[Epoch Times] In each of two video appearances, on NBC News and at Wall Street Journal’s "CEO Council," Attorney General William Barr provided the same basic information and views about the U.S. intelligence community’s actions against the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2017. A criminal investigation is underway and being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
Barr was motivated to make the public statements, he said, by the misreporting and confusion surrounding Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report issued on Dec. 9. It found serious government surveillance abuses but no evidence of political bias on the part of the offending FBI officials and agents.
Below are 24 points Barr felt the need to make after the release of the Horowitz report. (All of the information is attributed to Barr.)
Attkinson's 24 points and video at the link.
In his interviews this week, Barr provided a treasure trove of information about what stands to be one of the most important investigations into our U.S. intelligence community of our time. His signposts indicate that we can expect a shakeup of a system that may have been broken for decades.
#1
Admiral Mike Rogers remains the unsung hero at the beginning of this huge conspiracy and AG Barr semis likely to be the hero that reveals and ends it. Can he let the truth lead all the way to Champ and ValJar?
[Washington Examiner] The argument in favor of arbitrarily revoking the Second Amendment rights of college students, as is done in dozens of states, has ostensibly been rooted in safety concerns.
And it just got a lot weaker.
Two anti-gun professors wrote in the Washington Post that "campus-carry laws will invite tragedies on college campuses, not end them." Another liberal professor, writing for the New York Times, warned that "when there are more guns around, there is more risk – it's as simple as that."
The trouble with such predictions is that they tend to be tested as time goes by. And as it turns out, they simply weren't true. Students just aren't waging the gun battles that anti-gun activists expected. A new report from the College Fix looked into this narrative, and it came up empty. Take that, Dem candidates!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/15/2019 06:41 ||
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#1
Yeah, weird how law abiding gun owners and CCW holders aren't these bloodthirsty, violent cretins the left paints them.
[PJMedia] One of the most meaningless statements made by CNN concerning the recent Pensacola naval air station shooting‐where Ahmed Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi man, killed three people and injured eight‐was to say: "It does not appear Alshamrani had ties to terrorist groups, two sources told CNN. He had been training at the Florida base for two years, according to a front man for the assistant to the defense secretary."
The fact is, just being born and bred in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , as Alshamrani was, is enough to inculcate "terrorism"‐that is, hate for and possibly violence against non-Moslems‐into the hearts and minds of its inhabitants. One need not also have actual "ties to terrorist groups."
the late Osama bin Laden ...... who is now beyond all cares and woe...... , also born and raised in Saudi Arabia, is a perfect example. He was not eventually evicted for screaming bloody jihad or hate for infidels‐both mainstream aspects of Saudi teaching‐but for publicly accusing the Saudi crown of not practicing the jihad it preached.
If this seems exaggerated, consider some facts about our "good friend and ally,"™ Saudi Arabia. It has actually published online a fatwa, an Islamic-sanctioned opinion‐in Arabic only‐entitled, "Duty to Hate Jews, Polytheists, and Other Infidels" (my translation here). It comes from the fatwa wing of the government, meaning it has the full weight of the Saudi crown behind it. According to this governmentally-supported fatwa, all Moslems must "oppose and hate whomever Allah commands us to oppose and hate, including the Jews, the Christians, and other mushrikin [polytheists], until they believe in Allah alone and abide by his laws, which he sent down to his Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him" (see Koran 60:4).
It all starts with the Saudi education system, which indoctrinates Moslem children into believing that "the Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians." "As early as first grade," Human Rights Watch reports, "students in Saudi schools are being taught hatred toward all those perceived to be of a different faith or school of thought... The lessons in hate are reinforced with each following year." Nor have any of Saudi Arabia’s promises for educational reform been fulfilled. According to a December 2018 report:
Saudi Arabia had previously pledged to remove all incitement content from its textbooks by 2008 and the government continues to allege that this issue has long since been resolved. However, other reports say otherwise. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a study this past March which says that the curriculum contains incitement content which had been thought removed. Examples of this content include demeaning non-Muslims and encouraging jihad against them. The execution of apostates is prescribed and children are encouraged not to associate with non-Muslims. Saudi Arabia not only continues to use these textbooks domestically, but exports them to other parts of the Middle East.
Indeed, Saudi-sponsored hate literature is found in mosques and Islamic centers all across the U.S.
h/t Instapundit
[MailOnline] - There is a troubling new divide running through our country, but it is not the one that people like to imagine. It is best shown by the Election result in affluent Putney, West London, where, in a rare victory, the Labour party gained a seat from the Conservatives.
Putney, like Kensington and Chelsea, is filled with rows of over-priced £1 million homes where residents would have faced huge tax hikes if Labour got into power. Yet the constituency still decided to vote for the socialist experiment that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were promising ‐ and in so doing, upended a whole set of presumptions.
On the other hand, a seat like Bolsover, in Derbyshire, did something unheard of. Dennis Skinner had been the sitting Labour MP for nearly half a century, and made it a byword for the hardcore Labour heartlands.
In Bolsover you can buy a nice semi-detached house for about £100,000 ‐ one tenth of Putney’s prices. But it was Putney that went Left and Bolsover Right.
Not that Left and Right are the correct way to describe the extraordinary upheaval of this last week.
The real chasm which has arisen is between a Conservative party that committed itself to fulfilling the will of the people, and two Left-wing parties which had devoted the past three-and-a-half years to subverting it.
#2
Perhaps, in November 2020, the author can adapt his theme to his American cousins. I see some parallels.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/15/2019 13:38 Comments ||
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#3
I bet the dems shit themselves when they saw the results bobby
Posted by: chris ||
12/15/2019 17:41 Comments ||
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#4
Left has been due for a split for awhile now. Super lefty crazies obsessed with race and pronounces and working class union folks are not natural allies.
Correction: Rejoiner Twitter has a complete meltdown.
Let's all take a few minutes out of our day to do some salt mining. The delicious tears of unfathomable sadness! They flow like wine! It feels good to win and it feels even better to see the far left lose.
PS: I can't see where to file this, as it's about the UK. It doesn't belong under "Europe".
File under the heading Fred decided to call Britain. I share this because you are not the only one unable to find it. ;-)
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/15/2019 00:00 ||
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[CTC.USMA] Abstract: For several years, ‘frustrated travelers’ unable to make it to Syria have responded with plots targeting the countries in which they reside. In Europe, most individuals attempted to travel between 2014 and 2016, when the Islamic State was at the peak of its power. Thwarted in these attempts, frustrated travelers sometimes launched rapid, unsophisticated attacks, rather than meticulously planned ones, in order to contribute to the Islamic State’s cause from their country of residence. In total, the 25 frustrated traveler plots that were set in motion in Europe between January 2014 and June 2019 resulted in eight attacks and led to 18 injuries and seven deaths. These plots involved a disproportionate number of females and minors, and more often than not, perpetrators were in contact with the Islamic State.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/15/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
The interesting thing is that the last time the plague came to Europe their knowledge of fleas, rats, and humans, let along disease pathologies, lacked an awareness that gave them so much grief and death. Today, its not a lack of awareness as much plain outright incompetence of the ruling class which is more interested in virtue flashing their own group and then security and safety of their populations. None the less, grief and death is what they get.
[DAWN] ONE would have imagined that our ’upholders of the law’ would have felt profound revulsion at the actions of their compatriots on Wednesday when a mob of black coats stormed the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Institute of Cardiology in Lahore. Not only were hospital staff beaten and lifesaving hospital equipment destroyed, but some critically ill patients died during the shameful episode, possibly as a direct result of the mayhem. A whiff of grapeshot would do some good Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2019 00:00 ||
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[FrontPageMagazine] "Many people who are psychotic read the Koran."
In 2003, Sébastien Selam, a Jewish DJ, was stabbed to death by Adel Amastaibou. The Moslem killer told the cops that it was the will of Allah. He boasted to his mother, "I killed a Jew! I will go to paradise."
Prior to the murder, Adel had assaulted a Rabbi and threatened a pregnant Jewish woman. But he was found unfit to stand trial on account of mental illness.
Continued on Page 49
[Rogue Health and Fitness] As we know, all people do not age at the same rate, some aging markedly slower, and some faster, seemingly following a normal distribution.
If you want to stay healthy and free of chronic disease, as well as live a long lifespan by fighting aging, you’d be well-advised to be on the left side of the curve. How can we do that?
An interesting new study by a team that includes the maverick scientist Lee Hood determined the biological markers most associated with lower or higher biological age. (ref)
The study looked at medical records of over 3500 people, and assessed biological age via a computer algorithm, the Klemera‐Doubal algorithm. They looked at with biomarkers were associated with younger or older biological, as opposed to chronological, age.
There weren’t a lot of surprises here ‐ though there were a few, which I’ll mention.
#2
Intermittent fasting and Bullet coffee, right on. Intermittent fasting allows body to repair and place less priority effort on digestion. Bullet coffee does nothing to interfere during fast benefits.
#3
Himmm. Many ways to make this coffee. My basic mix, Coffee, Coconut oil 1 table spoon, butter 1 table spoon to say 16 oz. cup of coffee. Certainly you can add say cinnamon, turmeric, ginger and perhaps garlic. Major attack on body inflation.
#5
Exercise. Use that body to its glorious limits everyday and you may not live forever, but you sure won't miss out on much by the time it doesn't work anymore. But you've got to love it, be addicted to the sheer freedom of it. An athletic body will also live longer.
Or as our very rustic drill instructor Havildar Major Bala Nand once said :
"The long life is strong life, and strong life comes by playing. So by God, you will play with yourself everyday !"
#7
#5 I respect your opinion. I can only offer two comments I received working growing up. Fist a woman mopping the floor overnight in my store. Something close to this; You have energy now but like a gas tank it runs out. Then at the same location an elderly dark complected chap said, " you white people do ten different things at the same time and get none of them done". There is no court of miracles that I have seen, where the blind see and the crippled walk. Rather the healthy are small in numbers and in our country death rates have increased for men and women at younger ages. I grew up seeing Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt lived vigorous and active lives 61-60 respectively. I look at them now as they have passed. Full lives but I am beyond them now. I can say the calm steady state is best. The long distance runner suits me.
[The National Interest] Key point: Plastic and metal are in, but this wooden rifle was the Greatest Generation's greatest weapon.
A variety of outstanding weapons and pieces of equipment affected the course of World War II for both the Allies and the Axis powers.
There was the British workhorse 25-pounder field gun, the deadly Supermarine Spitfire fighter, the Avro Lancaster bomber, the universal carrier, and the dependable Bren light machine gun; the rugged Soviet T-34, regarded as the best tank of the war; the devastating German 88mm antiaircraft and artillery gun, and the formidable Tiger tank series; the feared Japanese Mitsubishi Zero carrier fighter; and, from the American "arsenal of democracy" came the ubiquitous jeep, the Sherman medium tank, the half-track, the bazooka rocket launcher, the universally used C-47 transport plane‐and the Garand M-1 infantry rifle.
Designed long before the war by John C. Garand, a French Canadian engineer, the semiautomatic, gas-operated, air-cooled, clip-fed M-1 was the main infantry weapon of the U.S. Army in 1941-1945. Firing a .30-caliber cartridge in eight-round clips, it was the world’s first semiautomatic rifle in military service and was used wherever American soldiers saw action, in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, the Pacific Theater, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany.
The M-1 had a significant advantage over the bolt-action rifles used by the other Allied and enemy armies because of its semiautomatic mechanism. Its shooter could fire as fast as he could squeeze the trigger. A trained soldier was able to fire eight rounds within 20 seconds and then quickly insert a full clip without taking his sights off the target. He could also load with regular ball, tracer, armor-piercing, or incendiary ammunition, and with relative ease he could turn the weapon into a grenade launcher.
#2
I have an M1A by Springfield Armory. I originally had a synthetic stock, but I replaced it with a walnut stock. Now it is back to the original configuration and it is great, like it should be.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/15/2019 1:27 Comments ||
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#7
I qualified with an M-1
Iron sights 300 meters
You could reach out out and touch someone with it
Too bad our kids are stuck with a popgun that is really best intended for jungle combat or a tent peg
I hated the M-16 and many in my units were constantly trying to scrounge up something that actually would kill at 300 meters
I am ignorant to the reality of this stuff, I got my first rifle last year, a .22 bolt action pop gun. I learned my shooting in scouts 60 years ago
but for a variety of female objections couldn't have my own till we moved to NH to retire. When I've had the opportunity I've shot a lot of different guns, but does 2 or 3 shots really count?
I've heard that the AR10 with a .308 is a good match for a Garand, but as I said "What do I know?"
#9
M-14 has to be a close competitor. Edson Range at Camp Pendleton I fired iron sight slow fire prone position at a Dog target (upper torso) at 500 yards with a tight sling and got 20/20 hits. My eyesight was better in 1969.
#10
I have an AR-10 in .308, it accepts 20 and 25 rounds magazines. It's a good rifle, certainly out to the ranges I would use it at, which for me is the same as the ranges I would use the Garand. The Garand though is a piece of history, one that just....feels right when you shoot it. Proper. No idea how to describe it other than that. Is there more effective rifles now, certainly. But it's just not the same.
#11
I use checkmate brand mags in the M1A. No failure to feed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/15/2019 12:49 Comments ||
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#12
I suspect the new Springfield Armory M1A in 6.5 Creedmoor tops the list for long-range accuracy. Not personal knowledge, I hardly shoot anymore, just anecdotal reporting. I use a Remington 7600 pump in 30.06, good for deer and hogs. But rigged into that stand safely at 10-12 feet and napping mostly. No better sleep can be had, and when you wake up.... you're HUNTING again.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/15/2019 14:44 Comments ||
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#14
Huey pilot in Nam 70-71. Traded an ARVN for a full auto M-14 cut off at beginning of stock and a pistol grip. Great when I found myself walking around in the weeds. Muzzle flash and full auto surprised several NVA.
[The Hill] After he was acquitted in a major fraud trial, former Labor Secretary Ray Donovan asked, "Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" The trial was ruinous for Donovan, personally and financially, and the question was a fair one. Donovan, however, at least received a trial. Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has never been given a fair hearing, let alone a trial, to clear his name. As the two political parties spin the results of a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, one matter remains unaddressed. Someone needs to apologize to Page. 'Reader's Digest' version reproduced below. RTWT.
Early on, Horowitz found that an unnamed government agency, widely acknowledged to be the CIA, told the FBI that it was making a mistake about Page and that he was working for the agency as an "operational contact" in Moscow. Indeed, he was working as an asset for the CIA for years.
While it took long, someone at the Justice Department finally decided to act on the FISA matter regarding Page. The official in charge of FISA applications, Kevin Clinesmith, was told to ask the CIA again about whether Page had been working for the agency. He was again told that Page in fact was, yet Clinesmith allegedly changed the CIA response to describe Page as not working for it. He is now being criminally referred by Horowitz for falsifying that information. No deep state, no witch hunt. Uh-huh.
Natasha Bertand later wondered why anyone would question the case against Page. After all, she wrote, Senator Mark Warner, who is ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had warned reporters to "be careful what you wish for" and one of his aides told her that is is "simply impossible to review the documents" on Page and conclude anything other than that the FBI "had ample reason" to investigate him. Her article was published long after the FBI had been told that Page was working with the CIA, but many other stories ran with similar comments from senators suggesting that anyone defending Page would be ridiculed after the release of some damning evidence. Mueller and Horowitz have now confirmed that there was never such evidence showing Page was a Russian asset. Indeed, the evidence showed he was an American asset. Media complicit? Don't be silly!
All I know is that he is an American citizen put under a secret surveillance operation based on a dossier shown to be both unfounded and unreliable. He then remained under surveillance with three renewals of secret warrants, even though the FBI was told repeatedly that Page was working with the CIA and that the dossier used to obtain those warrants was considered unsupported. Finally, Page was the subject of an alleged falsification of a document presented to the FISA court to obscure that exculpatory information. Collateral damage. Can't make an omelet...
At what point does someone apologize to Page? He is, in fact, the victim of this criminal referral. He is the victim of what Horowitz describes as a "misleading" basis presented to the FISA court. He is a victim of media "groupthink" that portrayed him as the sinister link proving collusion with Russia, an allegation rejected by the FBI, by the inspector general, and by the special counsel. Of course, Washington does not work this way. Page served his purpose and the trashing of his reputation was a cost of doing business with the federal government for many members of Congress and the media. In recalling the question by Donovan, there is no such office. Page is simply supposed to disappear and leave his reputation behind.
Jonathan Turley is the chair of public interest law at George Washington University and served as the last lead counsel in a Senate impeachment trial. He testified as a Republican witness in House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Trump impeachment inquiry. Carter Page the "Victim" or unindicted co-conspirator? You decide.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/15/2019 06:26 ||
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#1
Indeed, he was working as an asset for the CIA for years. While it was falsely reported that Page met with three suspicious individuals there, he had no contact with two of those individuals. More importantly, Page did the right thing and told American officials about being contacted by the third person, because he felt they should know.
Emphasis added.
Of course he did "the right thing." That was his JOB! Retention of a security clearance demands this type of reporting. How does one pass a poly withholding foreign contact information ?
Someone, please tell me, how do these things happen? Oh WAIT !
American asset is libelled and slandered as a Russian asset.
The (perpetual) campaign operation that enlisted foreign spies to throw an election with dirty tricks claims the other side was guilty of same.
#3
Do we evidence for Page holding a security clearance? Maybe we should ask the Chinese since they have all the files. Our authorities appear confused on this matter and Page acts confused.
Washington (CNN) On the same day that a Democratic-led US House committee voted for articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court made its own momentous decision to intervene in Trump's effort to keep his tax returns and other financial records secret.
The justices agreed to resolve in spring 2020 if a sitting president should be immune from any criminal proceeding, whether related to conduct before taking office or even -- to use Trump's famed example -- shooting someone on Fifth Avenue in New York. The high court also said it would determine the oversight authority of Congress in paired disputes arising from attempts by House Democrats to obtain Trump's financial documents.
The eventual decisions would help define the high court in the Trump era, especially as Chief Justice John Roberts has tried to carefully navigate Trump-related litigation and regularly declares that the justices are above politics.
Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005, has tried to shield the judiciary from the polarization in Washington, stepping up his efforts after the contentious confirmations of Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Last year, Roberts admonished Trump and said judges should not be labeled as "Obama judges" or "Trump judges," but rather as neutral decision-makers.
#5
Then start acting like neutral judges. We have Ruth Ginsburg openly rallying for the impeachment - which, if held in a real court and not a three ring circus, would have been thrown out as having *no* evidence whatsoever.
#6
Assuming the House actually does pass those articles of impeachment, and the Senate must sit the trial within 24 or 48 hours — something like that — then sit all day, six days a week until it’s done, can they then postpone the vote on innocence or guilt until the Supreme Court returns their verdict? It seems especially mean to me to make all the presidential candidate senators come off the campaign trail until the trial is over, then keep them on tenterhooks until they’re called back for the final vote sometime in June, the result of which will steal all the oxygen from the room.
#10
Never forget: Whatever is decided pro Trump will also benefit the next Democratic President.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/15/2019 23:42 Comments ||
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#11
Agreed, European Conservative. Applying Democratic rules is how Senator Mitch McConnell is getting so many judges approved without Democratic involvement. The only way to get them to stop playing games is to apply their own rules against them — in this case the Democrats are posturing in front of the cameras instead of voting to impeach the president. Once that vote is taken, then the president’s people will comply.
#12
Democrats are not seriously thinking that the Senate would remove Trump. Their game is to make the Senate look complicit and thus encourage voters to turn the Senate blue.
The Supreme Court Decision will come long after the Senate has decided.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/15/2019 23:58 Comments ||
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#13
Would be worth to carry this over...
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/15/2019 23:59 Comments ||
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Recommended. This really is multi-national culture wars, but we don’t have that category.
[AreoMagazine] One of the artefacts resulting from the rise of the smartphone and social media is the phenomenon of abusive racists caught on camera. One such episode took place recently on the London Underground. A man stood over a seated Jewish family with children, ranting at them for about twenty minutes, ignoring the father’s repeated requests to leave them alone. Another man tried to intervene and was threatened with violence. Reportedly, at least three people filmed the episode, and a clip from one of these videos went viral on Twitter and then appeared in the media. The abuser was later identified and arrested. The unpleasant story had a feel good ending, when a hijab-wearing Muslim woman intervened on the Jewish family’s behalf. She was later identified as Asma Shuweikh, and the father met her to personally thank her for her support. What began as a tirade of hatred ended as a story of cross-faith solidarity.
What made many commentators surprised and uncomfortable was that the attacker was a black man. His ideas seemed outlandish, especially the remark that, "These people are impostors, trying to claim my heritage and they’re trying to tell me that’s cool." He also mentioned the slave trade. He was clearly angry, not just in general but towards the Jewish family in particular. Many Twitter commentators concluded that he must simply be mentally ill‐which is possible. However, the strange ideas he mentioned were not simply his own warped inventions, but myths with deep roots in American black nationalist ideology. As a Jewish Londoner with a broad, racially mixed social circle, I have encountered these ideas frequently. I have watched them evolve and become popularised over the past few decades, and, in recent years, fuelled by social media and WhatsApp, they have reached a far broader audience.
The Tube attack may have been seen as an outlier, but, two days later, black men boarded a bus in East London and assaulted a group of Jewish schoolchildren. And a few days after that, two black men beat up a rabbi, while shouting "Kill the Jews," again in East London. Something was stirring, but this something was not new.
Anti-Semitism does not have a long history in black populations because there have been few deep historic ties between black and Jewish people. Ethiopia has an ancient Jewish population, but Ethiopia is an exception. In the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and the mostly West African diaspora in the Americas and Europe, there have been few sustained contacts between black and Jewish communities. It's long, click through to read the whole thing.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/15/2019 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Washington Examiner] The argument in favor of arbitrarily revoking the Second Amendment rights of college students, as is done in dozens of states, has ostensibly been rooted in safety concerns.
...... who is now beyond all cares and woe......
[FrontPageMagazine] "Many people who are psychotic read the Koran."
[Rogue Health and Fitness] As we know, all people do not age at the same rate, some aging markedly slower, and some faster, seemingly following a normal distribution.
