[American Thinker] Jussie Smollett faked a racist, homophobic attack upon his person on January 29, 2019 that was obviously false from the outset. It did not take the beleaguered Chicago police long to get to the truth thanks to the sheer stupidity of Smollett and his two accomplices. The three men could be seen on surveillance video numerous times as they went about their plan. His two pals quickly gave up their side of the story; Smollett had hired them to fake a lynching (they are on video buying the rope), instructed them to pour bleach on him and to sort of punch him in the face. He sustained very little discernible physical damage.
Hardly anyone believed his story, but, predictably, the usual suspects in Congress and among the leftist public jumped on board to decry our racist, homophobic nation. Smollett sweetened the social justice pot by claiming that his attackers were white, wearing MAGA hats at 2:00 A.M. in below-20-degree weather in a very nice neighborhood. In particular, there were Cory Booker and Kamala Harris; the two of them were sponsoring an anti-lynching bill, even though lynching has effectively been illegal in America for at least a hundred years. Harris's bill got a vote on February 14 and passed. Hmmm.
Smollett is an actor, black and gay, and was then appearing on the television show Empire. He comes from a radical activist family so is of course friends with the Obamas and their crowd. Michelle's former chief of staff, Tina Tchen, contacted Chicago A.G. Kim Foxx to intervene on Smollett's behalf. (Foxx claims that Kamala Harris is her mentor.) Foxx apparently tried to get the local FBI to take over the case; this was Tchen's suggestion. Clearly, they both thought the local FBI would do Smollett's bidding.
But the evidence was overwhelming. Smollett was provably as guilty as guilty can be. This was a slam-dunk case. Smollett was charged with sixteen felony counts and released for the ten thousand dollars cash of the hundred-thousand-dollar bail. Getting to that point had taken hundreds of man-hours from the Chicago police.
[Motley Fool] Volkswagen AG (NASDAQOTH:VWAGY) has signed a deal to develop a new pickup truck with Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), a VW executive said, and the two automakers may soon agree to cooperate on mobility services and autonomous-vehicle technology.
While Volkswagen and Ford confirmed last year that they are exploring a "strategic alliance" and said in January that a pickup and some commercial vans are in the works, it hasn't been clear exactly what else their alliance will entail.
The remarks by VW's commercial-vehicles chief, Thomas Sedran, reported by Reuters, are a signal to investors that a number of possibilities are still under discussion -- and at least one now seems to be nailed down.
About that jointly developed pickup.
While it's not familiar to most Americans, Volkswagen's commercial-vehicles division has offered a midsize pickup called the Amarok in some regions since 2010. The Amarok competes against trucks like Toyota's Hilux and Ford's Ranger in South America, Europe, and a few other regional markets around the world. Like the Ranger, it's available in several versions ranging from a simple work truck to a personal vehicle with some off-road ability.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/29/2019 8:18 Comments ||
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#2
Beat me to it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/29/2019 8:22 Comments ||
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#3
The Amarok competes against trucks like Toyota's Hilux and Ford's Ranger in South America, Europe, and a few other regional markets around the world. Like the Ranger, it's available in several versions ranging from a simple work truck to a personal technical assault vehicle with some off-road ability.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2019 8:33 Comments ||
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"For the aspiring Boulder Colorado style student who must move after every semester, and needs something a bit larger than a 2004 Focus but not as large as a deplorable working man truck."
Actually the Ford Everest/Endeavour (on the Ranger frame) isn't a bad little SUV. I'd be happy to see them available here in the US. Probably not enough graft for that, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/29/2019 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
If you wife / girlfriend does not need a stool or stepladder to get in it, it's not really a pickup truck at all...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/29/2019 12:28 Comments ||
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#12
That strongly suggests that the new Amarok will use the Ranger's platform and that it might well be built by Ford in the United States under contract.
Or in Mexico where VW actually has manufacturing plants.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday amid the ongoing OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, putting crude markets on track for their biggest quarterly rise since 2009.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $59.34 per barrel at 0802 GMT, up 36 cents, or 0.6 percent, from their last settlement.
WTI futures were set to rise for a fourth straight week and were on track to rise 30 percent in the first three months of the year.
Brent crude oil futures were up 24 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $68.06 per barrel. Brent futures were set to rise more than 1.5 percent for the week and by more than 25 percent in the first quarter.
For both futures contracts, the first quarter 2019 is the best performing quarter since the second quarter of 2009 when both gained about 40 percent.
Oil prices have been supported for much of 2019 by the efforts of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-affiliated allies like Russia - together known as OPEC+ - who have pledged to withhold around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply this year to prop up markets.
#1
although this is probably OK in the long run (as it encourages more production in the US), in the short run the increase in the cost of oil is holding the GDP growth down
probably took 0.5% off the last two Qs of 2018 and will take a similar bite off 1st Q 2019
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/29/2019 8:06 Comments ||
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#2
I trust it causes more troubles than that for the oil ticks.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/29/2019 11:48 Comments ||
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[The American Thinker] When the governors of New York and Virginia recently endorsed abortion up to ‐ and even beyond ‐ the moment of birth, they added considerably more fuel to an already raging fire. Far from the Democratic Party's older pledge to make abortion "safe, legal, and rare," they now seek to make it permanently legal, exceedingly common, unsafe for mother, and deadly for the fully formed child ‐ especially for Planned Parenthood's primary targets: black Americans.
If anyone thinks the use of words like "holocaust" and "genocide," or the comparison to slavery and lynching, is overblown hyperbole, listen to what prominent black leaders have said over the past half-century.
Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has worked tirelessly for decades to bring the pro-life message to black America. Recalling the time her family home was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, she reflected: "Our home is a protective place, and when it is bombed, we feel violated. It must be like this for the child in the womb when undergoing abortion." She said, "Unborn children are treated like slaves in the womb."
Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson was the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and co-founder of the National Right to Life Committee. An article in Ebony Magazine in 1978 highlighted this memorable quote by Dr. Jefferson: "I would guess that the abortionists have done more to get rid of generations and cripple others than all of the slavery and lynchings." President Ronald Reagan credited Dr. Jefferson with leading him to his belief in the sanctity of life. In a letter to Dr. Jefferson, President Reagan wrote: "You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life, I am grateful to you" (video at 4:26).
Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, published an article on the NBCC website titled "15 Million Dead ‐ Truly a Holocaust." He condemned the abortion of black babies, describing it as an "abortion frenzy" leading to "the mass elimination of our precious children who lie within their mothers' womb."
[Jpost] When the weekly protests along the Israel-Gazoo border began on March 30, 2018, they were planned to be a six-week campaign to demand that Israel allow Paleostinian refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes in Israel. That’s why the organizers, mostly social media activists, chose to call the protests the "Great March of Return."
A few weeks later, Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,, 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... and other Paleostinian factions in the Gazoo Strip commandeered the weekly protests and changed their title to the "Great March of Return and Breaking the Blockade."
Continued on Page 49
#1
Well, according to someone, the protests have united Palestinians.
And some of them protested against Hamas, and are angry that the sacrifices of Gazans have gotten nowhere. And the protesters where violently attacked
I guess this means that, according to Hamas the Gazans are united in hating Hamas and its buddies.
And all they want is to occupy Israel!
Posted by: Daniel ||
03/29/2019 1:53 Comments ||
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#2
The fatalities include dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were coordinating and hiding among the civilian protesters
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2019 7:39 Comments ||
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[Hot Air] A leftover from last night via the Free Beacon. This is Democrats’ 2020 message in microcosm, no? Three years ago their riposte to Trump was "America Is Already Great," a decent enough slogan for liberals invested in Obama’s presidency but an uneasy fit for progressives. A movement dedicated to social justice can’t acknowledge American greatness; to do so would risk encouraging complacency. Progress can only be achieved by relitigating America’s sins unto eternity.
With the party having moved left and past Obama, Holder’s free to make that point more explicitly. He’s enough of a neoliberal himself to pull his punches even in the clip below, noting as an afterthought that America’s done great things, but the bottom line is its essential suckiness. When was it great for blacks? For women? For gays? To which alleged "golden age" for these people do MAGA-ites wish to return? For each of those groups, right now ‐ or three years ago, when Obama was still in office ‐ is the closest to "great" America’s ever been.
The Democratic preoccupation with identity in this year’s primary is a function of that belief. Beto O’Rourke has to apologize for his "white privilege" every six hours to signal his awareness that America may not suck for him but it sucks for most of the Democratic base, or so progressive dogma claims. And he’s in the awkward position of asking those voters to nominate him for president even though one obvious way to get America closer to "greatness" defined progressively is more electoral opportunity for previously marginalized groups ‐ blacks, women, gays. If you want America to be great, why would you nominate Beto instead of Stacey Abrams? Extradite the asshole to Mexico
Yep, extradite to Mexico. I'd consider a guilty plea and time served here for the conspiracy of 'Fast and Furious', that lead to the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans, as a 'double jeopardy' plea not to extradite.
#5
America was great when we decided Slavery will not stand and fought a bloody war to end it instead of simply dividing and hoping the South gave it up in time. America was Great when we defeated the Nazi's and Imperial Japan, America was Great when we won the cold war and ensured the security of the world despite enormous cost and treason from Mr Holder's fellow Democrats from time to time.
Holder confuses perfect with Great, then again I doubt he has actual experience with either being a bottom feeder.
Well said there, RJ. Pity we didn't defeat the Nazis and win the Cold War back in 1777 when we had the chance. Perhaps then feckless grifters like Holder would think better of America.
What's the deal with the 'elites' looking down on their country? Seems to be both an American and European phenomenon. I can understand them looking down on us peasants because we're deplorable and don't like kale, but despising your country is harder to understand.
#8
"Hey, I see you are wanting to sell your car for $20,000. I have a deal for you, now hear me out. You don't like your car. I know, it gets you where you want, is safe and reliable, but I know you do not like this car. At all. Never felt right after all these years. So I am willing to give you $10,000 to take that car off of your hands."
#11
The thing about the left is they expect perfect looking backwards or something sucks. If gays couldn't marry everything, absolutely everything is tarnished. If blacks aren't equal by their statistically chosen benchmarks than absolutely everything is tainted. Nothing can be great.
They are the idiots that think tearing down things/ideas/people makes them cool. They are still in high school emotionally. It's kind of sad actually.
#16
As Germans have learned to their cost,
We surpass oceans, rivers, and frost:
Die Kunsthalle Bremen,
Some not-so-hot aimin'...
And Washington Crossing was lost.
We "English," I mean. Um, wait... I'm confused. Anyway, Wikipedia sez Leutze's companion to WCtD, the Monmouth thing, resides in... Berkeley. Easy there, Frank G. ;-)
[The Hill] The discharge petition for the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will be filed by Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) during that day’s first vote series. Members of the House will be confronted with this question: Do we let babies who survive abortions lie there and die, or do we provide life-saving care to them?
The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act ‐ would ensure that care is provided to infants born alive, establish reasonable protections for them and prosecute those who abdicate their responsibility to care for these helpless newborns. This is not about a woman’s choice or her body. It is about protecting someone who has clearly become the patient.
Abortion-rights activists have long accused the pro-life community of not caring about the child after they are born. This has never been true, and over 2,000 pregnancy resource centers that have served over 2 million families around the country prove that. Yet, with an opportunity to care for a child who has survived an abortion, these activists would rather destine the child for death than provide it with reasonable medical care.
When a Virginia delegate attempted to pass a New York-style law that would allow abortions up until the day of birth, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam not only supported the bill but appeared to endorse infanticide, stating:
[Aljazeera] Social network extends ban on hate speech to prohibit promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.
Facebook has banned praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism on its social media platforms, including Instagram, in a move that comes in the wake of a massacre at two mosques in New Zealand earlier this month.
The implementation of the new policy will begin next week, the United States-based internet giant said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It's clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organised hate groups and have no place on our services," a company statement said.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday she welcomed Facebook's decision.
"Arguably these categories should always fall within the community guidelines of hate speech, but nevertheless it's positive the clarification has now been made in the wake of the attack in Christchurch," she said at a press conference.
[RussiaToday Video] Russiagate ‐ the two-year circus or nightmare (take your pick) ‐ is seemingly settled. Trump says he has been exonerated. But the political left and much of the media do not concur. Where do we go from here and will the Sherlocks be investigated? Doug Wead, William Binney, and Alan Dershowitz join RT's Peter Lavelle.
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.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday amid the ongoing OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, putting crude markets on track for their biggest quarterly rise since 2009.
[The Hill] The discharge petition for the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will be filed by Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) during that day’s first vote series. Members of the House will be confronted with this question: Do we let babies who survive abortions lie there and die, or do we provide life-saving care to them?
[Aljazeera] Social network extends ban on hate speech to prohibit promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.
