die, and unfortunately I’m not too optimistic I will see that," Faisal says.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has released a video of a meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi.
Netanyahu tells bin Alawi that the recent rapprochement between the two countries is "changing the world."
"I have to tell you that the courageous decision of Sultan Qaboos to invite me to Oman is changing the world," he says, referring to his October 2018 visit to Muscat.
"It’s pointing the way for many others to do what you said, not to be stuck in the past but to seize the future."
The Omani foreign agrees that the countries’ newfound friendship is "an important, new vision for the future."
[Ynet] When Israeli jail is your best option: More than a dozen Gazooks have breached the border fence since the start of the year, the army says, primarily in an effort to escape the grim living conditions in the Strip.
More than 15 Paleostinians infiltrated into Israel from Gazoo since the beginning of 2019, seeking to escape the socioeconomic distress in the coastal enclave, according to the Israel Defense Forces Southern Command.
Only a small proportion of those attempting to cross into Israel have been identified as Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, members. The IDF said their main motive for breaching the fence was to escape their "misery" in the Strip. In order to prevent Israeli prisons from becoming too packed, some of the Paleostinians were returned to the enclave after being questioned by the Shin Bet domestic security service.
Several of the detainees‐most of whom are teens aged 14-17‐were carrying knives and bolt cutters to ensure they end up in an Israeli prison and therefore remain in the country rather than to carry out a terror attack. The would-be infiltrators have also recently come up with a new method‐gathering along the security fence in groups and waiting for Israeli soldiers to arrest them.
The latest attempts to breach the fence came with the resumption of nighttime festivities along the Gazoo border, which Hamas resumed on Sunday night, months after stopping them.
For the past two months, Israel and Hamas have been sticking to an agreement to restore calm to the border. Jerusalem has allowed fuel shipments and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i money to enter Gazoo and has increased the Strip's fishing zone. In return, Hamas has stopped firing rockets at Israel's Gazoo border communities and showed restraint during the weekly "March of Return" protests.
If relative calm remains along the Gazoo border, the next and main stage of the arrangement between Israel and Hamas might be implemented: establishing a seaport in Cyprus through which goods will be transferred to Gazoo.
Nevertheless, the IDF's Gazoo Division does not see a clear link between the humanitarian relief Israel provides Gazoo and the relative quiet on the border. The unstable relationship between Hamas and the Fatah-led Paleostinian Authority, along with renewed activity by the Iranian-backed Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , also influence security developments on the ground.
The IDF maintains that Hamas does have control over the Gazoo border protests and the level of violence used by demonstrators, which it raises or loweres in line with its daily status evaluations.
[IsraelTimes] Security service says Gazoo terror group tried to recruit Paleostinians in West Bank, Jerusalem who have Israeli ID cards to conduct attacks, including a planned suicide bus bombing
The Shin Bet security service on Wednesday accused the Paleostinian al-Aqsa broadcaster and Gazoo-based journalists of acting as agents of the Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, terror group’s military wing in an effort to recruit young Paleostinians with Israeli ID cards to carry out terror attacks inside Israel.
According to the security service, the al-Aqsa television station was used to pass clandestine messages to Hamas operatives in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, using quotes from the Koran or subtle gestures by the presenters. The Shin Bet named two presenters who it said conveyed messages from Gazoo via signals on air, and cited an instance in which a presenter did so by placing a cup of tea on a desk and reciting a line from a poem.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Not surprising. It is a standard bit of tradecraft to use a classified ad in a newspaper to send a signal. This is just a more modern version. With the additional advantage that your people don't need to know how to read.
(I'm assuming Paleo schools are no better than ours)
[AnNahar] Israeli troops on Wednesday resumed the installation of a controversial concrete barrier wall on the border between Leb and occupied Paleostine opposite the village of Kfarkila, LBCI television reported.
Israel is building a massive wall along its northern border, saying the barrier is needed to protect civilians from Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... attacks.
New threats emerged between Leb and Israel over several issues, including the wall the Jewish state is building that Beirut says may jut into Lebanese territories, as well as plans for oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean.
[CNN] Iran is in possession of improved and dangerous weapons systems that give Tehran the ability to threaten some of the world's most important waterways, according to the top American admiral in the Middle East.
"They have a growing capability in cruise missiles, they have a growing capability in ballistic missiles, they have a growing capability in unmanned surfaced systems, all these things that we watch that are offensive, and destabilizing in nature," Vice Adm. James Malloy, the commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, told a small group of reporters in Bahrain on Wednesday.
Unmanned surface systems, which can include explosive boats designed to target enemy vessels, have concerned US officials for some time, particularly after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen used such a boat to attack a vessel that belonged to Saudi Arabia.
The US has accused Tehran of supplying the Houthis with these boats.
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02/14/2019 09:05 ||
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#1
Jesus Christ shut the fuck up you piece of shit warmonger. Stop fucking meddling in places you have no business.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/14/2019 12:18 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] But Intel report says Tehran not giving up on plans to threaten Israel; army assesses Tehran abiding by 2015 nuclear deal, but could create atomic bomb within 2 years.
Israel’s campaign of Arclight airstrikes in Syria has driven Iran to change tack in the country, moving the bulk of its troops and bases away from the Israeli border and toward what it sees as a safer location closer to Iraq, according to Military Intelligence assessments released Wednesday.
At the same time, the report said Iran appears to be adopting a more aggressive stance toward Israel, as evident by its launch of a missile into the northern Golan Heights last month, in response to a reported strike by the Israel Defense Forces. While most troops are being moved away, some pro-Iranian forces remain on the border with Israel and have established observation posts from which they can monitor Israeli military activities.
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02/14/2019 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The United States is ready to help countries repatriate Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadists detained in Syria but time is of the essence and Washington insists that ultimately it is up to their home governments to come up with solutions.
The window to organize the fighters' return with U.S. support "is quickly closing," a U.S. State Department official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
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02/14/2019 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Officials in Tunisia have been "dragging their feet" on efforts to repatriate Tunisian children of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group members from camps in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
The rights group, quoting Tunisia's ministry of women and kiddies, said about 200 children and 100 women claiming Tunisian nationality were being held in "squalid" camps abroad.
Many of the children are six-year-olds or younger, the rights groups said, adding that most were being held with their mothers while at least six were orphans.
Around 2,000 children and 1,000 women from 46 nationalities are being detained in prisons in Iraq and Libya and three camps in northeast Syria for ties to IS, HRW said, and Tunisia has "one of the largest contingents".
"Tunisian officials are dragging their feet on helping bring (them) home."
Hundreds of civilians, including IS-linked family members, have been fleeing a U.S.-backed offensive against the jihadist group's last holdout in eastern Syria.
HRW said it has interviewed family members of women and kiddies detained in Libya and Syria, as well as government officials, human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. activists, lawyers, U.N. representatives and Western diplomats for its report.
The watchdog had also visited three camps in northeast Syria controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces and cited what is said were "rare calls and letters" to family members by mothers of some children.
"Legitimate security concerns are no license for governments to abandon young children and other nationals held without charge in squalid camps and prisons abroad," said Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at HRW.
"Tunisian children are stuck in these camps with no education, no future, and no way out while their governments seems to barely lift a finger to help them," Tayler said
In response Tunisia's foreign ministry said it was "strongly attached to the values of human rights" and that authorities would not turn back Tunisians seeking to return home.
According to authorities in Tunis, 3,000 Tunisians have gone abroad to join jihadist organizations, while the U.N. puts the figure as high as 5,000.
Their return has been a cause of concern in Tunisia, which has been under a state of emergency following a string of IS-claimed jihadist attacks in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017, hundreds of Tunisians erupted into the streets to protest against the repatriation of IS-linked citizens.
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02/14/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Voting with one's feet has consequences
"To hear the lamentations of their women and children"
[AnNahar] Tajikistan's foreign minister said on Tuesday he hoped Iraq will return at least 75 children after their mothers, tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! over links to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, agreed to their repatriation.
Sirodjidin Mukhriddin said that of 92 children from Tajikistan stranded in Iraq, 75 should be eligible for repatriation, 31 of whom are aged under three.
Mukhriddin said that in most cases, the children had lost their fathers, who died fighting for the IS and other bad boy groups.
Iraqi legislation demands that parents consent to their children leaving the country, he said.
Tajikistan will have to pay $400 to repatriate each child, he said, a fee determined after diplomatic negotiations with Iraq.
But Mukhriddin said repatriating the 43 women serving time in Iraqi jails would be an uphill battle.
"Iraqi judges sentenced a number of female citizens of Tajikistan to long sentences, some even to life sentences," he said. The repatriation process "will be long and hard."
Tajik diplomats will be heading to Iraq's neighbor Syria "in the near future" to discuss the issue with government officials including prison authorities, he said.
Russia said Sunday that it had repatriated 27 children whose mothers were held in Iraq for belonging to the Islamic State group. Thirty had already been repatriated in December.
IS seized large swathes of Iraq in a lightning 2014 offensive, before the Iraqi government dislodged the jihadists from urban centers and eventually declared victory in December 2017.
Tajik authorities have said over 1,000 citizens left the country to fight on the side of bad boy groups in Iraq and Syria after 2011, some after stints working abroad in Russia.
The most famous IS recruit from Tajikistan was Gulmurod Halimov, who headed the interior ministry's special forces unit before sensationally announcing his defection to IS in a video attributed to the group in 2015.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/14/2019 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
[Rudaw] An international court Wednesday ruled Iran can proceed with a bid to unfreeze assets in the United States, rejecting Washington's claims the case must be halted because of Tehran's alleged support for international terrorism.
[IsraelTimes] Speaking to Israel’s Channel 13 news, Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal, a former ambassador to Washington, pushes back against claims by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Riyadh wants to work with Israel regardless of a peace deal with the Paleostinians.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
