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Iraqi intelligence destroys 80 ISIS IEDs in Ninevah village
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
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7 19:49 SteveS [21] 
2 14:14 Skidmark [12] 
5 20:15 Merrick Ferret [15] 
4 18:42 Skidmark [9] 
3 09:59 DarthVader [20] 
5 18:45 Skidmark [8] 
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16 19:41 49 Pan [13] 
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1 19:44 49 Pan [12] 
2 06:42 Procopius2k [8] 
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Federal prisons locked down after two MS-13 gangsters killed in altercation
[FoxNews] Two other inmates were injured and transported to a local hospital for treatment.

America's 120 federal prisons are on lockdown after two inmates who were reportedly MS-13 gang members were killed on Monday in an altercation at a facility in Beaumont, Texas.

The fight broke out shortly before noon. Four inmates were transported to a local hospital where inmates Guillermo Riojas and Andrew Pineda were pronounced deceased.

Both Riojas and Pineda were members of the MS-13 street gang, according to the Associated Press.
Nancy Pelosi's "Spark of humanity"
"In an abundance of caution, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions," Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for BOP, told Fox News Digital. "The BOP will continue to monitor events carefully and will adjust its operations accordingly as the situation evolves."

No staff members were injured during the fight.

Pineda, 34, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for racketeering and conspiracy. He was due to be released in 2024, according to BOP records.

Riojas, 54, was sentenced to 38 years in prison for carjacking and interfering with interstate commerce.

BOP Director Michael Carvajal informed Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this month that he plans to resign.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  My heart breaks /s
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/02/2022 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Base territorial behavior. Someone found out they were not as tough as they thought they were. Looks like someone supports the death penalty even if the state does not.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2022 6:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Who was it that suggested a felonious prison network?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 8:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Saved the taxpayer some money
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2022 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  What was the other gang?
Posted by: james || 02/02/2022 12:04 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Bob Wall dead at 82: Martial Arts icon who worked with Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon remembered as 'greatest husband and father' by his grieving family
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] "Boards don't hit back"
  • Wall had worked with Lee and Chuck Norris, among others

  • Wall was a 9th degree Tang Soo Do black belt training with Norris

  • Wall appeared with Lee in movies such as The Way of the Dragon and Enter the Dragon

  • His family called him 'the greatest husband and father' and 'our rock'
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


-Great Cultural Revolution
Jeff Zucker out at CNN after failing to disclose ‘consensual relationship' with colleague: ‘I was wrong'
[FoxNews] Embattled CNN boss Jeff Zucker walked away from the liberal network on Wednesday after failing to disclose a "consensual relationship" with a CNN staffer.
No wonder he wasn’t concerned about the known antics of those who recently had to leave. Also no wonder he was divorced in 2019 after a quarter century of marriage to the mother of his four children.
"As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years. I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong. As a result, I am resigning today," Zucker wrote in a memo to staffers shared by CNN’s Brian Stelter.

"I came to CNN on January 28, 2013. Together, we had nine great years. I certainly wish my tenure here had ended differently. But it was an amazing run. And I loved every minute," Zucker continued. "I am grateful to the thousands of incredibly talented CNN and Turner Sports employees who helped make this such a joy for me, and such a success for all of us. I wish each of you nothing but the best in the years ahead."

Stelter noted that CNN staffers were "stunned" by the sudden resignation.

Under Zucker, CNN has recently been plagued by scandals, embarrassing headlines and struggles to attract an audience, leading critics to wonder if he would be shown the door once a planned merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery is finalized later this year. However, the sudden resignation before the potential deal was finalized sent shock waves across the media industry.

Zucker’s relationship was with CNN marketing chief Allison Gollust, who the now-former CNN boss has long been speculated to have a relationship with. Gollust will remain at CNN, according to Stelter.
And Frank G gives us the National Review report, with comments:
Don Lemon? Jeffrey "Spanks" Toobin? Or just bailing with Dem Street Cred before he gets fired for the ratings collapse?
CNN president Jeff Zucker announced his resignation on Wednesday, following an acknowledgment that he had failed to disclose a romantic relationship with another senior executive at CNN.

"As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years," Zucker wrote in a memo to staff. "I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong."

Zucker was referring to his relationship with CNN executive vice president and chief marketing officer Allison Gollust, according to the New York Times.

Gollust said Wednesday she plans to remain in her role at the company.
"Face it, I'm a whore, always have been, always will be"
"Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years," she wrote. "Recently, our relationship changed during Covid. I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time. I’m incredibly proud of my time at CNN and look forward to continuing the great work we do everyday."

Gollust served as a communications director for Andrew Cuomo for just four months in 2012 and 2013 before quitting to join CNN.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 11:39 || Comments || Link || [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm no Jesse Kelly fan, but he did get a good one in: "CNN does sound like a fun place to work..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/02/2022 12:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Goodbye mental midget.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2022 12:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Allison "regrets" not disclosing the 'relationship'. Shouldn't she be fired?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/02/2022 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Any comment from Matt Lauer?

Amazing a building full of ‘journalists’ and yet no one seems to catch on to any sexual antics.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/02/2022 13:41 Comments || Top||

#5  they knew about it, they cover each others ass like they do with these idiots in the White House.
Posted by: Chris || 02/02/2022 13:42 Comments || Top||

#6  She worked for Governor Cuomo, was a staffer for a while for the other Cuomo brother and ran interference for the brothers. CNN and the NY government are one big happy family.

This resignation is deeper than a failed reporting of a sex thing.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2022 13:58 Comments || Top||

#7  This resignation is deeper than a failed reporting of a sex thing.

Poss plea bargained to sex from indictment.
Voluntary retirement and Board lets him keep his performance bonus.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 14:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Trump

LOL
Posted by: Beavis || 02/02/2022 14:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Zucker and the personnel hires have taken the network down owner time.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2022 17:26 Comments || Top||


Downtown Denver business owner to charge 1% fee to recover shoplifting losses
[DenverChannel] A Downtown Denver business owner says shoplifting at his stores has gotten so bad he's having to charge customers a fee to make up the costs.

"[It's called the] Denver Crime Spike Fee, and so that'll be a 1% transaction fee for all of the items that are purchased in our stores," Derek Friedman, owner of several Sportsfan and Sock Em Sock Emporium locations in the Denver metro, said Sunday.

Since 2019, he says shoplifting at his downtown and Federal Boulevard stores has tripled.

"There's zero consequences, I think, for property crime in the Denver area. It seems like it's dropped to barely anything," Friedman said.

It's forced him to impose this new Denver Crime Spike Fee to help him recover thousands of dollars in losses, as originally reported by Denver Business Journal. The fee will go live in February.

"We're talking about six figures [in losses] for a really small business like us, and that is meaningful. It impacts our employees, and, more importantly, it now is going to impact our shoppers," Friedman said.

The problem has also made it harder for him to keep employees as they'd rather work at Park Meadows or Cherry Creek Mall.

"When you have the impact of having someone come in and wander around the store and then grab a jersey and a hat and pull out a machete and walk out, it does have an issue with your ability to recruit and retain employees," Friedman said.

Tobey Zamora, a customer born and raised in Denver, isn't too happy with the forthcoming 1% fee, but he knows the situation downtown right now is a bit rough.

"You got to do what you got to do. It sucks. It sucks that it falls back on us consumers," he said. "I'm not okay. But if I have to, I have to. I mean, I'm not gonna stop buying what I want."

Friedman says he may have to increase the fee in the future if things don't improve in the next few months. But he hopes by taking action, local and state leaders will pay more attention — and so will customers.

"My hope is that over the course of the coming months, some different approaches are taken to enforcement and police presence and attitudes towards police and the great job that they do protecting businesses like ours," he said.
So the haves have to pay for the will nots. Fuck you Denver. I ain't shopping at your shit anymore.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2022 10:48 || Comments || Link || [21 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "When you have the impact of having someone come in and wander around the store and then grab a jersey and a hat and pull out a machete and walk out, it does have an issue with your ability to recruit and retain employees," Friedman said.

I laughed, not because this is funny, but because that is an absolute dead pan of truth.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/02/2022 11:10 Comments || Top||

#2  We're talking about six figures [in losses]

He'll wish he had paid that in salaries for security when he gets sued by an employee or customer that survives the machete.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 14:08 Comments || Top||

#3  And all the libs in Denver that voted for the current admin deserve nothing less. Good thing I didn’t leave anything behind in Denver.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/02/2022 15:21 Comments || Top||

#4  So: do I have this right? In order to buy something at this store, *I* have to pay a extra 1% for the privilege of shopping there? Not because I have done anything wrong, but because the police, courts and DA refuse to enforce the law.
Riiiiight!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/02/2022 16:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Good thing I didn’t leave anything behind in Denver.

So you are saying it is *not* your machete?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2022 18:35 Comments || Top||

#6  1%?? He should try running a store in San Francisco.
Posted by: KBK || 02/02/2022 19:05 Comments || Top||

#7  In order to buy something at this store, *I* have to pay a extra 1% for the privilege of shopping there?

Costs go up, prices go up. It is annoying to see it broken out and called a 'fee', but that is probably the point. Sounds like the local pols could use a bit of feedback. Or horsewhipping.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2022 19:49 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
FBI admits it acquired NSO's Pegasus spyware in 2019
[Jpost] Despite confirming its purchase of NSO's spyware, the bureau claimed Pegasus was never used in any FBI investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation acquired Israeli tech company NSO Group's Pegasus spyware for $9 million in 2019, the US agency confirmed to UK news outlet The Guardian on Wednesday.

But Pegasus was never used in any FBI investigation, the bureau claimed, adding that it "procured a limited license for product testing and evaluation only."

According to the report, the deal struck between the FBI and NSO was a one-year test project worth around $5 million. Despite "not using it at all... like, not even switching it on," according to a source, the FBI renewed the contract for another year, bringing the deal up to $9 million.

The deal was agreed upon following a "long process" of disagreements on how much control NSO Group would retain over its software, a source told The Guardian. The FBI reportedly took issue with NSO's policy of keeping sensors on its technology in order to be alerted if it was moved by a government client and to keep track of its physical location.

In addition, the bureau was reportedly wary of allowing NSO engineers to install Pegasus on FBI computers, instead agreeing to keep the spyware in a large container.

The FBI stated it bought access to NSO's spyware in order to "stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft."
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 09:50 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You need to have complete digital fingerprints of any entity you may want to simulate when you do something naughty and need to plant them as evidence after you are finished?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/02/2022 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  "stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft"

Like the Chinese/Apple iPhone network?

Apple builds 'invisible wall' on its Maps to hide CEO Tim Cook's house after he was targeted by an 'armed' stalker, 45, who drove her Porsche from Virginia to California to find him
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 14:14 Comments || Top||


Mold, termites and rotting wood. It's the Pitts! Only SIX of the 109 affordable homes Brad Pitt built for $26.8M and sold to survivors of Hurricane Katrina for $150,000 are in livable condition - and none are built to withstand NOLA's climate
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Just six of the 109 affordable homes Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation built in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are still in livable condition

  • A majority of the homes are riddled with construction-related problems that have led to mold, termites, rotting wood and flooding

  • Six of the homes are now vacant because of the mold, rot and structural issues

  • Two have also been demolished because of severe mold, and New Orleans city officials are now seizing one of the properties as a 'safety hazard'

  • Residents have sued the organization, but it has not yet made the necessary repairs - and it appears to have become defunct
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:18 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It appears they did build 'green', mother nature is recycling the buildings, just a tad bit earlier than anticipated.

Building below sea level on the coast routinely subject to hurricanes doesn't seem to be the smartest move to begin with.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2022 6:49 Comments || Top||

#2  These homes were sold to the residents for ~$150K each. I'm curious as to how the warranty for these was presented.

I do remember that these were a 'glued particle board' type construction which, at the time, I thought might not be a good idea in the NO climate. I don't care what kind of chemical treatment you added to that product, it would still suck up a lot of moisture.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 02/02/2022 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Proof actors aren't smart.
Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 || 02/02/2022 8:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Going to bet the suspect building materials were chosen because they were certified as "sustainable" by some green grift outfit.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/02/2022 8:40 Comments || Top||

#5  ^ All probably true. Don't underestimate the new owners "tenants" to not do any maintenance as well....
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2022 8:56 Comments || Top||

#6  I was going to say the same thing Frank, there is always maintenance on a house. And judging by what the neighborhoods looked like before Katrina, I doubt there was any done.
Posted by: Chris || 02/02/2022 9:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Sounds like a Chinese run building firm ran this. How much of the money was siphoned off for the organizers?
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2022 9:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Mike Holmes brought his crew down from Canada and did a two episode production on building one of those homes. He and Penn were both snookered by the seller of the wood used in the walls, making claims that obviously have failed to stand the test of time. 'Green' is just another 'Grift'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2022 10:18 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm surprised Mike Holmes would have anything to do with the crap.
Posted by: Chris || 02/02/2022 10:42 Comments || Top||

#10  Were these things built to code, or were "arrangements" made?
Posted by: KBK || 02/02/2022 11:10 Comments || Top||

#11  ..here you go.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2022 11:40 Comments || Top||

#12  thanks
Posted by: Chris || 02/02/2022 11:49 Comments || Top||

#13  What did you expect from Hollywood? It is all about style and appearance for PR, not any real substance. That and making sure they grease the right people and contacts go to enviro-scam companies
Posted by: Chealing Chomotle4158 || 02/02/2022 12:37 Comments || Top||

#14  There were built for termites. Even bugs need a place to live.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/02/2022 13:42 Comments || Top||

#15  Proof actors aren't smart saints.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 14:15 Comments || Top||

#16  Too bad. Pitts intentions were good. And I’m sure there is more to the story. Like most homeowners would have had termite treatment plans.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/02/2022 19:41 Comments || Top||


Famed Indian snake catcher fights for his life in hospital after being bitten on the leg by a 10ft king cobra during rescue-gone-wrong in India
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Vava Suresh is a famed Indian snake-catcher who has appeared on TV and rescued thousands of snakes, relying largely on pure bravery

  • 48-year-old was rescuing a 10ft king cobra on Monday when the reptile bit him

  • He managed to get the snake into a sack, but then fell unconscious and was rushed to hospital where he suffered a heart attack

  • Suresh is in intensive care but has begun breathing on his own, local media says
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember, they strike 1/3 of their length.

Unless they're Cottonmouths.
Then they just hurl their entire body.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Skid, I ran over a cottonmouth last year with the wheel of my brush mower - they really can hurl their whole body... fortunately away from me... it was quite amazing.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/02/2022 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. Same with snakes. But at least (most) bears don't have poisonous fangs.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2022 9:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Good thing Owlbears aren't poisonous. They're the worst.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/02/2022 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  If I ever got bit by a venomous snake India would be great place for it! Locally we had the guy who has a venom extraction lab get bit by a king cobra during feeding time. Wife takes him to the hospital with the antivenin. Checks back with the doc and gets told he still on the ventilator. The problem was the antivenin was for Australian tiger snake so the Doc didn't give it. The thing being that this can be MORE effective than king cobra antivenin for treating bites. Of course the person who knew this was unconscious , and you still might have to explain this to a doc who hopefully was awake for the three slides about it in his ER class. At least in India you have docs who have experience treating cobra bites. Hearing he is breathing on his own means he is pretty much out of the woods. Now it is just how much tissue damage there is at the bite site.
My closest call was stepping a 3' water moccasin, fortunately for me the snake had read Gibbons et al paper on such things.
Posted by: Vinegar Spolusing6485 || 02/02/2022 13:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Glenmore, .410 Snake Slayer for your cargo shorts.

Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Got one, Skid. That old moccasin was out of sight and range in a flash. Just about airborne as he flung his loops around.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/02/2022 15:12 Comments || Top||

#8  I've met up with quite a few cottonmouths. Never stepped on one but I have startled them. They will go off where they think they are safe and turn around and watch you. And they can and will bite under water. My uncle was bit on the foot while wading in waste deep swamp in south Alabama.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/02/2022 15:27 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
WWII veteran celebrates 100th birthday with a dance: 'I just couldn't sit still'
[FoxNews] Jack Becker, who also served in the Korean War, danced to the song 'Stayin’ Alive' by the Bee Gees.

Becker served in World War II, but didn’t see any action. After the war, he stayed in the Marine Reserves and was called to serve Korean War, for which he received the Bronze Star Medal
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I love these old coots.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  That’s because we’re all going to be one, half a lifetime from now, Skidmark.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2022 12:49 Comments || Top||

#3  TW, just checked my odometer, 4- 9’s and a 7 is coming around the dial. Don’t think that halftime is in my plans.

99997.6
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/02/2022 15:27 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin

[ColonelCassad] And back to Northwest Africa.

And again the French sphere of influence.

Another attempted military coup.

During a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in the presidential palace, unidentified men dressed in civilian clothes opened fire near the building with automatic weapons, after which a shooting battle with the palace guards ensued.

The government is now blocked in the building, but the attackers have not yet managed to capture the palace. The military took over the radio and the headquarters of the ruling party.

Several dead are reported.

Local sources say a group of military officers are trying to overthrow pro-French President Omar Sissoko.

At this rate, part of northwestern Africa will fall away from France by the time of the French presidential election.

And there it is not far to Niger with its uranium.

More from regnum.ru
Detentions in Guinea-Bissau after coup attempt
[REGNUM] Several civilians and military personnel have been detained in Guinea-Bissau after an attempted coup d'état, President Umaro Sissoko Embalo said during a press conference.

According to him, these people "have already been arrested after the coup attempt." At the same time, according to Embalo, the conspirators are associated with criminal gangs that trade in drug smuggling. In this regard, the President of Guinea-Bissau promised to continue the fight against drug trafficking.

As reported BakuToday , earlier in Guinea-Bissau there was an attempted military rebellion. Eyewitnesses reported shooting in the capital. Later, the head of state said that the situation was under control, and the coup attempt had failed.

Six killed in attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau
[REGNUM] At least six people have died in an attempted military coup in Guinea-Bissau, Lusa news agency reported Feb. 1, citing its sources.

At the same time, earlier Lusa disseminated information that four people were injured during the rebellion in the republic.

As REGNUM reported earlier , on February 1, President of Guinea-Bissau Umaru Shisoku Embalo announced on social networks that the situation in the country after the coup attempt was under government control.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lots of little African coups lately. Is "The Wild Geese" playing in rotation on late nite cable?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2022 18:38 Comments || Top||


Britain
Putin's 'pals' facing the big freeze in Britain: From telecoms tycoon with £50m Surrey estate to energy magnate who owns £65m Highgate mansion... the billionaire oligarchs with multi-millions in property and businesses in UK
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Adding more straws to the camel’s back.
  • London is home to multiple Russian billionaires with links to the Kremlin, including ex Arsenal co-owner

  • Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has urged Vladimir Putin to step back from feared invasion of Ukraine and will visit the country

  • Truss warned Russia faces 'quagmire' like Afghanistan or Chechnya if Moscow goes to war

  • She said government planning to bolster sanctions and 'nobody' will be immune, including oligarchs
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Londongrad' Influence of Putin-linked Russians in the UK revealed
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/01/2022 9:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Now do the same to the Yank oligarchs hiding out there.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2022 6:42 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Biden offers Putin access to NATO bases: President says he will let Russians verify that there are no US Tomahawk cruise missiles in Romania or Poland to ease tensions
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 09:06 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under:



#3  Pre-surrendering?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 18:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Return to the SMLM days.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2022 18:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Reason, prevailing
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 20:15 Comments || Top||


NATO tricked Russia into promising not to move east, Putin says
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[RIA Novosti] Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled the promise not to advance NATO to the east: they said one thing, they did another, they threw it, they simply deceived it.

"As you know, we were given promises not to advance the infrastructure of the NATO bloc to the east by a single inch. Everyone knows this well

Today we see where NATO is located - Poland , Romania , the Baltic countries," Putin said at a press conference following the results of negotiations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"They said one thing, they did another. As people say, they cheated, well, they just deceived," the president added.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cry me a river.
Posted by: European Conservative || 02/02/2022 18:19 Comments || Top||

#2  KGB wouldn't lie to you. Pravda.

Did NATO Promise Not to Enlarge? Gorbachev Says “No”
What the Germans, Americans, British and French did agree to in 1990 was that there would be no deployment of non-German NATO forces on the territory of the former GDR. I was a deputy director on the State Department’s Soviet desk at the time, and that was certainly the point of Secretary James Baker’s discussions with Gorbachev and his foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze. In 1990, few gave the possibility of a broader NATO enlargement to the east any serious thought.

The agreement on not deploying foreign troops on the territory of the former GDR was incorporated in Article 5 of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, which was signed on September 12, 1990 by the foreign ministers of the two Germanys, the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France. Article 5 had three provisions:

Until Soviet forces had completed their withdrawal from the former GDR, only German territorial defense units not integrated into NATO would be deployed in that territory.
There would be no increase in the numbers of troops or equipment of U.S., British and French forces stationed in Berlin.
Once Soviet forces had withdrawn, German forces assigned to NATO could be deployed in the former GDR, but foreign forces and nuclear weapons systems would not be deployed there.
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 18:34 Comments || Top||

#3  U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s verbal assurance to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in February 1990 that if Germany were allowed to reunify within NATO then the alliance would not move “one inch eastward”—a pledge Gorbachev foolishly failed to codify in writing. (Baker and others dispute this characterization, and Baker has denied that he made any formal pledges.)

https://archive.ph/o/dlVO3/https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early

Warsaw Pact disbanded and Russian troops withdrew. Why didn't we do the same?
Posted by: Sheter the Lesser9291 || 02/02/2022 21:22 Comments || Top||

#4  From Gorbachev himself from the link in #2:
Gorbachev continued that “The agreement on a final settlement with Germany said that no new military structures would be created in the eastern part of the country; no additional troops would be deployed; no weapons of mass destruction would be placed there. It has been obeyed all these years.” To be sure, the former Soviet president criticized NATO enlargement and called it a violation of the spirit of the assurances given Moscow in 1990, but he made clear there was no promise regarding broader enlargement.
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 21:25 Comments || Top||

#5  That NATO is stationing troops on the former Warsaw Pact nations is entirely to due Putin's stupid aggressiveness.
Several years after German reunification, in 1997, NATO said that in the “current and foreseeable security environment” there would be no permanent stationing of substantial combat forces on the territory of new NATO members. Up until the Russian military occupation of Crimea in March, there was virtually no stationing of any NATO combat forces on the territory of new members. Since March, NATO has increased the presence of its military forces in the Baltic region and Central Europe.
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 21:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Joshua Shifrinson has done by far the best analysis of what actually happened.

There was indeed a deal -- a verbal promise, which anyone who knows contract law is understood by civilized people as binding when the other party offers consideration. The Soviets offered consideration, and then some: they completely disbanded the Warsaw Pact. OF COURSE they were humiliated and have ever since been determined to avoid being fvcked again.

Re the promise: the entire premise of German reunification was that the Cold War formula would be nullified. IOW, a divided and militarized Germany would, post 1991, be replaced by a unified and demilitarized Germany. The Russians would NEVER have agreed to a reunified Germany had they known NATO would expand, not only "one inch eastward," but right up to Russia's borders.

That was the implicit deal. We knew that, they knew that, Kohl and Genscher knew that.

Here's Shifrinson:

Contrary to the claims of many policymakers and analysts, there is signiacant evidence that Russian assertions of a “broken promise” regarding NATO ex- pansion have merit.169 Applying insights from international relations theory to both new and preexisting evidence on the 1990 negotiations suggests that Russian leaders are essentially correct: NATO expansion violated the quid pro quo at the heart of the diplomacy that culminated in German reuniaca- tion within NATO. There was no written agreement precluding NATO expansion, but non-expansion guarantees were still advanced in 1990, only to be overturned.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:06 Comments || Top||

#7  We not only lied to the Russians and humiliated them; we rubbed their faces in it. We crushed their brother-Slavs in Serbia, siding with a Muslim terrorist organization in the bargain, and lectured them about financial responsibility while we promoted and propped up a corrupt and mentally deficient figurehead while Russia turned into a shitty, lawless oligarchy that impoverished millions and caused longevity to decline...

Gee, THAT sounds familiar, doesn't it? Hits kinda close to home, друзя мои -- не правда ли?

Interesting that the same globalist shits who humiliated and cheated the Russians are the western elites who have helped China rise and stuffed their pockets over the last 30 years: the Bushes, Clintons, their Oligarch pals and the hundreds of little carpetbaggers taking in lobbying and consulting and investment banking fees from the global elites who have bequeathed is our current dystopian global nightmare.

Fvck them. Putin's a bandit but he's dead right on this one. We never ever should have expanded NATO eastward. We gained nothing and turned Russia into an enemy -- when we could have and should have played the Russia card against our REAL enemies, China and radical Islam.

Criminally foolish. History will not be kind to Bush, Baker, et al.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Read Gorbachev's lips: he made clear there was no promise regarding broader enlargement.

While the west had no plans to expand east, it was the newly freed Warsaw Pact members who insisted on NATO membership. They were intimately familiar with Russian motivation and behavior and insisted on NATO membership before a situation rose like in Ukraine. What part of free association of free peoples don't you understand?

I believe one huge missed opportunity was not offering NATO membership to Russia and the rest of the FSU when the Eastern European members joined. It would have moderated Russian behavior and moved them to democratic government. If Russia declined to join, then they would have no excuse to bully the others from joining the democracy club. But the late 90's was a not a time strategic thinking but of selling out the USA to China and Oval Office bjs.
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 23:34 Comments || Top||

#9  "free association of free peoples" -- what bullshit.

The only thing that our elites understand -- and Russia's, and China's, and Germany's and France's and Japan's elites and every person on the planet who's ever held a responsible position understands -- is power.

We had an excess of power in 1991. Stupidly, though predictably, we reveled in that power and thought that a freak of history was the Mandate of Heaven / Manifest Destiny / The END OF HISTORY.

Foolish hubris. Catastrophic self-congratulatory blindness.

We fvcked up. We made Putin. We prepared the ground for his fetid bloom.

So fvcking stupid. Why are you justifying it now? What on earth is America's vital interest in Estonia? In Georgia? In Ukraine of all places?
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:45 Comments || Top||

#10  Russian motivation -> Russian paranoia
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 23:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Fascist much?
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 23:46 Comments || Top||

#12  Gorbachev was a rube. A southern hick chosen by Politiburi hacks to preside over le deluge.

Putin for all his corruption is an intelligent decisive and strong leader. One eyed man maybe you get the drift. Gorbachev was blind.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:51 Comments || Top||

#13  What on earth is America's vital interest in Estonia? In Georgia? In Ukraine of all places? Germany, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, Chicago? Let's get our asses out of all of them. It's a straw man argument cause the line can be drawn anywhere or nowhere.
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 23:51 Comments || Top||

#14  Fascist much?

Try harder, Karen.

Don't be so fvcking Woke. It doesn't belong here.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:52 Comments || Top||

#15  We have vital interests in the Persian Gulf. In the South China Sea. In the Caribbean / on our southern Border.

But not in Eastern Europe, let alone Georgia and Ukraine.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:53 Comments || Top||

#16  It wasn't Gorbachev that broke up the Soviet Union, it was the old line Communists' failed anti-Gorbachev coup that allowed the republics to declare independence.
Posted by: Ulelet Snusotch7182 || 02/02/2022 23:54 Comments || Top||

#17  Those "republics" are anything but. Nearly all are third-world shitholes presided over by bandits.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 23:56 Comments || Top||

#18  Fascist much?

Nobody here is fascist. We leave that for the left, who invented it a century ago and never gave it up.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2022 23:58 Comments || Top||


Prigozhin's lawsuit forced the director of Bellingcat to leave his post
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] The suit of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin forced Eliot Higgins, the ex-director of the Internet publication Bellingcat (a media outlet recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent), to hide from a fair trial. According to the legal service of the Concord company, Bellingcat, led by Higgins, has repeatedly published false information about the Russian businessman. The courts confirmed the correctness of the Russian side, but this did not stop Bellingcat, which continued to post provocative materials on the Web.

A team of lawyers later sued Higgins in the High Court of England. Immediately after that, the director of Bellingcat left his post to avoid liability, the legal service noted.

“Thus, he can no longer be sued, which once again underlines the unreliability of the contested publications. We managed to squeeze another enemy of Russia, who was engaged in falsification and discrediting of our country and its leadership, ”the Concord publication says .

A team of lawyers later sued Higgins in the High Court of England. Immediately after that, the director of Bellingcat left his post to avoid liability, the legal service noted.

BACKGROUND
An information war is a set of propaganda measures aimed at demoralizing the population, the armed forces and the leadership of the enemy country.

Success in the information war allows you to sow disbelief in your own strength and the correctness of your position, distrust of the population in your leadership, and force them to agree with the ideological guidelines of the enemy. As a result, it will be easier to break the defense of the enemy army, force the leadership of the target country to act inadequately and erroneously, and, as a result, as in any war, impose its will on the enemy.

The information war is not something new, it has always been waged, but only as an auxiliary direction. The main method was direct force impact. With the development of information technologies, the spread of universal literacy and the greater openness of the information space, information warfare has become the main means of influencing the enemy. It is ongoing, regardless of whether the rival states are at war or at peace.

The main direction of the information war of the West against Russia is the promotion of Russophobic ideas. According to this line of reasoning, the West is taken as a standard, and it is concluded that Russia is some kind of initially “wrong” country. In this regard, the demonization of Russian history plays an important role - the creation and dissemination of "black" myths about all periods of Russian history.

Another important topic is the propaganda of national discord and regionalism. Within the framework of this concept, the differences between the population of different parts of Russia are exaggerated in every possible way, up to conclusions about “different nations”. Hostility is also kindled against people from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Muslims, Jews, and so on.

Also an important direction is the discrediting of the authorities at all levels. Unfortunately, authorities often give reasons for this. There are calls for the "overthrow of tyranny", the idea of ​​"fighting corruption" is given a total dimension.

The general background of the information war against Russia is the creation of a negative perception by people of the surrounding reality. For those who fell under the influence of the propaganda of the "chernukha", no achievements and positive aspects of life are visible.

Unfortunately, since the destruction of the USSR, the West has in Russia a fairly large number of both paid and voluntary "fighters" of the information war, including those with high positions in society and the state.

Previously:
January 28 [RAPSI] Moscow’s Lyublinsky District Court will hear a 10 million-ruble (over $130,000) defamation lawsuit lodged by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin against Alexey Navalny on March 10, the court’s press service told RAPSI on Thursday.

Another defendant is Navalny’s ally Vladimir Milov.

According to the lawsuit’s version published on the website of Concord Company, Prigozhin demands to declare statements calling him bandit and child prostitution convict disseminated by the defendants defaming and untrue.

Earlier, the businessman lodged another suit against Navalny with the Lyblinsky District Court. The tycoon seeks to recover 5 million rubles in compensation for moral harm inflicted by false discrediting information distributed by the blogger. Moreover, Prigozhin asks the court to recognize disseminated statements calling him "a dangerous special criminal funding a private military company responsible for hundreds of human lives" as inaccurate.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Russia starts huge war games in Belarus - opening up a new front in intimidation of Ukraine - and hosts a rival summit with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban in Moscow as NATO leaders fly into Kiev for meeting
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Russia is moving 2,000 Spetsnaz troops to Ukraine-Belarus border, stoking fears they will be used to invade

  • They will join 5,000 commandos already in position as experts warn they could form spearhead of attack

  • Russia has today begun a huge war games in Belarus in a move designed to turn up the heat on Ukraine

  • First phase of games got underway as Boris Johnson and Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki flew to Kiev for talks, while Russian held a rival summit with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you look at the map, Belarus’s border is perfect. Two highways heading south to cut the country in two and blocking nato. It’s a solid plan from a tactical perspective. Let’s hope Biden keeps our troops west of the highways.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/02/2022 19:44 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Soros Warns of Dangers From Red China
[Epoch Times] The year 2022 will be a turning point where much of the world will pivot sharply in the direction of either authoritarianism and repression or openness, and events in China will play a decisive role, said billionaire financier George Soros at a virtual event hosted by the Hoover Institution think tank on Jan. 31.

"2022 will be a critical year in the history of the world. In a few days, China, the most powerful authoritarian state, will be hosting the Winter Olympics, and like Germany in 1936, it will attempt to use the spectacle to score a propaganda victory for its system of state controls," Soros, 91, said.

Along other political contests such as the French elections and the Hungarian elections in April, and the U.S. mid-term elections in November, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 20th Party Congress—an all-important twice-a-decade Party meeting —in October makes 2022 a year with few parallels in history, Soros said.

The stakes could not be higher as tensions between the CCP and Taiwan veer ever more in the direction of a military showdown. The reason this geopolitical crisis is different from another one dominating the headlines at the moment—Vladimir Putin’s designs on Ukraine—has partly to do with President Joe Biden’s reaction to these respective crises, Soros emphasized.

"Biden has generally pursued the right policies. He has told Putin that Russia will pay a heavy price for invading Ukraine, but that the U.S. will not go to war," Soros said.

By contrast, Biden has sent a strong message to Xi that the use of military force against Taiwan will come up against an alliance of pro-Taiwan nations including the United States, the UK, Australia, India, and Japan, along potentially with a number of not-yet fully committed nations such as South Korea and the Philippines, Soros said. But the formidable array of defenders does not lessen the gravity of the crisis given Xi’s stated willingness to assert China’s claims over Taiwan by force if necessary, Soros warned.

"He is devoting enormous resources to armaments. He surprised the world by introducing a hypersonic missile. The U.S. has nothing comparable," Soros said.

Xi’s aggressiveness on the global stage would be quite enough by itself to make 2022 a year unlike any other. Complementing this foreign policy stance is a dictatorial approach at home that has progressively undone the tentative market reforms ushered in by earlier CCP leaders, Soros noted. Economic reforms initiated by then-leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s invited foreigners to invest in China and fostered economic growth that spilled over, for a brief time, into the reign of the current leader, he added.

In contrast to his predecessor, Xi Jinping has brought companies firmly under state control, come down heavily in favor of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over private companies, and generally pursued what Soros called "total control."
i’s aggressiveness on the global stage would be quite enough by itself to make 2022 a year unlike any other. Complementing this foreign policy stance is a dictatorial approach at home that has progressively undone the tentative market reforms ushered in by earlier CCP leaders, Soros noted. Economic reforms initiated by then-leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s invited foreigners to invest in China and fostered economic growth that spilled over, for a brief time, into the reign of the current leader, he added.

In contrast to his predecessor, Xi Jinping has brought companies firmly under state control, come down heavily in favor of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over private companies, and generally pursued what Soros called "total control."

"This has had disastrous consequences. In contrast to Deng, Xi Jinping is a true believer in communism. Marx and Lenin are his idols," Soros stated.

Chinese citizens have gotten the worst of both worlds under Xi’s rule, as authoritarianism has stifled many enterprises even while troubles in the real estate sector have swelled to dangerous levels based on what Soros called an unsustainable model. It is a system based excessively on credit, where people are now forced to start paying for apartments not yet even built, and subcontractors who have not been paid are simply ceasing to work.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Marx and Lenin are his idols," Soros stated. While I have a big brass Beelzebub in my bedroom.
Posted by: Cthulhu of Ryleh || 02/02/2022 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  When will Soros admit the dangers from Soros?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2022 8:17 Comments || Top||

#3  George Soros is a convicted felon and was a Nazi collaborator who profited off the Holocaust. Some people will try to lie and say he "survived" the holocaust because he's Jewish.. but in reality he "survived" by pretending to be Christian and taking a job with the Nazis where he stripped valuables from Jews then sorted through it as they were loaded onto cattle cars in front of his face. This wasn't something he was forced to do, he was paid very well for it, and described it as the happiest time of his life. To this day he says he says he still feels absolutely no guilt or remorse for it (he claims he was "too young to understand what was going on".. he was 14) he also has denounced his Jewish heritage, and has donated to anti-Israel terrorist groups.

Watch the 60 Minutes interview where he confesses. Note his reaction: is he ashamed, looking down, stammering? No, his eyes light up and he gets excited talking about his time as a Nazi collaborator. That's the deal with sociopaths, they can't recognize when they're horrifying normal people.

Posted by: Sheter the Lesser9291 || 02/02/2022 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ nailed it. Well said.
The man clearly revels in power -- in his ability to get the better of another in a trade, a scalping, a fleecing. He's a sociopath.
Posted by: Merrick Ferret || 02/02/2022 12:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh yeah. Soros is so proud of the work he did with his Nazi foster-father turning in and confiscating the possessions of fellow Jews. Good Times... Good Times... (to him). The Nuremberg trials missed a few - he's one of them.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/02/2022 12:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, tradition. Nazi vs Commie.
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/02/2022 13:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Soros has a 'Plan', right? Just send him 9.99 $US and he'll reveal it
Posted by: magpie || 02/02/2022 15:22 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Australia's largest ship suffers power failure and COVID outbreak off Tonga
[AustraliaBroadcasting] Massive electrical power failure has crippled the Australian Navy's largest warship as it completes its humanitarian mission to Tonga following the January 14 volcanic eruption and tsunami.

The ABC can reveal that despite days of emergency work HMAS Adelaide, known as a landing helicopter dock (LHD), is still experiencing problems, having earlier been "stranded".

An email sent by HMAS Adelaide's commander states: "Marine Technical Department have worked throughout the past few days to restore power and get us operational again."

In the message, obtained by the ABC, Captain Stuart Watters says: "We are still experiencing issues with external communications and wanted to let you know that everyone onboard is safe.

"We want to thank the technical team for their hard work in hot and difficult conditions which is enabling us to complete our task and restore services and communications."

Sources on board HMAS Adelaide have told the ABC the ship was "stranded" for a period of time, because of a "total power failure", including the backup power.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 || 02/02/2022 06:50 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Chinese 'warning?'
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/02/2022 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Last week, HMAS Adelaide was allowed to dock in Tonga to deliver humanitarian supplies, despite a COVID-19 outbreak that occurred on board shortly after it had departed Australia.

Thought the Aussie faucists had everyone jabbed?

You know. I'm watching a series covering USS Enterprise '42-'45. I don't think I have heard about any side losing an entire warship over a couple cases of the sniffles.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/02/2022 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  "Stranded" means on the beach.

I take it they mean, "Dead in the water and drifting with the wind and tide"?
Posted by: KBK || 02/02/2022 11:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Ref # 1, do you have a source or reference?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/02/2022 12:06 Comments || Top||



Economy
Gov. Kristi Noem's South Dakota's unemployment rate rebounds
[Washington Examiner] South Dakota's unemployment rate has rebounded well since the pandemic, according to a new report from WalletHub.

South Dakota’s unemployment rate in December 2021 was 2.6%, an improvement from its 3% unemployment rate the previous December. The state ranked ninth in terms of improvement to its jobless rate, according to the report.

South Dakota is the only state with an unemployment rate better than its rate before the pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In December 2019, South Dakota’s unemployment rate was 3.4%.

The state was the only one to not implement pandemic-related shutdowns.

The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.9%, significantly lower than the historic high of 14.7% in April 2020, according to WalletHub's report.

Sectors that are growing include leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction and manufacturing.

Analysts said the economy is seeing a shift toward more jobs focusing on computer engineering, online sales and artificial intelligence, and skills in those areas would do workers well when looking for jobs.

"Technology-related skills will continue to be in high demand," said Joshua Congdon-Hohman, an associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross. "Specifically, I expect the adoption of educational technology to accelerate as educational institutions are forced to be more flexible and nimbler in the aftermath of the pandemic. I fear brick-and-mortar retail will not recover, suggesting alternatives will also remain strong leading to higher growth in warehouse and delivery related fields."
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2022 06:15 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:



Europe
Germany Is Shuttering Nuclear Power Just When The EU Needs It The Most
[ZERO] Despite some countries embracing nuclear power as the obvious solution to the green energy problem that it is over the last 12 months, Europe is still shuttering reactors at a time when it needs them most.

With Europe is a massive energy crisis, what remains of a nuclear industry in Germany is about to be taken offline. This comes as "wholesale power prices are more than four times what they were at the start of the coronavirus pandemic," Bloomberg reported this week.

This comes despite the fact that the EU was slated to label uranium "green" this year. Meanwhile, as the rest of the world moves on to pragmatic solutions, government's across the EU are now facing massive energy bills and a supply crunch.

China, for example, is embracing nuclear in an attempt to try and clean up its air quality. Russia is also embracing new stations and has more than 20 reactors confirmed or planned, Bloomberg wrote. Japan called nuclear "key" to its decarbonization goals late last year.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2022 07:07 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When it affects the cost of their exports, things will change toot sweet.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/02/2022 9:53 Comments || Top||

#2  China, for example, is embracing nuclear in an attempt to try and clean up its air quality.
Or provide spent fuel rods to be reprocessed to make Plutonium-239 nuclear warheads?
Posted by: magpie || 02/02/2022 13:39 Comments || Top||


#4  China, for example, is embracing nuclear in an attempt to try and clean up its air quality.

Iran has air quality issues?
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 18:42 Comments || Top||


[Want Irish citizenship?] ‘Utterly Outrageous' Ireland Begins Mass Illegal Immigrant Amnesty
[Breitbart] Ireland has begun its ‘utterly outrageous’ mass amnesty for illegal immigrants, despite significant doubts remaining over the number of illegals residing in the country.

Ireland’s Europhile government has begun its mass amnesty of illegal immigrants, opening up applications for the scheme on Monday.

Headed up by the island nation’s Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, the scheme — which has been criticised as “utterly outrageous” — will reportedly aim to “regularise” illegal migrants resident in the country.

According to a report by the Irish Times, the minister expressed a desire to “move on this as quickly as possible” regarding the process.

“This scheme will provide an opportunity for those who meet its criteria to remain and reside in the State and to become part of mainstream Irish society rather than living on its margins,” McEntee said.

The minister also emphasised that having a criminal record will not automatically disqualify an illegal immigrant from the amnesty, despite the scheme requiring an applicant to be of “good character“.

The scheme will also reportedly put illegals who are granted the right to remain in the state on the pathway to citizenship.

Speaking to Breitbart London on the scheme, the President of the Irish Freedom Party, Hermann Kelly, slammed the amnesty as “utterly outrageous”.

“It’s utterly outrageous that the Irish Minister of Justice would reward criminality and make those who have respected our laws and borders go to the back of the queue,” Kelly told this publication.

“At a time when there are over 8,000 Irish homeless and many people cannot afford a house because of sky rocketing demand and prices; it is virtually insane to hand out citizenship to illegal migrants who have shown no respect to our country,” the part president continued. “Helen McEntee must feel the consequences for her outrageous contempt for national security at the ballot box.”
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants

#1  Pog ma thoin.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/02/2022 7:35 Comments || Top||

#2  If I was China I'd send endless waves of tourists to nations that allow refugee citizenship. Then eventually you'd get enough numbers to influence their politics.
Posted by: ruprecht || 02/02/2022 10:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Cotton Placed Holds on DOJ Nominees After Not Hearing Back on Department's 'Refusal' to Defend U.S. Marshalls
[Townhall] Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) placed holds on all Department of Justice nominees Tuesday after it failed to respond to the lawmaker's letter concerning allegations that the Biden administration is not representing U.S. Marshalls sued over their actions in defending the Portland federal courthouse amid Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.

Eight nominees — four U.S. attorney nominations awaiting votes in the Senate, two U.S. attorneys awaiting votes in the Judiciary Committee and two U.S. Marshals awaiting votes in committee — are now held up by Cotton's recent move.

The GOP senator sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday asking that the DOJ confirm that it is representing the U.S. Marshals or funding their private counsel, or to "explain why on earth you're not."

"These courageous officers were attacked by left-wing street militants with weapons such as mortar fire, ball bearings, and blinding lasers," Cotton wrote in the letter. "A refusal to represent these Deputy Marshals would violate the Department’s long-standing practice — not to mention its moral duty — to defend law-enforcement officers when they’re sued for actions in the line of duty."

Cotton vowed to block the department's nominees if he did not receive a "satisfactory" response by 3 p.m. Tuesday, and now, the senator is moving forward with his threat to object to DOJ nominees.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2022 06:56 || Comments || Link || [20 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1  Good!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2022 6:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Cotton wants to be President.
Posted by: Vespasian Ebboting9735 || 02/02/2022 8:37 Comments || Top||

#3  It is a start. Now do all the nominees submitted for everything.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2022 9:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Youth arrested for attacking girl with acid in Srinagar
[GreaterKashmir] Police on Tuesday arrested a youth who allegedly threw acid on a 24-year-old girl in Wantapora area of Hawal in Srinagar, reports said.

Quoting a police official, news agency GNS reported that soon after the attack, a police party was rushed to the area, which after searches was able to nab the assailant. “We have taken him (assailant) into custody,” said the official, adding that they are ascertaining the motive of the attack.

Medical Superintendent SMHS Hospital Dr. Kanwaljeet Singh told GNS that the victim has grievous injuries in her face. She has also suffered contusions in her eyes, said Dr Singh. “We are uncertain about her eyesight as of now as things are being looked into”, he further said.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should prob induce a brain infarction with cleaver or ax.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 0:06 Comments || Top||


Iraq
IRC calls on families to receive the remains of 629 martyrs in the Iranian -Iraqi war


The Iraqi red crescent (IRC) invited the families of 629 victims of the Iranian-Iraqi war to receive their remains.

The organization said in a statement, "Although 32 years have passed since the end of the Iranian -Iraqi war where hundreds of participants are still missing, from time to time the remains of some of them are found."

"The IRCS receives many requests from the Iraqi citizens to look for their missing relatives in the eight-years 1980-1988 war, which was considered the longest war in the twentieth century, which left hundreds of thousands of victims", it added.

The organization called on the families of the victims to receive their remains at the cemetery of al-Hassan al-Basri in al-Zubayrarea.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
New Drug for Seriously Ill COVID-19 Patients Shows Promise
[Epoch Times] ZYESAMI, developed by the Radnor, Pennsylvania-based pharmaceuticals company, currently is being tested with patients as part of the approval process of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ZYESAMI is the brand name of aviptadil, a synthetic version of a natural chemical made in the human body called human vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. The company hopes to earn emergency-use authorization (EUA) that would allow widespread use of the drug in the treatment of COVID-19.

For now, the drug has progressed far enough in the process to be used by more patients under the federal Right to Try Act. That law allows the use of investigational drugs for patients diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions, who have tried all approved treatment options, and who cannot participate in a clinical trial to access certain unapproved treatments.
A fairly restrictive set of parameters.
Roofing contractor Joel Webb, 40, of Colleyville, Texas enthusiastically shared his story of using ZYESAMI as part of an earlier trial in mid-October. His recovery, the husband and father of four said, was nothing short of miraculous.

When he first realized his COVID-19 infection was getting serious, he resisted going to the hospital. Three friends from church had already died from the virus. Checking into the hospital seemed to mean certain death, he told The Epoch Times.

But when a doctor friend urged him to get checked out at an emergency clinic where she was working, he agreed.

He’d been sick for about seven days, and "I was to the point where I didn’t even know where I was," he said.

A CT scan showed his lungs looked full of shattered glass. Immediately, his doctor at the Frisco, Texas hospital offered ZYESAMI, telling Webb it was still in trials. Webb and his family declined. It seemed too risky to try an unapproved medication, he said.

Over the next few days, Webb’s condition worsened dramatically. He required increasing amounts of oxygen. The next step, he was told, was to go on a ventilator.

Devastated, his family gathered around him in the intensive care unit and prayed. Suddenly, he said, they were at peace about trying ZYESAMI and told his doctors.

Shortly after, a courier delivered the drug, he said. That night, he remembers nurse technician Daniel Igheghe holding his hand, praying with him, and singing a Christian worship song to help Webb drift off to sleep, as he struggled to breathe.

By the next day, something amazing had happened, he said. His vital signs rapidly improved, Webb said, and his need for oxygen dramatically decreased. The trend continued steadily. Soon, he was out of the ICU. And nine days after being admitted to the hospital, he left, no longer on oxygen.

Related: Aviptadil - Wikipedia - discovered 1970
Posted by: Bobby || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So was it the Zyesami or the prayer (or just coincidence?)
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/02/2022 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Beyond the scope of this investigation, Glenmore!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/02/2022 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  A cocktail of ivermectin, HCQ, and zinc when he first tested positive would likely have avoided hospitalization.
Posted by: KBK || 02/02/2022 11:18 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
The deadly battles that tipped Myanmar into civil war
[BBC] Myanmar is seeing increasingly deadly battles between its military and organised groups of armed civilians, new data suggests. Many of those fighting the military are young people who have put their lives on hold since the junta seized power a year ago.

The intensity and extent of the violence - and the co-ordination of the opposition attacks - point to a change in the conflict from an uprising to a civil war.

Violence is now spread across the country, according to data from conflict monitoring group Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project). Reports from the ground also suggest the fighting has become increasingly co-ordinated and has reached urban centres which have not previously seen armed resistance to the military.

Although precise death tolls are hard to verify, Acled - which bases its data on local media and other reports - has collated figures to suggest about 12,000 people have been killed in political violence since the military seized power on 1 February 2021. Clashes have grown deadlier month on month since August.

In the coup's immediate aftermath, most civilians died as security forces cracked down on nationwide demonstrations. Now, however, the rising death toll is a result of combat - as civilians have taken up arms - Acled figures show.

UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet agreed in an interview with the BBC that the conflict in Myanmar, also known as Burma, should now be termed a civil war and called on the UN Security Council to take "stronger action" to put pressure on the military to restore democracy. She said the international response to the crisis had "lacked urgency" and described the situation as "catastrophic", warning that the conflict now threatened regional stability.

The groups fighting government forces are known collectively as the People's Defence Force (PDF) - a loose network of civilian militia groups largely made up of young adults.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/02/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  organised groups of armed civilians

What a lovely euphemism! Any discussion of exactly how these 'groups of armed civilians' got crosswise with the rest of the country?
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2022 9:34 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2022-02-02
  Iraqi intelligence destroys 80 ISIS IEDs in Ninevah village
Tue 2022-02-01
  The leader of the Hamza Division eliminated in Aleppo province
Mon 2022-01-31
  Cairo court sentences 10 to death over terrorism charges; including Yehia Mousa
Sun 2022-01-30
  DR Congo sentences 51 accused of killing UN staff
Sat 2022-01-29
  Russia insists ‘we don’t want wars’ as it ponders Ukraine-NATO answer
Fri 2022-01-28
  Fighting Rages on Between Libyan Army and ISIS
Thu 2022-01-27
  SDF declare victory in week-long ISIS stand off in northeast Syrian prison, 181 dead thus far
Wed 2022-01-26
  Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Announces Retirement
Tue 2022-01-25
  Over 120 Killed After ISIS Mass Prison Break In US-Occupied Northeast Syri, 140+ as of Monday
Mon 2022-01-24
  Egyptian court sentences Mufti of Al-Qaeda affiliate 'Al-Nusra Front' to life in prison
Sun 2022-01-23
  56 IS terrorists killed in northeast Syria
Sat 2022-01-22
  Iran says in talks with Russia to build nuclear power units
Fri 2022-01-21
  Al Qaeda announces death of former Bin Laden associate
Thu 2022-01-20
  Indonesian Militant Linked to Bali Bombings Sentenced to 15 Years
Wed 2022-01-19
  Mohammed al-Houthi: Yemen's only goal is the end of aggression


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