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Today: 65 articles and 223 comments as of 9:39.
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Maldives seek foreign help to deal with IS fighters
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Caribbean-Latin America
Massive electrical failure cuts power to Argentina and Uruguay
Non WOT, for now
[Fox News] A large electrical failure created a blackout in Argentina and Uruguay on Sunday, leaving both countries without power.

Areas of Brazil and Paraguay were also impacted by the outage, which happened just after 7:00 a.m. according to the BBC.

"A massive failure in the electrical interconnection system left all of Argentina and Uruguay without power," electricity supply company, Edesur said in a tweet. The blackout occurred as people were getting ready to head to the polls for local elections in Argentina. It's not clear how the blackout will impact the voting process.

Alejandra Martinez, an Edesur spokeswoman, described the blackout as "unprecedented." She exclaimed, "This is the first time something like this has happened across the entire country."
Trains were out of service in Argentina; however, flight service continued in the country due to backup generators, according to Argentine news site Infobae.

Gustavo Lopetegui, Argentina's energy secretary, said that power was being restored to certain areas to the South American country. He said the cause of the massive outage was unknown at the time, while reports suggested it was due to a grid failure.

Edesur tweeted that power was being restored, starting with 34,000 initial customers and the process of normalization could take several hours
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 13:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Someone practicing for the bigtime?

(Sorry for the dup post, moderators - didn't see this one earlier.)
Posted by: Mercutio || 06/16/2019 14:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I’ll go delete yours from the hopper, Mercutio. Thank you for mentioning it. But there is no shame in it — when I submit something that someone else here beat me to, that tells me I was on the right track. Very comforting for a very junior, amateur trainee intelligence analyst. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 14:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "I wonder what this big red button does... (Press button.)
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 06/16/2019 16:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Seeking cure, that’s why Fred upgraded some of his moderator procedures. I’ve a positive (or negative!) gift for discovering exactly how foolproof the foolproof measures are.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 16:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Never forget the level of corruption and nepotism in the South. Consider it Venezuela Light elsewhere. Merit and competency are "racist" Northern European concepts don't you know.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/16/2019 17:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Re #4 - You're not alone TW. Before I retired I had a friend at work (a top-notch engineer, Army Ranger in Vietnam) who I used to (jokingly) call Mr. Beta Tester. He didn't find bugs; they found him.
Posted by: PBMcL || 06/16/2019 18:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Whew! It’s good to know I’m not as special as I thought, PBMcL. My experience here, however, has made me very glad I did not go into programming as I once thought to do. I’ve been a bit of a trial for Fred, who’s been very nice about it, but clearly I wouldn’t do at all on the other side of things.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  Incidentally, it’s being repaired:


Company says power restored to 1.5 million Argentines

[IsraelTimes] Argentine energy company Edesur says that electricity has been restored to more than 1.5 million people.

President Mauricio Macri also says that 50 percent of the country had power after a massive failure in Argentina and Uruguay this morning left many in the dark.

Macri says on Twitter: “As time passes, service will be restored for all customers.”

The cause of the blackout was not immediately clear.

Edesur said that a failure in the Argentine interconnection system originated at an electricity transmission point between the power stations of Yacyretá and Salto Grande in the northeastern part of the country.

Uruguayan energy company UTE said 75% of service had been restored in its country.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 23:46 Comments || Top||


Europe
French Protesters Hang Up Their Yellow Vests
[WSJ] Battered by leadership crisis and flagging support, movement that tested President Emmanuel Macron now faces uncertain future.
To put it more bluntly, the yellow vest movement has fizzled. Here’s hoping the reduction of the intrusive power of the French state they tried to fight for happens anyway.
Shops that once boarded their windows every Saturday, bracing for yellow-vest riots, are humming again. President Emmanuel Macron is rebooting the economic overhauls that once fueled yellow-vest ire. The weekly flood of protesters in Gay Paree has become a trickle.

On Saturday, only 7,000 demonstrators erupted into the streets across the country, according to the French Interior Ministry. That is compared with a quarter million people on Nov. 17 when the movement began as a protest against fuel taxes.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 10:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So the money ran out when Macron didn't cave.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 12:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Now only if those Yellow Vesters had the backing of George Soros....
Posted by: DooDahMan || 06/16/2019 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Globalism defeats democracy again.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 14:09 Comments || Top||

#4  To put it more bluntly, the yellow vest movement has fizzled.

Didn't they say the same thing about the Tea Party?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/16/2019 17:05 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Rep. Will Hurd disinvited to cybersecurity conference after Pro-Life voting record draws outrage
[Fox] Rep. Will Hurd, R-Tex, will no longer be speaking at cyber security conference after critics expressed outrage over his voting record on women's issues.

Hurd, a former undercover CIA officer and an advocate for cybersecurity on Capitol Hill, was invited to speak at Black Hat, one of biggest cyber security conferences in the country, being held in Las Vegas in August. But Tech Crunch security editor Zach Whittaker highlighted on Thursday what he described was Hurd's "terrible voting record on women's rights." It includes voting against funding for Planned Parenthood, programs supporting women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields, and his support on restricting late-term abortions.
But Hillary "wipe it? like with a cloth?" is still speaking
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 06:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obviously, if he'd been a pedophile, he'd have been welcomed with open arms.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/16/2019 7:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Political purity first. Experience, competence and ability - not so much.
Posted by: Mercutio || 06/16/2019 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  A lot of hackers are anti-SJW (and anti-nanny in general) and pissing them off before a hacking convention seems like a really, really dumb move.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/16/2019 8:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, then I'm crossing that event off my calendar.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/16/2019 12:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe they can bring in Bernie Sanders as a substitute speaker and he can deliver a lecture on surrendering all the private keys to your bitcoin to the state.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/16/2019 12:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Be a shame if all their servers went haywire in the middle of the conference.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 15:53 Comments || Top||


Europe
German Court Fines Two Gynecologists for Abortion Ad
[NYT] BERLIN ‐ Two German gynecologists have been fined by a Berlin judge for promoting abortion services on their website, running afoul of a Nazi-era law that makes it a crime to advertise the procedure in detail.

The law, known as 219a, was revised this year to allow doctors to state whether they offered abortions, but language that is considered to go beyond simply listing the service was still forbidden.

The ruling on Friday is the first time that a fine was handed down since the law ‐ which was largely ignored for years ‐ was changed. Anti-abortion activists had brought the case to the public prosecutor, according to local news reports.

Abortion is legal in Germany through the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 05:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps Bettina and Verena are more than just medical colleagues.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 5:54 Comments || Top||

#2  "Nazi-era" but unchanged in the 60+ years since.

Nice slur
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Nice slur.

Wikipedia on abortions in Germany. But one can’t expect those writing the first draft of history for the New York Times to actually know any.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 9:49 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Black Community Leaders Points to NFL Millionaires to Prove Slavery Reparations Idea is 'Fools Gold'
[Daily Caller] Woodson Center founder and president Bob Woodson criticized the concept of slavery reparations, calling it "fools gold" that will do nothing to help the black community in the long run.
Hear, hear!
During a Friday night appearance on Fox News’ "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Woodson bolstered his point by bringing up an uncomfortable fact about once-rich NFL players, that the vast majority are broke within three years after ending their football careers.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson began the segment by pointing to several Democratic presidential candidates this Spring falling over themselves to pander to Al Sharpton at his National Action Network (NAN) conference.
If they don’t bring home the bacon, why would anyone pay any attention?
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 05:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm all for reparations, but conditionally:
1. The checks are to be distributed only in ancestral homelands; and
2. Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship is a binding part of the endorsement.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 06/16/2019 10:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Any statement from the Irish community on getting in on any of this proposed reparations loot?
Posted by: DooDahMan || 06/16/2019 13:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Blazing Saddles: "...but No Irish."


Posted by: Sgt.D.T. || 06/16/2019 14:24 Comments || Top||

#4  There seem to be many fool's chasing that gold.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 15:09 Comments || Top||

#5  ...the usual Free Stuff brigade that follows the Socialist "Let's rob those with the stuff" program.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/16/2019 17:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Funny how this tends to come up around election time as politicians have one more freebie to dangle in front of voters.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/16/2019 21:03 Comments || Top||

#7  http://www.cc.com/video-clips/vih2zg/chappelle-s-show-reparations-2003-follow-up
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/16/2019 21:05 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Victor Davis Hanson on The Case for Trump
[American Thinker] As the title suggests, The Case for Trump, balances a clinical approach to our currently incendiary politics alongside a brief for Donald Trump’s presidency. Of course, the success or failure of this attempt is a subjective matter though it seems to me that any reader of this book of whatever political stripe would concede that, for its length, it is thorough if not encyclopedic in its presentation of facts and its historical depth.

All of which is not surprising in that Victor Davis Hanson, occupies a unique position among the commentariat: he is a classical scholar, professor, historian, novelist, political, cultural commentator and farmer in California’s central valley while maintaining a residence in Palo Alto where he is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford campus. He is also a visiting professor at Hillsdale College in Michigan while spending appreciable time overseas.

One can see that his distinctly varied experiences are part of why he remains an engaging thinker and which makes all of the 372 pages of this book fly by. In a word, the book is a deliciously informative and an eminently readable take on the Trump ship of state as it tries to navigate around the depth charges laid by the treacherous deep state armada and a giddy and obtuse paparazzi.

Dr. Hanson’s opening chapter is his longest, wherein he demonstrates that by 2016 the traditional vision of "the two Americas" had ossified into mere "stale sloganeering." As he puts it, "Trump did not create these divides. He merely found existing sectarianism politically useful, and, like President Obama, he far more adroitly leveraged it than had prior Republican nominees. "
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 05:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As you might expect, an excellent, well written book.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 5:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Until I see indictments of the Clintons re: their "Foundation", among other things, and, perhaps, a few foreign policy changes, I will not buy the book.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 06/16/2019 13:24 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
POTUS - NYT article claiming 'US targeting Russian Power Grid' is fake news, total bullshi*
[Breitbart] President Donald Trump on Saturday denied a New York Times report claiming the U.S. is ramping up cyber attacks against Russia, calling the decision to run the article a "virtual act of treason."

According to the Times, the U.S. is increasingly targeting Russia’s electric power grid and has even gone as far as to install debilitating code inside it. The operation is the first of its kind, according to the newspaper, which also claimed two administration officials said President Donald Trump is believed not to have been briefed on the mission.

Reacting to the report in a pair of tweets, President Trump wrote: "Do you believe that the Failing New York Times just did a story stating that the United States is substantially increasing Cyber Attacks on Russia. This is a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our Country."

The president went on to deny the report’s veracity, stating it was "NOT TRUE!"

"Anything goes with our Corrupt News Media today. They will do, or say, whatever it takes, with not even the slightest thought of consequence! These are true cowards and without doubt, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!" he concluded.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 04:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To a large segment of the population Trump’s denial is virtually proof the claim is true. (I have no doubt such plans are in the game stage in the Pentagon.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/16/2019 12:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Glenmore, you are most likely right. Why wouldn't we develop that capability. There seems to be evidence that Russia is targeting our grid and the Saudis oil industry. Russia's targeting of the U.S. grid. See Xenotime malware article yesterday.

If could be that it is as POTUS said. It could also be the industry crying wolf to direct more money their way to update and harden the grid.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 15:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Some things gorb noticed about the tankers that Iran attacked
An original opinion from Rantburg’s own gorb.
My thoughts are in no particular order, but here they are.

One thing I noticed is that the video seems to have been taken in the dark. Combined with the idea that the tanker was probably evacuated means they could probably easily get away with running a boat up next to it and detaching the unexploded mine.

Conversely, the limpet mines could be attached to a lightly crewed ships almost as easily, especially if there was some kind of simultaneously distraction ploy.

I don't know if the water currents would make placing the limpet mines difficult while the ship was under way.

The photos of the holes in the tankers seems to show them to have been in a line at about 6' above the waterline in all cases. Not exactly where an underwater torpedo would have hit. I do not believe the tankers had been unloaded by the time the pictures were taken.

It seems that any kind of missile or drone would have a hard time duplicating this kind of accuracy regarding hole distance from the waterline.

If the crew of the Japanese tanker noticed drones flying about, they could have been a distraction or they could have just been doing damage assessment of the limpet mines effectiveness. Results might have been used to decide whether further action would be required or if a limpet mine that failed to explode would require removal.

It seems to me that underwater mines could prove to be problematic to remove if they failed to explode, hence the more easily removed above-waterline limpet mines. They would also be less of an "act of war" than suddenly sinking a ship with the crew aboard.

The shape of the holes does not suggest a high speed projectile, which to me means a round hole. It seems to my inexperienced eye the kind of damage a limpet mine or above-waterline bomb might produce.

The symmetry of the damage to both the Norwegian tanker and the Japanese tanker suggest hand placement of the limpet mines.

Of course, if Iran could do this, so could the US. But this feels more like how the Iranians would handle this than what the US would do to try to fake it.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 01:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The lack of pictures of or reporting of cargo loss (oil slick) is interesting.

Happy Father's Day all.
Posted by: Woodrow || 06/16/2019 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  My recollection of oil tanks is they have double hulls and the tanks are segmented. My guess is one mine may puncture 1 tank and the oil is caught in the annular space.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 06/16/2019 7:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Quo vadis?

Always ask: who benefits? And there's your answer.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 7:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Of course. Our resident troll pipes in
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 7:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Iran, or the IRGC benefit. They're putting pressure on Asian countries through the oil supplies (and European countries indirectly) to reign in Trump's reimposition of sanctions.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 06/16/2019 7:55 Comments || Top||

#6  It couldn't be the fact that Bolton and the rest of the deep state are itching for a war with Iran, and a false flag attack is precisely the causus belli they need?

I mean, why else did your mind jump directly to "it was a false flag" and accuse me of being a troll, instead of giving an answer? Come on, I just asked who benefited.

Remember the Maine!
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 8:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Cui bono, Herb, not "Where are you goig?"
Posted by: Snaith Cluth4090 || 06/16/2019 8:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Quo vadis is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you marching?" idiot. You meant Cuo bono, but your Gulf of Tonkin obviously got in the way. Posting from a foreign country sometimes shows your cultural ineptitude
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 8:08 Comments || Top||

#9  Like this, right Herbie?

A cart with a couple of bodies.
The vigilant watchman: "Quo vadis?"
"Oh, just down the via
To frame up some Shia."
"Cui bono?" "I guess that's the Soddies."
Posted by: Betty Gleper6852 || 06/16/2019 8:18 Comments || Top||

#10  A misremembered bit of Latin in no way invalidates the point I made. Romanes eunt domus..."People called Romanes, they go, the house?"

When you argue, you have to use evidence tailored to the argument. Cite sources. Remind us of precedents and historical patterns of behavior.

Right now, you're at the bottom of the pyramid of debate. Go higher.

Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Ad numerum
ad nauseum
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 8:53 Comments || Top||

#12  It’s a marker, poor dear. He has made the same mistake before.

Here is a refutation of his central point: Herb, you seem to be a bit deficient in awareness of the history of this particular part of the world. Fortunately, Strategy Page was thinking of you when they posted the following pieces, which I assign as homework before you next comment (don’t worry, they are quick reads with no Latin required), with lessons applicable far beyond this particular battlefield. Bottom line, President Trump is already winning on all fronts in this thing, with no need to start a shooting war. The only one who might benefit in any way is Iran, should they succeed in closing the Gulf and/or uniting their deeply unhappy subjects.

Iran: The Land Of Opportunity

Logistics: Hezbollah Took The Hit
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 9:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Presuming that all those false-flag stories are true--the US did them--then it follows that the US can do a false flag and then attack, the honesty of the thing notwithstanding.
So a false-flag is as good as IRGC doing it as a casus bellum. So there's no diff, right?
Either which way, there's identical pressure on Iran.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 06/16/2019 9:15 Comments || Top||

#14  The first one is about Hezbollah financing. The second is an opinion piece. I like Jim Dunnigan's wargames from when he was at SPI but I quit reading his site a number of years ago because he rambles, gets fixed ideas about things, and generally has verbal diarrhea. From it:

"Some government hardliners still back starting a war if all else fails but most Iranian leaders fear that anything that bold will more likely backfire on Iran."

"Iran threatens to shut down all oil exports from the Persian Gulf if all Iranian oil exports are blocked. That is considered unlikely because it would be a declaration of war by Iran, and even the elderly clerics who have ruled Iran since the 1980s have made it clear they understand their military is more mirage than real. It is also obvious to all Iranians that war would destroy Iranian oil production and export facilities and much else. It would take years to repair that damage and there is no good outcome for Iran if there is war in the Persian Gulf."

On the other hand, destroying Iran would be a great outcome for the warmongering neocons, Bolton, and Israel. Cui bono?

This opinion piece is at the 4th level, "Contradiction".

Why is everyone thinking it's a false flag? Why is this the first thought on everyone's mind, no matter which side you're on? Come on, it's dominating discussion everywhere. I'm not the only one pointing it out. Just when the neocons are itching for another war, bam, precisely the excuse they need falls right into their laps. It's too perfect.

Remember the Maine!
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 10:46 Comments || Top||

#15  we tend too get verbal diarrhea here too
Posted by: chris || 06/16/2019 11:52 Comments || Top||

#16  Waiting for them to hit a cruise ship from Israel.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||

#17  Thanks Gorb. Don't forget that the US drone responding to the tanker SOS was fired on by the Iranians. Their mines malfunctioned, several did not explode. This tanker was supposed to be a huge inferno.

The Iranian attack on our drone was to allow them to move in, in darkness to remove the duds which would implicate Iran if gotten to by anyone else. They did not expect to be filmed removing their faiĺed explosives.

It may be a while before they pull this stunt again as they will need to resolve the malfunctions. If those mines had worked, the crew would have been in a huge, terrifying inferno by Iranian design.
Posted by: Angairong Flavigum3253 || 06/16/2019 12:27 Comments || Top||

#18  None of them can write — but they collect information usefully. Interestingly, Rantburg is one of Strategy Page’s raw information feeds.

As for “everyone” thinking the attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf is a false flag operation, you ought to have noticed that the very few who do are aping Iranian propaganda, and it’s gaining no traction whatsoever. But at least you are doing better than the Mullahs, who seem to think that Pearl Harbour was the false flag attack that will crystallize American opinion. See An Nahar: Iran Hints U.S. Could be behind 'Suspicious' Tanker Attacks.

They may be right about Pearl Harbour having that effect on American thinking, but if so it won’t be the one they’re aiming for.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 12:44 Comments || Top||

#19  "everyone" = Herb and his imaginary Anti-Neocons
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 13:00 Comments || Top||

#20  The US is building a coalition. This was a major failure by Iran. The lifting of crippling sabctions is now a no way. Should Iran get stupid again, while the coalition is devestating Iraniab targets, Israel should work over Hesbollah, abd the Saudis should obliterate the Houthis. Iran and all of their allies go down. All nuke facilities will be destroyed the Iranian nuke program regional threat will be set back 40 years.
Posted by: Angairong Flavigum3253 || 06/16/2019 13:07 Comments || Top||

#21  This was a major failure by Iran.

And up in Afghanistan the Taliban’s summer of explosive death and conquest isn’t going well, either. It makes one think...
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 13:43 Comments || Top||

#22  "you ought to have noticed that the very few who do are aping Iranian propaganda, and it’s gaining no traction whatsoever"

What, you mean like Germany and most of Europe? There's an article in the queue about it, let's see if it gets censored or not.

Frank G, unless you move up the pyramid of debate, I'm going to stop arguing with you.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 14:07 Comments || Top||

#23  TW. With this Commander in Chief our enemier are out of our league!!

After our drone was fired on (they missed) it dropped below radar and was watching over thier shoulder as they grabing the duds.
Posted by: Angairong Flavigum3253 || 06/16/2019 14:11 Comments || Top||

#24  Herb, cool pyramid. Kinda puts things in perspective.

I don't think anyone at RB, yourself and myself included, has managed to get above the contradiction rung.

Perhaps some have edged toward counterargument, but only with arguments that have applied to distant cases, but not this specific case. It's only sowing doubt leading to inaction, and I think most people here understand that.

Until we get more evidence supporting one side or the other, this will not be settled. I think we can just throw things into the mix and hope something comes along to crystallize things.

In the meantime, I'm going to have to rely on my judgment based on Iran's past behavior vs. its recent behavior, their behavior during and after negotiating agreements, their lies, their rhetoric, the trajectory of their behavior, and their leadership's ideological fervor.

I also understand that the US has taken advantage of false flag operations plenty of times, or at least taking full advantage of situations that might not be false flags but were overreacted to. I know someone who was there for the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Yes it was peashooters vs. cannons, but the intent was there.

Whatever the specifics, it's time to mow the grass over there. And to keep mowing it until they grow a brain.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 14:39 Comments || Top||

#25  So even if it's fake, we need to start a war with Iran? How about no? Americans are not in favor AT ALL of starting yet another war.

It does not make any sense that Iran would attack a Japanese oil carrier the same day that the Japanese PM was in Tehran to try and negotiate a peaceful resolution to their stand-off with Saudi/the US. The only motive someone would have to carry out this attack would be to scuttle talks.

If Iran could recover the bomb and prove the US/Israel/Saudi Arabia was involved in a frameup, then we just attacked Norway and Japan.

Think about how insane all of this is. A Norwegian and A Japanese oil tanker were supposedly “attacked.” Yet neither the governments of Norway nor of Japan are calling for war or attacks.

An attack on Japanese oil tankers by Iran at this exact moment especially makes no sense at all. It would make perfect sense for the Saudis/Mossad to try and disrupt these talks on the other hand.

Found the shipping log of one of the ships, the Kokuka Courageous: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/371880000

It departed from a port in Saudi-Arabia on the 10th of June. Now if it is true there were bombs planted on the hull of the ships, what place would make it most convenient to do so?

Also from the video footage the US has released it seems the "limpet mine" was several meters above the waterline. That is a totally ridiculous and idiotic place to put a limpet, they're meant to be attached below the waterline, where they.. you know.. can't be seen easily and investigated. Absolutely something fishy about this whole thing.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 14:48 Comments || Top||

#26  Just utterly delightful, Angairong Flavigum3253.

like Germany and most of Europe?

Prove it. I see nothing from you in the hopper, so you might as well post the link in a comment in this thread.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||

#27  So even if it's fake, we need to start a war with Iran?

Yes.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 15:04 Comments || Top||

#28  Hey, at least Ben Rhodes agrees with you, Herb

birds of a feather and all that
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 15:15 Comments || Top||

#29  So fuck democracy, amirite? Nobody wants this war but let's do it anyway even if we have to start it with a Gulf of Tonkin-style false flag. Jesus, do you people realize you're the villains?

"Prove it. I see nothing from you in the hopper, so you might as well post the link in a comment in this thread."

Yeah, probably got erased by some other person with moderator access. I swear, this is just like Google or the others.

With deleting like this occurring, is it any wonder that skepticism isn't being considered? Articles like this are all over the fricken place.

GERMANY JOINS CHORUS CASTING DOUBT ON TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAIM THAT IRAN WAS BEHIND ATTACK ON OIL TANKERS
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 15:15 Comments || Top||

#30  That's the Guilt By Association fallacy, Frank G. Form: Person P accepts idea I. Therefore, I must be wrong.

Thanks for moving up the pyramid of debate, even if it is only one step from name-calling to attacking the characteristics of the writer instead of engaging with the substance of the argument. I appreciate that. Now keep moving, you've taken your first step into a larger world.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 15:22 Comments || Top||

#31  Herb, you're nearing the bottom of your own pyramid.

And I counter your link with one that is actually in the region.

Saudi crown prince accuses rival Iran of tanker attacks
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 15:25 Comments || Top||

#32  Splash shipping industry reporting.

The Splash article suggests something other than Limpets or torpedoes since damage is above the waterline of the Front Altair. The crew said "flying objects" hit them. the article also indicates no hostages were taken by Iran.

Cui bono from such an incident? Iran? DS FF?
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 15:45 Comments || Top||

#33  There's no requirement that limpet mines be placed below the waterline.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 15:59 Comments || Top||

#34  Limpets typically have countermeasures against removal unless you know how...because they're yours
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 16:02 Comments || Top||

#35  How do you sink a ship by holing it above the waterline?

If French intelligence had placed the limpet mines on the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior above the waterline, would she have sunk?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 16:26 Comments || Top||

#36  So what we need to do is find that little boat . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 16:36 Comments || Top||

#37  From Herb’s Newsweek article, the opening sentence:

Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Friday cast doubt on evidence that the U.S. government claims is proof that Iran was behind an attack this week on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Deutsche Welle, the German government’s version of Voice of America, does not take the same position as FM Maas. And our own European Conservative has pointed out that FM Maas’s enthusiasm for Iran does not match the turning away that has happened on the ground in Germany.

But really, if we are so evil, why do you hang out here in all your various moods, and why do you happily agree with us on so much else that two of your submissions were published today because I thought them important enough to move up from tomorrow?

As for deleting the article from the hopper, I’m afraid after seeing it I would have done the same. The fact that some people think the things we would have predicted they thought is not news, especially when the source is Newsweek, which was discarded by the International Business Times last year. Once upon a time they were a respectable news magazine, like Time and a number of others, but that was several owners ago.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 16:53 Comments || Top||

#38  How do you sink a ship by holing it above the waterline?

As I indicated in the article, I don't believe it was ever their intent to sink it.

I believe it was just to send a message and avoid an overt act of war.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 18:03 Comments || Top||

#39  As I indicated in the article, I don't believe it was ever their intent to sink it.

Richard Fernandez (aka wretchard) has similar thoughts:
The attack on tankers in the Gulf of Oman according to the Jerusalem Post was a scripted outcome that fell apart. It was designed to make Iran's armed forces the heroic rescuers happening upon an anonymous tragedy, but IRGC flubbed its lines.

There's some reason to think the Iranians were trying to goad the Trump admin into an escalation in the Middle East in the belief that would unleash an outbreak of anti-Americanism in the region and damage him politically. But the fish weren't biting that day.
LINK

In a similar vein, someone asked why the Iranians would attack a Japanese freighter when Abe was there. This assumes Abe was there to make nice and not deliver a message like "Oil is important to our nation. We would be *very* upset if you f**ked it up".
Posted by: SteveS || 06/16/2019 18:39 Comments || Top||

#40  Wow!
That looks like the food pyramid.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 19:07 Comments || Top||

#41  It's better if the articles get done the next day, they get more time to get read and discussed.

If you don't want Newsweek, there are tons of other sources. Pick one, the story about the Germans not falling for it is everywhere.

I've been reading Rantburg in one form or another since Little Green Footballs used to link to it. It's only recently that I noticed the horrifying switch to continuing eternal war and starting new ones. I was particularly disturbed by the celebration of the slaughter of innocents. What can I say, I still think of Americans as the good guys, not the murderous villains from 1984.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 19:18 Comments || Top||

#42  Say it with me: "False Flaggot..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/16/2019 19:20 Comments || Top||

#43  It's better if the articles get done the next day, they get more time to get read and discussed.

Normally, yes. But I wanted that thought about on a Sunday, when our lot generally have more time for deep ponderings. I have on occasion, saved an article from Monday to the following Sunday for exactly that reason.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 19:37 Comments || Top||

#44  It's only recently that I noticed the horrifying switch to continuing eternal war and starting new ones.

This thing with Iran I believe is the direct result of not taking them seriously since 1979. 0bumhole then gave them permission to develop the nuclear bomb. They've been a pain in the region for quite a while now, and it's not going to get better for us or our allies unless somebody puts an end to it. I don't believe it will stop itself. They do intend to "wipe Israel off the map and are willing to sacrifice a quarter of their population doing it," whatever that means. If they knocked off the rhetoric and lived relatively peacefully with our allies instead of needlessly stabbing them in the back, I'd be fine with them.

I was particularly disturbed by the celebration of the slaughter of innocents.

I'm not sure which innocents you are referring to. I personally don't want any innocent folks to die.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 20:00 Comments || Top||

#45  I’m glad you submitted your thoughts for publication, gorb. You triggered several interesting conversations today.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 20:57 Comments || Top||

#46  "It's only recently that I noticed the horrifying switch to continuing eternal war and starting new ones." Herb

I've noticed the exact opposite. You need to read a bit more carefully.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/16/2019 21:02 Comments || Top||

#47  I’m glad you submitted your thoughts for publication, gorb. You triggered several interesting conversations today.

And it's good to have the Burg and the variety of ideas to bounce things like this off of. Hard to do this kind of thing at work nowadays. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 22:11 Comments || Top||

#48  It isn't obvious that anybody wants a big shooting war right now. The US wants a show of force; I gather to deter some un-reported escalation. Last time I checked shows of force are risky, but aren't the same as wanting a war. If we wanted to generate a causus belli I figure we'd have used a US ship, or staged an attack on one of our warships. And we'd be moving faster.
Suppose we actually were as bloodthirsty as Herb seems to think. Hitting a Japanese ship while Abe is in town would be a very risky way of scuttling the talks--all sorts of bad things would happen if Abe found out we did it. It's a crowded area; could you be sure nobody spotted you?
Benefit low, risk high. Do we have people stupid enough to do it anyway? I think so--some of you would know for sure--but I'm pretty sure that Iran has at least as many.
Qui bono is a good question, but I don't know enough about internal Iranian politics to be able to guess at the answer.
Posted by: james || 06/16/2019 22:44 Comments || Top||

#49  I don't think this is going to end pretty. Trump is not reacting, he is planning. When he hits the button and says 'go', it's going to be one hell of a mess over there.
Posted by: Beau || 06/16/2019 23:20 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali civilians, Kenyan police officers killed in blasts
[DW] A series of explosions have claimed the lives of Kenyan coppers and Somali civilians. The attacks, claimed by al-Shabaab
...... the personification of Somali state failure...
jihadists, came after a rival militia executed a group of civilians.


At least eight people were killed when a boom-mobile went kaboom! near the Somali parliament in the capital of Mogadishu on Saturday. Another 16 were maimed, according to doctor Abdiqadir Aden from the private Aamin ambulance service.

Elsewhere in Mogadishu, security services at a checkpoint managed to spot another boom-mobile and open fire at it, killing a man in the car, which then went kaboom!. No other casualties were reported in that incident.

Another blast targeted a vehicle transporting coppers in Kenya, near the Somalian border. Kenyan forces fight al-Shabaab jihadists in the region, including on Somali territory with the aid of a local Somali militia.

The transport was carrying 11 officers when it was "hit by an improvised bomb," said police inspector general Hilary Mutyambai. He did not say how many people were killed or injured. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
a regional police source told the AFP news agency that eight coppers bit the dust in the attack.

REVENGE AGAINST AL-SHABAAB
The al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab terrorist group grabbed credit for all three attacks.

The incidents came after a Somali militia executed nine civilian members of the Rahanweyn clan, which is suspected of having links to al-Shabaab, as retribution for the killing of a policeman by al-Shabaab. Witnesses outside the central city of Galkayo said militia button men picked up their victims from the streets or their homes before executing them.

"This was a horrible incident, a gruesome killing against nine unarmed innocent civilians in southern Galkayo," local police official Mohammed Abdirahman said.

"All of the civilians belong to one clan and the button men shot them dead in one location a few minutes after suspected Shabaab button men killed a policeman," he added.

"This is an unacceptable act and we will bring those perpetrators to justice," said Hussein Dini, a traditional elder.

"Their killing cannot be justified. It seems that the merciless button men were retaliating for the security official who they believe was killed by al-Shabaab button men belonging to the clan of the victims."
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Europe
Italy allows 10 migrants to leave German Sea-Watch boat
[DW] Italia has allowed 10 rescued migrants colonists on the Sea-Watch 3 ship to leave the vessel. Two pregnant women and two sick men are among those who have been given permission to leave the boat.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini Italia on Saturday gave permission for 10 migrants colonists to leave the German Sea-Watch 3 rescue boat, following

Among the 10 were two pregnant women, three minors and two sick men. The group was allowed to disembark on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, which lies between the Italian mainland and the north African coast.

The Sea-Watch 3 rescued more than 50 migrants colonists drifting in an inflatable dinghy off the coast of Libya on Wednesday, but Italia's populist government did not allow the ship to enter an Italian port.

Earlier on Saturday, the Italian coasties had conducted a medical check on board, according to Sea-Watch front man Ruben Neugebauer.

The boat is currently waiting at sea near the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Several German cities had offered on Friday to take in the migrants colonists, but it is the federal government in Berlin that decides in such matters.

SALVINI SIGNS DECREE BANNING SHIP
On Thursday, Salvini, who is also the leader of the far-right League party, ordered Italian law enforcement to prevent the boat from entering Italian waters.

Earlier in the week, his government adopted a decree that would force non-governmental organizations to pay between €10,000 and €50,000 ($11,327 ‐ $56,638) for transporting rescued migrants colonists to Italian ports.

Salvini's popularity has risen over the last year after taking a hard line against migrants colonists, which has included closing ports to rescue vessels.

On Saturday, he announced on Twitter that he had signed a decree banning the Sea-Watch 3 from entering Italia.

"I have just signed a ban on the entry, transit and berthing of Sea-Watch 3 in Italian territorial waters, as provided for by the Security Decree," he wrote.

The decree still has to go before Italia's parliament, where the coalition government holds the majority.

Salvini has said asylum-seekers sailing from Libya to seek safety in Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
should be returned ‐ an order that is contentious under international law.

Sea-Watch has repeatedly said it would not land survivors in Libya as it did not consider Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
a port of safety.

SOUTHERN EU STATES CALL FOR 'BURDEN SHARING'
Following a summit, Southern European leaders on Friday called for a fair distribution of migrants colonists arriving from across the Mediterranean Sea as the latest NGO boat carrying rescued families was denied a safe port by Italia.

The leaders of Cyprus, La Belle France, Greece, Italia, Malta, Portugal and Spain said the European Union should "guarantee effective implementation of the principle of solidarity and fair burden-sharing between member states."

More than 12,000 people have died since 2014 trying to flee Libya to Europe via what the UN refugee agency calls the "world's deadliest sea crossing".
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


India-Pakistan
SC dismisses review appeal against acquittal of accused in Mukhtaran Mai gang-rape case
[TRIBUNE.PK] The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review appeal filed by Mukhtaran Mai against the acquittal of 13 people accused in the gang-rape case.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed announced the decision. The court also stated that the points raised in the petition may be looked at in another case.

Justice Ahmed advised that the petition should be shortened and said: "Shorten the review petition or it will drag on for 10 years."

Mai’s lawyer, Aitizaz Ahsan, informed the court that the Lahore High Court (LHC) in its 2005 verdict had stated that no injuries resulting from a sexual assault were visible even though witness statements said otherwise.

In June 2002, Mai was gang-raped on orders of a ’panchayat’ as punishment after her younger brother was accused of illicit relations with a girl from a rival tribe.

In August 2002, an anti-terrorism court awarded death penalty
to six out of 14 identified by Mai ‐ four were sentenced for rape while two were awarded capital punishment for being part of the village council. The ATC released eight others.

In March 2005, five convicts were acquitted by a Lahore High Court bench while one’s sentence was converted into life imprisonment.

The acquittal was challenged in the apex court. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and comprising former CJPs Nasirul Mulk and Mian Saqib Nisar upheld LHC decision and rejected the appeal in its April 2011 verdict.

Mai filed a review petition against the judgment in May 2011. In her review petition, Mai has pleaded that the court should review and recall the judgment and grant relief as prayed in the appeal. She had also requested the court to constitute a larger bench to hear her petition, contending that she is aggrieved of and dissatisfied with the findings of the court.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Mai means 'mother'. She was obviously a maternal figure in the village.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 16:29 Comments || Top||


Pakistani Minister Turns Into 'Cat' Amid Live Presser in Viral Gaffe (PHOTO)
[SPUTNIKNEWS] Local officials later clarified that the official press conference’s online translation had been "augmented" with filters due to a "human error".

The administrators of the official Facebook page for the Pakistani party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), governing the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have managed to turn a regular local government presser into a source of unstoppable laughter as they live streamed the event with a "cat filter" on, a journalist from Associated Reporters Abroad reported, posting screenshots. As a result, the deadpan face of local Minister for Health and Information Shaukat Ali Yousafzai was "cheered up" with a cat "mask".

Local officials later clarified that the filter was enabled due to a "human error by one hard working volunteer" and added that measures have been taken to avoid such mistakes in the future.

The sight of the minister and his colleagues' faces altered by the filter sent many netizens into fits of non-stop laughter over the whole situation. The video of the stream, published on the Facebook page of ruling party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has since been deleted.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Even a siamese would find funny.
Posted by: Woodrow || 06/16/2019 7:16 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Bishop to Exorcise Demons from Whole City While Flying Over It in Chopper
[SPUTNIKNEWS] Bishop of Buenaventura Ruben Dario Jaramillo Montoya is planning to sprinkle holy water over the Colombian city, which has been hit by a wave of violence, from a helicopter in an attempt to chase away demons. With this act, the Catholic holy man wants to stop the violence in the district capital of Valle del Cauca.

The bishop who devised the unconventional means to curb crime has gained the support of the National Navy for his plan to pour water on the entire population in order to chase out demons.

"We want to go around the whole of Buenaventura from the air and pour holy water onto it to see if we perform an exorcism [we can] get out all those demons that are destroying our port, so that God’s blessing will come and get rid of all the wickedness that is in our streets", he told the Colombian broadcaster Blu Radio.

The Catholic holy man, as cited by The Daily Star, noted that the devil should be removed to see whether locals are able to "get back the tranquillity the city has lost with all this crime, wickedness and the drug trafficking". The large-scale exorcism is planned for mid-July, when the city festival is set to take place, according to the bishop.

His announcement came about a week after the body of 10-year-old Diana Tatiana Rodriguez, allegedly abused and tortured before her death, was discovered ‐ something which shocked the city and the whole country. Buenaventura has witnessed a spike in violence over recent months, as 51 murders have been registered there from January until May, which are 20 killings more than over the same period year last year. The city was reportedly one of the municipalities that suffered the most in the military conflict in Colombia and has become a strategic spot for narcos smuggling cocaine to the US.
Should they have announced this ahead of time? What if the exorcism doesn’t take if the possessed body in question steps under a roof overhang or opens an umbrella?
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guessed Bee.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/16/2019 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Tried it in NYC
Doesn't work
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe it takes a pope and an A-10. They should keep trying.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/16/2019 12:27 Comments || Top||

#5  :Heh: I just want to see if it really is effective... (Bookmarks article and tries to remember to ask again in 6 months or so)
Posted by: magpie || 06/16/2019 16:48 Comments || Top||

#6  ^^If it works then we should set up a GoFundMe to finance this for Washington D.C.
Posted by: magpie || 06/16/2019 16:51 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
'It was a reaction': Ministry responds to Sami Ibrahim's allegations against Fawad Chaudhry
[DAWN] The Ministry of Science and Technology on Saturday issued a response to allegations that federal minister Fawad Chaudhry slapped journalist Sami Ibrahim and said that the "incident" should not be treated as a "clash between two institutions but as a conflict between two individuals".

Ibrahim had reportedly filed a complaint at Mansoorabad cop shoppe in Faisalabad
...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
, accusing Chaudhry of slapping him at a wedding. A copy of the reported complaint, that is circulating on social media and was retweeted by Ibrahim, alleged that Chaudhry had slapped and cursed the journalist without any provocation. It also accused the Science and Technology minister of threatening Ibrahim.

The statement issued by the ministry today said that Chaudhry had "reacted after another person tried to wound his self-esteem". The response does not state the nature of the minister's reaction.

"To term a patriotic Pak and government office holder as an agent of [enemy agencies] is contrary to moral and journalistic ethics," the statement said.

"Along with protesting against [Chaudhry's] actions, [people must] also ask Sami Ibrahim why he trampled over a patriotic Pak's self esteem," it added.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Intelligence Report: The Israel-Abu Dhabi Connection
[Jpost] The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

recently published an elaborate profile of Mohammed Bin Zayed, the crown prince known as MBZ and the de facto ruler of Abu Dhabi. MBZ contrasts starkly with the notorious and controversial MBS ‐ Mohammed Bin Salman ‐ the crown prince of 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...
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most of the people in Israel don't much care for the Flintstones but the ones in Abu Dhabi Do.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/16/2019 12:32 Comments || Top||

#2  To your room, Deacon
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 12:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Contrived juxtaposition of coincidentally synchronous events, agreements, conditions.

It's written by David D. Kirkpatrick. heart still bleeds for Mohammed Morsi, whom he thinks America deposed and installed a dysfunctional democracy. He weeps in his book about Muslim Brotherhood offices and strongholds vandalized and left derelict and how US and Israeli forces actually work with Hamas and how Netanyahu claps his small, round fingers in glee whenever Israelis are attacked because it justifies Israel's nefarious agenda. As you may guess from where this bright spark writes this stuff, he lives in London. And quite better off than his counterparts with the same career graph.

How is it a bad thing if Israel as a leading weapon and surveillance systems supplier has enabled Bin Zayed, one sane Arab to keep and hold power despite contention from hardliners ?

The 'profile' goes on to allude to Mossad as some kind of intrusive entity that seeks to further its own goals by ... what ? Bringing stability to other regions ? And how is MBZ doing a wrong thing by reigning in islamist extremists and reducing Gulf support to them ?

The report includes :

MBZ wishes to see a Middle East where Islamist or any other form of mass-appeal politics is not only contained but also rolled
back


“This is based on a zero-tolerance approach that seems to equate political participation as the first step on a continuum that leads potentially to loss of control and eventual destabilization of the status quo.”


Most importantly it cites one former US DeepState Department official, who rues US support for the UAE as it aggressively pursues its foreign policy objectives.

“We have created a Little
Frankenstein,”
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 15:05 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Black Leaders Respond to Gillibrand: Abortion Is ‘Racist,’ Not Pro-Life Judges
[BREITBART] Black leaders responded to the statement by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
...Machine non-entity selected to become the successor to Hillary Clinton as Senatrix-for-Life from Noo Yawk. She is running for the Dem presidential nomination in 2020. She has no observable principles, will apparently say anything to anyone, and seemingly lacks any personality of her own....
that judges who would not uphold Roe v. Wade are akin to being "racist" by reminding the 2020 Democrat hopeful it is her party that has embraced abortion, which has ended the lives of more black babies than those of any other race.

Evangelist Alveda King, director of Civil Rights for The Unborn for Priests for Life, said she is "up in arms" after hearing Gillibrand’s comments during an interview with the Des Moines Register, in which the senator from New York compared pro-life beliefs to racism.

"Abortion is racist," King said on a Priests for Life podcast. "It takes the lives of the most vulnerable part of the human population ‐ that is an innocent human being in the womb, with no representation legally."

In a press statement, King called on Gillibrand to "apologize" for comparing pro-life individuals to "racists."
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Never stop reminding the Left that the USA is missing 2 million black people because of abortions.

And Planned Parenthood disproportionately locates its clinics in black neighborhoods. In order to keep down the population of undesirables. Just like the founder of PP started the organization to do.

They're vulnerable on this point, it needs to be trumpeted from the skies.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 3:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Personally I think of how many more prisons we would have had to build if those 2 million hadn’t been aborted.
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 06/16/2019 6:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Agree with Herb. When I worked at public hospitals, TAB's were a big program and the clients were uniformly poor, black or to a lesser degree Hispanic... oh, and the occasional middle class white hippy chick who was too stoned to match birth control pills to the calendar. One interesting phenomenon was repeat customers who used abortion as their primary form of birth control.
Posted by: Mercutio || 06/16/2019 8:19 Comments || Top||

#4  2 million? That must be near Holocaust levels.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 14:47 Comments || Top||

#5  the USA is missing 2 million black people because of abortions.

Err... maybe we ought to look at things differently. Why not make up a Black Women Can Choose kinda thing and have a dem appointed judge allow 'em that ? No, seriously. Without abortions ... would we really want that ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 15:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Democrats favor abortion and open borders. There is a connection. Abortion obviously results in fewer black people. It's connection to open borders is the way hard narcotics that are smuggled across the border flood black communities and also result in fewer black people. So yeah, Democrats are genocidal racists.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 16:13 Comments || Top||

#7  about 900k abortions per year kately which is down from 1.1M about 10 years ago

black women about at about 3 times the rate of white women

https://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/
Posted by: lord garth || 06/16/2019 17:33 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey, Herb! Nice to see you feeling agreeable and happy.

From Wikipedia:

Alveda Celeste King (born January 22, 1951) is an American activist, author, and former state representative for the 28th District in the Georgia House of Representatives.

She is a niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and daughter of civil rights activist the Rev. A. D. King and his wife, Naomi Barber King. She is a Fox News Channel contributor. She once served as a senior fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the founder of Alveda King Ministries.


They are longstanding foes, she and that lot.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 18:49 Comments || Top||

#9  Abortion may have been encouraged by racists for racist reasons, but it is not a racist act. It is something that has touched all the races of the United States and all of the Western world and beyond, one of the firmest ways to see our moral decay as we turn our backs on the unborn. Everyone who doesn't hate life (that is, leftists) loses with abortion commonly available.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick || 06/16/2019 22:20 Comments || Top||


O’Rourke: President O’Rourke Will Take Executive Action to End New Oil and Gas Leases on Federal Lands
[BREITBART] Former Democrat Congressman and presidential hopeful Robert "Beto" O’Rourke;
...Kennedyeque businessman, musician, skateboard artiste, and politician who represented Texas' 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. Beto is a Latino nickname for people whose names end in "erto," like "Roberto" or "Alberto." He is seeking the Dem nomination for President in 2020 because he has nice hair and lots of teeth. He was born into a local political family in El Paso, Texas and is a graduate of Woodberry Forrest School and Columbia University. In 2005, he was elected to the El Paso City Council. He was elected to Congress in 2012 after defeating eight-term incumbent Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary. He declined to seek re-election in 2018, running for the Senate against Republican Ted Cruz, running a competitive campaign that drew national attention because of his skateboarding skills. A few months after he lost, he announced his campaign for President...
will fight climate change through executive action "when" he is elected by ending new leases for oil and gas production on federal lands.

O’Rourke made the remarks in an interview on Thursday with taxpayer-funded National Public Radio, which pushed the candidate on climate change policy and left out most of what he said about it in the published transcript on NPR’s website, only citing his comment that we need to "free ourselves from fossil fuel" and make the same kind of investments that took man to the moon.

Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep asked O’Rourke if he would ask Americans to make sacrifices.

Inskeep said:

When you talk to scientists about what would be necessary to get to zero carbon emissions, they often talk about people having to change their daily behaviors ‐ drive an electric car; that’s not such a bad change. Live in a smaller house. People might feel uncomfortable with that. Have fewer children. Eat less meat. Are you not going to demand any kind of sacrifice from anyone in order to get to zero carbon emissions?

"Yeah, we’re going to have to make an investment as a country," O’Rourke said. "It is not going to necessarily be easy."

"Here is the opportunity to meet a true existential threat of this moment, and I’m confident that it’s going to bring out the absolute best in us," O’Rourke said. "It’s nothing to be afraid of ‐ something to meet head on and to overcome and to do it together."
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  President O'Rourke will happen as soon as I beat these climbs up Alpe D'Huez.
Posted by: Raj || 06/16/2019 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  The Micksican
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 9:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Get rid of cruise ships. The pollute worse than anything else.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/16/2019 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  He spent Jeb!-range money trying, and failing, to unseat Ted Cruz. I suspect "donor fatigue" has set in. Even the MFM has noticed that he's a no-trick pony, and (mostly) moved on. Someone should take a clip from Titanic and add Beto skateboarding around the deck as it slips beneath the waves.
Posted by: PBMcL || 06/16/2019 12:46 Comments || Top||

#5  So basically he'll destroy the oil and gas industry everywhere it relies on drilling on federal property.

Which is basically everywhere except Texas.

All socialism-lite/environmentalism is eventually old style middle-ages merchantilism and rent-seeking in disguise.

Pay your taxes straight to Elon Musk and pretend it's Private Enterprise and you're just a failure at capitalism.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/16/2019 13:11 Comments || Top||

#6  End New Oil and Gas Leases

Now, There's a winning message (sarc). He has a penchant for finding winning messages and slogans.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 14:49 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Juan Guaidó Confirms More Talks, This Time in Sweden
[BREITBART] Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó
...President of Venezuela's National Assembly, recognized as president of the nation by countries other than Russia, China, Cuba, and kindred beacons of personal liberty...
confirmed on Thursday he sent a team of diplomats to Sweden to negotiate with other world powers towards a solution to the country’s ongoing political and humanitarian crisis.

The talks, which took place in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, were attended by representatives of Russia, the Vatican, Cuba, and the Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an Union. The United States was invited but declined to attend.

None of the state actors participating recognize Guaidó as the nation’s president.

"As we have said at all times, the whole world already knows the product of that meeting, that we Venezuelans have many options for the transitional government," Guaidó said Thursday during a visit to Mérida state.

Guaidó also responded to warnings from various Venezuelan figures against participating in the talks with the regime or its international backers, claiming that "all the spaces that approximate the cessation of usurpation, transitional government, and free elections are valid for the government of Venezuela."

The 35-year-old, who the Venezuelan National Assembly swore into office in January, went on to argue that the talks were "proof that there is a worldwide consensus that there must be a free presidential election in Venezuela, and that the usurpation must stop."

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Afghanistan
Afghan Special Forces rescue soldiers from a Taliban prison in Ghor
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces rescued 3 security personnel from a Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
prison in Ghor province.

The Special Operations Corps in a statement said Saturday that the Special Forces freed the three security personnel during an operation on Friday night.

The statement further added that the Special Forces conducted the in Gharmain Village located in the outskirts of the capital of Ghor.

The Special Force have rescued hundreds of civilians and security personnel during the similar operations conducted in recent months.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Baby cut from slain Chicago woman’s womb dies
[DAWN] An infant boy who was cut from a reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
woman’s womb with a butcher knife died on Friday at a hospital where he had been in grave condition since the April attack that killed his mother, family spokeswomen said.

Family spokeswoman Cecilia Garcia confirmed a family statement posted on Facebook that 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez’s baby died at Christ Medical Centre in Oak Lawn. A statement by family spokeswoman Julie Contreras expressed "great sadness" in announcing Yovanny Jadiel Lopez’s death and said he died from a severe brain injury.

The baby had been on life support for more than a month and the family had been weighing whether to remove him from life support, but Garcia said the child simply died early on Friday.

Prosecutors say Clarisa Figueroa, 46, claimed she had given birth to the baby when she took him to a hospital on April 23. Figueroa and her 24-year-old daughter, Desiree Figueroa, have been charged with murder in Ochoa-Lopez’s death. Clarisa Figueroa’s boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, is charged with concealing a homicide.

Chicago police front man Anthony Guglielmi said that he expects both women will now be charged with murder in the baby’s death. The three defendants are due back in court June 26.

Authorities contend that not long after Clarisa Figueroa’s adult son died of natural causes, she told her family she was pregnant. They say she plotted for months to acquire a newborn, and that she posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page. In March, she and Ochoa-Lopez connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women. The two first met in person around April 1, when Ochoa-Lopez went to the Figueroas’ house and left unharmed, prosecutors allege. The teen returned on April 23 to accept Clarisa Figueroa’s offer of free baby clothes, and as Desiree Figueroa was showing Ochoa-Lopez a photo album of her late brother to distract her, Clarisa Figueroa sneaked up behind her and strangled her with a cord.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Figueroa’s adult son died of natural causes

I'm guessing the 'natural causes' too may have been something like a rather large arse sitting on his face. The way this family solves its problems...
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 2:27 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Drone Wars Over Yemen And Gulf Of Oman Revealed
[Jpost] Two US MQ-9 Reaper drones were involved in incidents 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...
and the Gulf of Oman that raises questions about the extensive use of the drones and also how Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and its allies are targeting them. Fox News and CNN revealed that a US drone was targeted by an Iranian missile during the June 13 tanker incident and that a drone was downed over Yemen by Iranian-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Helmond: Pak Talib tied up, 15 Talibs air struck


Afghan Special Forces arrest another Taliban fighter holding Pakistani NIC

[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces arrested another Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighter who was holding a National Identity Card of Pakistain.

The Special Operations Corps in a statement said the Special Forces conducted an operation in Kajaki district of Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
on Thursday night.

The statement further added that the Special Forces destroyed 3 compounds of Taliban during the operation.

They also killed one Taliban fighter during the same operation.

Furthermore, the Special Forces arrested two Taliban fighters with one of them holding a Pak National Identity Card, the Special Operations Corps added.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point...
the Special Forces confiscated some explosives, two cycle of violences and a radio communication device during the operation.

The Talibs have not commented regarding the operation so far.

Airstrikes kill 15 Taliban militants in 2 districts of Helmand

[KhaamaPress] The security forces conducted separate airstrikes in two districts of Helmand killing at least 15 Taliban militants.

According to a statement released by security institutions, the security forces killed 7 Taliban fighters by conducting airstrikes in Sangin district.

The statement further added that similar airstrikes were carried out in Musala district in the past 24 hours.

The statement also added that the airstrikes in Musa Qala killed 8 Taliban fighters.

The anti-government armed militants have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


At Least 10 Imams Killed In Nangarhar In Two Months: Official
[ToloNews] Almost a dozen religious scholars have been killed in attacks by unknown gunnies in the eastern province of Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
in the past two months, the provincial governor’s front man, Attaullah Khogyani said on Saturday.
The Religion of Peace™
Khogyani said that no one has been arrested in connection to the killings.

"Details of some cases have been shared by the National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
with the other religious scholars in Nangarhar," said Khogyani.

The deputy head of Nangarhar Provincial Council, Abdullah Shinwari, said that a number of foreign intelligence agencies are behind the murders in the province.

"We held meetings with local officials on how to ensure the safety of the religious scholars," Shinwari said.

Nangarhar residents, meanwhile, called on government to ensure the safety of imams.

"The attacks are threat against all religious scholars in Nangarhar," said Hassan, a Nangarhar resident.

In a recent incident, Mullah Safiullah Hanafi, Imam of Qaletak mosque in Khiwa district of Nangarhar was killed in an attack by unknown gunnies the district when he was leaving the mosque on June 12.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Abdullah Shinwari, said that a number of foreign intelligence agencies are behind the murders in the province

I think he means Pakistan
Posted by: lord garth || 06/16/2019 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  That would be "The Jalalabad Peer Review".

There was felt a need to protect islam (as much as it can be protected) from further devolution into the mayhem inducing frenzy it's becoming. For this reason a number of shia and some sunni clerics cooperated to make academic agreements on certain commandments and proscriptions in their scripture. This entailed weeding out some stuff that was added in by later scribes and amending stuff without permission or discussion with the larger rabid community of scholars. Many of the clerics in civilized areas of Afghanistan have tried to realize the potential of a tolerant society.

As a result, they invite opprobrium from their rabid peers. And bullets. Sometimes friendly agencies can be asked to 'even the score' and off one of the hardliner sunni clerics. Eventually a truce is made, but not for long. After all, nobody can convince them that the whole philosophy is suicide anyway.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 2:08 Comments || Top||

#3  civilized areas of Afghanistan

I won't believe there are any such things till it is proven.

This looks like a segue to all the lawyers in busses jokes.
Posted by: AlanC || 06/16/2019 14:07 Comments || Top||


Pakistani militants among 10 killed in U.S. airstrikes in Kandahar: Gen. Tadin Khan
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. forces carried out a series of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in Maiwand district of Kandahar province killing at least 10 hard boys.

Kandahar Police Chief Gen. Tadin Khan Achakzai said the airstrikes were carried out in Akhtari and Band-e-Timor areas of the district.

Gen. Tadin Khan further added that the airstrikes also killed five Pak hard boys.

He also added that the airstrikes maimed 6 more hard boys.

The airstrikes also destroyed five house-borne improvised bombs,
...house-borne IEDs? What on earth are they?
five hideouts of Taliban
...Arabic for students...
, two vehicles and two cycle of violences.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


15 Taliban militants killed in Special Forces operation, airstrikes in Ghazni
[KhaamaPress] The security forces conducted separate operations in Ghazni province and killed 15 Talibs.

The informed military sources said Saturday that the Special Forces of the Afghan military killed 4 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters during an operation in Ghazni.

The sources further added that the Special Forces also detained 2 Taliban fighters and destroyed 2 landmines.

The Special Forces also destroyed 8 Improvised Explosive Devices during a separate operation in Deh Yak district of Ghazni, the sources added.

Meanwhile,
...back at the hoedown, the fiddler suddenly struck a sour note. The dancing stopped abruptly. Everyone looked at Bob...
the security forces conducted separate airstrieks in Ghazni, Giro and Andar district.

According to military officials, the Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s killed at least 11 Talibs in the three districts.

The Talibs have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Home Front: Politix
Spartacus: I Can’t ‘Stand Idly By’ as Trump ‘Wants to Step Towards Authoritarianism’
[BREITBART] On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s "AM Joy," 2020 presidential candidate Senator Cory Spartacus Booker
U.S. Senator-for-Life from Noo Joisey, formerly the mayor of Newark. Booker is a candidate for president in 2020, running on a platform of Make America Newark. He once wrote an essay on how to grope babes. He is noted for having an imaginary friend named T-Bone...
(D-NJ) expressed support for beginning an impeachment inquiry against President Trump and stated that he can’t "stand idly by as the president trashes that Constitution and wants to step towards authoritarianism."
Ferociously heterosexual Cory Booker
Booker said, "I can’t sit here, having sworn an oath, as a United States senator, to uphold the Constitution, to stand idly by as the president trashes that Constitution and wants to step towards authoritarianism. So, I know the politics may be very difficult, the politics might not be right for the Democratic Party right now. But in the long arc of history, I swore this oath, I got involved to do what is right, and the right thing is to do is when someone wants to violate our Constitution and not subject themselves to the checks and balances, that we must hold them accountable."
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wish I could read minds and make statements without providing any evidence except my own Opinion about how other people walk. Sound so "authoritarian". Reading minds. Pushing Opinion as evidence. And clearly Trump walks "funny", he must be another Idi Amine or his steps have to be Cha-cha. or ideological at least against the Constitution, Trump has no "right" to even have feet ,as everyone knows. As anyone who reads Minds Trump knows Trump only wears shoes to hide is cloven hooves.

I am going to really enjoy Election Morning. This Clown can dive head first into the Toilet. He is going to waste a lot of ,money blowing a Tuba inserted in his nether regions and no one will remember him.
Posted by: Sholuck Barnsmell2714 || 06/16/2019 8:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Sholuck: "Fleischer to the max... no, to eleven!"
Posted by: Betty Gleper6852 || 06/16/2019 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll take "Outspoken Dimwits" for $100, Alex.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/16/2019 11:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Give the poor guy a break. RCP has him at 2.4% in the polls. So he is truly desperate.
Posted by: Tom || 06/16/2019 14:20 Comments || Top||

#5  The fool has "idle bystander" practically written on him by God.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 15:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Apparently he's only OK when socialists like him act like authoritarians.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 20:17 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
US extradition case against Julian Assange set for next year
[NYPOST] A British court has set a date early next year for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face a US extradition attempt over his role in revealing classified government and military information.

The judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday set a full extradition hearing for Feb. 25, 2020. It is expected to last about five days. Interim hearings are expected in July and October.

Assange, who has been suffering from ill health in prison, appeared in court via video link. He appeared to be tired and showed signs of a possible hand tremor. He was again sporting a gray-white beard after having shaved it off before his last court appearance.

Ben Brandon, a British lawyer representing the US government, told a hearing that the case "related to one of the largest compromises of confidential information in the history of the United States."

U.S. officials are seeking to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act, blaming him for directing WikiLeaks’ publication of a huge trove of secret documents that disclosed the names of people who provided confidential information to American and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Ben Brandon, a British lawyer representing the US government, told a hearing that the case "related to one of the largest compromises of confidential information in the history of the United States."
Except for the Pentagon Papers!!!I don't agree with what Assange did, but it's not a far stretch from what Daniel Ellsberg did in the '70's.
Posted by: Texhooey || 06/16/2019 22:37 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi intelligence forces seize 6 explosive belts in Mosul
djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
(IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi military intelligence forces found on Saturday six boom belts inside an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
hideout in the western side of Mosul.

The Iraqi Military Intelligence Directorate said in a press statement that its forces, in cooperation with troops of the Nineveh Operations Command, stormed an Islamic State arms depot in the western side of Mosul.

The troops found six boom belts, five grenades and a number of detonators at the scene, added the statement.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
British-Iranian woman begins fresh hunger strike in Tehran prison
[IsraelTimes] Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, held on sedition charges in Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
since 2016, marks daughter’s 5th birthday with protest; husband says will fast in solidarity, hold London embassy vigil.

Last month, London changed its travel advice for British-Iranian dual nationals, warning them against all travel to Iran, citing Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  I don't understand why once having left behind their nightmare societies these fools have to travel back to meet their parents, feed the fucking cat or tell their old friends how they're doing back in civilization. This oaf too left the comforts and safety if her London home and went back to celebrate some ritual inanity(Nowruz). With her infant daughter no less.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#2  They seem to forget the unpleasantness from 1979 and our embassy hostages. Some animals don't/can't change their spots
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: HOlybastard || 06/16/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't understand why once having left

They all have dual passports, and can get them on demand for their children and grandchildren, and mostly the authorities ignore the visitors. So it feels safe even when the locals are marching and protesting. And so it is, until someone in authority notices, or feels the need for yet another hostage.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 10:17 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Kamala Harris visits Las Vegas McDonald's to protest with workers
[MSN] As a college student, Kámala Harris
Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others...
worked at McDonald's.

On Friday afternoon, she visited a Las Vegas location of her former workplace to push for a $15 minimum wage ‐ all while campaigning for a new job: President of the United States.

"I did the french fries and I did the ice cream,"
and I did the manager
said the Democratic senator from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, surrounded by workers of the fast-food franchise as they rallied around the country demanding higher pay and the right to a union. "There was not a family relying on me to pay the rent, put food on table, and keep the bills paid by the end of the month ‐ but the reality of McDonald's is that a majority of the folks who are working there today are relying on that income to sustain a household and a family."

Harris is among the majority of Democratic presidential candidates who support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, up from $7.25.

"If we want to talk about these golden arches being a symbol of the best of America, well, the arches are falling short," Harris said. "We have got to recognize that working people deserved livable wages."

McDonald’s Corp. has said it recognizes workers’ rights to join labor unions. The company also says it doesn’t control wages in their franchise restaurants but that the average starting wage at corporate-owned restaurants exceeds $10 an hour.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hobnobbing with the deplorables? WTF the democrats don't represent them!
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 4:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Since Kamala couldn't hold a job at McD's she was left with two choices to make money. She apparently chose the low road.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 6:03 Comments || Top||

#3  ..oh, come on now. NY is trying to legalize it. CA should follow to show it cares about real equality, not something reserved for members of the Inner Party.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/16/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||

#4  The golden arch... Wha ?! A politician can't do without rhetoric but 'golden arches... symbol of best of America' ?
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  She is polling 3rd in her own state of California.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 06/16/2019 10:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually 4th
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 10:58 Comments || Top||

#7  You are right. Hopefully the poll is an accurate representation of the electorate.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 06/16/2019 11:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Kamala, the workers need j*bs, not bl*wj*bs.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/16/2019 11:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Willie’s girlfriend can’t use her record to carry her and lord knows there are plenty of political tramps of both genders already in the field so that’s not a feature for the feminist wing. She just losing momentum and it’s showing in her public positions.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 06/16/2019 13:23 Comments || Top||

#10  RCP has her at 6.6%, so she's at least in better shape than Booker.

But she is still in single digits, and the media have moved on to more fashionable candidates. Sorry, Kamala, you are yesterday's stale bread to them now.
Posted by: Tom || 06/16/2019 14:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Kamala Harris, "Rebel Without a Cause."
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 14:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Most McDonalds are franchises owned by small corporations or individuals. Raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour would soon put them out of business creating a minimum wage for the former employees at $0.00
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 06/16/2019 15:00 Comments || Top||

#13  Heck, in California, especially around LA and SF, you can't live on $15/hr. You might get by on $50-75/hr, but even then it would be touch and go.

Of course, a Big Mac would probably cost about $25, and a Quarter Pounder about $30... but still
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 06/16/2019 20:57 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Explosive bike blast injures 2 persons in Hasakah, Syria
(IraqiNews) A blast hit al-Talae’ Neighborhood in the Syrian City of Hasakah, on Saturday, injuring two persons.

According to preliminary information, the earth-shattering kaboom occurred at 11:15 am, on Saturday, near the Industrial Institute in Talae’ neighborhood, in the city of Hasakah.

The blast took place due to the earth-shattering kaboom of a booby-trapped cycle of violence, and resulted in the injury of two persons, in addition to inflicting slight material damage to the area.

The injured persons were transferred to one of the hospitals in Hasakah to receive the needed treatment.

After the blast, Kurdish security forces (Asayish) cordoned off the incident area, and started an investigation into its circumstances.

It is noteworthy that Hasakah, which has a large Kurdish population, began witnessing protests of several thousand people against the Syrian government in 2012. From 2013, the militia associated with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the People’s Protection Units (YPG), controlled Kurdish districts and government Arab districts.

There were also festivities in the city between an Arab murderous Moslem group and the YPG, according to Wikipedia.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
12 Taliban militants killed in Special Forces raid, airstrike in Zabul
[KhaamaPress] The security forces killed 12 Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
fighters during separate operations in two districts of Zabul province.

The informed military sources said Saturday that the Afghan Special Forces killed 11 Taliban fighters during an operation in Shah Joy district of Zabul.

The sources further added that the Special Forces also detained two bandidos bandidos hard boys during the operation.

The sources also added that an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
killed 1 Taliban fighter in Shinkay district of Zabul.

The Talibs have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


China-Japan-Koreas
Hong Kong and China Give In to Protesters, Suspend Extradition Bill
[BREITBART] Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Saturday that a proposed extradition bill will be suspended, handing a stunning victory to thousands of protesters who packed the streets for a week to oppose legislation strongly desired by the mainland Chinese government.
Apparently the tanks were committed elsewhere...for now
Lam told a presser on Saturday that a growing number of pro-Beijing politicians urged her to suspend the bill after massive protests. She added that Taiwan struck a blow against the extradition law by stating it would refuse to accept the murder suspect whose case was commonly cited as a justification for changing Hong Kong’s extradition law.

Critics were deeply concerned about making extradition easier to China, which has an abysmal human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
record and a highly politicized justice system. Demonstrators feared passage of the bill would strike a mortal blow against Hong Kong’s unique autonomy and subject them to abusive prosecutions by the Chinese Communist Party.

"The urgency of passing this bill within this term has maybe disappeared," said Lam, claiming the Taiwanese murder case was the true reason she pushed so hard for the bill, not her political allegiance to Beijing.

Lam cited two occasions when the extradition bill was amended to address public concerns, but conceded opposition to the legislation was too strong to ignore. She claimed her "explanation and communication work has not been sufficient or effective."

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Chicoms are cooling it for now. They will do it later. They are control freaks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/16/2019 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm surprised the ChiComs blinked. But yeah, this ain't over.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/16/2019 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  They are control freaks.
Posted by Alaska Paul


Like you would not believe. Couple that with a almost genetic disposition to commerce and you've got quite a combination.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 4:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Hong Kong will rejoin the mainland. It's just a matter of time. We're already almost halfway through the 50 year transition period. When all is said and done, HK will just be a southern extension of Shenzhen.

And please stop using outdated terms like "Chicom". When you say "China", there's no doubt about which country you mean. Used to be when we said "China" we meant Taiwan but that was 40 years ago.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 8:43 Comments || Top||

#5  If Communist China is stupid enough to fully absorb Hong Kong and go after Taiwan, they will lose all benefit of having them. Without the ability to operate independently, they will quickly cease to be the economic and creative wellspring that makes them so valuable to the Communist oligarchy in Beijing.

But I do agree with Herb’s last: The Communists will be that stupid, and quickly, too, after which they will wonder in vain why the cash flow disappeared just when it was most needed. And within a generation later neglected Hong Kong will be quietly crumbling into the harbour, while Taiwan will be no more attractive to Chinese vacationers than the seedier parts of the Mexican coast.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 9:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Who said anything about invading Taiwan?

Hong Kong was scheduled to fully reunite with the Mainland after 50 years. That was 1997, 22 years ago.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 11:55 Comments || Top||

#7  You are not aware that the Red Army has been practicing landing, Herb? How very odd. Communist China never accepted Taiwan’s continued independence under Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, and has been trying unsuccessfully to isolate them since taking over the China seat at the UN.

As for fully reuniting with Hong Kong: scheduled or not, and accelerating the reunification or no, further reducing Hong Kong’s independence would be a really stupid move on China’s part, especially as China’s rising bourgeoisie class continues to demand cleaner air and water along with higher wages, further reducing China’s attractiveness as the West’s factory floor — from which Viet Nam and suchlike will benefit.

But again, I completely agree with you that the Party government will forge ahead, undaunted by the problems they will cause themselves.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 12:21 Comments || Top||

#8  And we'll call them Chicoms all we want. It's not to differentiate between mainland China and Taiwan. It's a deliberately derogatory term because there are those of us who despise communism. If and when the Communist Party relinquishes power in that country we may reconsider.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 15:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Uttar Pradesh police arrest third Nation Live journalist on accusations of 'defaming' chief minister
[CPJ.ORG] On Monday, Uttar Pradesh police arrested Anshul Kaushik, an editor with privately owned TV news station Nation Live, on charges of defaming Adityanath, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency. On June 8, two days before Kaushik's arrest in Noida, police arrested Kaushik's colleagues Anuj Shukla and Ishita Singh on similar charges.

"The Uttar Pradesh government and police must immediately end their witch hunt against Nation Live journalists," said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ's program director in New York. "Jailing journalists is a disproportionate response and has a chilling effect on the press."

The Gautam Buddh Nagar District Court in Surajpur ordered Kaushik to be held for 14 days pending police investigation, according to PTI.

On Sunday, CPJ reported that police claimed Nation Live "conducted a panel discussion without checking facts on 'defamatory allegations' made by a woman against the [chief minister]." Police stated that the alleged defamatory statements against Adityanath could have led to "a possible law and order situation."

On the same day as Shukla and Singh's arrests, Uttar Pradesh police also arrested freelance journalist Prashant Kanojia on related defamation charges after he posted footage from the discussion on social media. Kanojia was released on bail today after a Supreme Court order, according to Indian Express.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  government and police must immediately end their witch hunt against Nation Live journalists,

Sure. Right away.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 15:38 Comments || Top||


US urges India to contain violence on basis of religion
[DAWN] The top US diplomat for South Asia has urged the newly re-elected Modi government to quickly condemn religious violence in India and hold bandidos Lions of Hinduvta accountable.

In her remarks before a House subcommittee for foreign affairs on Thursday, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells also tried to persuade India not to purchase S-400 missile defence systems from Russia.

"In our engagements with India, we will continue to highlight the importance of preserving a diverse and inclusive society," she said in a brief prepared statement on India-US relations, which also addressed the issue of religious discrimination in that country.

Noting that India’s constitution provides strong protections for religious freedom, Ms Wells said: "We look to India’s democratically elected leaders and institutions to swiftly condemn acts of violence on the basis of religion and hold perpetrators accountable."

Such measures "will help further India’s security and economic interests and strengthen our bilateral relationship," she added.

While reporting her remarks, the US media noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party triumphed in the election after appealing to "India’s Hindu majority with a potent mix of nationalism, religion and welfare policies."

The reports also noted that BJP "fielded as a candidate ‐ and later defended ‐ a self-styled Hindu holy woman facing charges related to a kaboom in a Moslem neighbourhood that killed six people and injured 100."

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Uhh, sure. Sure. Diverse... heh, got it. Hey, diversity's our middle name. Don'tchoo worry, babe."
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 4:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Fighting against jihad. What the hell was the point of muslim Pakistan if they all didn't' go.
Posted by: Woodrow || 06/16/2019 6:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Hard to fault a country partially born in the forging of the "Land of the Pure" for not being inclusive.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 06/16/2019 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  The majority of India has always been a narrow minded society. We can experiment with socialism and western liberal idealism all we want. The classist and feudal mindset will not dilute easily in just 80 years. It is the basis of conservative forces in India. When Indians saw that idealist, inclusive politics of the west had done for them, they went back to the days of pitchfork and axe carrying mobs. It was better to vote saffron clad monks in power who would ensure speedy removal of islamist elements and curbing of faux liberal interest groups like the LGBT brigades.

Almost all countries where muslims are a minority are seeing a conservative resurgence, for which the muslims only are to blame. Buddhist monks are taking up arms, and navel gazing hindus are attacking muslims with bombs, because the world has had it with them.

At a time when the so called first world has almost capitulated to the rag-head sasquatcges after including them in academics, legislatures, law and education; it is a boon to be free to run a banana republic that can do the right thing.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 9:21 Comments || Top||

#5  whoops ! Sasquatches.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 9:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Diverse, yes.
With nearly 800 languages there will be exclusionary behavior.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 12:05 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Klobuchar says she supports Trump impeachment proceedings 'beginning now'
[KSTP] Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar
Senatrix from Minnesota, candidate for the Dem presidential 2020 nomination. You can tell the kind of husband a boy will make by the way he treats his mother. You can tell the kind of leader a politician will make by the way he treats his staff. Klobuchar is reportedly overbearing, snide, and dictatorial with her people. She see this as merely getting the best from them. Her name spelled backward in the Russian alphabet would be "Rachubolk," which sounds pretty daggone suspicious...
says she would support impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
"beginning now."

The Minnesota senator's comment to CNN Friday followed Trump's statement this week that he'd take information from a foreign power that offered dirt on an opponent.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  AOC defined the 'inflamed face', it might even be trademarked by now. She needs to get an original face. 'Screaming banshee' has already been used in Ulysses
Posted by: Beau || 06/16/2019 3:54 Comments || Top||

#2  IIRC there is an election in 17 months. Why would you Dems need to impeach him?
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 06/16/2019 6:56 Comments || Top||

#3  She's the face of the voters who elected her. Glad I don't have to look at all of them at once. Oh, and I don't trade with them either.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 06/16/2019 7:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Minnesota has given us Ellison, Franken, Omar, and this bitch. I'm thinking they might not really be that "nice"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 8:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey. MM, don't bad-mouth my senator. That's my job, the friggin' harpy.
Posted by: Mercutio || 06/16/2019 8:22 Comments || Top||

#6  She and Corey Booger got the same pose as Mussolini.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 10:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Amy who?
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 14:35 Comments || Top||

#8  IIRC there is an election in 17 months. Why would you Dems need to impeach him?

Exactly. They're afraid if they can't impeach him he'll win re-election.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 16:22 Comments || Top||

#9  You really have to understand the Moscow on the Mississippi Pravda twin cities media.
Their refusal to report on any of the scandalous by klobuchar, Ellison, Omar what are the obvious telling. without our fraudulent media in Minnesota there is no way in hell any of these leftist, Sharia Muslims would ever have been elected.
Posted by: Woodrow || 06/16/2019 18:12 Comments || Top||


Arabia
KSA intercepts 5 drones launched by Houthis on Abha Airport
(IraqiNews) The Saudi-led military coalition announced, yesterday, that Saudi forces managed to intercept five drones launched by Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...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 legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. 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 They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels on Abha Airport. The attack is the second one conducted by Houthis on the airport in two days.

The coalition revealed that the drones targeted Abha Airport, where a missile fired last week injured 26 civilians, while it also targeted the nearby city of Khamis Mushait that has a key airbase.

In a press statement, the coalition said, "Royal Saudi Air Force and Royal Saudi Air Defense, on Friday morning, intercepted and brought down five drones launched by the Houthi militia on Abha International Airport and Khamis Mushait Province."

It also added that the airport is functioning probably, and there is no delay in the flights and passengers’ traffic.

Earlier, the pro-Houthis Massera TV channel announced that the Houthi militias launched a drones attack on Abha Airport. Houthis, who have been facing constant coalition raids since 2015, intensified their attacks lately using missiles and drones across the borders.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  The Houthis have traditional homelands. Lay waste to them
Posted by: Frank G || 06/16/2019 9:06 Comments || Top||


Europe
Paris's Notre-Dame to celebrate first mass after fire
[DAWN] The Notre-Dame cathedral in Gay Paree will host its first mass on Saturday, exactly two months after the devastating blaze that shocked La Belle France and the world.

For safety reasons, the mass led by Archbishop of Gay Paree Michel Aupetit will be celebrated on a very small scale. Worshippers will be expected to don hard hats but priests will be wearing their ceremonial garb.

There will be just some 30 people ‐ half of them clergy ‐ although the mass will be broadcast live on Catholic TV channel KTO.

It will take place at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) in the Chapel of the Virgin on the east side of the cathedral behind the choir, which has been confirmed to be safe.

Aupetit will be joined by the rector of Notre-Dame, Patrick Chauvet, canons, volunteers, people working on the restoration as well a handful of lay worshippers.

The date has been chosen as it is the anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral's altar, which is celebrated every year on June 16.

The date is "highly significant, spiritually," Chauvet told AFP, adding he was happy to be able to show that "Notre-Dame is truly alive".

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


-Obits-
Upstate New York judge suffers fatal heart attack in court
[NYPOST] An upstate New York judge died after having a heart attack on the bench.

Putman County Court Judge James Reitz, 57, was in his courtroom Friday morning when he was stricken. Court officers performed CPR and used a defibrillator to try to resuscitate him before he was taken to a hospital, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.

He died shortly after arriving at the hospital, said Lucian Chalfen, a front man for the state court system.

Reitz lived in Mahopac and was a county judge since 2007. He was also an acting justice with the state Supreme Court, the Journal News reported. He previously worked as a lawyer in private practice.

State Sen. Terrence Murphy, who represents Putnam County, called Reitz "a giant" in a Facebook post, and said his legacy will be his Drug Court Program, which "should be a model for New York State."

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what case he was trying when he was stricken.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/16/2019 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  My old home town. He seemed to have been very well respected.
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/16/2019 12:24 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
7 Taliban militants killed, 4 house-borne IEDs destroyed in Logar and Kandahar
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces killed 7 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters in Pashtun-infested Logar and Kandahar provinces.

The Special Forces also destroyed four house-borne improvised explosives devices

The military officials said Saturday that the Special Forces killed 3 Taliban fighters in Mohammad Agha district of Pashtun-infested Logar.

The Special Forces killed 4 Taliban in a similar operation in Maiwand district of Kandahar, the officials added.

They also destroyed 4 house-borne improvised bombs during the same operation, the officials added.

The Talibs have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Kabul city resident arrested for cooperating with the terrorists: MoI
[KhaamaPress] The police forces in Kabul have arrested a resident of Kabul city on charges of cooperating with the terrorists.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) in a statement said the police forces arrested the suspect from Chelsitoon area of Kabul.

The statement further added that the suspect was cooperating with Talibs.

The ministry has not disclosed further information regarding the detained individual.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck slipped the habañero into the roasted jalapeño...
the Ministry of Interior added in its statement that the suspect is in police custody and an investigation is underway from him.

The anti-government armed elements including Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
have not commented in this regard so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Canada Peacekeepers to Stay in Mali an Extra Month Till End-August
[AnNahar] Canadian personnel participating in the UN peacekeeping force in Mali will remain in place until the end of August, a month longer than planned, to ensure a smooth transition, the government said Friday.

The Canadians, who were providing medevac services as well as logistics and supply transport support, will stay until a Romanian helicopter unit is in place, the foreign ministry said.

During the month of August, Canadian forces will only perform medical evacuation tasks, it said.

The Canadian peacekeepers, who have been deployed in Gao in the north of the violence-wracked country since July 2018 as part of the UN force known as MINUSMA, were to leave at the end of July.

In late January, Romania agreed to relieve the Canadian forces -- a contingent of about 250 personnel and eight helicopters.

MINUSMA was established in April 2013, after radical Islamist militias seized the north of the country the year before, only to be pushed back by French troops.

The force of 15,000 soldiers and police is considered to be one of the most dangerous peace missions run by the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
, with 195 fatalities.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


-Obits-
Legendary Italian Filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli Dies at the Age of 96
[SPUTNIKNEWS] There will be a commemorative watching of Zeffirelli's Cavalleria Rusticana on my TV this evening. It's a work of art that makes von Karajan's attempt look like a high school project.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Cher Wishes Trump ‘Was Locked In a Hot Cage with Dirty Water’
[BREITBART] Left-wing pop singer Cher is once again on the attack against President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze!...
over immigration policy as she reacts to the newest reports of ICE detentions.

Cher jumped to her Twitter account to bemoan the renewed reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding children of illegal aliens who tried to sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cher was apparently so incensed that she said she wished the president was "Locked In Hot Cage, With Dirty Water."

Cher went on with a series of unsupported accusations:

"Our President At Work.
Saw Video Of Baby In
Custody. Theres Breakout of Chickenpox, Measles, Children Live outdoors in Texas heat,
Bad food, Dirty Water, unsanitary Conditions, Physical, Emotional,
Sexual Abuse.
Trumps a psychotic Ass.
Wish He Was Locked In Hot Cage, With Dirty Water."
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Even from third world terrorists, that's not a particularly clever wish. Maybe she should watch Batman and see how Bane was treated. Or something. No imagination points. No mind, no imagination. Cherorroism - all hyperbolic attacks with no brain engaged.
Posted by: Beau || 06/16/2019 3:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Cher sharing, her glass softly rattling,
Though nobody cares what she's battling...
But surely some Bono
Is missing his Ono,
And somewhere some cannon needs straddling?
Posted by: Neville Thitch7274 || 06/16/2019 4:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Good thing they come in threes because one would be a loose fit.
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 5:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Who?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 06/16/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||

#5  I thought this was about Flint, Michigan water, but wait, that was Dims fault so never mind.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/16/2019 11:53 Comments || Top||

#6  I wish Cher was with Sonny.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/16/2019 11:55 Comments || Top||

#7  #4 Richard Aubrey, thank you for exactly the right comment!

All Cher wants is attention, which at her age and competing against much younger starlets is increasingly hard to come by. Ignoring her is the right response.
Posted by: Tom || 06/16/2019 14:16 Comments || Top||

#8  She must be watching the MSM; that stuff will make you a little crazy.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 14:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Who?

A singer of some note but wouldn't cross the street to see her perform today, let alone drive to Las Vegas.

Used to be very pretty.

Never was very smart.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 15:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Who?

A singer of some note but wouldn't cross the street to see her perform today, let alone drive to Las Vegas.

Used to be very pretty.

Never was very smart.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 15:48 Comments || Top||

#11  Dang. Accidentally double clicked the Submit button.

Used to have better control than that.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/16/2019 15:50 Comments || Top||

#12  Nobody should be in a tiger cage.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 19:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Used to have better control than that.

Stray gamma rays. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 19:41 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Reality is Not an Option
[AMERICANTHINKER] The beginning of our present course certainly looked innocent enough. It began with a naïve, hopeful, desperate assumption that all of us are absolutely equal. Or, to reach only a little further back, it began with a tragedy. It began when the advancing Allied armies exposed the Nazi death camps at the end World War II, and everyone across the West rightfully recoiled in horror. People concluded that we had better not let a thing like that happen again -- which was a laudable sentiment. Liberals (and yes, I do mean liberals -- not today’s degenerate progressives) decided that, to avert the possibility of future genocide, we had to throw out any evidence that any person might have a genetic edge over any other. This was no minor adjustment. Before the war, almost everyone understood that different peoples, races, and cultures were just that -- different. They understood that genders were binary -- and different. People were allowed to see what they actually saw. The people of the rest of the world, from South America to Africa, from the Middle East to the Far East -- still understand perfectly well that all people are neither the same nor compatible with one another. It is only we in the West who have had this counterintuitive and utterly false idea pounded into our heads.

No one should think our ancestors all so narrow-minded that they didn’t realize individuals from other groups might break the mold from time to time. England had a prime minister of Jewish descent in the 19th century. Even in the antebellum South there were a few black slaveholders among the millions of black slaves. There were successful women long before the women’s liberation movement came along. The belief, at its strongest in America, that the individual should be judged on his or her own merits is the rational remedy for blind group hatred. Making everybody equal every which way by mere wishful thinking isn’t.

As soon as people started to believe that everybody isn’t merely equal before the law, but that all groups of people must be equal every which way, we made enemies with an ocean of inconvenient facts. Instead of the slow, methodical practice of ferreting reality from nature (we used to call this science) people began to tie their beliefs to what they thought would be nice. It would, of course, be nice if homosexual men didn’t engage in pedophilia at an alarming rate compared to heterosexual men -- but they do. It would also be quite nice if blacks had, on average, about the same IQ scores as whites or Asians -- but they don’t. It would certainly warm our hearts if Islam really were the religion of peace -- but fifteen hundred years of history and the uncounted dead of virtually every culture that has ever come in contact with Islam say otherwise.

One of W's worst moves was trying to push the "Religion of Peace" BS, despite the clear wording of the Holy Crayon and Hadiths
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks for this, Fred. I find the writing of E.M. Cadwaladr very good. I consider myself fortunate to have found his blog through this.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 15:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Progressives have choked the Western world nearly to death with just this sort ontological goo.

Ontological goo. That is a keeper. Hope the author doesn't mind if I steal that one.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 15:15 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Maldives seek foreign help to deal with IS fighters
[AlAhram] The Maldives Saturday called for international help to rehabilitate up to 160 of its nationals languishing in Syrian detention camps after the defeat of the Islamic State group.
I thought Obama said Argentina should take ownership? *snicker*
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed said the Maldives kept a close tab on citizens who had joined the militant group, but that the island nation was not ready to accept them back without an internationally supervised reintegration programme.

Visiting neighbouring Sri Lanka where 258 people were killed in jihadi attacks recently, Nasheed said the question of foreign IS fighters in Syria should be addressed as a global issue.

As many as 160 Maldivians are thought to be held in detention camps after the fall of IS in March.

"We do not know the situation they have gone through. We don't have the capacity to rehabilitate these people to the extent that they will not have a further impact on society," Nasheed said.

"I think the international community should join together and decide what we should do to the returnees. Hopefully, there is an international arrangement where they are first received, not necessarily to their countries of origin or nationality."

He said the Maldives was concerned about the 30 to 40 children said to be of Maldivian parents now living in detention camps in Syria, but insisted that there should be international involvement to screen the parents.

"I don't think we should say they can come back in the first flight they can catch," he added.

Nasheed said the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims was keeping a close watch on any attempt to radicalise its population, which is known to practise a liberal form of Islam -- and relies heavily on luxury tourism.

More than two thirds of the Maldivian parliament was spending a three-day holiday in Sri Lanka, to demonstrate it was safe for foreigners to visit the island after the deadly Easter Sunday attacks, Nasheed said.

In a chilling warning of the impact of terrorism on tourism, Sri Lanka's thriving tourism sector is projected to lose at least $1.5 billion revenue this year with a 30 percent slump in the number of holidaymakers visiting the island.

Nasheed and his legislators were staying at the luxury Cinnamon Grand -- one of the three hotels hit by a local jihadi group which pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -- to show Sri Lanka was still a safe tourist destination.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Sri Lanka last week, the first world leader to visit the island after the Easter attacks.

Sri Lankan authorities say they have arrested all those who were involved in the April 21 attacks that also hit three Christian churches.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza factions make incendiary balloons sent to Israel more lethal
[Ynet] The new method adopted by the terror groups includes soaking slow-burning fuse in explosive liquids, causing balloons to drip fireballs as they fly, creating fires in multiple locations.

The terror groups in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
appear to have found a new method of launching incendiary balloons in order to ignite as many fires as possible on Israeli territory, thereby maximizing the damage.

The balloon terrorism has seen a gradual increase over the recent weeks with nearly dozens of fires started on a daily basis by incendiary balloons flown from the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-ruled enclave into nearby Israeli communities.

The latest upgrade in what has become an entire arsenal of terror tools for the Paleostinian factions in Gaza is to soak a slow-burning fuse in explosive liquids and attach it to an incendiary balloon. The balloon drips fireballs as it flies, creating several ignition points from just one device.

The new method has been discovered by Israeli military after no remnants of actual balloons had been recovered at several ignition zones in the Gaza border region. For instance, on Tuesday there were three fires in three different locations (relatively close to each other) of Kissufim Forest in the Eshkol Regional Council, but the firefighters found no traces of physical balloons in the affected area.

"The Paleostinians see this upgrade as a success story. This threat should not be taken lightly, and although it sounds non-threatening, it is certainly dangerous and can be lethal," said one of the security coordinators of the communities bordering the Strip.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Good grief. Can these people get any more depraved?

And is it completely impossible for them to turn all this ingenuity towards something positive?
Posted by: Tom || 06/16/2019 14:08 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
No laughing matter: Pakistan’s media regulator moves to bar satire from airwaves
"Good evening, ladies and germs! I just flew in from Lahore and boy, are my arms tired!"
[ARABNEWS.PK] Embattled comedians have decried a notice by the Pak media regulator ’advising’ TV channels not to broadcast satire, calling it an attack on freedom of speech and a sign of growing censorship in an industry already in disarray because of state pressure.
"Take my wives. Please!"
Pakistain’s media was widely seen as among the region’s most vibrant after military rule ended in 2008, but newspaper and TV journalists now widely say a crackdown that began in the run-up to last year’s general election has widened into widespread censorship and self-censorship by journalists fearful of the repercussions of criticizing the government, the military or the courts.
[Ba-dum-bum! KABOOM!]
In a new blow to media freedom, the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) issued a notice this week advising TV channels to refrain from using "caricatures, animated characters, photo-shopped images and funny memes" that poked fun at political figures or law enforcement agencies.
"A rabbi, a mullah, and a duck walk into a bar..."
"Public sentiments are agonized by the trend of demeaning leadership of the country," the PEMRA notice said.
"'Gimme a kosher wine!' sez the rabbi."
Pak comedians say they have faced similar censure in the past but this week’s advisory felt more severe.
"'Gimme a halal glass of lukewarm tea,' sez the mullah."
"It has happened to media and comedians before us and it will happen after us, but this time it’s very intense because there is an atmosphere that no comedy or satire will be tolerated," Shafaat Ali, a comedian who rose to fame in 2016 for his impressions of then cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.
... aka The Great Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
"'Quack!' sez the duck."
"A society that cannot make fun of itself can’t be a healthy society," he added, saying comedy offered a light-hearted way of creating awareness about difficult political and social issues.
"'Blashphemy! sez the mullah."
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  they're are too busy seething all the time for comedy antway
Posted by: chris || 06/16/2019 11:48 Comments || Top||

#2  No, They have great satire. They lampoon their own politicians and military like we can never do. One has to know some urdu to grasp it, but it's hilarious. Very few performers and actors have that luxury though. It's maybe because they ally with certain parties or have received national awards in the past. Some awesome talents and a lot of nerve.

Stares are mutable, one can never stop the march of art.

Not everybody is a retarded beast in this shithole, but of course that's no redeeming quality for the State itself. Just the fact that they're doing this means the humor has started to get to the junta.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 16:10 Comments || Top||

#3  guess i'm going too miss out then. have no desire too learn Udu
Posted by: chris || 06/16/2019 18:12 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Mediterranean Countries Ramp Up Efforts to Find Missing Migrants
Planning on sweeping the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea for whatever is left of the drowned?
[AnNahar] Mediterranean countries say they have taken a key step towards finding out the fate of thousands of migrants colonists -- many fleeing Syria's war -- who have gone missing while trying to reach Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
At a meeting of the International Commission for Missing Persons in The Hague this week, Cyprus, Greece and Malta pledged to coordinate and beef up their efforts to trace nearly 18,500 migrants colonists who have disappeared since 2014 while making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.
"This crab tastes...Africanny?"
Italia -- which has taken a hard line on migrants colonists under its populist government and interior minister Matteo Salvini -- did not sign up to that new joint statement due to what the ICMP described as internal government issues

The four countries are the main point of entry to Europe for many of the migrants colonists fleeing the war in Syria and other regions.

Born out of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and set up in 1996 in Sarajevo by then US president Bill Clinton
...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of is...
, the ICMP uses increasingly sophisticated DNA technology to trace missing persons.

It has already succeeded in identifying around 70 percent of the 40,000 people who went missing in the Balkans conflicts of the 1990s, including around 90 percent of the nearly 8,000 killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

But it is now turning its attention to one of the biggest human catastrophes of recent times -- the migration crisis that has hit the Middle East, North Africa and Europe since 2014.

The plan to better locate and identify missing migrants colonists fleeing conflict and economic hardship in the Middle East and Africa was launched in Rome last year.

But this week's meeting of the southern European states was key to pushing the process forward.

Top ICMP representatives nevertheless called for more to be done to help find the missing migrants colonists, particularly those from Syria's war where the fate is of an estimated 85,000 people is not known.

"What we are implicitly saying to states is that they have a responsibility to deal with this, but that it is also in their interest to deal with it," former Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders told AFP.

The ICMP also wants to obtain permission from Syria's neighbours to start mapping the thousands of refugees fleeing the bitter eight-year war -- in a move that could one day help identify war crimes, Queen Noor said.

Collecting and having access to data about these refugees will make it easier in future to identify "where crimes may have occurred, where mass graves exist -- and where families and relatives may be," she said.

But the longer-term aim is to bring millions of displaced people back to their homes.

"I can see in a future that is hopefully not too far off that we can set in motion steps that will provide greater hope for many of the migrants colonists and refugees to Europe."

"To give them hope that they can return home," she said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  I suggest a new pic for these particular kinds of posts - a picture of McCoy saying 'He's dead, Jim.'
Posted by: Raj || 06/16/2019 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  "To give them hope that they can return home,"

We effin' hope they return home !
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 2:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Why do they care? Not their citizens, not legal residents, and they have home countries who should care about them.

If there's a slavery ring (like the one operating out of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Slave Market in Libya), root it out of territories you control. Otherwise, tend to the needs of your actual citizens.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 06/16/2019 7:57 Comments || Top||

#4  I know where they are.

Sitting somewhere and collecting some state's largess.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/16/2019 11:53 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libyan Norwegian fertilizer to restart operations shortly: NOC
A hint of approaching normalcy?
[AlAhram] Libya's state oil firm NOC said on Saturday it had restored natural gas supply to LifeCo - the fertiliser joint venture it operates with Norway's Yara, allowing the factory to resume work shortly.

In January, NOC announced it had suspended gas supplies to Lifeco, saying the venture owed it money.

"LifeCo shareholders have agreed on a number of measures to restore operational continuity and protect jobs, including the restoration of gas supply and NOC assuming control of the marketing of ammonia and urea fertiliser products," NOC said in a statement.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ammonium Nitrate for all. Win-win.
Posted by: Mercutio || 06/16/2019 8:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Court tosses lawsuit from homely woman who claimed Trump ‘forcibly kissed’ her
[NYPOST] A lawsuit filed against President Trump by a former campaign staffer who claimed that he "forcibly kissed" her in 2016 has been thrown out of a Florida federal court.

Alva Johnson, 43, an outreach director for Trump in Alabama and Florida, said that the then-candidate went for a lip-lock outside one of his rallies in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 24, 2016.

"I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it," she told the Washington Post in February, when she filed suit. "I can still see his lips coming straight for my face."

Johnson said she turned her head to avoid the smooch, which landed on her cheek, instead.

But witnesses including then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the incident never happened.

Johnson, who is African American, also made allegations of pay discrimination in her filing.
Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The same fugly gal who accused O'Reilly of calling her hot chocolate maybe?
Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 5:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The judge had to reconvene thrice due to laughing fits.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 15:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq
162 IDPs return back to their areas in Anbar: Ministry
Anbar (IraqiNews) Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displaced announced, on Saturday, that 162 internally displaced persons (IDPs) returned back to their homeland in Qaim District, in Anbar Province.

In a press statement, the ministry said that through direct coordination with the Ministry of Transport, Municipality and Anbar Operations Command, 162 displaced persons were repatriated.

It also mentioned that the IDPs were in camps in Ameriya Falluja and Touristic City, and they were transferred to their original area in Qaim District, in Anbar Province.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia Fast-Tracks Passports for Eastern Ukraine
[BREITBART] Russia began issuing "fast-tracked" passports to residents of eastern Ukraine this week, in accordance with an order signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
in April. Some sixty residents of Ukraine’s Donbas region crossed the Russian border to receive their passports in a ceremony on Friday.

The Russian Interior Ministry opened two Migration Service offices in the Rostov area in late April to fulfill Putin’s decree that "individuals permanently residing in certain areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions have the right to apply for Russian citizenship under a fast-track procedure." Donetsk and Lugansk are the areas where separatists aligned with Russia have been fighting the Ukrainian military.

"Today is the first trip. Later, it is planned to deliver citizens to the territory of the Russian Federation almost every day according to the lists we are provided with," a Migration Service official said.

The Russian government claimed this fast-track passport procedure was instituted "to protect human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
and freedoms," but the Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an Union blasted it as "another attack on Ukraine’s illusory sovereignty by Russia" that ran counter to the "spirit and objectives" of the 2015 Minsk Accords.

The Minsk Accords were a set of agreements between Ukraine and Russia that were supposed to end the civil war in eastern Ukraine, which has killed over 13,000 people. One goal of these agreements was to de-escalate the confrontation in Donbas by providing more autonomy for its residents while reinforcing Ukraine’s illusory sovereignty.

The Ukrainian government in May invalidated Russian passports issued to Ukrainian citizens in Donetsk and Luhansk. Passports issued by Russian offices in the Rostov region were specifically outlawed by the edict.

The Ukrainians said sanctions would be leveled against Russian Federation officials who participated in the expedited-passport program, while Ukrainians who accept the illegal passports might be deprived of their pensions and social benefits.

Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Cyber
Project Veritas video where whistleblower exposes Big Tech censorship re-uploaded with censored material removed
[YouTube] This video has been re-uploaded. Due to privacy complaints, some of the investigative journalism in this report has been censored. You can view the full, un-redacted version on our website: https://www.projectveritas.com/2019/06/11/tech-insider-blows-whistle-on-how-pinterest-listed-top-pro-life-site-as-porn-bible-verses-censored/

  • Insider: Search Term “Christian” Won’t Auto-Complete, Others Can’t Trend, No Notifications, or Recommendations
  • Pinterest Blacklisted Pro-Life Group LiveAction.org, Classified as “Pornography,” Cannot Link to Site
  • Leaked “Sensitive Terms List” Includes “bible verses” and “christian easter”
  • Ben Shapiro Commentary Censored in “zero tolerance moment,” Slack Messages Reveal
  • Planned Parenthood Undercover Videos Marked as “harmful” Conspiracy
  • Veritas Calls On More Silicon Valley Insiders to Come Forward



    Youtube Has Censored Tim Pool's Video About Youtube Censorship, Yes Seriously
    James O'Keefe and Project Veritas really kicked over an anthill. Silicon Valley is furious that an investigative journalist and a whistleblower exposed them.

    Alex Jones was the test. They waited a little bit. No one cared that much. Now it's game on.


  • Posted by: Herb McCoy || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  There has to come a reckoning from above. Something no senator can save from and no bargaining with judges and committees will deliver out of. I've never seen anything so ungodly go unpunished.
    Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 14:14 Comments || Top||


    Iraq
    U.S. allows Iraq to import Iranian gas for more 3 months
    (IraqiNews.com) ‐ The United States has allowed Iraq to import Iranian gas for its power grid for another three months by extending a waiver to U.S. sanctions for Baghdad, two government sources told Rooters on Saturday.

    One of the sources, who asked not to be named, said the extension was given during a phone call between Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    Iraq was first granted an exemption on Iranian electricity imports after Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil industry in November, citing concerns about its nuclear program and what it said was its meddling in the Middle East.

    It has extended the waiver several times since then but has urged Iraq to develop its energy infrastructure to reduce reliance on Iranian energy.

    Iraq relies heavily on Iranian gas to feed several power stations, importing roughly 1.5 billion standard cubic feet per day via pipelines in the south and east.

    Washington wants to roll back Iranian influence in the Middle East, including in Iraq, where Iran
    ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
    holds broad sway over politics and trade.

    Although Iraq has one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves, it has moved slowly to develop them and has relied on Iran to supply it with gas and electricity.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


    Caribbean-Latin America
    Mexico publishes Trump's 'secret deal' on migration
    [DAWN] Mexico published the document Friday that Donald Trump
    ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
    earlier flaunted as a secret deal to curb migration, but denied it had capitulated to the US president's demands for a so-called "safe third country" agreement.

    Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard underwent a grilling in Mexico's Congress, where some politicians insisted otherwise and demanded more details on what exactly he agreed to in the last-minute deal brokered a week ago to dodge Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods.

    Angry over a surge of Central Americans seeking US asylum,
    ...not to mention the “refugees” from the Indian subcontinent and and sub-Saharan Africa who can afford to fly in to Mexico before paying coyotes to bring them north to the Promised Land...
    Trump is pushing Mexico to agree to a deal in which migrants colonists entering Mexican territory would have to apply for refugee status there, not in the United States.

    The language in the "supplementary agreement" released by Mexico appears to resemble that. However Mexico's foreign ministry insisted the document ‐ signed by a deputy legal advisor to the ministry and his State Department counterpart ‐ was "not a binding bilateral agreement."

    Rather, it says the two sides agree to immediately open talks to arrive at just that ‐ a "binding bilateral agreement" ‐ in which Mexico "would accept the return, and process refugee status claims, of third-party nationals" who cross its territory to reach the United States.

    If in 45 days Washington decides that Mexico City's efforts to curb migration are not enough, then the Mexican government "will take all necessary steps under domestic law" to bring that agreement into force in another 45 days, the text concludes.

    Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Is Mexico pretending to be weaselly to save face or are they simply being weasels? If they are counting on Trump folding like a wet obama, I fear they are mistaken. Nice remittances ya got there! Be a shame if something were to happen to them.
    Posted by: SteveS || 06/16/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||

    #2  So much diplobabble that I'm not sure what exactly this is all about. But maybe that's the point.
    Posted by: Tom || 06/16/2019 14:05 Comments || Top||


    Fifth Column
    Durham has questions for Brennan, NSA’s Mike Rogers has the answers
    [COMMDIGINEWS] US Attorney John Durham is looking at the Intelligence Community Assessment from October 2016. And Durham is asking CIA officials some pointed questions. About how it came to its discredited, partisan conclusions? Who was involved? How did they manipulate the process? Who is part of the origins of the Russia hoax conspiracy? Does Mike Rogers have the answers?

    You remember John Brennan
    ...director of the CIA under the Obama administration. One of the deeper dwelling denizens of the Deep State, possibly even the guy who lit the match that launched the Russiagate coup attempt...
    ’s Intelligence Community Assessment. This is the document where 17 US intelligence agencies all "unanimously" concluded that Vladimir Putin
    ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
    personally authorized FSB operations designed to favor Donald Trump
    ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
    and harm 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...
    in the 2016 election.

    The implication was, of course, that Trump was possibly a Russian agent.

    Except it wasn’t 17 agencies as only four were involved in making the actual assessment. The CIA, DNI, DOJ, and NSA. Only three people were part of formulating the document. John Brennan, James Clapper, and the infamous Peter Strzok.

    Strzok keeps popping up at every phase of the Russia hoax. The Mifsud, Downer, Halper frame job of George Papadopoulos. Launching the counterintelligence investigation against Donald Trump.

    Strzok was reportedly JamesThe spine of the FBI is the rule of law Comey
    The disgraced, except in his own mind, former head of the FBI...
    ’s ongoing liaison with John Brennan. He apparently is the principal author of the Intelligence Community Assessment, with input from Brennan and Clapper. How convenient.

    The report was never circulated to the other 13 intelligence agencies for comment. Most significantly the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the State Department intelligence services were all excluded from the review process.

    The DIA has enormous expertise in Russia and cyber warfare. Presumably the focus of the Intelligence Community Assessment. Brennan and Strzok clearly didn’t want anyone messing with his special partisan garden party. Or contradicting their strident and deliberately defamatory conclusions.

    But there were enormous flies in the ointment that were overlooked when the "unanimous" estimate was leaked to the press in October of 2016. It wasn’t "unanimous" at all.

    Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and Strzok, on behalf of the CIA, DNI and DOJ, had "high confidence" in the extremely volatile and partisan conclusions. But Admiral Mike Rogers at the NSA had only "moderate confidence" in the conclusions. He had good reason to doubt the Intelligence Community Assessment.

    Mike Rogers knew that Brennan, Clapper, and Comey had been illegally accessing NSA programs to spy on American citizens on behalf of the Obama White House since 2012.

    Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Mike Rogers knew that Brennan, Clapper, and Comey had been illegally accessing NSA programs to spy on American citizens on behalf of the Obama White House since 2012.

    Precisely why no one in Congress is calling for Admiral Rogers to testify about anything.

    In other July 2014 news that is no longer widely discussed: CIA admits spying on Senators Feistein, Udall, staffers.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 5:31 Comments || Top||

    #2  Spying on Feinstein? Surely that's how her driver was revealed.
    Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 6:06 Comments || Top||

    #3  Messrs. Imram and Abid Awan to the white courtesy phone please, Imram and Abid Awan.

    Link to yet another story involving Dems, which is no longer discussed.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 6:34 Comments || Top||

    #4  I was struck by the comment about Admiral Rogers being invisible in all the last years of brouhaha over Russia and the dossier. Powerful proof that the public noises of the Democrats are about avoiding the truth, not seeking it. A genuine hero and true public servant.
    Posted by: NoMoreBS || 06/16/2019 13:16 Comments || Top||

    #5  I love that allahu akhbar Brennan photo with his upside down smile.
    Posted by: DooDahMan || 06/16/2019 13:25 Comments || Top||

    #6  CIA Director John Brennan voted for the Communist Party candidate in the 1976 presidential election. Brennan told a congressional panel last week that he “froze” while taking a CIA polygraph test four years later when the questioner asked him if he had ever worked with or for a group that was “dedicated to overthrowing the U.S.,” CNN reported.

    Before CNN was the Communist News Network and still resembled a news organization. Brennan was more likely to be the one who was turned by Putin. Hmmmn, A Communist-Muslim as head of the CIA--a scary thought.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 06/16/2019 14:33 Comments || Top||


    Arabia
    Tanker Hit in Gulf Attacks Heads to Port, UK to send marines, Israel blames attacks on IRGC
    [AnNahar] Japanese tanker, one of two vessels attacked in sensitive Gulf waters this week, was heading to port on Saturday, its owners said.

    The Kokuka Courageous was rocked by explosions as it passed through the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, threatening its highly flammable cargo of methanol.

    The resulting blaze was quickly extinguished, although one crew member suffered minor injuries.

    The Japanese tanker's Tokyo-based operator Kokuka confirmed the vessel was heading to port in the United Arab Emirates.

    "We still don't know if the tanker goes to Khor Fakkan or Fujairah as they are very close," said a front man, referring to two Emirati ports on the Gulf of Oman.

    The oil tankers were 10 nautical miles apart and headed to Asia when they were struck by explosions early Thursday after passing through the Strait of Hormuz, some 25 nautical miles off Iran's southern coast.

    The other vessel, the Front Altair, was carrying naphtha, a refined petroleum product.

    It was hit by three explosions, according to Norwegian officials.

    Iran
    ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
    has repeatedly warned that it could block the Hormuz Strait in a relatively low-tech, high-impact countermeasure to any attack by the United States.

    Doing so would disrupt oil tankers travelling out of the Gulf region to the Indian Ocean and global export routes.

    Trump played down the threat.

    "It's not going to be closed, it's not going to be closed for long and they know it. They've been told in very strong terms," Trump said.

    Oil prices have surged following the attacks.
    Ramp up the frackers, boys! We’ve got more money to make!

    Israel said to blame Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for attacks on oil tankers

    [IsraelTimes] TV report says Israeli intelligence shares US, UK assessment, claims mines and a torpedo were used in Thursday’s strikes in Gulf of Oman.

    The Israeli conclusion mirrors that of the US and the UK.

    Meanwhile in Tokyo, the owner of the Kokuka Courageous said its sailors saw "flying objects" before the attack, suggesting it wasn’t damaged by mines. Company president Yutaka Katada offered no evidence for his claim, which contradicts the US military account.

    Katada also said crew members saw an Iranian naval ship nearby, but did not specify whether this was before or after the attacks.

    UK To Send Royal Marines To Persian Gulf To Protect British Ships

    [Jpost] The UK is to send 100 Royal Marines to the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to protect British ships and other interests in the region, as the fallout from the attack on two tankers last week escalates, The Times reported.

    As the pressure increases after Norwegian and Japanese oil tankers were attacked last week, Britannia has joined the US, 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 others in accusing Iran
    ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
    of carrying out the attacks.

    Britannia's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Friday said there was no reason not to believe the United States' assessment that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.

    In response, Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran on Saturday and condemned Britannia's stance on the current tensions.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  I will sleep better knowing the United nations will investigate and the insurance carrier so they do not get screwed! Insurance and maritime law glad they have the ability and more freedom to operate than drug cartels money don't screw with my money is that the mantra?
    Posted by: Omorong Black8889 || 06/16/2019 11:37 Comments || Top||

    #2  a few countries say the evidence isn't strong enough to be definitive vs Iran

    since one Japanese and one Finnish ship were hit and since the cargo was from the Saudis and destined to Japan or elsewhere in east Asia, our best move now would be to continue the forensic investigation and increase surveillance so if it happens again we will have the video evidence down solidly
    Posted by: lord garth || 06/16/2019 14:40 Comments || Top||


    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Tremors across Jordan as Trump Mideast peace plan revives old fears
    [Ynet] Already facing economic pressure at home, King Abdullah II greatly fears the so-called 'deal of the century' will push Israeli narrative that Jordan - where nearly half of its 8 million citizens are of Paleostinian descent - is essentially Paleostine.
    "We don't want em!"
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


    Arabia
    UK To Send Royal Marines To Persian Gulf To Protect British Ships
    [Jpost] The UK is to send 100 Royal Marines to the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to protect British ships and other interests in the region, as the fallout from the attack on two tankers last week escalates, The Times reported.

    As the pressure increases after Norwegian and Japanese oil tankers were attacked last week, Britannia has joined the US, 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 others in accusing Iran
    ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
    of carrying out the attacks.

    Britannia's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Friday said there was no reason not to believe the United States' assessment that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday.

    In response, Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran on Saturday and condemned Britannia's stance on the current tensions.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

    #1  All tankers should have some merc force aboard. Enough of this shit. Then again what would Somalians do for entertainment.
    Posted by: Woodrow || 06/16/2019 6:54 Comments || Top||

    #2  Pulled Sniper teams from AFG?
    Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 11:59 Comments || Top||


    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Israel said to demand return of soldiers’ bodies as condition for calm in Gaza
    [IsraelTimes] 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...
    i envoy bearing money delayed by Israeli officials at Strip’s border, Paleostinian sources say, as tensions in south continue to spiral.

    Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, sources said Saturday that Israel was demanding the terror group renew talks on returning the bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers in exchange for quiet in the Gazoo
    ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
    Strip.

    The sources told the Arabic 21 news site that Hamas had refused the demand, according to a report by Channel 13 news.

    Hamas is believed to be holding the remains of Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, whose bodies were captured by the terror group when they were killed in the Strip during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.

    The terror group also holds captive Israeli civilians Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.

    The report added that UN envoy to the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov was working to prevent further deterioration in the situation between Israel and Hamas.

    Mladenov reportedly conveyed a message from Hamas to Israel that the terror group placed full responsibility for any future escalation on Jerusalem, saying that it was not fulfilling its part of the unofficial ceasefire agreement. Mladenov has told Hamas that Israel is interested in maintaining quiet.

    Meanwhile,
    ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had a cup of coffee. Even instant would do...
    the Qatari envoy who was supposed to enter the Strip with a cash delivery on Saturday was delayed by Israel, Paleostinian sources told the Al Quds newspaper, according to Hebrew-language media reports.

    Israeli officials had delayed the envoy in order to discuss several subjects related to the unofficial ceasefire agreement. The delegate was supposed to meet in Gaza with Hamas leadership and update it on the developments in the agreement.

    Saturday’s developments came after a fresh surge in violence, including two nights of rocket attacks and retaliatory air force strikes, and a wave of arson balloons sent into Israel.

    Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh
    ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
    on Friday told Mladenov that Hamas did not know who fired rockets at Israel in the past week, and was conducting an investigation into the launches.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

    #1  That's the way to get the bodies dragged thru the streets. Ah'd bet the ones from 2014 aren't fresh.
    Posted by: Skidmark || 06/16/2019 12:08 Comments || Top||

    #2  it is unfortunate that the Jewish religion has an emphasis on the need to inter all the body remains; it comes from Ecclesiastes aka Kohelot 5:14

    it gives the enemy a substantial tactical advantage
    Posted by: lord garth || 06/16/2019 14:10 Comments || Top||


    Europe
    EU car pollution gains destroyed by a few cruise ships.


    Posted by: 3dc || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  And yet the US has reduced CO2 emissions in far greater quantities than the Euroweenies even after we pulled out of the Paris Accord; go figure...
    Posted by: Raj || 06/16/2019 0:44 Comments || Top||

    #2  How do tankers fit into this picture?
    Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 5:53 Comments || Top||

    #3  I have been told cruise ships operate with two - or even three tanks of fuel, of different grades, depending on where they are.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 06/16/2019 12:33 Comments || Top||

    #4  At least eurotrash are fitter for cycling.
    Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 16:30 Comments || Top||


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Syria Flare-Up Kills 35 Fighters, Including 26 Pro-Regime Forces
    [AnNahar] At least 35 combattants including 26 pro-regime forces were killed Saturday in festivities and air strikes that erupted at dawn in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said.

    The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian regime and Russian air strikes killed nine jihadists and rebel fighters and festivities left 26 pro-regime forces dead in the north of Hama province.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

    #1  your side has all the air power and you still lose 3 times more troops than the opposition

    must be some interesting stories behind this
    Posted by: lord garth || 06/16/2019 13:55 Comments || Top||


    -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
    Humans Have Started Growing Spikes In The Back Of Their Skulls Because We Use Smartphones So Much
    [NEWSWEEK] Oh, noze! We have spondyles growing out of the backs of our heads! We're devolving into triceratops!
    Posted by: Fred || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I guessed The Bee - I was wrong. Word to my brother Herb!
    Posted by: Raj || 06/16/2019 0:41 Comments || Top||

    #2  "Yes ! And one day they'll pop out of our heads, cracking them open !"
    - Climate Change Scientist
    Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 2:33 Comments || Top||

    #3  David Shahar, a health scientist at the University of The Sunshine Coast, Australia, told BBC.com that in the last decade of his 20 year career he has noticed more patients have the protrusion

    Could it be that he's just been treating a lot of aborigines lately ?
    Posted by: Dron66046 || 06/16/2019 2:36 Comments || Top||

    #4  Horsepoop. My Neanderthal cousins had one and they didn't have smart phones. Or maybe they did . . . .
    Posted by: gorb || 06/16/2019 3:00 Comments || Top||

    #5  I thought it might have been the Spandex.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 06/16/2019 4:46 Comments || Top||

    #6  Makes about as much sense as pants causing tailbone growth. File under, "if you want attention make up shit".

    Skeletal System Diagrams
    Posted by: Woodrow || 06/16/2019 7:01 Comments || Top||

    #7  Dunno. Always thought a sagittal crest would be kind of cool.
    Posted by: Mercutio || 06/16/2019 8:10 Comments || Top||

    #8  A new trend in chinese head binding predict do I
    Posted by: Caesar Angeamp7120 || 06/16/2019 8:40 Comments || Top||

    #9  Did they correlate what political spectrum the subjects embraced?
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/16/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

    #10  Someone call the Ancient Alien dude Giorgio.. pointy heads were all the rage back in ancient Egypt.
    Posted by: Warthog || 06/16/2019 8:59 Comments || Top||

    #11  Well, horsepuckey! I was hoping this was about growing horns out of the skull.
    Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/16/2019 12:04 Comments || Top||

    #12  Saggital Crests aren't all they're cracked up to be. My Aunt Edna had one before the Ice Chest People took her.
    Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/16/2019 15:04 Comments || Top||

    #13  I found this article and interestingly, it seems that the sagittal crest indicate strong jaw muscles, implying that talking a lot cause the crest, not the radiation.

    Excerpt from the article (link above):

    "A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull (at the sagittal suture) of many mammalian and reptilian skulls, among others. The presence of this ridge of bone indicates that there are exceptionally strong jaw muscles."

    Bottom line, "Shut up and put the phone away!"
    Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 06/16/2019 16:07 Comments || Top||

    #14  Few people, particularly young people, actually talk on the phone. They just read and poke it.
    Posted by: KBK || 06/16/2019 16:25 Comments || Top||

    #15  ...hoping a small particle of food will drop out?
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/16/2019 17:06 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Farah: 6 Talibs toes up, cops kill 3 more


    Special Forces inflict heavy casualties on Taliban militants in Farah province

    [KhaamaPress] The Special Forces of the Afghan Military inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban
    ...Arabic for students...
    during a raid in Farah province.

    The 207th Zafar Corps in a statement said the Special Forces targeted a group of Talibs in Shiwan area of Bala Bolok district.

    The statement further added that the Special Forces killed 6 Talibs during the operation.

    The Special Forces also maimed 9 Talibs during the same operation, the 207th Zafar Corps added in its statement.

    The Talibs have not commented regarding the operation so far.

    Taliban Attack Pushed Back In Farah: Officials

    [ToloNews] Afghan cops thwarted a Taliban
    ...Arabic for students...
    attack on the outskirts of the city of Farah in the west of Afghanistan, the provincial police front man Mohibullah Mohib said.

    The attack was carried out on a security forces outpost in Police District One in the city of Farah, Mohib added.

    Mohib said that "dozens of Talibs" were involved in the attack which left three turbans dead and three others maimed.

    He said that one policeman was killed in the clash and three others the head of the Police District One headwaters were maimed.

    Taliban has not commented on the report.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 06/16/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban



    Who's in the News
    36[untagged]
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    2Islamic State
    2Moslem Colonists
    1al-Qaeda in North Africa
    1Govt of Iraq
    1Govt of Syria
    1Houthis
    1al-Shabaab (AQ)

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    Two weeks of WOT
    Sun 2019-06-16
      Maldives seek foreign help to deal with IS fighters
    Sat 2019-06-15
      Iranian boat fired missile at US drone prior to tanker attack, US official says
    Fri 2019-06-14
      Tanker Front Altair is on fire according to Bloomberg
    Thu 2019-06-13
      Middle East on alert as two oil tankers are hit by explosions and one 'sinks' in suspected 'torpedo attack' in Gulf of Oman
    Wed 2019-06-12
      Boko Haram kills at least 26 people in Cameroon
    Tue 2019-06-11
      At least 95 killed in central Mali village attack
    Mon 2019-06-10
      Iran ammonium-nitrate stash in London and around the world ignored for 2015 Iran deal
    Sun 2019-06-09
      Tunisian-German couple in court over ‘ricin attack plot’
    Sat 2019-06-08
      U.S., Mexico: Trump Announces Deal With Mexico, Suspends Tariff Threat
    Fri 2019-06-07
      Houthis kill imam, 9 worshippers for following Saudi Eid al-Fitr moon sighting
    Thu 2019-06-06
      ISIS claiming to exterminate a Pakistani Intel agent
    Wed 2019-06-05
      Nanagarhar: Senior ISIS leader hailing from India killed in Afghanistan airstrike
    Tue 2019-06-04
      Sri Lanka Muslim ministers resign en masse over Easter bombings
    Mon 2019-06-03
      Houthi rebels launch a drone attack on a military parade for Saudi-led coalition forces in the port city of Aden
    Sun 2019-06-02
      Al-Quds rally rejects ‘deal of the century’

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