Overall, the US economy is only dependent upon the rest of the world for ~11% of its GDP. Nearly half of that is locked up in NAFTA trade. Curious about your state? Czech this out: SC: FDI WA: Boeing LA: refining TX: NAFTA pic.twitter.com/dMm8Kl1OL2
[Breitbart] Thursday while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he never had "completely understood" the concept of a "deep state" in government.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) asked, "So I asked in another hearing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was there a deep state at the State Department. He laughed, and he basically said no, there was not. So, Director Wray, I’m going to ask you. Is there a deep state at the FBI?"
Wray answered, "Congressman, I’ve never completely understood the term ’deep state.’ What I can tell you is that we have 37,000 men and women working in field offices all over the country and in offices all over the world. They are people of character, of courage, of principle, of selflessness and of patriotism. And that’s the FBI that I see."
#5
#3 Wonder if he's ever spoke with one of them "under the rose"? --g(r)omgoru
Would you trust this smarmy jackass if he told you to "...speak frankly and don't worry about repercussions..."? I sure wouldn't.
#6
Well, Chris you are now the director of our premier Federal investigative agency. You've never understand "deep state." How about "shadow government?" Do you understand the following terms "swamp?" What about "subversive activities" in your agency? Sedition? Treason?
#7
Every time this moron "testifies" before congress, the first, third, fifth and so on questions should be "describe an actual criminal case the FBI broke last week." Every hearing should end with "Is it true that committed amateurs broke the D.B. Cooper case where the FBI could not?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 17:19
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#11
Known wolves. However, its far better to just watch and not interfere because our sheep citizens are expendable rather than expose the danger and end our work. When government decides what you get to know and not know.
[Investors] For more than a decade, California has won high praise from environmentalists for its stringent greenhouse gas restrictions. But a new report shows that despite the enormous costs of this effort, the state is doing a worse job at cutting CO2 emissions than the rest of the country, while badly hurting its working families. It was never about CO2.
It was about control.
Back in 2007, California became the first state to cap CO2 emissions when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB32, which mandated the state cut greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. Schwarzenegger called it "a bold new era of environmental protection."
Not to be outdone, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last year requiring the state to cut emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.
So, what happened? From 2007 to 2015, California managed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 9%. But the rest of the country cut them by more than 10%, according to a new report from the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University in Orange, California.
On a per capita basis, 41 states outperformed California on CO2 cuts over those same years.
Here's another way to look at it. Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, and Pennsylvania have about the same combined population as California. But these states saw emission reductions five times as great as California. (To be fair, California started from a lower base.)
Even that is exaggerating California's achievement. The study notes that because the state has become so inhospitable to manufacturing and energy production, it now imports more energy than any other state in the nation and relies heavily on imported goods.
In fact, California imports 66% of its crude oil, 91% of its natural gas, and 88% of the ethanol is uses from other states and countries. California alone accounts for almost a quarter of U.S. oil imports from the Persian Gulf and from Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, in 2015, it imported about $408 billion in products from other nations, or 16% of the state's GDP.
In other words, California is exporting its energy production and manufacturing base to other, more carbon-intensive states and countries, while patting itself on the back for its own CO2 reductions.
Even if California were able to meet its ambitious CO2 cuts, it would have no impact on global temperatures ‐ assuming the climate scientists are right in their predictions ‐ because the state represents a tiny portion of global CO2 emissions.
And what have Californians received in return for their state's "bold" effort? As the report notes, these environmentalist policies have "significantly distorted the California economy." And not in a good way.
Outside Silicon Valley, this unilateral effort to cut CO2 emissions is hampering the states' economy, eliminating opportunities for working families, and increasing poverty. Housing and energy prices are climbing faster than the national average. Wages for Latinos, African Americans and the less educated have stagnated.
"In summary," the report says, "the imposition by the state's Democratic Party leaders of highly regressive climate schemes have engendered disparate financial hardships on middle and lower income workers and minority communities, while providing direct economic subsidies to wealthier Californians in environmentalist strongholds like Marin County."
"This represents a significant departure from more traditional Democratic Party values."
No kidding.
This is the problem with environmentalist mandates generally. They make rich coastal elites feel better about themselves, do little to improve the environment, and load all the costs and burdens on the backs of those who can least afford it.
Tell us again which political party is the one that cares about working families?
#1
Has nothing to do with "climate" or whatever they are calling it this week. It's a redistribution scheme. Outlaw the entire concept.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 10:15
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#2
Whatever the case, Caliphornia must have some serious industry going on to account for that large a fraction of US energy consumption. It could be way better if they weren't constantly choking themselves.
#3
It's certainly not useless to those who are enriched by it
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/29/2018 12:24
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Science Fiction was invaded by a wave of Totalitarian writers with one common message to their stories: Humanity Is Evil™ and the world will suffer from inevitable [insert Horrible Calamity(s) here]. We can only be saved if we had a One World Government™ ruled by an Incorruptible, All-Knowing Elite Class. Democracy is Evil! Respect your new Technocratic Overlords, Peasants!
Today we see the same fantasies every day as mainstream news...
[Red State] As covered earlier today and yesterday, the rhetoric of the Left is escalating to dangerous levels.
Within a little more than a week, Maxine Waters called for the public and perpetual harassment of Trump’s Cabinet (see here), Sarah Sanders and Kirstjen Nielsen were rejected at restaurants (covered here), and raging imbecile Peter Fonda fantasized about the child rape and naked woman torture of those close to the President (read that incredible story here).
While in North Dakota Wednesday, President Trump thanked the most unhinged politicians for their lack of civility, which ultimately does exactly what he has suggested: it repulses the masses.
#1
I won't even consider looking at dead state. They are actually printing articles that aren't anti-Trump now?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 7:42
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POTUS Trump thanked the most unhinged politicians for their lack of civility, which ultimately does exactly what he has suggested: it repulses the masses. The rocks get turned over and the unmasking of the unhinged politicians occurs. Trump has a gift.
#3
"While in North Dakota Wednesday, President Trump thanked the most unhinged politicians for their lack of civility, which ultimately does exactly what he has suggested: it repulses the masses."
Ummm... you might want to cool it with that kind of talk, Mr. President. While most Democrats, and all of the Democratic base, are irretrievably batshit crazy, there are a few non-insane (or "less insane") among the leadership who are beginning to suspect that their incivility and the constant cries of "Trump is Hitler! LITERALLY!!" may cost them dearly this November.
Don't give them any more clues, OK?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/29/2018 10:14
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#4
Chumming is not about calming the sharks down.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 10:54
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#5
Don't give them any more clues, OK?
He's using the very nature of anti-Trumpers against themselves.
[WND] Big Media, the policy veterans and the chancelleries across Europe and Britain are constantly complaining: Donald Trump has had the temerity to defy their international order, summit ‐ and seek peace ‐ with their enemies and mess with the multilateral maze they call agreements. He even declared, early in June, that the U.S. would be far better off if it negotiated bilateral trade agreements.
Or, in Trump speak, "country-on-country agreements."
But what does an entrenched punditocracy, a self-anointed, meritless intelligentsia (which is not very intelligent and draws its financial sustenance from the political spoils system), oleaginous politicians, slick media and big money care? They’ve all worked in tandem to advance a grand government ‐ national and transnational ‐ that aggrandizes its constituent elements, while diminishing those it’s supposed to serve.
These political players have built the den of iniquity Trump keeps trampling. Against these forces ‐ NAFTA, NATO, FBI, DOJ, CIA, a whole alphabet soup of acronyms that stands for the Permanent State, national and international ‐ is Trump, still acting as a political Samson that threatens to bring the house crashing down on its patrons.
And his latest: Trump’s judicial appointments, in particular, might just prove to be "his most enduring legacy," lamented the liberal Economist. These certainly threaten to cement the Supreme Court’s originalist bent:
#2
There might be some funny 'tongue in cheek' going on here. I believe George Wills recently described Trump as 'oleaginous', a word you don't hear very often. Back at ya George.
[Mail] A Delta flight attendant has been filmed throwing eight passengers off a flight for giving her 'attitude' when she asked one of them to turn their phones to airplane mode.
The unnamed attendant was filmed as she reprimanded passenger Robyn Rogers, a female DJ from New York, before take off on June 23 at Fort Wayne airport in Indiana.
#1
Booted passenger Rogers has not yet blamed Trump but did offer the following:
In her post, Rogers said she felt the incident was racially charged.
'I want to acknowledge because I am painfully aware of the serious and profoundly heartbreaking injustices/events happening in our world and communities,I have grappled with sharing my experience.
#2
Actually, it's all good. More and more people are admitting - by their actions, if nothing else - that they are husks without their stupid phones in their hands.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 7:40
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[News24] Egypt says security forces have killed 10 militants involved in a bombing that targeted the convoy of Alexandria's former security chief in March.
The Interior Ministry said Thursday that six were killed in a shootout in Beheira province and another four were killed in a clash in Assiut. It says two others were arrested.
The statement presented the raids as recent events without specifying when they occurred. But the ministry had reported the Beheira shootout in March, shortly after the bombing, and a security official confirmed the Assiut raid on Wednesday.
The ministry says the militants belonged to the Hasm movement, a group it considers to be a splinter of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
The official survived the convoy attack, which killed two police.
[Jpost] News coverage of the large and growing anti-regime protests in Iran this week has included warnings by Iran "experts" insisting that the vocal support the protesters are receiving on social media from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is counterproductive.
Israeli and US statements of support for the Iranian people and their desire to rid themselves of the regime that oppresses them will only weaken them, experts warn. But several counter-indications make clear that these warnings should be disregarded.
...Another problem with the position that Netanyahu and Pompeo and other senior Israeli and American officials should keep their counsel on the protests is that it is not at all clear why they think the protesters hate Israel and the US more than they hate the regime.
...The slogans being shouted in Tehran’s grand bazaar this week ‐ "Iran out of Syria," "Iran out of Lebanon," "I will die for Iran not for Syria or Lebanon," and "Death to Palestine," are not calls for a change in policy per se. They are a rejection of the Iranian revolution. Well, the "experts" who hate Israel more than they hate USA and vice versa, project. Plus, regime change in Iran threatens EUropean profits.
...Given the balance of power favors the regime, and that as protests grow the specter of mass repression increases, what else ‐ short of war ‐ can be done to weaken the regime?
In a word: AMIA.
Twenty-four years ago, on July 18, 1994, at Iran’s orders, Hezbollah terrorists in Argentina bombed the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, or Jewish mutual aid association in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people were murdered and more than 300 were wounded in the worst terror attack in Argentina’s history.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ‐ A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new Indiana law’s requirement that medical providers report detailed patient information to the state if they treat women for complications arising from abortions.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young granted the preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. The order blocks the provision in a state law taking effect Sunday. Not surprisingly, a Bill Clinton appointment.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state on behalf of the Planned Parenthood affiliate on April 23, arguing that the reporting provision was unconstitutional and imposed "unique and burdensome obligations." The lawsuit contends that many of the purported complications listed in the law are extremely rare for abortions and "are more likely to occur after other medical procedures."
Young, who heard arguments in the case earlier this month, wrote in his order that without the injunction, Planned Parenthood and its physicians in Indiana would "be subject to licensing penalties, and eventually criminal penalties, if they violate the challenged statute."
#1
Planned Parenthood and its physicians in Indiana would "be subject to licensing penalties, and eventually criminal penalties, if they violate the challenged statute."
Last thing we want is people subjected to criminal penalties for violating a law. That's just mean.
[Daily Caller] In our nation’s worst governmental scandal, Watergate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation heroically kept widespread White House corruption from being concealed, eventually reviving important prosecutions. Sadly, in today’s increasingly convoluted moral universe, senior FBI officials, it now appears, have tried to artificially create serious "Russiagate" crimes, thereby becoming implicated in a scandal promising to be nastier than Watergate. Congress presently awaits DOJ documents which may or may not confirm what presently seem reasonable inferences of such FBI wrongdoing.
In Watergate, the White House and senior DOJ officials attempted to limit the investigation to the seven arrested members of the burglary team caught penetrating the DNC Headquarters in the Watergate Office Building. Deputy Associate FBI Director Mark Felt, to prevent the FBI from becoming complicit in a politicized investigation, met with the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward to avoid this corruption through public exposure. The FBI deserves its honor as the unsung hero of Watergate, refusing to become politicized.
However, one perverse lesson of Watergate is that Felt would have received great perks and personal laurels if he had gone along with the corrupt political program. Heeding a lesson not intended by Felt, FBI Director James Comey engaged in acrobatic contortions during the 2016 election to help presumed President-Elect Hillary Clinton to escape serious criminal charges in the email and related obstruction probes. But this blatant politicization pales in comparison to emerging evidence that Comey’s team, working with John Brennan’s partisan CIA, and partnering with British intelligence agency GCHQ, had attempted to fabricate serious Trump-Russia electoral interference crimes akin to treason.
The "Russian collusion" inquiry began in December 2015 (not, as claimed, on July 31, 2016), with a tip from GCHQ to Brennan that Putin wished to financially support a Donald Trump presidential candidacy. Nothing has yet emerged, in subsequent FISA warrant applications or elsewhere in leaks, to suggest that the tip was anything but phony. But on December 28, 2015, after Brennan had hurriedly formed a special "inter-agency" group, one of Comey’s top aides Peter Strzok was attempting to get approval for "LUREs," Fedspeak for spies, inferentially to penetrate the Trump campaign. All of this would have been well and good if there had been a solid basis to suspect criminal activity by the Trump campaign. But, it now appears, rather than dismiss the inaccurate tip as disinformation, the FBI tried to manufacture evidence where none had existed, hoping real wrongdoing would eventually be found. Thus started an investigation without a crime, long a Comey specialty.
[Breitbart] President Donald Trump visited a Foxconn manufacturing facility in Wisconsin on Thursday after breaking ground on a building that will bring thousands of jobs to the United States.
The president touted the arrival of the new manufacturing plants in Wisconsin as a result of his tough trade policies, deregulatory agenda, and tax cuts.
"As Foxconn has discovered, there is no better place to build, hire, and grow than right here in the United States," Trump said. "America is open for business ‐ more than it has ever been open for business," he said.
He also credited Gov. Scott Walker for helping bring the vision of a restored manufacturing base to the Midwest.
"I gave Scott the ball," Trump said. "If that were football standards, NFL standards, he ran 2,000 yards in one game. He is an unbelievably talented guy."
The president joked that he hoped Walker would not challenge him for the Republican nomination.
#1
Trump said as the part time prior occupant of the white house for 8 of the last 9 years found 372 more white hairs on his pate while adoring himself in his latest purchase; a 10 foot by 10 foot mirror.
h/t Instapundit
The U.S. trade deficit dropped in May which is causing Wall Street firms to increase GDP growth estimates for the second quarter. Macroeconomic Advisers raised its forecast to 5.3%. They have one of the most detailed forecasts.
Others are also increasing their estimates to 4.5% to 5%.
* Consumer spending is strong with a strong job market and tax cuts.
* Business investment has been strong with the tax cuts
* the US trade deficit has been smaller than expected.
Economists doubt the strong growth can last. Most predict GDP will slow in 2019 and 2020. Yea, yea, but what about all the people who want nice white collar jobs but can't read or write?
#3
You said that yesterday, P2k. Is there a theme there?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/29/2018 12:40
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Change of optics.
I recall when a McD hamburger, small fries and a small drink were 15 cents each. Now its about 3.50 for the lot. People call that 'inflation'. I call it debasing the currency, making the value of the dollar lesser. It's not really politically safe to declare you're making people's money worth less, so they blame 'inflation'.
The same with 'trade'. Instead of calculating trade deficits or pluses, how about counting the amount of your citizenry gainfully employed. Not government/administrative fillers, but actual productive jobs.
[Townhall] Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray are on Capitol Hill Thursday morning to testify about the FBI's conduct during the 2016 presidential election. The House Judiciary Committee members had plenty to ask the two men about the recent IG report that exposed the anti-Trump bias of some FBI agents. One of those agents, Peter Strzok, met with committee members behind closed doors this week.
The committee is also fed up with the apparent resistance from the DOJ and FBI for documents related to the agencies' conduct, specifically whether informants spied on the Trump campaign.
#1
It is very likely the FBI and others were and continue to be involved in a clandestine intelligence collection effort and disinformation campaign against candidate and now President Donald Trump.
The larger question is, did they use a foreign intelligence agency (Christopher Steele and MI6) to help facilitate a classic 'false flag' effort ?
The evidence is certainly pointing in that direction.
#5
Rosenstein made an enemy in Jordan, which a wise bureaucrat would not have done. There is a move to replace Ryan with Jordan, and though that seems unlikely at present, Jordan should have a bright career.
#7
Maybe at this point Trump should just de-classify the whole shebang and release it to Congress and eventually the American people? I'm thinking the reason that he doesn't is there might be a lot in the documents that would jeopardize a criminal investigation or unsealed grand jury indictments.
#8
@JohnQC - It's also too soon. Dragging this mess into the sunlight is a move that could save a Republican House in '18 or shore up a 2nd Trump term in '20 if well-timed (read "dropped very close to election day).
#12
MI6 can spy on Americans; the US agencies can spy on Brits. As fellow Echelon members they can trade info. Having the info isn't against the arcane rules if you've obtained it "legally"
#13
Ref #12. Unless something has changed over the past 20 years, one small problem. Executive Order (EO) 12333 prohibits collection on US Citizens. Circumventing 12333 for the purpose of collection is a big no, no.
Using information collected by a foreign intelligence entity for the purpose of legal action against a US Citizen, also a no, no. Again, unless something has drastically changed.
[IsraelTimes] IDF says a tank fired at two suspects who attempted to infiltrate into Israeli territory; Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-run health ministry reports one succumbed to injuries
A Paleostinian teenager the army said was shot while trying to breach the Gazoo security fence died of his wounds on Thursday afternoon, according to the Hamas-run Gazoo health ministry.
Before dawn on Thursday, Abdel Fattah Abu Azoum, 17, and another Paleostinian man attempted to break through the security fence east of Rafah in southern Gazoo, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
"During the night, IDF troops spotted two Death Eaters crawling toward the security fence in an attempt to infiltrate into Israeli territory from the southern Gazoo Strip," the army said in a statement.
In response, the tank fired toward them and "prevented the infiltration attempt," the army said.
According to the Gazoo health ministry, Azoum sustained a serious head wound. He was taken to a nearby hospital and was pronounced dead several hours later.
The Paleostinian Quds news outlet initially reported that the two were seriously injured by the tank fire. Other Gazoo-based news sites reported that only one of the suspects was maimed.
The military said that when troops later searched the area, they found a number of Molotov cocktails.
[IsraelTimes] Jordan, 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... and Paleostinian Authority reportedly call on Jerusalem to ensure Erdogan doesn't claim a stake in holy city
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is trying to extend its sphere of influence to East Jerusalem, according to a report Thursday, causing alarm in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Paleostinian Authority, which have urged Israel to act.
Amman, Riyadh and Ramallah are concerned that the move is an attempt by newly reelected Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... to claim he is the custodian of the Moslem sites in the city, weakening their own interests and harming Israel’s, the Haaretz daily reported.
Officials from Israel’s security forces told Haaretz that they were aware of the situation and following it closely.
Ottoman Turkish Islamic associations have lately been sponsoring activities and trips for thousands of people in East Jerusalem, the paper reported, and had a strong presence in protests around the Temple Mount.
Diplomats told Haaretz that Jordan began expressing its concern to Jerusalem over a year ago and accused the government of "being asleep at the wheel." The Jordanians claimed that after Israel signed a reconciliation deal with Turkey in 2016 it was afraid of confrontation with Erdogan.
Relations between Jerusalem and Ankara imploded in 2010 following an Israeli naval raid on a Ottoman Turkish ship trying to breach Israel’s blockade of the Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede,-controlled Gazoo Strip. The raid, in which IDF commandos were attacked by activists on board, left 10 Turks dead and several soldiers maimed.
Israeli security officials confirmed to Haaretz that the Jordanians had contacted them but they rejected the criticism. They told the paper that the issue reached its peak a year ago when Ottoman Turkish citizens would visit the Temple Mount waving Ottoman Turkish flags and banners of Erdogan’s AKP party and start fights with the Israeli guards. The officials said that Israel tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! and deported the leaders of the group, and barred their reentry to the country.
An official told Haaretz that Israel was aware that Turkey was trying to extend its influence to Jerusalem, and was attempting to purchase property through its charities. He told the paper that the Paleostinian Authority was concerned about Erdogan trying to muscle in, saying "they were not interested in having another landlord in East Jerusalem."
The report said Riyadh is concerned that Erdogan will attempt to use his authority in Jerusalem to cement his increasing influence over the Arab-Moslem world, and will become its spokesperson in confronting Israel and the US regarding the city.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Sounds like turf wars amongst the 5 families in NYC.
Sounds like Yippee wants to take on the role of Lucky Luciano. Pop-corn anyone?
[CNN] Rep. Maxine Waters U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district, serving since 1991, a total of 26.57613429871093 years. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the most senior of the 12 black women currently serving in the United States Congress, is a member and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Before becoming a member of Congress she served in the California Assembly, to which she was first elected back when Disco was in flower, in 1976, which would make it 41.57408091062058 years. She has been a politician for virtually all her adult life. If she was brighter she'd be a Communist... Comrade Maxine Waters said Thursday she's seen an increase in threats since she made controversial comments last week encouraging protesters to heckle and harass members of Trump's Cabinet in public spaces.
The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Democrat canceled two scheduled appearances in Alabama and Texas this weekend after saying she got threatening messages and "hostile mail" at her office, including "one very serious death threat" on Monday from an individual in Texas.
"As the President has continued to lie and falsely claim that I encouraged people to assault his supporters, while also offering a veiled threat that I should 'be careful', even more individuals are leaving (threatening) messages and sending hostile mail to my office," she said in a statement.
"There was one very serious death threat made against me on Monday from an individual in Texas which is why my planned speaking engagements in Texas and Alabama were cancelled (sic) this weekend," she continued. "This is just one in several very serious threats the United States Capitol Police are investigating in which individuals threatened to shoot, lynch, or cause me serious bodily harm."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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"There was one very serious death threat made against me on Monday from an individual in Texas which is why my planned speaking engagements in Texas and Alabama
'Serious threat' or false flag hoisted to avoid an embarrassing fail in two conservative states ?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/29/2018 6:11
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#8
The threats came from within her party
Posted by: Regular joe ||
06/29/2018 7:22
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#9
Even the only way I can view her image is to imagine a glowing dot on her forehead, I'm not happy about the canx's - she should continue to be the voice of the Dem party.
Or, as Regular Joe alluded, the "threatening messages and 'hostile mail' (Readers Digest Sweepstakes solicitations she just can't quite figure out?)" may be from Nancy or Chuck....
#13
Babbling Brook, I mean Maxine Waters, just can't help it. She is way past her selling date and needs to do something for attention.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/29/2018 9:24
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#14
The threats came from within her party
That'd be by guess, if they really came at all. Trump has stated publicly that he likes nothing more than having Nancy Pelosi and Mad Maxine as the face of the Democrat Party.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/29/2018 11:29
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#15
My guess is that after her latest comments the party elders told her to STFU as she's providing too much ammo to Trump with her nonsense. Now she's playing the sympathy card.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... have announced the death of a big shot among its ranks, without giving any further details.
The so-called political bureau of the Houthis announced in an obituary that its leader Abdul Nasser al-Junaidi was killed. Junaidi was a member in the delegation in Kuwait negotiations back in 2016.
While the militia did not specify how and when he was killed, sources said that he may have been killed in an air strike by the Arab coalition and which targeted a meeting for senior Houthi leaders at the presidency office in Sanaa early May.
In another military development, around 70 Houthis have been killed recently in confrontations with the Yemeni legitimate forces, the popular resistance units and Arclight airstrikes backed by the coalition at fronts in al-Bayda, west coast, Taiz and north of Lahij, amid a field advancement by the legitimate forces.
Brig. Gen. Abdul Rab al-Subhi, commander of the 117th Infantry Brigade, said: "At least 25 militia members were killed and others maimed during battles in the eastern front of al-Bayda province."
He added that more than "30 militia members were killed in the West Coast Front by coalition air strikes targeting gatherings of the Houthi militias in the eastern districts of al-Tahita, a -Duraiham and Zubaid."
At the same time, fierce fighting continues in the north of Lahij province, where the national Yemeni army forces advanced towards al-Raheda area, southeast of Taiz, after regaining control of sites and highlands in the areas of Qubaytah and Hifan.
A front man for the National Army forces in al-Qubaytah said that the army and the resistance recovered large parts of the northern areas of the province of Lahij, where it took control of a strategic mountain.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[CBSNEWS] Police in Germany are investigating the premature deaths of 21 people going back to the year 2000, following the arrest of a man suspected of trying to poison a colleague's sandwich. Bielefeld police said Wednesday the deaths, which occurred at the company the man worked for, included a "remarkably high number of heart attacks and cancers."
A 56-year-old man was placed in durance vile Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in May after surveillance video showed him putting a suspicious powder on a colleague's sandwich.
Police said the powder contained lead acetate "in amounts that would have been sufficient to cause serious organ damage." A search of the suspect's home uncovered further dangerous substances.
Two staff at the company in Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, south of Bielefeld, are also believed to have fallen ill from heavy metal poisoning.
One employee was in a coma for two years, The Times of London reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Gyros outside afterhours bars.
I've been sick soooo many times from the old yogurt and bad meat on the spit.
Oh wait, that was London this is Germany.
Wurst on a stick outside afterhours bars...
[HUFFINGTONPOST] Some Democratic senators and their allies are starting to make the argument that not only should there be no Supreme Court pick until after the November elections, but that there shouldn’t be one at all while the president remains under criminal investigation.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... as part of his probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to defeat Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away... . Trump is not, however, a criminal target of Mueller’s.
During a judiciary committee hearing Thursday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) noted that a challenge to the investigation could very well end up before the Supreme Court at some point ― potentially creating a conflict of interest for a president who has asked nonpartisan officials for their loyalty.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Trump is not, however, a criminal target of Mueller’s.
However, this doesn't stop the wishful thinking on the part of these deperate- dumpster-diving Dems.
#2
As we all probably are in violation of some federal law somehow, I think we should all stop paying taxes until the matter is resolved. /snark
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 7:54
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#3
Shows how dense Booker is. If Justices appointed by Trump had to recuse themselves, the case would be heard only by ones he has not appointed. That should skew T-bone's way. But that's deep thought.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 7:56
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Trump is not, however, a criminal target of Mueller’s.
Of course not. It's the deplorables who elected Trump.
[NPR.ORG] The president of South Sudan and his former vice president, who now leads the country's largest rebel group, announced a permanent cease-fire Wednesday following talks in Sudan's capital.
In the latest of many unsuccessful attempts to stem more than four years of bloodshed in South Sudan's civil war, President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar's signed agreement is set to take effect on Saturday.
The two leaders met in person for the first time in two years beginning last week during talks in Æthiopia.
The civil war, which broke out in late 2013, helped bring about one of the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed while at least 4.2 million people, one in three South Sudanese, have been forced from their homes since the war started, according to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... secretary-general of South Sudan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[THEGUARDIAN] A British nurse has become the first person to be convicted under new modern slavery laws, after being found guilty of trafficking five Nigerian women to Germany to work as hookers.
Josephine Iyamu was prosecuted under the Modern Slavery Act involving victims who have no connection to the UK but have been victimised by a Brit.
Jurors were told the 51-year-old Liberia-born British citizen forced the women to swear oaths to hand over money to her during "juju" ceremonies. These included forcing women to eat chicken hearts, drink blood containing worms, and have powder rubbed into cuts, the court heard.
Iyamu, formerly of Bermondsey in London, then arranged for the women to be trafficked across the Mediterranean, with one being told to pay a "bill" of €37,000 (£32,700).
She was convicted at Birmingham crown court of five counts of arranging or facilitating travel for sexual exploitation.
Prosecutors said the Voodoo rituals gave Iyamu crushing psychological control over the women, who were too afraid to challenge her or to fail to pay her back tens of thousands of euros she charged them to be trafficked into Germany.
Jurors also convicted Iyamu of perverting the course of justice by arranging for relatives of the complainants in Nigeria to be tossed in the clink Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! . Her husband, Efe Ali-Imaghodor, 60, was acquitted of doing acts intending to pervert the course of justice.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Iyamu forced victims to take oaths that bound their loyalty to her on pain of death.
Iyamu, who was made a British citizen in 2009 and worked as an NHS agency nurse, declared a modest income of around £14,500 in 2016-17. But inquiries after Iyamu’s arrest in 2017 found she was able to spend thousands on international air travel and to afford a large home in Benin City in Nigeria.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Iyamu, who was made a British citizen in 2009
So, not really a Brit, and exploiting her own.
Both country'men' and gender.
Can't say enough bad things about a person like this.
[NPR.ORG] The French government has a plan to revive compulsory national service for young people between the ages of 16 and 21 ‐ a watered-down version of a proposal put forth on the campaign trail by then-presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.
Under the plan, French boys and girls would do a minimum of one-month of service, with a focus on "teaching, working with charities, and traditional military training with the police, fire service or army," Euro News reports.
"They can then volunteer to do a further three months to a year after that, which could involve an area linked to [defense] and security, or more volunteer work," the news service says.
Even so, the plan is a toned-down version of what Macron proposed in 2017. His initial idea was "a sort of military service in miniature, with all French citizens forced to have a 'direct experience of military life' for a minimum of one month between the ages of 18 and 21," according to the BBC.
In modern La Belle France, national service ‐ including military conscription for all fit males ‐ dates back to the years leading up to World War I, when the French military tried to keep pace with the growing German Imperial Army. Conscription was continued following World War II and was only phased in 1996. When it ended, the requirement was for males only to serve a minimum of 10 months.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#3
....and Iraqis, and Syrians, and Somalis, and...What will they do with the Moroccans?
Simple, put them in the French Foreign Legion, and send them to Africa to handle French interest there. If they survive the tour, they can then apply for Français par le sang versé and obtain French citizenship.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] MSNBC host Chris My Thigh is Tingling! Matthews ... the late Tip O'Neill's former gopher who has magazines with centerfolds of Barack Obama in his bathroom... says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has "no right" to fill the vacancy left on the Supreme Court by the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.
"We’ve got an election in four and a half months," Mr. Matthews said Wednesday. "There’s no reason to consider a replacement on the Supreme Court in that time. No reason given the history of what happened. Let’s watch McConnell now‐I’m telling you, they have no right to bring this up after what they did in ’16."
The "Hardball" host said Democrats in Congress will have "hell to pay" if they don’t block the nomination.
"I think if the Democratic leadership under Schumer allows this to go forward, they’re going to have a huge problem with the Democratic base," Mr. Matthews said.
"If [Justice Kennedy] gets replaced by a hardline social conservative, the Democratic leadership will have hell to pay," he continued.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
He is a clear example of a need for post birth abortion. Chainsaw might be best for the dismemberment, but there's always using 4 hummers and some rope.
#2
Clear example of the reason mandatory retirement ages are appropriate. He needs to retire and write his memoirs by a blazing fire -- then throw the manuscript into the flames.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2018 7:41
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"I think if the Democratic leadership under Schumer allows this to go forward, they’re going to have a huge problem with the Democratic base," Mr. Matthews said.
#7
"I think if the Democratic leadership under Schumer allows this to go forward, they’re going to have a huge problem with the Democratic base," Mr. Matthews said.
That's because the Democratic base isn't what it used to be: they're no longer the "working man's party", and have morphed over the years into the party for fuckups, fools, freaks, fatheads and freeloaders.
And flatheaded, drooling submorons like Matthews have played a major part in that transformation.
Go, Chris! Keep up the great work of destroying the Democratic Party!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/29/2018 8:21
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I see Chris Matthews is still peeing down his leg and thinks it is a warm tingle up his leg.
#10
Oh, the Demo Left just ain’t what it used to be
ain’t what it used to be
ain’t what it used to be
the Demo Left just ain’t what it used to be
Many long years ago
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/29/2018 9:23
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#11
Same guy who used to gush about how obutthole was a "Constitutional scholar..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 10:05
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#10 AP: that ditty is so good I can hear the banjo twanging in the background.
The Donks are suffering from what I call "Wrong Base Syndrome" brought on by continual pandering to an ever-crazier gaggle of stupid, mentally-ill malcontents.
The only non-crazies left in the Party are the poor, ignorant slobs who vote Democrat "because our family has always voted Democrat," blissfully unaware that the Party has changed completely since the days of "Cold War Liberals" like Henry "Scoop" Jackson.
Wake up, folks! It ain't your Daddy's Democratic Party anymore.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/29/2018 10:24
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Amie Parnes, the author of this piece, frames it as Young vs Old, Establishment vs Antiestablishment -- and she isn't wrong. But that framing also skips past the truth of it.
The real story is this: Believers vs the Cynics.
Youthful lefties still believe leftwing nonsense like "democratic" socialism, group identity, and all the rest. The Old Guard doesn't believe in much of anything other than lining their own pockets.
As the Old Guard ages and their numbers dwindle, the youthful believers demand to take over -- and the Left always-always-always devours its own.
Today's Old Guard came of age politically in the 1960s and '70s, after the more-moderate party elders got brushed aside by the radical Boomers and hippies. But you'd be hard-pressed to find a real radical left among them. The Clintons set the modern template: Say or do anything to win and keep power, then use the resulting influence to grow "rich beyond the dreams of avarice." Never before has America given so much to such otherwise unimpressive hustlers.
Even Barack Obama cashed out pretty much the moment he left the White House. Hell, considering Obama's net worth coming into the White House, having produced not one actual good or service aside from a couple of not-very-good books, it's a safe bet that Obama was never the radical he had played at being. It was always about the money, and about corrupting the law and the Constitution to get it.
But he sure did inspire a new wave of Believers, didn't he?
And now they've come to take what they feel is their due -- the cynical husk of the Democratic Party -- and re-radicalize it.
They'll do it, too, over the course of the next two, three, maybe four elections.
And make no mistake: This is a genuine grassroots radicalization. And they're angry, too, feeling robbed by the Clinton Machine of their rightful Bernie nomination two years ago.
I suspect that the party will become further marginalized during this period, until the Cynics take back over and drag it back towards moderation. But you never know. Maybe they'll find a hard lefty charismatic enough to create an illusion of centrism, and then take the country over the cliff.
What I do know is that no matter what George Will says, the Democrats in their current state absolutely cannot be trusted with power. On the off chance of another wave like 2006-08, legislatively and culturally they'll make Obama's first two years look like Reagan's.
So keep that in mind as you're weighing your votes over the next few elections.
[Rudaw] A Kurdish-German singer has been tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... on charges of "propagating for a terrorist organization."
Hozan Cane, whose real name is Saide Inac, 47, was formally arrested on Tuesday, five days after she was first detained.
The terror-related charge was for spreading messages of the PKK on social media, Hurriyet newspaper reported. The PKK is a named terror organization in Turkey.
Cane had come to Turkey "to support HDP’s election campaign, but was detained on June 22," her manager Mehmet Akbas told Rudaw English.
She was initially detained for her social media posts, he explained, but the court’s charges were based on her involvement in the film 74th Genocide of Shingal.
Cane features in the film, carrying a weapon during a scene of the film that looks at ISIS’ attack on Yezidis on 2014, according to ANF news.
She was detained two days before Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary election. The singer had been campaigning on behalf of the pro-Kurdish HDP in Edirne province where HDP’s presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas is in jail on terror charges.
Cane shared videos and photos of her urging people to vote for HDP and Demirtas.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2018
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Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Seven police personnel were killed and injured during confrontations with Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , southwest of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... a security source from the province was quoted saying.
Speaking to Shafaq News, the source said, "Troops of the 19th brigade of the Federal Police clashed with Islamic State holy warriors after besieging them in Helwati village in Hawija."
The confrontations between the two sides, according to the source, left seven police personnel killed and injured.
Some Islamic State members were also killed during the festivities, the source said, however, their number is still unknown.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2018
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[IsraelTimes] 'This has become a real war,' says Israeli resident, adding that volunteers are working around the clock to help authorities locate blazes
About 20 fires in Israeli territory were started on Thursday by incendiary balloons and kites sent from the Gazoo Strip, in another day of hard work for firefighters struggling to deal with the Paleostinian tactic.
The blazes were sparked during the afternoon and early evening in the Eshkol, Sdot Negev, and Shaar Hanegev regions, engulfing communities in smoke, charing nature reserves, and killing many animals in what has lately become a daily routine.
A suspected bomb was also found in Israeli territory, attached to a balloon, police said, adding that sappers had been called in to neutralize the device.
"This has become a real war," a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri said of the fires, which in the last few months have burnt more than 30,000 dunam (7,400 acres) of land near the border with the Paleostinian enclave.
The man, who didn’t identify himself, told the Ynet news site that local security volunteers in communities near Gazoo are actively helping authorities by taking turns keeping watch for fires and quickly directing firefighters to the area.
"We are all committed to this, because if we don’t do it, nobody will," he said. "We are making use of all our farming tools and vehicles to stop the fires from spreading."
[WASHINGTONTIMES] The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed how there’s a limit to how much bad behavior can saturate a society before society lowers standards for everybody. He called it “defining deviancy down.” “When you begin to think that it’s not really that bad,” he said, “pretty soon you become accustomed to very destructive behavior.”
That’s where we are now, with a government official asked to leave a restaurant because the owner doesn’t like her boss, and a member of Congress urging her constituents to organize a mob to harass conservatives — “in a restaurant, department store, or gasoline station” — to “push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome — anymore, anywhere.”
Some Democrats are alarmed, not necessarily because such vigilante rhetoric is wrong, but it’s risky political strategy with the midterm congressional elections looming just ahead. They’re concerned that Rep. Maxine Waters is not the image of the party they want to project in the months leading to Nov. 6. “Confirmation bias” is insidiously at work, enabling Rep. Waters and her angry look-alikes to be that party image, no matter how outrageous and disabling.
Just the other day, a congressional intern, 21, an aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, a Democrat, sent an “F-bomb” sailing toward the president as he walked past her through the Capitol rotunda. She was suspended for only a week and Mrs. Hassan said she would keep her job. That’s what Daniel Patrick Moynihan called defining deviancy down.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
OTOH, if Trump had smiled at the intern, the media would have said he was oogling her t*ts and called for impeachment.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 7:45
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Moynihan observed that deviancy is being defined downwards. If so, everything is moral and nothing criminal. Anything goes and people can't be prosecuted for anything. As I remember Ted Kennedy came from the era in which Moynihan did.
#3
The author's time confused. They finished defining their own deviancy down long time ago. Now they're the norm and we are the deviant. And they keep defining deviancy up.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A barrage of Russian air strikes on rebel-held areas of southern Syria killed 22 civilians on Thursday, a monitoring group said, most of them in a single battered town.
"At least 35 Russian air strikes hit the town of al-Mseifra," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"One of them hit a basement where people were taking shelter, killing 17 civilians, including five children," the Britannia-based monitor said.
The Observatory says it determines who carried out particular strikes based on the type of aircraft and munitions used, the locations and the flight patterns.
The hospital in al-Mseifra had been put out of service by Russian strikes on Tuesday night, the Observatory said.
Another five non-combatants were killed in other rebel-controlled areas of Daraa, the main province in southern Syria.
"This is the highest toll since the escalation began on June 19," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Government forces have been ramping up their bombardment of rebel-held areas of the south since June 19, and allied Russian warplanes carried out their first raids on the region in a year on June 23.
In July last year, Russia, the United States and Jordan had agreed on a de-escalation zone for rebel-controlled parts of the south.
After that, Russian warplanes- active in Syria since 2015- had refrained from bombing rebel positions in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egyptian police potted four suspected forces of Evil and captured two others accused of being involved in an attack on a local security chief two days before a presidential election in March, the interior ministry said on Thursday.
Two coppers were killed in Alexandria when a bomb left under a car blew up as the Alexandria police chief, Major General Mostafa al-Nemr, drove past on March 24. He escaped unhurt.
Four members of the group involved in the attack were killed in a shootout with security forces who had raided their hideout in Assiut province, some 464 kms south of Alexandria.
The ministry did not say when the clash took place, but security sources in Assiut said on Wednesday that four suspected forces of Evil had been killed.
A fifth suspect, who authorities said had driven the car used in the attack, was tracked down to a flat in Alexandria and tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! , the ministry said. Security forces found a pistol, some ammunition, two detonators and bomb-making materials in the flat.
A second man, suspected of having arranged the vehicle used in the attack, was also arrested in Alexandria, the ministry said.
Authorities blamed the Alexandria attack on the Death Eater Hasam Movement, which emerged in 2016 and has claimed several attacks on security forces and judges, including the fatal shooting of a policeman.
Authorities say the group is the armed wing of the Moslem Brüderbund, but the Brotherhood says it rejects violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[CNN] In the wake of Hurricane Maria, the island territory of Puerto Rico is making a new push to become a state within the next three years.
Puerto Rico's representative in the House, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón introduced the bill Wednesday that would make the territory a state "no later than January 1, 2021."
This is the second time González-Colón, who has no voting power in the House except in committees, has pushed for statehood since elected resident commissioner.
"The catastrophe left behind by Hurricanes Irma and María unmasked the reality of the unequal treatment of the American living in Puerto Rico, forcing the Executive to approve waivers and Congress to make exceptions so that we could receive help," González-Colón said in a news release Wednesday.
"My colleagues saw firsthand the effects of this unequal treatment due solely to our territorial situation. Statehood is nothing else than Equality; and this Admission Act provides the means to put into effect the values of Democracy and Respect upon which our Nation is built."
Ricardo Rosselló, Puerto Rico's governor, echoed her.
"The fight for Puerto Rico's Equality is one of civil rights," he said in the release.
So far the bill has bipartisan support and currently 37 co-sponsors -- a majority of which are Republicans.
The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2018 proposes creating a bipartisan task force -- the Congressional Task Force on Equality for American Citizens of Puerto Rico -- of nine members to help with the transition and make recommendations to Congress
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Split CA up into three and add Puerto Rico and we've got 53 states. We need one more and updating the flag will be easy.
Yeah, given that they have voted about N times *not* to be a state (if memory serves). They do know if they become a state, Donald Trump will be their Prez, right?
#8
The three PR factions continue as they have for decades; State Hood, Nationhood, Status Quo. Financial exploitation of the U.S. drives the individual arguments.
#15
IIRC they pay no Fed taxes hence not wanting to become a state..untilllll - the disaster hits and now we want $$$ to rebuild. You don't get it both ways suckers!
#19
Actually Elon Musk has done more than other individuals to help them.
At one time he wanted to launch his rockets from Roosevelt Roads. (one of the better places on the planet to launch from). They told him to get lost!
He still helped them.
Maybe they should just gift themselves to Tesla?
Elon would fix them up enough so his digs didn't look like crap.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi military has announced killing several Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... emirs in Arclight airstrikes carried out in three provinces.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Security Medica Center said "the intelligence of Counter-Terrorism Service provided the U.S.-led Coalition jets with information, through which it managed to destroy targets of Islamic State in Hamreen and the lakes, in addition to underground camps."
The airstrikes, according to the statement, "left several Islamic State emirs killed in addition to destroying a camp and three tunnels, used to carry out operations to target the main roads that link each of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Diyala and Salahuddin."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2018
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#2
"Emir, it's the new volunteers!
Each shahid stands out from his peers,
A dinar a dozen
Or three for a cousin...
I'm sure they'll make splendid emirs."
[AlAhram] Egypt's security forces killed four and placed in durance vile Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! two members of the terrorist group Hasm, who authorities say were responsible for a failed liquidation attempt on a security chief in the coastal city of Alexandria earlier this year.
The suspects were killed in a shootout during a security raid on an apartment hideout in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut, the interior ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The ministry said that the raid was part of an operation to arrest bully boyz involved in the Alexandria bombing in March ‐ which killed two coppers but failed to kill the city's security chief ‐ two days before the country held its 2018 presidential elections.
The ministry statement added that police arrested the suspect who planted the boom-mobile at the site of the attack. The suspect was in possession of a pistol and kabooms at the time of his arrest, the statement added.
"A security plan designed to track down and prosecute the other members of the terrorist cell... has resulted in identifying one of the terrorists, Moataz Mustafa Hassan, [who was] hiding in an apartment in Alexandria," the statement added.
The ministry said that the suspect, along with other group members, received training abroad in 2017 on using weapons and making bombs.
Another leader of Hasm, which authorities have identified as the armed wing of the banned Moslem Brüderbund group, was also arrested.
In March, authorities announced that police had killed six Hasm members who were involved in the Alexandria bombing.
Hasm has grabbed credit for several attacks on security forces and members of the judiciary since it first emerged in 2016.
[IsraelTimes] Ten suspected jihadists were killed and two tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! in police raids across Egypt as authorities hunted down the perpetrators of a deadly car kaboom, the interior ministry says.
It says said those targeted were members of Hasam, a jihadist group which the authorities have linked to the outlawed Moslem Brüderbund.
They were allegedly involved in a March 24 boom-mobileing on the eve of elections targeting a security chief in Alexandria in northern Egypt that killed two coppers.
Six jihadists were killed and a weapons cache unearthed as security forces raided a hideout in Beheira province, northwest of Cairo, the ministry says. A suspect was arrested in a residential apartment in Alexandria where arms and explosives were also seized. A shootout in Assiut province, south of Cairo, left four other suspects dead, and a Hasam member who had allegedly acquired the car used in the Alexandria attack was also arrested.
The ministry’s statement does not specify when the raids and arrests took place.
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[ARSTECHNICA] When SpaceX launches its 15th resupply mission to the International Space Station, possibly as early as Friday morning at 5:42am ET (09:42 UTC), the company plans to fly the Block 4 version of its Falcon 9 rocket for the final time.
The company's next two launches in July were already known to be flying on the latest and presumably final revision to the Falcon 9 rocket—the Block 5 variant. But during a news conference Thursday, the company's manager for the Dragon spacecraft program, Jessica Jensen, confirmed that there will be no more Block 4 flights after the impending space station launch.
The Block 5 version of the rocket, which has been optimized for reusability, has flown one time when it made a successful flight in May. Since then, SpaceX has been working through its inventory of previously flown rockets. The booster scheduled to fly Friday first launched just a little more than two months ago, on April 18, sending NASA's planet-hunting TESS spacecraft into a lunar resonant orbit. This 10-week turnaround was remarkably fast for a Block 4 booster, but SpaceX says its Block 5 should be able to fly much more rapidly.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[FOXNEWS] North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... reportedly ordered a high ranking army officer to be executed after he was accused of giving extra food and fuel rations to troops and their families.
Daily NK reported that Hyon Ju Song, the lieutenant general of the Korean People’s Army in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, was executed by a firing squad for "charges of abusing authority and engaging in anti-Party acts."
Hyon was reportedly a rising star in the army before his death. He served as a member of the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Committee and battalion commander under the Supreme Guard Command.
"While checking the oil supplies for the Sohae Satellite Launching Station during the comprehensive inspections of wartime supplies on April 10, Hyon stated, ’We no longer have to suffer and tighten our belts to make rockets or nuclear weapons.’ This was seen as an abuse of authority and a treasonous statement that opposed the Party’s military-first policy," a source told Daily NK.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[IsraelTimes] 51 plaintiffs say they were systematically tortured on suspicion of providing Israeli authorities with information and assistance
In a landmark ruling, the Jerusalem District ordered the Paleostinian Authority to pay compensation of 13.2 million shekels (approximately $3.5 million) to dozens of suspected collaborators with Israel who were systematically tortured while incarcerated.
Hadashot news reported Thursday the plaintiffs hope that Israel will be able to collect the compensation from the Paleostinian Authority, and that if not, it could be raised by offsetting tax revenues.
The 51 plaintiffs alleged they had been locked away You have the right to remain silent... on suspicion of providing Israeli authorities with information and assistance.
The court last year ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in an 1,800-page summary following 90 court sessions and years of deliberations, with judge Moshe Drori saying the testimonies and evidence proved the allegations beyond any reasonable doubt.
Many of the plaintiffs were arrested by the PA’s forces from within Israeli territory ‐ mostly East Jerusalem ‐ and/or have Israeli citizenship. The Jerusalem court therefore ruled it had the jurisdiction to preside over the case.
Plaintiffs said while held between 1990 and 2003, interrogators beat them, put out cigarettes on their bodies, pulled out their teeth, forced them into painful positions for lengthy periods of time and withheld food and drink. Several said their genitals were abused, leaving them sterile and impotent.
One man told Hadashot news of the physical abuse he suffered, explaining how his arms and legs were restrained and his face covered with a bag.
"You can’t see anything. You just receive blows till you pass out," he said.
Another said that he was unable to have sexual relations after he was forced to sit on a broken glass bottle.
In some cases prisoners were locked inside hot metal containers on hot days, or were alternately doused with searing and freezing water. Others recounted being forced to drink out of toilet bowls or sit on broken bottles. Some were made to witness the executions of other suspected collaborators. Prisoners were often denied medical attention.
The PA, while acknowledging the imprisonment of some of the plaintiffs, denied that any torture took place.
Israeli officials told Hadashot news that they do not believe the abuses still occur in Paleostinian incarceration facilities.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A bigwig from Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah has arrived in Iraq to engage in political talk on efforts to form the upcoming Iraqi government, informed sources were quoted saying Thursday.
Shafaaq News website quoted the sources saying that Mohammed Kawtharani, Hezbollah’s official in charge of the Iraqi file, arrived Wednesday in Baghdad to meet up with Shia politicians and discuss efforts to form the next Iraqi government.
"Kawtharani will convey Hezbollah’s views regarding the Iraqi government’s formation," according to the sources.
Negotiations for alliances among Iraqi political groups are underway to form the biggest parliament bloc and form the coming Iraqi government, the first after the ouster of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... myrmidons.
Shia Iran is understood to have a significant influence over Shia political groups in Leb and Iraq, but observers believe the Islamic republic has started to feel unease with Iraqi politicians promoting independent decision-making.
[DAWN] Pakistain was officially placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 'grey list' on Wednesday, failing the country’s efforts to avoid the designation, diplomatic sources claimed.
The sources said that a terrorism financing watchdog took the decision during a plenary meeting in Gay Paree, arguing that Pakistain had failed to act against terror financing on its soil.
The FATF did not make an official announcement till late in the night.
Being placed on the 'grey list' means that Pakistain's financial system will be designated as posing a risk to the international financial system because of "strategic deficiencies" in its ability to prevent terror financing and money laundering.
After being placed on the 'grey list', Pakistain will be directly scrutinised by the financial watchdog until it is satisfied by the measures taken to curb terror financing and money laundering.
Thanks to the opacity of FATF’s operations, it is uncertain what exactly Pakistain is expected to do, but what is clear is that the government has taken some steps to come into compliance with the global body’s requirements, such as proscribing key groups, whose open operations were a bone of contention, and seizing their assets.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[NYPOST] When Mayor Bill de Blasio picked Bernie Sanders to swear him in for his second term, it was a sign, much like a groundhog signaling six more weeks of winter, that the heart of the Democrat Party was changing — even if Bernie himself still refuses to acknowledge that he belongs to it.
And while Sanders-endorsed candidates have floundered nationally, they got a big win last night when 28-year-old Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez breezed past establishment figurehead Joe Crowley in the primary for the relatively safe 14th District.
Nancy Pelosi tried to wave away the obvious Tea Party parallels by saying the 14th is simply a “very progressive district … They made a choice in one district. Let’s not get yourself carried away.” But it’s becoming clearer and clearer that Democrats’ days of flirting with the more radical wing of their party are over. They’re now in a committed relationship with each other, the hammer entwined with the sickle.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Her campaign theme song is "Don't Cry For Me Venezuela".
#3
Ocasio-Cortz, Maxine, Fauxachantis, the Hildebeest, McCaskill, Gillibrand, Wasserman-Shultz, Nancy Pelosi, Collins, Murkowski.... I am beginning to see something of a pattern.
#5
NRO will have an article this week about how anti-communism is NOT an conservative value.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 8:38
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#6
With Ocasio-Cortez’s rise, Dems now own their loony far-left flank
Feh. The Donks have owned the Lunatic Left for a long, LONG time; the only thing that's changed in the last 45 years or so (since nominating George McGovern for president) is that it's become steadily more obvious, a trend that has accelerated exponentially since Trump's election victory in 2016 and is now reaching galactic proportions.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/29/2018 8:45
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#7
She's not as big a deal as the media would like us to believe. +5k votes to a young Latina vs an old white man in a newly redistricted district that now leans far more heavily Hispanic and is among the bluest of the blue areas in the US is nothing. Particularly when the old guy didn't bother to campaign and the young lady ran as if her life depended on victory.
#8
Every time we laugh at anything she says, the usual suspects (Michael Moore, I'm looking at you) will say it's proof we need re-education camps. The gift that never stops giving...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 10:20
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#9
Can't wait for the, ahem, parodic cinema item showing her and Kshwama Sawant dining on each other together.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 10:23
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#10
Illegal aliens are her people and that is one of the many reasons why we need to build a wall and deport them all.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/29/2018 11:36
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi troops have targeted a fake checkpoint set by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... to abduct civilians, near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , a security source said on Thursday.
"The operation was carried out on the road linking between Hatra and Mosul, based on intelligence information," the source told the Ottoman Turkish Anadolu agency.
"Joint security troops, backed by special combat forces from the Rapid Response (Interior Ministry) managed to kill all of the 17 gunnies before they escape."
Fake identities were possessed by the turbans, the source said, "in addition to possessing developed telecommunications devices and different kinds of weapons."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2018
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[NBCNEWS] Five people were killed Thursday afternoon after a gunman opened fire inside the offices of the Capital Gazette, a newspaper in the Maryland capital, Annapolis, police officials said. A suspect is in jug and has been identified.
William Krampf, the acting police chief of Anne Arundel County, said several other people were "gravely injured."
"The investigation has just started," he said at a news conference. "We’re going to be quite a while in determining what occurred, why it occurred, how it occurred."
Senior law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told NBC News that the suspect, a white man wearing a black T-shirt and olive-green pants, had been identified through the use of facial recognition software. The sources said earlier that he had somehow obscured his fingerprints, making identification difficult.
A bigwig said the suspect is 39 years old. Local authorities were preparing to execute a search warrant for the suspect's home. The suspect's name has not been released, but sources told NBC News that he is from Maryland.
Anne Arundel County Police Lt. Ryan Frashure said the weapon he used was a "long gun," but he did not elaborate.
Phil Davis, a Gazette crime news hound who was in the office, recounted the shooting on Twitter.
"Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees," Davis said. "Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad." Looks like the guy's a nutcase. He got jugged for harassment and stalking or something like that, so he sued the Gazette for defamation. He got snickered out of court, since they didn't report anything bout him that wasn't true. So for the past three years he's been fulminating against them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities will close the Rafah border crossing with Gazoo from 29 June to 1 July, al-Ahram Arabic news website reported on Thursday.
The Rafah crossing was opened during the entire month of Ramadan, which ended in mid June, upon orders from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
The president's orders came amid the killing of dozens of Paleostinians by Israeli occupation forces during protests in Gazoo against the moving of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Egyptian authorities also opened the Rafah crossing during the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday following Ramadan, and the crossing has been open since.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi High Judicial Council has announced sentencing three Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... members, who belong to the so-called Diyala State to death.
In a statement on Thursday, Abdul-Sattar al-Bayraqdar, a spokesperson of the High Judicial Council, said the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad "reviewed a case at which three convicts are accused of joining Islamic State in Diyala State."
One of the convicts, according to the statement, "is the head of a military detachment, while another worked within the military and security departments, and the third was the secretary of the weapon stashes in Diyala State."
The suspects were nabbed Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! with "weapons and TNT substances in their possession."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... and owner of a world-class comb-over
on Tuesday sacked the country’s police chief, Abdelghani Hamel, until now seen as a likely successor to the head of state.
Bouteflika "today signed two decrees, the first putting an end to the duties of Abdelghani Hamel, as director general of national security forces (DGSN), and the second on the nomination of Mustapha el-Habiri as the head of the DGSN," the president’s office said in a statement published by APS news agency.
The unexpected decision comes against the backdrop of a cocaine trafficking scandal which has tarnished numerous officials including magistrates.
The DGSN has denied media reports of Hamel’s personal chauffeur being embroiled in the affair, instead pointing the finger at "a driver from the management’s fleet".
Hamel has gained influence in recent years as Algeria’s police chief and was seen as a possible contender for Algeria’s presidency.
Originally trained as a computer engineer, he joined Algeria’s gendarmerie -- a police force that is part of the army -- and rose through the ranks to become general and head of the Elite Republican Guard in 2008.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/29/2018 6:39
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#3
I kust finished reading Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown's I An Soldier of Fortune
Whether you think hes a self promoting charlatan or the real deal, one thing that always comes out in the stories of the places he has been is what sh*tholes they are and how vicious the locals are.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 7:50
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#4
M. Murcek - You may also enjoy 'Against All Odds.' Just over 760 pages of African conflict, politics, betrayal, treachery and tribal butchery.
HT LI:
Juliet Williams
Verified account @JWilliamsAP
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ‐ In ruling on bullet-stamping law, California Supreme Court says state laws cannot be invalidated on the grounds that complying with them is impossible.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2018
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#1
So all firearms manufacturers and ammunition companies should all refuse to do business with the state of california. Hell, why don't the neighboring states make it illegal to do business with any entity located in the state of california and that any california state elected official may not enter the state for any reason. Apparently it's okay to pass any laws you want.
#5
If the State Government of California feels that this is so earth shakingingly important then they should pay for the new technology on All of Their sidearms (and shotguns and rifles and batons and...). Show the way. Let the dear citizens know that when their armed public officials fire a weapon their spent brass can be ID'd for the public good. No? Cost too much? Then go pound sand.
#6
Further, if the AB 1471 Crime Gun Identification Act of 2007 ... changes California definitions of "unsafe handgun" then aren't all of the guns in the hands of California Government "safety hazards"? Class-Action Lawsuit, 'Think of the Children'!
...Madness.
#7
...That's exactly the point: if no ammunition can meet the technical requirements of the law, then no ammunition can be sold in CA. The state's answer will be that if you want to sell ammo, then find a way to meet the requirements.
This was no depressingly funny coincidence - I believe this was the plan all along.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/29/2018 12:17
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#9
Ideally someone will start a class action lawsuit requiring compliance by all local and state law enforcement agencies. may as well include all corrections officers as well. See how they like them apples
[David Warren's Essays on Idleness] Today would be the 104th anniversary of the death, by assassination, of the presumptive heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary. The archduke, Franz Ferdinand, and his Czech wife, Sophie, were shot by a 19-year-old hothead, while stalled in traffic during a visit to Sarajevo. It was the second serious act of incivility towards them that morning. Another Bosnian fanatic had tossed a grenade at their car, earlier. It was moving then, however, and all those injured were in the car behind.
It is interesting to me, that in their last moments, only the archduke knew what was happening. His retinue were in confusion, at first thinking he had a nosebleed, perhaps, and that his wife was fainting at the sight of it. Franz Ferdinand’s last words were: “Dear Sophie, don’t die! Stay alive for our children.” She was a loyal wife, but having been shot in the stomach, found this instruction impossible to obey.
Let us not even try to review the awkward yet quick diplomatic Dance of Death that followed from this incident. Within a few weeks, all Europe was at war, and the issue with which it had started — the constitutional status of Bosnia-Herzegovina — was no longer on the front page. This year we have been celebrating, or rather ignoring, the centenary of the conclusion of that Great War, which stands as a bookmark in history, marking to my mind the beginning of the chapter on “Post-Modernity.”
[Breitbart] Thursday on ABC’s "The View," co-host Whoopi Goldberg discussed her concerns over President Donald Trump picking a Supreme Court nominee to replace Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Advocating for abortion rights Goldberg said, "Get out of my vagina." Ew! Ew! Ew, nasty image! Go away! Go away!
Goldberg said, "Here’s the piss-off for me. I’m the person that does believe that just because someone is appointed doesn’t mean ‐and I believe I have said that a lot about the Supreme Court ‐ that you never know a person on the Supreme Court is going to vote because sometimes, you know, things change. They wake up. They see things. I don’t like hearing, again, that I’m trying to take your rights away. I have to tell you, as a woman, I think you’re trying to take my rights away."
Posted by: Regular joe ||
06/29/2018 7:12
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#6
Dear worshipers of Baal,
Nothing stops your state governments' ability to pass legislation that is in effect Roe vs Wade. Get on with it. You have enough votes, make it happen. If by chance you don't, maybe you need to reconsider moving to one that does. My guess those states already are experiencing a population decline and can use the boost from your migration.
#8
I don't think 'to go where no man has gone before' is part of the oath for a Supreme Court Justice so she's safe.
Uh...as I recall, Ted Danson tapped that.
Posted by: Pearl Cleang3837 ||
06/29/2018 8:54
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#9
I think Jean Luc Picard might have gone there too, though he's rumored to be not leaning that way. In any event, science fiction is nearly ruined for me...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2018 10:17
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I actually agree with this. Manafort's (and his associate's) "crimes" may certainly be worthy of prosecution, although they waited til now, but it reeks
[Wash Times] A federal judge says "even a blind person" can see that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is prosecuting Paul Manafort as a way to acquire evidence against his "true target," President Trump.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III made the comment in an opinion released this week that nonetheless sided with Mr. Mueller and against Mr. Trump's former campaign manager. He rejected Mr. Manafort's argument that the Mueller-brought tax-evasion indictment exceeded the special counsel's authority and should be dismissed.
Judge Ellis, sitting in the Eastern District of Virginia, expressed dismay at the special counsel system and at Mr. Mueller in particular.
"Given the investigation's focus on President Trump's campaign, even a blind person can see that the true target of the Special Counsel's investigation is President Trump, not defendant, and that defendant's prosecution is part of that larger plan," he wrote. "Specifically, the charges against defendant are intended to induce defendant to cooperate with the Special Counsel by providing evidence against the President or other members of the campaign. Although these kinds of high-pressure prosecutorial tactics are neither uncommon nor illegal, they are distasteful."
In negotiations between Mr. Mueller and Trump attorneys over a possible interview, the prosecutor has said Mr. Trump isn't a target––a specific Justice Department term that means the government has evidence the person committed a crime.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2018
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A blind man of East Pensacola
Possessed a colossal schnozzola.
As vision abated,
His nose compensated,
Till blocks from the deli
He'd tell ya what's smelly:
"Mmmm... liverwurst... lox... gorgonzola!"
Meteorologists with the @45thSpaceWing predict a 90% chance of favorable weather for liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the company’s 15th commercial resupply services mission to the @Space_Station. Launch is scheduled for Friday, June 29 at 5:42 am EDT. pic.twitter.com/BdpmJNkb2H
[DAWN] Banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... (ASWJ) chief Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi has been removed from the Fourth Schedule, it emerged on Thursday.
The Fourth Schedule is a section of the Anti-Terrorism Act under which someone who is suspected of terrorism is kept under observation; it is mandatory for him or her to register his or her attendance with the local police regularly.
The Fourth Schedule also includes elements found to be or suspected to be involved in anti-state activities, delivering hate speeches and/or activists of religious outfits not yet banned but related to militancy in some way.
Punjab's Caretaker Chief Minister Hasan Askari Rizvi confirmed to Rooters that Ludhianvi had been removed from the watchlist, and that his assets would be unfrozen and travel restrictions on him removed.
The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) has written to the State Bank of Pakistain (SBP) to unfreeze Ludhianvi's assets after Punjab's Home Department removed his name from the Fourth Schedule, a Nacta official told DawnNewsTV.
"The election commission will decide today in a meeting whether his group can contest the election," Prof Rizvi was quoted by Rooters as saying.
Although the ASWJ, a sectarian outfit, has long been banned in Pakistain, nomination papers of a number of election candidates affiliated with it have been accepted, allowing them to contest the upcoming polls.
The most prominent among them is Aurangzeb Farooqui, who is contesting on a provincial as well as a National Assembly seat from Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Ludhianvi himself has contested elections in the past and was even briefly declared winner from former NA-89 Jhang after his opponent Sheikh Mohammad Akram was disqualified by an election tribunal in the aftermath of 2013 elections. The Supreme Court had later overturned the order.
The removal of ban on Ludhianvi has emerged just hours after Pakistain was placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 'grey list' a second time for failing to curb terror financing on its soil.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[FOXNEWS] Nikki Haley ...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... , the U.S. envoy to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , said Thursday her country is urging Pakistain more strongly not to give safe haven to terrorists.
She said Pakistain has been cooperating with the United States, but Washington cannot accept any government protecting terrorists.
"We are communicating this message to Pakistain more strongly than in the past and we hope to see changes," Haley told members of the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank.
Pakistain's cooperation is seen as key to the success of President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's Afghanistan policy.
Pakistain is under pressure from Washington and the Afghan government to stop offering safe haven to Death Eaters blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies. Pakistain also insists its influence over the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... has been exaggerated.
India has also blamed a Pakistain-based group, Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... , for attacks on Mumbai in November 2008 that killed 166 people. The U.S. has designated the group a terrorist organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Thursday that Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... ’s argument before the International Court of Justice in the Hague yesterday was pathetic in its appeal for sympathy, a weak position Doha could not support with facts and figures.
In a series of tweets, Gargash added: "The UAE’s argument today was strong and refuted the Qatari allegations using figures, exposing its falsity and weakness of fundamentals and evidence, and documented the state’s carelessness towards Qatari citizens who are victims of this government’s policies."
Gargash said in another tweet that "The legal team of the UAE has refuted the allegations of grievances and revealed that the issue of the Qatari government is a media fanfare marketed by Doha media, and the figures show a distinction between the political position and the humanitarian responsibility," he said.
Gargash noted that "with evidence and figures, the UAE legal team clarified the state’s keenness towards the Qatari in education, medication, trade and investment even after the crisis. The Qatari government seeks to fabricate a human injustice that is incompatible with reality."
The UAE minister added: "The sovereign decisions taken by the UAE to protect itself from the conspiracies of the Qatari government have not overshadowed its humanitarian responsibility, and the pleading today has shown all this with evidence and figures. It exposed the lies of the Qatari media machine."
The UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said: "The International Court of Justice has seen documented figures for students completing their studies, citizens being treated, renewed trade licenses and bank transfers in hundreds of millions. The lying and counterfeiting in international courts that has been practised before by Qatar and was exposed"
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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[THEGUARDIAN] Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has ordered the immediate execution of all convicted jihadists on death row in swift retaliation for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ’s killing of eight captives.
Abadi ordered the immediate execution of "murderous Moslems condemned to death whose sentences have passed the decisive stage", his office said, referring to convicts whose appeals have been exhausted.
More than 300 people, including about 100 foreign women, have been condemned to death in Iraq and 185 to life imprisonment for membership of the Islamic State group, a judicial source said in April. Most of the convicted women are Ottoman Turkish or from former Soviet republics, while a Russian man and a Belgian national are also on death row.
Abadi vowed on Thursday to avenge the deaths of the eight Isis captives, a day after their bodies were found along a highway north of Baghdad.
"Our security and military forces will take forceful Dire Revenge against these terrorist cells," he told senior military officials and ministers. "We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime."
The corpses, found at Tal al-Sharaf in Salahuddin province, were decomposing and had been strapped with explosive vests, the army said.
They included six abductees who had appeared in an Isis video with badly bruised faces. Isis claimed they were Iraqi coppers or members of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.
In the video, posted on Saturday by the Amaq propaganda outlet of Isis, the jihadists threatened to execute their captives unless Baghdad released Sunni Moslem women held in its prisons within three days.
But Abadi said that autopsies indicated the captives were already dead when the video was posted.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2018
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#1
Do it
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2018 7:13
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#3
I doubt this will deter but a few. But, prison costs will be reduced. Body parts, freshly removed, can go to victims, lives will be saved in the future, powdered bones supply phosphate and minerals for organic gardens, vultures, possibly endangered, should see population increases, crowding conditions and costs at prisons should decline, less traffic, less noise, rents may drop as the rental market shrinks, I see nothing but good from this. I know I am very pleased with such practical steps.
[REUTERS] An Israeli-American teenager was found guilty in Israel on Thursday of making about 2,000 hoax bomb threats against Jewish and other institutions in the United States and elsewhere during Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s rise to the U.S. presidency in 2016 and 2017.
The incidents stoked allegations by some American critics at the time that the Republican contender was encouraging anti-Semitism and other forms of racism. Trump has denied any such wrongdoing.
The defendant has been separately indicted for hate crimes in several U.S. states, where he was named as Michael Kadar, 19.
Israeli authorities have not published his name as he was a minor when some of the offences were committed.
Partly on the basis of a confession, Tel Aviv District Court convicted him of offences between his 18th birthday in August 2016 and his arrest in March 2017. It held off on formally convicting him of earlier charges pending a youth parole review.
Kadar was found guilty of counts including extortion, disseminating hoaxes in order to spread panic, money laundering and computer hacking over bomb and shooting threats against community centers, schools, shopping malls, cop shoppes, airlines and airports in North America, Britannia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark. He was also convicted of assault for trying to grab a gun from a policewoman who searched his home.
The counts each carry potential jail terms of several years. The court did not immediately set a date for Kadar’s sentencing.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... said on Thursday they had taken full control of the eastern Libyan city of Derna from an armed coalition of local fighters and Islamists.
"Thanks be to God, the armed forces control the entire city of Derna," said a statement on Facebook.
Brigades from Haftar’s Libyan National Army launched a ground offensive last month after encircling the city - the last in eastern Libya to elude their control - for around two years.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemen’s legitimate government emphasized the need for a complete withdrawal of Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias from the city of Hodeidah and its ports as a main condition before starting the peace negotiations.
This comes following a meeting between the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, and Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur where Griffiths said that a deal was struck with the Houthis who reportedly agreed to allow Hodeidah to be placed under UN surveillance.
Yemen’s foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani said in a statement that the government’s main demand from the start was the complete withdrawal of the militias, and the entrance of government forces to guarantee the security of the area and reopen ports to receive humanitarian aid.
Yamani stressed that managing the ports and ensuring security cannot happen if they are isolated from the city.
"Security and stability cannot be achieved in the west coast, and the protection of international navigation without the withdrawal of all Houthi militias from the city, including the ports of al-Salif and Raas Issa," Yamani said.
Yamani blamed the Houthis for using civilians as human shields in Hodeidah, and increasing their attacks on government buildings. He added that in their fight against the militias, the government and the Arab coalition making large efforts to avoid injuring civilians or damaging the city’s infrastructure.
Yemeni parliamentary blocs stressed the need to continue the battle to liberate Hodeidah, which they said "suffered the scourge of domination of Houthi terrorist militias who loot ports, as well as humanitarian and relief products."
Parliamentary blocs also called on all Hodeidah residents to cooperate with the Yemeni army to force out the Houthis, and not allow bandidossnuffies to spread out in their neighborhoods.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sources revealed to Al Arabiya news channel that a 12-hour ceasefire in Daraa province in southern Syria has been reached between Russia and some armed factions, starting at midnight local time.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella grabbed the cocoanut cream... the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that air strikes on rebel-held areas of Daraa province led to the killings of 46 civilians, among them children.
Amid intensifying its military actions in southern Syria supported by Russia, the Syrian regime’s military jets bombarded in the last few days many villages in the province.
The human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... observatory said that the Syrian regime’s forces and allied militias have succeeded in advancing towards eastern Maliha and southern Maliha amid intense festivities in an attempt by the rebels to re-take the area.
Sham news agency also reported that the military central operation room in southern Syria warded off intrusion attempts by Bashir al-Assad’s forces and allied Hezbollah militias towards a military air defense base in western Daraa.
Earlier, the UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura expressed his concerns towards the Syrian regime’s attack on Daraa, warning of a repeated scenario similar to what happened in eastern Ghouta and Aleppo.
"We at the Security Council will not allow that this is a repeated scenario of what happened in eastern Ghouta or Aleppo where we lost a lot of lives, and it seems we are going towards this scenario in the South," De Mistura said on Wednsday.
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[NBCNEWS] The Occupy Ice PDX protesters, who were rallying against President Trump’s immigration policies, set up camp at the ICE facility more than a week ago.
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#1
Hope they cracked a lot of skulls in the process.
[Al Jazeera] 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... , Jordan and Paleostine have warned Israel on separate occasions about The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's creeping influence in East Jerusalem, according to a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The report notes that bigwigs from the three Arab countries told Israel that Turkey was "extending its influence in Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem" which they said was "part of an attempt by Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... to "claim ownership over the Jerusalem issue."
Israeli sources claimed to have been aware of Turkey's expanding influence and say they have been monitoring Ankara's efforts for more than a year.
According to the report, Jordanian officials are said to have been upset with Israel's slow response which they described as "sleeping at the wheel", especially since the signing of a 2016 reconciliation agreement which Israel is adamant to maintain.
Officials from the Paleostinian Authority also expressed concern at Turkey's drive to further its influence in East Jerusalem which comes in the form of donations to Islamic organizations in Arab neighbourhoods or through organised tours by Ottoman TurkishMoslem groups with close ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
As Berserker said: "Doesn't everybody know that?"
[Rudaw] Iraq’s prime minister has ordered counter-terrorism forces to carry out special operations against terror cells, reacting to escalating deadly ISIS attacks on armed forces and civilians.
In a meeting with counter-terror commanders in Baghdad on Thursday, Haider al-Abadi ordered "special and qualitative operations to pursue terrorist cells and retaliate against them," his office detailed in a statement.
There have been multiple reports recently of ISIS Lions of Islam attacking and taking control of villages, killing and abducting civilians and armed forces, and conducting attacks in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Diyala, and Saladin provinces and along the Kirkuk-Baghdad road.
The head of an Iranian-backed militia reacted to Abadi’s order, suggesting a joint deployment of all Iraqi forces.
"The real solution is for the commander-in-chief to activate joint operations and mobilization of the Army, Federal Police, Hashd al-Shaabi, and Counter-Terrorism Service along with the air force to conduct exact surveying and clearance of all the previously cleared areas. We support this," tweeted Qais al-Khazali, head of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, a few minutes after Abadi’s office published the statement.
He made no mention of the Peshmerga forces.
The commander of Diyala operations, however, said they have requested the Peshmerga be included in a joint operation.
"We have requested the joint operations command conduct a military operation with the involvement of Peshmerga in order to strengthen the security of those areas east of Saladin and north of Diyala where ISIS has begun mobilization and activities that recently resulted in killing and abduction," commander Mazhar Azzazi told Rudaw.
He said his command has good cooperation with the Kurdish forces and are awaiting approval from above.
The Peshmerga have not received any notice regarding upcoming operations.
"We have not received anything official regarding launching of joint operation with Iraqi forces so far," Sheikh Jafar Mustafa, commander of 70th brigade of Peshmerga forces, told Rudaw.
If they do receive such a request, they will discuss it with the Ministry of Peshmerga and general commander of Peshmerga, he added.
The area is under is under the control of Iraqi federal forces and Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries.
Kurdish leaders and locals have called for the return of the Kurdish force to the areas they left last October when Iraqi forces took control of the disputed areas.
With the fall of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , some ISIS fighters fled to the Hamrin mountains that span the border of Kirkuk and Saladin provinces. The area has long been a favourite of Lions of Islam because it is difficult to secure.
Abadi insisted that ISIS does not control any territory in the country, but are hiding out in the mountainous areas.
As head of the armed forces, Abadi told his counter-terror chiefs that the people of Iraq "have trust" in their abilities.
A day earlier, Abadi had promised to take action to address the security threat after the bodies of eight people, at least six of whom were security force members, were found killed on the Kirkuk-Baghdad Road.
"We have patrols on the road, but as you know snuffies have plans," he said in a presser on Tuesday.
"Large territories in Diyala are currently controlled by ISIS, including areas in Qaratapa, Nada, Naftkhana, Wadi Salab, Sheikh Baba gardens, and Kani Masi. These areas are home to ISIS Death Eaters, and there are no forces there to confront them," Major Ahmad Mustafa, a Peshmerga intelligence officer, had previously told Rudaw.
The area was under control of Peshmerga forces until last October when Iraqi forces took over. There are growing calls for the return of the Kurdish forces or joint cooperation to secure the area.
According to Peshmerga intelligence reports, 85 percent of the Hamrin mountains has fallen to ISIS Death Eaters.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US authorities are seeking leniency for a Bangladeshi immigrant who joined ISIS in Syria before fleeing home and giving the FBI intelligence about terror threats.
The New York City man, identified only as "John Doe" for security reasons, appeared at a sentencing on Wednesday in federal court.
Prosecutors have described how the man fell under the influence of ISIS recruiters and traveled to Syria in 2014. They say the group gave him a support role until he became disillusioned and secretly reached out to the FBI.
The 29-year-old man wept as he apologized to the court for joining the bully boy group. He called it "the greatest mistake of my life."
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[FOXNEWS] A Philippine communist rebel leader said Thursday that the murderous Moslems can no longer hold peace talks with President Rodrigo Duterte's administration and that it is better to help oust him and negotiate with his successor.
Jose Maria Sison said Duterte wants the guerrillas to surrender without addressing the social ills that have inflamed one of Asia's longest communist rebellions. He criticized the president for being "subservient to U.S. imperialism" and blamed him for the "traitorous sellout" of disputed South China Sea territories to China.
After preliminary talks, both sides agreed to a new temporary cease-fire on June 21, with peace talks to resume on Thursday in Norway, which has been brokering the decades-long negotiations. But Duterte delayed the resumption indefinitely, antagonizing the guerrillas.
"Based on the implications drawn from the current impasse," the rebel front involved in the talks, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, "can no longer negotiate with a government of the Republic of the Philippines that is headed by Duterte," Sison said.
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Top|| File under: Commies
[QZ] The spate of Nigeria’s violent pastoral conflicts is showing no signs of abating.
In one of the bloodiest incidents yet, on Saturday (June 23), more than 200 people were left dead after an attack on villages in Plateau, a state in the country’s middle belt. It follows an earlier attack in January, when 73 people were killed in Benue, another middle belt state, and sparked rhetoric of genocide.
For much of the past two years, recurring pastoral conflict has been a by-product of a tussle for land between herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria’s middle belt. Following increased desertification in Nigeria’s north, nomadic herdsmen have journeyed further south to the middle belt for more fertile grazing land for their cattle. But grazing on farmlands destroys livelihoods of farmers and disrupts communities which has led to violent festivities. For their part, Fulani herdsmen have claimed that their cattle are being stolen and that the violence is the end result.
With the government deemed slow to stop the recurring attacks, president Muhammadu Buhari has faced public backlash for his handling of the crisis. Under his watch, pastoral conflicts have grown to become Nigeria’s biggest internal security threat, overtaking Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Nigeria’s insecurity will again be a key issue for the upcoming election next February along with a sluggish economy. Back in 2015, when Buhari was elected, Nigerians had hoped the former army general would be strong on national security, but the country has seemingly drifted from one security crisis to the next over his tenure. Though Boko Haram’s grip on the northeast has been greatly reduced, there are still intermittent deadly attacks with jacket wallahs in crowded areas. Earlier this month, more than 40 people were killed by six maiden of tender yearss strapped with bombs in the town of Damboa, Borno state, as throngs of Moslems celebrated the end of the Eid al Fitr holiday.
In the absence of decisive action by law enforcement forces, several communities in the region are resorting to self-help, according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based research firm. Crucially, attacks on communities are also worsening the humanitarian crisis in northern Nigeria where thousands remain displaced after years of devastating insurgency by Boko Haram.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... , whose political bloc came first in a May parliamentary election, said on Thursday he was scaling back his militia to strengthen the incoming government and its security forces.
The holy man’s list won the most seats in an election marred by low turnout and allegations of fraud.
He is currently embroiled in negotiations with the heads of other blocs over forming the next government, in which he is expected to play a leading role.
Sadr said in a handwritten order published on his website that his Saraya al-Salam (Peace Companies) militia must disband in all cities except for the capital Baghdad and the cities of Karbala and Samarra, both homes to holy Shi’ite shrines.
Call for nationwide disarmament
The holy man had earlier this month called for a nationwide disarmament campaign after an arms cache went kaboom! in his stronghold district of Sadr City in Baghdad, killing 18 people. Political opponents said the cache had belonged to his militia.
His Thursday order called on his men to store arms in a manner that protects civilians. All the militia's leaders except those in the three named cities were prohibited from "activities on the ground’.
Sadr said the militia was also now banned from conducting any operation outside Iraq, and all weapons received from the government and its security forces were to be returned.
Like most Iraqi politicians, Sadr has consistently maintained a powerful militia.
In the past he has mobilized tens of thousands of followers to protest against government policies and has been seen as a wild card in Iraq’s turbulent politics, which is often driven by sectarian interests.
His militia, once known as the Mahdi Army ... an Iranian fifth column masquerading as an Iraqi militia ... , staged two violent uprisings against US occupation forces after their invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi and US officials described him at the time as the biggest security threat in Iraq.
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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.
[Investors] For more than a decade, California has won high praise from environmentalists for its stringent greenhouse gas restrictions. But a new report shows that despite the enormous costs of this effort, the state is doing a worse job at cutting CO2 emissions than the rest of the country, while badly hurting its working families.
[WND] Big Media, the policy veterans and the chancelleries across Europe and Britain are constantly complaining: Donald Trump has had the temerity to defy their international order, summit ‐ and seek peace ‐ with their enemies and mess with the multilateral maze they call agreements. He even declared, early in June, that the U.S. would be far better off if it negotiated bilateral trade agreements.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ‐ A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new Indiana law’s requirement that medical providers report detailed patient information to the state if they treat women for complications arising from abortions.
When you wake Woodrow at #10, wake me as well. (Caution - use a phone) 
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district, serving since 1991, a total of 26.57613429871093 years. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the most senior of the 12 black women currently serving in the United States Congress, is a member and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Before becoming a member of Congress she served in the California Assembly, to which she was first elected back when Disco was in flower, in 1976, which would make it 41.57408091062058 years. She has been a politician for virtually all her adult life. If she was brighter she'd be a Communist...
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
North Korea
William Krampf, the acting police chief of Anne Arundel County, said several other people were "gravely injured."
[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities will close the Rafah border crossing with 
Bouteflika
[DAWN] Banned 
...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems...
...the 
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Moqtada 
