[DailyCaller] Another Supreme Court Justice, slightly right-of-center swing vote Anthony Kennedy, has decided to retire. In a contentious and closely watched Supreme Court vote, the justices decided 5 to 4 to get him an ice cream cake for his retirement party.
Trump now gets to appoint his second Supreme Court justice. Two on his "short list" were women. Trump will fashion his own special brand of decision making; this may have been the only Supreme Court vetting contest that had a swimsuit category.
This is a lifetime political appointment in Washington, D. C., much like being married to Bill Clinton.
Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, and the libs are preemptively enraged. In fact, anger is their only emotion. They never really seem to advance reasoned alternatives. They are either angry or asleep. We are just 500 days into this presidency, so Maxine Waters and Chuck Schumer had best pace themselves.
The left howls when Trump does anything. They say it is the worst thing Trump has ever done ‐ until he does something tomorrow. Crying "Wolf!" at everything has diminished their credibility.
They try to tie everything to their fake Russian collusion probe, saying now that Trump cannot appoint a Supreme Court Justice because he or she may rule on his case. Very weak. The odds are nil that this sordid mess of a tabloid investigation gone awry gets to the Supreme Court.
And if the Stormy Daniels case got that far, she might have to recuse herself since both she and the Supreme Court Justices do the same thing: show up to work in a robe. In fact, she could even represent herself before the Supreme Court. If there is a woman with more experience being around old men in robes than Stormy, I’d be surprised.
The reason libs are so unhinged about this is that their last domain in government has been the 8 years Obama had of installing liberal activist judges who aggressively pursue their political agendas from the bench. Libs love making rules others have to follow, and they get to interpret.
They are so worried that Ruth Buzzy Ginsberg might die in two years that they will probably shop and get a ruling from California’s 9th Circus Court of Appeals that she doesn’t have to step down from the court in the event of her death. Look for this case ruling, Weekend at Bernie’s v. Trump, coming to theatrics courts near you soon!
One oddity I have pointed out: When Justice John Paul Stevens left the Supreme Court at age 89 (he was so old they had to keep reminding him to close his robe), we no longer had a Protestant on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is another Catholic. So we will have three Jews and six justices raised Catholic in a country that is over half Protestant. When are we WASPs going to catch a break in America?
The left always says that any Republican Supreme Court appointment will be the end of Roe v. Wade. Of their last 100 warnings on this, none has come true. Their hyperbole grows weary. In the south, Roe v. Wade is a decision we make when our Evinrude boat motor breaks.
And we feel that college admission quotas should not favor one person over another, but should be fair. We feel that quotas, when put inside a parking meter, should give everyone 30 minutes of parking.
Justice Kennedy struck the right tone. He ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. He said it was not the Supreme Court’s role to judge gay men; that, of course, falls in the purview of the Tony Awards Committee. The Supremes rightfully decided that marriage is a states’ rights issue and not traditionally defined as the union of two people of the opposite sex trapped in resentful bondage who cope by eventually wearing sweatpants to watch Family Feud every night.
Other cases, like whether a Colorado baker can refuse on religious grounds to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, are the rulings they are tinkering with. Should there be anything Americans would stand up and pay attention to? Is any ruling just that reduces the amount of cake available? And for those keeping fairness scores at home, it’s easier for a gay couple to get a wedding cake in Colorado than it is for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to get a meal in Virginia.
[BBC] A distillery that released a 75% ABV vodka range named after the toxic nerve agent Novichok has been heavily criticised for its "tasteless" timing.
One person has died and another remains critically ill in hospital after being exposed to the substance in Wiltshire.
Bristol Dry Gin said the release timing of its 75% alcohol by volume (ABV) product "may have lacked sensitivity", the Bristol Post reported.
Members of the public have criticised the company on its Facebook page. David Gilroy wrote: "Sorry, I think that is in very poor taste naming a gin after something that is still a very serious situation."
And Peter Hooper said: "Pretty poor taste, an innocent woman has died and a man is critically ill, I think you need to rethink your sales strategy."
#2
In other news, makers of Novichok are reported to be "horrified" by BBC article associating their product with megadeadly alcohol and disreputable media organisations.
#4
Lawn darts (not the ones Boeing makes) have killed more people than Novichok...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 12:56
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#5
Lawn darts
And just in the past month, probably, along with, probably, anesthesia, bad curries, bees, Ben Nevis, cherries, childbirth, cricket bats, double-decker buses, electric scooters, "Frenchmen," glue, horses, icecubes, um... gin...
[American Thinker] The Washington Post headline blared, "Trump is bent on wrecking NATO. Prepare for catastrophe." The Post fears that President Trump's diplomacy will benefit Vladimir Putin to the detriment of American and European interests. European Council president Donald Tusk sniped, "Dear America, appreciate your allies. After all, you don't have that many."
The NATO countries are, indeed, among America's closest allies, but some of them appear more interested in oil, natural gas, and trade with Iran than in the Fulda Gap. Some of our "closest allies" have been working overtime to undermine America. If Mr. Trump is irritated with them, there is a reason.
Iran is preparing to take $300 million in cash out of German banks to get ahead of impending U.S. banking sanctions. While American intelligence officials are concerned that the money will finance terrorism, the German government says it has "no evidence" to that effect. According to the German newspaper Bild, "Iran ... says that they need the money 'to pass it on to Iranian individuals who, when travelling abroad, are dependent on euros in cash due to their lack of access to accepted credit cards.'" The German government appears to think that one million Iranian tourists might need $300 each ‐ or perhaps 300 tourists might need $1 million each.
The plan to send dollars to Tehran is in line with European negotiations, led by Germany and France, to help Iran mitigate the economic fallout of the American withdrawal from the JCPOA ‐ the Iran deal. The E.U. has also begun to update its "blocking statute," the rule that will prevent European companies from complying with impending Iran sanctions.
Germany is willing to run a multi-billion-euro trade deficit with Iran to keep the doors open, even as a 2018 German intelligence report confirms that Iran is currently seeking nuclear technology in there.
It is unclear why America's "closest allies" want to help the regime that sponsors Hamas and Hezb'allah, created a mercenary army of tens of thousands of Shiites to uproot the mostly Sunni population of Syria, sentences a women who doffed her head scarf to 20 years in prison (she will serve at least two years, likely more), bans homosexuality and hangs gay people from cranes in public ‐ and is, in fact, behind only China in the number of executions it conducts annually ‐ and imprisons foreign nationals. And that's before mentioning that Iran cheated on the JCPOA by hiding the military nature of its program and violated U.N. Security Council resolutions on ballistic missile development and the import and export of weapons.
#7
When the wall came down, the purpose of NATO ended. They just can't kick the drug of military welfare and the pols in Washington signal their virtue with American taxpayers money and the 'deplorables' lives*.
* death through training and traffic accidents seem to get buried along with the service members over there.
#10
All those aircraft and U-boats are out of service due to lack of spare parts.
Spare parts which Germany could easily purchase, but declines to do so. Hell, why should they when they have an idiot to pay for their defense?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
07/11/2018 10:37
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#11
A concept well past its shelf life.
The UN building would make a nice condo conversion and parking would improve. Might even be able to get a lunch reservation at some of the nicer places to eat with the UN gone.
#12
If the EU wants to be a Pan-European Nation State then why the pretense of asking the USA's opinion in this so-called alliance? Ah, Other People's Money? Ah, Fight To The Last Colonial? Where have we heard these before...?
#13
The UN is a place for third world dictators to send their most serious rivals to get them out of the country. It's a safety valve for people we should not care about the safety of...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 12:58
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#14
Well NATO, it would be a shame if some of these nice shiny things got broken now wouldn't it?
The problem is those nice shiny things are already broken.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/11/2018 15:43
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#15
The problem is those nice shiny things are already broken.
All that stuff is rusting when delivered and breaks almost immediately. A huge racket.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 15:59
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#16
Re #8's pic: Golly, those Norsemen sure got around!
[News24] As it fights for survival, the Ingonyama Trust is reportedly taking Parliament to court over recommendations by a high-powered team of experts that it should be dissolved.
The team, the High Level Panel led by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, recommended that Parliament should either amend or repeal the Ingonyama Act from which the trust derives its powers.
A reliable source within the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) told The Witness on Tuesday that the board, which administers tribal land on behalf of King Goodwill Zwelithini, had resolved to initiate legal processes as part of a two-pronged strategy of survival.
#1
Surely some common ground can be found. Mineral rights are important, the surname Oppenheimer has no Bantu origins, the urgent need for the deportation of all remaining white colonials.... just to name a few.
#2
IIRC, the first three goals of the ANC were: (1) Enrich the new leader's private accounts; (2) Drive out the Whites; and (3) Band everybody (non-whites, naturally) into an alliance to suppress the Zulus.
Looks like the infighting just got public, again...
[DavidWarrenOnline] As everyone in the world must know by now ‐ if not the blesséd souls in paradise, cut off from the meejah ‐ our Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau’s little boy, has been plausibly accused of groping.
Well, at least it was a woman, as the dirty old men used to say.
The incident occurred in anno 2000, at a "music" festival on Canada’s Left Coast, and the "victim" was a local newspaper reporter. (Poor choice!) Her description of the event appeared in the paper, immediately thereafter, in a short "tut-tut" editorial. It became news again when someone dredged it up. I don’t doubt that person had a political motive. (Alas, it wasn’t spotted during the last election campaign.)
The Trudeau lad ‐ still a young man on the make ‐ now says he can’t remember. Or if he can remember, nothing bad happened. Or if something bad happened, it must have been hallucinated, because we should all know that Trudeau is a heroic feminist, who decided at birth that he would never invade anyone’s personal space. (He has been invading mine for several years now.)
We are all chortling.
No need to search for evidence; it is already there in black and white. But even were it hearsay, we have often been told (by little Trudeau himself, among others) that the woman must always be believed. This is the advanced feminist dogma: that only men misbehave, and only men lie. (By contrast, sugar and spice and all things nice: that’s what little girls are made of.)
Innumerable careers have been ended for less, and the Trudeau child was himself instrumental in ending several. His virtue signalling has been stellar ‐ twinkling in the manner of a starry night, across the bowl of a cloudless Prairie sky. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Do I feel sorry for poor Justin? No. Do I wish him political harm? Yes.
It has been suggested that he hasn’t handled the matter with political finesse. But that’s the beauty of it. He can’t. It isn’t possible. He is hoist by his very own personal petard.
Rejoice! Another proof that liberalism destroys itself. It will destroy a lot of other things first, but in the end, it flames out. No abnormality can endure forever.
[Breitbart] TEL AVIV ‐ Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California, Davis, on Friday admitted that it does not believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be resolved "so long as the State of Israel exists."
"The goal of Palestinian resistance is not to establish ’love’ with those who are responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people," the group said in an article published by the student paper California Aggie.
Rather, the essay said, "it is to completely dismantle those forces at play."
The full paragraph in question reads:
Lastly, it is an ideological fantasy to really believe that progress is possible so long as the state of Israel exists. Underlying this naive fantasy is the belief that a state that engages in racist laws, systematic killings and home demolitions can also function as a beacon of peace. The goal of Palestinian resistance is not to establish "love" with those who are responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people; it is to completely dismantle those forces at play. So continue to watch in "horror," because we are here to stay.
The piece was a response to a June op-ed written by the Aggies for Israel club, critiquing an anti-Israel protest against its "Choose Love" campaign.
h/t Instapundit
Just kept getting worse. Only hours after Brexit Secretary David Davis tendered his resignation Monday, Boris Johnson, UK Foreign Secretary, piled on with a scathing resignation letter of his own. The cheerio-oh PM tried to hold the line, but then a momentous gauntlet was thrown from the sidelines.
The phrase that springs to mind? "I’m BACK!"
Disgusted by the Prime Minister’s seeming repudiation of every tenet in the original Brexit referendum, Nigel Farage exploded on the airwaves today with his declaration that he would, indeed, return to lead UKIP, and will immediately begin agitating for May’s removal if the betrayals continue.
[FoxNews] Nonsmokers say secondhand smoke is a quality-of-life issue, while smokers defend what they see as their right to light up. (.)
They say that good fences make good neighbors, but even the best fences can't block cigarette smoke.
Increasingly in the U.S., disputes between neighbors are becoming matters of smokers versus non-smokers.
One recent example: Smoking was banned in a Minnesota condo building last year -- until smokers took control of the board earlier this year and voted to overturn the ban.
The issue has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the Gallery Tower, a 40-year-old condo in St. Paul, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.
"We’re divided into parties now, and it’s so emotional," said Bianca Fazio, a nonsmoker who has lived in the building since 2000, told the newspaper.
"We’re divided into parties now, and it’s so emotional."
- Bianca Fazio, nonsmoker
"At the crux of this is basically a homeowners’ rights issue," countered smoker Marge Romero, who’s lived at Gallery Tower for 19 years.
"You ought to be able to live your life in the confines of your own home," said Romero, who was elected to the building's board in January.
"At the crux of this is basically a homeowners’ rights issue. You ought to be able to live your life in the confines of your own home."
- Marge Romero, smoker elected to board of condo building
Nonsmokers say secondhand smoke is destroying their quality of life, while smokers see their home as the "last place they’re allowed to puff," the report said.
Last summer, the Gallery Tower board voted for a smoking ban to take effect in April of this year. But those opposing the ban were elected in January and voted to rescind it in February.
"It’s stunning to me that there’s a public vote to go smoking, in this day and age," condo resident Jeff Tentinger told the Star Tribune.
Other board members did not immediately respond to requests for comment, or declined to comment.
Kara Skahen is program director of Live Smoke Free, an organization that advocates for smoke-free housing. She told the Star Tribune that more multifamily buildings in Minnesota are going smoke-free.
In 2010, her program found 50 nonsmoking apartment buildings in Minnesota, but the number has since grown to more than 3,200, she told the paper.
Other cities in the U.S. are also going smoke-free.
In Baton Rouge, La., a smoking ban took effect July 1 for the city's public housing buildings, Fox 44 reported.
"In these apartments, the walls are so thin, if my neighbors are smoking cigarettes I can smell it into my apartment," building resident Marjorie Mackson, who supports the ban, told the station.
"In these apartments, the walls are so thin, if my neighbors are smoking cigarettes I can smell it into my apartment."
- Marjorie Mackson, Baton Rouge, La.
In Canton, Ga., the city council voted in June to make smoking illegal on any city property, sidewalk or street, WGCL-TV reported.
When Iowa passed its controversial Smokefree Air Act in 2008, it saw an immediate payoff as the state's percentage of smokers fell from 19 percent to 14 percent a year later, KWWL-TV reported.
But by 2016, the percentage of Iowans who smoke was up to 20 percent, the report said.
Some anti-smoking efforts outside the U.S. may be even more agressive, according to reports.
Singapore, for example, plans to deploy surveillance cameras that can detect illegal smoking and capture images of the offender, the Straits Times reported Tuesday, citing the country’s National Environment Agency.
In Sweden, smoke detectors inside a billboard prompt a man in a video ad to begin coughing loudly whenever a smoker walks by, the report said.
Amy Lieu is a news editor and reporter for Fox News Marijuana smoking supposedly make one stupid, while tobacco smoking supposedly sharpen ones cohesive skills. But smoke from either is still bad. Marijuana smoke is said to have a higher concentrate of tar than tobacco smoke. So where's the outrage over 'secondhand' marijuana smoke?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance ||
07/11/2018
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[Jpost] In the US, many on the liberal side of things are concerned that the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to succeed retiring US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy signals the death of liberalism on a range of issues.
Kennedy was known publicly as the court’s "swing vote," one of the few justices who could swing between the court’s liberal and conservative wings depending on the issue at hand.
From abortion to gay rights to affirmative action, Kavanaugh is predicted by many to be far more consistently conservative than Kennedy was.
The liberal side is equally concerned in Israel following Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s appointment of a number of conservative Supreme Court justices.
Conservatives in both the US and Israel are as pleased, as liberals are concerned, and see opportunities to assert a greater conservative direction for both Supreme Courts.
While all of these changes are part of a trend of conservatives winning more control, ironically, another major piece of the ascendance of conservative power on the two courts, is most clearly expressed when viewing the legacy of liberal lion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who just visited Israel.
The reason is that there are few, if any, liberal lions of RBG’s stature left on either court. Liberal Lion - somebody willing to trample both the law & common sense in their rush to utopia?
[Ynet] Senior officials of Open Society Foundations (OSF), the international grantmaking network founded by the Jewish Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, admitted that the organization, categorized as a non-profit NGO, worked to promote his business interests.
The admission comes in the wake of a report by Politico that the Israeli corporate spy agency Black Cube was involved in the defamation campaign against Soros in the period leading up to the Hungarian elections.
Black Cube’s involvement was allegedly intended to influence the elections. Company officials deny the allegations and new details indicate that they were hired for financial motives, as part of a feud with another billionaire.
Ynet has obtained testimony from Prof. Yevhen Bystrytsky, a Soros associate and chairman of the International Renaissance Foundation, the Ukrainian division of OSF, for the last 19 years. He describes how the foundation worked to influence Ukrainian political events in order to advance Soros’s business interests. Destroying civilization to make a buck - well, that's what Leftism is all about.
[Politico] Pretty much no one in the Western alliance is looking forward to the next few days.
NATO heads of state are due to meet Wednesday in Brussels beneath the disinterested gaze of President Donald Trump before he jets off to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. In between, British Prime Minister Theresa May‐who faces a pending collision with the brick wall of Brexit‐meets first with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then with Trump. It’s a rapid-fire series of what would usually be staid diplomatic photo-ops that could, in this iteration, seriously disrupt the international order that has made the United States a global superpower since the end of World War II.
While the president and other Republican envoys make reassuring entreaties to the Kremlin, Trump continues to view himself as the disruptor of NATO. In the weeks leading up to the NATO summit, the president again berated America’s allies for their defense spending. To push back, supporters of the trans-Atlantic framework that is the architecture of American power in the world are on an information blitz, heralding increased defense spending across the alliance.
All this has been accompanied by the usual cycle of pre-summit reports about NATO’s defensive vulnerabilities‐including the choke point of the Suwalki Gap between Poland and Lithuania. And, as usual, it’s the allies to the north of that gap that are trying to stay focused on what matters most: the fundamental transformation of the alliance that is needed.
Almost 10 years after the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008, it’s clear NATO still needs to learn more quickly from our partners with a deeper history of fighting Russian aggression in all its various forms. Foremost of those partners is Estonia, which, unlike Georgia, is a full NATO member and has been since 2004.
#2
If Russians want to take Estonia, they'll take Estonia. And nobody will interfere anymore than anybody will interfere when USA, finally, loses patience with Mexico.
#3
Tallinn is a wonderful town with a great history...not all of it related to their bear neighbor.
If you are into intrigue, google the sinking of the ferry Estonia, in which the entire Swedish investigatory team was lost. Tale full of conspiracies not resolved even until this day.
[Daily Wire] The two woman GOP senators who seemed recalcitrant about supporting President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court are hinting they will be fine supporting Trump’s actual nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
According to Politico, Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) and Susan Collins (R-ME) were far less confrontational after Trump’s announcement Monday night than they had been with the possibility of Judge Amy Coney Barrett joining the Court.
Murkowski allowed, "Let’s put it this way: There were some who have been on the list that I would have had a very, very difficult time supporting, just based on what was already publicly known about them. We’re not dealing with that."
Collins said she wouldn’t compare Kavanaugh to Barrett, then added, "It will be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job. He clearly is qualified for the job. But there are other issues involving judicial temperament and his political or rather his judicial philosophy that also will play into my decision."
Last week, Collins stated to MSNBC, "I think I’ve made it pretty clear that if a nominee has demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade and has said that they are not going to abide by that long-standing precedent, that I could not support that nominee," hinting that Barrett, who stated in a defense of the late Justice Antonin Scalia that Roe V. Wade was often disregarded as a superprecedent (a decision that should not be overruled), would not get her vote.
Murkowski had told Bloomberg that Roe vs. Wade would be "a factor" in her decision.
Both senators voted for Kavanaugh’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court in 2006.
#1
...I liked Judge Barrett, but let's face it - her membership in a Catholic organization that referred to some of its members as 'handmaidens' was probably beyond the pale these days.
On the other hand - if the GOP holds the Senate, and/or RBG leaves the court, then get her up there just to make a goddamn point.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/11/2018 3:30
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#5
My pint is, balloons and kites are not fast or stealthy. It seems the same radars that can see Hezbollah rockets could tip local responders that something with the signature of one of these arson devices is headed towards a certain location.
But that's an uneducated guess on my part, for sure...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 13:06
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#6
And it's a flying Molotov cocktail. I'd think an IR sensor should see it?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 13:07
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[IsraelTimes] Germany bans a Ottoman Turkish-nationalist biker gang on allegations it is involved in organized crime and represents a threat to the general public.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer says that searches were carried out in four states in conjunction with the ban on the Osmanen Germania BC club.
In addition to allegations the gang is involved in organized crime, German authorities say the group is believed to have ties to the party of Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and has been involved in intimidation in Germany of his critics.
The Interior Ministry says the group, founded in 2015, has 16 chapters around the country.
This article starring:
Osmanen Germania
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/11/2018
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#1
If only they were Muslims I'm sure Merkel would have been ok with them.
#2
They're unofficial extraterritorial enforcers of a Muslim Brotherhood regime so they are probably Muslims.
The ban is by law a decision made by the Interior Minister, not the Chancellor. It is possible that Merkel didn't receive a prior warning as she might have issued a veto.
OTOH this could also be a display of power to boost Seehofer's party's electoral prospects after Seehofer's humiliating submission to Merkel. Success theater following failure theater.
Definitely Muslims. The Turkey of Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan I, “the much beloved”, is unfriendly to unbelievers and not-quite-right believers as currently defined. Osmanian Germania is exactly as Elmerert Hupens2660 describes— click on the name in the article to see what we’ve got in the archives.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, accepts an Egyptian invitation to visit Cairo for talks, the Islamist group’s top political body says in a statement.
The group’s politburo says the talks will cover "ongoing developments related to Paleostinian and Arab affairs and bilateral ties," without elaborating.
Egypt has previously hosted Hamas officials in Cairo to discuss efforts to achieve reconciliation with Fatah, a possible prisoner swap deal with Israel, and other issues, including ways to ease the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gazoo.
The Hamas statement doesn’t say when the talks will take place.
#1
The group’s politburo says the talks will cover "ongoing developments related to Paleostinian and Arab affairs and bilateral ties," without elaborating and the tunnels
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2018 14:57
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[Daily Caller] An NBC News reporter tweeted early Tuesday that Justice Anthony Kennedy secretly negotiated the terms of his departure from the U.S. Supreme Court with the Trump administration, citing a single unnamed source.
The reporters pursuing the story, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Frank Thorp, first claimed that the justice quietly conferred with the White House for several months in advance of his retirement, and agreed to step aside once he received assurances that Judge Brett Kavanaugh would be selected as his successor.
Caldwell walked back her initial claim, conceding it "incorrectly implies a transactional nature in Kennedy’s replacement." She then said that Kennedy provided a list of acceptable nominees to the administration, which included Kavanaugh.
#4
There ARE a couple of basic transactions going on here, but none are scandalous. (1) Many die, you shall also. (2) What's the big deal if a sitting SC judge discusses his impending retirement with anyone of his choosing?
[Bloomberg] A reinforced deployment of tanks and heavy guns is parked along Israel’s frontier with Syria as the civil war that transformed the balance of power in the Middle East appears headed into its final stretch.
The fighting in Syria has come full circle as its army sets its sights on retaking Daraa province, where the regime’s brutal reaction to anti-government graffiti on a school wall sparked the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. The offensive against one of the last two major opposition strongholds has brought Syrian forces close to the Israeli-held section of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
As the thud of shells echoes across what has dependably been Israel’s quietest frontier for decades, fears of new conflicts have risen.
Iran, whose forces helped to propel Assad to the brink of total victory, has a presence on the doorstep of archenemy Israel. With the U.S. on the sidelines, only Russia has the clout to prevent the Israeli military from being drawn deeper into what remains of Syria’s war.
"None of us here is foolish enough to believe things will just go back to the way they were," said Qasem Sabagh, a member of the Golan Druze community that came under Israeli control, as he looked out at a United Nations post where Syrian relatives once came to shout greetings through a loudspeaker. "The entire world wants a piece of Syria -- Iran, the U.S., Israel, Russia."
[Daily Caller] Former FBI attorney Lisa Page will defy a congressional subpoena to appear for a deposition on Wednesday, her lawyer said in a statement.
The House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform Committees issued the subpoena to Page, who has been at the center of controversy over anti-Trump text messages that she exchanged with Peter Strzok, the former deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division.
Page and Strzok worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation as well as the probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Strzok is slated to testify in a public hearing before the two congressional committees on Thursday.
Page’s lawyer, Amy Jeffress, said her client has not had enough time to prepare for an interview. She also complained that the committees failed to respond to requests "to explain the scope of the interview."
#6
"Defy? Why, I never!" cried her.
"A lidy would surely demur,
As might her attorney,
For dining... a journey...
Or just for diversion, you cur...
Er... sir."
The author says that not providing documents or failure to testify could eventually lead to a contempt charge which could go before a grand jury. This is probably Kabuki theater since in recent history there have been no consequences. Shucks, I was hoping for a rope or at least tar and feathers.
#9
Fact is, Strozk and Page and others being outed in this escapade will never work in gummint again (Strozk has not been cashiers yet, I know) and unlike the usual DC revolving door, these people are not going to have any juice in private practice.
The idea of them in jail (where they deserve to be) is nice, but personally ruined will be bad enough.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 13:13
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#10
Will HRC ever be seen wearing an orange pants suit?
#11
Can a normal civilians can just defy a subpoena, congressional or not? Arrest her, use the power Congress has and restore the freaking balance of power to the way it was intended you fools.
[Bloomberg] The U.S. government sees oil production further climbing next year even amid transportation logjams in the country’s most prolific shale play.
The Energy Information Administration sees U.S. crude output averaging 11.8 million barrels a day in 2019, up from its 11.76 million barrel a day estimate in the June outlook.
"In 2019, EIA forecasts that the United States will average nearly 12 million barrels of crude oil production per day," said Linda Capuano, Administrator of the EIA. "If the forecast holds, that would make the U.S. the world’s leading producer of crude."
#4
Permian Basin pipeline companies are building three new pipelines, since they are currently maxed out, to enable another 2 million bbl/day to be shipped to the Texas refineries. Fracking has massively increased the Permian tappable reserves.
#6
US is already the leading producer of natural gas and has been for almost a decade
and the production has been increasing by 10% per year
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/11/2018 6:32
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#7
#6 Qatar natural gas production leveled off and started downhill last year. The pace should increase over the next decade while US production should increase substantially as it captures European markets.
#8
The wife and I drove through southeast New Mexico and west Texas a week ago on the way back to Houston from Santa Fe. The drilling rigs were too numerous to count, with flare-offs on site. New service equipment in huge impromptu lots, tanker trucks and temporary housing areas everywhere--and that's what could be seen without leaving the highway. Frankly, there were so many work trucks everywhere in the middle of nowhere that it was dangerous. Must be why there were DPS vehicles everywhere as well. In all my long life in Texas, and I grew up in the oil patch, never seen anything like this.
#9
Ref #8: All of which means more jobs for people in the oil patch, more taxes in local, state, and federal coffers. Less dependence on foreign energy.
#11
Oh, there's still a large cohort in Washington (and some retirees, cough, cough) who have a big vested interest in large transfers of western dollars to the oil ticks. For "stability" ya know...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 13:01
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[Wash Times] Conservative Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh embarked on a round of courtesy calls Tuesday with key Republican senators who control his Supreme Court nomination, while frustrated Democrats argued for a postponement of the confirmation hearing until special counsel Robert Mueller completes the Russia investigation that they hope could damage President Trump.
A day after Mr. Trump nominated the D.C. Circuit federal appeals court judge to replace retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the nominee made the traditional first visit to Capitol Hill, where he met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican. He was escorted by Vice President Mike Pence and former Sen. Jon Kyl, who will be the nominee’s guide for the confirmation process.
"We’re honored to be able to bring him here to the United States Senate and begin the important work the Senate will do discharging its constitutional duties to consider this good man as the president’s nominee," the vice president told Mr. McConnell.
The confirmation hearing could begin by Aug. 20 as the White House seeks to place Judge Kavanaugh on the high court for the start of its next term in October. Mr. Grassley gave no timeline but promised, "It’s going to be thorough and going to be done right."
"Hopefully, it’s efficient, we get it done quickly," he said.
#7
Then shut down the entire legislative branch as well, right? A 'tainted' President shouldn't have the "moral authority" to sign legislation into law either, right? Until Imperial Censor Mueller issues his report the tainted President can't authorize anything, right?
Madness... Or simple hypocritical blather...
#8
By such Democrat reasoning Hillary should not have been allowed to run for POTUS until her mess was all cleared up. That didn't happen. The Kavanaugh confirmation should go on. (That weasel Schumer can go do nasty things with himself.)
#11
But the Dims hope this dis-traction gets traction, then the 10 (D) Senators in Red states can continue to virtue-signal all the way to re-election.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/11/2018 15:08
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#12
They should let Mueller know that he has to pay for everything once the probe goes beyond X day. Bet he'd find a way to wrap things up by X day.
[The Hill] The U.S. Embassy in London released an alert on Tuesday urging Americans to "keep a low profile" during President Trump's scheduled visit to the United Kingdom later this week.
The notice asks for Americans in Britain to stay aware of their surroundings and to "exercise caution if unexpectedly in the vicinity of large gatherings that may become violent."
The request comes as Trump is expected to meet multiple protests during his first visit to the United Kingdom since taking office. Thousands of people are expected to turn out. Among the planned demonstrations is a large "Trump baby" blimp which was approved by London city officials to fly over Parliament.
"It's just been announced: Donald Trump is coming to Britain on a state visit later this year," reads a Facebook event description for a protest planned July 13-14 that has about 60,000 saying they will attend. "We don't know when. But let's be ready ‐ and be prepared to take to the streets in the most incredible protest in our history."
(Reuters) - Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser who pleaded guilty in a case related to the Russian election collusion investigation, is eager to move to the sentencing phase and put his legal ordeal behind him, Flynn’s lawyer said at a hearing on Tuesday.
Robert Kelner confirmed at the hearing that his client continues to cooperate with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of any links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Kelner also indicated the evidence the judge had ordered Mueller provide to Flynn’s legal team had not altered his case.
#5
Once the Sentencing starts then the Mueller Team will have to "Fish or Cut Bait" -- so the weasels are putting it off as long as possible. This a poster child that showcases the rot in our current judicial system's addiction to the Plea-Bargain Process. Sweet Heart Deals. Arbitrary Enforcement.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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... ’s air defense forces intercepted a missile launched towards the kingdom’s southwestern Jizan region by Yemen’s armed Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias.
The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said earlier that a Badr 1 missile had targeted Jizan Economic City, where Saudi Aramco is building a refinery that is expected to become fully operational in 2019.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital Sanaa, have fired dozens of missiles into the kingdom in recent months. Most of the missiles have been intercepted by the Saudi military.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to unseat the Houthis and restore the internationally-recognized legitimate government.
Yemen’s Houthi militias had also fired a rocket at Saudi Arabia’s southern Jizan province last Tuesday leaving a five-year-old child maimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday night that work on the "framework and rules" would start in the coming months to ensure that Islam "will be practiced everywhere in accordance with the laws of the republic."
He added: "We will do this with French Moslems and their representatives."
The "immense majority" of French Moslems supported the country's principles of individual freedom and secularism based on mutual respect, he said.
Macron acknowledged that "terrorism, the chaos of the world, migration and our failures in integration" played a role in public fears.
"This is why we must restore the republic's order and respect," Macron said, referring to the fight against terrorism and a policing plan for troubled suburbs announced earlier this year.
"General order, ordinary sense of civility and independence of minds and individuals regarding religion are not empty words in La Belle France, and this requires a new framework and harmony," he said.
"There is no reason at all for the relation between the Republic and Islam to be difficult," Macron said, noting that there is "an Lion of Islam and hostile interpretation of Islam that aims to doubt our laws as a free state and a free society whose principles do not submit to religious orders."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
What a surrender monkey complete joke. I'd say good luck but the would be a waste of withering sarcasm.
[DAWN] A viral picture shows former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... ’s son-in-law retired captain Mohammad Safdar hiding Saturday night in a Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... cave along with friends ahead of his surrender in Rawalpindi over conviction in the Avenfield flats corruption case.
The accountability court of Islamabad had awarded Mr Safdar one-year imprisonment in the case.
The undated picture reportedly released by the aides of Mr Safdar on the social media claimed that the cave was located in the mountainous Tanawal area. It also showed the former premier’s son-in-law with a small suitcase.
After the court announced his conviction in the Avenfield case on Friday, Mr Safdar had announced that he was ready to surrender.
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[PRESSTV] A federal judge has said the administration of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... must meet a deadline set for reuniting dozens of migrant children under the age of five with their parents or face penalties.
US District Judge Dana Sabraw said on Tuesday that he was sticking to deadlines he set last month, despite government officials indicating they would be unable to meet the target.
Sabraw had ordered 63 of a group of 100 children under five to be reunited by July 10 and another 2,000 to be back with their parents by July 26.
"These are firm deadlines; they are not aspirational goals," Sabraw said. "I would like the process to continue as expeditiously as it has been with paramount focus on the children’s welfare."
The federal judge also called on the American Civil Liberties Union to file papers on Thursday, suggesting remedies if the government had not reunified the 63 children by Tuesday "or within immediate proximity of today."
Washington has reportedly asked Sabraw to extend the deadlines because it needed time to test DNA to confirm family relationships, run background checks, locate parents who were released from custody and review parental fitness.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
...Hold it:
...The federal judge also called on the American Civil Liberties Union to file papers on Thursday, suggesting remedies if the government had not reunified the 63 children by Tuesday "or within immediate proximity of today."
Let me see if I have this straight: the JUDGE is telling the ACLU, "Oh, go ahead and file more motions," with the implication being that he'll happily approve them?
Aw, hell no. You don't work for the ACLU, Your Honor. Get off the bench now - you've compromised yourself and your job to the point where you are no longer impartial.
Mike
PS - This is the sort of thing Justice Clarence Thomas spoke of in a recent opinion, where he asked HOW individual judges in the District and Circuit courts have gotten the idea that they can tie up and dictate policy. It sure as hell ain't in the Constitution, and up until the early 60s was unusual at best. You want yet another reason the Left is terrified of Justice-Designate Kavanaugh? If SCOTUS comes down and says that this sort of thing stops, the Dems are finished.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/11/2018 4:13
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#2
If SCOTUS comes down and says that this sort of thing stops, the Dems are finished.
#4
If we had a proper function in the checks and balances of government, said judge would receive notice of a closed door meeting with the Speaker of the House to discuss 'Bad Behavior' as in the assumption of dictatorial powers. Not to mention the practice of law in which examples of people are made to discourage undesirable behavior by others.
#5
The Congress also gets some say in what sort of cases federal courts can mess with - and what sort of cases they cannot touch. This has rarely if ever been done, but AFAICT is allowed for in the constitution.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Eight Islamic State members, planning for a fake checkpoint, were killed in an airstrike by the U.S.-led Coalition in Diyala, the Security Media Center said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the center said, “based on intelligence information from the Counter-Terrorism Service, the Coalition jets carried out an airstrike targeting Islamic State pockets in Hamreen mountains in Kabashi region in al-Saadiya town.”
During the airstrike, according to the statement, “eight militants, planning for a fake checkpoint, were killed.”
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi police forces killed on Tuesday an Islamic State commander following fierce clashes in Diyala province, a police chief was quoted as saying.
“The IS commander was responsible for preparing suicide bombers to carry out terrorist attacks in the country,” Federal Police Chief Raed Shaker Jawdat told Baghdad Today website.
“The troops also destroyed an IS hotbed and seized a huge amount of ammunition and explosives, including two explosive belts, eight arms depots, six grenades and a mortar shell,” Jawdat added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#3
Germany is following the Russian lead in its relationship with Iran. America's conflict with Germany will reach a boiling point if Germany allows Lufthansa (and its subsidiary in Austria) to continue its flights to Iran.
Sorry, that's total BS and not backed up by any numbers.
Current energy imports from Russia (natural gas, oil and coal) is 25% of Germany's total energy consumption. Coal and oil can easily be bough elsewhere if Russia acts up.
Germany imports 38% of its natural gas from Russia. The new pipeline isn't going to add much as Germany actually seeks to diversify its gas imports.
According to a simulation by the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne, Germany could survive a total Russian gas embargo for at least five months without supply bottlenecks thanks to many storage facilities and improved intra-European connections.
So it would be difficult for the Russians to take Germany hostage. And of course they have zero reasons to try.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
07/11/2018 15:10
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#6
Thanks EC, your perspective is reassuring. All we have to go on here are previous regional alliances, Frau Merkel's performance and a continuous stream of what appears to be, negative reporting. Please keep us posted.
For Russia, Germany is more important as a trading partner than the other way around. Of all German imports, only three percent came from Russia in 2017 - and only two percent of exports go to Russia. For Russia, Germany in 2017 was the second most important partner after China, accounting for 8.6 percent of their total foreign trade. And more than two thirds of Russian exports to Germany were natural gas, oil and coal.
So frankly, no Russian control. And say what you will about Merkel, she has no illusions about Putin.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
07/11/2018 15:38
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#8
Again, and as always, thanks for your regional expertise and perspectives. I have not had the pleasure of visiting Germany in many years, so the updates are appreciated.
[All Africa] The Zim-bob-we Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is investigating skirmishes that broke out during President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Bindura rally weekend resulting in scores beaten up and injured by police.
The embarrassing incident happened in the middle of Mnangagwa's rally address when some party followers started trooping out of Chipadze Stadium, inviting the wrath of the police, army and some Border Gezi youths who could not stomach seeing scores walk out on the President.
The stampede was reportedly triggered by a Zanu PF supporter who had shouted that buses that brought them to the venue were about to leave Chipadze stadium, according to state media.
Some independent media reports however, pointed to disturbances caused by people who had had enough of Mnangagwa's long address under chilly weather conditions.
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[DAWN] A suicide kaboomer went kaboom! near an Afghan cops vehicle on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, mostly civilians, officials said, in the latest deadly violence to rock the country.
The kaboom in the eastern city of Jalalabad also left at least four people maimed and set a nearby petrol station alight, provincial governor front man Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.
Eight civilians were among the dead, Khogyani added.
Some of the victims were brought to hospital with severe burns, health director Najibullah Kamawal said, confirming the casualty toll.
"I saw a big ball of fire that threw people away. The people were burning," Esmatullah, who witnessed the incident, told AFP.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in restive 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.. province, which borders Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The US ambassador to Germany urged Berlin on Tuesday to stop Iran withdrawing large sums of cash from bank accounts in Germany to offset the effect of new US sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal.
Richard Grenell, a longtime critic of the accord, told the mass-circulation daily Bild that the US government was extremely concerned about Tehran’s plans to transfer hundreds of millions of euros in cash to Iran.
"We encourage the highest levels of the German government to intervene and stop the plan," Grenell said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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MOSCOW — Russia’s premier rocket engine manufacturer, Energomash, has raised the alarm on the looming cut-off of U.S. purchases of RD-180 and RD-181 engines: the end of the company’s most lucrative revenue stream is coming, Energomash wrote in its annual report last week, and it is coming far sooner than anyone anticipated.
[Hot Air] Every time the military changes their fitness requirements lately it leads to controversy. This is mostly because so many of the recent changes created at least the suggestion that accommodations were being made for female recruits, or perhaps even males who couldn’t meet the traditional standards. This latest set of changes may sound similar on the surface, but let’s not be too quick to judge. Rather than doing two minutes of push-ups and two minutes of sit-ups, new exercises are being added which supposedly better simulate physical demands encountered on the battlefield.
#3
My older brother, since retired, watched this coming in the US Navy: "So we don't need to see if a single sailor is strong enough to drag a casualty up a ladder and out of a flooding compartment? Two sailors is enough ... right!?! What if that unconscious sailor was Me!"
djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... (IraqiNews.com) Twenty-three Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... members, including leaders, were tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! , northwest of Mosul, a security source from Nineveh police said.
Speaking to BasNews, Lt. Gen. Emad Hassan, of Nineveh Operations Command, said "security troops still besiege al-Atshana mountain for the fourth day in row in Badush village to follow Islamic State members."
Security troops, according to Hassan, "took the bandidosgunnies and the leaders to the headquarters of Nineveh Operations Command for investigations."
Troops also "seized four tunnels that the bandidosgunnies use in the mountain."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[PRESSTV] Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have fired a domestically-designed and -developed ballistic missile at a strategic economic target in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s southwestern border region of Jizan in retaliation to the Riyadh regime’s devastating military aggression against their impoverished country.
A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said the short-range Badr-1 missile struck Jazan Economic City, located 967 kilometers southwest of the capital Riyadh, with great precision on Tuesday afternoon, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.
Earlier in the day, Yemeni army soldiers and Popular Committees fighters had fired a ballistic missile at the supply depots of Saudi-sponsored gunnies loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the country’s western coastal province of Hudaydah.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[PRESSTV] Leb's Military Tribunal has sentenced seven Lebanese nationals in absentia to hard labor on charges of espionage for Israel's Mossad spy agency and collaboration with Israeli authorities.
The tribunal, chaired by Brigadier General Hussein Abdallah, issued the verdicts against Fadi Hashem, Charbel Hashem, Maroun Hashem and Lina Aanid on Tuesday after they were found guilty of crossing into occupied Paleostinian territories, working with Israeli officials and receiving permits to live there.
The court also stripped them of their rights as Lebanese citizens.
Three other defendants, identified as Salam Fakhoury, Assad Saqr and Antoinette al-Nadaf, were each sentenced in absentia to 15 years of hard labor for collaborating with Israel.
The military tribunal also revoked the nationality of the trio.
Back in January last year, Lebanese security forces nabbed Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! five people over working for Mossad.
The media office of Leb’s General Security Directorate announced in a statement that the quintet had confessed to passing information to Mossad via Israeli embassies in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Jordan, Britannia and Nepal.
The statement stressed that the individuals were arrested following intensive monitoring of Israeli intelligence operations in the country as part of Leb’s activities aimed at dismantling similar networks.
It added that the two spies from Nepal were also engaged in recruiting other Nepalese workers in Leb.
"After their interrogation, the arrestees were referred to the competent court on the offense of collaboration with the Israeli enemy, and work is underway to arrest the rest of the people involved," the statement pointed out.
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[Breitbart] More American manufacturing workers are employed today than at any time in the last ten years as President Trump’s ’America First’ economy seeks to protect U.S. industry and jobs with tariffs, less immigration, and tax relief.
In June 2018, Trump’s booming economy delivered an additional 36,000 manufacturing jobs for American workers, many of whom have had their livelihoods destroyed by job-killing free trade deals like NAFTA and KORUS.
Specifically, in the metals manufacturing industry, Trump’s tariffs on imported steel, aluminum, and Chinese electronics seems to have boosted U.S. job growth ‐ with 7,000 new jobs in manufacturing fabricated metal products, 5,000 new jobs in manufacturing computer and electronic products, and 3,000 new jobs in manufacturing primary metals.
Additionally, 12,000 car and vehicle parts manufacturing jobs were created in June. In the past year, there have been 285,000 new manufacturing jobs added to the U.S. economy as Trump encourages and incentivizes companies to move production back to the country.
There are now 12.8 million Americans working in the U.S. manufacturing industry, a ten year high for the economy. The last time that many Americans were working in manufacturing was back in December 2008. At that time, 12.8 million Americans had jobs in the industry.
#2
It's good, but it's also a pendulum. Hopefully it swings back the other way while a donk is in the White House.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 7:30
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#3
..no problem. They promised to kill those types of jobs and industries. Remember, the Light Bringer said those jobs were never going to come back. See - Scorpion and Frog
#4
It takes a guy like Trump to come along for many (not the unusually well-informed R-Burgers) to realize just how anti-American Donk policies have been for the U.S. Hillary declared during the run-up to the 2016 election that she and the Dems were going to shut down the coal-mining industry. Her declaration was good for the Trump vote; not so good for Hillary. She communicated that she really didn't like Americans in so many ways and then expected them to vote for her.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States designated a Shiite Death Eater group in Bahrain as a foreign terrorist organization Tuesday to ramp up pressure on Iran.
The al-Ashtar Brigades are "yet another in a long line of Iranian-sponsored murderous Moslems who kill on behalf of a corrupt regime," Nathan Sales, the coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, said in a statement detailing the designation.
The Death Eater group has grabbed credit for a number of bombings and attacks in Bahrain, including two that killed police.
The designation, which prohibits Americans or US companies from doing business with the group, is the latest Trump administration effort to increase pressure on Tehran after pulling out of the 2015 nuclear accord.
During a short trip to the United Arab Emirates Tuesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US is on a mission to convince Iran its behavior "is unacceptable and has a real high cost for them."
Iran supports a number of gangs across the Middle East including Hezbollah in Leb, armed forces propping up Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , and powerful gangs in Iraq.
The United States is preparing to re-introduce sanctions on Iran later this year including secondary sanctions aimed at severely restricting the country’s ability to export oil. In turn, Iran has threatened to disrupt Mideast oil supplies.
The Trump administration has targeted the al-Ashtar Brigades with sanctions before. In March 2017, the State Department blacklisted two individuals affiliated with the group, Ahmad Hasan Yusuf and Alsayed Murtadha Majeed Ramadhan Alawi.
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[DAWN] A man stabbed a woman to death in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Rahim Yar Khan on Monday night before fleeing the scene of the crime.
The accused, identified as Muneeb, had reportedly picked up his cousin, Shamim, from the hospital where she worked as a midwife under the pretense of dropping her home, but instead took her to a different house where he was employed as a chauffeur.
The assailant, according to the first information report, purportedly tried to drag his cousin into his employer's empty house but was met with resistance.
When his cousin cried for help and resisted the assault, he chased her down and stabbed her repeatedly.
The victim, a single mother of one, went titzup.
CCTV footage of the incident shows that several passers-by were in the vicinity of the incident. The FIR, filed by the victim's brother, states that the passers-by wanted to intervene but were warned to not come near by the alleged murderer, who discouraged any rescue attempts by brandishing his knife.
The assailant, after committing the crime, escaped on his cycle of violence.
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[Daily Caller] The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is blistering at a proposed regulation that would prevent the union from siphoning fees from American workers’ Medicaid payments.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a proposed rule Tuesday that would require Medicaid payments to go directly to healthcare workers, ending a 2014 Obama-era rule that let third parties, such as unions and insurance companies, skim off a share of the paycheck before the worker saw any of it. (RELATED: CMS Rule Strikes Obama-Era Regulation That Pays For Third-Party Fringe Benefits Instead Of Health Care)
The SEIU, one of the largest public-sector unions in the U.S., referred to the proposed rule "as part of the [Trump] administration’s broad, coordinated attack against working people."
"The proposed rule targets these home care workers and is designed to stop them from contributing their own wages to support their union in the same way that teachers, police and firefighters do," the SEIU said in a statement. "This proposal is a transparent attempt to interfere with workers’ freedom to choose to join together in a union and advocate for higher wages, better training, and basic benefits like affordable healthcare and paid sick time that are crucial to ensure quality home care for our parents, grandparents and children."
Though the Obama rule legalizing the practice went into effect in 2014, unions have been skimming money from Medicaid payments for nearly two decades, according to Freedom Foundation director for labor policy Maxford Nelson.
[FOX] Always remember: Just because you’re drinking in a car that’s not moving doesn’t mean you’re not a drunk driver.
A Florida man found that out the hard way when police responded to a disturbance at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Vero Beach, TCPalm reported.
According to the police report on the incident posted to TMZ, the responding officer was told by the driver who called that the car behind her kept bumping into her vehicle "over and over."
When he approached the allegedly offending vehicle, he found Earle Gustavas Stevens, 69, behind the wheel with an open bottle of Jim Beam bourbon in a bag on the passenger seat.
Stevens was reported to have alcohol on his breath and "red and glossy" eyes. He told the officer that he was drinking, but not in the vehicle. When asked where, Stevens clarified that he only took a sip when the vehicle was stationary at stop signs and traffic signals during a trip from Port St. Lucie, about 30 miles away.
He was also found to be under the influence of painkillers and failed a field sobriety test.
Regardless of a driver’s level of intoxication, having an open container in a vehicle is against Florida law. In this case, Stevens was arrested and taken to jail, where he was administered a breathalyzer test and registered a .157 blood alcohol content, which is nearly twice the legal limit in the state.
Stevens also didn’t have a driver’s license and was found to have two DUI priors in Missouri. He is now facing multiple charges stemming from the Florida incident.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Rebels and bully boyz killed more than two dozen pro-government fighters in a joint attack in a northwestern stronghold of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... ’s regime, a monitor said Tuesday.
In retaliation, the government and its ally Russia pounded rebel-held areas in the coastal province of Latakia and neighboring Idlib on Tuesday.
The government’s attack resulted in the death of four civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It was the bloodiest opposition assault on the area in three years, according to the Britannia-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside the country.
The surprise offensive late Monday targeted a pair of villages and observation points in Latakia, near the Ottoman Turkish border.
"At least 27 regime forces and allied fighters, including eight officers, were killed in fierce festivities and shelling in the village of al-Ateira," said Observatory Head Rami Abdulrahman.
He said, "They took al-Ateira and kicked out regime forces from several observation points after killing or wounding them."
Another 40 government loyalists were maimed and six rebels were killed, he said.
The Observatory said the opposition fighters included local rebels from Latakia as well as more hardline forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2018
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[All Africa] The Ondo State Police Command yesterday confirmed that a final year student of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Miss Adenike Khadijat Oluboyo, was found dead in a house at Okearo area of Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The dear departed was a daughter of the immediate past Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Lasisi Oluboyo.
Though, the police said some arrests had been made on the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Ondo State Command, Mr. Femi Joseph, did not give further details of the incident.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... it was gathered that the dear departed was reportedly found dead under the bed in the home of her boyfriend in Akure.
A source said Khadijat who had left school for the past six days, was found under the bed of her boyfriend, under suspicious circumstances.
A family source said a herbalist that prepared the money ritual for her boyfriend who is currently on the lam, instructed him to keep the corpse for seven days but luck ran out of the Abuja-based boyfriend when his younger brother entered the room and met the decomposing body of the late Khadijat.
The boyfriend's brother was said to have reported the matter to the police.
The PPRO said the command's officers discovered the dead body of the undergraduate at a house at Oke-Aro area of Akure, following a report.
He disclosed that some arrests had been made in connection with the death of the former deputy governor's daughter.
He said the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gbenga Adeyanju, would brief journalists on the incident very soon.
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[Breitbart] During an interview with Gold Derby editor Daniel Montgomery,"The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah said President Donald Trump reminded him of "many African dictators."
Noah, who was born in South Africa, said, "Donald Trump reminds me in many ways of many African dictators His demeanor, his style, who he presents himself as and how he processes his power is something that’s all too familiar, not just for an African but for someone from the Middle East, for instance.
Because what we’ve been seeing since January 21, 2017 is the populations of rebellious cities decimated, like Hafez al Assad, or the entire population driven into the countryside to survive as best they can, eating grass and drinking rainwater, like Robert Mugabe, while President Trump has established an annual beauty contest so that he can pick his next wife from all the unmarried women in America, though he has a way to go to catch up with the fourteen wives of the king of Swaziland. Mr. Noah is an idiot, who learnt all the wrong things growing up half white in South Africa.
He added, "Anyone who comes from a developing nation is all too familiar with a leader like him, so it’s not as shocking as it may be for many other people." You don't like it here any longer? I believe Delta Flt-200 leaves daily from Atlanta, 17 hrs later you can be landing at scenic Tambo.
[PRESSTV] People in northern Afghanistan have demonstrated to keep alive a demand for the return of exiled Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... On the seventh day of demonstrations on Tuesday, protesters tore down pictures of President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. while threatening that they could cut highways and power lines, bringing electricity from neighboring Uzbekistan to the capital Kabul.
Their major demand is for Ghani to coordinate the return of Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek leader and a member of Ghani’s current national unity government, who has not returned to Afghanistan since he went to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... for medical treatment last year.
The protests erupted last week after Nizamuddin Qaisari, a local police commander loyal to Dostum, was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! Dostum went into exile after he was accused of torturing and sexually assaulting his political opponent Ahmad Ischi. There has been speculation that he may return to Afghanistan despite objections by the United States and other Western backers of Ghani’s government.
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Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Four suicide kaboomers were killed as the pro-government paramilitary troops thwarted an infiltration attempt by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... members in Salahuddin province.
A statement by the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said, "troops of the 43rd brigade managed to foil an infiltration attempt by 15 Islamic State members in Tal al-Thahab region in the vicinity of Balad town, south of Samarra."
"Four jacket wallahs were killed, others were maimed, while the rest bravely ran away," the statement added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/11/2018
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Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) ‐ An Iraqi civilian was killed Tuesday after a bomb fixed to his car went kaboom! in Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
"A bomb planted under a car went off while the car was passing by al-Radwaniyah district in southwestern Baghdad, leaving the driver killed," the source told Alghad Press website.
According to the source, the body was moved to the forensic medicine department, and a probe was launched into the attack."
No group has so far grabbed credit for the attack.
[The College Fix] Cal Poly San Luis Obispo works on massive diversity and inclusion effort
In keeping with the diversity and inclusion movement sweeping campuses across the country, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo recently released a 30-page report outlining plans to "improve diversity" via a series of initiatives.
One goal is to increase the number of people of color on campus beyond the increases that have already occurred over the past few years, as "applications from underrepresented minority students doubled between 2008 and 2018."
"In 2011, the campus was 63 percent Caucasian," the May 2 report informs readers, "in fall of 2017, it was less than 55 percent ... but there is still much work to do."
The public research institution states it wishes to get those numbers more in line with the state’s percentage of white people, which recent polls hold at 39.7 percent of the population.
#1
"In 2011, the campus was 63 percent Caucasian," the May 2 report informs readers, "in fall of 2017, it was less than 55 percent ... but there is still much work to do."
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/11/2018 12:41
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#7
we have been visiting schools lately for my kid, he's a 4.5 GPA pre engineering student and ALL the California schools, while seemingly excellent are in a period of massive decline coupled with massive expense, consequently we are bypassing all of them for other State schools that are better funded and better run
[DAWN] Iranians on social media mocked holy manal rulers on Monday after the hardline judiciary placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! a teenage girl for posting on Instagram videos of herself dancing in her room.
Critics of the arrest of gymnast Maedeh Hojabri, 18, used the hashtag #Dancingisnotacrime and Iranian women posted videos of themselves dancing in public.
"You will be laughed at if you tell people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness and beauty on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free," wrote Iranian blogger and political dissident Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki.
Iranian state TV aired a video in which she apologized for "breaking moral norms" but said any breach was not her intention. Some Iranian news websites reported three other people had been arrested on similar charges in the past weeks. The reports said they were released on bail.
"I had no bad intentions ... I did not want to encourage others to do the same ... I did not work with a network," a crying Hojabri told TV on Friday.
Before her account was blocked by Iranian authorities, Hojabri had posted around 300 videos on her Instagram account in which she appeared without wearing the compulsory Islamic headscarf.
Under Iran’s Islamic Sharia law, women are required to wear headscarves and modest clothing in public and are banned from dancing in public.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[PRESSTV] Two other Tory MPs have resigned from their posts, joining a growing list of ruling Conservative Party members defying British Prime Minister Theresa May's plans for leaving the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Conservative Party vice-chairs Ben Bradley and Maria Caulfield announced their resignation on Tuesday afternoon, warning the premier that her strategy for a close trading relationship with the bloc in post-Brexit era would not capitalize on the opportunities that Brexit could provide.
"I admit that I voted to Remain in that ballot. What has swayed me over the last two years to fully back the Brexit vision is the immense opportunities that are available from global trade, and for the ability for Britannia to be an outward looking nation in control of our own destiny once again," Bradley wrote in his resignation letter.
"I fear that this agreement at Chequers damages those opportunities; that being tied to EU regulations, and the EU tying our hands when seeking to make new trade agreements, will be the worst of all worlds if we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name, then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to Number 10," he added.
On July 6, the Brutish prime minister won initial support from her cabinet for the 12-point Brexit plan, which came about following an emergency meeting at her Chequers country residence.
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[IsraelTimes] Navy arrests 8 passengers, some of them Paleostinians injured in recent border festivities with Israel, after vessel left permitted fishing zone, ostensibly en route to Cyprus
The Israeli Navy stopped and seized a fishing boat that attempted to break through the naval blockade around the Gazoo Strip, arresting the eight Paleostinians on board, some of them people injured in recent border festivities with Israeli troops, the military said.
The vessel’s purported destination was Cyprus, however the boat lacked the equipment necessary to safely reach the island nation, making it more likely that this was a symbolic act of protest.
"The vessel was seized without incident," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
After a search of the vessel, the boat was towed to the Israeli Navy’s base at the Ashdod port.
IDF medics provided treatment to the injured people on board the vessel, the army said.
Hundreds of Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip had gathered to see off the boat. Among the passengers were four people said to have been maimed by Israeli soldiers during recent riots along the security fence surrounding the Gazoo Strip. The other passengers were said to be students.
The passengers "with specific needs are prevented from travelling, receiving care, and finishing their studies," said organizer Raed Abu Dair. "We are determined to break the blockade."
Mahmud Abu Ataya, 25, who recently suffered a leg wound east of Gazoo City, said: "I am leaving to be cared for abroad."
This was the second time in two months that a Gazook fishing vessel was used in an attempt to break the blockade, which Israel maintains is necessary to prevent terrorist organizations from bringing weapons into the coastal enclave. The blockade, which is also enforced by Egypt, has been deemed legal by the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... and other international bodies, though it remains hotly contested by many human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. groups.
Under the blockade, which was put in place in 2007, Paleostinians are forbidden to travel more than 11 kilometers (seven miles) from the Gazoo shore.
"This is the second time in two months that the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terror group tried to cause a provocation at sea by taking advantage of injured and handicapped people and by paying residents of Gazoo to take part in this kind of activity," the army said.
On May 29, another vessel from the Gazoo Strip, called al-Hurriyah (Liberty), attempted to run the blockade.
"The IDF seized a Paleostinian boat carrying some 17 sailors who broke the sea blockade," the navy said at the time. "The seizure was carried out without incident."
Another round incoming. China is running out of tit/tat options. If Beijing matches this new batch any additional US action will force China to sanction something other than trade. Link to The Street story
#1
China has few options in a trade war against the US. They have a massive debt/real estate bubble that is popping and they blew a trillion dollars worth of their hoarded currency to prop up the Yen and were hoping the dollar would fall.
The opposite happened. The US economy took off, dollar strengthened and the Chinese are looking at needing imports to keep their loans afloat or the remaining 3 trillion in foreign currency they have in reserve will disappear, rapidly. Trump knows this and is trying to force them to give more than they want to keep their economy from collapsing.
The real risk is if they think they have everything to lose and move to seize the south sea trading lanes and natural resources in the area it means war. Stringing them along and hopefully gauging when they are about to collapse and offering them a safety line seems to be Trump's strategy.
#2
hopefully gauging when they are about to collapse and offering them a safety line seems to be Trump's strategy.
Darth, this was the one attribute that I thought Trump might have before he was elected that made me not be too concerned. We haven't seen a president with real skills in wheeling and dealing since I don't know when.
Other than his toying with the press I suspect that there's a lot of deep thinking going on to accomplish his objectives. The toying is mostly just for fun.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A recent European Council summit in Brussels was meant to articulate a united policy on the burgeoning refugees and migrant crisis. Instead, it served to highlight the bitter divisions between various European countries.
In response to the summit, several European leaders, including Italia’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, went home to speak triumphantly of a "great victory", achieved through a supposedly united European position.
#3
You don't close the borders because you hate the people outside, you close the borders because you love the people inside.
CNN doesn't like the people inside. Or the rest of the globalists.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
07/11/2018 7:41
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The disturbing truth is this: Europe is accountable for much of the mayhem occurring in the Middle East. Right-wing pundits may wish to omit that part of the debate altogether, but facts will not simply disappear when ignored.
Utter bullshit. Facts are, these are fucked-up cultures, religions, factions, economies, and people
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2018 8:47
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[AnNahar] President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... Tuesday promoted The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's army commander to overall armed forces chief in a radical military shake-up after the outgoing top general was given the post of defence minister.
Turkey's new government announced late on Monday the appointment of former chief of staff General Hulusi Akar as defence minister, a rare transition from military ranks to the political realm.
Erdogan then appointed ground forces commander General Yasar Guler as chief of staff by presidential decree published in the official gazette.
With more than 900,000 active personnel, Turkey has the second largest force in NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... after the United States which has almost 1.5 million.
The announcement comes as NATO meets in Brussels amid tensions over spending.
Erdogan was sworn in Monday for a second presidential term under a controversial new system that will centralise all institutions, including the army, under the presidency.
Erdogan was granted sweeping powers in the new executive presidential system, meaning he can directly appointing top military figures.
Under the new decree, Erdogan will decide on the promotion of top army officers including colonels, brigadier generals, admirals and generals in the Ottoman Turkish armed forces.
The official appointment of the army officers usually takes place on August 30 every year. The term of duty for the top army general is four years.
Guler, 64, along with Akar and top commanders, had been kidnapped to a military base by the putschists on the night of the 2016 coup aimed at unseating Erdogan's government.
Ankara accuses US-based Moslem preacher Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... of criminal masterminding the coup bid -- a charge he strongly denies.
Turkey has launched a massive purge aimed at ending Gulen's influence, dismissing thousands of soldiers including half the pre-coup contingent of generals.
According to the new decree, deputy chief of staff General Umit Dundar was appointed land forces commander.
Dundar played a key role in thwarting the coup attempt. In a live statement to television channels on the night, he said: "That is a movement not supported by the Ottoman Turkish armed forces."
Erdogan has since defeating the coup bid increased his influence over the armed forces, who had previously been seen as a parallel power structure that had repeatedly ousted governments.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[PRESSTV] Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has underlined the country’s determination to make progress in its EU membership process.
Speaking to members of his ministry on Tuesday, Cavusoglu also said the foreign ministry will be merged with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's EU Affairs Ministry to follow up the work "under one roof."
The Ottoman Turkish foreign minister made the statements a day after President Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as president with new executive powers, keeping Cavusoglu in his position in the cabinet.
In late June, the EU said talks with Turkey to potentially accept Ankara’s accession to the bloc have reached a deadlock over alleged Ottoman Turkish rights violations and judicial failures, including mass arrests and dismissals and targeting journalists, academics, politicians, rights defenders and social media users.
The EU, however, noted that Ankara remained a "key partner" for the Western bloc on matters such as aiding to block the persisting stream of refugees and asylum seekers into Europe
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[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Tuesday accepted former Malir SSP Rao Anwar's bail application in the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case.
Anwar, whose involvement in the staged encounter that led to the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud — a Waziristan native residing in Karachi — was confirmed by two separate investigative reports, was asked by the court today to submit Rs1 million worth surety bonds in order to make bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s incoming finance minister, the son-in-law of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... , on Tuesday vowed to bring inflation down to single digits as he seeks to win over investors spooked by his appointment.
Berat Albayrak, the husband of Erdogan’s elder daughter Esra, was on Monday named by the president as treasury and finance minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle for his new term.
Albayrak’s surprise switch from the energy ministry spooked financial markets, who were also unhappy to see there was no room for outgoing deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek, the government’s pointman on the economy.
"In the coming period we will work intensively to bring inflation down to single digits," Albayrak said at a handover ceremony with Simsek, whose post no longer exists in the new government.
Inflation in Turkey surged to over 15 percent in June for the first time in almost one-and-a-half decades, raising new fears that the economy is overheating.
Albayrak promised a "more successful performance" in the coming period based on "independent institutions".
Erdogan has repeatedly called on the central bank, nominally independent, to cut interest rates, raising concerns over its credibility.
Albayrak, 40, vowed that Turkey would set "an example for the world" in financial and budgetary discipline and also vowed "a vigorous and energetic monetary policy", without giving further details.
"Turkey will write a new story," he promised.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
we will work intensively to bring inflation down to single digits
Somebody please bookmark this for Halloween, so we can see if son-in-law worked intensively enough.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/11/2018 15:10
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#2
I'm sure there are some old WIN buttons around that he's welcome to.
Posted by: Tom ||
07/11/2018 16:49
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Alejandro Andrade Berat Albayrak, the husband of Hugo's Erdogan’s elder daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez Esra, was on Monday named by the president as treasury and finance minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle for his new term.
I seen dis movie before- with more Chavismo. Everyone in the family gets rich
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2018 20:14
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[SABANEWS.NET] Rocketry and artillery forces of the 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... army and popular committees shelled gatherings and sites of Saudi enemy and its mercenaries during 24 hours, inflicting them heavy losses in lives and equipment, according to military reports combined by Saba News Agency on Tuesday.
In Yemen’s western coast, the army and popular committees cleared several sites in the west of Jabalia area of Tuhaita district during launching an offensive on Saudi-paid mercenaries sites, killing and injuring dozens.
In Najran a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province and a favored target of Houthirocket forces.... border province, dozens of mercenaries were killed and injured during an attack on two sites in Shorfa.
Also in Najran, an ambush targeted military vehicle loaded with mercenaries in front of Sudais site, killing all its crew, while artillery shelling targeted Saudi soldiers and their mercenaries in Shurfa, Makhroq sites and western Sudais site.
Furthermore, military vehicle, loaded with militiamen, was destroyed by an bomb in front of Taibat-Esam.
In border province of Asir, Katyusha rockets were fired toward gatherings of mercenaries and two of Death Eaters were sniped in Majaza.
In Jizan border province, two of mercenaries were rubbed out in the east of Dood mount.
In restive Lahj ... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement province, dozens of mercenaries were killed and injured in an unique offensive, preceded by artillery shelling, targeted their sites in Karesh, burning a military vehicle.
Also in Lahj, the army and committees carried out a large-scale operation on sites of mercenaries in Qabitah, securing several hill as well as killing and wounding dozens.
Furthermore, the mercenaries were inflicted heavy losses in lives and equipment during repelling their infiltration toward Hanaya valley, as well as a military vehicle was destroyed by artillery in Qubaita, killing its crew.
In Taiz province, the army and committees secured several hills in an offensive on the mercenaries’ sites in Hamir front of Maqbana district, killing, injuring dozens, seizing weapons.
Also in Taiz, engineering unit of the army and committees destroyed a mercenaries’ military vehicle by an bomb in Rain valley of Wazeayah, killing and injuring all who were on board, including leaders.
In additional, an armored was destroyed by a guided missile in Wazeayah front.
In Yemen’s Jawf province, the army and committees killed and injured dozens of mercenaries in north-west of Sallan camp in Masloob district.
Also in Jawf, engineering unit of the army and committees waged an ambush that targeted military vehicles of the mercenaries by bombs in Ajasher , killing and wounding all who were on board.
In Nehm district, dozens of the mercenaries were killed and injured after the army and committees repelled their infiltration attempt towards Madfoon area in Qatab region.
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#1
One report after another about "mercenaries". What do these guys do for their pay besides get killed?
Something in the reporting isn't right.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/11/2018 0:09
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#2
They aren’t actually professional soldiers, Richard, but an insult aimed at the troops of the other Arab countries fighting alongside Saudi Arabia.
[BBC] Students at Maesai Prasitsart School, which several of the Thai cave boys attend, are looking forward to their return and celebrating the boys’ use of English when they spoke to divers who found them.
#1
Ever since I worked for a German multi-national company it has been clear that English is the universal second language.
Meetings in Waldorf, with folks from Argentina, Poland, US, Germany, France, etc. were all held in English cause no matter the native tongue we all spoke English.
#2
...and dominance in technology, medicine, aviation, commerce, et al (shove that back in your Marxist teacher's face when they say - all cultures are equal)
[PRESSTV] The US government says it has sanctioned a Malaysia-based tourism agent for Iranian private airline Mahan Air which is already under American sanctions.
The blockade comes as the US prepares to unleash "the strongest sanctions in history" on Iran after President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... decided to withdraw Washington from a landmark nuclear deal with the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
"As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of Mahan Travel and Tourism Sdn Bhd that are or come within US jurisdiction are blocked," the US Treasury Department said in a statement on Monday.
The first group of unilateral US sanctions on Iran’s automotive sector, gold trade, and other industries will "snap back" on August 4. Further sanctions on oil and transactions with the Central Bank of Iran will come into effect November 6.
Trump has given companies 180 days to wind down their businesses in Iran or have their trade severed with the US.
Dutch airline KLM said on Saturday it had decided to suspend its direct flights to Tehran "for commercial reasons."
"As a result of the negative results and financial outlook for the Tehran operation, the last flight will take off from Amsterdam on 22 September 2018 and land at Schiphol on 23 September," it said in a short statement on its website.
KLM resumed flights to Tehran in 2016 when the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and world countries came into effect. The Dutch airline had ceased its Iran operations in 2013 after the West intensified sanctions on the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
Austrian Airlines also announced on Friday that it will stop service to the Iranian cities of Isfahan and Shiraz, starting in September, but will continue its flights to Tehran.
"The underlying reason for these changes in the route network is a realignment of the airline’s portfolio," a statement said on the official website of Austrian Airlines which is owned by the German airline company Lufthansa.
Austrian Airlines announced its expansion of flights to Shiraz and Isfahan in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
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#2
We should strongly suggest any Iranian-Americans refrain from visiting the homeland. It could be a one-way trip with prison or forced military induction. Anyone foolish enough to do so will not be fought for as a hostage
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/11/2018 8:40
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One of the Ret family friends is half Persain; she, her family and Dad escaped when the Shah fell. Dad went back to get Grampa and was killed. She wants to visit the homeland but is smart enough to sit tight; her biggest fear is that the current regime will send assassins to the States to seek out those that fled.
[All Africa] Gays and Lesbians Association (GALZ) director Chester Samba has showered praises on President Emmerson Mnangagwa whom he said understood them better than his predecessor and the opposition.
"We started talking to Mnangagwa when he was Justice Minister and he is a reasonable man and is not new to LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer) issues compared to the hostile reception of the former president Mugabe," he said at a media briefing by community groups on Monday.
"We have also seen a decline in abuse in campaigning by Zanu PF of our members and harassment just in the recent past and this may see our members voting."
Under former President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... 's regime, gays were subjected to insults and victimisation by the country's security establishments.
Mugabe described them as "worse than dogs and pigs".
Galvanised by Mugabe's ouster and his replacement by Mnangagwa November last year, gays and lesbians have moved to gauge the new rulers' position on their situation.
This culminated in a surprise meeting with Zanu PF officials which was later described as successful by the group.
Samba said they also attempted to engage the opposition MDC-T led by Nelson Chamisa but were ignored.
"Yes we met Zanu PF officials and we had a fruitful meeting after writing a letter to them but we did not even get a response from other political parties that have a chance of forming the next government," said Samba.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2018
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#1
oh I thought ED in the title was Erectile Dysfunction and was having problems with parsing the title.....
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A suicide boom-mobileing on Tuesday killed eight newly reconciled fighters from pro-government and rebel ranks in an attack on a south Syrian village claimed by ISIS.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the kaboom hit Zaizun, a village in the western countryside of Daraa province which rebels agreed in recent days to hand over to regime control.
"Eight regime and opposition fighters who recently reconciled were killed in a suicide car kaboom targeting a military position in Zaizun," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
ISIS grabbed credit for the attack in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app, saying the car driven by a jacket wallah had been packed with explosives.
Zaizun lies near a sliver of southern territory controlled by Jaish Khaled bin Walid, a faction that has pledged allegiance to ISIS, which is not bound by the deal between the rebels and the government.
Abdel Rahman said it was likely that this faction was responsible for the attack, adding it was the first suicide kaboom targeting regime forces since they launched an offensive on Daraa.
Backed by Russia, Syrian troops began a bombing blitz of Daraa province on June 19 that killed dozens of civilians and displaced more than 320,000 people.
The onslaught came to an end on Friday, when Moscow brokered a deal with rebels for them to surrender their weapons and hand over towns to government troops.
The agreement also provides for safe passage for thousands of opposition fighters and civilians to rebel territory further north, although those transfers have not yet begun.
The regime is now in control of around 80 percent of Daraa province, while rebels hold around 15 percent, according to the Observatory.
Anticipating a regime attack, thousands of people have fled the ISIS-held zone in the past two days heading toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Around 200,000 displaced people have already sought refuge along that frontier, which remains sealed, according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... "After finishing off rebel forces in the south, the regime is expected to attack the last pocket held by the ISIS affiliate there," said Abdel Rahman.
Government forces have not yet begun their assault but rebels nearby hit the ISIS-held area with artillery and mortars late Monday.
Meanwhile Syrian state news agency SANA on Tuesday said four other villages northwest of Daraa were expected to seal deals with the government on Wednesday, citing unspecified "reports".
At least "14 regime and opposition fighters who recently reconciled were killed in a suicide car bomb attack targeting a military position in Zaizun," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman, giving an updated toll.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2018
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Big news
[JoshBlackman] The Department of Justice and Second Amendment Foundation have reached a settlement in SAF’s lawsuit on behalf of Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed over free speech issues related to 3-D files and other information that may be used to manufacture lawful firearms.
SAF and Defense Distributed had filed suit against the State Department under the Obama administration, challenging a May 2013 attempt to control public speech as an export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a Cold War-era law intended to control exports of military articles.
Under terms of the settlement, the government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint.
Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber ‐ including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms ‐ are not inherently military. AR-15 a weapon of war? HA!!! Fuck you gun control assholes!!!
"Not only is this a First Amendment victory for free speech, it also is a devastating blow to the gun prohibition lobby," noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. "For years, anti-gunners have contended that modern semi-automatic sport-utility rifles are so-called ’weapons of war,’ and with this settlement, the government has acknowledged they are nothing of the sort.
"Under this settlement," he continued, "the government will draft and pursue regulatory amendments that eliminate ITAR control over the technical information at the center of this case. They will transfer export jurisdiction to the Commerce Department, which does not impose prior restraint on public speech. That will allow Defense Distributed and SAF to publish information about 3-D technology."
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. The winning. Still not tired of it.
Turkish MFA Cavisoglu on S-400 purchase: I need to protect my airspace, and I was trying to buy these systems from my allies for a decade to no awail. Russia made best proposal, so we are buying from them. #NATOengages
#3
Get an S-400 missile from wherever (I bet we already have one or could build one better than the Russkie original) and gaudily announce that it was obtained from Turkey...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 13:16
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#4
By the time they are finally delivered the ChiComs will have marketed a cloned knock-off to all the dictators in the area?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israeli President Reuven Rivlin criticized a proposed law Tuesday that would open the door to the establishment of Jewish-only communities in the country.
Rivlin's comments marked a rare intervention in politics by the country's president, whose role is mainly symbolic.
He voiced his concerns in an open letter, pointing to a clause in the proposed legislation that defined Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people."
The so-called nation-state law, which the government hopes to have approved by the end of the month, could become part of the country's basic laws which serve as a de facto constitution.
The clause Rivlin criticized would allow the state to "authorize a community composed of people having the same faith and nationality to maintain the exclusive character of that community."
That was seen as allowing towns to exclude Arab citizens, who account for some 17.5 percent of Israel's population, or even other Jewish communities.
Rivlin said that the legislation "could harm the Jewish people worldwide and in Israel, and could even be used as a weapon by our enemies."
"Do we want to support the discrimination and exclusion of men and women based on their ethnic origin?" he wrote.
He said that the bill could allow the establishment of towns that would, for example, exclude Jews of Middle Eastern origin, ultra-Orthodox Jews or homosexuals.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2018
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A jacket wallahwent kaboom! at an anti-Taliban ...Arabic for students... political party’s rally in northwest Pakistain on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including a candidate in July 25 elections, police said.
The attack on a meeting of the Awami National Party founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism.... (ANP) in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. also injured nearly 50 others, city police chief Jamil Qazi said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the first major pre-election violence. Live TV footage showed volunteers and police rushing the maimed to hospital.
The ANP was the main target of Taliban attacks in the 2013 election. Then, senior ANP leader Bashir Bilour was killed in a suicide kaboom. Tuesday’s attack killed his son Haroon Bilour, a candidate for the provincial assembly.
Peshawar city sits on the edge of a region bordering Afghanistan that has long been home to Islamist murderous Moslems.
The Pak Taliban, a loosely aligned umbrella group of several murderous Moslem and sectarian bands, have been waging a war against the Pak state for over a decade, killing tens of thousands of people.
They want nuclear-armed Pakistain to be a state run under their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
The violence has decreased in recent months after several military offensives against their strongholds in the region. But many Death Eaters have escaped to neighboring Afghanistan, from where Islamabad alleges they launch attacks inside Pakistain.
Last month, a US dronezap killed the Pak Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... , who had grabbed credit for most of the attacks against the ANP in the 2013 election on the grounds that it had supported military operations against the murderous Moslems.
The army announced on Tuesday it would deploy over 371,000 troops to ensure peaceful and fair and free elections on July 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2018
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Top|| File under: TTP
[BBC] Horrific accounts of gang rape, throats being slit and mass shootings in South Sudan are described in the latest United Nations report on the country.
It blames the violence in Unity state on government and allied forces.
One woman, who said she lost everything told investigators that "it would have been better if they had killed me".
Leaders signed a ceasefire deal in June aimed at ending the five-year civil war. Millions have been forced to flee as a result of the fighting.
[Twitchy] As if there were any question as to whether there’s any difference left between the major newspapers and lefty blogs, compare the opinion piece in today’s Washington Post to yesterday’s piece in Vox making the case for packing the Supreme Court by adding a few progressive judges, an idea tried by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Now David Faris, author of "It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics," is arguing that court-packing is the only way to save democracy: Don't worry. The Donald is all over it... oh, that isn't what they were talking about. More from the Department of Truth then.
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement from the Supreme Court, and President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to succeed him, is the doomsday scenario liberals feared when Senate Republicans thwarted the appointment of Merrick Garland in 2016: The GOP’s brazen act of democratic sabotage will almost certainly deliver the high court to the far right for a generation. In the years ahead, the court will probably further erode reproductive rights, gay rights and voting rights, ushering in the darkest era in American history since the post-Reconstruction period.
...
Should Democrats gain unified control of government in 2021, they ought to consider this more complete story of court-packing. Before contemplating such unprecedented action, Democrats should offer Republicans a truce in the decades-long judicial wars: the illegitimate Neil Gorsuch resigns, and both parties support a constitutional amendment eliminating lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court, capping service at 18 years.
They have locked people up for lesser delusions than this...
That's funny: Vox founder Ezra Klein also began only recently to float the idea that justices should be appointed for 18-year terms. Also funny: We don't remember anyone talking about needed to "fix" the Supreme Court during the Obama years.
Funniest of all: the idea that President Trump might take their advice and pack the court with conservatives before midterms. I have an idea. Expand the SCOTUS to 50 judges and let each state appoint their own judge for a span of one year. They can choose another one or keep the same the next year. Vice-President is the tie breaker vote if needed. That way no one can pack the court.
#1
...Thought experiment: Reserve one seat on the SCOTUS for former Presidents (they could not be Chief Justice). When a President leaves office, they must serve for a minimum of six years.
If nothing else, imagine the fun of watching some people defend what they did while in the White House.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/11/2018 3:27
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#2
Term limits. A republic does not need 'princes' that sit for life and are unaccountable to the people after they have evolved their office into an arbiter of power, as in living breathing Constitution, rather than the guardians of the written Constitution.
[Townhall] Yesterday, we laid out the case that vulnerable Senate Democrats representing Trump-dominated states would be wise to disregard the foolish SCOTUS advice being dispensed by their colleague, Dick Durbin. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's top deputy suggested over the weekend that in evaluating the president's then-unnamed Supreme Court nominee, red state Democrats should prioritize partisan opposition over their own re-election considerations. The Wall Street Journal's William McGurn was similarly taken aback by this reflexively resistance-minded counsel:
What makes Mr. Durbin’s call so striking is his frankness about the losing position his party is in. He recognizes that what his party is gearing up to do‐wage an all-out war on Brett Kavanaugh (on Monday Nancy Pelosi sent out a fundraising letter saying she will "avenge" Barack Obama by opposing Mr. Trump’s then unannounced nominee "if it’s the last thing I do")‐may prove unpopular enough to cost some red-state Democratic senators their seats come November. Ten Democratic incumbents are up for re-election in states Mr. Trump carried...Now, it’s one thing for a gadfly such as Rand Paul or Bernie Sanders to be willing to give up seats. It’s another when such talk comes from the Senate minority whip...Mr. Durbin is making clear that more-moderate Democrat incumbents will be dragooned into the party’s war with Mr. Trump over the Supreme Court whether they can afford to or not. No doubt this approach resonates with the party’s donors and its activist wings in New York and California. But it won’t play as well in the red states where the most vulnerable Democratic senators are now fighting for their political lives.
The pressure from the Left to vote against Brett Kavanaugh (or nominee 'XX,' according to one amusing, rushed out, pre-written press release) will be immense. But that gambit may also prove futile; moderate Republicans appear to be positively disposed toward Kavanaugh, who was confirmed with 57 votes in 2006 -- and his experience and influence have only swelled ever since. Thanks to Harry Reid, Democrats lack the power to block Kavanaugh if all GOP members stick together. Barring a stunning revelation or an unexpected hearings meltdown, the president's nominee appears well-positioned for confirmation. And if that's the case, it would be a worst-of-all-words outcome for moderate-posturing Democrats, who'd alienate home voters with empty 'no' votes, while failing to impede the ascension of Kavanaugh to the Court. All in all, this strikes me as the correct early line:
#1
Red state dems are in office only because they routinely bamboozle voters who should know better. Why would said dems straighten up and fly right now?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 7:14
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#2
Like a lot of non-returning Donks after Obamacare was pushed through Congress, you are expendable for Schumer and Nancy's power.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/11/2018 13:00
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#6
Senators are elected at large, but big city blue votes do sway the outcomes, for sure.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 13:03
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#7
So either they needed the hinterland to vote for them in the first place and that vote is gone, or the blue metro area isn't going to show up on election day. I get it. I was confused this morning I guess.
#8
No, not confused. Several "swing states" would be redder than Texas if not for an urban area or two that sway the vote. My no-longer home state of PeeAye would be redder than Texas if you could give Philthy to New Jersey and Pissburgh to Ohio.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/11/2018 16:03
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#9
Nancy Pelosi sent out a fundraising letter saying she will "avenge" Barack Obama by opposing Mr. Trump’s then unannounced nominee "if it’s the last thing I do"
And then she twirled her mustache and added "And his little dog, too! And those meddling kids!"
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Joint Commission tasked to review the Iran nuclear deal ended Friday with no tangible results, Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... providing a low-temperature package to Tehran, and the regime’s mission returning him disappointed.
The joint statement issued afterwards presents nearly nothing new on the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif became a no-show for the concluding presser.
These are signs of the rules of play changing, leaving the Iranian regime facing a very stiff uphill battle of stalling to kick back the inevitable.
The meeting
Prior to leaving for Vienna, French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian specifically warned Tehran should stop issuing threats to violate its JCPOA commitments. Iran must end these remarks aimed at preventing us from finding a solution, he added, going on to say he doubts any economic package can be provided to Tehran prior to November.
The Vienna session was chaired by European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, China, La Belle France, Germany and Russia took part in talks with Zarif.
Considering the fact that details regarding the issues discussed inside the session are obviously unavailable, signs from the meeting participants outside of their talks are quite telling.
All Mogherini could deliver at the finale presser were pledges of further talks to cover economic issues and that all parties should seek methods to save the deal. Further sessions between the foreign ministers will be held if deemed necessary, she added, showing signs of futility.
Adding to Zarif not attending this presser, the fact that Mogherini only read a written statement and refused to answer any questions from news hounds are also quite notable.
Compiling Iran’s miseries even further is how the Vienna talks were overshadowed by the arrest of an Iranian-Belgian couple reportedly dispatched by Tehran to bomb the June 30th Iranian opposition convention near Gay Paree.
Iran’s complaints
As the Joint Commission came to an end, Zarif was seen resorting to a known tactic of the Iranian regime.
"Up to now no one has been able to resolve the U.S. exiting the JCPOA and this issue remains unsettled. Therefore, we have the right to take action," he said.
This may seem a significant threat to the naked eye and those not familiar with Tehran’s playbook. To provide further understanding, quite considerable are his follow-up remarks making a U-turn from Tehran’s previous position of Europe’s suggestions not fitting Iran’s demands.
"The European package appears practical. We have postponed our measures in respect to requests placed by other JCPOA members, in order to become certain that our interests are preserved. We have always remained loyal to our commitments and we are so now," he added.
Back in Iran, however, the Tasnim news agency, known to be affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, published Zarif’s remarks, delivering an interesting twist to this scenario.
"Zarif had specifically said prior to the Joint Commission meeting that we expect European countries to provide verifiable and applicable commitments, instead of confusing and deceiving pledges," the piece read in part.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2018
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#1
provide verifiable and applicable commitments, instead of confusing and deceiving pledges
Right. Commitments - that's the European's job. Deceiving pledges are the Iranian's job.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/11/2018 9:36
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#2
It is sad. I remember the Shah's Iran of 1969. Happy people, throngs in the markets, apparently wealthy enough, well dressed, beautiful, polite and friendly. I neither saw nor heard of any strife or unhappiness. It is sad.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/11/2018 14:29
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#3
Ref #2: I recall similar reporting from Army mobile training teams deployed to Iran.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BBC] A distillery that released a 75% ABV vodka range named after the toxic nerve agent Novichok has been heavily criticised for its "tasteless" timing.
[FoxNews] Nonsmokers say secondhand smoke is a quality-of-life issue, while smokers defend what they see as their right to light up. (.)
[Ynet] Senior officials of Open Society Foundations (OSF), the international grantmaking network founded by the Jewish Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, admitted that the organization, categorized as a non-profit NGO, worked to promote his business interests.
[Daily Caller] An NBC News reporter tweeted early Tuesday that Justice Anthony Kennedy secretly negotiated the terms of his departure from the U.S. Supreme Court with the Trump administration, citing a single unnamed source.
[Bloomberg] The U.S. government sees oil production further climbing next year even amid transportation logjams in the country’s most prolific shale play.
[The Hill] The U.S. Embassy in London released an alert on Tuesday urging Americans to "keep a low profile" during President Trump's scheduled visit to the United Kingdom later this week. 
FBI interviewers found no fault with Flynn's testimony. Comey and others however...... 
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Daily Caller] The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is blistering at a proposed regulation that would prevent the union from siphoning fees from American workers’ Medicaid payments.
[FOX] Always remember: Just because you’re drinking in a car that’s not moving doesn’t mean you’re not a drunk driver.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier...
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) ‐ An Iraqi civilian was killed Tuesday after a bomb fixed to his car 
[IsraelTimes] Navy arrests 8 passengers, some of them Paleostinians injured in recent border 
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
...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...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
[Twitchy] As if there were any question as to whether there’s any difference left between the major newspapers and lefty blogs, compare the opinion piece in today’s Washington Post to yesterday’s piece in Vox making the case for packing the Supreme Court by adding a few progressive judges, an idea tried by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
