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Al-Shabaab attacks military base after loss of key stronghold, driven off leaving 21 deaders behind
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
6 09:29 Skidmark [15] 
3 16:18 Rex Mundi [17] 
5 14:56 Bangkok Billy [21] 
6 16:34 lord garth [17] 
1 09:46 Skidmark [16] 
4 09:54 Skidmark [19] 
3 11:19 Procopius2k [17] 
10 16:50 Procopius2k [11] 
15 20:09 M. Murcek [14] 
4 10:17 Skidmark [10] 
5 22:58 Super Hose [13] 
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2 10:48 Frank G [10] 
9 17:39 Super Hose [14] 
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
10 18:06 Slavising Unineting5672 [21]
15 22:10 Super Hose [25]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Florida mom dead after gang-related mass shooting at MLK Day celebration
Follow up to this Feral Yoot story from yesterday.
[NYPOST] A Florida mother has died from gunshot wounds she suffered in a gang-related mass shooting Monday at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, officials said.

The unnamed 29-year-old — who was among eight people shot in the bloodbath — was trying to enjoy the holiday event with her young daughter, said St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara.

"I’m here to sadly report that one of those victims died this morning," he said. "She’s a Fort Pierce native who was at the party with her 6-year-old daughter. And now what was a shooting investigation has turned into a murder investigation."

Shots erupted just after 5 p.m. during the MLK Car Show and Family Fun Day at Ilous Ellis Park, where roughly 1,000 revelers had gathered at what was billed as a family-friendly event.
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think the children have fundamentally misunderstood what part of the MLK legacy we celebrate.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Even money most people there that day know exactly who did it.

But snitches get stitches...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  ...they'll work it out themselves.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 11:19 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Georgia football OL Devin Willock & recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy killed in car crash
[Athens Banner-Herald] Georgia football offensive lineman Devin Willock and team support staff member Chandler LeCroy were killed early Sunday in a single-vehicle car crash on the east side of Athens.

Willock, 20, was a third-year player from New Milford, N.J. who started at guard in two games this season and played the past two seasons after redshirting in 2020.

LeCroy, 24, was a football recruiting staff member and a UGA graduate.

Two other members of the football program were injured and are in stable condition, according to UGA athletics.

The father of Georgia offensive tackle Warren McClendon said his son was one of the other passengers. Recruiting staffer Tory Bowles, sustained serious injuries, according to a post Sunday afternoon by the Prince Avenue Christian Girls Basketball Twitter account which said she was a 2015 graduate of the Bogart school.
There are only three kinds of people on the street after midnight; cops, crooks, and victims.

Posted by: Besoeker || 01/18/2023 05:12 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yahoo News - Police arrived to the crash scene at 2:55 a.m. Sunday at 930 Barnett Shoals Road, 7 minutes after dispatch and 10 minutes after the estimated crash time, according to the report.

The Georgia Motor Vehicle Crash Report determined that excessive speed was a contributing factor in the crash. The posted speed was 40 miles per hour. The investigation is ongoing.


Who knew? "Excessive speed" at 2:45 a.m. No mention of controlled substances or alcohol. Yes, could have been "excessive speed." Looks like an airplane crash.

Dawg Nation reports: "Details scarce...."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/18/2023 5:24 Comments || Top||

#2  ...I beg everyone's forgiveness in advance if I'm wrong, but something is not sitting right here.

Mike
Posted by: MikeKozlowski || 01/18/2023 6:47 Comments || Top||

#3  College sportsball recruiting is a round-the-clock job...

Snark O'The Day
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Who was at the controls of the Messerschmitt?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 7:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Ref #2: That could be why it was posted Mike. No 'forgiveness' necessary.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/18/2023 7:46 Comments || Top||



-Great Cultural Revolution
Number of Virginia high schools who failed to inform students of merit awards rises to 13
New, all-Republican school boards there in the next election?
[HotAir] Well, I suspected last week that we probably hadn’t seen the end of this story and that’s certainly proven to be the case. As Beege pointed out yesterday, the number of Fairfax County high schools where students were not informed they had received National Merit Scholar Awards has risen to seven. That’s in addition to the three schools in nearby Loudoun County that made the same mistake. That brings us to ten Virginia high schools.

Yesterday, Prince William County which is just a bit further west from Fairfax County joined the club.

Another School system in Northern Virginia has admitted to not telling students about their prestigious national merit recognition in time for important college scholarship deadlines.

Two Prince William County high schools didn’t notify students of their national merit recognition in time for important college scholarship and admissions deadlines, the school district told 7News.

The school system blames "accidental administrative oversight" for not telling students last September.

In all, this only impacted 16 students but that just points out again how few students receive these awards in the first place. In addition, Loudoun County added a fourth school to its existing tally.

On Monday, 7News learned a fourth high school in Loudoun County, John Champe High School, didn’t notify students of their national merit recognition. The principal of the Loudoun County high school sent an email notifying the high school the Director of School Counseling is on leave as of Jan 13. Right now, it’s unclear if the counselor was placed on leave for not notifying students of their national merit recognition.

It’s difficult to keep track of all of this but that brings us to 13 schools in all, seven in Fairfax County, four in Loudoun County and two in Prince William County. The Daily Mail created this list. The unnamed high school is John Champe High:

Fairfax County Superintendent Michelle Reid has claimed all of the failures in her district were the result of individual failures, not an organized effort. But Reid has expressed her commitment to equity from her start on the job. In this clip put out by FCPS she said, "I’ve made it my life’s work to ensure equitable opportunities and equal outcome for each and every student that I’ve had the opportunity to serve

I don’t think anyone has a problem with a superintendent who wants to see equal opportunities for all students under her care to learn and grow. That’s a good thing. But her statement about ensuring an "equal outcome" for every student is a step too far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 02:11 || Comments || Link || [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New, all-Republican school boards there in the next election?

Won't make a difference. This is too extensive in the 'professional educators' culture. We've already proved you can shut down the school system for a year and the world did not end. It's time to fire everyone (other than the janitors) and send recruitment teams to red country. Not going to happen cause those who are concerned do not want to acknowledge we're at war and take the drastic action that is necessary.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 6:39 Comments || Top||

#2  /\ Won't make a difference.

No, it certainly will not. And here is another example of the filth and poison being fed our young children.

PASTE
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/18/2023 6:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Gummint out of the school bidness...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Only growing to sound more and more like an organized effort to discriminate against certain students of a certain racial backgrounds.
Maybe?? To promote other racial background students?

I have to wonder what was N.E.A.'s hand is in this mess.

Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/18/2023 9:01 Comments || Top||

#5  It is worth parent looking at their own states for the same practice. The chances that any opportunity for woke was missed in Columbia, Maryland, for instance, seems unlikely to me.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:01 Comments || Top||

#6  up to 16 schools as of noon today
Posted by: lord garth || 01/18/2023 16:34 Comments || Top||


[See Sunday] What's behind the US baby bust? Americans are prioritizing careers and leisure activities over having a family... as experts say this has set the US on an irreversible path to economic destruction
  • America's fertility rate dropped to 1.6 in 2020, continuing to fall below the replacement rate of 2.1

  • Experts say financial issues are not the main cause, instead an attitude change in the western world is at fault

  • They warn that population decline could have severe negative economic effects and crash social security


China’s population shrinks for the first time in six decades and projections say it could HALF by 2100 – with India set to overtake as world’s biggest in April
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [14 views] Top|| File under: Mob Rule

#1  We're overcrowded anyway. The only ones who lose out from a smaller growth rate are those who are already stupendously wealthy. Look at how outraged they are that they can't pay desperate poor people $8/hour any more and have to pay fairly for workers.
Posted by: Herman Hapsburg8987 || 01/18/2023 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  We're overcrowded anyway.

In America, only the big, Democratic-controlled cities are overcrowded. The rest of the country is comfortably spread out in suburbs, small town, and countryside.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 0:12 Comments || Top||

#3  After a few generations of 'educating' people that they don't need children to have children are an annoying barrier to having a (quote) fulfilling life (un-quote) then why should this be a surprise?
Posted by: magpie || 01/18/2023 1:07 Comments || Top||

#4  America had the same space and only 120 million people and got along just fine.

Now? We're at 330 million and climbing like a rocket. We already fled the cities due to them. Where are you going to flee when they come for you in the suburbs? Obama already tried to destroy single family housing. You think you're going to be safe? You're whistling past the graveyard.
Posted by: Herman Hapsburg8987 || 01/18/2023 5:28 Comments || Top||

#5  A hundred years ago most people in America lived in towns, villages and the rural areas, not major cities. You have to understand the factors that drove urbanization in the first half of the 20th Century to understand why it no longer works that way now.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 6:30 Comments || Top||

#6  ...Well, just as an 'unintended' example, car seat contraception.

Mike
Posted by: MikeKozlowski || 01/18/2023 6:49 Comments || Top||

#7  The region's controlling government(s)' level of control by that government(s)' willingness+ability to use absolute force.

That is, the heavier the controlling group(s) the lower the population growth, birth rate being one indicator.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/18/2023 10:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Where are you going to flee when they come for you in the suburbs?

Me? I live in a Republican safe district in Ohio, a state that gets redder with every election, My congressman is a former Army Ranger captain who went green to gold via West Point, then retired to take over — and grow — his family tool manufacturing business before going into politics. He recently joined the board of West Point, which must be an interesting experience for all concerned. Nothing is going to happen here.

And if worst does indeed come to worst, I have my grandmother’s war memoir and my mother’s stories describing their time in hiding from — and fighting against — the Nazis in the Netherlands.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 15:03 Comments || Top||

#9  I also live in Ohio. My Congressman is pretty useless. He likes lighthouses and is a tool of the cannabis lobby. He is a Republican. I don’t think he is Deep State unless they have a light house strategy that I am unaware of. Unlike Gonzalez, he seems to vote ok. I expect that he fears that either MTG or Boebert will knock him unconscious in the cloak room if he double crosses us. As for them coming for us, in Portage County that would look like Fallujah.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 17:39 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
TSA finds undeclared 84 mm caliber weapon in checked luggage at Texas airport
[FoxNews] Owner advised the item is a de-militarized 84MM Carl-Gustaf M4 recoilless rifle.

Transportation Security Administration officers at an airport in Texas found an undeclared, 84 mm caliber weapon in outbound checked luggage Monday, according to an agency tweet.

"We don't see that caliber of weapon very often, thank god," TSA spokesperson Patricia Mancha told San Antonio TV station KENS 5. She added the case has been handed over to the San Antonio Police Department.
"It could've killed the entire population of San Antonio if it had unlimited ammo ...and worked!!1!"
The owner of the luggage was located, identified and escorted to an office, an SAPD spokesman told Fox News Digital.

The owner advised the item is a demilitarized 84MM Carl-Gustaf M4 recoilless rifle that was to be used as exhibit/demo item at the SHOT show currently happening in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The owner identified the steps taken to "demilitarize" the prop and produced company paperwork to that effect.

A TSA Explosives Specialist also confirmed the item was no longer able to be used; however, a TSA supervisor declared the item would not be allowed onboard aircraft.

The unidentified party cooperated with police, and a family member retrieved the prop. The man rebooked his departing flight.

At this time, no charges are pending in the case, but the incident at the San Antonio International Airport is being used to remind travelers how to transport firearms and ammunition.

Firearm owners may transport unloaded firearms in a locked, hard-sided container as checked baggage only, according to the TSA website. They must declare the firearm and/or ammunition to the airline when checking their bag at the ticket counter. The container must completely secure the firearm from being accessed. Locked cases that can be easily opened are not permitted.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Despite proved to be "demilitarized" , "inert", "For Bragging Purposes only" and basically a hunk of pretty shaped metal. TSA supervisor declared the item would not be allowed onboard aircraft, even as checked baggage ????



Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/18/2023 6:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I for one, feel much safer now that an inert piece of metal has been safely removed from that man's suitcase.

Of course the supervisor was making a wise decision, not merely saving face by determining that the subordinates had made the right decision.

/sarc
Posted by: Too Old To Work || 01/18/2023 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  It is better that way. There is no way the baggage handlers would have not stolen it, thinking it was operational. Someone would have gotten shot during the resale. Just take the hound to the gun show next time. You stand a better chance of getting their sooner until Buttigieg electrifies their fleet,
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Returning home from Sturgis, TSA determined I couldn't hand carry my disk brake lock as it fell in the category of 'striking device'.


"I rode flew"
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 10:17 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
How to survive a nuclear explosion: Scientists reveal the safest places to take shelter when a blast wave hits – and why you should steer clear of any windows, corridors and doors
  • Researchers used computer modelling to simulate the effects of a nuclear blast

  • They focused on the force from a blast wave rather than the threat of radiation

  • Results show the best positions to take indoors to prevent death from the blast

According to the researchers, the best place to shelter is in the corner of a room, facing the direction of the blast, or to 'duck and cover', potentially behind a chair or table.

However, people should steer clear of windows, corridors and doors as this is where extreme winds travel at the highest speeds, strong enough to lift people into the air and cause serious injury when they hit the ground.
Safest thing is to hide under a school desk.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Survival Rule #1

Don't be there.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/18/2023 6:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Start at pg 221.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 7:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Or ... watch the bright lights with a tasty malt.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Best way is to have two 90 degree turns to break up the blast. Also works very well against persistent chemical weapon attack.

But rule #1 is preferable. Or dig deep.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/18/2023 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  The cost of a shelter is more than I can afford. I will check EBay for a school desk and chair set from the 70s.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't consider it a shelter.
Consider productivity purchases for your farm.

Code it as a limited access, humidity/temperature controlled, below grade agriculture product storage facility. The allowable cost deduction~$30k.

Include the electrically warmed 1000 gallon aquaculture incubation tank with added agitation. Also deductible~$5k.

No sales tax on these items with the correct agricultural tax exemption.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 10:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Just put a mask on.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/18/2023 10:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Don't vote for the Dems and Neo Cons.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/18/2023 10:51 Comments || Top||

#9  If one does not have their own personal seed vault, they are not prepared.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 01/18/2023 16:20 Comments || Top||

#10  ^ Well, I do, but I doubt even I could live only on the ten hottest pepper varieties alone.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 16:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Anybody that grew up in the 50's AND 60'S ALREADY KNEW THIS.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 01/18/2023 17:05 Comments || Top||

#12  #9 - Too late - vasectomy at age 32
Posted by: Frank G || 01/18/2023 19:13 Comments || Top||

#13  We can take cover behind her:

Posted by: DooDahMan || 01/18/2023 19:15 Comments || Top||

#14  #10 I can’t wait to get my peach Trinidad scorpions germinating

Posted by: Beavis || 01/18/2023 19:26 Comments || Top||

#15  ^ You will like those.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 20:09 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
AU peace envoy: Over 600,000 people killed in Ethiopia's Tigray war
[Garowe] At least 600,000 people were killed in Æthiopia's Tigray war which lasted for two years, a top mediator has said, which suggests that the number could be probably more should the final statistics get properly collated by credible data processors who would not hide any information.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peace envoy to the Horn of Africa, noted that the brutal war was underestimated and could have cost further damage beyond imaginable heights had the parties failed to strike a truce. Those dead are both innocent civilians and members of security forces.

"The number of people killed was about 600,000," former Nigerian president and African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo told the Financial Times in an interview.

During the interview, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president, said the truce in Nairobi and Pretoria fundamentally, "stopped an average of 1000 deaths per day". The Æthiopian National Defense Forces [ENDF] was at loggerheads with Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] after an attack at the Northern Command in 2020.

Also central in the negotiations was the former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who worked closely with Obasanjo and the United States which largely facilitated the grinding of the peace processor. Both the US and the African Union [AU] have been instrumental in brokering the grinding of the peace processor.

Tim Vanden Bempt, who is part of a research group investigating civilian atrocities in Tigray at the University of Ghent, said Obasanjo’s 600,000 estimates might be roughly correct. Tigray was blockaded for long periods, making independent analysis of what went on, including how many people died, extremely difficult, say experts.

"Based on reports from the field, the number of dead could be somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 civilian casualties only — this from atrocities, starvation, and lack of healthcare," Vanden Bempt said. In addition, he said there were unofficial estimates of between 200,000 and 300,000 battlefield deaths, though these could not be accurately verified.

Credible reports also indicate that the war saw many civilians get raped with the perpetrators targeting both children and women. The ENDF was being backed by soldiers from Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
and Amhara regional militia, who are yet to completely withdraw and disengage from Tigray.

Should the estimates stand, then the deaths could be slightly higher than the deaths in Ukraine and Russian wars, or, the tally could overtake the number recorded in the Colombian war which left thousands of people dead and others critically injured.

Daniel Bekele, Æthiopia’s human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
chief, said casualty estimates should be treated with extreme caution. "We will probably not be able to know the full number of casualties," he said. "We need to be cautious about overly exaggerated corpse count estimates by all sides."

The war left critical infrastructural projects destroyed, with telecommunication, hospitals, banking, and electricity suffering the most. The country has activated normality in most areas including the resumption of daily flights to Tigray's major towns including the capital Mekelle.

"I believe we have gone beyond the point of no return," said Obasanjo. "I believe the guns are silenced." He asked the Æthiopian parliament to declassify Tigray People's Liberation Front as a terrorist organization to help reduce political temperatures that have been in top gear over the last three years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 01:03 || Comments || Link || [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Certainly more than were killed on America's highways in two years.

Newly Released Estimates Show Traffic Fatalities Reached a 16-Year High in 2021

Note this higher count was inclusive of the Covid WFH years.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 9:46 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
US: Bangladesh’s RAB has made ‘tremendous progress’ in reducing extrajudicial killings
[BenarNews] A senior U.S. official highlighted "tremendous progress" made by Bangladesh in reducing alleged extrajudicial killings by its elite RAB security force, which Washington had sanctioned in December 2021 over gross human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses.

Donald Lu, the United States assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, noted the progress as he wrapped a weekend visit to Bangladesh. Bilateral tensions arose in the wake of the U.S. sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and comments by the Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 03:05 || Comments || Link || [21 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought that the threat of sanctions was what was important? And that when we actually implement them, this removes our leverage?

Or is that just when Trump does it?
Posted by: Herman Hapsburg8987 || 01/18/2023 5:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Home Minister Lu needs to follow Ted Cruz’s Twitter account. He is walking by trolling opportunities galore is his response to the US call for free and fair elections in Bangladesh.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  This is what they call diplomacy. payoff.

600/12=50
That's less than 1 per week.
Better than Chicago, for sure.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  It was 12 years, but even 1 in Houston is a big deal in the states. Certainly, the BLM riots were expensive here. You could call what is happening in Chicago extrajudicial in a sense as Lightfoot policy contributes but the trigger person is more likely wearing a bandanna and various Nike products as opposed to having a badge. If anyone kills wearing a Footlocker uniform, on the other hand, I would call that definitely, extrajudicial.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 10:15 Comments || Top||

#5  If you like your Stutter Gun, you can keep your Stutter Gun.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 01/18/2023 14:56 Comments || Top||


Cyber
Musk Says ZeroHedge Did "Nothing Warranting Suspension" After 'Twitter Files' Expose Big Pharma Bullying
[ZeroHedge] Today's Twitter Files drop contains several notable pieces of evidence.

First, that lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry launched a 'massive lobbying blitz to crush any effort to share patents/IP for new covid-related medicine," according to The Intercept's Lee Fang. As part of this effort, lobbying group BIO "wrote to the newly elected Biden admin, demanding the U.S. gov sanction any country attempting to violate patent rights and create generic low cost covid medicine or vaccines."

Of note, Pfizer and BioNTech raked in $37 billion in revenue in 2021 alone from the COVID-19 vaccine, while Moderna made $17.7 billion the same year (and has recently announced a plan to hike the price of the Covid-19 vaccine by approximately 400%).

BioNTech, which developed the Pfizer vaccine, "reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines."

According to Fang, "Twitter's reps responded quickly to the pharma request," while "A lobbyist in Europe asked the content moderation team to monitor the accounts of Pfizer, AstraZeneca & of activist hashtags like #peoplesvaccine."

Meanwhile, the "fake accounts" flagged by the pharmaceutical companies for action were real people - one of whom Fang spoke with on the phone.

"For more than two years, a global movement has been speaking out against pharmaceutical greed and demanding that everyone, everywhere has the tools to combat pandemics," said Maaza Seyoum, a campaigner for the People’s Vaccine Alliance. "Whatever nasty tricks companies and governments pull," she continued, "we cannot and will not be silenced."

Second, 'Pfizer & Moderna's lobbying group, BIO, fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects (PGP), which worked w/Twitter to set content moderation rules around covid "misinformation."' according to Fang.

BIO funded the PGP campaign, "Stronger," to the tune of $1.275 million. Its focus? Helping Twitter 'create content moderation bots,' selecting which public health accounts would be verified, and helping to crowdsource content takedowns.

Of note, the Moderna/Pfizer-funded campaign included regular emails to Twitter officals with takedown and verification requests.

"Here's an example of those types of emails that went straight to Twitter's lobbyists and content moderators. Many focused on @zerohedge, which was suspended."

Fang includes a screencap of an email with two excel spreadsheets containing said requests.

From Fang's Intercept piece, below is one of the flagged tweets in question - which links to a ZeroHedge article aggregated from NakedCapitalism, and which logically posits; "if a vaccinated person and an unvaccinated person have roughly the same capacity to carry, shed and transmit the virus, particularly in its Delta form, what difference does implementing a vaccination passport actually make to the spread of the virus?"

"To try and stifle digital dissent during a pandemic, when tweets and emails are some of the only forms of protest available to those locked in their homes, is deeply sinister," said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now.

More on one of the people behind this effort, courtesy of Twitter user @TexasLindsay_

"To translate the above into layman’s terms she is a narrative enforcer. She’s funded by Big Pharma and aided by Big Brother to be the ministry of truth. She aims to create social norms by means of censorship and propaganda. She wants to tell you & I—how/what to say and think."

Meanwhile, as this bullying progressed this was happening...

Finally, as this latest 'Twitter Files' thread spreads across a holiday market, Elon Musk himself has opined on the efforts to bully the former Twitter executives into censoring ZeroHedge:

We'll take the 'being jerks' jab... isn't that what the media is supposed to be?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:


Elon Wins in Court: Laid Off Twitter Workers' Class Action Lawsuit Is Dismissed
[Breitbart] Five former Twitter employees have been forced to drop a class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk’s company due to previously signing arbitration agreements. The claims of several employees who did not sign the agreement will continue, and the lawyer representing employees vows a wave of arbitration cases against Musk’s company, explaining, “Mass arbitrations are incredibly costly for companies to defend and many employers have found themselves sorry about what they wished for when they insisted that employees would have to pursue their claims one by one.”

Business Insider reports that five former Twitter employees who were laid off after Elon Musk took control of the company have had their class-action lawsuit against the company dismissed. The ex-employees signed arbitration agreements as part of their employment contracts with Twitter, which stated that they would file legal complaints against the company in arbitration rather than in court. The contracts also included a class-action waiver. US District Judge James Donato upheld this decision in favor of the social media behemoth.

The lawsuit, which was filed in November, charged Twitter with breach of contract and demanded that it pay the laid-off workers the two months of severance pay that they had been promised in addition to the two months of non-working pay they had already been given as part of Twitter’s efforts to comply with the WARN Act, which mandates that California businesses give notice of mass layoffs.

Since Elon Musk took control of Twitter in late October, thousands of employees have been let go. According to the lawsuit, Twitter repeatedly assured its staff before the acquisition that even under the control of the billionaire, they would still receive severance packages at least as good as those that Twitter had previously promised.

Twitter initially promised that employees would receive two months of severance pay. Musk has said that these former employees would receive three months of severance pay. Many laid-off employees, however, have yet to receive this. Instead, they have only received one month’s worth of severance pay.

According to the dispute-resolution agreements provided to the employees with their employment contracts, all disputes, including those involving termination, must be “resolved only by an arbitrator through final and binding arbitration and not by way of court or jury trial.” The agreements further state: “You and the company agree to bring any dispute in arbitration on an individual basis only, and not on a class, collective, or private attorney general representative action basis.”

The dispute-resolution agreements state that arbitration is not a requirement for employment with the company and that employees may opt out by signing a different form. The five plaintiffs signed the dispute-resolution agreements, according to copies from 2017 to 2021, and Donato further claimed that “plaintiffs did not opt out.” All five initial plaintiffs who filed a complaint on November 3 “are ordered to arbitration on an individual basis,” Donato stated.

Donato noted that the three additional plaintiffs who joined the amended complaint on December 9 stated that they had yet to sign the arbitration agreement, adding that they were not subject to Friday’s motion and that he would make a decision regarding their complaints later.

The lawyer for the fired Twitter employees, Shannon Liss-Riordan, claimed she had anticipated the decision. “We also have plaintiffs in the lawsuits already who opted out of arbitration, so those cases will continue as class actions in court, but only employees who opted out of arbitration may be class members covered by the cases,” she said.

Liss-Riordan continued by saying that she had already sent 500 individual arbitration requests and would be sending more. “Mass arbitrations are incredibly costly for companies to defend and many employers have found themselves sorry about what they wished for when they insisted that employees would have to pursue their claims one by one,” she said.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was dismissed as a class action.
The lawyer has already filed over 500 individual actions against Musk.
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/18/2023 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Arbitration won't pay the lawyer. Too bad ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 01/18/2023 10:48 Comments || Top||


Economy
Microsoft to reportedly cut 11K jobs, following Amazon and Meta
[NYPOST] Microsoft plans to cut thousands of jobs with some roles expected to be eliminated in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The expected layoffs would be the latest in the US technology sector, where companies including Amazon and Meta Platforms have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook.

Microsoft’s move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs.

"From a big picture perspective, another pending round of layoffs at Microsoft suggests the environment is not improving, and likely continues to worsen," Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff said.

UK broadcaster Sky News reported, citing sources, that Microsoft plans to cut about 5% of its workforce, or about 11,000 roles.
Posted by: Fred || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...Well, like the Big Guy says, "Learn to code -"

Um, wait a minnit...

Mike
Posted by: MikeKozlowski || 01/18/2023 6:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Mike, as someone said "Learn to mine"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/18/2023 9:07 Comments || Top||

#3  It will be tough for them. There is no way that any McDonalds will let their fryalator person work remote.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Wonder what the H1b vs. Citizen ratio will be.
Is this the type of thing the Department of Labor would monitor?

By the Numbers: Projected Growth in Data-Related Jobs

Guess not. Seems they don't have a clue.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 9:54 Comments || Top||


Homeowners in Louisiana are in 'crisis' as more than 20 insurance companies go under or flee the state after string of devastating storms - forcing hundreds of thousands to pay higher premiums or go without coverage
  • More than 20 insurance companies have left Louisiana in the past two years

  • State has suffered a series of hurricanes and flooding in recent years

  • Homeowners are faced with higher premiums or forced to go without coverage
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wait for it.
The Government will step in and offer coverage.

The money collected, like Soc. Sec., will eventually end up in the general fund pot. Then gradually the Gov. will demand new homes be built a certain way, using Earth Friendly / Carbon Neutral certain materials.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 01/18/2023 6:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Well when you get local judges to declare your home wasn't destroyed by the hurricane surge (because you were too cheap to get federal flood insurance) but by the wind, insurance companies have a tendency to close business.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 6:54 Comments || Top||

#3  If you like your home insurance, you get to keep it.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I used to work for an insurance company before I retired. Insurance companies are NOT charities. They have teams actuaries whose job it is to figure out the risk of certain claims. That is what they use to figure out the rates.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/18/2023 9:17 Comments || Top||

#5  They have teams actuaries whose job it is to figure out the risk of certain claims.

And teams of lawyers to write fine print to exclude paying on as many claims as possible.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 10:18 Comments || Top||

#6  ..which is why states have public commissions that can revoke doing business in the state if companies play that sort of game, unless the commissioned has been 'captured' with the aid of pols in the statehouse and the governor.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 11:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Sure this is somehow Bush's fault.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/18/2023 11:35 Comments || Top||

#8  states have public [insurance] commissions

Yes, and they all make sure insurance companies are among the biggest piggy banks that politicians at the state level can tap.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/18/2023 11:40 Comments || Top||

#9  'Sure this is somehow Bush Trump's fault.'
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/18/2023 14:46 Comments || Top||

#10  ...are among the biggest piggy banks that politicians at the state level can tap.

...along with those limited alcohol and spirit licenses holders in supporting our state pols.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/18/2023 16:50 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
UN experts alarmed at rising cases of forced marriages in Pakistan
[Dawn] UN human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
experts have expressed alarm at the reported rise in abductions, forced marriages and conversions of underage girls and young women from religious minorities in Pakistain, and called for immediate efforts to curtail practices and ensure justice for victims.

"We urge the government to take immediate steps to prevent and thoroughly investigate these acts objectively in line with domestic legislation and international human rights commitments. Perpetrators must be held fully accountable," the experts said in a statement issued in Geneva on Monday.

The experts are Tomoya Obokata, special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Mama Fatima Singhateh, special rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material; Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Nazila Ghanea, special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Fernand de Varennes, special rapporteur on minority issues; Siobhan Mullally, special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and kiddies; Dorothy Estrada-Tanck (Chair), Ivana Radacic (Vice-Chair), Ms Elizabeth Broderick; and Meskerem Geset Techane and Melissa Upreti, Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

"We are deeply troubled to hear that girls as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam, all in violation of international human rights law," the experts said.

"We are very concerned that such marriages and conversions take place under threat of violence to these girls and women or their families," they said.

Noting Pakistain’s previous attem­pts to pass legislation that will prohibit forced conversions and protect religious minorities, the experts de­­plored the ongoing lack of access to justice for victims and their families. Reports suggest these so-called marriages and conversions take place with the involvement of religious authorities and the complicity of security forces and the justice system.

These reports also indicate that the court system enables these offences by accepting, without critical examination, fraudulent evidence from perpetrators regarding victims’ adulthood, voluntary marriage, and conversion. Courts have on occasion misused interpretations of religious law to justify victims staying with their abusers.

"Family members say that victims’ complaints are rarely taken seriously by the police, either refusing to register these reports or arguing that no crime has been committed by labeling these abductions as love marriages," the experts said.

"Abductors force their victims to sign documents which falsely attest to their being of legal age for marriage as well as marrying and converting of free will. These documents are cited by the police as evidence that no crime has occurred."

The experts said it was imperative that all victims, regardless of religious background, were afforded access to justice and equal protection under the law

"Pak authorities must adopt and enforce legislation prohibiting forced conversions, forced and child marriages, kidnapping, and trafficking, and abide by their international human rights commitments to combat slavery and human trafficking and uphold the rights of women and kiddies," they said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 03:45 || Comments || Link || [17 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  I guess INCEL is not a thing in Pakistan. It sounds like all you need for a marriage proposal in Pakistan is duct tape and a chair. Every kiss begins with kidnapping.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 8:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Why are Chinese men marrying Pakistani brides?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/18/2023 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Alarmed? Why, not getting in on the action?
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 01/18/2023 16:18 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
And the Hits Keep on Coming....
[International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research] Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the formerly rare but universally fatal prion disease in humans, normally progresses over several decades before it leads to death. In the Appendix to this paper, we highlight the presence of a prion region in the spike protein of the original SARS-CoV-2, and in all the "vaccine" variants built from the Wuhan virus. The prion region in the spike of SARS-CoV-2 has a density of mutations eight times greater than that of the rest of the spike, and, yet, strangely that entire prion region disappears completely in the Omicron variant. In the main body of our text, we present 26 cases of Creuzfeldt-Jacob Disease, all diagnosed in 2021 with the first symptoms appearing within an average of 11.38 days after a Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca COVID-19 injection. Because the causal progression, the etiopathogenesis, of these atypical and new cases of human prion disease — cases of what is apparently a totally new form of rapidly developing Creuzfeldt-Jacob Disease — we focus on the chronology of the symptomatic development.
Bottom line is: how could there be so many "accidental" mortality vectors?
Posted by: Mercutio || 01/18/2023 00:00 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CJ disease...believe that's colloquially known as Mad Cow in humans. Prions and all. Whether intentionally an effect by these bastards rather than a side effect, we think we're smarter than than we are around gene manipulation. The unmitigated hubris of calling the DNA we don't understand "junk". Nature has a way of keeping the useful genes.

The Biblical quote about reaping the whirlwind comes to mind...
Posted by: Warthog || 01/18/2023 8:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I think CJ is most often acquired from deer meat in the US. I am not a Hunter so I don’t eat deer meat for that reason. The disease is uncommon, but regular meat is tasty enough for me.

Although many of the Gates type people would like to achieve a percentage of depopulation through vaccines, I don’t think that CCP scientists are good enough to have targeted CJ specifically. The gene manipulation would have only impacted a small percentage of a population with the latent disease. The scientists are both not that good and I think Gates and the Luciferians would consider CJ deaths to have too low an ROI with respect to their total depopulation target. Basically, the CCP scientists are achieving randomly negative outcomes from their ill advised or malevolent experimentation. While I am sure the CCP labs could be hampered in a similar way to the mishaps that have befallen the Iranian nuke program, I would not provoke the Chinese government that is looking for an excuse for was as a population distraction. To me the safest way to curtail the funding of this stupidity would be to put Brooklyn Mengele and a gaggle of his henchmen into federal prison for the remainder of their natural lives.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 9:54 Comments || Top||

#3  We’ve had articles here over the years about prion disease in a number of the ungulate species hunted across the continental U.S. I’m under the impression that that domesticated cattle can somehow catch it from infected wild animals in the vicinity...
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/18/2023 21:37 Comments || Top||

#4  In 50 years they will still be talking about the stupidity, corruption and arrogance of Tony Fauci.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 22:26 Comments || Top||

#5  I hit submit accidentally. My intended point wasn’t about Fauci ultimately. He either willfully or ignorantly facilitated the creation of the virus in Wuhan. His public statements are so contradictory that it is hard for me to tell. Personally, I only rule out competence as he was much better served to shut up and work in the background.

My belief is that Covid was created as a weapon by an enemy of mankind. Chemical weapons like blister and nerve agents have a primary way that they are intended to kill you - either attacking the lungs or nervous system respectively. A blister agent will also blind you, which is not the design, but it does not lessen the effectiveness of the agent as a weapon. I think the effect on CJ is not by design of Covid and the vaccine which might as well be another weapon based on its various side effects. Any added ill effects are welcomed by the enemies of mankind.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/18/2023 22:58 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
44[untagged]
5al-Shabaab (AQ)
5Islamic State
4Sublime Porte
3Taliban/IEA
2Commies
2Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
1Mob Rule
1Moslem Colonists
1Palestinian Authority
1PFLP
1[untagged]
1al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
1Baloch Liberation Army
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Syria
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Migrants/Illegal Immigrants

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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2023-01-18
  Al-Shabaab attacks military base after loss of key stronghold, driven off leaving 21 deaders behind
Tue 2023-01-17
  Terrorists Storm Church In Katsina, Northwest Nigeria, Kidnap 25 Worshippers
Mon 2023-01-16
  Man arrested after uranium found at UK’s Heathrow Airport
Sun 2023-01-15
  33 ISIS Militants Arrested In Five Iraqi Governorates
Sat 2023-01-14
  Senior ISIS leader killed in Somalia’s Puntland state
Fri 2023-01-13
  Coordinated attacks kill 14 Malian soldiers
Thu 2023-01-12
  Al-Qaeda Emir Killed During Ma'rib Clashes with Sana'a Forces
Wed 2023-01-11
  Thai troops kill six Bad Guys near Myanmar border
Tue 2023-01-10
  McCarthy confirms Swalwell, Schiff & Omar will be off committees
Mon 2023-01-09
  Indian Army foils Rajouri-type attack; 2 terrorists killed in Poonch
Sun 2023-01-08
  Cop martyred in Bannu; four ‘militants’ dead in CTD operation
Sat 2023-01-07
  Ron DeSantis activates National Guard amid migrant surge in Florida Keys
Fri 2023-01-06
   Iranian sentenced to death for leading crowd during Mahsa Amini protests
Thu 2023-01-05
  Man who attacked cops in Times Square allegedly motivated by US support of Israel
Wed 2023-01-04
  French Minister: Only 690 Cars Torched and 490 Arrests Over New Year's


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