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Shaboobs kill 28 on Kenyan bus after asking passengers to prove they're not 'infidels'
Today's Headlines
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China-Japan-Koreas
South Korea’s illiberal left: authoritarians in the service of totalitarians
Josh Stanton explains just how illiberal the South Korean left is, and has been. The only thing he gets wrong is that he thinks there may be a difference between the South Korean left and the American left. Well written and recommended for a Sunday morning.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thus, what American and European liberals almost always get wrong about the Korean left is how illiberal it is

I don't buy some of the comparisons drawn. It is difficult to wrap one's head around some of the comparisons drawn between the American and Euro liberals and South Korean liberals. For example, the above quote would suggest that the American and Euro liberals are liberal and tolerant. Maybe the Euros are but the American left tends to be very illiberal and intolerant. The liberals have gone "hard left" since Obola and crew have taken over. It would be likely that would continue with Hildebeast or Fauxchahontas.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/23/2014 10:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Mehhh, why not?

Did not 1990's CLINTONISM indic that FASCISM, AKA "LIMITED COMMUNISM", IS THE NEW COMMUNISM???

Hence officially heralding in Amerika's sacred National/Nationalist ["Limited Globalist"' UNITARIAN GOP-DEM ESTABLISHMENT, I.E. BOEHNER-VS?-REID???

And I use the term "versus" politely.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/23/2014 22:02 Comments || Top||


Europe
The war in Ukraine is killing lots of Russian soldiers
Rantburg had this story eight days ago. You can read the report by Rantburg.com correspondent Chris Covert here
Posted by: Frozen Al || 11/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But this one mentions casualties.

And if Chris covert is correct about 6,400 troops in the border area, then a substantial % are coming back in body bags.

Two things are going wrong for Putin:
1) The Ukrainians are learning how to fight.
2) The ethnic Russians living in the Ukraine do not want to live under Putin.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 11/23/2014 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  "Gruz 200", meaning "Cargo 200", a well-known military term for the bodies of men killed in action.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/23/2014 9:52 Comments || Top||

#3  What has gone wrong for Putin is:

1) His GRU officers, who started the war, have started a nascent independence movement called Novorossiya. Originally, the idea was a plebecite for separation (which was voted on last May) followed by another one to join the federation. Right now local politics are all about independence.

Not surprisingly, the traditional Novorossiya includes much of the left bank of the Dnepr River east and from Kharkov south: a land bridge to Crimea.

IOW Putin may have created a Frankenstein monster in Donetsk and Lugansk of political leaders who want independence from both Ukraina and Russia.

All this is subject to change if conditions get bad enough that both republics have to join Russia because of economic pressures of rebuilding from a nasty war.

2) A Russian federal law was passed back after the first Chechen war stating the Russian chief executive and his departments may not send troops into a foreign land without approval from the Duma. This happens to be a prosecutable offense, so that anyone involved in sending troops to a foreign land, from the president on down to military formation commanders, can be prosecuted.

3) His military is sick and tired of defending repeated allegations of Russian military formations in Ukraina, so much so, they have stopped answering the charges altogether.

***

As far as Russian troops in Ukraina are concerned, I have seen dozens (soon to be hundreds) of videos and none of them show any professional Russian troops or Russian troops formations. I think what may be happening is that the rebels have been receiving Russian military surplus railed to the border, where rebels, after training from the Russians, board their tanks and rumble into Ukraina.

Incidentally, and as an aside, I watched a video from the fighting at the Donetsk airport, and it appears that some of the rebel soldiers were using PTRDs to attack Ukrainian T-64s, and I am seeing more and more of those as time goes by. This is not top of the line equipment: this is a weapon that Stalin issued by the hundreds of thousands to his rifles troops to stop German light armor. This weapons is amongst the military surplus that Russians have sold to the Donbas rebels

Not to say Russians are completely hands off. A number of special forces formation have been filmed inside Ukraina, and so a number of those troops are probably inside Ukraina on LRRPs, a practice every military in the planet would be doing were they in Russia's position.

Something else to note: Ukrainian have failed, repeatedly despite claiming to kill a large number of Russian soldiers, to come up with evidence showing a massive Russian invasion by Russian military formations. I have read stories about Russian paratroopers in Ukraina, but most of those are individual officers sent inside to advise about fighting a modern war.

Just my two kopeks...
Posted by: badanov || 11/23/2014 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4  However, they're giving the Ukrainians a lot of 'Darwinistic' training doing the slow-mo military operations. They're sorting out competent vs incompetent leadership and organization. The Ukrainians are also getting a real good touchy feely with knowing the aspects of the immediate local terrain. It's a bloody NTC. The longer this lasts without any gain by the Russians, the harder its going to be to introduce more resources to leverage a decisive result short of outright overwhelming the opponent with massive use of force.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/23/2014 10:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dinesh D’Souza: ‘Spoiled’ President Obama Needs to Be ‘Spanked‘
Looks like that Re-Education Camp thingie isn't working out so well?
Posted by: Glolunter Spons4225 || 11/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's assuming he might grow up.
Posted by: Bobby || 11/23/2014 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama didn't get the Congress he wanted during the midterms so he threw a snit and went unilateral on immigration? Surely he couldn't be so insulated that he didn't know what was going on across the country with the voters--or could he? The ONE couldn't be that out of touch. Black activists, in addition to D'Sousa, think he ought to be spanked.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/23/2014 10:04 Comments || Top||

#3  More than likely Obama thought that this is his one last chance to nail down the Hispanic vote for the Democratic Party for all time. Do they [Latinos] know he doesn't give a flip about them either? He's a narcissist. Do they not recall: "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance." It was strictly a political decision. He rolled the dice in his head and said: "The Democrats will still continue to get the black vote and now I have secured the Hispanic vote for the Progressives."
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/23/2014 11:54 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/23/2014 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  AMAC: Ten arguments against Champ's executive action.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/23/2014 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  D’Souza: ‘Spoiled’ President Obama Needs to Be ‘Spanked‘

Sorry D’Souza, Putin has already done that, to no avail.

Posted by: Vulgar de Medici7552 || 11/23/2014 14:25 Comments || Top||

#7  The executive branch needs a beat-down of Biblical proportions for the Constitution's sake. Obola needs to be shunned and ridiculed.
Posted by: SR-71 || 11/23/2014 14:31 Comments || Top||

#8  A loser or lollapalooza
Is Ganesh, er, Dinesh D'Souza?
His pair and his spunk
And the blare from his trunk
Rank right there with John Philip Sousa.

Written in expectation of actual spanking ensuing.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 11/23/2014 19:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Besoeker: The Pubs need to do something to spank him hard; otherwise they will be saddled (as well as the rest of us) with the FUBAR that Obola has created with his immigration mess. The people spoke in 2010 and louder again in 2014 and Obola said F#ck all of you. His EO has given an invitation to all those in Mexico and Central America to just come across the border. Look for another huge surge to be coming across the next two years.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/23/2014 19:59 Comments || Top||

#10  For my entire life the Congress has failed to be the balance to the President they are supposed to be. Very sad, time to step up folks.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/23/2014 20:42 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Jihadists working since 2009 to kill off Sunni tribal leadership
A centerpiece of President Obama's strategy for defeating the Islamic State is mobilizing tribal fighters to join the Iraqi military in retaking Anbar and other Sunni-dominated provinces. But new research shows the jihadists have been working since 2009 to gut the very Sunni tribal leadership on which Obama's rollback depends -- making the U.S. campaign much more difficult.

The jihadists' long-running intimidation campaign against the Sunni tribes is one more sign that, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told me in September, the U.S. "underestimated" the Islamic State. Obama later told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he shared Clapper's critique.

But despite these mea culpas, U.S. planners may be making a similar mistake in assuming that the tribal networks can be rebuilt quickly. American officials believe Sunni support has been galvanized by the removal of polarizing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite. That's true, but fighting the jihadists will be a long uphill road.

Research documenting the Islamic State's onslaught was compiled by Craig Whiteside, a former Army officer who fought in Iraq and now teaches at the Naval War College. By his count, at least 1,345 Awakening members have been killed in Iraq since 2009 by the Islamic State or its predecessor organizations. "In the Sunni areas where the Iraqi government had little control, it did not take long for the Islamic State to slowly and methodically eliminate resistance one person at a time," he writes in a military blog called "War on the Rocks."

The jihadists documented their assassination campaign in a grisly video called "The Clanging of the Swords," which Whiteside cites in his report. Watching the video, you see a series of drive-by assassinations, accompanied by heroic Islamic music, as Islamic State fighters gun down selected vehicles on the road or pedestrians on the streets. It's clear that the assassins' intelligence is precise.

The Islamic fighters also targeted Iraqi police and army units in Sunni areas and Baghdad itself, starting more than two years ago. Islamic State communiques released in February 2013 claimed that in the second half of 2012, the group conducted 37 attacks in Baghdad and 43 assassinations in other areas of Iraq. U.S. analysts failed to see this gathering storm.

As its campaign against the Sunni tribal forces gained momentum in 2012 and 2013, the Islamic State began offering amnesty to Sunnis who had been part of the Awakening militia or the Iraqi security forces. To swell its ranks further, the Islamic State staged a series of daring prison raids they called "Breaking the Walls."

U.S. officials argue that Sunni tribal leaders still want to work with American military advisers -- all the more so after the jihadists' brutal campaign of intimidation. But this time around, the tribal leaders must combat a deeply entrenched enemy. The Islamic State controls the ground; it has the intelligence; it has fierce, combat-hardened fighters. Obama is right to seek Sunni "boots on the ground" for the campaign against the jihadists, but he needs to explain better to the American public the roots of this conflict, and how difficult and protracted it will be.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  I guess we will see whether the CIA is able to step up to the plate.
Posted by: Super Hose || 11/23/2014 15:45 Comments || Top||

#2  The US-Allies to choose the Lessor of Many Evils = Geopol/MilPol-dangerous Cataclysms here???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/23/2014 22:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Speaking Truth to Power
One of the most fascinating conceits of our ruling powerful elites — be they in entertainment, politics, governance, jurisprudence or news reporting — is the often repeated assertion of being some kind of underdog “speaking truth to power.” This comes with the concomitant illusion that anyone opposing them is paid by powerful interests.

Never mind that the ones making the accusation are usually in positions of power and receive recognition all out of proportion to their achievements,

...And the reason they feel forced to keep up the pretense of being downtrodden and hard done by while basking in all the privilege and material rewards of elites everywhere is that they are a theocracy and the faith they used to climb to power is Marxism, with its extolling of the downtrodden and later (when the downtrodden of the west failed to rise and instead reaped the benefits of capitalism and moved to the middle class) the interesting “other” originating in third world nations

...In fact, I believe part of Mister Obamas fascination with bringing in as many people as he can from countries where they (generally) tan better than us and grew up in misery, is not out of anything rational but out of this religious belief in the invincibility of the “other.” He’s thus sure that if he gets enough of them in, Marxist revolution will immediately arise and the American populace will be unable to defend themselves, because of the magical power of the “other.”
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/23/2014 11:50 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's critical theory.

Look it up, it is all the rage in Academia.

It is a compilation of Marx, Engels, and Hegel...with a dash of Leninism.

It is the basis of all of these ethnic studies curriculums, and it is wall to wall in many college textbooks.

I am working on my Doctorate in Health Administration and most of the texts that are required reading contain sizable chunks of critical theory in their content.

Look it up and you will be appalled at the intellectual vacuum.
Posted by: Mystic || 11/23/2014 21:46 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2014-11-23
  Shaboobs kill 28 on Kenyan bus after asking passengers to prove they're not 'infidels'
Sat 2014-11-22
  Black Panthers Indicted On Federal Gun Charges, Pipe Bomb Plot Near Ferguson
Fri 2014-11-21
  Egypt Arrests Senior Muslim Brotherhood Member
Thu 2014-11-20
  Libya Dawn commander injured in continued Jebel Nafusa clashes
Wed 2014-11-19
  Jundullah vows allegiance to Islamic State
Tue 2014-11-18
  Taliban insurgent murders 3 members of his own family in Faryab
Mon 2014-11-17
  New U.S.-led strikes on Syria's Kobane
Sun 2014-11-16
  Islamic State claims it has beheaded US hostage Kassig
Sat 2014-11-15
  Over 35 wounded in Druze vs. Muslim Arabs clashes in northern Israel
Fri 2014-11-14
  IS, Al Qaeda affiliate reportedly unite to fight US-backed rebels in Syria
Thu 2014-11-13
  At Least 33 Dead In Yemeni Clashes, US Drone Kills 7
Wed 2014-11-12
  Syria Kurds 'Recapture' Areas of Kobane from IS
Tue 2014-11-11
  US Drone in Northwest Pakistan Kills 6 Militants
Mon 2014-11-10
  Key ISIS recruiter killed by Iraqi forces near Baiji, Iraq
Sun 2014-11-09
  Fate of 'critically wounded' ISIS chief unclear

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